girlgonegraphic

I get nervous posting in-the-moment things, like this song I’m digging, because I know it can change on a dime. One second you love it, the next second it gets overplayed on the radio, and then you want to crawl in a hole. But I’m hoping that doesn’t happen. I found The Apache Relay through Spotify. Their album was easy to get into and I had no problem listening all the way through. This song – Katie Queen of Tennessee – has been stuck in my head ever since. I love the beat and the lyrics. And whoever Katie is, she has a beautiful song written about her.

♥ katie be my darlin’ ♥

I’ve been collecting more white / airy / simple inspiration lately, so I thought it was time to share. Plus, it’s Friday night, and I’m hooked on this new podcast called Serial, so what else was I gonna do? The white water tower is my favorite. Surprisingly I found it on a stock photography site, OFFSET, which is a breath of fresh air as far as stock photography is concerned.

Now that Serial podcast – that is right up my alley. I’m hooked on the idea. A crime story? Told chronologically, in hour-long episodes? From This American Life? SOLD. I didn’t need any convincing. I love the idea, and it’s the perfect ritual to listen to while getting some work done. Have a lovely weekend!

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I’m excited to share some recent work I did for a fashion startup here in NYC. This is the final design for a clothing line called Lima. The company I was working for was in the process of creating several private collections and they needed labels to sew on each garment. This particular line had a ton of cozy knits and sweaters. The company wanted the branding to reflect high-end style while capturing the idea that these were knits. The garments were being manufactured in Lima, Peru, which turned out to be the perfect name for the collection.

My goal was to capture the feeling of knitwear and something hand-sewn, while still presenting an upscale garment line (nothing too crafty). I love how the final product turned out, and it’s pretty cool to know that these are in circulation across the US!

Another week, another round of Instaxing. This week I tried a new pizza place (doesn’t everybody just need a pizza night once in a while? Pizza will always be nostalgic to me). The dolphin on the top right, I’ve nicknamed her Annie, and she exists in a creepy abandoned water park by my house. The water has long since dried up, but the decaying structures remain (dun dun dun). I love walking through it because it feels like such a good book/movie scene. Bottom right – I’ve been taking a ton of baths lately. This is the first place I’ve had in several years that has a clean bathtub and I take full advantage. It’s the best way to wind down at night.

I wouldn’t mind owning these things. That mug – wouldn’t it be the perfect touch on a fall day? A little twinkle of gold? And those shoes – not sure how long I would last, but I would certainly give ’em a try. Along with my design style, my wardrobe has certainly been changing too. I’ve been going for bolder statement pieces and not worrying too much about splurging on a really unique/odd item. I love putting it all together and letting the mind dream with possibilities.

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I am SO excited to present my new blog and branding! It was time for a change. My style has shifted SO MUCH in the past year. I’ve been ready to switch things up. I wanted to create a space that was cleaner and had a white background, so I could post a wider variety of things without colors clashing. This way, the focus is on the content.

A little on the site design. This is my first time having a sidebar on the right-hand side. I like how the content comes first. Believe it or not I used the good ‘ol golden rectangle to start the design process / get the alignment of objects right. I ended up modifying the spacing a bit, but it definitely served as a starting point and I trust that the ratio is pleasing to the eye.

Another cool feature – the site has a sticky sidebar. The sidebar will scroll up with the page but only until a certain point, so that the nav, search, and categories will remain on the page. (that one took many a late nights to figure out!) Worth it.

Finally, the site is now responsive! (kind of). Let’s just say it’s as responsive as my testing capabilities allow. It works on my iPad and iPhone, but without going too deep into the development world, I’m happy with it. I actually finished designing the site months ago, but got tied up in the coding. The theme that I use (Thesis) came out with a major overhaul between the time I had learned how to use it, so it was a pretty hefty learning curve to figure out the new system.

Maybe I should have hired a developer, but I still have a hard time dropping the cash when I know I can figure it out (mostly) myself, even though it ends up taking way longer than it should. Maybe next round! Until then, it felt rewarding to even get it this far!

Next came the business cards. I went for simple this time around. Besides the fact that it’s hard to design for yourself, I wanted to make something that I wouldn’t hate a few months down the road (cause that never happens…). I opted for a thicker card stock which helps balance the minimalism.

My facebook page got an update over here. Lots of good stuff all around. :) I’m sure I’ll be making little changes here and there, but I’m happy to finally ship this project. I look forward to posting more on the fresh new space!

I’m starting a new column – “This Instax Life” – which will include snapshots of my whereabouts and activities. I’m excited for this because it gives me an excuse to go exploring. I’ve also fallen quickly in love with my new Instax camera, so I want to continue documenting memories. ❤

This week was walking around Madison Square Park, getting doughnuts at Doughnut Plant NYC (the most DELICIOUS!), and working from my local coffee shop. More to come.

I’ve been on the hunt for new fonts lately. It’s easy to fall back on the old favorites, isn’t it? I know there’s some beauties out there. I found this one here (it’s free too!).  I love it because it’s pragmatic with style. Not too frilly, but thick enough to make a statement.

I wasn’t sure what “heuristica” meant so I looked it up. The best description was a “technique of inquiry and discovery”. Another description talked about finding a solution through science. I think that is fitting, no? Anyway, hope to use this soon!

I look forward to the Alice & Olivia emails every week. They do such a nice job capturing a mood! I especially dig the fall colors they’ve been putting out. I love the pops of BOLD in this one.