get your fash-on

My inspiration board is filled with photographs from high-fashion magazines. I am really inspired by the way fashion designers apply the principles of design. Colour. Proportion. Hierarchy. Line. Texture. Movement.

Take, for example, Christian Lacroix. Is there a designer out there who better understands how to mix and match colour and pattern?

 

 

I’m not saying we’d all dress like this for the office every day, but this man knows what he’s doing. This outfit is a riot of… well, a lot of stuff… but it works so well with that strong common currency of gold and bluish-gray. He’s got the pattern proportions working so well. I am in awe.

I think John Galliano is the master of hard and soft. He really understands how to take contrasting textures and make them work together.

 

 

This little Dior number also demonstrates a great use of volume. Again, perhaps not the most practical look, but that’s not what the couture is for.

Ricardo Tisci at Givenchy is fantastic with line and movement. 

 

 

Look at the way the dress draws your eye across the model’s body to the swinging fringe. He’s done such a great job of incorporating movement into the dress without overwhelming what is, I’m sure, a minute frame.

You can see more from Couture Week here. All photos from style.com.

 

their interpretation

Miami Beach’s Wolfsonian Museum has asked 60 designers to design modern interpretations of the Norman Rockwell series of posters illustrating Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s four universal human freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.

 

 

Armin Vit has summarized the exhibit over at Speak Up. You can find information on the exhibit blog, with all the posters, here.

Chip Kidd (oh, how I worship thee, Chip Kidd) has looked at what happens when one overindulges in freedom:

 

 

Anita Kunz (a Canuck!) chose to update Rockwell’s interpretation with a slightly more, shall we say, peaceful approach and a representative cast of characters:

 

 

So now I totally have to plan a trip to Florida!

it’s canada day, y’all

 

Get out there and fly the Maple Leaf, eat some poutine and enjoy the fireworks! All of us who get to call this great country home are blessed, indeed.

Photo: The Canadian Design Resource

i did not know that

Apparently, bunnyhug means wearing your hoodie up. And apparently, this is a Canadian thing, at least according to Veer.

 

 

I’m just going to come right and say that a) I had NO IDEA the term bunnyhug even exists and b) I had NO IDEA this was a Canadian thing. And I’ve been Canadian for, well, plenty long enough, let’s just put it that way. Does this make me un-Canadian? Or just old?

I suspect the latter.

Photo: Veer.

getting to the point

Feast your eyes on this type tableware from Kathryn Hinton. [Sorry, couldn't resist the pun!] She showed her work at the Royal College of Art Show One earlier this month. 

 

 

 

You can read about her design philosophy (well, I guess it’s more like her artistic intent) here. 

Via Swissmiss.

words, words and more words

Here’s some fab home-made typography from the gals at We Make Words.

 

 

Via Design for Mankind.

fashionable

Fun t-shirts from The Quiet Life.

 

 

 

Via Design for Mankind.

ain’t that the truth

 

When I started at design school, my husband told me my rimless specs weren’t designer-y enough. What do I currently sport? Chunky black frames!

This graphic is from the always smart and insightful David Sherwin over at ChangeOrder.

more lovely posters

These limited edition posters are available online from French design firm Harmonie Interieur.

 

 

 

 

nice poster design

Here’s some great poster work by Texas graphic designer Ben Barry.