Steve,
Thank you. I, along with the rest of the world, am eternally grateful.

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Be sure to check back monthly for more Peeps I Dig. Who inspires you?

For those of you who are in the same boat, I’ve found a wonderful resource: lynda.com.

It’s absolutely, totally awesome! The tutorial videos are broken-up into chewable chunks and are highly digestible. There’s a laundry list of software tutorials provided. I suggest you give it a taste.

For this month’s Peeps I Dig, I decided to do just that and highlight a company that I absolutely love and respect: French Paper Co. Why a paper company? Well, as basic as paper is, it’s an important part of any printed project. The French Paper Co. handles their business and product with personality and quality.

French Paper is a sixth-generation, family-owned company established in 1871. They were fore runners of recycled, post-consumer, and other environmentally friendly sheets. Their paper is distributed nationally and throughout Canada.

Did I mention that their brand rocks?! It’s funky. It’s fun. It’s effective. I love it. Make sure to check them out and check back for more Peeps I Dig.

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Christopher Radko

Starting with the sad destruction of his family heirloom ornaments in the early 80′s when his Christmas tree fell over to the horror of the Radko family, Christopher Radko went on a quest to replace them. With no avail, Christopher decided to pull-up his sleeves and get the job done with the help of a European glassblower. Twenty years plus later, the Christopher Radko company has been designing and producing European glass ornaments that are extremely collectible. Who knew?! Ornament collectors I guess…

Each ornament goes through a week long process before coming to fruition. Although the artisans aren’t named individually, the Radko site does lovingly explain the delicate process in which each ornament is made and clearly respects the talent of its people.

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Celebrity Ornaments

Every holiday season, celebrities design some cheer for charity. The very city slick ornament pictured left was designed by none other than Sarah Jessica Parker. Her and a few of her fellow Hollywood peeps participated in the heART HSN 2010 designer ornament collection which benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

You can take a peek at the other designs here.

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Mainly what I found in my quest to unveil these bringers of cheer was a big, fat nothing. Tons of distributors, retailers, and wholesalers surfaced but not the ones who design the actual decor. So if you know of anyone who dabbles in cheer, tell me about it. I’d love to learn the stories behind the rarely celebrated artists of the biggest celebration season of the year.

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Be sure to check back for more Peeps I Dig. Who inspires you?

Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo.com is “a collection of visual inspiration and useful tutorials…The blog is run by design junkies for design junkies, always striving to provide the community with the latest and hottest of what the web has to offer”.

The site is Brazilian born but has expanded it’s workforce to the USA and has readers from across the globe. I enjoy a majority of the inspirational posts and actually comment on quite a few of them. There’s daily, weekly and monthly themes ranging from illustration to architecture. They even have an iPhone app!

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COLOURlovers

COLOURlovers is a global, creative community where people who are tickled by color gather, share, and discuss colors, palettes, patterns and trends.

I have often used this site to light a fire under my color creativity.

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Yahoo Directory

The Yahoo Graphic Designer’s Personal Exhibit Directory is simply a listing of portfolios.

It is a fantastic place to spend a bit of time for inspiration. There’s a wide range of talent from all over the world and I find it very exciting and extremely inspirational to peruse this listing.

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Graphic Design Blog

Graphic Design Blog is “a podium giving professional insight on graphic designing, graphic designers, logo designs, typography and much more”.

I frequently enjoy GDB’s posts and they’ve recently added a forum that I’m sure will become a valuable resource.

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Toxel

Toxel is a design, inspiration, and technology blog.

I love this sight for the sheer variety. It examines inspiration from everything. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. It’s a really cool site to peruse but make sure you have time because you’ll definitely get lost in the world of Toxel.

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Be sure to check back monthly for more Peeps I Dig. Next month’s theme: holiday designers that inspire me. Who inspires you?

MOM1 and MOM2
The adorable, Japanese lady on the right is Mom 1 (the one who birthed me) and the red head on the left is Mom 2, my mother-in-law. Now I know it’s a bit cliche to state that my moms are an awesome inspiration, but seriously, they’re totally awesome and inspire me daily.

Inspirations from Mom1:
1. Whatever you do, just make sure you’re happy.
2. Your home is where you make it.
3. You create the definition of success.
4. Organization is a lifestyle not just a skill.
5. You’re never too old to learn something new.

Inspirations from Mom2:
1. The wisdom of Sesame Street is all you need, “if you want to play the saxophone, then you have to put your rubber ducky down” aka “life’s about choices”.
2. There’s good in every situation, even having cancer. It’s all about perspective. Her daily saying, “Thank you God for giving me cancer and the strength to survive it”.
3. The Universe will give back what you put out.
4. Worrying is a waste of time and energy.
5. Your child will teach you how to parent him. You just have to pay attention to the cues.

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MARIKO
Mariko Mori is a Japanese, multi-media artist who through the mediums of photography and technology melds Eastern and Western mythology and culture.

Inspirations from Mariko Mori:
1. Art and technology are not exclusive of each other.
2. Be bold.
3. Challenge cultural norms.
4. If you can dream it up, it can be done.
5. Explore.


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XENA
Xena, The Princess Warrior is a fantasy series from the late ’90′s in which Xena, aka Lucy Lawless, kicked some serious butt for the greater good for redemption of her former sins.

Inspirations from Xena:
1. Kick ass when necessary.
2. It’s never too late to be a better person.
3. Go into battle in style.
4. Do good.
5. Be a loyal friend.


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PAULA
Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, artist, and published author of Make It Bigger.

Inspirations from Paula:
1. Be prolific.
2. Don’t be bound by one medium.
3. Be inspired and never limit the sources of your inspiration.
4. Break boundaries and then break them again and again.
5. Be a rock star in whatever you do.


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Be sure to check back monthly for more Peeps I Dig. Next month’s theme: Animated characters that inspire me. Who inspires you?

Tootoonchi, Iranian herself, felt that her purpose in doing this exhibit was to open up an opportunity for Westerners to be exposed to Iranian design. In fact, each piece in the show is from her personal collection. She visited each of the artists in their studios and discussed their design with them. I found this to be really cool and very much appreciate her efforts.

During the talk, she gave a quick and dirty run-down on Farsi because typography is a major element within Iranian poster design. As a monolingual designer, this aspect of the presentation was especially interesting. The Farsi was beautiful. Hard edges are non-existent and each element flowed seamlessly into the next.

Many of the designers used English and Farsi simultaneously within the designs since the posters were often internationally displayed. Seeing the two juxtaposed side by side created an appealing tension between the hard, straight edges of English and rounded, graceful strokes of Farsi.

Another element that caught my eye was the lack of imagery. I’m not that familiar with Muslim but learned that the use of human imagery is frowned upon because it could be considered worship of a deity. If imagery was used, it was obscured in some way which gave way to an air of mystical mystery.

There were movie posters in the mix and it was odd but refreshing to see them done without pictures of people. It seemed that the boundaries of creativity were pushed due to this restriction and the intelligence of the viewer stimulated.

The styles spanned the spectrum from graffiti looking to folky. Whatever the style each piece was a learning experience in itself. It was like getting a little sneak peak into Iranian culture. Makes you wonder what tidbits people around the world get from our posters.

The exhibit is fantastic and I highly recommend you attend. Here are the designers that are highlighted:

Reza Abedini

Mohammad Ehsaee

Maryam Enayati

Fatemeh Karkehabadi

Narges Safaei

Bijan Sayfouri

Saed Meshki

Masoud Nejabati

Ghobad Shiva

Parisa Tashakori

Whatever your passion, talent, dreams—everyone needs that special someone to look up to. Well gals and guys, my pizza pie in the sky is Chip Kidd. I fell in love with his design when I worked at Borders Books. Being a creative, I of course definitely judged a book by it’s cover. Rows and rows of lovely books surrounded me everyday and I would walk up and down the aisles running my fingers over the spines taking-in that oh-so-exhilarating dusty aroma. Time and time again, I’d pull a book of the shelf and fall in love with the cover. Almost every time I flipped it over to see who designed that cool jacket, it was the Kidd.

Naturally I became obsessed with him and tried to find out everything that I could. I mean look at the guy. He’s talented, he’s stylish, he’s really sexy in that cool geeky kind of way—what’s not to adore?

For a long time I wanted to follow in his footsteps and design book jackets. Well, I still do but it’s not my only goal in life now. I’ve been able to expand my horizons a bit but nothing is sweeter than that first electric spark that makes the hair on your arms stand-up and send shivers down your spine. That’s what Kidd’s covers did for me. It got me excited. It got me motivated. It made me want to be a designer. It was about the same jolt that I got from Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual album sheath. It was my first vinyl, my first glimpse of van Gogh and my gateway into the world of fine arts. Thanks Cyndi, time after time girls do just wanna have fun.

Kidd is prolific. Not only does he do covers, he’s also a writer, speaker, comic book connoisseur and all around modest guy. I’ve met him a couple of times. Once for a signing for his first novel, Cheese Monkeys which I did read and enjoy. It’s a coming of age story about what else but a budding Graphic Designer. I read it while I was still in school so it was one of those special reads that hits home. It did leave me questioning though—what the hell is a cheese monkey?!

The second time was just to go drool at him. He was moderating a discussion with a graphic novelist that I can’t for the life of me remember. I was too busy imagining Chip as my husband to pay attention. I know it’s pathetic, shut-up.

His newer novel, The Learners the sequel to Cheese Monkeys, came out in 2008. I unfortunately haven’t picked it up yet. Since I don’t work in the bookstore anymore it seems to be a major feat to actually go buy books. Your guess is as good as mine on why that is. I just might go pick it up today though after seeing this awesome video. Yes, I admit it. I’m turned on by the typography and layout of this book. What can I say?

Some chips off the Kidd block for your pleasure (and mine):

This cover really makes me thirsty which is appropriate since it’s about Burroughs journey to alcoholic recovery. You would think that it’d be a given that the cover reflect what’s inside it’s pages. Well, that doesn’t always happen so it adds to the experience when it does. I asked Kidd at one of his signings if he was able to read all of the books before designing the covers. Turns out that reading the book before designing the cover isn’t done often. Makes you wonder what kind of voodoo magic these designers are practicing when they hit the nail on the head with a cover without reading the book.

This cover gives off a deeply mysterious feeling. It’s mystical, allusive, engaging and intriguing. It really makes you just want to crack it open to see what magical world is between the pages. Tartt’s story is just as enigmatic.

Who could forget the iconic cover for The Lost World? I don’t know how well Crichton wrote it but the movies were bangin’. Kidd’s cover design was admired enough that they carried over the visual language that he created for all of the movie paraphernalia. So simple. So cool.

I could go on and on about all of the cover designs that float my boat and I could especially gush a lot more about Chip (yeah, we’re on a first name basis—he might not know it but we are). I want to hear from you. Book cover design is often under rated and taken for granted so throw out some props for your favorites. I’m looking forward to seeing them but I can’t promise that I won’t judge it by its cover!

Over these few short years, theLULAdesigns has gone through brand puberty. With every project my experience expanded and with every client my pitch became increasingly honed. My confidence built and I grew more and more into who I needed to be. So now almost 4 years and a few redesigns later, I feel like theLULAdesigns is leaving its prepubsent form and heading full force into puberty.

With a new year came new positioning for me. In actuality, it isn’t new positioning per say. Really, it’s the realization and clarification of what my positioning has been and should be.

Taking a look back at my clients, projects, and what got and gets me jazzed, it turns out that I’m a bleeding heart, tree hugging humanitarian activist. I swing left—way left, which brings me to my positioning: people, planet, profit. I’m borrowing buzz words from the triple bottom line phenomenon but when I dig deep that’s truly what I’m all about. It’s always what I’ve been about and will be about.

It just makes sense. I’m doing what I love while simultaneously giving back and standing up for the causes that I believe in. I’m theLULAdesigns and I’m justified left. Which way do you justify?

Guerrilla marketing isn’t only effective with making a buck. It can give exposure to a cause. It can also elevate the “good” factor of a brand like these tactics by The Fun Theory, an initiative of Volkswagen, to raise social and environmental awareness.

When you really think about it, the best and most memorable marketing initiatives go out on a limb and are full of creative energy. Another awesome guerrilla marketing montage for your viewing pleasure:

For a freelance designer without a Fortune 500 marketing budget, self promotion can be taxing at the least. These campaigns inspire me to think outside of the box with my marketing and flex my creative muscles. Get guerrilla and have fun.

Feel free to let me in on your guerrilla faves. Inspire me!