Two trips to the Mississippi Gulf Coast area with reconstruction crews from International Relief Teams, most recently this past July, prompted Tuscon designer Martha Retallic to compile a slide show documenting her experience.

Lots of news and product tidbits coming in this week:

• Mohawk has posted a call for entries for its quarterly Strathmore Letterhead Contest, which is accepting entries (stationery systems printed on Strathmore papers) through the end of 2007; the first 25 entrants get a special gift, and the Grand Prize winner scores $1,000.

• Fotolia is running a sweepstakes on HOWdesign.com; enter (it's free!) to win $300 worth of stock photography from the agency.

• Spec certain Neenah papers, and reduce your (and your client's) carbon footprint: The mill announced that six flagship lines in its Classic and Starwhite brands are manufactured carbon-neutral.

I just got an email from San Francisco-based designer Dora Drimalas of Hybrid about an exhibition of her paintings and illustrations called "Creature Comforts".


If you can't make it to SF for the show (which runs through October 30), you can nab one of her super cute prints from the Hybrid-Home site.

Posted by Megan

Design*Sponge (my all time favorite blog) just launched a new column called "DIY Wednesdays." Every week, Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom of the Curiosity Shoppe will share a new project. The first project is a wooden wine box lined with gorgeous paper to use for storage. It would be great on a desk or office wall (if you're lucky enough to have a real wall).

Posted by Megan

A French Alphabet Book of 1814 (published by Rizzoli) is a charming collection of watercolor illustrations of French country life, along with lovely examples of hand lettering. It would make a wonderful gift for type lovers and Francophiles alike.







Images courtesy of Charles Plante Fine Arts

Posted by Megan

You can never know too much about spec'ing the perfect paper so PaperSpecs is offering a free webinar series. Starting October 16, the first segment will be all about uncoated paper. Attendance is free, all you have to do is register.

Posted by Megan

Proof that science can be beautiful: Moon Mapping from the U.S. Geological Survey Astrogeology Research Project.


via 30gms

Posted by Megan

Mediabistro has a fantastic interview with noted magazine design and Pentagram partner Luke Hayman.

"Good design doesn't cost much money. It just needs someone in charge who understands what good design is, and very often the people who are in charge don't care, or aren't aware, or are not educated enough to see that. If you look carefully, you can find some trade magazines that are as beautiful as any consumer title, and it's because they have someone who cares and is allowed to do that."

Posted by Megan

Zebra and Kiub are two notable new releases from our favorite alpha-numeric font founderies P22 and T26.

Zebra was originally designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer in 1965 and is available digitally for the first time. The font is clearly vintage in style, but it will be interesting to see how designers might put it to use in contemporary application.



Kiub was created by Italian designer Gianni Sinni. Available in squared and rounded variations, the quirky font screams indie-band poster.

Posted by Megan

We just found out that we scored a Silver Eddie award from Folio Magazine for our June 2007 issue. Yay us!

Posted by Megan

Check out this collection of, mostly vintage, end papers from books.



via Boing Boing

Posted by Megan

From our friend Steve Gordon comes news that his design for the Nike Dunk Low scored props from Nike's own designers. The NikeiD website, which lets users create their own custom kicks, recently ran a design contest; the site now showcases the winners. Yay, Steve!

On the HOW Forum today, they're twittering about some hilarious pages from a 1975 J.C. Penney's catalog. These guys are priceless:

Posted by Megan

Doing something every day is an abitious creative challenge and one that more artists and designers seem to be taking on. I just came across A Collage A Day where artists Randel Plowman posts a new mini-collage every day. Best of all, each the 4-inch by 4-inch creations is available for $25.

Posted by Megan

I'm not sure I understand the connection between vintage cereal graphics and laptops but I dig this series of laptop sleeves from Target.


Posted by Megan