Chad Garrison, a staff writer for the Riverfront Times in St. Louis, recently interviewed me about Bill Keaggy and his book Milk Eggs Vodka (published by HOW Books). Today, he sent me a link to the story which provides some insight into Keaggy's creative life.

Bill Keaggy's best-known project, Grocery Lists, began unwittingly one afternoon in 1997. He was shopping for Diane's birthday dinner at the Schnucks at Hampton and Arsenal when he reached down to pick up a yellow scrap of paper on the floor. The discovery was so inconsequential that today he can't remember the exact details of the list other than it was written on a Post-it note.

Still, that particular list piqued his curiosity enough to search for additional grocery lists with each return trip to the supermarket. "When you go to the store, everything you purchase is out there for public display. It all goes through the checkout line," comments Keaggy. "But a person's grocery list is somehow very private. At the same time it's the most ephemeral thing in the world. You write it and then you pitch it."

After two years of collecting, Keaggy placed a dozen or so lists online where they quickly took on a life of their own. Suddenly viewers from around the globe were sending him photos of lists they, too, found during shopping excursions. A grocery store clerk in Iowa mailed packages stuffed full of the lists she'd discovered on the job. The more lists Keaggy placed online, the more people flocked to his Web site.

Posted by Megan

Infectious produces stunning, removable car art with a host of well-known creatives like Dalek, John Burgerman and Zeptonn. My favorite is called Fluid and was created by British illustrator Si Scott.

British illustrator Si Scott is the master of gorgeous, swirly, insanely intricate typography. And, unbelievably enough, it’s all drawn by hand with fineliners. Si has taken his whorls and flourishes and moulded them into a series of striking sea creatures for his Infectious car art. He imagines them bubbling down the side of a car, like a moving aquarium.

Posted by Megan

I'm fond of little jewelry pieces, and I recently stumbled upon the chocolateandsteel shop on Etsy.com, with a few tiny typographical adornments. Hmm ... I do have a birthday coming up, so maybe a little self-gifting might be in order.


via design*sponge

What's better than a nicely illustrated ABC poster? One that celebrates modern design by pairing chair sillhouettes with letters. This lovely poster by Blue Art Studio can be purchased for $35. I'm seriously considering a purchase.



via Core 77

Posted by Megan

Do you aspire to own your own design firm? To lead an in-house creative team? To become the most fabulously valuable asset to your current employer?

Learn how to chart the course of your design career with popular HOW speaker and career expert Jeni Herberger, in a one-hour live webinar on Thursday, June 19. Find out more about the event here. And when you register for the HOW Professional Development Webinar you can score $20 off (discount price = $49) by entering this code: desjn19.

Scion Speak, a design engine that allows users to generate custom crests, is a perfect example of design 2.0, where instead of designing a specific thing, the designer creates a tool that lets consumers take control of the creative wheel.

Posted by Megan

Chris Sickels of Red Nose Studio (who recently spoke at the HOW Conference to much acclaim) just completed an illustration assignment for DNA Finland, a telecommunications company.

The series of illustrations feature a pink super-hero type DNA character that physically morphs into helpful tools for cell phone users. In various ads the character’s arms turn into scissors, a ladder and clippers, liberating the cell phone user from classic cell phone troubles.

Posted by Megan

Allison Arieff posts in her By Design blog for the New York Times about the SB08 conference on sustainable design. I find her observations to be spot-on, including this comment:

Making more stuff — no matter how green that stuff is — will not really help combat global warming or reduce our collective carbon footprint. Companies need to produce things and need to make money by selling them — understood — but to me, the idea of simply creating more (albeit greener) product is pretty much on par with lowering gas prices as a solution to skyrocketing oil costs. When will we consider behavior? When we will commit to innovation?

Personally, I applaud when companies produce green products—but I cringe when they produce these green products in addition to, not in lieu of, their other offerings. Take Clorox's new GreenWorks line of natural cleaning products. Not only are they manufacturing, bottling, boxing, shipping and selling these new nontoxic items, but they're still manufacturing, bottling, boxing, shipping and selling all the old ones. So instead of a real sea change, it reads as a bad attempt to take on method.

And here's the rub for designers: Sure, we can spec FSC-certified paper (which is itself a less green option than 100% recycled) and soy inks. But when will we have the guts to urge our clients not to print the job at all?

Paloma's Nest offers handmade, hand-stamped bowls featuring custom text. The small vessels are perfect for jewelry or keys.



via Poppytalk

Posted by Megan

Digital Kitchen recently teamed with Seattle-based ad agency WONGDOODY to create a theatrical trailer and several whimsical bumpers for the Seattle International Film Festival. The trailer is made up of clips from previous SIFF films being overtaken by colorful starburts exclaiming "new" in different languages.

“This project brought out the mad scientist in all of us,” says Morgan Henry, Producer at Digital Kitchen. “Both clients have a great sense of humor, and we came up interesting concepts together while having a lot of fun. All of the pieces show a flare for the dramatic. Even the funny parts have a strong theatrical sense.”

Posted by Megan