I am ecstatic that Anthropologie chose to partner with Hatch Show Print, the celebrated Nashville letterpress print shop, for their summer catalog design. Brad Vetter (who designed these awesome wine labels) worked with the Anthropolgie team to create a complimentary front-page design for the music industry theme of the June catalog.

I'm quite fond of how the experience was described in Anthropolgie's newsletter:

"...we walked out of Hatch's doors with our heads still full of the rhythmic click-clacking of centuries-old presses. The tangy, metallic scent of ink still filled our noses, and we could still picture it smudged across the busy hands of the staff, themselves youthful practitioners of an age-old craft. Though their clients are modern—from up-and-coming bands to newlyweds and corporations—their product bears a human touch that the convenience of the electronic age often leaves behind."

Speaking of letterpress, check out the inspiring behind-the-scenes video from Egg Press.

And how about these "awesome" postcards from Gilah Press!

While stopping in to my favorite Harbor Country boutique, I was thrilled to see a Janus et Cie "Forest" chair. The furniture design company has an impressive online catalogue that transports the viewer to awe-inducing locations all over the globe. Chairs and tables have never had it so good!

Photographer Gemma Comas works with fabulous stylists to capture beautiful photos for a variety of clients, including Martha Stewart Magazine and Anthropologie.

Her photos of interiors are particularly striking, especially this spring-dream of a bedroom:

What do you have to do to get from here to there?

KEEP GOING.

Image by LA based Graphic Designer, Ben Loiz.

Doesn't this emblem/logo put you in the mood for Autumn? If not, Coe & Waito's beautiful products certainly will.

I admire the way the artists describe their purpose:

"We want to create quiet objects that can have a deep and lasting impact, encouraging an emotional response in the people who encounter them. Through these objects, we hope to express our admiration of the elegant perfection of nature and to celebrate the beauty inherent in our materials."

I like the idea of an object being quiet as opposed to loud. There is a grace in that type of design aesthetic.

After work on Friday, I went to Union Station to take the train 21 miles west of Chicago to a lovely town called Hinsdale. I encountered a couple of small design details in the town that are worth sharing. The first is a door detailed with the letter L. Could be for Love, Leisure or Larry, but it actually turned out to be the front door for the uber-preppy store, Lilly Pulitzer. I really like the idea of a monogrammed door and will consider it one day when N and I have a house and one room within is dedicated to my tiny studio.

The next discovery was particularly exciting for me as I have a long-time infatuation with anything Fornasetti. Can you believe this amazing wallpaper at the super-cool boutique, Stockholm Objects?

N and I registered* for a Fornasetti pillow and now I am dreaming of an entry-way lined with this fabulous paper!

* Wishpot is an awesome registry tool. You can select items from all over the web and compile them with links and pricing information.

Transforming an everyday object into something beautiful and inventive is the artistic challenge of design. Demakersvan is a Dutch design company that challenges the expected. I quite enjoy the following bio tag-line from their website:

"We are storytellers, from fantasy to factory, from statement to product."

My favorite product from their line, the Lace Fence, does stir the imagination. You wonder who would be the ideal client for such a product. The fantastical side of me imagines an urban chocolate factory that uses the fencing to surround their production warehouse or a sheep farmer in the mild of the Scottish countryside, mixing steel and pasture - cold gray and lush green.

Demakersvan describes the product:

"Fencing is a sign how we modified and cultivated our environment. Like brambles fences are rising rampantly around us. What would happen if a patch of embroidered wire would meet with and continue as an industrial fence. Hostility versus kindness,
industrial versus craft."

What can you transform from ordinary to art?