Jimena Azpeitia

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Pinterest. Part of it’s due to a few social media assignments for various clients, and the other part is a renewed interest in home decor and dying techniques. Interestingly, Geoff McFetridge, an artist I’ve always loved, has been populating my feed quite a bit. Much of his recent work reminds me of a style I’m used to seeing in Olimpia Zagnoli‘s illustrations. When you take a closer look though, each artist may use bold, abstract shapes, though the story lines are extremely different.

McFetridge’s recent work feels quite sexualized when you view the grouping together. Men are men, and women are welcoming of men. At first, you don’t think much of it, as the perspective and lack of detail throws you off. The design feels quite simple, but the longer you sit with it, the complexities and storyline grows. Themes of exposure, individuality, disguise and personal space seem to be markers of this series. In comparing the works side by side, you notice the difference in artistic nuance.

Zagnoli’s woman has a coyishness to her that feels defiant. She seems stylish and quirky, and an equal player amidst male counterparts. Her shapes and color palette have greater contrast and present what feels like an uptown woman (where McFetridge’s female feels younger and more exploratory of herself).  I have to believe neither artist wants to be compared to one another, but when works have been pinned alongside one another, it’s hard not to notice a narrative and comment on the parallels and differences. Curious, what do you all think?

 

I’m gonna keep this short today, as I injured my hand late last week and am still on the one-handed mend. I recently came across this creative project by Angelica Dass and was really drawn to it. It’s a gem of an exhibition, and when I first saw it, I thought it was from Pantone’s marketing team and was quite pleased to see an effort beyond branded merchandise.

Then, I realized it was an outside project. In the world of mug, makeup and fashion collaborations, this initiative speaks to the soul, touching the entire human race. Everyone’s skin color fits within Pantone’s classification system and the neutral portraiture is quite striking. If I worked at there, I’d get on the phone with Dass immediately and try to broker a collaboration.

 

Do you ever wonder what the homes of the bloggers you read/follow look like? Well, UK based interiors journalist, stylist, and blogger Ellie Tennant, along with photographer Rachel Whiting, had the opportunity to visit some of her favorite blogger’s homes from around the world and take a peek into where and how they live. Fast forward a bit and what she found has now been lovingly collected to share with you in this cool new book!

And oh hey, the room on the cover looks awfully familiar doesn’t it? Oh… wait, that’s MY ROOM! lol
If you follow my Instagram, you might remember me posting this and this last year. I’m so honored that they ended choosing one of my rooms as the actual cover! woo hoo!

It was so much fun meeting Rachel and Ellie, who had actually never been to California, let alone the US before! My home was their first stop in the US and after having them style and photograph it, we were able to hang out and share a ton of laughs. I’m proud to say I was able to also take them to experience the American retail institution that is known as TARGET! It was quite amusing!

Anyway, here are a few sneak peeks of my place as seen through their eyes. (You’ll note the Pepé cameo. He just had to make an appearance, lol)

In addition to my home, there are some other amazing bloggers that are featured, including the homes of Oh Joy, SF Girl By Bay, Justina Blakeney, and that’s just to name a few!!

Not only will you get to tour their homes, the last chapter also gives some great advice on setting up your own blog!

The book is released April 10, 2014 and you can pre-order it now!

UPDATE! Check out this great review over in the NY Times that came out today!

Images by Rachel Whiting
courtesy of Ryland Peters & Small

The post Design Bloggers at Home book appeared first on Happy Mundane | Jonathan Lo.

Want to advertise your product by scaring your customers? Pepsi Max sure does. The company kicked off its ‘Unbelievable’ campaign by installing all-too-real digital technology into a bus stop along New Oxford Street. What’s so unbelievable about it? Waiting bus riders think they’re only moments away from being attacked by alien ships, a tiger on the loose, and being lasered to death by a giant robot. At last, something to occupy us when we’re waiting for that bus.

The post Try not to flinch, Londoners; the Unbelievable bus stop is here appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

‘Alphabet Machines’ is a series of illustrations by Taiwan-based illustrator Kuo Cheng Liao, in which he features the letters of the alphabet as adorable and weird machines.

The 26 letters are re-imagined to be tanks, helicopters, spaceships, and other unexplainable vehicles, all driven by cute little men. Liao hopes he can expand this personal project by turning the characters into 3D.

The post The alphabet re-imagined as cute vehicles appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Want to teach your dog a lesson it will never forget? Turn your pooch into an enchanted creature via this unicorn mask for dogs. Tokyo-based crochet artist Hiroko Fukatsu created the ultimate shaming device for the upcoming ‘Year of the Horse’. She used the photos of the embarrassed Shiba Unicorn as New Year’s Day greeting cards.

When she’s not crocheting mystical accessories for dogs, Fukatsu makes clothes for women (unicorn dresses not included), which you can check out here.

The post This unicorn dog mask is much better than the cone of shame appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Why settle for an ordinary rolling pin while baking, when you can grab a Valek Rolling Pin. These cool baking tools are crafted by Polish designer Zuzia Zuber. Learning that she could engrave wooden rolling pins with patterns with her super funky laser engraver, Zuber got to work on ‘engraving, testing, baking and baking and testing and baking again’ to fine-tune her designs to get them to where they are today. In her collection, you can find dinosaur, cat, fox, hamburger, and even personalized designs for gifting.

The post Check out these badass designs from Valek Rolling Pins appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Think back to when you were a child and all those crazy bad words you knew. The ‘sh’ word, the ‘f’ word, perhaps even worse. This little kids makes us laugh with all the bad words he can come up with in the presence of his dad. Like, ‘butthole’, ‘butthead’, ‘butt crack’, ‘butt nose’, ‘butt face’, ‘butt mouth’, ‘butt teeth’, annnnnd one last surprise word to make it all worth your while.

The post Let this kid enlighten you with all the bad words he knows appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Wow! This is a blast of science fiction from the past. In 1925, Science and Invention Magazine editor Hugo Gernsbeck invented the Isolator helmet to encourage focus in its wearer. This is how it works: the super-insulating helmet zips all sound in to shut off all external noise, is piped with oxygen to get these brain cells going, and deliberately limits peripheral vision with little tiny slits for eyes. Somebody needs to manufacture these commercially — if not for daily function, then at least for Halloween.

The post Want some ‘me’ time? Try this Isolator helmet, it will make you an instant anti-social hit appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Her artistic name is the onomatopoeic word for the sound of action: KASHINK. And action you’ll get, mostly through huge paintings of four-eyed characters in gaudy colours that you can find all around the world. The work of this French artist is inspired by her Spanish and Slovakian origins, and often features portraits of Frida Kahlo mashed up with comics, which she loves.

She is an artist with attitude, too. Not only does she usually wear a painted mustache on her upper lip, but she’s socially conscious in her work. One of her latest collaborations was with Gayfitti called ‘Act Up’, a project that seeks equal rights for gay people.

The post Woman at work! Wonderfully gaudy French street art by KASHINK appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

Perhaps we’ve been pampered with admiring the mad skills of too many good cosplayers out there. At the other end of the spectrum of cosplay greatness is a particular Thai cosplayer, Anucha Saengchart, whose brand of Lowcost Cosplay is defyingly, howlingly bad. We think we have seen everything now.

The post This guy makes the most hilariously bad cosplay outfits on a budget appeared first on Lost At E Minor: For creative people.

This Bow Rubber Band by Japanese designer Yu Asou made me smile.

“Don’t do it for the money.
Don’t do it for no money.”
— Oliver Reichenstein

(via Sawyer’s CreativeMornings profile)

I am totally mesmerized by these Kaleidoscope Portraits by Norg Nodis.

Ephemera is a refreshing view on how to put a firm’s weirdness and character on display since the client work that pays the bills unfortunately doesn’t often warrant the “weird” solution. Check out Little’s eclectic mix of work below, though I think it’s best experienced directly on Little website.

MUSIC

Everybody has their go-to soundtrack for getting in the creative zone (which you may even be listening to right now), so we’re doubling down to make this a visually inspirational musical moment too. Though there may only ten of these music-based masterpieces below, they’re guaranteed to make your creativity go to eleven.

MINIMALISM

Less but better. Pun. Look. Ten.

Shawna X created this impressive series of typographic illustrations, It’s Warm Inside, as a response to her long, cold winter in Chicago. The pieces were a part of Typeforce 5, an annual typography showcase hosted by Firebelly.

via Badass Lady Creatives

EGGS

There’s nothing like some eggs and inspiration to start your morning off sunny side up. Now crack open this ten egg inspiration omelette and get your day cookin’.

EYES

Clearly you’ve got the vision to spot good design (why else would you be here?), so feast your eyes on these ten pieces of ocular excellence and you’ll see success in your creative future.

 

While Pluk is meant to be a hanging fruit basket, I think it could work to hold just about anything. Designed by FACO, Pluk frees up your counter space by holding your fruits and veggies within its sphere. It’s made of two circles that are held together with crisscrossed elastic string that lets you easily add or remove your goods when needed.

The webbing allows you to see what you’ve got and lets you easily grab a piece of fruit at a moment’s notice.

Pluk is available in three designs – handcrafted wood, light metal, and a durable, high impact plastic. Each can be disassembled for storage. The elastic string is boat grade so it’s super strong and durable for repetitive use.

Pluk has a Kickstarter campaign going on so you can get one of the first produced.

Knitting isn’t known for being the trendiest activity, but now textile designer Moriel Dezaldeti has completely revamped our view of it. By developing a new technique that combines textile knitting and weaving, Dezaldeti has created an array of unique textures unlike any other.

Organs is her collection that starts off looking at the material world, examining body movement and drawing parallels to the flow of textiles. Then, she looks inward inside the human body continuing the comparisons to create these works. All of them were completed using a manual knitting machine.

For more information, you can contact her directly at morieldez@gmail.com.

Contact her at morieldez@gmail.com.

Hooray! Sugru is now available at MoMA, and that means more people can fix and modify all sorts of things with this magic stuff. Sugru, if you’re not familiar with it already (Simon wrote about it back in 2010), is a self-setting rubber that you can mold like play-dough. It bonds to almost everything and sets into a flexible, water-proof silicone rubber overnight. Use it to make tools easier to grip, mend broken wires, put bumpers on your phone, and more. You may also buy the kit directly from Sugru ($22), fyi.

Made in the United Kingdom
Size: 8h x 4.72w x .47″d.
Material: Silicone Rubber
Designer: Jane Ni Dhulchoaintigh

We just celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary and it caused me to reflect on our early days of marriage, living in Portland in late spring, early summer. I made us breakfast most mornings – just like I do now – and  we’d sit and talk with the windows open before getting to the day’s tasks. I discovered early on John isn’t a pancake guy. The thing is, I’m a pancake girl. But our common ground? French toast. Thank goodness.

Since going dairy free I haven’t made french toast as often as I used to, but I do miss it. Our favorite recipe is basic with a little cinnamon and vanilla, then topped with fresh strawberries and maple syrup or honey.

I’m not entirely egg-free (though am growing more suspicious of them by the moment), but I wanted to make a vegan french toast recipe A) to see if it was in fact possible to make french toast without eggs, and B) to come up with my own variation to share with you all, as I know there are already a lot of vegan frenchy recipes out there.

At first I considered “thickening” the batter with a starch (i.e. flour) of some kind, but then I really just wanted to keep it healthy and natural. And so, I went with chia seeds. I ground mine up to make them less visible in the final product (for those eaters of yours who inspect every bite and ask, “What’s in this?” before digging in). But this certainly isn’t a necessary step.

The batter is basic. Non-dairy milk, chia seeds, vanilla, agave, cinnamon. For the bread I went with a rustic wheat, but you could certainly keep this gluten free by using a gluten free wheat bread, such as Udi’s. I’ve had their gluten free bread and am confident it would work swimmingly in this recipe.

The trick to the batter is letting it sit to firm up a bit. Chia seeds typically take 10-15 minutes to activate (longer for pudding), and that’s about how long I let mine rest before dipping the bread in. Go longer for thicker batter, but no too long or it can turn into a pudding (which is not what you want). You’re basically looking for a batter that resembles traditional french toast batter with the egg. Ya dig?

The result? A dreamy, simple, perfectly-sweet french toast that’s completely vegan. So what does it taste like?

It’s light
Slightly sweet
Warm from the cinnamon
Tender with a subtle bite
Filling
Wholesome
And perfect for adding whatever toppings you prefer

Me? I went with coconut whipped cream, fresh strawberries and a little maple syrup. This would also be lovely with a compote, sliced bananas, peanut or almond butter, or agave. Consider this recipe a basic french toast base, perfect for adding whatever flavors you want to make it your own.

I hope you enjoy it! And if you do, be sure to take a photo and tag it #minimalistbaker on Instagram. It’s kind of my favorite. Cheers!

 

This weekend over drinks, my girlfriends and I had a very deep conversation that stemmed from the irony of us having fought so hard for years to rid Seattle of its Birkenstock hippie stigma, only have the sandals make their inevitable (?) return to fashion this year. (Insert eye-roll here.) 

The discussion quickly turned to the similar trend of sporty slide sandals. I mean, who knew that the adidas slides we donned post-soccer practice would now be gracing the pages of Vogue? Despite the surge of sweatshirts and sneaks in fashion these days, I really never thought I’d see this… 

Seriously guys. What do we think of this? Is this just American fashion – the insertion of sports and comfort into our couture (or not so couture) closets? Are we getting lazy?

At least these Chloe sandals have elevated the look a bit – I suppose I can get behind something like this… although I’m guessing my wallet won’t be so willing.

Sandals at the lake house? Sure. Ok, fine. They’re growing on me… a bit. I suppose if we’re all just replacing our current infatuation of sneakers with slides, then the same rules can apply. But, you’re going to have to convince me of the tube socks… *wink*

If you’re in the camp of ‘hell, yes give me some comfy sandals while I can get away with wearing them!’ then here are a few of our favorites!

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5

Personally, I’m guessing the furthest I’ll be going with this trend is something along the lines of the first pair… although considering how affordable the Nike slides are (and if you have a smaller foot, you can shop the boys’ section too!) they may end up finding their way into my closet…

What do you think all? Will you be embracing these sporty slides come summer?

Shop more of the trend here ::

 

images :: vogue uk // interview magazine // vogue spain

A guest post by kait kucy / @yuppielove, with photography by @theoriginal10cent.

Perched in her home studio, Maya Gohill is at work, painting the day away. A bright and open space, the studio is where Maya spends most of her time when she is not instructing at the Alberta College of Art & Design or fueling the creative juices with colleagues at her creative team building company. Not one for silence while creating, Maya always has an episode of This American Life playing in the background or a couple of her favourite albums on repeat.

A fresh and stimulating atelier to an outsider; filled with in-progress paintings and illustrations and treasures accumulated from various travels and experiences, it is hard to imagine not creating greatness in this space. “When I’m in my studio, I’m definitely in my oasis,” says Maya. “It’s purely my space, so when I go in there I feel a wave of creativity and calm.”

When asked where she finds inspiration, she immediately answers: “ People mostly. I love faces and I’m always looking for an interesting face or style that I can make into a painting.” Her portraiture varies from highly realistic figurative paintings to bold and colourful illustration style paintings. Interested art collectors will want to take note of a curated collection of her vase portraits going live on independent maker retailer, FairGoods later this spring.

With multiple projects on the go and fresh inspiration at her fingertips (she is currently very into Njideka Akunyili, Ray Turner and filmmaker Wes Anderson), 2014 looks bright and busy for the stunning artist. “This will be a year of increased creativity, to be sure. More production. More seeing; doing; being. Just more, in general,” she says. Well, Maya, we just can’t wait to see more too.

• words by kait kucy; Photography, Art Direction & Styling by lori andrews (aka theoriginal10cent). you can Follow Maya on twitter for updates and new work.

image via lily.

i was having one of those days — those stuck days when ideas just aren’t flowing freely. when that happens i stop everything and take an instagram. i do — i look around and try to find something to inspire me and it’s like a little exercise to get my brain moving again. today, i took this instagram of kumquats on my desk and then i was sort of free-associating with the color orange, and california and then kitchens, and it all just seemed like it could be a fun idea to put together — some fresh clean kitchens and add some citrus images for color. so that’s what this is all about. i love the look of open shelving in a nice, bright white kitchen, with white dishware and pottery, natural wood bowls and bread boards on display. add some fresh citrus and you’ve got a pretty california-inspired kitchen.

smitten studio.

father rabbit via remodelista; and sfgirlbybay.

bailey’s home and garden via freunde von freunden (above + below).

seth smoot; and purevege.

tec petaja.

ash; and rose uniacke interiors.

father rabbit via remodelista.

the yard; and citysage on instagram.

purevege; and dreamy whites.

Have you seen these incredible videos? Daniel Hashimoto, who works at DreamWorks, tweaked his home videos to turn his son into a superhero. They made me laugh out loud. TOTALLY worth watching.

See more here...

(Thanks, Wesley)

El viernes 2 de abril del año 2004 (aka "Viernes Negro") , es una de esas fechas que quedarán en la infamia. Por lo menos esa era mi percepción de las cosas en un inicio y tuvo que pasar un tiempo para que terminara por aceptar ese "vacío sonoro" que se había creado. Pasaron algunos años y la ausencia de sonido se encontraba en el aire pero no en las bocinas de mi Discman. Lo mismo sucedía con mis discos en las repisas de mi cuarto, los libros y las películas en mi librero y en los carteles pegados en mi pared. No me encontraba solo, algo se había quedado conmigo para inspirarme de ahora en adelante y parecía que el futuro no sería tan malo. Había una frecuencia en el radio que marcaría por siempre mi manera de ver el mundo en el que ahora vivo. Si en este momento enciendes tu radio y sintonizas en el 98.5, encontrarás un mundo totalmente opuesto al que ahí se encontraba unos 10 años atrás. Tuve la fortuna de ser parte de esa última generación que escuchó la más grande estación de rock de los últimos años de la ciudad de México. Me estoy refiriendo a Radioactivo 98.5. Este es sólo un pequeño homenaje de lo que recuerdo de esos años dorados del rock en la radio de mi ciudad. Actualmente no hay algo que se le compare. Supongo que los que llegaron a escuchar Rock 101 les pasará igual y lo mismo (aunque no estoy muy seguro) con las generaciones actuales que escuchan "rock" en la radio en la Ciudad de México. Tampoco llegué a conocer mucho de la estación en cuanto a fiestas se conoce, yo tenía a penas unos meses con 19 años cumplidos cuando finalizó la estación, llegué tarde para las fiestas de aniversario y para los años dorados del Bull Dog. Llegué tarde, pero no lo suficiente para poder disfrutar los últimos años de vida de la estación, y gracias a eso y a otras circunstancias encontré la manera de hacer lo que me gusta a través de la creatividad y la música, sobre todo el rock. No les voy a hacer un recuento de los mejores momentos de Radioactivo 98.5, de los autopromocionales y de los Juguetes Radioactivos; creo que hay mucha gente que los recuerda y creo que sería mejor poner los 7 recuerdos que me dejó la estación. Aquí van. [Foto: Last.fm]