Once there was a girl…
…where a girl's perspective of how the internet and California culture collide
Archive for the ‘Craft:Design’ Category
Last night I cruised out to Palm Springs with my friend Sarah to visit one of the many events for Palm Springs Modernism Week. I learned about the Charles Phoenix Retro Slideshow from Jeff and Kelly of Vintage Roadside.
First off, I was tickled to visit the Ace Hotel. This boutique hotel was once a Howard Johnson and now is full of delightful modern and kitschy upgrades. I first learned of the hotel from Sarah Rhoads blog, she shot some lifestyle photos in the sister Ace Hotel in Seattle. Weeks later I saw pictures that Jean Aw of Notcot had posted and just knew I’d have to check the property out soon.
I wanted to visit the great couple behind Vintage Roadside after getting to know the company better through their roadtrip blog and twitter.
Vintage Roadside t-shirts feature authentic vintage advertising images for people who love road trips, historic preservation, roller derby, vintage signs, rockabilly, hot rods, burlesque, mid-century architecture, vintage tattoo art, & great stories.
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Click on an image in our gift shop and read the history of each vintage mom and pop roadside attraction, motor court, motel, tiki lounge, drive in restaurant, roller skating rink, or bowling alley t-shirt.
Best part about them? They donate a portion of the proceeds of every t-shirt sale to the The National Trust for Historic Preservation. Talk about full circle appreciation!
Jeff and Kelly were on hand at the Ace to sell their t-shirts sporting some fantastic vintage logos. Some of my favorites are below, including the new design of The Chi-Chi in Palm Springs that they unveiled last night that I bought!
Vintage Roadside also hosted a book signing for Charles Phoenix after his amazing presentation of a slice of his vintage vacation slides he’s picked up over the years. Many can be found in his books which you can order on Amazon.
Check out all my photos, including some of my favorites from the slideshow… lots of Disneyana in there too!
Has anyone seen this Kia Moters teaser ad for their spot due out during the Super Bowl?
Two things.
One – I will watch the game only for this commercial. I’m sorry, but a sock monkey on a mechanical bull? Brilliant.
And we all know women love robots….
Two – The song rocks. Rocks my socks off.
The Heavy’s How You Like Me Now
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Blahhhh! There’s a second one! Wonderful!
I’ve been away from my blog lately due to a change in my work duties. I am working on redesigning the print & web imprint for my company (a huge change from admin & payroll duties!). There is a definite learning curve in doing this type of work all day.
I’ve been reading much more on design and the work has been filling a void I’ve had in the creative realm… This makes me wish I would have the time/money/energy to take some courses in design and coding. We all know my blog has been a hobby and I’ve tinkered with my role in the design and layout more and more, but I think it would be fun to do it more.
Check out this article from Smashing Magazine (one of the blogs I’ve used as a reference and source of inspiration) on color theory. Fun stuff indeed!
Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color
Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in somone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background. Color theory is a science in itself. Studying how colors affect different people, either individually or as a group, is something some people build their careers on. And there’s a lot to it. Something as simple as changing the exact hue or saturation of a color can evoke a completely different feeling. Cultural differences mean that something that’s happy and uplifting in one country can be depressing in another.
I feel like I owe Valerie a big Christmas gift… all of her hard work in blogging and coming up with interesting topics have sparked so many posts that I feel like I’m stealing her creative energy!
Ahem..
Anyways, today I saw over at Something to Write About a video using books as a medium for art and it got me thinking.
As the video loaded I thought of arts and crafts with old books when I was a kid. I would be heartbroken to see pages torn or covers bent…
Remember the Readers Digest Christmas trees? (gotta love Girl Scouts) I thought it was sacrilegious to spray paint magazine pages green!
I’m a book purist, I won’t even break the spine of my paperbacks. I’d rather splurge on a trade paper so I can read it without breaking them, and even then I strain my eyes to the center of the pages so I don’t open them up all the way. I pull off dust covers from hardcovers and stow them away while I’m reading so the edges stay crisp. Don’t even get me started about folding corners to mark your place in a novel, I’d rather memorize the page number or scrounge around for any little scrap of paper to keep my place :)
I’ve also been known to buy a new copy for my bookshelf just because some malady like spilled water or bent corner during use has tarnished it.
I know. OCD. I’m one step away from being psycho. Can you imagine how hard it was for me to work in a bookstore with all those sloppy uncaring people reading books, bending covers, spilling coffee…. and then return the books to the shelf! As if!
So here’s a question for you readers, with no judgment from me… (my mother bends her mass market paperbacks inside out upon themselves… eep!) How to you read? Paperbacks, fold the corners? Hardcovers and use the dust jacket to mark your place? Have an E-reader and wish you had the paper copy for your bookshelf anyway?
I am happy to share my first font, which is based off of my handwriting!
The technology to create fonts out of handwriting is not new, but the price tag is! I was able to write out a sample, scan, and email it and within minutes I was in possession of a *.ttf file of my own lettering! FOR FREE!
With some much needed help from my friend @daniel_poeira over at Empire of Dust [in Brazil! How cool is that!?] Daniel was able to clean up a few rough spots, jazz up the spacing & help differentiate my lowercase v from r because when I write they are IDENTICAL.
I’ve tried to rework the letters over time but to no avail, in the end I’ve had to rely on the fact people will figure it out based on context… oh well!
If you are interested in using my font thanks, hun! feel free to download it here and use it freely! Just don’t expect to forge any documents with it, for my signature looks nothing like my printing ;)
Thanks, hun! [stylized]
Download: right click, save as
I found the amazing site fontcapture from lalawag via Corazon (@lessthan3isme) one of the amazing ladies I met at the Blogger Prom back in July!
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