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On 29, Mar 2011 | No Comments | In Updates | By Lorraine
The subnavigation issues have Finally been fixed! So I can now move forward with updating the portfolio section and tweaking the design. Comment counts are still a problem, so I will continue to work on finding a solution to that issue. If anyone knows of a fix, please let me know!
Testing 1,2,3!
On 09, Mar 2011 | No Comments | In New Work, Updates | By Lorraine
If you haven’t noticed yet, the site is live once again! Stay tuned as I add the projects back in to the Portfolio page. Also, please bear with me while I troubleshoot some of the issues I have currently having…namely the lack of sub-navigation and absence of accurate comment counts. I’m not quite sure what the issues are there, but hope to have those working in due time. Please let me know if you see anything odd. Finally, the design will continue to evolve once I am able to get back to tweaking things.
Cheers!
Under Construction! (Plus, Sneak Peek)
On 21, Feb 2011 | No Comments | In New Work, Product Design, Updates | By Lorraine
So I’m working on updating the site…expect a few tweaks and changes. In the meantime, go to your local Target and check out the latest of my products to hit the shelves:
(Don’t worry: there will be more on this later!)
Thermos + Threadless Product Launch
On 28, Jan 2011 | No Comments | In Happenings, New Work, Think Green | By Lorraine
December 26th marked the launch of Thermos’ partnership with Threadless: finally! I have been dying to share news of this product line since we began developing it this past summer. Preparing for the after-Christmas debut kept us extremely busy right up until the holiday break, so you can imagine how great it feels to finally see them out in store. The products, which are exclusive to Target, include bottles and lunchboxes…with more to come later this year. Get excited.
To introduce the line, this video was produced.
We were also lucky enough to have one of the artists fly in from London to share his design philosophy and process.
Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: Seg’s Mints
On 26, Jan 2011 | No Comments | In Happenings, Illustration, Inspiration | By Lorraine
Whew! What a winter! I have a ton of news to share and am just now getting back into the swing of things after the holiday rush. Let me start today’s edition of Wednesday’s Weekly Reader with a bit of backstory.
My good friend, Jen, and I had the great idea to host our own designer/illustrator-friendly version of NaNoWriMo this past November. (More on that later…) Rather than spending time writing every day, we decided we would spend at least 15 minutes working on a personal project every day. No rules, no pressure. To hold ourselves to it, we sent each other photos to recap our week each Sunday night.
Fast forward to the beginning of December, and lo! the birth of Jen’s latest endeavor: Seg’s Mints. The stationary line is illustrated by Jen and each piece is unique. She’s also hoping to expand her offering this coming year. In the meantime, be sure to check out her etsy shop!
Seg’s Mints
Tumblr | Facebook | Shop
Event Recap: Two Night Stand
On 14, Nov 2010 | No Comments | In Design, Happenings, New Work | By Lorraine
Continuing the theme of long-overdue recaps, (and certainly not the least of them) is today’s review of the inaugural Two Night Stand event. At the end of September, Bright Bright Great and friends hosted 20 designers for a weekend charette. Honestly, I have been meaning to post this event recap ever since, but that weekend ended up kicking off a busy month and a half for me. I’d say it’s a testament to just how inspiring of an event it was that I ended up putting blogging on hold to instead work on numerous side projects. (more on this to come later…)
The premise to 2NS is pretty similar to Camp Firebelly: throw a handful of designers together in order to tackle a common project under limited time constraints. However, with 2NS the designers were mostly professionals, and the client this time was a start-up brewery. Circumventing any objections to spec work, no files were released to the clients: rather, the clients were free to contact any of the teams should they decide to pursue their design/strategy.
As someone who is still new to Chicago, I loved the opportunity to meet and work with so many wonderfully talented people for a weekend. There is something so energizing about working under these kinds of constraints that force you to look at a problem from an entirely new direction. In addition, it was great working for a small brewery who is as passionate about beer as I am. (Think “connoisseur” when you read that last statement…not “alcoholic”!) In the end, each of the three teams came up with vastly different approaches to Trenchermann’s branding and initial grassroots marketing strategy. It’s amazing what options are available to start-ups operating on a shoe-string production budget. Below are some of the branding materials we (Team Horseplay) came up with over the two days:
Logo was created to invoke a bottle cap silhouette. The brand name is capped by an abbreviated wordmark with a slightly industrial flair.
Bottling and labeling system was designed to be inexpensive, multipurpose, and reusable, as well as easily applied by hand to small batches.
If I have one criticism of the event, it is that I would have liked to work with more of the people there. Although it wasn’t really possible with the direction the group went with, I would have liked mixing it up even further. However, I suppose that isn’t really a criticism so much as wishful thinking. If you are in Chicago or the surrounding area, I highly recommend applying for the second 2NS event that will take place after the first of the year.
Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: What’s Cooking
On 20, Oct 2010 | No Comments | In Design Life | By Lorraine
If you spend any length of time around me, you’ll soon find that although I can bake up a mean coffee cake or numerous other desserts, I’m basically pants at cooking. This summer, I’ve been slowly attempting to change that by trying new recipes, reading food blogs, and testing out new recipe apps on my iPhone. All of that pales in comparison to Kitchen Oddity, food blog to one Hannah Hayes.
A good friend to my little sister, Hannah is currently a journalism student at Mizzou. She has an excellent sense of humor and an impeccable taste in concert posters. She also happens to have restaurant reviews and excellent recipes complete with snarky commentary, cute aprons, and music suggestions for when you are dicing the cilantro. Now That’s how to get me into the kitchen. 
Kitchen Oddity
site
Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: Lunchbox Memories
On 13, Oct 2010 | No Comments | In New Work, Product Design, Web Design | By Lorraine
If you follow me on twitter, chances are that you’ve probably already heard me talking about the archival project I was working on all summer at work. To continue with the theme of posting news I missed sharing while I was out, this week’s Weekly Reader is about Thermos’ Lunchbox Memories Site. The microsite, which went live at the end of the summer, is the digital archive of many of our most popular lunchboxes since the 1950′s. I love antiques and animation, so of course I had a blast cataloging all of our images from the 50′s through the 80′s (my coworker had the second half of the archives) for our interactive agency. It brought back great memories of playing with my best friend growing up (she had the Rainbow Brite lunchbox below from ’85) and watching The Snorks and Smurfs with my cousins during the summer.
Thermos’ Lunchbox Memories
What lunchbox did you have growing up? Mine was the Tiny Toons one…
site
USA Today Reviews Site
Incidentally, this past week I found out that USA Today reviewed the microsite. The write-up is worth it for the comments…made me really excited to be designing lunchboxes.
site
Event Recap: Quite Strong Launch Party
On 07, Oct 2010 | No Comments | In Happenings | By Lorraine
One of the best things about Twitter, is the opportunity to meet such fabulous people…that, and I seem to get more industry news through my Twitter feed than through any other outlet lately. So of course, I was excited to hear that Victoria Pater & friends officially launched their all-girl design collective, Quite Strong. Not only that, but it was great to see all of the positive reaction from the Chicago design community as well.
On September 17, the ladies celebrated in style at Edge: complete with taco bar, temporary tattoos, and shaving cream…not to mention, all of the great donations raised for Ag47. Good food, good fun, and good people: it was nice to meet so many people after following them online. Cheers!
06
Oct
2010
In Inspiration
Interview Series
Letterpress/Printmaking
Photography
Typography
Web Design
By Lorraine
Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: Summer Interview Series Recap
On 06, Oct 2010 | No Comments | In Inspiration, Interview Series, Letterpress/Printmaking, Photography, Typography, Web Design | By Lorraine
After a nice month off, the fall season is officially here for the blog. Upcoming posts will include some more recaps of the past month, and what better way to kick it all off than with a recap of the past summer? This summer marked the first Summer Interview Series, and a huge Thanks! is in order to all who participated. Below are links to each week’s featured creative…and stay tuned for future interviews. Cheers!
Week 1: Jesse Kuhn of Rawtoastdesign
Interview | Site
Week 2: Mig Reyes, Threadless
Interview | Site
Week 3: Jon Gray, Jon Gray Photography
Interview | Site
Week 4: Jeremiah Chiu, Plural Design
Interview | Site
Week 5: Jeff Speigner, Design4Kids
Interview | Site
Week 6: Eric Nyffeler, Doe-Eyed
Interview | Site
Week 7: Julie Morelli, Letterform
Interview | Site
Week 8: Antonio García, gravitytank
Interview | Site
Week 9: Mike Fretto, ROSA LOVES
Interview | Site
