Etsy Schmetsy: Year of the Tiger

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone. It’s the Year of the Tiger, so now you have a great excuse to adorn your walls, desk, head and so forth with the orange and black striped paragons of predatory cuteness. Here are ten handmade tigers (and one vintage one) from Etsy.

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Row 1: Tiger Screenprint from milkbunnie; Baby Tiger Note Cards from FloatingPalace
Row 2: Tiny Tiger Baby from violetpi; Vintage Midcentury Tiger Planter from NiftyVintage; Year of the Tiger hat from Jackthemanabouttown
Row 3: Eye of the Tigers from dailyode; Sleepy Tigger from zime; Tiger Twins print rom WildLifePrints
Row 4: Year of the Tiger letterpress print from dutchdoor; Year of the Tiger Kitty from novarhyme; Nola the White Tiger from nonesuchgarden

The Kelly Moore Bag

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We are planning a trip and I really wanted a way to carry my camera other than throwing it into a purse. Before Christmas I saw the Kelly Moore bag on Uppercase and thought it looked like the perfect solution. I was going to post about it right away, but the bags were all pre-orders, and I wanted to see if they were as great in person as they looked on the site.

Well my bag arrived and it is fantastic. I can’t wait to start using it. It looks like it is really well made and is big enough that I don’t think I’ll need to carry a separate purse or a fishing sling bag on my trip.. Plus, since is it way prettier than a normal camera bag, not everyone will know you have a camera with you. The bags come in some really great colors and she is working on a camera bag for men too, so soon there will be a stylish camera bag option for everyone.

UPDATE: Enter the code BLOGLOVE for $50 off a Kelly Moore bag!

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Kitty Caller

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It is a really good thing that I read The Donut Project. Without it, who knows how long I would have waited to learn about the fantasticness that is Kitty Caller. Sure it is basically totally unnecessary, but it makes dialing the phone way more fun. It’s the best 99¢ I’ve spent in a long time.

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These book covers by Igor “Rogix” Udushlivy have been doing the rounds on a lot of design blogs recently, but they are pretty clever, so I felt they warranted a mention here as well. He has a bunch more on his site, but these are my favorites.
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Etsy Schmetsy: Handmade for Each Other

Valentine’s Day is coming up in a few weeks, and already we’re feeling the love in the air. Or maybe that’s just the incessant rain. While we have some great ideas for cards for your honey, here’s some other delightful valentine’s ideas from Etsy.

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Row 1: Bears in Love from kgrandey; Ellen Navy and Red Silk Garter Belt by Hopeless; Mirabelle lace necklace by whiteowl
Row 2: XOXO Kisses and Hugs Letterpress Prints by YeeHaw; Mustache Cups Set by JaekieLou
Row 3: I Love You – Chic Message Bearer Bowl by lovegrowsbygiving; cross my heart. yo-yo from somethingshidinghere; Heart Skeleton Key Pendant in Sterling Silver with Diamonds from michellechangjewelry

Etsy Schmetsy: Rain Rain Go Away

Here are a few lovely finds from Etsy to brighten your rainy days.

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Row 1: Rainy Day Letterpress Card by Letterpress; Teeny Rainy Day Studs by joannarutter; Marie Collection buttons by fashionfucsia
Row 2: Sewn paper raindrop garlands from kategreiner; Stag / Umbrella pinback button/badge set by PinkParakeet
Row 3: Bumbershoot Keyring from clevergirl; Birdies in the Rain Print by joom; Little Black Raincloud from damestarbaby
Row 4: Mademoiselle under the rain print by blancucha; Two Puddle Jumpers by 3LambsGraphics; Girl and Umbrella — Limited Edition Print by cabin

the job search

Jacob Heftmann’s ongoing project of infographics about his job search. I particularly like the mustache and self-esteem ones.

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via Begin Being


The Nabokov Collection

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I meant to post about these new Nabokov covers from Vintage Books a while ago, but the post somehow got lost in the shuffle. Over the holidays, I went into City Lights and saw the covers in person — they are even more lovely than these images let on.

John Gall, the art director at Vintage Books, was asked to redesign all of Nabokov’s covers. Here is what he had to say about the project in his post on Design Observer:

Nabokov was a passionate butterfly collector, a theme that has cropped up on some of his past covers. My idea was also a play on this concept. Each cover consists of a photograph of a specimen box, the kind used by collectors like Nabokov to display insects. Each box would be filled with paper, ephemera, and insect pins, selected to somehow evoke the book’s content. And to make it more interesting for readers — and less daunting for me — I thought it would be fun to ask a group of talented designers to help create the boxes.

Here’s who I asked: Chip Kidd, Carol Carson, Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, Megan Wilson and Duncan Hannah, Rodrigo Corral, Martin Venezky, Charles Wilkin, Helen Yentus and Jason Booher, Peter Mendelsund, Sam Potts, Dave Eggers, Paul Sahre, Stephen Doyle, Carin Goldberg, Michael Bierut, Barbara de Wilde, and Marian Bantjes. They were then photographed by Alison Gootee. The results are shown here. I hope you enjoy them.

You can view all the covers, vote for your favorite and possibly win a copy on Vintage Books’ blog.

A number of people in the Design Observer comments mentioned the omission of Lolita from the set. In case you too are missing Lolita, here is a collection of the many iterations of that cover as well as a contest to redesign Lolita’s cover from Venus febriculosa.

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Pablo Lehmann

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I am loving these amazing cut paper* sculptures from Argentine artist Pablo Lehmann. I think the details are particularly beautiful.
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Continue reading Pablo Lehmann

Measuring Type

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Matthew Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth compared the ink economy of eight popular typefaces in their collaborative project by Measuring Type. They conducted the experiment by writing “sample” at the same point size in ballpoint pen. Take a look at the pens for further proof that Garamond is better than Comic Sans.


Measuring Type made me think of Ecofont. Ecofont was designed in order to save toner and ink when printing, thus reducing waste from ink cartridges. Also, obviously, using less ink and toner will save the end-user money. The font is essentially Vera Sans with small holes punched out of it. When used at small sizes, the holes almost disappear. The basic version of Ecofont is available for free download here, and a professional version of the font is for sale on the site too.

Measuring Type via swissmiss

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