Thursday, September 26, 2013

inspire/invite


I'm really starting to get into stationery, folks. A few wedding invites under my belt and now I want to do it all. It allows for hand drawn type and fun colors and cute things. So yesterday I decided I was going to challenge myself by making a small trend board for a theoretical party and then create an invite to go along with it.

It was so much fun. SO MUCH FUN, this is the kind of thing that I think is fun. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!

Just kidding! Nothing is wrong with me, I just like drawing fun fall harvest party things. And hey - if you're planning on hosting a harvest party you're in luck, because this baby has a nice big empty box for you to fill in the details via photoshop/word/mspaint/a pen.

Download the hi-res file here here (sorry for anyone who encountered a broken link! I fixed it. -Emma From the Future) for all your pumpkiny party needs! And then invite me to the party so I can try that roasted veggie pizza!

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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

table setting


Hooray! I've finished up another project from the freelance files that I can now show to you. The Heavy Table is my go to blog for all things food related in the Twin Cities - I trust their opinion dearly, going so far as to order the flavor of ice cream they liked from the ice cream place around the corner. They're also behind so many exciting food related projects, the most recent one being the Secret Atlas of North Coast Foods. It was already fully funded on Kickstarter (woo!) when I got the call to supply some spot images of random foods found all across this fair land. 

 In the book these babies will probably be black and white, but I find it easiest to start in color and adjust the greyscale after everything is all finished up. Does that sound crazy? It sounds crazy now that I'm typing it.

Whatever, HANDS IN THE AIR DON'T CAREEEE (insert appropriate emoji here). How about you just enjoy this sampling of some of the images that I included on my website and buy that dang book as soon as it's out! And then hire me to make some food illustrations for you, because IT IS SO FUN.



Friday, September 13, 2013

cel style (#4)

click image for source

Woops! It's been quite awhile since I've done one of these fun little Miyazaki inspired outfit posts. I've been focusing quite a bit of energy on my freelance work and this ol' bloggy has been pretty clearly reflecting it. So let's take a little break, shall we?

Spirited Away! Even though this is a pretty popular Miyazaki movie, I'd been avoiding doing an outfit post for it because Chihiro (the main character, another great multi-faceted heroine who grows with the plot) spends the entire movie in very childish clothing OR a salmon colored garment. A little much, either way. However with the oncoming late summer/early fall weather I think I have something figured out - even with a little nod to Yubaba's totally amazing earrings and Chihiro's adorable soot buddies.





Tuesday, September 10, 2013

pie chart


Last week I got an e-mail from Annie asking me if I wanted to help her make typographic pies. How could I say no? Lettering and desserts... it's too good to be true!

So I came up with some designs on the fly and made my way to her adorable apartment in Minneapolis and we scrapped some fancy pies together! 

A pro tip to everyone who wants to try this at home: maybe try a simpler design than I came up with at first, or try something on a flatter pie. The peach and apple pies were ever so difficult to get perfect.. and don't get me started on the intricacies of baking the negative spaces inside the letters separately!

Instead let's just admire all the gorgeous photos that Annie took...





We gave up on the pie above after having tested a few others - this one would've been impossible to read if I had cut out the crust, so we dusted it with cinnamon! WIN.



bonus! some behind the scenes photos I took on my phone...

font-tastic pies font-tastic pies

Thursday, September 5, 2013

fair enough


After reading Annie's round up of her day at the fair (she got some DONUT BEER, so jealous) I figured I might as well do a little one of my own!

If you're not from Minnesota you, as I did when I moved here, might be scratching your head in confusion. "The state fair?" You might be asking yourself, "People go to those? Isn't it just a bunch of cows?" I mean, yes, it is a bunch of cows. BUT THERE'S MORE. Minnesota takes its fair VERY seriously - the fairgrounds are on a permanent stake of land, not a field like all the county fairs I'd been to in Michigan. There are PERMANENT buildings. There are REAL STREETS, you can see them on google maps and everything! Maybe other states do this as well, but in Michigan they don't even have a state fair anymore, so I can't exactly speak on the matter.

But really folks, the most important part of the fair is getting the weirdest food you can, drinking beer, walking around, people watching and maybe playing some arcade games. This year we went late on the very last day, so all the animals were already gone... but it was nice and cool, and the crowds were down. You could even hear the vocal stylings of Toby Keith wafting from the Grandstand.

state fair 2013 state fair 2013
waiting in line outside the grandstand for our fried olives / first beer of the day

In case you were curious, here is a list of everything I tasted on that day. If you're into healthy food you  might want to skip this portion, otherwise you may experience heart palpitations.

-cheese curds
-beer (3)
-comet corn (illustrated above, these were like.. liquid nitrogen soaked, cap'n crunch flavored nuggets)
-fried olives stuffed with cream cheese (worth the amazingly long wait)
-a piece of fried banana
-corn dog
-cronut dosant 
-minneapple pumpkin pie and cinnamon ice cream

state fair 2013 state fair 2013 state fair 2013 state fair 2013
clockwise: the last fried olive / alex goes for the gold / giant jenga sits alone / alli and her dosant haul

We also went down the giant slide, which was more fun than one might think.

state fair 2013 state fair 2013
inside the agriculture & horticulture building / kidway at dusk