Kiosk

What is Kiosk you ask? It's a store located in Soho, New York that offer a variety of products from all over the world. This week's destination: Hong Kong. All products are sourced during the owners' travels, which are later featured in their online store. If you're anything like me, you'll forget to check this site as often as you should, fortunately for us, Kiosk has a constant "OnGoing" collection of objects from previous countries.

The concept of the store is refreshing, it's an antidote to over-design as the owners consider the objects they stock to be humble, straightforward and beautiful for their simplicity and directness – this is an exact quote, BTW. Most often, the featured products are traditional goods that have developed over generations or anonymous design found in general stores, DIYs and kiosks – products created by not one personality but thins that are a result of local aesthetics and needs – again, a direct quote. Their beauty is usually easier to identify by viewers who aren't so familiar with them, natives of other countries who grew up with their own value and belief system, but even different cultures and design principles.

Another charming aspect of Kiosk is that you never know if what you want will be in stock, which means that you're guaranteed to be buying something meaningful, not something completely trendy and overly mass-produced in the United States.

I suggest you take a peek, it's quite interesting. 

J Crew Fall 2008 Preview

J Crew's Fall 2008 is exceptionally bright, full of warm colors such as yellow, orange, red, and pink. Color combinations that were always forbidden, such as red and pink, are now encouraged (see shoes above) and simply look fantastic. Furthermore, the edgy side of fashion from Europe is finally making its way to the States, starting with the foldover collar on the jacket shown above.

Turner Duckworth

Award-winning packaging and consumer brand identities from Turner Duckworth is truly candy for the eyes and food for thought.

Packaging for Shaklee, a company dedicated to "green" cleaning products. The design depicts home life and natural elements together in surprising ways, and the reusable bottles have a sticker system that encourages the consumers to create their own dilutions from the concentrate products, helping to reduce waste.

These "Little Monsters" packages, full of friendly faces reinforcing the strengths of each product, were designed for SuperDrug, the fastest growing beauty and health retailer in the UK, offering great value on the high street and online.

The above Handy Wipe packaging was also created for SuperDrug, although tackling the design completely differently, using photography instead of illustrations, attracting its target audience quickly and playfully hinting as to why one would need the product instead of what the product actually does.

Malvern, best known as England's first bottled water brand, wanted the packaging to reflect their product exactly, emphasize the springs in Malvern Hills and the process in which the water is filtered through granite rocks. Following the redesign, the sales increased by 28%, proving that good design truly is part of a good business model.

Packaging for Waitrose Supermarkets. The simplicity of the illustration is well worth looking, especially the integration of the body of the bee and the letter E.

Since they set up shop in 1992, they've stayed true to their word and have won several awards for outstanding consumer brand identities and packaging that generate commercial results. Although their offices are far apart (London and San Francisco), they collaborate on every project, which enables the agency to give its clients two different perspectives on the same design problems and solutions. 

New Fonts from Font Shop

Nothing beats a good font, and the trend lately for leaning towards Sans Serif with a twist. If it has a little something that makes it recognizable, like short ascender or descender, consider using it to give your website, print piece, or whatever, a hint of class and a ton of personality that cannot be pinned down at first glance. FontShop is easy to use and has a wide variety of newer, but soon to be classical, fonts for a very reasonable price.

Co-Headline and Co Text

Parisine

Rosemary Samuels

Tondo

It does make you wonder, is the trend towards Sans Serif font due to Target's and Apple's widespread use of Helvetica? Can a couple large trendy corporations who force feed design down people's throat and dictate trends among avid teenagers and adults who refuse to grow up have as much effect on the mass population as it does on designers? To see the full effect of Helvetica, please watch the Helvetica film/documentary by Gary Hustwit, then decide, do you love it? Or do you hate it?

Alanna Cavanagh

Her style is unforgettable, a blend of squiggles and large blocks of color, making it perfect for screen print and graphic applications, while keeping it's hand-rendered quality. It is bold and personal at the same time, copied by hundreds, mastered by very few.

Alanna is one of my favorite illustrators, who illustrated a book called "Milk It," written by Kate  Hodson, and possesses an extensive list of clients, which includes Chronicle Books, Little Brown and Company, The New York Times, Real Simple, The Globe and Mail, Atlantic Monthly, and The Four Seasons Hotel. She received an honors degree in Fine Art History and Comparative Religion from U. of T., but changed tracks completely once influenced by the squiggly drawings of Egon Schiele. The Viennese artist's work inspired her to develop her own style which has since been described as whimsical with a "Paris in the 1950's" sensibility. She has received recognition from both Communication Arts and Applied Arts Magazine, and has adapted her style to digital production, as well as screen printing. Some of her most inspiring artists include Andy Warhol, and Designers Judy Ross, John Derian, Andy Spade, and Marc Jacobs. To see more of what inspires this beautiful illustrator, check out her blog.

Night Owl Paper Goods

Night Owl Paper Goods is a 2-person shop by Alan Henderson and Jennifer Tatram who decided to start their own stationery company after while working together at a design firm and art gallery. They started out by working at night, hence the name of the company, moonlighting for friends who needed invitations, logos and letterheads. 

Stitched Holidays – Faux wood look alike, printed on natural white, FSC Certified, 100% post-consumer recycled paper. What a better gift for the holidays than a card that's good for the environment!

Swiss Flower – Save the date in eco-chic style with an eco-friendly sustainably harvested yellow birch cards. The wood grain varies from card to card, creating an original note, gift, or small piece of art. 

Owl Pitcher Plant – Send a friendly spring greeting with a beautiful card printed on eco-friendly sustainably harvested yellow birch.

Chocolate Cupcake Birthday Card – single letterpressed card that comes with a warm red envelope.

Olksy Floral Hearts – single love note that is printed on eco-friendly sustainably-harvested yellow birch. Share this woodland with someone true to you...

These cards are amazing, and the sustainable aspect is a great feature, especially now-a-days. I hate to think that "going green" is a trend, it seems that it should be a lifestyle, not an option to elevate your social status, but I'll take any little bit I can get and satisfy myself that at least people now care enough to fake their way through it. I started taking Sustainable Design classes at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) last spring in their Sustainable Design Online program and would recommend anyone to take a few or the entire certificate. Location isn't an issue since all classes are online, and financial is available. Please take a quick look on their website. The professors are more than qualified, better yet, they're willing to teach, which means you can contact them any day or night and they will tirelessly work with you until the problem is solved.

Dee & Lala Letterpress

I looked and looked and couldn't find anything about Dee & Lala (so if you know anything about them, please add a comment to educate us all, well, mostly me), except that they're located in California and that I was thrilled to stumble upon their work. They do everything by letterpress — greeting cards, prints, sets of both — and even though I find almost anything letterpressed completely lovely, I was quite taken by their style. Their illustrations are the perfect blend of graphic arts and organic shapes, and are somehow finessed and childish at the same time.

June Craft

Meet June Craft, an art director designing packaging for retail by day, a loving and caring mother/wife/crafter by night. 

I think her illustrations are fabulous, precise, yet free-form. I find her blog quite inspirational as well.

Yelle

Yelle is a young French singer who rose to fame on MySpace when she dissed Cuiziner, a member of the Parisian hip-hop group, TTC.  She's well known for her single hit "Je Veux Te Voir" and for being featured as MTV's "Artist of the Week" for the week of March 24-30,2008.

As mentioned in Teen Vogue, Yelle embodies flashy style, meaning neon colors, tight metallic leggings, urban graphics, and painterly patterns. Check her out on iTunes, her beats are fresh and her lyrics crisp and witty (although you won't enjoy them quite as much if you don't speak french).

Mouse Flats, Get 'Em if You Can

I just saw these wonderful "Mouse Flats" by Marc Jacobs in Teen Vogue, and they are flying off the shelves! I especially like Jacob's Fall 2008 Collection for children, and the website is quite helpful since it allows the user to zoom in to see all the details.

Try to buy a pair of these, although they're a little pricey, about $250, and quite difficult to find. You may have a better chance of getting them if you go to an actual Marc Jacobs store.

PataPri

PataPri was created by Yuko Uemura, born and raised in Tokyo, and studied graphic design at Columbia College Chicago. She's inspired by anything from colors and shapes in nature, to anything she spots in blogs, design books, and design magazines.

You can purchase some of her stuff at her store, or get inspired by her blog. Either way, keep an eye out for her wonderful products as she continues to expand and creates more design.

Cute, Creepy(?), and Crazy Sweet

Creepy cute is the new black, okay, maybe not, but they are at the same time adorable and memorable. I found this artist, known as Ashley, who's truly gifted at it. Her illustrations are intricate and delicate, but her creatures have an eerie presence you won't forget.

Coasters you'll be afraid to use.

Check out her store or her blog. Ashley is 26 years old and "focuses on portraiture and capturing brief moments in time." She describes her artwork as simple, sophisticated, humorous, empathetic, and a little bit pathetic.