inspired

Lovely Ericka of City Elf inspired me to join NaBloPoMo and try out the 31-days-of-blog-posts experiment. I couldn't do this last November because of exciting and fun travel plans I had, but lucky for me March looks to be a relatively boring travel month! And even luckier for me, they added a theme for the March posts, should I choose to follow it: Lists! I love lists!

So, uh, look for a new post from me tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. And... I assume you get the point.

ork!

Let's just say that when the Ork LA print comes out (here's the link to the actual Ork site*), I'll be all freaking over it. It will fit in perfectly in the little design nook I plan to set up in my next apartment.


*Ork ork ork ork ork ork ork. Ork.

designing hope, progress and change

Last month, The Boston Globe printed an article that got a lot of attention in the design world. It was about the use of fonts, typefaces and design elements by the various presidential campaigns. The author of the article gave clear wins to the Obama and McCain camps, respectively. So well done to the design firms that developed those materials.

However Obama seems to be winning on an entirely different design front as well. If you take a look and the viral videos and artwork that has not been commissioned by the candidates, it probably would not surprise you to learn that Obama is getting more (and better) free press from creative types than any other candidate. Or at least that is what this blog tells me. I'll admit it: I forwarded Will.I.Am's video on to my facebook friends when it hit a few weeks ago.

my unified world theory part ncaa: coaches and mascots

In my ideal world, college basketball programs would include in their requirements when looking for coaches a simple question: Does he (or she, but who am I kidding - it's always a he*) resemble our mascot?

Hence, it was pure genius for Wisconsin to hire Bo Ryan:



















And it was not a bad move for Georgetown to scoop up John Thompson III (for more reasons than just family loyalty):
















So despite my sadness that Kelvin Sampson blew his shot with IU**, I'm taking some solace in the fact that he now is free to pursue his ultimate dream job. Coaching the Cal. Bears:




















*I cannot even tell you how happy I was to hear an honest-to-god female color commentator for a Men's Division I game this weekend. And she was GOOD.

**IU is one of my two college basketball teams - both parents (and tons of extended family) went to IU. In the interest of full disclosure, since I'm likely to have some March Madness ramblings here, the other is my law school - Georgetown - I was there when Iverson was playing. Unbelievable.

...and I mean it from the bottom of my heart

In honor of Valentine's Day, I spent a fair amount of time this morning sending snarky some e card Valentines to those closest to me (with less snarky messages attached). But if I had been organized, I would like to think that I would have purchased the adorable cards pictured here (or others like them from twin ravens press - a wonderful letterpress that sells on etsy.com) and sent them out to friends and family.

I'm not a Valentine's Day sap. I refuse to go out to dinner and there's no need to buy me flowers. Mike and I will be celebrating at home, with some yummy take-out and maybe a bottle of champagne. I think my time spent working in the restaurant business cured me of any romanticism of so-called Hallmark holidays. But still, it is a nice opportunity to tell people who make my life a little bit happier that they are loved. Maybe I'll buy the cards anyway and just send them out when the mood strikes me.

good design, bad design

For my design class, we had a project called "Good Design, Bad Design" where we had to find examples of both and bring them in. The Bad Design part would have been much easier for me if I had just stopped by Gucci's website, from the look of things. Mediabistro's Unbeige blog tells me that this is a limited edition bag issued in celebration of the opening of the biggestest bestestest Gucci store ever, right in the heart of NYC (natch):

The good news: all proceeds from the bags, which go on sale tomorrow, will benefit the Central Park Conservancy. The bad news: the bags look to have been designed by committee, combining Gucci's old-school script logo (one of a handful of logos the brand has been switching among lately) and the house's signature GG-monogrammed canvas with a nod to Milton Glaser's I [heart] NY design. Topping it off is a blue-red-blue racer stripe that evokes Goyard and Dior more than Gucci, with its green-red-green signature that derived from the company's distinctive saddlery webbing.

They are right, now that they mention it, it does appear to be designed by committee, but I would have just gone with: "God damn! That's one ugly bag!"

best birthday present EVER

What a post-season. What a Super Bowl. What a year.

I became a Giants fan in 1991. Before that, I had a few teams that I liked, but none of them were My Team. In 1991, I was in Rochester, NY, living through all that Bills hype (to be fair, there isn't a lot to cheer for in Western NY besides the Bills). Watching that Super Bowl, surrounded by Bills fans, and seeing the Giants pull the victory out just barely, that is when the Giants became My Team. It has been a long 17 years, waiting for them to get back to this place, but it has been worth it.

I've had a wonderful time wearing my Eli jersey for the last 6 weeks. I'm one of the 5 people in the country who always believed he could do it. ELI MVP.