Letterpress Video

I found this great letterpress video today. The video takes a look inside a very traditional press shop named Firefly Press in the New England area. This printer is very experienced too; he even casts his own lead type!!! He has some valuable thoughts on type, and the direction of letterpress in the future. Anyways, you can check it out here... and let me know what you think.

Fun Interactive Site

As I was surfing on the Commarts website today, I started reading about one of their design features on a creative firm called Struck. I believe they are out of Salt Lake City... but the point is, they have a very cool website. The image below is from a client project, Gcycle.com. This is such a fun website!! Click on the image below to check out.

HOT, HOT, HOT...

Today and over the past weekend in Chicago, it has been extremely hot outside. I would say it's roughly 95 degrees with 90% humidity! Yes, it is yucky and sticky out there! It also doesn't help that we don't have air-conditioning in our home. Boo hoo for us.

Anyway, I wanted to post up these fabulous pillows and a great website that I found while surfing around the design*sponge blog. First, the website which is called 2modern. This site has some great and unique home furnishing items with a modern flare. Rugs, furniture, lamps, and the list goes on. Now for pillows, these are made by Amenity. This is the particular pillow I like, but they have all different colors and styles on the website. Let me know what you think!

Update on my printing press...

Happy Friday everyone! Sorry I've been somewhat M.I.A. lately... I've been VERY busy on this 4th of July week. I did want to post a brief update on what's going on with the Kelsey printing press I got a few weeks ago. Recently last week, I finished the cleaning of the type cabinet and press. It was dirty job, but look at it now!


I'd like to get the press a little more cleaner, but that would require taking parts off, which I don't feel comfortable doing right now. Maybe that will be a project I take on later when I get more experienced with the press. If anyone has ideas on this, please let me know.

I had ordered some supplies from NA Graphics a few weeks back, and finally got those supplies last week. NA Graphics was very helpful, but I learned you need to be patient with your order especially if they don't have the item in stock. I would advise you to call NA Graphics before you place an online order, as they won't notify you if they don't have it in stock. But the owner, Fritz, was very helpful when I called.

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on the new rollers I ordered a few weeks ago. They are being shipped from the UK, so I'm unsure on how long it's going to take. I feel like it's taking forever. I ordered these rollers off of Ebay. There's a store called Bakers Row, where they sell a bunch of letterpress supplies and equipment. They seemed much cheaper than some of the other makers. I got my rollers for $100 and that's including shipping costs. The other rollers I was looking at were priced at $140 and that's not including shipping cost.

WAIT! NEWS FLASH. As I was writing this post, my rollers were just delivered. Oh hallelujah!

KULER FUN!

On a design note, I got these new Kuler cards in the mail today which I was really excited to see. If you haven't checked out Kuler, you NEED to. Whether you are a creative designer, a stuffy business man, or a crazed house wife, I have faith you will like this fun site. For designers, it makes our life a whole lot easier since you can download the swatch samples right into Illustrator... PERFECT!

I've been on Kuler regularly designing new color themes. One of the themes called Tech Office, actually got quite popular. How do I know it's popular? People can rate your swatch and leave comments. Recently, a representative from Kuler contacted me since they were making small little swatch cards for the highest rated and most poplar cards. These cards have the RGB, CMYK, and web safe coding for each color; plus they give the username of who created it, and a quote that creater developed for the theme. So here is mine... YAY!

Happy belated Midsummer!

You always know summer is here with the inaugural Midsummer party. I had mine over the weekend, and boy, it's always so much fun. This year I celebrated with a bunch of Swedish friends, who really know how to celebrate!

For the Swedish, this holiday is arguably the most important holiday of the year for them. The dance around the maypole is probably what comes to mind for most people. I, unfortunately, was not dancing around the maypole, but more like dancing around the toilet after drinking lots and lots of wine and AquaV (not a good combination too). This Aqua V is Sweden's 'special' liquor they drink... and let me tell ya, it is strong and they can drink it all night like it's water! Personally, I think it tastes disgusting. You are suppose to drink it a shot glass and sip it, but all I wanted to do was finish as fast as I could. Gross...

Anyways, it was a fun weekend overall. I'm slowly but surely getting organized, as we took a trip to the container store this weekend. It always feels good to know where things are ;)

Logos, websites, even flash intros... all $100!!

Ok! I just have to post this because it's absolutely hilarious :)

Check it out: Crap in a Box!

Work, Websites, Weddings, oh my!

This week is turning out to be very busy for me, which is always a good thing! Along with my full-time graphic/web designer job, I have a few freelance projects I'm juggling. Plus, I've started my training for the Chicago Marathon. All very time comsuming... if I could only have more time!!

One of the freelance projects I'm working on is designing a new website for a past client. I had designed their website a few years back, and now, it's in much need of a new look. I can't emphasize how important it is to keep a website updated. I see so many sites out there that have incorrect info on it, old images, plus let's not forgot that web design programs change too. I recently upgraded to Dreamweaver 8 from MX, and have had some problems when opening the files saved in older versions. And now, Adobe just came out with CS3! Can I just tell you that I JUST bought CS2 a few months ago!!! It's very frustrating - can I ever keep up with ever-changing software these days!!! NOPE. I remember when I was in college I bought Photoshop 5.0 - yes that's right folks, 5.0!! Seems like ancient history now - and I'm sure all the design college kids these days would laugh about that one. However, I was reading my latest issue of HOW magazine on my way work this morning and they had a very good article on what's new in CS3. Maybe I'll put some of the features they mention in my next blog post.

Anyway, another project I'm working on are Save-the-Date cards. These are going to be letterpressed and I very excited to see the finish product. They are looking to be very cute! We just formalized most the text, so now it's onto deciding ink color and envelope color.

That's all for now! Have a great day!

Fight at Wrigley!

Hi there! Went to the Cubs game today, and of course, they lost. Boo hoo. And just so you know, I have yet been to a Cubs game this year where they have won. This game was very exciting though, because there was a big fight that happened... Check it out here:
Fight At Wrigley

Anyway, no letterpress nor design stuff for me today... tomorrow I plan to work at the press and the type drawers. I need to get more organized.

More to come!!!

Here we go!

I learned to letterpress about 4 years ago when I was in art school. Ever since then, I have absolutely loved it. I'm very fortunate to being living in a city (which is Chicago) that has an excellent letterpress studio. Columbia College maintains this studio and has a variety of different presses... about 6 Vandercooks, a few C&Ps, and even a polymer plate machine. It's great!!

But I've always wanted my own press and, recently (last weekend) that wish came true (thanks to some great support from my boyfriend). Given the size of my condo, I can only manage a small hand press. It's Kelsey 5x8, and in very good condition! I love it! And I will definitely post pics of it later.

It also came with a type cabinet, type, and a collection of odds and ends. I've started to clean this out within the past few days. Boy, this thing is dirty! This guy definitely had a cat because there are clumps of hair everywhere. Anyway, it's also very interesting too.. just take a look at what I found inside these drawers.




































Look at this closely... it's original Kelsey Printing Ink!!!

Hello

I'm very excited to finally have my own blog. Wooo Hooo!

So welcome all to confessions of a designer! I'm a newbie to this blog thing, so please bear with me. Hopefully here I will be able to share thoughts, expand my creativity, and meet others. I work in graphic and web design, but also have a LOVE for letterpress. My posts won't be limited to design, but will sometimes expand onto areas of my life, current events in the world, and probably sports (huge Denver Broncos fan here- just wait until football season starts).

I will leave my first post with one of my favorite works of art... Van Gogh's Sunflowers! Enjoy!