Two nights ago I was able to attend the ADDYs for my company and it turned out to be a fantastic evening. I don't want to toot my own horn too much, but we did amazing. I came home with 7 awards for us including a Judge's Choice and the Best in Show (with a sprinkling of some golds and silvers in there too).

A lot of our clients have been giving a lot of freedom lately and it has really been paying off. Since I work mostly for law firms, most of them are set in their stodgy ways and in the end it shows. However, the few choice clients that who let us go off an do what we love, end off better in the end. The work for the client that won both the gold and the Best in Show is an ad campaign that is far from what you would see for most law firms. Clever copywriting, great photographs, use of white space, these isn't the norm in the industry*.

So in the end, sorry for the goofy shot of me. This was my final seventh time up, and I was running out of little things to say at the mic and I am way overdue for a haircut. Plus, thanks to my wife for taking shots of the event and getting a couple of me not looking like an idiot.

*I try to keep from posting images and stuff from work, since I don't know exactly how that works, but if you want to see some of the winning work or my work in general just drop me a message.

I have been hearing from my friends and family in Michigan (where I am from) about the storm that hit them yesterday, and it has me thinking about snow. I love the stuff. I don't mind driving in it, if no one else is on the road to hit me, and if the city plows the roads (but they never do, do they own a plow? I don't think so). I wouldn't have minded to get some hear instead of the rain that we got.

This is a great poster called First Snow by Power Slide. It encompasses probably a perfect day for me, and while some might say it looks bitter and cold, I feel that it looks refreshing. Amazing what you can do ith just 2 colors, gotta think outside the normal realm of color (since when you screen print, every color means you gotta print the entire run AGAIN).

When I saw the Collect bookcase from Normann Copenhagen I was instantly drawn to it. The fantastic color, the woodgrain showing through, how smooth it looked. It just made me want to touch it.

It looks like it could be at home in a cabin, in an office, in a sitting room, kid's room, anywhere. Although I would like to see how it looks like filled with books or whatever else you would put in it. It is such a beautiful object right now, I hope it wouldn't detract from it.

Once again, this is why I need a studio space and/or workshop. I want to run out there grab some plywood (although this is made with green pine) and make one. One day...

It is 55" x 55" and 2,700 Euro ($3700 USD, another reason why I would like to go make one)

[via Design*Sponge]

It's the last day of Free Font Week. Hopefully I've added a couple of typefaces to your arsenal that you might have otherwise been lacking. Typefaces that might only fill a small niche, but when you need them, you have them.

Last up is Lot. Nice and chunky, the "C" looks like Pac-Man and the "Q" and "W" are big and beautiful. Have a great weekend!

Today I want to show you Learning Curve 2.0. It never hurts to have a handwriting typeface up your sleeve. I've used a couple of them in various projects, sometimes it's just what you're looking for.

Next up is Anivers. Great looking typeface, looks really versatile. Fantastic Asterisk. Regular weight is free, but you have to pay for other weights.

League Gothic is a revival of the old classic, Alternate Gothic No. 1. It's is part of the Open Source Type Movement (which sounds like a fantastic idea to me, check it out).

Ovalian is a bit different and far from what I normally use. But that is what drew me to it. Obviously, I am not going to set a book in it, but it would be a great addition to a logo or for some really large scale signage. (Free Use)

Free Font Week - Monday

I've posted a few fonts here and there that are available to you out there in the past and I thought it was about time to give you an entire week of it. There are always those projects out there that need a typeface that is slightly different, something out of the norm, but they're not always easy to find. So hopefully these might help you on your journey

P.S. As a personal note, I often feel that the "Q" and the "&" make me fall in love with a font. Doesn't hurt to have a really good looking font poster either.

Above is Quicksand, looks great, can't wait to use it. As with any free font make sure the usage license on it if you plan on using it commercially. You're safe with Quicksand, a note from Andrew "Feel free to use it commercially as it is license free. Cheers!”

I know I am a couple days late on this, but I am glad I caught it at all since I was out of town. On Feb 9th apple introduced the newest version of Aperture, Aperture 3 .

I currently use Aperture 2 and I really like it. There are a few things I liked slightly better about iPhoto (and i had v8 not v9 when I switched, I think) but not enough to stick with it. I switched and am very happy. Best thing is a non destructive workflow, make an adjustment here, brighten this, fix that, crop this, and if you hate it all in a few weeks, just turn them off and you are back to ground zero. Unlike photoshop where once you close the file you are done or iphoto where you could only revert back to the original (never used Lightroom, so who knows)

There are a still a fews thing I didn't love so hopefully it will be fixed in a the new version, I'll have to find out for myself. Mostly a few quirks on importing, not making it easy to name a project on import (you have to have it created beforehand with the name, or it gets named Untitled and you can fix it later). Apparently, you are also able to sort your items in any order you want now, which would have been nice, except I adopted a date system that lets me just sort chronologically (so my folders all start like "2010-02-11 Name" but I would have preferred iPhoto's system where I would just put "Name" and it would use the date on the files to sort).

In addition to many upgrade you also get facial recognition, geo tagging, better brushing, better tagging and who knows what else yet. They say they have 200+ new features.

If you go to Google today you'll find a really nice Olympic themed header graphic. I am always a fan of when they put up new ones to correspond to special days of events, but I really like this one. It is a great illustration (instead of the usually cheesy modified Google logo) and has some texture to it as well.

I tried searching for the illustrator (in Google of course...) but only came across info on past times they did this.

Is everyone going to be watching tonight? I don't know if they'll be able to outdo the ceremony from China, that was crazy!

Hope you all didn't miss me too much. I am back from my ski trip and it feels good to be home. I wouldn't mind being gone a bit longer too, but I get what I can.

Posts resume tomorrow (and I already wrote it, look at me being on top of things!).

Enjoy a couple photos from the trip for now. Sadly not that pictures of the mountain, didn't bring the camera with me when it was sunny and blue skies, just the overcast day...

I am going to be MIA for a few days since I am taking a small winter break and doing a bit of snowboarding/skiing.

Posts will resume at the end of next week.

*Unfortunately the photo is NOT where I am going, although that would be heavenly.

Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A

(Insert joke about unlocking her secret world or her hidden treasures here)

Great dress created by Liz Tan for a Halloween costume. I don't see why it is limited to Halloween though, looks like proper attire for any day.

I really need to get my wife one of these for one I go as Mario. Yes, Peach is a more obvious costume choice, but this is just awesome!

[via Unplggd ]

I often read a great design blog called AisleOne, written by Antonio Carusone. He is a great designer, blogger, etc, and recently he also has started designing skateboards. His first one was the Hello and the new one is the 39 Longboard.

I love this board! I don't skateboard, I have trouble staying on things that aren't attached to my feet, but I love it. The shape, color, type, wheels, everything is fantastic. Looks like it would fit right in with the color scheme here too.

If you've got some free time, go check out his boards, and go check out his blog. Lots of great info and work being shown over there.

$160 + Shipping for the complete board

No design post today because it a a great day and LOST is starting it's final season. So if you are casually browsing your design blogs tonight, I want you to see this, and go turn your TV on. Wait, you don't watch LOST?

Well, just think, does your life have a hole in it that is just too hard to fill? A certain emptiness? Could it use a TV show that makes you question all kinds of things but never really gives you answers, but only enfuriates you more? If the anser is yes, maybe you should go watch it (although you would be hoplessly lost as to what is going on, so maybe you should go get all the dvd sets, watch them all, build a time machine, come back to tonight, so you can watch it with the rest of us, then give me the time machine, Id like a pet T-Rex).

10 points to anyone who sees the photoshop disaster in the poster!

The always popular and always amazing Feltron Annual Report is back. Nicholas records pretty much every aspect of his life and then at the end of the year produces a visually stunning annual report cataloging the previous year. Each AR is slightly different and always great.

This year is is letterpressed on French Durotone paper, and I bet it looks fantastic in person.

Available for Pre Order right now, and will be limited to 2000 copies.