save the date!

I love weddings. I especially love weddings when I am not the one who has to deal with putting the guest list together, which is why I am so excited about my dear friend Emma's wedding. She is marrying her charming beau Drew, and lucky me, I got to design their save the dates. Emma and Drew wanted a vintage-y seed-packet look, and I was more than happy to oblige. I perused the internet and found this gorgeous example:
This is fantastic-I love the muted colors, detailed drawings, the font, everything. However, Emma and Drew are a bit less country bumpkin, and a bit more fun and funky. So I took some inspiration from a vintage botanical exhibition poster, and came up with this:

It's a 4x6 postcard, featuring the flowers that they are going to use for the wedding (zinnias-her mom is growing all of them), along with a little picture of the church where they are getting married. They're printing them this weekend- I'll put up a photo of the finished product when I get mine in the mail! Here's a sneak peek at the back (with room for address labels and a quick note from Emma and Drew):

Up, up, and away!

These are data plotted from flight patterns from designer Aaron Koblin. Originally, they were done for an experiment at UCLA where FAA information from a day's worth of flights was plotted. There is also an absolutely gorgeous video here, and lucky for us, Mr. Koblin is coming out with prints. He also has a few wallpaper designs available for your computer. UCLA's take on the project is here, and Mr. Koblin's take is here. While you are there, check out his Sheep Market project.

Willow

Willow is another example of a great local store going online to share their wares with the rest of the country. Though the "real" store is in Chicago, they've opened up an online store to give us all something to drool over.
Check out this vase- it's got simple, clean lines- the epitome of great design- and manages to make monster trucks -the antithesis of great design- look sexy.

I am also (of course) head-over-heels for the aesthetic of this plate. Love the simplicity of the image, the color of the plate, and how the shape of the plate mimics the gun, but how the plate itself is not gun-shaped.

If we weren't a household that breaks a glass a week, I would be more ready to listen to the part of me that is sighing like a schoolgirl over these glasses. The delicate feathers and lines of the glasses are perfect. I would imagine that if we had these, I would only use them to drink things like elderflower italian sodas (in the tall glass), bellinis (in the champagne flute), and Campari and soda- with a twist, of course (in the short one).

Finally, receptacles for your candles- a porcelain stump or a little campfire. Both are inspired by nature, but the clean white color keeps the design from being Swiss Family Robinson. Because everyone loves candles, but almost no one likes a dirty hippie.