Design Spotlight: PRINT Magazine's Top 20 Under 30

PRINT's New Visual Artists Issue features their favorite designers/illustrators/photographers under age 30. You can see the full list here.

Discoveries in Fells Point, Baltimore

If you find yourself in Baltimore, MD, be sure to check out the waterfront area of Fells Point. Small-town charm in the middle of a big city! Here are some photos from our day of exploring...

We recommend:

BOP Brick Oven Pizza for the best loaded pizza and Ms. Pac Man

Ze Mean Bean Cafe for wine tastings, coffee and fancy Eastern European fare

Woody's Rum Bar and Island Grill for reggae jams, a heavy dose of tropical flavored drinks, and a great view of the harbor

Max's Taphouse for their huge selection of over 100 beers on tap

We'd love it if you add to our list! We'll be back :)

Design Spotlight: Toy Soldier Typeface by Oliver Munday

Featured on PRINT, Oliver Munday created a typeface out of plastic soldiers that he strategically set on fire and melted, producing an alphabetical army of the wounded and maimed. The result is playfully morbid, ain't it?

Expired BLUE Polaroids

We never know what to expect when we use expired polaroid film. Often we get warm, subdued tones - very retro! Imagine our surprise when the shots from our trip to Willowcroft Vineyards came out blue! And the TZ Artistic continues to change color over time to the point where we see splotches.

Compare those to these warm tones we typically see when shooting with expired Polaroid 779 film that we poached from an optometrist office in Herndon.

This film has a life of its own and continues to color shift. We have noticed the once blue/green hues turning into an almost burnt orange/magenta color in some of the highlight areas on the photos....very strange....but cool.

Design Spotlight: Janine Rewell

Suntan design created with tanning booth and vinyl stickers, 2008. Twenty-three year old Janine Rewell from Helsinki is featured in this month's issue of PRINT. In her interview, she observes: "For Americans, everything has to be written down. You have to be really clear about the concepts. For other countries, you don't have to explain so much."
Rewell bring up an interesting point; a frustration that I have with many of my clients. The need to be wordy, literal, politically correct, obvious - often hinders the creative process and, as a result, the quality of the finished piece. The U.S. tends not to be as conceptual as say, Europe, when it comes to design. We can gain so much by adopting their simplistic, provocative styles. In order to encourage conceptual progress in America, it is necessary for designers to risk rejection by continuing to present their clients with original ideas. If we stop, the artistic inventiveness of visual communications will fade.
Please share your comments! You can view the rest of Janine's article here. And if I ever use a tanning booth again, THAT is how I want to look when I walk out.

dc meanderings

What started as a visit to the Smithsonian Craft Show became a day of impromptu wandering and cultural finds. Start to finish: We began at the National Building Museum with our friends, Lauren and Corey...

We had our first Chinatown (more like ChinaBLOCK) lunch at Chinatown Express, where they hand make their noodles and dumplings in the window! It was recommended to us by Lawrence, Eric's photog friend (and eating buddy!) and it was delicious. Thanks Lawrence!

Then we found THIS dude on Constitution Ave.......

Who IS he? If you've seen him around town, please let us know. Eric has also seen him on K street by the Georgetown Waterfront. We like him!

Also said Hello to this guy. What a HOOT!

Eric enjoyed this hydrogen fuel cell car in the Earth Day tent

At the Hirshorn, we found andy warhol and marilyn's lips

and sculptures

We went to the Air and Space Museum in search of the illustrious Astronaut Ice Cream. Eric was thrilled to see the Spaceship One aircraft - the first commercial space craft to be launched into space, and then relaunched two weeks later. Seats are available through Virgin Galactic, but hurry - they are booked until 2011!

Our day concluded with a metro ride. Oddly enough, it was our first metro trip together, even though we've know each other since we were 15. We really enjoyed wandering together. Sometimes it's nice to be a tourist in your own city.

letterpress week at oh, hello friend.

letterpress week at oh,hello friend!
image by: slimjim
We find oh, hello friend's blog just delightful. Then we heard that her blog would be hosting Letterpress Week starting on the 26th, and were were super-impressed. We are taking a letterpress workshop in May and are infatuated with the process, so we'll be checking in all week. We hope you will too.

Smithsonian Craft Show

This weekend we met our friends at the National Building Museum in DC for the oh-so-fancy Smithsonian Craft Show. Photos by Eric Kemp Photography!

The pricing demographic was slightly beyond our budgets - nevertheless, we admired and enjoyed the quality of workmanship that went into every piece. Then we went to Chinatown and enjoyed handmade dumplings! But we'll save that bliss for another post...

Spring Bada-Bing Craft Show Treasurers

Last weekend, we checked out the 2010 Spring Bada-Bing craft show at Plant Zero in Richmond, VA. We want to share our sweet finds and promote the artists that we met and loved.

coral necklace by blugrn design

kid astronaut tee by popidiot

retro purse by see katie sew

green dino onesie by red prairie press

cupcake monster onesie by cutesy but not cutesy

GA is a grad of VCU's design program, so we love supporting the local art community when we're hanging out in the city. We were more than impressed by the talent at Spring Bada-Bing. If we could, we would award Maneating Flower with Best in Show. The Baltimore-based designer is the only east coast printmaker to letterpress on leather. She also takes her letterpress, Bertha, on road trips! We (shamefully) did not buy any of her pieces, but we promise that we will. Check out her booth:

Please stop by again soon - this weekend we'll be documenting the craftiest of crafty at the Smithsonian Craft Show in DC!