We love Graphicology

Graphicology covers a wide range of design topics from ads to logos and branding. They are smart and insightful and I like to think of them as the more masculine version of P+P (they're probably smarter than we are too but we're cuter!)

Blog: Fast Company's Co. Design

Fun design blog from Fast Company. Love their post about how to choose a typeface. Awesome.

Mary & Matt's Chocolate Editions

Loving these sweet and quirky homemade chocolate bars by Chocolate Editions from the winsome design duo, Mary & Matt. Each bar is lovingly made in the couple's Brooklyn kitchen and produced from the finest ingredients. Also stop by their awesome blog to get a peek at what influences them.

[via Sight Unseen]

New Design Blog: Ampersand Design Studio

[Color study from Marc Jacobs]

Fellow Hallmarkers, Carrie Kiefer, Megan Biram and Morgan Georgie, have launched their own design blog called Ampersand Design Studio featuring color, interiors, fashion and every other thing that might inspire a designer. They even feature a section on things they love in Kansas City. Flawlessly designed and well researched, this is definitely a blog to add to your RSS.



[Illustration by LULU]

The Midcentury Modernist: Home decor porn for designers

From Eames to appliances, The Midcentury Modernist is now officially my favorite home decor blog. Gorgeous plywood furniture and those deliciously minimalist lines from California to Sweden, this is a feast for the eyes. Warning: maybe be detrimental to bank account. You've been warned.

Christoph Niemann's take on diversity

Once again, Christoph Niemann's Abstract City blog on the New York Times doesn't disappoint. In this post, he tackles bio-diversity in a unique and witty way.

Design Sponge, the Swedish Version

Emmas Designblogg is a contemporary home decor and lifestyle blog from Sweden. Its a different look at a well-worn topic. Yes, there's a little bit of nesting going on there but heck, Swiss Miss is doing it too.

Photoshop Lady: Good blog for photoshop effects

Next time you get stuck on how to do some crazy type effect in Photoshop, check out the Photoshop Lady blog. The blog culls the internet for the best and non-cheesy photoshop effect tutorials. It gives you simple instructions and even gives you an idea of how long each effect should take.

Eye Candy: A Journey Round My Skull

Our good friend Chris Capuozzo pointed us toward a wonderful blog called A Journey Round My Head that is chocked-full of inspiring eye-candy. The blog overflows with interesting illustrations and amazing old book covers. Some of our favorite recent posts are Thirty Book Covers from Poland, Alexeieff's Queen of Spades and Dan Meth's Eastern European Stash.

Type Love: Ministry of Type, and more!

Ministry of Type is a one-man catalog of type, lettering and calligraphy catalogued by Aegir Hallmundur. The site is elegantly displayed and easily searchable. It is I Love Typography from the other side of the pond.

While we're on the subject, Johno, the esteemed creator and keeper of iLT also keeps a running blog of inspiring images, juststuffifind.com. Oh, and the collaborative and searchable site We Love Typography. Worth a look – both of them. I promise.

Blogs to watch: Monday Edition

If you're anything like me, on Mondays you need some inspiration. Here's a few goodies that we've found lately.


Sub-Studio explores a wide range of creative endeavors from home decor to fashion, illustration to photography.


Wee Birdy covers the retail design and fashion in London and features a "Birdy of the Week".


Modernemotive is a one-woman greeting card venture with an inspiring blog that features her favorite finds on Etsy as well as gorgeous photography and interviews with other artists.

[Thanks to BossMan Jim™ for the links!]

sfgirlbybay: surf style beauty

[Surf Style collages from sfgirlbybay]

In keeping with the tropical/holiday theme this week, this is, sfgirlbybay, the online moniker of interior design writer/editor Victoria Smith. She has recently featured several tropically-themed posts so I thought this was a perfect time to introduce my favorite interiors blog. sfgirlbybay features a wide array of interior design-related topics and her posts occasionally feature her own lovely photography.



[Photos from sfgirlbybay's recent trip to Napa Valley]

Blog: Oatmeal and Cinnamon

While looking for illustrators for a project at work the other day, I found a great little blog called Oatmeal and Cinnamon that focuses on a couple of our big obsessions here at Pica + Pixel: handwritten type, wonderful illustrations and just general awesomeness.

Oooo, pretties! (Jessica Hische makes us drool again)

Somewhere in the vast expanses of the internet, I found this beautiful piece of typography:



It turns out to be a baby announcement for John Hendrix and his wife to celebrate the birth of their child. It was designed and letterpress printed by Jessica Hische, a designer/illustrator living and working in Brooklyn. I found the actual artwork on her blog, I Love Type. Amen, sister!

(Turns out, we love her work. We've featured her in the past but now, we get to see her blog too! Woo hoo!)

Eye Candy: A Year of Mornings – 3191 Miles Apart

The beautiful photo blog 3191 Miles Apart captures the mornings of Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes. Both women live on opposite coasts and trade photos back and forth across the country every morning. The fruits of this virtual photographic conversation have been captured in a lovely book by Princeton Architectural Press. Still smitten? A Year of Evenings will be out in the summer and limited edition prints from both books are on sale on 3191 Miles Apart.

Package Design Bonanza

[Basin White bath and beauty products packaging found on Lovely Package]

Color me unobservant but somehow I missed finding Lovely Package on my own. Its a gorgeous blog, a bounty of package design, page-after-page of pretty. Go forth, enjoy.

Felt & Wire: Paper Lover's Blog

Felt & Wire is a new blog created by the folks at Mohawk Fine Papers to discuss, discover and disseminate paper creations in all its forms. Posts feature favorite designers and printers. There is even a letterpress directory to help locate the finest print craftsman nearest (or dearest) to you.

I really dig Unitards (read on, it'll make more sense, I promise)

Its not often that I get excited about something that's more words than pretty pictures but in this case I'll make an exception. Unit Interactive is publishing a very interesting blog right now. Some of the most recent topics covered were about fighting the recession with optimism and smart business management and reporting freelance wages. Take a minute and read. Its good stuff. Besides they refer to themselves as Unitards, what's not to love?

What can I do with Twitter?

I've come across a slew of articles expounding the advantages of using Twitter– for business, for blogging or for a host of other purposes.

I'm as entertained by reading and writing tweets as the next person but I'm not sure if I need yet another place to check for updates, posts and comments. I already read my work email, home email, Flickrmail, Facebook, IM and a handful of other community sites on a daily basis. Does Twitter replace or streamline any of this or negate one or more of the other sources?

Some articles for consideration:
Thinking about twitter feeding facebook status
Michael Surtees consider who say what to whom and where in the great debate, "Do I post this to Twitter or my Facebook status or both?"
Getting Things Done with Twitter
Use Twitter for financial, reminder, scheduling, health and more. It may be more useful than I thought.
Tweet Your Blog
Consider using Twitter to boost hits on your blog or website. Not a revolutionary concept but worthy of some consideration.
Tumblr lets users call in, queue posts, integrate Twitter
Ars Technica peruses the new additions to Tumblr, the already-abbreviated blogging tool.

Questionable Characters

Ben Barry and Frank Chimero have started a blog called Questionable Characters in an order to answer some of the many questions that they've been emailed by students. They provide a he said/he said reply to the questions and have opened themselves up to additional questions, both serious and silly. Sometimes its just nice to have a place to ask those questions you've wondered about regarding our profession but felt too ashamed to mention at your last AIGA function like "Do you use a non-repro blue pen and if so, for what?"