Drunk At My Own Party

I've known Tim Skirven just shy of a decade, and I'm consistently amazed at his creativity and dedication to art and design. As a young twentysomething residing in various parts of Virginia, he's a photographer, printmaker, designer, webber, blogger, painter, jack-of-all-trades who is an inspiration and challenge to us all. I like to think of myself as an artist, but with a full-time job and a list of excuses a mile long to not sit down and get to work, it's people like Tim that remind me there's a LOT of time that needs to get put in to be a real artist.

Check out his site Drunk At My Own Party and p33p the video below. True to form, he took the time to do a walk through of his latest show so us minions who couldn't make it could still appreciate the work.

What's The Word, Thunderbird? from Tim Skirven on Vimeo.

Mati Rose McDonough

One of our newest artists at work is Mati Rose McDonough (not Matt-ey like a adorable nickname for Matthew, Mate-y like ahoy) and I'm absolutely in love with her work. I moved my desk to a nook by the door and ordered 2 of her pieces to put on my new walls. She has an adorable portfolio and has recently joined the Lilla Rogers stable of artists. We only have a smattering of her work available through Oopsy daisy, but I'm crazy about her necklaces, especially the January Sprout Studio necklace seen below:

She's also a fellow blogger, and has a crisp site that I could definitely take a lesson from. Check it for cool updates, kitschy links, fun videos, and brainstorming sessions that are definitely better than anything I would even dream of creating.

The Curiosity Shoppe

No amateur, professional, occasional, or practicing designer should ever find themselves without at least a half-decent library. The internet is a vast and often overwhelming resource for all things modern and historical, but nothing beats the old fashioned pages between covers, and sometimes even a good quarterly doesn't cut it. The Curiosity Shoppe has grown immensely since I started following them a few years back, and their library selection is second to none. Self described as "a carefully curated, extremely subjective selection of some of our favorite books in the whole wide world", their offerings range from subjects as obvious as contemporary and as quirky as children's books with silly illustrations. Check out their selection, and the rest of their online store as well. Not the most extensive of shoppes, but one of the best, methinks! While you're at it, check their crafty blog, Smarts & Crafts for tricks of the craft trade.

Blog Alert!!!

I love finding and reading other blogs- in this information age, it's difficult to have your voice heard amongst the cacophony of millions of others just like you! Still, it's a great feeling whenever your passion for your work is recognized, so whenever I am introduced to a particularly interesting outlet, I like to pass it along and say hey! Take the time to read this!

My sister brought glow.like.berlin to my attention; it's a sleek but confusing, exploding, bright, subtle mess of words that make deciphering the entire point of it almost impossible. Nonetheless, the wide range of topics from music to fashion to art to Germany (Berlin specifically) make for an interesting read. Just don't expect the expected. Her Etsy post specifically caught my eye, and her design*sponge-esque way of laying out her favorite DIY selections left me drooling for all of her picks. It would be silly for me to post pictures of work that she/he too has posted, so do yourself a favor and check it out. If you think you can't commit to a whole afternoon pawing through the posts, just read the first page. Even that is chock full of so many goodies that I feel confident you too will become a believer.

Eye-Catching Ads

Learning how to Live is a pretty extensive daily blog focusing on "the art of living"- at quick glance, I'm not super interested in much that this guy has to say, but the latest post was brought to my attention by the lovely Virginia Ivey, who was recently accepted in the prestigious VCU BrandCenter Master's program! The Top 5 Interactive Ads That Catch Your Attention is a great collection of quirky, innovative, and edgy ads that either force the viewer to participate whether they like it or not, or draw you in almost involuntarily with unsupervised participation.

My personal favorite is this swooping photo of a custom ad floor in a mall in Jakarta, Indonesia, which replaces fleas with unsuspecting shoppers. People on the higher levels can observe what seems to be human fleas crawling all over the animal as they scurry to and fro about their business. I'm sure there were many tweets about this.