State Plates

The State Plates Project is simple--designers from each of the 50 states were asked to redesign their state's license plate. The MN plate is a bit overwrought and has the typical Allan Peters badge-ness. I'd like to see a simpler version.

L'etoile Du Nord // The Star of The North

It delights me that the Minnesota state motto is in French. So I made this. 

We really are the star of the North—since 1858.

Yes, please

For the child or designer who has everything, for $250 you can get them
this amazing font alphabet from Looodus on Etsy.

Vintage Stamps

Back when the USPS was profitable—just kidding, I don't know if that was ever the case—or at least when people mailed lots of letters, stamps were a fine art. There are some amazing stamps from the 60s, 70s and 80s. And wouldn't you know it, my great grandmother and mom were both collectors so I recently got to dig through hundreds! These are some of my favorites for their distinct mid century vibe.

Letterpress Invitations

Images of the letterpress invitations I made last week for our wedding.

农历新年

I made this. Admittedly, it's a couple weeks late. Chinese New Year was on Feb. 10. 

"Homeland"

We're big fans of the TV show Homeland round these parts. Designer Ty Mattson created these pitch-perfect Homeland-inspired vintage record covers. They have that 60s-Cuban-Missile-Crisis-jazz-tension feel.

MOOD

MOOD is a brand new online magazine by Brussels-based designer and friend, Emma Hovel, and her boyfriend Mario Villar. Their concept is a magazine that finds the intersection where food and music meet, and then take great photos. Emma kindly asked me to contribute with a recipe from my mom. We even had a little photo shoot! Check out the full issue of MOOD here and learn how to make our recipe for Warm Goat Cheese and Beet Salad.

Olympic (Design) Gold

Have you been watching? That has to be the most repeated phrase for the duration of the
summer Olympics. I have, and I love it. Here are some of my favorite past logos. The London logo is  

a pretty big departure from the usual look and feel, but it's been growing on me.

(via Stocklogos)

chalk dust

I've been super into Dana Tanamachi's work lately. I was curious about her process, and 

then I found these time-lapse videos on her site. The results are beautiful, and they should be, because

she puts so much time and energy into the pieces. I envy her skills but not her sore muscles!

Gig Poster

I'm loving The Shins' new album, Port of Morrow, so I made this little 

poster for the one time I saw them in concert.

a collection a day (one)

Milk cap collection. Inspired by Lisa Congdon's A Collection a Day blog (now a book), I decided to look around my house (and my parents' house) to see if I could find any compilations, clusters, or combinations (thanks for the synonyms, internet!). I fell a few short of 365 collections, but I'll post more in the coming weeks.

wanna see it

handmade: ampersand

My favorite handmade (yay!) gift from Christmas was this wooden ampersand
made by my little brother. He's a crafty wiz kid and the & (done in classic Helvetica)
looks great in our dining room.

American Jobs Act

This is my submission to the Obama For America poster contest to support the Jobs Act.

Alex served as my art director, because he's smart like that.

kinfolk

Kinfolk Magazine is a beautiful new online mag that is dedicated to small gatherings of friends
that are simple and authentic. The design is lovely and the photography is dreamy, as is this
short video that introduces the concept and captures perfectly a summer picnic with friends.

Kinfolk from VsTheBrain on Vimeo

it's beer o'clock

As promised, more vintage beer labels. What time is it? 

It's time to enjoy some premium beer with the zing of malt liquor.

craftsman brewery

Here is the blog debut of some of my design work! For this project I created a company, 

Craftsman Brewery, and branded it from top to bottom. The design aesthetic is based on the arts and crafts movement of the early 1900s. I really enjoyed this project (especially the letterpress coasters!) 

and I'm super happy with how it turned out!

on the house

I like beer as much as the next gal, but what I really like is awesome beer labels! Recently, I borrowed and scanned a huge collection vintage beer labels from the 60s and 70s. These are some of my faves, which I used for inspiration for my own brewery branding project. I'll post the rest in the coming months, including the super-classy Play Mate Beer.