Here's a little side project I took on this August, a birthday gift I made for my friend, Gyimah, who is an amazing artist, with some dope style, working on some big things! Check him out!

I made the bow tie with the help of the lovely Martha Stewart for the sewing pattern and instructions. And then decided to take it a step further and design the box and tags as well, which required some airbrushing, some stenciling, some paper cutting, some failed attempts at embroidering, and some bow tieing (which I now know how to do!)...Anyways.. this is what happens when you come from design school and have spare time on your hands

Book Review

I could not be happier with my two recent Amazon purchases.

Print Workshop: Hand-Printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects by Christina Schmidt
If your like me and love getting your hands on new DIY projects to attempt and conquer, this is a great book. Not only does it explain all of the different printing techniques, but it provides DIY projects that are fairly easy to do, and more importantly, look professionally done. These aren't the arts and crafts that have no use other than sentimental value for your grandma because you made them with love. Great book, can't wait to try some of the projects.

Around the World with Mouk illustrated by Marc Boutavant
This book is a treat to my eyes. It's everything I imagined... and much MUCH more :) Marc Boutavant's vibrant illustrations consume the pages, leaving no corner untouched, as it details Mouk's journey around the world. Love the characaters, love the designs, and LOVE the colours!

Also, partly why I am so happy with this book is that it holds a little bit of nostalgia for me, as it reminds me of the beautifully detailed Richard Scarry's Best World Book Ever book that I had when I was a kid. I remember just loving to look at that book over and over again from cover to cover, analyzing the amount of detail of each scene and the different stories that went on in each page. (Here's a Flickr set of the book, comparing the differences of the 1963 edition to the 1991 edition. Brings back some happy carefree memories!)

New Business Cards!!

My business cards are finally complete! I went with the 17pt recycled cardstock, and got them printed through JukeBoxPrint.com, which is a great printing site. It has a wide variety of printing options (rounded corners, embossing, foil edges etc) and paper stocks, with good prices AND it’s Canadian, so shipping was very quick and cheap for me.
I actually did the pink edge painting myself, as JukeBoxPrint only offers foil edges, and other sites are kinda pricey. I did some digging online and didn’t find that much on how to do edge painting because apparently its a printing secret, but what I did find were three options to try, a brayer, a sponge brush, and airbrush. Lucky for me, my dad has an airbrush. The airbrush was easy to use, providing a nice even coat of colour without any bleeding through the paper, and by the end of the first batch of cards, I would just use my hand to hold the cards in place, as it took half the time of dealing with winding and unwinding clamps. I guess the only setback is: there’s more to setup and cleanup (if your cleaning the airbrush after every use), as opposed to a brayer or brush, which I did try. Both of these worked ok, but I had to be way more careful to not overpaint, as bleeding would easily occur.


Anyways, I have to say, it was a fun little DIY project, and I’m quite happy with the results.

Here are some resources I found for DIY Edge Painting: 
Oh Beautiful Paper
Wedding Bee
Wedding Bee

NEW WEBSITE!!

After years of wanting to and saying I would, I have finally created a website for myself and my creative work. It's still being fixed up and added to, as I (re)familiarize myself with html and css, so please bare with me :)

Stussy x Ked's: Taper Toe Champion

These shoes reminded me of summer when I first saw them. It was probably just for the fact that they were placed on green grass in the photo. I wish summer would come faster.

Collaborating with Pablo

So it's been a couple months since I was originally asked to collaborate with the lovely mr. Pablo Iglesias. The truth is, I had no idea what to do or what to add to this already amazing illustration, it already felt complete in my eyes. I finally decided to work with the tension of the situation, and build on it with a 'what could happen' in the seconds to follow. Hope you like it! The first image is the final piece, and the second is what I was given to collaborate on.

Vans x Ando & Friends: E Street Surf Sider

Puma Cabana Racer 11