I heart Matte

I've been a huge fan of Matte Stephens illustrations prints ever since I first set eyes on his Etsy shop.



Being a vintage freak myself, I absolutely love the retro vibe he has in his work.

But apparently not only in his work! After looking around on his blog I found some pictures of his house. The interior is really lovely, it's as inspirational as his work!

Shoe collection finds home

Let me start this post with a confession: I love buying shoes, lots of them, especially vintage shoes.

For a time now I was looking for a way to show off my collection to it's best. I thought I found it on http://www.purenomade.co.uk . That was until I saw the price, 20 € for a cardboard box! I'll make that myself thank you very much!

So may I present you my brand new shoe storage facilities!



I've posted a tutorial for it on craftster

As strong as paper

The design company I work for is designing and organising a "paper art gallery" for a client of us, a paper federation, who's having a convention this fall.

I'm working on the design for this and I've also been researching the paper design objects.

It's amazing how much can be made out of paper (or cardboard)! And if they paper is treated it will also last. Although I wonder if the treatment of the paper takes away the whole environmental friendliness...

Anyway, here are some objects that unfortunately haven't made it on to the final list, either because of budget restrictions or because the designer/artist wasn't willing to lend his work out.



I absolutely loved the paper sculptures of Jen Stark. But she unfortunately didn't even wanted to sell us a sculpture. Not much of a businesswoman, if you ask me...



Another one of my favorite designers: Tord Boontje. Sadly this lamp wasn't made out of paper but tyvek, so we couldn't use it... By the way if you have a chance to buy his book, definitely do it, it's as beautiful as his work.



Another item that didn't made it because it was made out of tyvek was this wonderful dress of Rob Ryan. Actually even if it wasn't made out of tyvek we couldn't have borrowed it because it was leaving for a 1 year tour to the states. Lucky dress!
Rob did propose to make a dress especially for us out of paper but that was unfortunately not in the budget...

Hopefully we'll find some new objects that have the same high design standards as these rejected ones!

I'll have this... and that... and that...

My personal favourite design company Vitra have launched a new website.



And what's more you can have a change to win one of 33 products! All you have to do is add a product indicated with a heart, to your wishlist and then you can enter it into the draw.



It was a hard decision but I went for the Panton chair. Really love those curves! Although I might enter my boyfriend for the Eames rocking chair... or maybe for the lounge chair.. Aah, too much choice!

Fragments of my life

While cleaning up the old trusty mac, I came across some photos I entered in a competition a while back.

The contest was called 'Film of my life' and was organised by a Belgian tv channel. I decided to take some pictures around my appartment, my natural habitat, combining light and dark. Unfortunately I didn't win...







These we're taken with our old digital camera, and looking back, I must say that the quality wasn't that good....

Pantone madness

A while ago I went to London and when I was at the V&A gift store, I almost bought a Pantone mug.


W2 Products

Pantone is a standardized color reproduction system thats widely used by graphic designers such as myself. When you print a color in cmyk, I's actually not 1 colour but made out of 4 colours (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-blacK), so you're never quite sure if you will get the right result. But with pantone colours you are, because they are already mixed, kind of like buying paint in store instead of trying to mix it yourself.
(Pantone is actually also used in interior design and fashion).

Anyway back to my story. I picked up my mug, feeling like a design geek, when I saw the price. £9 for a mug? Mmm, maybe another time...


ellewonen

Maybe I should try and make my own DIY pantone project. Like the pantone stairs from Tamotsu Yagi. Now the only problem is finding a house...

Print and pattern book

One of my favourite blogs "Print & Pattern" is publishing a book. And they are looking for contributors! I've been working on some patterns of my own, based on fonts. I'll think I'll have a go at entering them... Who knows...
If you want to enter too, you'll find more information here.

Pleased to meet you...

Hi,

let me introduce myself. I'm a graphic designer. I live together with my lovely boyfriend. We're renting right now but are keeping an eye out for a place of our own.

I love making things, in my job but also at home. I knit, sew, make earrings and generally like all things crafty. I also have a love for everything vintage. I like nothing more than going to flea markets and second hand shops. I love the thrill off the hunt...

I'll use this blog as a way of collecting and sharing my inspirations and work with all the rest of you. I'll hope you'll enjoy!