It’s back! The second installment of Iterative Inspiration: a collaboration between myself and Rashi of Bucket of Squash. This week we chose this photo of a deconstructed salad to inspire our outcome, found via Oh Joy!, in this issue of Sweet Paul.

What struck me first about this photo was both the transparency of the items in the photo as well as the spectacular light. I knew that I wanted to experiment with these two aspects for this project. Instead of working through with a mind map this time around, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I grabbed all the transparent items I could find around my apartment, held them up to a lit window and started snapping away in hopes of something striking. Annnnd, that totally happened.

At first I thought I was going to grab sections from the different colored transparent areas and make some kind of abstract collage. As I got to my sixth or so item, something pretty neat happened. In the hand-soap bottle I was photographing, suddenly there was the view from my window, abstracted and colorful and turned upside down. I know we’ve all done this with our spoons, but it was really neat to see this new view from my apartment window.

I started to look at what else I could photograph through this soap bottle. After a few rounds,  nothing seemed to match the quality of the photograph from out of my window. I realized that having the light from the window was necessary to get that crisp and beautiful upside-down reflection. So I went to the different doors and windows in my apartment and started to capture those different views. I ended up with three photographs that I thought captured the bright and beautiful essence of that first shot.

A couple of months ago I won this giveaway on Design Improvised, and I still had a couple frames left over that I was waiting to fill. This project was the perfect chance for me to use the frames—and if I got bored of them, I could simply change out the photos with new ones easily due to the awesome design of these frames. I’m pretty obsessed with how I’ve been able to use these all over my apartment and not have that fear that I’m permanently committing to something I might not like on my walls in a couple weeks. So, I went ahead and cropped the photos to a composition I was happy with, printed them, cut them out, and filled the frames. Easy peasy.

With crazy high ceilings here, I’ve been so weird with how to decorate. Now that I’m graduating in less than a month it’s a little too late to really figure out what to do about this, but it hasn’t stopped me from hanging art and trying to make it as cozy as possible for the rest of my time here. These photos made the perfect addition to the space above my desk. Best of all, wherever I’m off to next, I’ll be able to take little pieces of my experience here with me. I’m not the most sentimental person, but when I do take the time to make note of particular experiences, I’m always glad I did. I love that these bring in some bright color to my space, and will remind me to keep thinking and experimenting in different ways to keep those creative juices flowing.

Head on over to Bucket of Squash to see how Rashi was inspired and to see her project.

Earlier this winter I had the lovely chance to connect with EMK over at Rethink Design Studio here in Savannah. We met through the blog—yay for blog connections, yeah? She won a giveaway on here a while back and when I realized her address was a couple blocks away I decided to hand-deliver the package to her. Don’t worry, I did let her know I was stopping by before-hand I’m not a complete and total creeper. I love when weirdo things like that happen.

I’m excited to finally give you a peek into Rethink Design Studio today! The team works in a lovely curated space that I just can’t get enough of. I’m kind of interior design illiterate, so I generally love to ooh and ahh over anyone who has that special gift to pull together a space in just the right way. Don’t get me wrong, I love picking things out to decorate with but it’s that whole putting it together in a way that didn’t look like a person who was void of realizing that three dimensional spaces exist did it. I have that issue, being behind this here computer so much. Anyways, I can totally appreciate a beautifully composed and decorated space—I was just not touched with this special gift myself. Le sigh.

The co-owner Joel at his desk. EMK calls the next picture “Joel in a box.” Loved that.

Since this is my first studio tour, I wanted to capture a little of everything. I really couldn’t stop snapping away at all the beautiful vignettes and objects that were around! Oh, and an adorable puppy—you definitely want to click through to see that gorgeous thing!

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It’s been a while since I’ve shared some general inspiration on here. I think my pinning tendencies have lead me to believe that I’m sharing inspiration more than I really am. Anyways, I always love me a good photography and illustration integration! These photos are right up my alley with amazing colors, looks, and some hand-drawn natural elements thrown in the mix. When two different mediums can combine like this, it’s usually magic in the making.

SOURCE

Photographer: Carlotta Mainago
Magazine: Mixte
Stylist: Belén Casadevall
Model: Tanya Dziahileva

It’s been a fantastic ride my friends, and today officially marks my first year in blogging! I can’t even begin to tell you what a journey this has been and how much blogging has helped me grow as a person and as a designer. It’s truly fantastical. AND, meeting and talking to so many of you, yes YOU! The new found friendships that blogging has brought my way have really put something more than a pep in my step. Thank you so much for bearing with me for so long.

While I don’t have any big surprise up my sleeve for this day, I do have a couple of good things coming your way in the upcoming weeks that I’m excited to share with you all. Pinegate Road has already begun to turn into something a little different than it’s original intentions, and I hope over this next year I’ll be able to really mix in some of my new found passions into this space. Midway through this next year I’ll be attending Alt Summit—I’m still shaking with excitement over that one. I believe that will be another transformative moment for this little space on the internet, and I can’t wait to see how all of this unfolds.

As I’ve been aloof for a bit, here are some happenings from the past week that I thought I’d share with you:

—Bryna asked me to guest post for her while she was away

—Monograms and greeting cards, two of my favorite things to slather type on

Happy Monday friends, and here’s to all our hopes and dreams.

SOURCE

Do you ever think about arrangement when it comes to taking photographs, or setting things up around your house? My formal background in all kinds of art has me thinking about these things often, but actually putting them into practice? That’s a whole different kind of game. It’s amazing how the simplest movement and arrangement of objects can make such a big impact in a photograph. I played around with this idea for a project of mine last year. That was a doosie! But I sure do love baking. I love this photograph above for it’s simple construction and beautiful arrangement. This totally could have been a pile of pretty things, thrown around in a little mess, but by having larger objects wrap around the smaller ones, and strategically placing the elements, you get a sense of hierarchy and your eye moves around the assortment of objects in a way that makes you notice each and every piece.  It really keeps you captivated, right? It was  taken by Hanna Blackmore for a post over at The Glitter Guide on Claudia Stephenson Of Peep My Style. This article is chalk full of beautiful arrangement if you’re up for some more inspiration!

You’re probably thinking what’s up with these long-lost Vouge fashion photographers, huh? Well, there’s nothing much to it expect that week after week I seem to be constantly captivated by a new artist…who happened to shoot for Vouge. Please, I’m sure you’re coping just fine. I can’t believe the quality and wonder that these photographs bring. They were created in the 30′s waaay before any kind of digital manipulations were even thought of. As a girl who has had her hand in the solarization process in the photo lab, let me tell you, this is not easy.

I’m so impressed with Erwim’s process, but also by his use of colors. I love that mix of bright orange and turquoise that seem to run throughout his work. Such vivid colors coming from an era filled with such darkness. I feel like the 30′s are often forgotten in contemporary culture. Here’s a little ode to them I suppose.

“A Dadaist collagist–turned-photographer, Erwin Blumenfeld began publishing his fashion shoots in magazines like Vogue and Cosmopolitan in the late 1930s. Working with print solarization and superimposition, and using mirrors and gauzy fabrics to divide photographic space, Blumenfeld transformed both the models and their clothes into collagelike elements.”

Photographs and quote found via Trendland.

These photographs are just what I needed today. I just got lost in the wonderland that is Lissy Elle’s photographs. What an imagination! Each and every one of her photographs are completely awe inspiring, I had the hardest time picking just a couple to showcase. I also had a pretty hard time getting off her flicker page.

It’s photographs like these that can make me smile even under all this stress right now. You know that saying: “a day late and a dollar short”? Yeah, I feel like that’s summing up my mood right now. Midterms, midterms, go away, come again another day (or not, that would be great too).

These color pallets are stunning. Found via patternbank.

Jennis Li Cheng Tiens ‘Have A Nice Day’ project uses chance images found on the web to create these beautiful digital works. They seem to glow in a way not unlike a watercolour painting. It’s amazing what you can achieve with a bit of photoshop manipulations such as blur or neon glow. The colour is what grabbed are attention here at Patternbank and in particular the touches of pure neon glow, quite brilliant! See more at Flickr.com and Tumblr.com.  Jennislichengtien.de

Now if these don’t give you a smile this morning, I don’t know what can. It was so hard to pick favorites from Andrew’s portfolio. They are all so simple, but pack a huge punch…something I admire.

Digging this photo series found over at RAW COLOR. Yet another great example of type and image interacting as one. Nice type, bright color, onomatopoeia…count me in!