You know I love circles and script *cough cough, my logo, cough* so when I was approached by two lovely blogger friends of mine to help brand a meet-up with these specs, I was all in! While it’s still in the works, Whitney and Katy are hoping to get a little shindig set up in the next couple months to start building a stronger blogging community in the Atlanta area, and they needed some branding to help spread the word. I’m so grateful for all the positive experiences that blogging has brought my way, and I love the idea of bringing this online environment to the tactile world. Now, where are you local Savannah bloggers!?

Wishing you all a happy Friday, and my thoughts go out to Boston today. xoxo

Today, I think we have a real treat for you all. Maybe you’ve noticed that over the past couple months Pinegate Road has started to delve a little into design theory, and a little bit more on practice. This might be my thesis’ influence, but this deeper discussion on design and meaning has been popping up all over it seems. I think everyone’s getting a little bit curious about their own practices, so looking deeper into the how’s and why’s is only natural. A couple months ago I was happily struck by one of Rashi’s posts on iteration—she realized that she was fed up with ‘good enough’ and wanted to move towards ‘great’ with her design. She found that through not settling, and creating a couple more iterations, she was able to feel like she really accomplished something with her final design. Paired with my thoughts on inspiration, Rashi and I decided to create a collaborative project where we would be ‘inspired’ by the same image, iterate through the process, and present our work. Showing our process, and how we work as graphic designers is something that we both wanted to explore more, and showing how the same inspiration can find its way into the work of two different projects is really just the cherry on top. This will be a four-part series that we’ll be presenting on each of our blogs every other Wednesday, so I hope you’ll join along on this tandem creative adventure!

For part one, Rashi and I are both working from the image above, photograph by Ruby James. When I first start working on a project, I like to start with a word map to get all of the perceived meaning out of my head and onto paper. From here I usually start to find themes in my thinking and start to pick up on how the project might start to shape. When working through this process, I really started thinking about beauty, turning sadness into happiness, vintage aesthetics, and empathy based on that golden tear. After getting this out onto paper, I came up with a few ideas from which to work. The thing about my process is, is that I almost never end up creating what I set out to in this section. While I decided to create a sympathy card, small tweaks in my un-written process happened that lead me to think about the saying: “Sorry I’m not sorry.” This is a favorite of my friend Megan. She’s pretty much fearless, and this describes her attitude towards life in so many ways. While not rude, she’s always going to be herself, and she’ll never be sorry about showing that. As I started thinking about it, I realized that this saying was really turning around a sympathetic reaction—perfect reflection in regards to the golden tear running down the woman’s face in the photo.

I started off doing what I normally do: I letter. I went through sketches and tracings, and more sketches to work out the lettering for this project. When I got through a couple versions,  I realized that it just wasn’t feeling right. The tear is creating a flowing line, almost geometric, and I wanted to bring back in the vintage feeling as well as some gold elements. I decided to create a card that had the saying printed in a bold sans serif, with a gold overlay, in an envelope with some vintage-inspired fabric as the liner. You know, because I have that kind of thing laying around here. Really.

FAIL. This is one of those happy accidents that happens when you get into the thick of creating. When I tried to iron on the gold overlay, it crinkled up the paper, and melted the ink leaving these deep wood-like grooves in the green part of the card. While the gold might have looked pretty neat, I was so intrigued by how this accident created a pattern that flowed with the fabric I was using for the envelope liner. Sometimes, you just need to embrace these kinds of things.

From here, I assembled the final piece and mailed this letter out to my friend Megan, who inspired the saying. While disperate from the original photograph, I think the intentions ring true to how it inspired me. I even added a little bit of gold with the washi tape on the envelope, as well as a note of the script with how I addressed the envelope. With an open-ended project goal, I was more interested in following where the process lead than trying to dictate it based on my initial thoughts. What I learned most importantly from this project was to embrace mistakes, and to practice creating without the fear of failure. When there was no end goal, I was free to have fun and work on a whim, and I was able to send my friend a rad note that will possibly make her day. That kind of makes it all worth-while in my mind.

I hope you enjoyed this first part of the new collaborative project! Hopefully this might inspire you to look into some of your own creative processes a little more closely to learn some valuable lessons about your work, and about yourself. Head on over to Bucket of Squash to see how Rashi was inspired by this photograph, and check in soon for another iterative inspiration in a couple weeks!

It’s heating up, and that means I have summer clothes on my mind. I spent a good hour procrasti-online-window-shopping the other day, and ended up with this pair. I’m excited to try out the high-waisted bottoms that I’ll be able to match with some tops I already have, and this bra-like top seems like it just might be able to stay in one place while on my body. Here’s to wishful thinking! This marks the first summer in a while where I’m going to try and rock a two-piece. Also, if you’re looking for a new suit of your own and this one isn’t quite you, Topshop has some great mix and match options at great prices! I was impressed, obviously.

Wishing you summery thoughts.

TOP // BOTTOM

So where did this week go, huh? I’ve spent almost every day this week working deeper and deeper into my visual thesis, and reading a ton on interactive design, our brains (yeah!), and even some on creative processes. The written part is all figured out as to structure and topics and found quotes, but a couple pages still need to be written. I can’t believe how I went from a panic a couple weeks ago, to kind of smooth sailing. There will be some road bumps ahead, I’m sure, but for now it’s more about being able to truck along than anything. It’s always nice when you find those last couple things that seem to tie up all those loose ends. If you’re in to reading what I’m reading, check it out:

Learning to See—A great post on how we learn as graphic designers.  There was a great part in this post about the difference between knowing typography and being an expert in typography that had me all ‘yes yes yes!’—then more of those moments happened. Just read it.

Designing with the Mind in Mind—I’m only a bit through this one, but if you’re into web design or UX design, this is a great one. It shows you how our brain works, and how to design interactive elements based on how we think as humans. I’m way into it. Hah.

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer—A look into famous graphic designers and their creative processes. Two words: Stephan. Sagmeister.

Other than thesis, I’ve spent a lot of time blowing my nose and sneezing and taking allergy medicine. I think half of my week is spent trying to figure out how to act like a normal human that isn’t terribly allergic to the outside right now. I really need to get my hands on some local honey, stat.

I hope you have a lovely weekend everyone. I’m off to craft and read and to generally fill my brain with knowledge. Oh, and these happened again. Snacks galore.

Background by Pheobe Wahl // Foreground by Megan Cignoli

So maybe it’s my head going crazy from all the pollen in the air—my forest green car was literally yellow from the stuff when I saw it today. Or maybe it’s the fact that spring is finally here, but I can. not. stop. thinking about plants! As my future is up in the air at the moment, I’m waiting to start my collection, but I’ve rounded up some looks that have me dreaming of how I want to decorate my future space with plant life. Do any of you plant-in-the-house veterans have any tips for me? Any great starter plants? I’m all ears!

You can find the links to the images, and more lovely spaces here.

Oh hey, look at you there purple bananas. Also, I want to eat just about everything else on this table too.

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Next week I’m excited to announce that Rashi from Bucket of Squash and I will be launching a new collaboration. It’s still a little bit in the works, but I wanted to mention it just to build up some suspense in your lives. Kidding, hah. These photos are extras pulled from the pinterest board we have been working on. I just wanted to stop and take notice of how inspiration clicks for me sometimes.

Pinterest is a wild beast and can lead you down the road of trends and imitation sooo quickly, but I also think that as creatives we have been given such a tool with this media if used in certain ways. When we enter into this world of infinite inspiration we have access to a blindly curated group of images that are put together by people of our choosing. The rate and availability of these images is a little overwhelming, but simultaneously astounding. Never before have we had access to so much curated content at the rate that we can experience it now. Whether we’re looking at our own boards or at others, the connections we can make while accessing this information is something I’m so curious about. So that’s why I had to let you in to one of my little moments today. I hope you’ll indulge with me a little.

In this board of about twelve images, these four immediately stood out to me. While pinned separately without realization and by two different people, the combination of the images really had me thinking about how artists and designers can create meaning by leaving out certain aspects of the body. In isolation, or exclusion, each body part can highlight certain aspects and create meaning in it’s placement, what surrounds it, and even in it’s pose. Would that arm holding the wine glass exemplify a fun time being had as much if the whole person were being shown? I think not. The playful nature of hiding and showing a common action happening at a party in such a peculiar way really enhances the mood and spirit here. Each of these starts to create their own story, but when combined, start to create a whole other one entirely. These combined show the power of body parts in imagery, to me. Looking beyond individual aesthetics this group of images can start to create meaning beyond what they individually could. I love that through using pinterest we have the availability to make these kinds of connections in our thoughts and practices in such a new way than has been available, and also at an accelerated rate due to the digital medium.

It’s also interesting to note that these thoughts started to come to me as Rashi and I have been working under the lens of a specific collaboration dealing with inspiration finding. As part of my thesis research I’m starting to realize how inspirations seem to reveal themselves when we work under certain contexts, and it’s my belief that having this project helped these images stand out so that I could subconsciously make this meaning. There’s a lot to working under specific processes, projects, or goals that can really enhance how you start to experience the world and how you’re inspired. This is something I think pinterest and other digital self-curative media has an excellent role in. Just my theories though.

Do you find this happening to you when using Pinterest? Have you had any experience where meaning just started to click for you? I’d love to hear!

SOURCES: HAND WITH PHOTO // HAND WITH WINE // FEET // PORTRAIT

Oh hey, where did you go March? Between finishing up the winter quarter, spending a week catching up on personal projects, and starting a new quarter, March sure did fly by. Right now I’m knee deep in my thesis writing and I’m starting to work on the visual component. I think I finally understand the whole context to what I’m trying to work at now,  thank goodness. I do have to give a shout out to Melanie Biehle of Inward Facing Girl and her book: Blog with Purpose. While reading this over break I finally connected some dots and found the glue that I needed to hold my thesis together. Huge, huge X’s and O’s to you Melanie. Side tangent: I had the luck to meet with Melanie personally at Alt Summit in January when I attended her round table on women and community building. It’s here that I started to admire her thought process, her history, and her unique point of view to blogging. She’s super smart, and such a genuine person to interact with. Side, side tangent: Buy her e-book if you blog. Seriously, do it. If you’re looking for a new spark to light the fire in your own blogging, or you want to get nice and cozy with your brand, this book will definitely give you some new perspective.

So we were talking about March right? Right. Other than school things, my parents snuck a weekend visit in and we kind of ate ourselves silly. I loved that they were able to come back here for a visit before I leave and get to experience the town one last time. St. Partick’s Day was the weekend before and you can imagine with about two million people coming here to Savannah there was a crazy time to be had. I think March can pretty much be summed up with that whole “work hard, play hard” mentality.

Adios March, and hello April. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather—this means bright maxi dresses start to come out of my closet. Here’s to staying sane as this crazy ride called grad school starts to finish up. Eeep.

Remember this moodboard? Yeah, it’s been a while! We have just launched Emily’s new blog design and couldn’t be more thrilled. After my first blog design—and through working on my own coding—I realized that my development skills were just not up to par with what I could accomplish in the design realm. Going into this project I knew I needed to bring in a devloper to make the site come to life in all the right ways—and I couldn’t have found a better match. There is definitely power in knowing where exactly your skills lie and when you need to have someone with the talents you lack step in and take over—we all can’t be the best at everything that’s for sure. Lesson learned, and thank you Dennise, you’re wonderful.

What I loved Emily’s blog content was that she seemed to bring cheer and light to the small things going on in her life. I wanted to take this concept and really exemplify that feeling throughout her blog. By combining bright colors, some hand-painted typography, and confetti made out of office paper scraps you really get the sense that her blog is all about celebration in a tangible way. Over the last year Emily has been going through some pretty massive changes in her life that she didn’t open up about until this launch—the perfect time for a new begining! Head on over for the new start of Running in Heels and get to know Emily and leave her some love—she sure deserves it. She has been such a lovely client, and I wish her all the luck with her new adventure! xoxo

These calm neutrals are exactly what I need today. Whether it’s the pollen in the air, or it’s not getting a long enough break (you can tell me to shush up now), I feel like I’m somewhat in a fog so far this week. I need a couple hours of scheduling in my day designer to get back on track or something. Cheers to the new week and spring peeking it’s head around the corner!

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