Books

I love classic books and graphic design. Coralie Bickford-Smith designs for Penguin are one of my favorite things. The books are so well put together and beautiful. Holding them in ones hand makes it even more of a pleasure to read these wonderful works of art.

Each book has it own pattern that plays off of theme of the book. You can tell the care and detail that went in the creation of these books.

Some of my favorites are the Jane Austen collection. All the colors and patterns fit perfectly with the story in each book. I love curling up on a rain day, with a cup of tea and reading one of the gorgeous books.

Death of the vintage store front

As you all know I love vintage. I wear vintage, I decorate my apartment in vintage, and I make layouts about vintage. One of the points I make in my article about vintage clothing is that many stores are moving away from having store fronts to having Esty shops. This makes sense, the over head is cheap, you don't have to pay rent, but it is still sad to me. I miss the feeling of going into a shop and finding something hide and tiring it on and seeing how it looks on me.

From Esty shop HolliePoint

My mom life in vintage

My mothers name is Jamie Cat Callan. My first name comes from her last name, it can get confusing have a last name for a first name but I have always felt honored. She is an author living in Cape Cod. You can read her Blog here. She is pretty good at updating it regularly. I highly recommended following here post.  Last week you all saw some photos of my mother in vintage clothing in my layout. Recently she sent me some more that I wanted to share that I could add to project 7, but I was unable to use them all. So here are some of the out takes.

The last one is the card my mom sent out to our friends and family telling them we were moving from California to Connecticut. I am wearing her vintage beret.

Polaroids!!!!!

I love Polaroids, I love the camera, I love the film, and I love the way you can manipulate the picture. The ghost in the machine of Polaroid camera is another thing that makes Polaroids so wonderful. Here I some that I have taken of the years.

Breaking up is hard to do

There are a million love songs out there, but there are not many songs about breaking up and the complicated nature of loving some one even when you know that the relationship has come to an end. I recently saw this video and was very inspire by this couple and their ability to create something beautiful out of something so sad. I really wish I had the skill to make art out of pain.

Bed

I love to sleep. It is my favorite thing to do. I get my best ideas in the in between twilight time of walking and dreaming. I have always wanted to keep a dream diary but I feel like that would ruin the dream shaped roller coaster.
And that is why I am dedicating this blog post to the place where most dreams are create.. Bed.

The other night I had such a vivid dream. I dremt that I was on a movie set. I was not the star of the movie, but an up and coming actress. The movie was base on my favorite books as child. It was strange dream and I don't remember all the details. But I do remember waking up and thinking I really ought to make a layout based on a velveteen rabbit movie set.

Lisa Frank

Let me take you back in time, to the year 1992. When grunge rock was the latest thing, and the 1992 presidential  elections between Bush and Clinton was in full swing. And I had the greatest thing a 2nd grader could ask for, I had a Lisa Frank trapper keeper.
This weeks we were asked to post about about something that inspired us and think Lisa Frank's work fits in to these parameters perfectly. 

Robots!

Now, most people fear robots, and think that they will try to take over the world. But I have have a different view. I love robots! I think they are just the coolest, and can't wait  have my very own robot friend. But the reason I am writing about robot friends is because I just say a very cool campagin from G.E. about robotics in everyday live.

I am so very inspired by this commercial. Making robots into everyday type "people". I hope you enjoy it too.

Inspire me

I was a photo major in my undergrad years at MICA. I studied how to use film, filters, processing chemicals and lens. I worked in a darkroom with a red safe light that dimly lite the room. It would take me 5-10 minutes to developed one photo. One may think that this would make me crazy, but I loved it.
But the old ways of analog are for the most gone. In with the digital darkroom, and out with the old ways of chemical smelling dark rooms. And that is why I love seeing a photography that marries the two ways of making a photo.

NOA AZOULAY-SCLATER is an artist living California, she use a film camera and then up loads the negatives on to the computer. 

Here is some of her work: 

My Life in Vintage

Maybe it's the feeling of the fabric, or the classic cuts and styles, or perhaps it is the scene of history in the garment.  I love the feeling of mismatching decades with an outfit or impersonality a famous movie star from the 1920's. For project 7 I am going to write memoir about my hobby collecting vintage clothing. 

Me, on new years eve, pretending to be Clara Bow.

Winter is coming!!!

No really winter is coming, have you been outside lately it's cold! But the reason I am writing about winter coming is because of the Game of Thrones meme. All over the internet people are talking about how "winter is coming".

Here is my favorite:

And here is an examination of the meme.

Tim Curry

Pssst.... Hey you reading this blog, I want to tell you a well known fact... Tim Curry is so super cool! And that is way I am devoting this blog post to him and the evidence of his awesomeness.



Fact one: Worst Witch

Fact two: Muppet's

Fact three: Ummm.... this.....

poke that dot!

Some women love diamonds, and some women adore perfume, as for me... I am a girl who enjoys the look of a good polka dots! Vintage clothing comes in many variation  and styles: silk, floral, rayon, stripes, cotton, or zigzag. But whenever I shop for vintage I look for the round pattern spots known as polka dots.

Glitter Bombs

Glitter bombing is a phantom that has been happening in the background of this past election.  To glitter bomb a person is to mark them, and there are many reasons to mark someone with glitter. Some people do it to protest someones actions, some do it to bring attention to the victim's behavior, but most do it to embarrass. While doing research on glitter bombing I found these wonderful photos by Glynis Selina Arban, and decide to share them.

 Perhaps glitter bombing could be consider a hobby.

Vintage Clothing

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As I am sure many of you can tell, I am a lover of all things vintage. But vintage clothing holds a very special place in my heart. It all started when I was a kid growing up in Connecticut, for my birthday my mother would take me to New York City to go shopping. She had lived in NYC before she had had me and knew of all the great vintage places. She taught me a lot about how to tell what decade the clothing item was from, styling and her taste was always impeccable. I am thinking it would be fun to write my article on vintage clothing; where to find the best vintage, how to tell what decade its from, and how to wear vintage.

Vintage dress from the 1940's. You can tell this dress was made in the 40's because of the placement of the waist and the detailing on the hips.

Dress from the 1950's. You can tell that it is from the 50's because of the fabric and the sweetheart top style.

Dress from the 1960's. You can tell it from the 60's based on the large floral pattern. 

McSweeney

So, I am a big fan of McSweeney. And since we are coming up on Thanksgiving I thought I would post one of my favorite articles: It’s Decorative Gourd Season, Motherfuckers.

Also this article (FAQ:The “Snake Fight” Portion Of Your Thesis Defense) reminds me of what it is like to be in grad school sometimes.

Show and Tell

This is a video by Gotye, it tells the story of a family that is... while you really should just watch it. It is very scary.

Bang's princples

I just saw this video and it made me think about the book by Molly Bang and I wanted to share it.

Telling stories

I am very much a creature of the night. I love staying up late, of course I pay for it in the morning. Tonight I decided to stay up late and write a novel. As many of you may know it is National Novel Writing Month, and I have decide to participate. Now, I love to write but really don't think of myself as a writer, but I thought it would be fun to give it a try. You may say "Callan, don't you have a ton of work for grad school?" And I would say "Yes, I have far more work then I can stand." But there is a magic to staying up till 2am and being inspired to write a novel. I will keep all of you posted how it goes.

Victory over vectors

The last three projects I have been working a lot with Adobe Illustrator. Some times frustrating to work with, but I believe I have grown to love it with the help of a website that offers tutorials. It is called Vector Tuts, and it does more then just give Illustrator tutorials it also has lesson in techniques for InDesign.

Shapes, shapes, and, more shapes

This weeks reading was really fun and reminded me of a really fun website that is all about shapes. It is can kinetic sketch, and it is all about drawing with shapes and gravity.

Triangles, Rectangles, and Circles oh my!

I have really enjoyed reading the Molly Bang book. The concepts that are talked about by Bang are things that we all observer and know but rarely to we really see these concepts. In Verbal and Visual Rhetorical we read about simplification of as argument for amplification. "When we Abstract an image we're not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details. By stripping down an image to its essential meaning an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can't." (McCloud). I really like this quote because of the universal truth of it.  As artist we all strive for access  to a large audience and sometime we over complete our images in the hope that we will reach as many people as possible. But Molly Bang and Scott McCloud remind us that simplification can be an elegant solution.

New uses for old products

Thinking about project 6 the other day, I turned to my husband and asked him if he could help me brainstorm.  He suggested that I go this website.  I found of a lot of really good ideas for new uses for old or discard products and felt they were good enough to share with the world. 

Jittergram

Jittergram is one of my favorite apps. It allows you to create animated GIFs. It is as simple as that. You may ask why would anyone want to make animated GIFs? Well why not? They are fun and silly and good for the whole family.

Here is a couple that I made for all of you out there.

Rats off to you!

And now for something completely different!

Seasons Greetings from Baltimore

This evening I finished then holiday cards. I am so relieved and a little sad. I really enjoyed working on them but I am really glad that they are done.

Here is the finished product.

One less car

I am 28 and I never learned how to drive a car. I have lived in cities most of my life and have always loved being able to get from point A to point B using my own self propelled power. This weekend I have been doing research on organizations that promote using alternative transportation and found Bike Maryland. They are an organization that promotes biking around the state. I am interested in creating a "one less car" campaign for Bike Maryland.
I am still trying to figure out how I am going to show cause and effect with this campaign but I have some ideas.