Bibs & Bobs.

As scary as it is, it seems I'm getting to an age where many of my friends are starting their own little families. Each time there's a new arrival, I've tried to make something personal as a present to give. I'll be honest, my baby beanies were a bit of a disaster and my cross stitch efforts were, well, let's just say you could hardly tell the difference between my owl and my lady bug...

Anyway, this weekend I started making bibs which are super easy and really cute, if I do say so myself. They also make nice, simple presents. I made each bib with a combination of cotton and linen with a little press stud to hold the bib on.

I got a little carried away with the sewing, so I'm hoping to put some in my new etsy shop which I will hopefully have up and running by the end of this week. If anyone has any ideas about a reasonable price for bib I would love to hear it!



Flower and green polka dot bibs with linen backing.



Close up of the patterns.



How cool is this colour by number fabric with the little bird!



More unfinished bibs waiting to be sewn.

Have a great Monday!

'snot just about the hanky

I had this sudden thought last week... actually maybe it wasn't that sudden... but I had a realisation that being a graphic designer isn't really doing much to help the world out. (Or at least not in the ways I would like.)

I have a friend who recently left to be a doctor in Cambodia for year (that's you Chris) and another who has just spent a couple of months in Sri Lanka planning ways to build communities (and you, Jacqui)... In the last couple of weeks I've done two logos, a style guide and thrown in a couple of brochures and a newsletter for good measure. Sure it's made someone happy to have a good looking business card but it's just not the same thing.

One of the things that concerns me most at the moment about the environment is excessive packaging and the way we are so dependent on consumable items. Check out The Story of Stuff below if you want to know a bit more about the life cycle of products (scary stuff!).



So, I thought I'd start small and give myself a little project...

The humble tissue. There's millions of the buggers out there that get one use and then tossed. (Not to mention the shear annoyance when one manages to turn a load of washing into a snow storm). So I thought I would design a set of hankies, complete with days of the week, to combat (or help a little) with this problem.

I wanted to keep them pretty graphic and simple, using typefaces that relate to how one might feel on a particular day of the week. Below are the typefaces I have chosen so far.







My eventual plan is to screen print these on to hankies that I would sew up. Potentially on an organic cotton... I was thinking maybe some subtle colours as well.

I'd love to hear if you think the days suit their typeface or if there's something else you might suggest. (I'm trying to avoid Comic Sans so don't even go there :)