6 Graphic Design Sites For Non-Designers

More to learn from lovely Leah! Check out her picks for design sites to bookmark (even if your graphic design skills are only limited to selecting a font for a Word doc or the background on your Twitter page).


As a magazine designer, I have my favored go-to sites to stay up on industry news and what's current in the field. Here are a few that just might interest you non-designer types:

1. Society of Publication Designers THE professional organization for magazine designs and photo types, SPD has an awesome website that anyone interested in magazines will find entertaining. There's the obligatory industry news, but there's also lots of great pictures of publications from around the world with insightful commentary from their creators and peers.

2. Newmanology If you're a fan of anything vintage, then you'll love this ongoing gallery of historic magazines, books, posters and other cool stuff from legendary editorial designer Robert Newman.

3. grain edit This awesome blog also is a fan of vintage, specifically styles from the 1950s-1970s, and finds it reflected in the brilliant work of various contemporary artists. I don't think they've ever featured something I don't like. [P.S. Hey nice! Check out my Playlist post at HermanMiller.com from this blog's editor, Dave Cuzner - Amy]



4. Caustic Cover Critic A thoroughly entertaining look at book cover design that proves you really shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but sometimes it's okay to buy it just for that.5. Logoed A simple showcase of logos ... always a great source of inspiration and, really, just plain fun to look at.

6. Lovely Package Every find yourself buying a bottle of wine cause of the pretty label? Then you're going to want to buy ALL of the stuff on this blog featuring innovation in product package design.

Images linked to their sources

Destination Organization

More from guest post-er Tess! Can you tell she works for Real Simple with this one? Woo!

If I could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Unfortunately, I have no affinity for foreign languages, so my international options are severely limited. And while I do love me some London (Ricky Gervais! Afternoon tea! Madonna!), I’ve always kinda considered it a bizarro-NYC, and I’ve already been there-done that.

But don’t cry for me, dear reader, because the place I would most want to settle down is as inspiring as any worldly locale, yet can be found right here in the domestic U.S. It’s the happiest place on earth for neatniks. It’s a candy-colored Willy Wonka-land for anyone looking to bring order to their home, office, or packaging. It’s The Container Store, and for me, there is just no place like it.

You see, peace, love and understanding are lovely concepts (no offense, Elvis Costello), but I’ve always been of the opinion that what the world really needs now is organization, sweet organization. And if those organization products could double as sleek, stylish, and oh-so-very vibrant conversation pieces…well then the universe would certainly be a more fun (not to mention functional) place.

So yes, just say the word and I’ll pack my bags (I’ll pack up my whole house in fact—easily, starting with this Packing List

these trunks and this luggage

in my favorite shade of blue) and I do believe my whole family would live happily ever after in the land of Elfa closets, collapsible laundry bins, and pastel-colored takeout cartons.

But until then, I’ll just have to make do with obsessively checking their website and dodging my UPS man, who might just be suffering a hernia because I’m much more of a mail-order kind of gal. Below, a few of my favorite “souvenirs,” which I hope will transport you to a state of brightly organized bliss.

EXPANDING FILE

This hangable, expandable organizer is one of the happiest spots in my home—not only because it’s so cheery looking (I use multi-colored file folders), but because it is the ultimate clutter killer. Switch the folders for an instant new look, or collapse the whole thing and take your important papers to go.


PIVOTING TRAYS BY UMBRA

I’ve long been a fan of anything Umbra, and this swinging organizer is no exception. I almost feel guilty using it for boring items like jewelry, bobby pins, and hair elastics, but I enjoy imagining all the other ways it could be put to use: desk accessories (naturally), sugar packet-holder (regular, Splenda, or Sweet n Low?), candy dish, change sorter… To have one in every room, while tempting, would kill the impact—but it’s hard to resist.

HANGING MAKEUP ORGANIZER

If you’ve ever had a special milestone go awry due to your husband’s inability to locate just the right cord for the video camera, or experienced the sheer panic of not knowing where the plug-in for your child’s portable DVD player is right before a long road trip, then you’ll agree this guy is a zippity do. This works perfectly well as a makeup organizer (which it actually IS), but I prefer to use the multiple compartments to store the random wires, chargers, camera batteries, and portable gadgets that keep our lives humming along.

Images linked to their sources

5 Wedding Design Sites Even a Non-Bride Will Love

Bride or not, we all know that some of the yummiest design sites out there are created for people planning to tie the knot. Take a look at some of the web's chic-est wedding-related sites, as curated by design maven Leah (whom I would declare my love for via custom letterpress on thick, expensive card stock ANY day).

After a few years' worth of incessant wedding chatter from numerous recently married coworkers (as soon as one was done, another went and got engaged and the cycle began again), the word "wedding" tends to trigger my gag reflex. But somehow, I'm still a sucker for wedding magazines and some of the never-ending supply of wedding blogs. I mean, really a wedding is just a big ole party, right? Granted it's one that people go insane over. And yet somehow all those little details that drive people nuts make me go "oooh" and "aaah" and give me lots of good ideas for my own non-wedding projects. Here's a few of my favorite sources:

1. Martha Stewart Weddings magazine The blog is great, but it's the magazine that I really love. It's so freakin' gorgeous, it almost makes me sick.

2. Style Me Pretty The end-all and be-all of wedding sites. This blog/site features tons of real weddings, crafts, inspiration boards, resources and lots and lots and lots of pretty pictures.

3. Snippet and Ink Kathryn's inspiration boards are what made me return to this site in the beginning. They're a dime a dozen these days, but her boards are thoughtfully curated with creative color combinations and insightful moods. They're my favorite part of the site, but she's got lots of other great features too.

4. head vs. heart Graphic designer Courtney Dolloff showcases tons of great invitation designs and lots of other insightful inspiration from a designer's perspective. Her "Invitation du Jour" feature keeps me coming back to see all the creative, eccentric and beautiful invites people are creating.

5. Nonpareil Magazine If you're the crafty type, this is the site for you. It's an online magazine as well as a blog and features truly terrific how-tos for incredible creations that will definitely impress.

Images linked to their sources

Fresh Food in the City

Say hello to Lauren! She's been nice enough to guest today, and I have to tell you: if Lauren tells you something about good food, you need to listen up. She's pretty much one of the best cooks around (last time I was at her place up up uptown, she made duck). (DUCK!) Show her some love, won't you?

Living in NYC, you have access to just about anything your little heart desires. And when it comes to food, you have your pick of cuisine, anytime, night or day. But when it comes to produce, sometimes you are stuck picking up your bananas from a fruit stand on the street, and you have NO idea where they came from. Sometimes it is hard to be particular about your produce in this city of sometimes-too-many options.

Entrance, CSA. For those of you who don't know what a CSA is, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. And to quote the wonderful site JustFood.org: "When you become a member of a CSA, you’re purchasing a 'share' of vegetables from a regional farmer. Weekly or bi-weekly, from June until October or November, your farmer will deliver that share of produce to a convenient drop-off location in your neighborhood."

Although I don't live in Amy's awesome borough of Brooklyn, I do live in the awesome Manhattan neighborhood of Washington Heights. My best friend, Christy, lives about a block from me, and we split our weekly vegetable CSA share. Here is a Tuesday evening in the life of Lauren and Christy with a CSA:



Picking up our veggies:  Our drop-off location is in the beautiful Fort Tryon Park at the New Leaf Cafe (an awesome fresh food restaurant, by the way).  A short walk into this park on a Tuesday night after work is kind of a treat in itself.



But then we see the board for today and sneak a peak at the beautiful produce we have in store.



Look at our booty! (I mean our vegetable booty, of course.) Usually, we just split it between us; but tonight, we are cooking a meal together with some of our new fresh ingredients.

RECIPE
Pan-Grilled Tomato and Chicken Tacos

Step 1: Cut up the tomatoes (we decided to use three types: beefsteak, yellow juliet tomatoes, and a zebra tomato)--oh and a little wine always helps...

Step 2: Add a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, and then add chopped tomatoes, cook for about 10-12 minutes until reduced





Step 3: Cut up chicken into one-inch cubes, dice a yellow onion, 2 cloves garlic, a chili pepper, chives, and cilantro

Step 4: in a large skillet, add olive oil over medium high heat, then add onion and garlic and let simmer for 3 minutes

Step 5: Once onion has softened, add chicken and chili pepper and stir until chicken is cooked through.



Step 6: Add tomatoes, chives, and cilantro and stir for another minute then remove from heat



Step 7: Serve chicken mixture in a warm tortilla with cheese and sour cream



Step 8: ENJOY!



Visit JustFood.org to find your local CSA.