Two thousand & fifteen has arrived, and although the New Year always comes faster than I feel prepared for, I welcome it!
This year, my personal aspirations are focused on embracing change and exploring new possibilities… pushing myself out of my comfort zone.

Change doesn’t tend to come easy but the beneficial energy and creativity that it can generate is powerful and can get you to where you want to go. I am sending everyone my brightest and most hopeful wishes for the New Year. May we reach high and flourish!

Recently I had the delightful opportunity to design an invitation, and day-of paper, for a very special birthday party held at the SF Jazz Center. Stanlee Gatti, event planner extraordinaire, designed the event. I was so thrilled when he contacted me regarding this project!
The theme was ‘Paris in the late sixties – early seventies’, a time and place that was very memorable for the guest of honor. I so enjoyed researching the fashion, art, color palettes, and overall style of this period.

The front of the invitation was inspired by fashion illustration and posters of the time. I created the illustration of ‘Madame Miner’ working from a gorgeous old photograph.
I found a wonderful floral textile design from the 60′s and used it to inspire my illustrations and designs…. the pattern made playful envelope liners as well!

The back of the invitation.

I continued the floral motif on the envelopes, having them playfully cascade from the back to the front of the envelope.

I used these lovely seals, in the perfect tangerine color, to complete the package.

The envelopes were addressed, in matching orange ink, by the fabulous Wendy Cook
(of Bell’occhio). Her fine elegant hand made them very special indeed.

I used these stamps for mailing the invitations, they couldn’t have been more perfect for a French style party at the SF Jazz Center!

The Day-Of paper items were inspired by the patterns of these textiles being used for the upholstery and table linens (unfortunately, the colors are a little inaccurate in this scan).

Here is the menu, I love the clean modern look of it. I die-cut a window for each guest’s name to appear and found the perfect pop yellow paper for the backing.

And here are the seating items: escort cards, escort envelopes, and table numbers. Such a wonderful project, C’était merveilleux!

I have been dying to post about another amazing project for Martha Stewart Weddings, featured in their summer issue! I was contacted by the Martha Stewart design team to create a wedding suite inspired by berries! We decided to center the designs around a custom illustrated border that I had created.
Here is our original inspiration, a wedding invitation that I created for Aya and Corey, perfect for a story about sweet summer weddings!
All of my designs were beautifully printed by Moontree Letterpress. I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with them. The gorgeous quality of their work made my designs shine! In this photograph above, you can see the actual wedding suite pieces along side the magazine… my little escort cards look delicious in those darling baskets of berries! The elegant calligraphy of names/table numbers on the escort cards was created by Wendy Cook of Bellocchio, her hand is so exquisite… truly one of my heroes.
I also want to thank the talented and generous Rebecca Kutys of Moontree Letterpress for allowing me to use her beautiful photographs for this post!!! Due to timing, I didn’t get to see the finished printed pieces before they were photographed for the article.
Thank you Rebecca!
Another one of Rebecca’s wonderful photographs. I couldn’t be happier with the whole overall look of the article. I love the pale green they chose to print in.
An elegant close up, again from Rebecca, the quality of the printing really adds a whole other layer to the experience. A wonderful collaboration.

Today I’d like to share a really fun, and quite different, project. I was contacted by Michael Buchino, the graphic designer for Portland Center Stage, to create a poster design for their 2012 season. The play was Black Pearl Sings!
A brief synopsis from Michael: In 1935 Texas, Susannah, an academic and song collector for the Library of Congress, visits a high-security prison where she meets Pearl, an African-American woman imprisoned for murder who longs to leave prison and find her lost daughter. Hoping to record the treasure trove of spirituals and African folk songs that only Pearl knows—and make her reputation on the discoveries—Susannah bargains for Pearl’s parole and arranges for several public performances. The two women soon find themselves walking a delicate line between exposure and exploitation.
Featuring beautiful a cappella renditions of little-known American folk songs, Black Pearl Sings! chronicles a powerful story about being a woman in a man’s world, being black in a white world, and fighting for one’s soul in a world where anyone can be a commodity.

I was very interested and excited to work on such a different type of project. I read the entire script and relished in trying to create a captivating and communicative image. I explored several different rough concepts and illustration styles.
Here is one of my studies. I thought it could be interesting to play with old sheet music paper and to use the lines to represent prison bars.
Here is a similar study, again using the music paper, but here I wrote the words to a song that Pearl sings in prison to gather attention.
I loved keeping my designs in black and white with a touch of red, simplicity can be so powerful. The storyline and the main characters also made it seem quite fitting.
I also explored “illustrated type”. I love expressive typography and I thought it could be interesting to illustrate the name of the play and somehow communicate the storyline.

In the end Michael chose this design concept and I was very pleased. The final poster image, shown at the beginning of this post, evolved into a portrait format rather than landscape to accommodate other printed verbiage and I like the way it turned into a strong checkerboard of information. My illustration style in this design is inspired by one of my favorite artists of all time, Margaret Kilgallen. If you don’t know of her you should watch this short film. She was so talented. I love her work and sensibilities.

I am about to become an Auntie in a few weeks, so babies have been on my mind!
And while I’m on the subject, I’d like to share a lovely “logo refresh” project that I did for Odile, a luxury children’s boutique in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood.
Camille Cozzini, the owner, already had her wordmark designed but felt it needed an illustrated element to reflect the kind of items she sold and to add some whimsy. We explored several different ideas from bunnies to caterpillars… to mushrooms! I’m thrilled that Camille decided on the mushrooms. There is something so playful and friendly about poke-a-dotted mushrooms! I feel it appeals to little boys and girls…. and adults alike : ) The existing typography of “Odile” seemed to come alive with the new addition, they seem to complement each other very well.
Here is a lovely view of the interior of the store, it looks so warm, light and airy with a very European flair. I hope to visit in person someday!
And here is a photograph of the newly refreshed logo embroidered on a darling pillow!
I think I know what I need to get my little “soon-to-be” nephew!
Along with custom designed birth announcements of course!!!

Today I delivered these hand-painted signs to Cafe Rouge Restaurant. I can’t believe that I have been creating various signs and invitations for this event for TEN years now! Think Pink is a festive night put together by the chefs at Cafe Rouge and Kermit Lynch wines… an evening with a special menu celebrating, and complementing, rosé wines!
August 11th – Think Pink!

Today seems like the perfect day to share a wonderful project that I did for Lola Home Store. It is pouring rain and I feel inspired to make myself a pot of tea, which I always serve in my cherished cups and bowls by Molly Hatch!
Lola Home Store is a gorgeous local shop offering unique and beautifully designed items for the home and personal use. The store also hosts inspiring shows featuring various artist’s work. I have been very fortunate to work with Lois, the owner, on creating invitations, announcements, and posters for these events.
The image above is a tea pot shaped poster that I created to announce an opening reception for ceramic artist, Molly Hatch. I loved studying and recreating Molly’s illustrated floral motifs. Her designs are amazing!
Here is a picture of my coveted tea cup and cafe bowls by Molly… I love that her designs are playfully placed inside, around, and even on the bottom of her pieces…
true works of art!
This particular project was very special to me because, not only, did I get to meet the lovely & talented Ms. Molly Hatch, I also got the opportunity to work with Matt Pavlovcic on creating my first animated invitation! Matt, also lovely and talented, animated my illustrations and hand lettering to create a charming “e-vite”. Please click here to check it out. Stay warm and dry!

I always have fun working with Marsha McBride, the owner and chef at Cafe Rouge Restaurant (& Meat Market). She has a fantastic sense of humor so each project is guaranteed to make me smile. Here are two of the pig characters that I created for Cafe Rouge’s house wine label some years ago. Over time we’ve been able to adapt these funny illustrations for all sorts of things; ad posters, signs, even holiday cards… and now Valentine’s Day!
Here is the Valentine poster I created, hung on the front door of the restaurant.
I never tire of these funny little pig characters!
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, don’t forget to make a reservation!

I wanted to share this birth announcement that I created for a friend/colleague. It is inspired by a wedding invitation design that I did, featured in Brides Magazine, last year. The theme was “vintage schoolhouse” printed on old school paper, mounted to old file folders, and packaged in manila envelopes. The look had such an old fashioned sweetness about it… also perfect for a birth announcement!
On the front of the envelopes I silkscreen printed my stork illustration and found the perfect use for my vintage “Special Delivery” labels.

On the back of the envelopes I played with the same “schoolyard song” as I had for the wedding invitations, only taking it a bit further… first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes…. Jameson!
I had so much fun creating schoolbook-like illustrations and hand-lettering. Using a clock for the time of his birth, a scale for his weight, and a ruler for his length measurement. I like how the parent’s names cradle each side of my baby Jameson illustration.

I just finished creating this project for Cafe Rouge Meat Market (and Restaurant). It couldn’t have been a more perfect project for this time of year… a Meat Roast-Timer! Marsha McBride the chef/owner of Cafe Rouge had found an old promotional piece (circa 1950′s) from Little City Meats, a traditional butcher shop in San Francisco, and wanted me to create something similar. I had so much fun creating the vintage inspired illustrations, lettering, and color palette… and the shocking/hilarious quote at the bottom of the Roast-Timer “Two Pounds of Meat a Day Will Help Prevent Disease and Insure Perfect Health from Infancy to Old Age” was truly printed on the Little City Meats promotional piece! So unbelievable that we had to include it, just for fun! Below is the front side of the Roast-Timer. It’s a great size to hang on your kitchen wall… hence the butcher twine. I learned a lot about eyelets and applying just enough pressure when setting them so that the wheel can still turn freely. Having all of the information line up correctly was a challenge as well, but so rewarding to have it all work out in the end.

And here is the backside… I loved creating the juggling cow, various meat cuts, and a fun 50′s style logo for myself… so playful.

These little babies just hit the shelves at Cafe Rouge Meat Market and are being sold, along with a meat thermometer if desired. Truly the perfect little gift for yourself, your kitchen, or a creative stocking stuffer for all the Meat Lovers in your life!

Okay, please forgive my enthusiastic sales pitch!
Wishing you a delicious and joyful Thanksgiving holiday! Happy Roasting!