definatalie.com

I’m not going to make a secret of it – I’m fat. Plus sized, significant, curvy, voluptuous or however you want to play the semantics game, at the end of the day I’m still fat. One of the topics I plan to cover in my blog is fat fashion, and in this post in particular I want to address pattern in plus sized fashion. It’s horrific the way pattern is used to drape larger bodies, and you can see the mainstream media poking fun at fat bodies in muu muus all the time.

My case in point – one Homer Simpson.

It’s not all negative, but by and large (look at my pun!) it’s a scary world of pattern if you have to brooch the big bad world of plus size ranges and labels to dress yourself. Normally, if you’re like me, you can simply bypass the quandry that pattern presents by heading straight to the black garments. Almost all of my wardrobe consists of black clothing, with a few brightly coloured cardigans or tshirts along with some fun shoes. However, Too Fat for Fashion have claimed that the pattern is back, thanks to Missoni. Which means that as the trend filters into labels and stores that normal people shop at, those patterns will be translated into horrible shapeless muu muus. And I’m afraid.

Fabulous

Torrid

Horrifying

Torrid

This is still beautiful.
I’d love to be a part of a design and illustration magazine with really old influences like the examples in this post.

If you’re interested in design and typography, check these out… Some of the lettering even looks hand crafted! It’s also interesting to note that there are typefaces used in these that are still used today. I’m always amazed to see very old typefaces in new contexts. Cooper Black is a very strong example of this, however ugly I may think it is. (Actually if you live anywhere near Moorooka in Brisbane, there’s a tyre shop called “Cooper’s Tyres” and the logotype is COOPER BLACK! A designer with a sense of humour obviously!)

I don’t have a business card. I am a graphic designer, and I’ve created hundreds of business cards for people (given, I’ve worked for two large companies…!).

Our small marketing company has three people in it, but in the next few weeks it will double in size. Which of course, means I have to get out ye olde business card template and wack on the name of some new guys. I asked my manager if my co-worker and I, his faithful plebs for the past year, would be able to have business cards. And he said yes. My co-worker and I did a happy dance and our manager probably laughed at our glee at the peanuts he was throwing us for our work. “Look at those silly easily pleased monkeys!” he probably thought.

I really don’t know why having a business card makes one feel so pleased with oneself. It’s a sign of respect and status. That people will seek to contact you for your advice or to do dealings with you. Just like Seth Godin says, but I’m 100% not embarrassed to admit that yeh, of course I want to position myself and represent who I am! It’s an ego trip.

So, I hope that Mr Godin thinks that the card I designed, with my name and business on it, is an example of a good business card. I feel it’s strong and communicates our brand powerfully, but doesn’t overwhelm the content with it. Content is king in my opinion.

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So, I hope you like it. I’ll even send you one for your collection.

Last night was the inaugural session of Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art Class in Brisbane, organised and hosted by the wonderful Omega, one of my very own pals! I’ve longed to attend a Dr Sketchy’s class ever since Molly Crabapple started the first one in New York in 2005 so I was chuffed when Omega announced that she’d be founding Brisbane’s Dr Sketchy’s school.

The class was held at Metro Arts, on Edward Street in the Brisbane CBD, one of Brisbane’s most benevolent arts venues. Every arts kid has kicked around at the Metro, so it was lovely to be coming back to a place I had strong ties with while I was at uni. Up on the fourth floor the art school awaited, a long climb up the steps of doom or a short and quaint trip up in the ye olde lift… if you’re lucky. (Psst, don’t forget to shut the door to the lift once you disembark – an open door renders the lift inoperable and leaves other Metro Arts patrons rather grumpy!)

The model for the evening was none other than burlesque superstar, Lola the Vamp. The first thing I noticed was that she had the most amazing hair, tumbling down her back in random kinks and curls. I was gleeful on the inside, because curly hair is one of my most favourite things to draw! The second thing I noticed was that she has a very mysterious face, in the quick sketches I think I wasted precious seconds trying to catch the look in her eyes. Her costumes were all spectacular, what I wouldn’t give to possess her lovely millinery collection!

These drawings were my best of the night, but I’m eagerly awaiting the next class on September 5th so I can get more practice!

Click to embiggen.

Dr Sketchy’s Brisbane are taking reservations for seats at the next two classes. I urge you to book a seat – the first class sold out! Head over to their myspace page to find out how to make your booking now.

I didn’t know KFC also built homes… What were they thinking?!

To cheer you up…

From Adverbatims

This is dedicated to all the graphic designers in the world, and anyone else who ever has to do anything fabulous on a tight budget.

Honestly, it feels like flourishes are everywhere. As someone who has doodled throughout her life, during classes at high school and university and later whiling away time in meetings in “proper adult life”, I feel a little sold out. But to tell the truth I also feel a little vindicated. I remember I first started seeing those sneaky little vines wending their way through soft furnishings, involved in patterns reminiscent of Florence Broadhurst but also in damasks boldly ripped off from eras gone past. It seemed like the bland white plastic patinas of the iPod age were dead, and I rejoiced.

And then… a designer in all of his or her wisdom decided to combine the two. Now, I see glossy veneers paired with these beautiful natural and organic flourishes. What’s going on?! I’m currently struggling with this at the moment.

shinybinary.com

Nick Ainley is an incredible graphic artist, but I just don’t dig on the plastic surfaces fighting against the flourishes. In his favour, he does have a knack for perspective and three dimensionality. A lot of designers just wack in a few flourishes and chalk up another crowd pleaser. Nick obviously thinks about how each element fits in.

Design jump

adhemas.com

Chuck Anderson

I find these to be faddish and somewhat poorly executed, in-so-far as uniting the flourish with the subject matter. I don’t mind juxtaposition, but some of these feel awkward and very flat.

Alberto Seveso

It’s not all bad though! Alberto Seveso is amazing, his current schtick is a much more left field use of flourishes. They aren’t even flourishes he’s downloaded from istockphoto.com! They’ve all been lovingly created by himself – it’s plain to see – and form a new skin over the anatomy of high fashion models. I love it! I even love how his doodles aren’t even flowery, they’re soft and like chewing gum… something that really appeals to me.

The handmade flourish aesthetic obviously resonates strongly with me, and in order to find my own style, I brought doodles in to Illustrator from my notebooks and put them in sets of flourishes or combined them into seamless patterns. I don’t think fads should be avoided entirely, but in order to avoid the naff I like to put a credible and strongly voiced spin on it!

A little while ago i submitted patterns to Naked & Angry, a community driven site focusing on pattern and textile design, created by skinnyCorp - the guys behind threadless.com. I was stoked to see my submissions approved, and shamelessly promoted myself to all my internerd friends, and then promptly forgot about it.

Tonight I came home from a friend’s place and decided to see how my little patterns were doing. To my surprise I saw that scoring had ended, so I zoomed around comparing my scores with the others in this batch… and I think my pattern “tuesday, florence” has come in the top five! Apparently the top five designs get printed on wallpaper or fabric, and sold on the site!

Of course, I could be jumping the gun here, but here’s to hoping!

Click to go to a bigger view, and then view full screen. Trippy!

I am a really daggy font nerd. I was browsing through a bridal accessories brochure today, and I came across the most amazing typeface. After doing a little bit of digging, it was identified as Affair, by Umbrella Type. It looks like it could have been based on Snell Roundhand, but it has much more personality than most script fonts. I’m really really tempted to buy the font family, but at US$99, it will have to be one of those treats I give myself after finishing the odd freelance job.

I also came across a lovely collection of free fonts designed by Jos Buivenga at his exljbris font foundry. All of his typefaces are elegant and lack that certain degree of tackiness and novelty that most free fonts seem to embrace. Highlights for me are Fontin, Fontin Sans and Fertigo.

I’ve been enamoured of anything Victorian in recent months, but at the same time I’ve also had a lot of Asian influences in my life because I live in Australia and I’ve lived most of my life being surrounded by Asian culture and art. When I was a young girl, my auntie Katrina gave me a cassette of Cyndi Lauper’s "She’s So Unusual". From the moment I looked at the cover, I knew I had to have a red wedding dress.And then there are other things, my love of pattern, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and absurdity in general! So, by all these influences combining, I get my very odd desires for the whole schematics of our wedding in April next year.

I’ve spent some time searching the internet for things that I want to include in the very dramatic and theatrical performance that will be our wedding. Read Full Post

Nick and I bought the domain briswiki.com last year and never got around to doing anything with it. Nick’s developed quite the wiki fever lately, and so I suggested that we resurrect the idea.

Anyway, if you’re wiki-mad like Nick, and you live in Brisbane – we’d like to invite you to contribute to briswiki.com.

I figure there’s a wealth of knowledge about brisbane and its history – but not in the one place. It’s also a great way of highlighting special interest groups and bringing people together and all that clap trap.