Last week Whitney posted about our wish to attend the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, December 5-6 in Chicago. She mentioned a few artists we admire and ended her post with a teaser that I would post a few can’t-miss artists as well. I know you have been waiting with baited breath (haven’t you?), so without further adieu, here are few I would enjoy checking out in person:

First up a perennial favorite of ours: Ork Posters

We love their typographical renditions of city maps, including the Chicago poster which happens to grace the entrance of our home.

We also love their new Brain poster. This, along with the heart poster, would be great for our studio as these are two things that are used to create each of our designs.

Next up: Tugboat Printshop

I love these Deep Blue Sea woodcuts. The illustrations are great and the colors used are beautiful.

And finally: Delicious Design League

We’ve been fans of Delicious Design League since we saw them last year at Renegade. They design and screen print all of their posters and create stellar design and illustration work as well.

Two great Fleet Foxes posters (a favorite of ours!). I love the use of white in the second one.

I had to show this one as it displays two of our favorite things; David Bowie & Flight of the Conchords. Gotta love it.

These are a just few of my picks – there will be so many great artists at Renegade this year so it was hard to pick. It’s definitely a great show – if you’re in Chicago, GO!

(all images from papermojo.com) from top to bottom: asian lattice print, peacock damask print, lustre print, rossi manuscript print, spirograph print, midas touch lotka print

When in need of a little inspiration, one of my favorite things to do is to swing over to one of our local stationery boutiques to browse large sheets of patterned paper. It’s no secret that Jonathan and I are serious paperphiles, and the danger of seeking inspiration at said local stationery boutiques is that I typically come home with far more than I actually need.

Online paper browsing is far less dangerous for me. Papermojo.com is one of the best online sources for fine papers from a variety of sources, and it never fails to inspire. The patterns shown above are some of my current favorites (and the gold/neutral color palette is exactly what I’ve been loving as of late).