It’s that time of year  – time to think about new calendars / planners / organizational tools for 2010. More on planner / organizational possibilities later – right now I’m trying to narrow the field for a calendar choice. I’m especially drawn to the idea of a poster style calendar – easy to display and an affordable option for some new artwork in the home. This lovely letterpress calendar from Dutch Door Press is currently in the lead as one of my favorites.

If you’re still in the market for a 2010 calendar, check out some of these great roundups presented by various bloggers:

Paper Crave 2010 Calendar Roundup Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
Decor8 2010 Wall Calendars, Desk Calendars, and Poster Calendars
Oh So Beautiful Paper 2010 Calendar Roundup Part 1 and Part 2

I just saw this poster on the ilovetypography.com shop by the great Seb Lester (more on him later) and thought it was just a great little reminder for us designers.

While we love the fun ornate typefaces and love to look for ways to use them in the proper form, we see way too many times (more often than not) them being used poorly or overly used. Sometimes it’s good to take a step back and to “keep it simple”.

In thinking about our upcoming Chicago trip, I figured I should really check to see what the current exhibitions are at some of the art museums. While I always love to go spend a day at the Art Institute of Chicago, when I saw that there is currently an exhibition about industrial designer and inventor Buckminster Fuller at the Museum of Contemporary Art, I realized that if we are able to spend any time in a museum it would be fascinating to see this exhibit.

Buckminster Fuller has always intrigued me – I think because my Dad, as industrial design graduate himself, used to talk about ‘Bucky,’ his geodesic domes, and his forward-thinking designs. Many of Fuller’s designs and ideas were not only ahead for his time but are ahead even by today’s standards. Just look at his design for a high speed, fuel efficient car (30MPG) that could carry 11 – and this was in 1933!

I love the geometric details and futuristic aspects of his many of his designs. I think the retro-future look (which seems to be a favorite of mine) would be really fun to pull into a couples’ wedding stationery – all those fun geometric shapes and patterns would look amazing.

The USPS stamp that was created in his honor is great too.

I recently came across Mincing Mockingbird and immediately loved the paintings. I loved the details of the birds, the color palette used, and the sometimes awkward angles of the birds and layouts of the paintings. These birds express some serious personality.

Then I was even more pleasantly surprised when I saw that the artist doesn’t take things too seriously – check out the greeting cards they then create from the paintings. These cards give the birds a voice and make many of their facial expressions come to life – many times in ways you don’t expect, but they end up being the perfect expressions for each bird and its portrayal in the painting.

Check out Mincing Mockingbirds Etsy shop or their BigCartel shop for more images and to buy either a painting or a greeting card.

Some of you will remember this post about Jim Datz’ Manhattan poster – the first edition sold out quickly, but there’s now a second edition available for purchase! Hurry!

Buy it here.

I’m always on the lookout for new prints for the house (there are too many on my wish list, I can hardly keep up with it) and this Ken Bailey print makes me smile. I think it would look great in our entry way – I love the orange.

Our good (online) friend  and fellow designer Keith Bowman of The Design Bureau of Amerika is starting a project for charity he is calling The Ink Initiative. His concept for his new endeavor, in his own words, is to “Make Posters. Sell Posters. Give Profits to Charities”.

One of his first projects (see above) was inspired by another online friend Mel from Operation Nice. In this piece all the art, typography and screen printing is done by Keith himself -  done in what I am sure were Jazz (only on vinyl of course) filled late night and early mornings stints in his Bureau studio in Philly.

I just love this illustration and can’t wait to see them finally up for sale and being given out as giveaways. Keith is known for is Kbowman-isms, so to quote Keith himself in how I feel about his new work, this poster “is like a tickle fight between two CareBears in my tummy”

This print from Supermarket seller laurageorge makes me smile! Available here.