I’m a fan of dogs – so much so that I have been known to {literally} drop everything because of a frenchie (or boxer, or rottweiler, or corgi) sighting. It is no secret that I also love canine-inspired items in household design. There are a lot of really fun doggie-themed items available right now – and many make great gifts. Here are some of my faves. Enjoy!

clockwise from left: george the terrier {urban outfitters} :: obedience school cookie stand {anthropologie} :: dog show frame {anthropologie} :: curious frenchie hook {anthropologie}

clockwise from left: pug bookends {z gallerie} :: bonjour letterpress print {sycamore street press} :: infamous and dapper hugo beast print {delabelle} ::  assorted dog card set {rifle paper co.}

from left: glamour dogs coffee table book {amazon} :: letterpress merci card {sycamore street press}

We know, we know…the blog has been a bit dead lately! It’s not due to a lack of work – in fact, we’ve been quite busy this past summer with some really exciting work. Our blog has been a great source of community discussion and we look forward to getting back into the routine of posting regularly – and we have some great stuff to share in the coming months!

In truth, we’ve spent much of the past year taking a serious look at our business and what we want out of it. For the last two years, we’ve had moments of uneasiness. We weren’t sure if we were just going through a creative block (it happens, unfortunately) or if we were tired of working with weddings specifically. We thought perhaps it could be the slow economy (which has certainly taught us a thing or two in itself).

Eventually though, we realized it really wasn’t any of those things. We had an unbelievable summer and had the privilege of working on some of our all-time favorite projects. These projects refreshed us and helped us realize we haven’t lost our passion for the wedding industry or, more importantly, for good design. One of the reasons we felt so refreshed was that we worked closely with individuals who are just as passionate for paper and design as us. They shared our style and design aesthetic, and the projects were truly collaborative. They trusted our expertise and recommendations and looked to us for guidance – and we had an absolute blast working with them.

Given this opportunity, we were able to reexamine and redefine who we are as designers and what we want from our company. We’ve redefined our goals and how we intend to reach those goals. We’ve retooled our processes and methods.

While a few things have changed, one thing that will stay constant is our commitment to good design and providing our clients with the best service and end-product possible.

A few updates we can share:

• We will be updating our wedding Studio Collection with additional designs and additional customization options throughout the year. We’ve already finished a couple of these designs and I can tell you they’re a lot of fun!

• Our package minimum for all custom invitation projects has increased to $1500.00. This new minimum isn’t a huge change (the majority of our clients invest that amount or more already in their packages). It’s our continued commitment to provide brides and grooms with great design and exceptional service for their investment.

• In addition to working with brides and grooms on wedding projects, we will also be placing more focus on working with businesses on corporate design projects. This is something we’ve done for years – but it hasn’t been at the forefront of our services. We have an especially unique perspective to help businesses in the wedding industry with their needs – more to come on this very soon!

• Our sketchbooks are out and we’re working on some fun new projects – stay tuned for more!

We understand that it is an investment to work with designers, and we strive to make sure that it is an expense well worth the cost. We look forward to continue to offer superior design services to all our clients, whether they are a newly engaged couple seeking invitations, or a business seeking a new image.

As mentioned in the beginning of the post, we are passionate not just about stationery design, but great design. PERIOD.

Lastly… oh, nevermind – what’s with all this seriousness? Let’s get back to the blogging fun!

A friend posted the website of illustrator Gemma Correll on facebook and we were immediately smitten! I love these doggie greeting cards (below) – did anyone else notice how multicultural these dogs are? Love! Cards (and more goodies) available in her shop.

Even our furry friends deserve well designed products.

Doggie dishes by these creatures, found via Oh Joy!

A friend of ours recently sent us a link to these Photoshop magnets from Think Geek with the message “you need these!”

I think she may be right, especially after the many weeks I’ve recently spent in Photoshop designing websites for various clients and working on the giant re-design of our own site (soon to come)! This would be a great gift for any of your design geek friends out there.

This packaging caught my eye on Lovely Package – who doesn’t love a pink and brown box – surely there must be beautiful things inside! A little clickity-clicking led me to the design firm responsible for this packaging, FBDI®. While looking through their portfolio, I found these images for the same client – the styling in these shots is inspiring! This stuff is eye candy in the truest sense of the word. Enjoy!

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

Last week we posted about Seb Lester and his ‘Keep it Simple” poster. We couldn’t leave it at that. We had to post more of his gorgeous work. Above is his “Home Sweet Home” poster that not only is a beautiful type specimen but also uses Mirri paper which changes colors depending on the lighting conditions. See this video of the poster for the full effect – very cool!

Another great piece in metallic gold.

Similar style in metallic silver…

…and a beautiful inspirational piece, where in the artist’s own words, he said, “I like to think that almost anyone can achieve almost anything in life. It’s all about passion, focus, and commitment. I wanted to design a strong, dynamic, inspirational poster that referenced this popular self-help adage.”

A nice thing to remind ourselves every once in a while.

All the works can be found and bought at Seb’s website or at the Keep Calm Gallery. {images from here}

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”.

As I was helping to finish up our massive home office overhaul I was enjoying a cold Fat Tire beer and set the glass down on our desk. I realized at that moment we need new coasters to go with our newly re-arranged office. For some reason I’ve always been obsessed with coasters, and found these laser-etched bamboo type beauties at Veer. I love the bamboo texture and the array of different type forms. These, I think, would be an exellent addition to our newly de-cluttered desktop!