We’re inquisitive: learning from other artists, illustrators, designers, photographers, filmmakers and musicians, whether they’re upstarts or icons, famous or shy, verbal or visual.

We’re inspired: enchanted by great ideas and strange inventions; by colour and pattern; things fancy and frugal; the charm of vintage in a modern life; the ridiculous and the sublime.

We’re adventurous: traveling to destinations both real and imagined, peeking into creative spaces and discovering magnificent people and memorable places.

We’re eclectic: curating souvenirs, collecting treasures and celebrating the extraordinary in the everyday.

We’re playful: delighting in visual amusements, intelligent distraction, entertaining wordplay and sweet indulgences.

We’re UPPERCASE: a magazine for the creative and curious!
This quarterly magazine is 68 pages of glorious print on paper, 8.75″ x 11″ perfectbound. The Spring issue will be released in early April followed by Summer (July 2009), Fall (October 2009) and Winter (January 2010).

Find out more HERE

By Coöp, a collective of creatives dedicated to the practise of visual communications.

“A family of animal characters were created by combining the square, circle and triangle. The characters were silk-screened to a 1680 X 500mm modernist growth chart for kids.

Honest, pure and devoid of superfluous details, the product imaginatively introduces kids to basic geometric learning and spark the imagination through the inclusion of memorable animal facts.

The charts are compactly packaged in custom triangular cartons made from 100% recycled post consumer waste pulp.”

Available for purchase at one of my favorite online boutiques, present and correct

Thank You for the link.

“Hush little baby don’t you cry…share in songs between parents and babes from around the world, including Hush a ba birdie croon croon (Scotland), The Christ Child’s Lullaby (Outer Hebrides), Naami Naami (Egypt), and Soja Raji Kumari (India).

In an interactive concert that will rock-a-bye any baby, joining the Babies Proms Orchestra are guest performers Heather Lee, Kim Cunio, Llew Kiek (baglama, guitar, oud) and Tunji Beier (tavil, daff, zarb) in what promises to be a soothing musical adventure to inspire bliss.

Recommended for Ages 2 – 5″

I wish the Sydney Opera House was just “a little bit” closer …they run fabulous program for children and families.

“The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design is dedicated to providing designers with a wide range of information regarding sustainable business practice. Through case studies, interviews, resources and discourse, this site will encourage and support designers as they incorporate sustainable thinking into their professional lives.”

Resources.

Published since 1985, the Coordinators’ Notebook “provides a synthesis of the most recent information on topics of interest to people concerned about the well-being of young children and their families.

Now published annually, The Coordinators’ Notebook comprises a focussed, issue-based article, identified through feedback from partners and/or emerging gaps and priorities in the field. Each Notebook has a main article with related case studies, which draw upon experiences from around the world as well as news from the CG networks and new resources, upcoming conferences etc.”

U.S. President Barack Obama’s first signature as president seen after he signed a proclamation, after being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States during the inaugural ceremony in Washington January 20, 2009.

“Inspirational raptures may happen, but most books are shaped through hard, disciplined work. Creative work, to be sure, because its ingredients come from the sphere of the imaginary. But the manipulation of these ingredients requires much more than mere inclination or talent. It is an intricate process in which the idea slowly takes form, by trial and error, through detours and side roads, which, were it not for the guidance of professional rigor, would lead the author into an inextricable labyrinth of alternatives.” — Leo Lionni

“Leo Lionni has gained international renown for his paintings, graphic designs, illustrations, and sculpture, as well as for his books for children. He was born in Holland in 1910 of Dutch parents, and although his education did not include formal art courses (in fact, he has a doctorate in economics from the University of Genoa), he spent much of his free time as a child in Amsterdam’s museums, teaching himself to draw.

Lionni launched his career as an author/illustrator of books for children in 1959. Originally developed from a story he had improvised for his grandchildren during a dull train ride, Little Blue and Little Yellow was the first of what is now a long list of children’s picture books, including four Caldecott Honor Books.”

“Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site.

Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.”

Assignment #45: Reread your favorite book from fifth grade.

—-Find a copy of your favorite book from when you were in the fifth grade. If you can’t locate the original copy try to find one that is from the same era. Reread the book. Scan or take a picture of the cover and send that to us. Please make sure that we can see everything on the book cover very clearly, and don’t crop anything out—

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“Since Learning To Love You More is also an ever-changing series of exhibitions, screenings and radio broadcasts presented all over the world, participant’s documentation is also their submission for possible inclusion in one of these presentations. Past presentations have taken place at venues that include The Whitney Museum in NYC, Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, Aurora Picture Show in Houston, TX, The Seattle Art Museum in Seattle, WA, the Wattis Institute in San Francisco CA, among others. Since LTLYM inception in 2002 over 8000 people have participated in the project.

via itsnicethat

A gem I found in my archives.

“If you don’t mind getting glue on your fingers and you’ve got a couple of prints and a bunch of papers to spare, you could try making your very own photo journal”

Tutorial by Five and a Half, a Brooklyn-based design studio “created by the wife-and-husband team, Judy Lee and Shawn Liu. Founded in the Spring of 2006, Five and a Half designs and creates things that are as beautiful to look at as they are functional to use.”

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

“Welcome to our city – to our world – of books. This is where we live.”

“A film for 4th Estate Publishers’ 25th Anniversary. Produced by Apt Studio and Asylum Films.

The film was produced in stop-motion over 3 weeks in Autumn 2008. Each scene was shot on a home-made dolly by an insane bunch of animators; you can see time-lapse films of each sequence being prepared and shot in our other films.”

via swissmiss