Renegade Wrap Up & Animals Too!

Had so much fun at this past weekend's Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. A ridiculously beautiful weekend and elbow to elbow traffic made for some happy vendors - and a few sunburns. We found some great stuff - WAY too many to mention, so check out the entire list of exhibitors and links to their sites and/or etsy stores here. Below are a few (but not nearly limited to) of our faves from the weekend!

Enormous Champion

Paper Parasol

Ork Posters

Sofia Masri Jewlery

In addition to showcasing all this incredible talent - we have to take a second to appreciate the fact that Renegade also had booths featuring fabulous animal rescue and shelter organizations. Local shelters Tree House (primarily feline rescue), and One Tail at A Time were rocking out the adoptions. And...we were SO taken with Greyhounds Only, a Greyhound breed rescue! Way to go Renegade!

photos via Apartment Therapy, Paper Parasol, Ork Posters, Sofia Masri

If you are reading this we need your help TODAY (Sunday!)

Late yesterday afternoon I learned about a great contest that will award a prize to one small businesses. However- (always a however!) the deadline is TODAY. In order to secure our entry we need 50 endorsements TODAY and we need YOUR HELP!!! The prize is a steep $100,000 so while a long shot it is a must try!

If it's not to much to ask- we so would appreciate it if you could register following the directions below and cast your vote.

Thanks you so much for your support and for trying to help us with our green paper initiative!

1. Click HERE to link to our contest story page.

2. In the upper right corner is says Register. Click there.

3. Follow the steps to register. (I know, I know- you don't want to but please do it)

4. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of all the rules and check the box at the end.

5. Click submit.

6. Now you can vote and endorse a site.

7. Go back to my story page using the link above in step 1.

8. When you get to the page- click the ENDORSE THIS STORY in the top upper left top corner and cast your vote.

9. Awesome- thanks again!

Renegade is (finally) here!

We can't contain our excitment that the Renegade Craft Fair is this weekend! Among MANY favorites, Indie Wed will have a booth with info and selling tickets for the event to take place early next year. So much crafty goodness here in the windy city!

If you happen to be in (or around) Chicago this weekend be sure to check out The Renegade Craft Fair, Saturday 9/12 and Sunday 9/13 from 11am to 7pm between Damen Ave. and Paulina Street in Wicker Park. Directions can be found here. And we hope to see you there!

Learn Something Everyday

Just found a few fun sites from abroad... great reads... graphic fabs

Dirty Mouse - a daily design inspiration blog:

Photo: Richard Searson Art & Design

Learn Something Everyday - worthy of a daily visit to make you smile, think or consider the absurd. Brought to you daily from Young, a brand development/design studio in the U.K.:


If Aqua - a French paperless, online design magazine:


CMYKern - One more from the UK, Birmingham to be specific. Interesting links, feature artists and a clear favouring of BOLD, strong type:

Required Reading

School is back in session - and it's time to get the books on the reading list going. Our two picks today focus is on food, and more specifically the state of food today - the growing, sustainability, sometimes frightening cycle and even pure pleasure of food.

The first of the two is not optional - if you haven't already; run, don't walk to pick this one up. If you are reading this blog, chances are Michael Pollan's, The Omnivore's Dilemma will flat out change the way you eat, shop, and maybe even grow your food. Literally an eye opener.

Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. he concludes each section by sitting down to a meal—at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.


In contrast, Barbara Kingsolver's lovely Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life is part memoir, part journalistic investigation - and could be considered a little more 'poolside' friendly. The book, explained by Kingsolver; "tells the story of how our family was changed by one year of deliberately eating food produced in the place where we live." Barbara wrote the central narrative; husband Steven digs deeper into various aspects of food-production science and industry; and daughter Camille's brief essays offer a nineteen-year-old's perspective on the local-food project, plus nutritional information, meal plans and recipes.

To purchase either, (or both!) of these reads - visit our favorite online (and brick & mortar, now with six locations!) independent bookshop, Powell's Books. Based in Portland, Oregon and started in 1971 Powell's is a family owned operation with green roots.

Turned On: A New Form of Light

Looks like the future holds a bright new ray of light! Currently in use and with accelerated research and development in progress- is the new OLED- or Organic Light Emitting Diode. This light is the new cousin of the latest current shining light- the LED. The LED has gained enormous popularity in recent years for it's 20 year life span, intense range of color and outstanding energy efficiency. According to a recent article in the NY Times:
"an even newer technology is intriguing the world’s lighting designers: OLEDs, or organic light-emitting diodes, create long-lasting, highly efficient illumination in a wide range of colors, just like their inorganic LED cousins. But unlike LEDs, which provide points of light like standard incandescent bulbs, OLEDs create uniform, diffuse light across ultrathin sheets of material that eventually can even be made to be flexible."

The light source is being applied in such applications as cell phones, architecture, in particular, skylights that allow natural light in during the day and offer dramatic colorful fusion of light at night, car lighting and general purpose lighting fixtures.

In the not so mundane limelight... lighting designer Ingo Maurer has been working with LED and OLED light in both artistic and practical applications. His installations and artwork were presented in a show at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in NY last year and his range of work is fascinating. A particular favorite Birds Series uses traditional light and pinpoints the relationship between nature and light- a common theme in his work. The first table lamp (shown below), inspired by a tree, is the first of its kind to be designed with OLED panels.

At this stage, OLED are tagged with a considerably higher price point, much as LED and other innovative technology in recent past. But as research and development progresses, the price point is expected to drop dramatically making this form of light vastly more accessible. All of the major lighting companies: G.E., Konica Minolta, Osram Sylvania, Philips and Universal Display are heavily invested in new product development using OLED. It's maximum energy efficiency and versatility should make it a preferred sustainable choice in the future. Encompassing the spectrum- pragmatic, industrial, architectural and artistic- OLED lighting holds a promising and illuminating future- can't wait to see more!

Photos via NYTimes.com, decojournal.com, osram-os.com, cooperhewitt.org,

Calling all Typophiles

A fabulous site & resource that we are so excited about around here is the newly launched type 'encyclopedia', Typedia.

'In a nutshell, Typedia is a community website to classify typefaces and educate people about them. Think of it like a mix between IMDb and Wikipedia, but just for type. Anyone can join, add, and edit pages for typefaces or for the people behind the type. Every time you attribute a designer or foundry to a typeface, a separate page is made for them as well. Typedia hopes to not only inspire people to learn more about the art of type design, but also to discover the underpinnings of it as well, like the type designers and the rich history itself.'

It will take users and time to build up the resources and information, but with new members adding contributions, information and opinions everyday - it's bound to be a surefire hit. Congrats to the fellow typophiles behind Typedia - nice work!

Holly in September?!

Just discovered on a morning walk that some varieties of holly actually bloom in August and September! Got us thinking that it goes right along with the oddity of holiday buying right smack in the middle the hot, hazy days of summer.

A perfect reminder that if you are starting (or finishing!) your holiday card buying- be sure to check out our Holly card and our entire Winter Solstice holiday card collection!

Things to Come

Absolutely lovely day in Chicago - not too hot and not too cold. Working away on sample requests, press inquiries, shipping orders and (oh...) our upcoming decorative collection for next year! Very exciting things to come!

Photo via the Chicagoist

BG SQUASH

Seriously?

Seriously! Saw this while driving yesterday and had to snap a shot - check out that license plate! A reminder that Fall is on it's way, in a BIG way!