This is a good friend of mine, Virginie Yassef. I received a catalogue of her most recent works and I thought it was amazing. I was very taken by the cover ("Billy Montana" - it's one of my favorite pieces of hers). It's from the Billy bookcase made by Ikea, she filled it with shelves and painted each in a different color. I also took pictures of other pieces of hers that I enjoy. Her work often times has many layers of information, making it interesting to look at time and again.

I got this mechanical pencil as a birthday gift and I just love it. It's called "Shorty" and it's made by Worther Baden-Baden, a German company. It has a great simple design and includes 3 types of lead: graphite, red lead, and white lead. The best thing about this pencil is that it writes on pretty much any surface, wood, metal, glass, plastic, paper, etc.

JUST ARRIVED...

I just received a copy of a book I designed this summer. It's a book of poems by Arsenio Rodriguez, titled "The Fermentation of Light". I'm pretty happy with the overall result, this was the first poetry book I've ever designed. It's now available at amazon.com.

L IS FOR LOSER

In preparations for my holiday cocktail party this year, I came up with this idea. Maybe it's because I'm no longer watching TV during the week...who knows. In any case, I wanted to find a way to "mark" each glass to help people recognize their drinks at the party (I'm forgoing disposable glasses). So I thought of putting a rubber band around the glass and attaching a small card with their initials.

Looking through the latest Archive magazine, I saw this series of ads for Braun nose clippers. I admit it took me a minute to get it, then I loved it. In the bottom it says "The nose trimmer from Braun" (it may be too small to read).

Working on my Christmas card...more to follow.

I bought this licorice candy when I was last in Berlin. I basically bought it because I loved the container, in fact I ended up hating the candy (and tossed them), but kept the container. The black diamond on the tin reflects the shape of the candies themselves.