Seasons Changing

Transitioning from Fall to Winter....

fallen leaves from our trees.

Inspiration Pad

I can never write straight or inside the lines. And when I should be taking notes I'm always doodling anyways.... this inspiration pad by Marc Thomasset is perfect.

BLANC Rocked the House!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Seattle for making the BLANC pop up a success!
We had a great time this week and were so inspired by people's enthusiasm about design! With this and the OBJECT opening a week earlier, we're feeling some serious momentum for Design in the Northwest. FINALLY!

Here's a little summary of the weekend:

It all started Friday with a preview party at Sole Repair...

...A perfect evening of TOTAL wintery white festivities filled with inspiring work from 30+ designers from Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver.

Everything looked pefectly BLANC.....Wintery white but warm and cozy all at the same time. There was special BLANC themed cocktails and snacks and lots of people dressed for the theme.  It was exactly how I enviosned...perfectly BLANC! I couldn't have asked for more!

 

(photos above by Eric Becker)

On Saturday, we braved the wintery elements opening the big garage door at Caffe Vita's Bean Room for the BLANC pop up. Using bags of coffee beans, discarded pallets and crates Jean led the crew of willing volunteers in merchandising a beautiful display of BLANC and non-BLANC design items.

The crowd was consistent and diverse from JOIN followers to coffee-sipping walk-ins. By the successful end of the first day, we knew there was no other option than to extend the hours three more hours on Saturday and open up again on Sunday!

And of course we had to treat ourselves to some hot coco with homemade marshmallows that totally hit the spot!

All and all,  it was just so great to so many people who came to support and celebrate design! It's resounding clear that Seattle is ready to embrace design more than ever! We say this is the turning point!! and that deserves a group hugs & high-fives all around!

Phew! I'm totally exhausted and need to go hibernate for the next 6 months now!!

See the rest of the event HERE!

Blk Friday 25% off on L&G items!

It's BlkFriday! and we gots some sales goin' up in here!
We're offering 25% off of $50+ total purchase starting now till NOV 28th sunday (ends 11:59pm PST) 1st. ENTER PROMO CODE: BLACKFRIDAY25
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

I'm Hypnotized...

London based artist/designer, Bethan Laura Wood.

Anthology Winter Gift Guide

 

Anthology's winter gift guide is available online! 

It's a beautiful compilation of all the wonderful festive parts of the holidays.

Our special holiday server set is in there, so look for them and get a special discount!

Also this recipe video of making mulled cider by Tiger in  Jar is absolutely lovely and is totally making me even more excited about the holidays! And if you like it spiked, I recommend adding honey whiskey or bourbon!

Anthology 2011 Winter Gift Guide Preview from Anthology Magazine on Vimeo.

Pretty In BLANC: Part II

some more inspirations for more of an everyday-look of BLANC...

 Some classy combo with white and off white from Sartorialist.

Simple but bold from Bu of Bu the right thing.

Crisp and fresh from Stand Up Comedy in Portland.

Flowy and light from Totokaelo.

I'd wear all of these not just for BLANC, but for, like, ever....

plainMADE for BLANC

I'm SOOOO stoked about these limited edition of 30 hand-painted and screen printed posters I had specially requested Chelsea Heffner of plainMADE to make for BLANC!!

I literally thought of the idea randomly while working on something else , texted Chelsea right away, she totally got on board with it, we bounced off some ideas over the phone, she painted and printed them, I got them in the mail,  and VOILA! we got ourselves some beautiful BLANC prints made! She's amazing.

It's been super fun art directing the event, especially it gave me a great reason to collaborate with talented people to do fun special projects like this! But the main intent in making these posters is meant to offer something (like a special souvenir) to further extend the concept of BLANC even after the event ends.

As I started thinking about ideas for the posters, I was thinking more of what the sense of white means and what that could look like.
I started throwing out words to Chelsea and started thinking more about natural phenomenons like light, fog, cloud, fluffy, air, water, transparent, reflection....and gradually lead to other mood words like simple, pure, airy, austere, clean, calm, quiet, mysterious....

And final result is this...

Beautifully lightly washed watercolor in layers on slightly textured thick paper.
Looking directly from the front, you can only see the soft gray and light color hues over lapping each other.

and looking at the print from a different angle......

...The word "BLANC" printed in semi-transparent white paint appears as it catches the light.
....and changes from another angle.

I just REALLY love the subtlety and personally think the effect she did added a lot of depth.  It's simply magical...

All these prints was SO spot-on in conveying all those concepts that I had in mind...  It's as if Chelsea was able to read my mind better than I can!! creeepy~!

Each print is numbered and stamped by plainMADE.

These will all be for sale on both days of BLANC preview party (and if they don't sell out) will also be available at the BLANC popup the next day!

Sorry to say that I get first dibs! yes!

Pretty In BLANC: Part I

Been seeing some great inspirations for what to wear at BLANC preview party this FRIDAY where we're asking everyone to wear something white! I still got lots to do on the list to prep for the show....Obvoiusly, I totally have my priority set here...

I especially love this whole collection by Rodarte for Opening Ceremony...totally BLANC.

 Some great pieces for the boys, too!