Hasta La Ideas

It’s lucky that Janine has a team working with her now. It makes bragging about her nomination in the 2011 National Magazine Awards MUCH less awkward. Janine has been recognized in the Art Direction for an Entire Issue category for issue #9. The winners will be announced in Toronto on June 7

I know all of you know just how special UPPERCASE is. But, why not share this story with your circle of friends and tell them what you think of us. Or better yet, pick them up a copy.

This may not look like a font, but Kapitza‘s vector art is set up as a font file so that you can customize to your heart’s content. Rather than providing predetermined arrangements like typical clip art, the font format allows for more creativity.

Click to read a review on Eye’s blog.The Kapitza sisters have a new book featuring their organic patterns (and a pattern-generating iPad app as well.) You can read our article about Kapitza in issue #9.

Sometimes things pop up together in my Flickr contacts that are just too much of a coincidence! Tomatoes by Gayla Trail (profiled in issue #9) and ketchup by Elizabeth Graeber (her pet portrait is in #10).

And how about this:

by Lisa Jordan (top) and Sandra Monat (bottom).

When planning a new issue, I don’t always start with a defined theme, but as content is considered and gathered, connections are often made that lead to interesting people, places and things. The themes emerge organically. The current issue has two major themes: creativity expressed through food and gardening. In researching the topic of food and creativity, we asked our blog readers “How has a love of food inspired your creativity?” Janice of Papier Valise and Scissor Variations had an excellent response that we also printed in this issue:

“I get excited about food and cooking the same way I get excited to start an art project—the finished ‘project’ is the sum of its parts and the end result is always satisfying. A willingness to try something new, whether it be a recipe or art medium has always taken me to interesting places creatively. And what’s not to love about an edible mistake?”

Janice very generously brought two slices of her amazing cake to last night’s First Thursday. Mmmmm! So delicious, thank you Janice. {photo from her blog, I already ate mine!}

Cover illustration by Work/Life 2 participant Andrea D’Aquino

Sorry for the blog silence these past ten days, but I have been a busy busy bee. After returning home from San Francisco (to more snow, ugh!), I have been steadily designing the forthcoming spring issue, number 9. NINE! hard to believe that we’re almost into double digits…

Today was nice and sunny and the snow is starting to melt. And even better, the files have been uploaded to the printer! Please be patient with me as the magazine works its way through prepress, proofing, printing, binding, inserting, mailing… It will be a few weeks yet before this issue is complete in all its print glory. In the meantime, please subscribe/renew so that your name will be on the master mailing list and you’ll be first in line to receive it.

Here’s a synopsis of Issue 9:

Food provides us with so much more than basic survival. From harvesting your own vegetables, shopping at the local farmer’s market or cooking a homemade meal—the day-to-day involvement in the gathering and preparation of food can be delicious and fun. For many, though, a love of food is taken to other creative levels. Through packaging design, food-inspired photographic pursuits, gardening, sumptuous cookbooks or even blogging about what you just ate, we celebrate your passion for the edible. We hope to whet your creative appetite with this food and gardening-inspired issue!

Also coming up: Work/Life 2 is now shipping and the book launch is slated for April 7 from 5-9pm as part of the First Thursday celebrations.

Lisa Congdon’s A Collection a Day will be shipping in April but when exactly is still to be determined. Soon!

Tif Fussell is off visiting her English homeland, but I have the pleasure of reading through her first draft of the Suitcase Series Volume 2: dottie angel while she is away. Tif and I are both very excited that Emily Chalmers will be penning the foreword! I’ve just purchased Emily’s latest book, Modern Vintage Style, and can’t wait to spend time with it.

Each and every book and magazine issue is a deeply personal experience for me. I put everything I’ve got—and then some—into creating things that I am proud to publish. The year so far has tested my abilities and energy on all fronts with two books and two magazine issues to complete in the past four months! Working from home has meant fitting projects in between the activities of motherhood. My baby is now one and quickly switching gears into toddlerhood… there’s a lot manage around here. Thank you to Glen for being so helpful and letting me head down into the basement to get things done. You make the impossible possible.

With issue 9 off to production and (hopefully) a bit more time to breathe, I look forward to springtime with my family. I’ll still be a busy bee—it’s just my nature—but I plan on making time to smell the flowers.