Hasta La Ideas

Tien-Min Liao has taken a popular idea (forming letters with configurations of a body or body parts) and executed it so flawlessly and completely that ownership is rightfully hers.

“In this experiment, I drew shapes with ink on one or both of my hands, manipulating my gestures into the corresponding shape to signify an upper-case letter. Then, using the same shape on my hands, I manipulated mygesture or changed the perspective through which the shape is viewed in order to transform the upper-case letter to a lower-case of the same letter. Removing or redrawing the darkened shape on my hands is not allowed in the experiment. The only way to make the model transform from an upper-case to a lower-case (orvice versa) is changing the gestures or the perspectives.”

Another pretty project is a photographic portrait of found lettershapes in Grand Central Station:

And last, but not least, is a beautiful animation ode to Baskerville (the italic is always a favourite typeface of mine—you can’t find a more beautiful ampersand).

I had the privilege of visiting Donna Wilson‘s studio Tuesday morning to interview her for the magazine. We did our interview on-camera, so I have lots of interesting footage to edit when I get home. More to come later! (Issue #15, fall)

Thank you to Siew, Grace, Erin, Eva and Donna for welcoming me (and my camera and tripod!) into the studio. Donna was soon off to the Milan Furniture Fair, so I appreciate her taking the time on a very busy day.

This guy will be taking a suitcase back to Canada:

Visit the Donna Wilson online shop.

final illustration by Andrea D’Aquino

When you work with illustrator Andrea D’Aquino, be prepared for her enthusiasm, generosity and amazing talent! Andrea illustrated the cover of issue #9 (which is one of my favourite covers) and so I asked her to illustrate an article in the current issue about quilting and community. She outdid herself with so many great images to choose from. She called these “roughs” but they’re all publishable quality, that’s for sure! Look at this abundance of riches:

Thank you, Andrea. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing.

You can read more about Andrea in Work/Life 2: the UPPERCASE directory of illustration, international edition.

Dana Tanamachi’s paperweights for West ElmI have a lettering crush on Dana Tanamachi. Have you seen her work in the February issue of Oprah’s magazine? I purchased the issue (first time, ever!) to read on my epic journey to Salt Lake City for the Alt Summit. {rediscovered via Papertastebuds} Click here to purchase the paperweights from West Elm.

My photo of Wendy at The Creative Connection

I had ready about Wendy Addison‘s business some years ago, I think it was perhaps in a Country Living women entrepreneurs issue… her work, combining letters, vintage imagery, embellishments and some glitter, really stuck with me. I used to stock her gift items by Chronicle Books back when UPPERCASE did retail of other companies’ products.

Peruse her iconic glass glitter letters and other products at Tinsel Trading‘s website:

Yes, just googled… it was indeed this feature in Country Living! Check out her studio space and details. I think the article was from 2006. I remember being so inspired by that particular issue; it came out just a few months after I had started UPPERCASE.

Photos from Country Living

Thanks, Wendy, for the letter F—it will decorate Finley’s Christmas tree this year and be a year-long reminder of that spark of inspiration and encouragement I felt many years ago.