You're Officially Awesome.

Jessica Hische. Sigh. Have I mentioned that I have a design crush on her? Like for real. 

Spring is late to the party, the weather has been spotty and I've been a bit gloomy. But then boom! Here she comes with her quick wit and Thousands Under Ninety to brighten my day and collectively everyone around me. Who doesn't want to be told that they're a Winner at Life? Not this lady.

Thanks Jessica for spending your time to put smiles on thousands of faces and make every day just a bit brighter. Three cheers to Jessica!

Now go brighten someones day by sending them an Official Thousands Under Ninety Award.

Saks Off 5th Event

Last night I attended an awesome blogger event at Saks Off 5th at the Legends sponsored by KC Blogger Meetup, a group that my friend, Jeanee, co-founded.

Admittedly, I was a little nervous about the event. I'm shy in large groups and didn't know what to expect, but more importantly, shopping isn't really my thing. I tend to pride myself on my frugal nature and (somewhat) minimalism. Clothes shopping terrifies me, nothing ever seems to fit right and I'm not really a fashionista.

BUT I was proven wrong. I had a great time pursuing the goods at Saks Off 5th with lots of lovely blogger ladies. In true Stephanie fashion, I was mostly found hanging around the home good items and the food table. Surprise, surprise, I know!

I even scored this lovely turtle. OMG guys. I've wanted a Jonathan Adler turtle for years. I even blogged about one in my post on BHG style spotters blog recently and here around Christmas. My friend, Crystal, found his younger brother hiding away in a box that I had skimmed over and I quickly snatched it out of her hands claiming it as my own. Truly the treasure of the evening.

As the store manager stated, they have everything from $5.00 to $5,000.00 price tags. I was very impressed with the price range and truly felt like there were a lot of things that fit my budget and my style. Many items in the store were discounted or on sale, which is also a huge bonus in my book!

Don't worry about my friend who I swiped the turtle from, she walked away with these adorable whale salt and pepper shakers, also by Jonathon Adler. And who wouldn't adore the lovely turquoise bracelet and bright color-blocked totes!

Thanks Saks Off 5th and KC Blogger Meetup for organizing and hosting such a great event! Now, I'm really looking forward to the Madewell Fall Preview Event!

Type Connection

Ever wonder why some fonts go together and others don't? Check out Type Connection to see what makes a good match - dating game style.

 As I side note, I do believe I matched every font bachelor successfully on the first try. Sigh, I wish it were this easy to find my perfect match! ;)

Found via swissmiss

2012 Staples Promotional Products Idea Book

2012 Staples Promotional Products Idea Book - Work done while at Staples Promotional Products

I'm so excited to share this project with you, it's Staples Promotional Products 2012 Idea Book. This is a new marketing/design piece for 2012 that is meant to showcase some of the really fun and trendy promotional products out there. I was on the team that saw the project through from the beginning to end, from the project concept to product selection to the art direction at the photo shoot and final production. I also had a chance to work with the very talented stylist, Casey Dobbins, on this piece who knocked the styling out of the park. It was a really fun project to work on and I'm excited it's finally printed!

Here's the full version:

New Looks Stop Motion

I get to work on a variety of projects for work, which is what I love most about my job. Below is a really fun project that a couple other Art Directors and I worked on for the launch of our 2012 collection for our proprietary apparel brand, Destinations. I traveled up to the lovely state of Iowa to shoot the stills with our photographers and then we pieced the music and images together internally.



Very fun project, I'm a lucky girl!

For more information on the new items, check out www.StaplesPromotionalProducts.com

Holstee Manifesto = LIFE Manifesto

Hello blog friends! I miss you. I know I've been neglecting you, but my non-digital life has been non-stop exciting times and I haven't taken a break to keep you in the loop.

Anyway, today I discovered the Holstee Manifesto video, completely brilliant:

And here's the poster version, which has been out for a while:

The whole thing is wonderful / inspiring / delightful.

And I should've been going on more bike rides lately before the weather turns ick.

RIP Steve Jobs

To quote StrangeNative's tweet "This is my Michael Jackson."


Inspiring video:

 

Connect the dots.


If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.


Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Female Inspiration

People always ask (and by people I mean, our little white board at work and other blog interview types), who would you want to have dinner with, dead or alive? I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, I don't know why, but I have.

For me, it would be a toss between:
1. Claudia Kotchka, former VP of Design Innovation & Strategy at Proctoer & Gamble
2. Tina Roth Eisenberg, founder of swissmiss blog, CreativeMornings, Tattly and co-founder of TuexDuex
3. Rachel Botsman, co-founder of Collaborative Consumption
4. Grace Bonney, founder of Design*Sponge blog

These four are all intelligent, strong females and leaders in the design community. All have families and balance their work life and do amazing, innovative things. All have powerful personal brands. What better inspiration to have? I look to these women and think "What the hell am I doing with my life, get it together, sister." Instead, I sleep.


(And someday once I have it together I will design a poster with the song lyric by Ingrid Michaelson: "I want to change the world, instead I sleep.")

Redesign, Redesign

Have you noticed all of the re-designing going around on the web lately?
They all seem to have more a different navigation system, something new and kind of strange and less intuitive, if you ask me, but maybe I'm just not used to it yet. But with big names like Target, Pentagram, and VSA Partners, I'm thinking this is the tip of the iceberg for this type of interaction and probably at least a couple years in the making.

Pentagram

Target.com

VSA Partners


When I started thinking of this post, I swear I had more examples... I will probably add as my foggy-mind remembers...

Also, I've noticed other big social networking players easing any changes they are making to the system by telling users in advance of these changes and letting them try the new features before it's "official," probably to smooth any transition and bumps in the road and allievate any protests as the Facebook News Feed Controversy of 2006. I've noticed Facebook, Google, and Blogger (owned by Google) all using this early-warning-system method. It goes to show that companies are continuing to get more saavy and realize that many people are afraid of change. I personally love it, because I feel in-the-know and all of Google's (and therefore Blogger's) updates have been kick-ass design-wise.

The coffee table, Part 2

Clearly, the original coffee table idea (you know, reclaimed wood with hairpin legs) is not original to me and others can replicate it easily, too easily... it would've been original to my acquaintances, but someone swooped in and made one before I had the chance (from my own sought-after reclaimed lumber store, no less). Just glad I wasn't mid-process so we wouldn't end up with the same coffee table... I mean, how embarrassing. So, I'm over it. So. Over. It.

Right now I'm using my TV stand from college that I reupholstered as a foot rest and temporary coffee table. It's nice, it rolls. I like this characteristic. I can roll it out of the way as I attempt to do my personal training routine in the middle of my tiny apartment. I think this easily moveable characteristic should be a mandatory in the final design solution, which probably rules out what I'd really, really like, which is vintage metal flat files.

 Tad Carpenter's house (in KC!) via Design*Sponge

 Kirra Jamison's house via Design*Sponge

Can we just take a moment here and pause to reflect on the beauty and awesome functionality of vintage metal flat files. (of course picturing a flatter stack to be used for a coffee table) Ahhh....

Maybe tomorrow I'll come accross a super cheap and low set of vintage flat files that I can fasten heavy-duty casters to! Until then, it's back to the drawing board for me... any suggestions?

The DMV Experience

Image from libraryman

What’s the worst service experience you’ve had? For most, the DMV ranks near the top of that list. It takes forever, you’re should-to-shoulder with strangers you’d rather not sit next to, it’s loud, possibly full of unpleasant smells, and most likely you have forgotten some crucial and mysterious piece of paperwork that requires you to return after retrieving it. So today when I made my way to the Kansas DMV, I was not looking forward to the task... perhaps that’s why I put it off for two months and waited until one of the very last days of the month, right before my plates were to expire to get the dreaded chore done. Nothing like a deadline for motivation, right?

Well, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The Johnson County Treasurer’s office that I visited was very fancy-schmancy—a definite upgrade from the DMV in the not-nearly-as-affluent county I resided in in Missouri. It was clear this county had spent some serious money and time designing the service experience for their patrons, which may be expected from a county boasting one of the highest median incomes in the country (according to the 2000 census).


Now for the actual experience:

Upon entrance there were three kiosks that greeted you asking for a bit of information: First, language preference, offering English or Spanish and your cell phone number, which was used to serve as your virtual spot in line. After entering my information, the digital screen told me I would have an estimated wait of 37 minutes.

This is brilliant for many reasons:

1. The Spanish-speaking customers are filtered to the Spanish-speaking service representatives. (Because how annoying is it to get to the front of the line to find out that person can’t help you? Pretty annoying. And with a language barrier, I’m sure it is ridiculously difficult.)
2. Part of service design is looking at the psychology of waiting and what that does to your perceived experience, which highly effects the outcome as good or bad and 37 minutes is still a long time to wait. (My service rep later informed me that they were busier than usual because it was the end of the month and, like myself, everyone had been procrastinating.)
3. Knowing my approximate wait time was awesome. I could’ve walked to the coffee shop or donut shop next door (that is, if I liked either of those options...), run a nearby errand, etc.
4. Part of the texting system allowed you to get updates through your phone on where you stood in line and your estimated wait, you could even respond with an “M” to give you some more time. (I didn’t play with this feature, not knowing if it would push you back 5 people or at the end of the already 52-person-long list.)
5. My service-rep also told me that I could reserve my spot in line from my computer at home. Or say, after I finish at the vehicle inspection place. Again, brilliant!

Other features that rocked:

• The space was wide and open and had cool, clean air circulating. People had ample room to leave two or more chairs comfortable between them as their stranger-buffer-zone. No more shoulder-to-shoulder claustrophobia.
• Rows as chairs, even some tables were provided, in case you needed to get a little work done during the wait.
• Two TV monitors listed your place in line via the last four digits of your phone number, while two others played the news and cartoons. And as we’re a society dependent upon electronic connectivity, this is essential.
• This system has been in place for a number of years and I also learned at the end of the year they are updating their systems, she said they’re “archaic, built in the 80’s.” So now they will no longer have to manually enter each persons information each time someone comes in, but instead and can retrieve your profile and do “customer maintenance.” That should make that 37 minute wait, dwindle even more.

All-in-all, I’d say my wait time was actually around 27 minutes. Not too bad for 52 people in front of me, right?

So, kudos to you, Johnson County DMV. Awesome job of the front-end customer experience improvements and dedication to updating your back-end systems. It’s not perfect and I doubt I’ll ever relish in the fact that I get to go to the DMV, but at least it wasn’t the dreaded task of yesteryear.

Now let’s work on improving the doctor visit waiting room experience...

Joplin support

After the shocking tornados in Joplin, MO, my first reaction was to drive down there and help, after all I'm only a couple hours away (and thankfully I have friends with the same thought). But so many other Kansas Citians, fellow statesmen and countrymen wanted to volunteer and Joplin wasn't able to accommodate the support after such a devastation. Finally, I've talked to one friend who was able to go down and help for a day, although he said it will still take several months (if not years) to get the city back to it's original state.

Moosylvania, a St. Louis based marketing and advertising agency, designed a series of posters in honor of Joplin, with the proceeds going to the Southwest Missouri chapter of United Way.




Lovely, aren't they?

Via grain edit.

Collections.

I am fascinated by designer's collections. I'm not talking about fashion designer's summer clothes collection, but things that designers carry or their space. I love what Character Design Agency did for their "Cast" or biography page: a bird's eye photo of that person's desk. Check out more here.

Images via Character Design Agency via design work life.

I want to photograph my desk at work in the same manner now... and I do owe you a shot of my new cube location, so maybe soon!

Similarly, my friend Niki did had her design friends photograph what they kept in their bag, here:
It's All In The (Designer's) Bag and It's All In The (Designer's) Bag Part 2.

Baby Tooth Chart 2

Just an update, I've now uploaded the pdf (high-res) image of my Baby Tooth Chart, due to all the popular demand!

Download it here.
See the original post here.

Illustrated Friends

I showed my illustrations to co-workers today and they requested illustrations of themselves... so here's more of my friends/co-workers:

Megan (I couldn't figure out how to illustrate a pregnant belly without being offensive!)

Dayle

Clint

Boys are hard to illustrate and I'm pretty sure that they would all look pretty much the same... but it was a fun and stress-free activity to work on. Now back to work and then homework!

100" Cake for Hallmark

Looky! That's me in the front in our bakers coats! From the KC Star

Whew! Last week was a long one, but fun. Last Monday was Hallmark Card's 100th birthday (actually 100 years + 1 day) and I got to be part of the celebration! In early December the Centennial committee came to our department and asked us to design a birthday cake for Hallmark's birthday celebration. Three designers in our group collaborated on the conceptual design of the cake. We wanted to incorporate elements from the centennial ribbon illustration (shown below in the banners).

We wanted to keep the cake white like the background of the illustration, but to give it more interest we put a different surface treatment on each layer (which was my main contribution). We then created ribbons to wrap around the cake to show a continuous timeline of Hallmark's history and elevate the gold crown above the top layer of the cake.

The picture is from Hallmark's birthday celebration, where the cake was unveiled as a surprise to Hallmark employees. The cake is on display at Hallmark headquarters for a couple of weeks and then it will move to the Hallmark Visitors Center as a permanent display. Come check it out sometime. As a bonus I left my "mark" on the bottom layer of the cake... see if you can find it!

Happy belated birthday Hallmark, I'm grateful to be part of the celebration and proud to call myself a Hallmarker!

Long or Short?

I had a hair cut scheduled for Saturday at 10:15... I got up earlier than I have all break and went to my hair salon only to find the doors locked and lights off (I need to investigate what happened but have been too lazy). I waited around for 20 minutes because my hair stylist is known to be late then decided to head out. That afternoon instead of being productive I illustrated myself... with long hair and with my current haircut. I can't decide what to do. The illustrated me looks so cute with long hair! That, coupled with my stylist not showing up, I'm thinking about growing it out. Your thoughts?

Clearly basing my hair cut on illustrations where you can make everything look perfect is not rational, but hey it's a new year and all, why not?

DIFFA Holidays by Design Wreath

This year is my first time participating in DIFFA Kansas City's Holidays by Design, where they auction off holiday items created by Kansas City designers. DIFFA-KC supports the prevention of HIV and AIDS by funding education and awareness programs in Greater Kansas City.

I was inspired by the flat, stylized and modern bouquet clocks and other modern graphics that have been simplified to a flat surface, very reminiscent of the modern take on cabriole legs.

Above is my crafty-modern mistletoe wreath. I fused 5 layers of alternating chartreuse and kelly green wool felt to create a substantial base wreath background and cut it in the simplified greenery shape. I added the red felt berries as an area of interest and a cute button on the back for easy hanging. Hopefully I'll be able to attend Holidays by Design this year and see what other designers have created!

Claudia Kotchka

You know one of those common questions that are asked of you in interviews and what not. Well, I've never known how to answer, this one: "If you could have dinner with any person dead or alive who would it be?
Tonight I think I found my answer: Claudia Kotchka.

Antiquing

Lately I've had an obsession for these fun aqua Ball jars, which match perfectly with the Martha Stewart blue recipe box. The top photo is a shelf I installed in the kitchen, the bottom is my office supply display from work.

And notice the cow theme...