Love ALL Project | Community Table

·0 comments·Graphic Design

Earlier this month, the Love ALL Project hosted its first “Community Table”. The event offers attendees the chance to join a small group dinner, listen to an incredible life story, engage in conversation, and learn.

The first dinner was also co-hosted by the Triangle Community Center, and Harbor Harvest Restaurant, both in Norwalk, Connecticut. Our guest speaker was Raven Matherne, a newly elected city representative in Stamford who is transgender.

Raven is wonderful human being; her story was incredibly heartwarming and inspiring. The dinner gave me a new-found compassion and understanding for the transgender community. Harbor Harvest was a charming setting for the intimate evening, and the food was amazing.

Our evening was featured on the front page of Norwalk’s The Hour Newspaper.

I’ve been working as a creative partner to the Love ALL Project since they began in early 2017. For the Community Table event, I created a new mark that stems from the original logo. Shown below are goodie bags that we put together for the event.

The next “Community Table” is scheduled for May 17th! View event page

 

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How to Know the Wildflowers

·0 comments·Art Direction, Creative Business, Gardening, Life Balance, Vintage Inspiration
studioagwork

How to know the Wildflowers, published in 1895 by Charles Scribner and Sons

A few years back, I was thumbing through one of my coveted antique books for typography inspiration, I found the most amazing little treasures within its pages. Notes of wildflower sightings from the summer of 1902, 1903, and 1904. My heart melted.

If that’s not enough; there was a dried columbine flower that had been carefully pressed between the pages of the Columbine spread! This flower was picked, recorded, and placed in this book over 100 years ago. Such a treasure. (Gulp)

I love vintage books — I have many, I refer to them for design inspiration and in use them photoshoot styling. But this one, in particular, is so incredibly special because of the human element left inside, for over 100 years.. for ME to discover. What an incredible gift.

Happy Spring everyone! Make some time to get to know the flowers this Spring & Summer. Perhaps you can even create your own sightings list. ♥

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Hooray for the Year of the Dog!

·0 comments·Collage, Creative Business, Graphic Design, Vintage Inspiration·, , , , ,

mixed media collage by Amy Gorrek

Today marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Dog. I was born in the year of the dog, so this is super exciting for me!

Chinese astrologer, Laura Lau sums it up on Refinery 29:
Lau says: “The Dog does his best to protect high-integrity people and support their cause.” In other words, this year of the Dog may see people fighting for the causes they believe in. This influence could manifest itself as large-scale political movements or something as simple as local community work and small acts of kindness.

Let’s hope this year brings forth some positive change on all levels.

Do you know your lunar symbol? How does it interact with your zodiac sign?
I’m a Leo born in the Year of the Dog.. I did a quick google search and found a pretty accurate description of the Leo/Dog combination. I guess this explains why I’ve always considered myself a dog AND cat person!

The collage above was created on chipboard with mixed media paper ephemera from my treasure trove(!) and gouache paints. To see more of my collage work, check out my instagram. ♥

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Rough Draft Bar & Books

·0 comments·Creative Business, Life Balance, Vintage Inspiration·, , , ,

A few weeks ago, on my instagram feed, I stumbled upon a post from a café in the Hudson Valley. I looked further and saw photos of books and coffee and beer — all snuggled under one roof with a very poetic name.. Rough Draft Bar & Books. This café/bar/bookstore caught my eye and tugged at my heart strings. In the comments section, I tagged my dear friend/former college roommate, Tracey, who lives in Troy, NY — and said “Hey, we should meet for coffee here soon!”.

Tracey agreed, and a couple of weeks later we did just that! She drove an hour South, and I drove two hours North — We met around noon and enjoyed great coffee, conversation and a bite to eat. Rough Draft was just as adorable as I had expected — quaint, cozy with great energy. It’s located in historic “Uptown” on John Street in Kingston, New York. Rough Draft has only been open a few months and seems to be a bustling hub for the community.

From there, we walked up John Street toward Front Street and meandered in and out of antique stores and shops of Uptown Kingston. Then we drove a few miles to “Downtown” which is near the river — and wandered in/out of more cute shops, chatting it up with their friendly owners.

What I loved about this day was seeing an old friend, face-to-face, in a new place and exploring it together as we caught up on each other’s lives. Technology introduced us a great new spot, then we followed it up with some old fashioned friend time.

Making the time to get together with friends in person is worth the effort 1000 times over. Reserving a day to break away from the usual routine is also completely refreshing. Especially in the middle of winter. MORE day trips please!

We wound down our visit at a great restaurant called Kovo and enjoyed a late lunch of chickpea fritters and Greek Caesar salads. Super yum.

I realize as I am writing this post that I should have taken notes at all the places we stopped into!! Oh well — I was caught up in the moment of the day — and wasn’t thinking about much! Which is a good thing I guess. 😉

Alas, a very thorough blogpost has already been written about Kingston! To learn more about this “city in the middle of the country”, click here. Or just get yourself over there and wander around yourself! ♥

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Word of the Year

·0 comments·Creative Business, Life Balance

My daughter and I spent some time in the Jellyfish section of (one of our favorite spots) the Maritime Aquarium last week. Can you see the rings in their centers? Those are their stomachs, and jellyfish have 4 of them. I learned this a few days ago.. Cool, right?

For 2018, my word is Transparency.
Jellyfish have no choice in this matter… but we do. Transparency is not always the easiest path — It stirs up vulnerability. Transparency is listening to your gut, and then following through with your actions. I would like to be more truthful (on the spot) with my Clients, Family, Friends, and mostly to my Self. This will take practice. Perhaps I should meditate on my jellyfish friends as a reminder each day.

What’s your word of the year?
Can you connect it to an animal/object to help you remember it each day? ♥

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How Do You Plan?

·0 comments·Graphic Design

Welcome January!  Time to jot down those goals..
Hey, How do you plan?

For me, it’s a simple paper agenda. Something to fill with my handwritten notes/scribbles. And probably always will be!

I prefer a simple monthly grid layout so I can see the whole month at one time. It must have squares roomy enough to list multiple items. And it must have good typography/design. Nothing fancy, just simple, clean and utilitarian.

My first choice has been the Monthly Agenda from Sugar Paper that I’ve picked up in Target. It’s lightweight, well-priced (around 10 bucks!), 8.5 x 11 in size, with large squares and simple, great design. But I just can’t get my hands on the 2018 version. 🙁

As a second option, I am using the kraft undated planner from Muji. Even though it’s about half the size of Sugar Paper’s – the design is great! And at $1.50, it’s hard not to stock up on these! In fact, I had just finished filling out January in my Muji undated planner — then saw this article in today’s New York Times highlighting paper planners. And Muji was one of their picks too!

Happy Pen-to-Paper Planning ♥

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Notes from Design Greats

·0 comments·Brand Design, Graphic Design


l learned of design great, Paul Rand in 1998 when I enrolled in design school at The Portfolio Center (now Miami Ad School, Atlanta). Rand died in 1996 — leaving behind a legacy of incredible projects and ideals. He is a hero in the field of graphic design, and I am a huge fan of his work. Some excerpts from Paul-Rand.com:

He (Paul) almost singlehandedly convinced business that design was an effective tool. [. . .] Anyone designing in the 1950s and 1960s owed much to Rand, who largely made it possible for us to work. He more than anyone else made the profession reputable. We went from being commercial artists to being graphic designers largely on his merits.
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If ever there was a pleased client, it was indeed Steve Jobs: just prior to Rand’s death in 1996, his former client labeled him, simply, “the greatest living graphic designer.”
– – – – – – – –
His American Broadcasting Company trademark, created in 1962, epitomizes that ideal of minimalism while proving Rand’s point that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint.”

With my 18 years of working experience, I have learned, and firmly believe that a strong design foundation is essential for all avenues of marketing.

Paul Rand’s statement says it all. ♥

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Happy Thanksgiving

·0 comments·Collage, Creative Business, Home Studio, Vintage Inspiration

Wishing you much love and peace this Thanksgiving.

Along with cooking yummy recipes and spending time with family, I plan to take some time to nurture my inner artist by making more collages this weekend. I have a boxes of vintage ephemera I’ve collected over the years — waiting to be repurposed into new art. The above “Acorns” is one I created last Fall. ♥

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Book talk with Ellen & Paula

·0 comments·Creative Business, Graphic Design, Inspiring Women

I’d like to curl up and hibernate in the Strand’s Rare Book Room for a while this winter.

I visited for the first time Tuesday evening for a cozy design talk with Ellen Lupton & Paula Scher — two inpiring women in design. It was a heartwarming and intimate chat about both of their recent books, Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton, and Paula Scher: Works – Unit Editions’ new book on the designer’s phenomenal career so far.

Ellen and Paula are wonderful role models — insightful, witty, warm and ever so humble — with (what it seems like ) an ongoing desire to keep doing good work.
Viva la Graphic Design! ♥

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