2008

Made me Laugh. 2008 Calendar designed by Noa Bembibre, titled: Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar. Available through Noa's website or Kiosk.

Behance

I am always drawn to methods of organization, especially ones that take into consideration the creative process, beauty and sophistication. Behance does just that. They describe their site as: Insights & Tips on Making Ideas Happen in the Creative Community... This is a great site. Why?

• A nice series of products, like The Action Book. (as shown above). They offer great tools that really embrace the self-help/business community, without the typical over-enthusiastic, cartoony type of presentation.

• A blog that features designers, ideas, companies, how real people are living the creative life. There are a lot of well-thought-out articles, like this one.

• If that's not enough, they even offer a printable pdf download of the Action Pad. The link is here. It's the perfect start.

Elum Letterpress

Was out shopping the other day, when I came across a line of stationery by Elum. They use letterpress and relief plates, which allow the image to be raised from the paper, an almost 3d effect, amazing texture, and beautiful thick cotton-rag paper. When I picked one up, my mouth dropped.

I also love the idea behind the above card, which comes in a package with three different stickers. Fun. You can customize the card design to meet the occasion. And the sticker is a really special way to close/open the card. It seems more complete.

We know that you can email a friend a message in mere seconds, and we know that stationery isn't the necessity that it used to be. But, we see stationery as having a new place in our technological world. We see it as art. Our cards are like small pieces of art that have been handcrafted on some of the most beautiful printmaking papers from around the world...

Endpapers

I absolutely love the colours in this marbled paper (seen via the domino blog). What great inspiration. I am reminded of endpapers found in books lining old libraries and antique bookshops and flea markets. That smell of ink and paper. Everything faded, yellowed, pastel-coloured.

What are endpapers? They are the leaves found at the beginning and ending of a book. They are not only decorative... they actually serve a purpose. They lessen the strain on the book cover and hide all those raw edges. In some cases, the endpapers are the only thing holding the cover to the inside of the book.

Here is a great flickr set outlining slices of the process of bookbinding. I just love the art of bookbinding; the careful choice of materials leads to such a wonderful sense of touch and texture, outlasting any mass produced paperback by miles.