Printable 2013 Calendar: The Perfect Last Minute Gift

I can't tell you how excited I am to share my latest project with you: a printable 2013 calendar, now for sale in my Etsy shop! Each month features a bright illustration that will brighten up your home or office. Print the pdf and gift to as many friends as you like. Check it out here, in my shop! 

The Whole Song

Saw this little video today and it reminded me of an important lesson; one worth being reminded of! Where are you trying to "arrive?"

Costumes and Collage

Maybe I've been hiding under a rock, but I just discovered PicMonkey, an awesome site that let's you resize photos and create lovely collages in seconds. You must check it out!! There are tons of collage layouts; I tried a few simple ones out with some photos of my halloween costume from a few weeks ago. We went as Roy Lichtenstein's pop art people--a great way to use one of my many polka dot items of clothing! 

Autumn Colors

I thought this was a nice quote for fall in a way: we might lament the shorter days and colder weather, but its gonna happen so instead of trying to delay let's just embrace it! Maybe the connection isn't so strong, but I liked the quote and I liked the photo, so I smashed them together. ;)  By the way, isn't the color of these leaves just divine??? We don't get a ton of this in the Bay Area, so I was liking this tree. 

Super Yard Sale Find: ALPHABET stamps!

I cannot tell you how STOKED I was to find this gem of a stamp set for $1.00 while visiting a yard sale in my neighborhood this weekend. The "Print Craft" set by Superior Marking Equipment Co. has no date, but the design of the whole thing harkens back to another time. I love the little details on the box and the notepad (which is basically unused). Aside from a few small tears on the box cover, the entire set is in tact, including punctuation and even the matching ruler to keep your letters straight! 

The only thing I'll need to supplement from modern times is the ink pad; this cute little metal box only contains the powdered remains of an ink that once was. 

I can't wait to start lettering up my birthday cards and other fun paper crafts. :)

P.S. I think I'm destined for one yard sale triumph at least once per year. Remember this one?!?

Speed Design | Vikram Seth

I've been learning lots of coding stuff this month--not exactly pretty or blog-able! I've also had 

less energy to challenge myself on design projects. I made this poster for an upcoming event in 

record time to make a printing deadline. Improvements could be made, but I think it will do! 

Work (& Life) In Progress

If you know me personally, you know I've been going through lots of transition lately... hence ZERO blog posts in 2 months! I've moved and have also taken a new job (more on that in future posts) and I've been frantically training to learn new skills, mostly in web development. Its exciting! (And stressful.) I am so lucky to be given the opportunity to learn new things, and to continue doing stuff I love, like graphic design! Here is what my computer screen has been looking like during the last few days... I've had a great time drafting these posters and will be sure to share the final product with you too!

 

Scribbler Too

Thanks to a blog I love, How About Orange, I just discovered a really interesting online tool called "ScribblerToo." Simply draw a line and these cool effects appear! This style feels kind of Tim Burton to me. Try Scribbler Too out here!

First Mobile Post

I've been loving instagram so much lately and so I wanted to experiment with sharing some of my instagrammed photos on the blog directly from my phone. Here's a first try. :)

The Weekend in Snapshots

 

I can't believe its July 9! No joke, I have been catching myself dating documents for mid June! 

That's because life has been so full and so great lately. I have been snapping photos on my 

phone all along the way. This weekend I got to see Katie, my lovely friend from graduate 

school, who was passing through on a month long roadtrip! While catching up we sipped 

sangria at a party celebrating the festival of San Fermin, explored City Lights Bookstore in 

San Francisco, ate squid cooked in its own ink, and hosted a yummy brunch in my backyard! 

Life is good.

Blue Skies

We've had the most wonderful weather here the past few weeks, and I've been spending lots of 

time outside! Here are a few of my favorite blue sky moments, captured with my i phone. 

Top image: on my walk home from work (I love these trees!); bottom left: Alameda kite boarder; 

bottom center: ferry from San Francisco to Tiburon; bottom right: Oakland cranes.

Save the Date/25th Anniversary

You may remember some of my other save the dates here and here! This one was especially fun to make because its our 25th anniversary, and I used this vintage photo of our terrace, where the party will be held. This building used to be the student union and part of our facilities was the tap room. We need to re-create this photo, adding some ladies to bring it to the modern world!

Love More/Worry Less

I'm playing around with designing a series of quotes, and thought I'd share this one.
What gorgeous colors in this bouquet! I think ranunculus are my new favorite flower.

Space for Awesome

In the spirit of spring cleaning, I thought I'd share this little print I designed for my sister a few weeks ago. I like this phrase; you can take it in so many ways, from cleaning out your closet to cleaning our your facebook account. I do believe its true; letting go of some of the old allows room for the new awesome-ness you can't even imagine yet!

Weekend Getaway: Santa Cruz

I had a wonderful time in Santa Cruz with some friends this past weekend. Though the weather was not as balmy as expected, a bunch of the crew enjoyed surfing (bottom images; those aren't seals!!) and I got some great cafe/reading time in, as well as a nice walk on the beach. I also got a chance to try some new iPhone apps; in the image above I used Photo Frame Maker to create the collage and Phonto to add the text. Pretty fun! The finale to the weekend was a concert by the Shins, one of my all time fave bands. It was great to finally see them live!

Create Something Today

I've been pretty busy with freelance projects lately, which is both exciting and also quite time consuming! Today I allowed myself to play around a bit, taking a break from client work. I've been wanting to do a series of prints with quotes, and so I started by playing around with some simple text on this paint background. Wouldn't this be fun and inspirational in a studio?

P.S. (I thought I found this photo on Lost and Taken, but honestly it has been in my folder for awhile and so I am unable to give credit where its due! Apologies!)

A Trip with Friends

I recently took a trip to visit good friends of mine who are living in Chelan, Washington for a year. We had a great time checking out Seattle, enjoying the mountains, and just catching up. I am so thankful to know so many great people, and to have the resources to travel to see them!

Be Inspired (But Don't Copy)

While reviewing many of my pins on Pinterest the other day, I noticed a few resounding patterns:
1. Triangles/Mountains 2. Collage/blocky feel created by literal collage of patterns and or the use of lots of shapes 3. Overlays (colored objects with transparencies that allow for the overlaps to create new colors). Here's a sampling of the images I pinned, which clearly had an influence on one of my recent projects (pictured below the inspiration board). To see more of the designs I find inspiring, feel free to check out my Design Envy pinboard!

Happy Valentine's/My Vintage Art

My amazing sister scanned and sent this to me today... its a valentine that we think I sent to her during her first year of college, when I was in THIRD GRADE! My favorite part is the attempt for realism: we had wallpaper like that, and a white garbage can too! The little valentine on the right says "Cupid is Working (Knock!!!)." Wish I could get into my childhood head to find out what the heck I meant by that! Since I didn't get to designing some hip valentines like I might have once planned to (during a coffee inspired spree of unrealistic design project planning), this will serve as a valentine to you all. I hope you had a lovely day!! :)

Happy February: Website News!!

Remember my chalk board goals? Well, February has arrived and I'm not entirely done with each of the items on the list, but I have at least started them all. And I'm totally excited to announce that I now have a live portfolio website!  Check it out at julievanscoy.com!

Spring 2012 Film Series Postcard

 

I get to make a postcard for our film series every semester (old ones here and here). I love these projects because I get to come up with a new look every time, and the small size helps to keep things simple. Some films have awesome press photos available for download, but others require a little creativity to find something usable. This time, rather than doing a collage of images from multiple films in the series I decided that this image from Waste Land would have a lot more impact. The film follows artist Vik Muniz as creates huge portraits made of trash at the world’s largest garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro. I can't wait to watch it!

Fredric Jameson Poster (Drafts)

I'm not quite done with this poster for literary theorist and cultural critic Fredric Jameson, who will lecture at Berkeley in February, but I thought it would be fun to share some work-in-process! I've basically decided on the format on the far right, but am still working on refining colors. If you know Jameson's famous book, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, you will see that the image here is a play on that book cover (which uses Any Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes), relating it to the title of the lecture: "The Aesthetics of Singularity." This visual reference will *hopefully* be recognized by more than one academic walking around campus. Either way, I'm sure the name Jameson (conveniently HUGE, if you didn't notice) will catch their eye, so hopefully we'll get a good turnout. :)

Movie Screening Poster

I recently made this movie "poster" for a screening a friend is hosting this week. I had so many ideas with the camp theme of the movie, but decided to go with the friendship bracelet angle. It was a fun project!

Chalk Board

Before they were trendy (or maybe the 1st time they were?!?), my grandmother had a huge chalkboard in her kitchen, with a weekly schedule, important phone numbers, etc. At the top, she had written "The Hurrier I Go, the Behinder I Get." For as long as I remember, that sentence had already been there so long that the chalk had cemented on there; it would never wash off! When I saw this chalkboard for sale at a garage sale for just $3, I had to get it! I mounted it to my wall with some of those crazy strong velcro mounting strips, and have been enjoying it ever since.

I plan to change the quote/drawing every few weeks. And right now, you'll see I have marked down a few goals for January...go ahead and read them...maybe then I'll be accountable to actually getting them done!

Photo offers a sneak peek at my bulletin board, which I am also pretty proud of...will post about that soon!

Hometown Pride

While at home for the holidays I spied this sign in the grocery store. I think its a very well-designed display, and I love that they said "ridiculously proud." Go AE Dairy! (Thanks to sister Em for the i-phone photo!)