Hooray for Nature!

We got some amazing news this morning from Spark Awards, an international design competition based out of the Bay Area—we won Bronze for the planter design! Woohoo! Design Night was recognized along with many heavyweights including IDEO, fuseproject and Smart Design. Not bad for a side project. Great job, Dominic!

Fall in Portland

There are beautiful hues in the hills and streets of Portland right now. During a walk in Forest Park with Ruby, we shot some photos using Shake It Photo, an app that makes photos look like Polaroids. It even shakes to "develop" the pictures!

Man Shops Globe

Last night, Dominic and I caught the first episode of Man Shops Globe on iTunes. I passionately love Anthropologie and loved how the show gave a little insight on the stores brand. You know what was my favorite component of the show? The gorgeous video promo that Stefanie Augustine and Adam Gault put together (Googled it). I love the cut out texures, hand drawn/cut illustrations and rough animation. Simply beautiful! I have my eyes set on one of those rich-colored, felt throws that is in the second frame.

About to take the plunge

We’re getting our ducks in order for Monday’s premiere when we contact blogs and publications to promote our ceramic planter. Here are some design concept...I’m having a hard time committing to a look.

Branding for a new product

So we are a month or so away from unveiling a new product that Dominic designed (very exciting). In the meantime, I’m brainstorming on some looks to promote the product (press release, photography, web graphics, etc.). Here’s a visual hint.

Focal Length Designs

An email with this etsy item was sent around our studio today and I had to share it! A local photographer/designer creates these beautiful bracelets from broken camera lenses. I LOVE it—such a simple and great idea!

Current color love

I didn’t realize I had a favorite color combo until recently I noticed a pattern in my choices. Red and magenta are two colors that I’ve subconsciously chosen in some recent purchases (i.e. Rob Ryan’s beautiful lasercut card, fragrant soap and incense from Anthropologie). I have’t used any of the items because the design and packaging are so pretty.

A belated Thank You

Right before the holidays, our Nature Boy/Nature Girl gocco bags were featured on DesignSponge thanks to the talented Abigail Percy, who included them in her gift/wish list. Thank you, Abigail!!!

Andrew Bannecker

Illustrator: Andrew Bannecker

I love discovering beautiful design in unexpected places (like during a 10 hour flight). On our flight to Copenhagen, I fell in love with the cover of the Hemisphere magazine. After a little investigating, I was able to find out who the illustrator was.

The bearded guy and smoking girl with the umbrella remind me of hip Portlanders (even though Portlanders don’t use umbrellas).

Greetings from Scandinavia

We’re back from our amazing Christmas trip to Scandinavia. Here are just a few highlights from our trip.


One of my favorite souvenirs was this delicate, beaded band that I purchased while in Stockholm at Lo. The background is the torn cover from the airplane magazine, Hemisphere.


This is Lo resizing my ring. She was so sweet and charming. She gave us a glass of glögg while we waited and chatted.




Last May, I saw this cool Japanese book about Scandinavian patterns and textiles on the blog, Book By Its Cover. After many phone calls (Kinokuniya and Amazon.com) and Google searching, I pouted and reluctantly gave up since the book was out of publication. So I freaked out and bought this tea towel and jar at Design Torget in Malmö.