In honor of all our favorite women this Mother’s Day, here’s our latest desktop wallpaper download. We hope your computer likes it as much as we do!

1280 x 800 | 1280 x 1024 | 1440 x 900 | 1600 x 122 | 1680 x 1050

this is the third post in a three-part series

Moving into a new place is exciting! Well, packing boxes and lugging a mattress up three flights isn’t super fun, but *being in* a new place is cause for celebration. Inspired by the prints we designed with traditional good wishes for a happy home (which we wrote about here) each of us created an inspiration board to help you give the best housewarming gifts. Eve

1. Diner Style Bread Bin 2. Mr. & Mrs. Muse Salt & Pepper Shakers
3. Curious & Co. Home Print 4. Meyer Lemon Candle
5. Ballard Bee Company Honey 6. Red Dust Pan
7. Viva Glassware Wine Decanter 8. Weathered Wire Vintage Gym Basket

In case you don’t have X-ray vision, the print reads: “May this home always have bread, that we never go hungry; salt, that life may always have flavor; a candle, to light the dark times; honey, to remember life’s sweetness; a broom, to sweep troubles away; wine, that joy and prosperity may reign forever.”

Head on over to our shop to buy one for you, and one for a friend! Check out Terry and Maggie’s posts for even more inspiration.

This morning I am getting lost in the whimsical collage work of Japanese artist Takashi Iwasaki. There is a spot in my daughter’s nursery that’s just screaming out for the confetti piece, which was featured in the October 2010 Vogue.

images via Takashi Iwasaki

this is the second post in a three-part series

Moving into a new place is exciting! Well, packing boxes and lugging a mattress up three flights isn’t super fun, but *being in* a new place is cause for celebration. Inspired by the prints we designed with traditional good wishes for a happy home (which we wrote about here) each of us created an inspiration board to help you give the best housewarming gifts. Ever.

1. Wine 2. Himalayan Salt Slab 3. Curious & Co. Home Print 4. Vegetable Wax Candle 5. Baguette 6. Wild Raspberry Honey 7. Dustpan & Brush 8. Felt Basket

The inspiration print reads: “May this home always have bread, that we never go hungry; salt, that life may always have flavor; a candle, to light the dark times; honey, to remember life’s sweetness; a broom, to sweep troubles away; wine, that joy and prosperity may reign forever.”

Head on over to our shop to buy one for you, and one for a friend! Stay tuned for picks from Brooke and check out Terry’s picks.

This Saturday, April 6, our awesome clients from Waffatopia will be celebrating their grand opening at the Artisan Exchange in West Chester, PA, not far from our east coast office. We had such a blast working on this project, from creating the original design concepts to putting the finishing touches on their website… and of course taste testing their delicious product. (Hey, any committed designers must be well-versed in their client’s product, right?)

It’s important to us to create an identity for our clients that is not only attractive, but also conceptual and representative of that individual brand. In the case of Waffatopia, we created a color palette that represents the sweet & savory options that can be paired with their waffles; the “wafts,” as we lovingly refer to them, are indicative of the delightful smells and tastes of the delicious waffles themselves. It was also imperative that we create a design that accurately captures the personality of the company (and its enthusiastic owners, Andrea and Brian). The secondary marks put a different spin on the established color palette and allow the client to have some versatility, depending on their needs.

The sleek business cards, offset printed on a heavy silk finish card stock with spot varnish “wafts” on the back, make just the statement that Andrea and Brian were hoping for. They recently relayed to us that more than once upon handing a card to someone, they were asked if they bought into a franchise based on the polished look of the logo and business card. That is perhaps the greatest compliment we could receive as designers who strive to make any business stand out with exceptional design — whether it be a startup or a well established organization.

We continued to work off of the established color palette and design elements when creating the Waffatopia website; this is the place to go if you want to drool over the unique combinations of this sweet and savory delicacy and learn about their upcoming events.

Check out our portfolio for more about this awesome project and client — and if you’re in the area, be sure to visit them (and eat lots of waffles, of course) at the Artisan Exchange in West Chester this Saturday from 10am to 2pm!