Back to school: Map Making class

Back in February, I signed up for Anne Ditmeyer's online Map Making class on an impulse. That decision turned out to be a very good one because I had lots of fun and the class got me thinking about maps in new, creative ways. And because everyone had a different approach to the map tasks, I got lots of inspiration just from checking out my classmates' projects.

Here's a snippet from my treasure-hunt-food-map final project:



The idea was to create a series of cards with clues & a map on each of them that would lead you to my favourite spots & restaurants around the E-dae area in Seoul, South Korea.

I didn't even manage to finish designing cards for all the locations I had in mind when the class ended, so it was a nice surprise to find out that my little project had been included in Anne's 'Best of Maps!' roundup. Thanks, Anne!

She'll be teaching the class again, starting on 28 May, and I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in travel, design, or maps! This post isn't sponsored, I just really enjoyed taking this class :) I'm sure it'll be a bit different this time around, but if you want to have a rough idea of what it will be like, have a look at my project page.

Happy mapping!

Word.

Loving these AWESOME bible-inspired posters by Jim LePage, from his project Word. In my mind there's often a dichotomy between 'God stuff' and 'design stuff', but this proves that there needn't be such a distinction. These are just a few of my favourites; check out his portfolio for more designs and tongue-in-cheek explanations about the inspiration behind each image.

(All images belong to Jim LePage. Found via Abduzeedo)

Vintage collages

The person behind these collages is Kareem Rizk, an artist who's based in Melbourne, Australia. I love the textures and muted colours that he uses.

He creates both digital and handmade mixed-media collages and it's pretty incredible that it's hard to tell them apart! You can find many more of his pieces on his website, or his Etsy page.

(Found via Abduzeedo)

How clever

This crinkled glass cup by Dutch artist Rob Brandt and perpetual calendar by More Trees are both so cleverly designed!

I'm especially fascinated by the glass - I could spend hours staring at it.

Found via b for bonnie and swissmiss.

"Make something already!"

..is something I often say to myself and I think projects and competitions are great ways to get started. So here a here's a round-up of a few that are happening right now:

Azzari's holding a lovely spring photo swap over at The Sweet Light. Be quick, it ends today (April 1)!

Doodlers Anonymous invites you to draw a calendar for the month of April, with a chance to be featured in their illustrated calendar if you win. There were some amazing entries for February - they made me feel like doodling right away! This ends on April 6.

If book-covers are your thing, the Re-covered Books contest by The Fox Is Black is for you. This time, the tome undergoing a makeover is The Odyssey by Homer, which should be fun! It closes on April 15.

Or, if you're feeling ambitious, you could try making something everyday instead.

Have fun snapping/doodling/designing!

P.S. Try typing 'Helvetica' into the Google search bar! Happy April 1st!

I Never Saw the Sign

I love this whimsical wall decal by David Bray on Blik, which I spotted on Doodlers Anonymous today. I also can't believe I only found out about their 'Doodle Our Wall' contest after it ended, because the post got buried under the mountain of yet-to-be-read content on my feedly. Looks like it's time for some reorganization!

How do you sort out the content from the blogs or pages that you follow effectively? If you've got a great tip, I'd love to hear it!

Atherton Lin

I discovered Atherton Lin's amazing 2011 calendar on The Fox is Black today, and was so enthralled by its delicate watercolour images and hand-drawn style that I immediately visited their site, hoping to buy one even though it's already March. Alas, all their 2011 calendars are sold out, which is not at all surprising, given that no one other than me would be silly enough to buy a calendar three months into the year.

But the good news is that they're generously making each month's schedule available as a desktop wallpaper on their site. Just in time for March too!


edit: I'm making a few adjustments to the blog layout, my apologies if the site looks weird or terrible at the moment. The regular layout will be back really soon (I hope!)

Bunny Year

One of the reasons why I love being Chinese is because we get to celebrate New Year's twice. The Lunar New Year is here again, which means an unending stream of visits, angpows and good food!



Here's a simple vector-style desktop wallpaper I created for the New Year. The great thing about this wallpaper is that you can keep it and then reuse it when the Year of the Rabbit comes around again, in 11 years' time.

(1280 x 800 available for download here)

Alright, I'm off to eat MORE pineapple tarts, love letters and bak kwa.

Happy Lunar New Year friends! Have a good weekend!