amanda briggs at dear ada

3 favorites of the week: 8.20

gadget girl flickr set. wonderful, stylized photography of flowers. great colors.

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xocoa chocolate. great packaging graphics. and for god's sake, it's chocolate.

kajander cv. wonderful, fresh example of a resume. love the graphics, the storytelling, the layout. I'd certainly notice this one in a stack of the usual resumes.

I heart Janet Julian's work.

I love the work of the artist Janet Julian. Her pieces are very surrealistic and roughly crafted, collaged on scraps of wood, old tole paintings and cigar boxes. She uses images cut from old greeting cards and photo's as a part of her wonderfully rich and beautifully colored paintings. Janet's work feels like folk art meets found art meets dada and I think she's definitely an artist worth watching. She's launching a new site, so soon everyone can get a piece her work for their very own (I'll keep you posted as to when it goes live). Until then, here are a couple of amazing Janet Julian pieces to wet your appetite.

Hick's pattern.

One of my favorite things about the style of David Hicks is the fabulous geometric patterns he used. These strong, ordered patterns remind me of gentlemen's ties blown out big and made into rugs. For me, it's the mix of these patterns with the glamour of Louis XV chairs, the simplicity of lucite side tables, the exoticness of primitive accessories, the tailored modernity of the simple couches he favored, the bold, confident use of color, that makes David Hicks approach to design so captivating and timeless.

random doodle.

another hollywood regency predecessor.

Don't you love learning new stuff? Thanks to this months house & garden article graphic novel, I learned about another Hollywood Regency predecessor, John Elgin Woolf. As a young architect in the 1930's he, like the interior designer William Haines, aspired to be a movie actor, and again like Haines, when that dream didn't pan out, went on to design the homes of Hollywood's rich and famous. "Woolf was one of a cadre of mid-century style setters, including interior designers William Haines and Dorothy Draper, who borrowed from a pastiche of historical styles, from neoclassicism to French Regency to Art Deco, and updated them with such luxe modern materials as Lucite and tortoiseshell leather. The style now known as Hollywood Regency owes a major debt to its cinematic setting." Drama, lux, sexiness, sophistication all brought to life through the mix of styles and materials from many eras and design movements. With folks like Kelly Wearstler, Jonathan Adler and the like, it's obvious that the style foundations of Hollywood Regency established by Woolf, Draper and Haines are withstanding the test of time. Smart mix is hard to do, but when done well, the excitement and energy it creates can't be beat in my book.

dressing for fall.

There's an article in real simple this month that is a wonderful iteration of the perfect uniform. The article, the well-balanced wardrobe, uses the food pyramid as a model for thinking about what to have in your wardrobe. Lot's of basics on the "bottom", a few pattern's and special silhouettes in the "middle" and a "show stopper" on the top for special occasions. I'm not really into the pyramid construct but totally like the list they've made for what they're calling basics. To me that's the perfect uniform, with the addition of unique vintage or seasonal trendiness to augment the stuff that works everyday. At the end of the day, the perfect uniform is an idea about being freed up, feeling comfortable everyday and expressing who I am, at the age I am, in an easy and confident way. The goal is to step off the gerbil fashion wheel my friend and settle down when it comes to getting dressed in the morning. And this article has a fabulous list to start with, even if you don't get everything on it:

• black tank-not on my list
• crewneck sweater-they recommend opting for thin knits in cotton or wool.
• jeans-I love levi's 501's and then a couple of really trendy, expensive ones for the season.
• long-sleeve white tee-they recommend american apparel. I also like j. crew.
• khakis-not a must in my world, but still a good basic if you need it.
• black turtleneck-cashmere for sure.
• white button-down-yes, yes, yes.
• long-sleeve black tee-I only have one, but should get more because they are great.
• cardigan-again cashmere here.
• short-sleeve white tee-they recommend going for cheap ones because white tee's get gross fast.
• black pants-not on my list and I won't be adding it.
• denim jacket-they recommend darker wash.
• short-sleeve black tee-again american apparel, j.crew and, as with all the tees, petit bateau is another great source.

I think this is a great start, sans some of the pants since I don't have to dress up all the time at work. I'd add some great printed or patterned skirts, a couple of fabulous blouses, run the basic sweaters in lot's of colors, add some vintage jewelery and call it a day. That's my personal perfect uniform. It'll be different for someone else, of course. Whatever the look, the concept is the same. Easy, expressive, confident, fun, comfortable and signature. And then on to the rest of the day. Works for me!

wild beast.

To make sure that there is a balance between all the design, art, graffiti on trains posts and some other interesting stuff, let's pause for a moment and reflect on Ruppert in the garden. So wild, so majestic. A finer beast is hard to imagine. Ah, Sir Ruppert.

And now back to our regular programing.

pattern lust.

There are days I surf the web and find nothing. Or barely nothing. And then there are days like today when I stumble on a site that absolutely blows my mind, thanks to a blog post from a site I've never linked to before. Well, that's today's story. Thanks to a post I found on the that's hot blog, I discovered the amazing site berlin tapete which features the above wallpaper designs among many, many others. Down at the bottom of the site in the middle row, is the section called fancy designs. Go there immediately. There are other section choices and you can also customize your own wallpaper on the site, but first, go to the fancy designs section. Do not stop, do not pass go. Once there, check out design 20er I, II, III. Not to blather on, but I haven't seen anything this fresh and inspiring in quite a while. I love the reinterpertation of art nouveau, william morris type layouts and motifs coupled with such fresh and unexpected color combinations. So good. Oh, so fabulous. So very, be still me heart.

And thanks too, to the wonderful site design sponge for the link to that's hot blog.

interlocked beauty.

In the spirit of undying pattern love, check out the wonderful work of lily yung die cut panels and webs. Made from 100% wool felt, "the die cut units are assembled by hand to form tactile, 3-D patterns". So smart, beautiful and fresh! Thanks to moco loco for the tip.

3 favorites of the week: 8.13

I'm going to institute a new category 3 new favorite links of the week on dear ada. I saw something like this on some site I'd read a few months back and I thought it was a great idea. So here you have it. I'm going to assume that I'm linking to stuff lot's of people already know about and I'm just late to somebody's party. I guess that's the nature of the web. You're always outside of some cool thing. I'm going to just embrace my uncoolness and do this anyway. So here we go for this week. I hope you enjoy what I found.

1. lucy pepper, blogzira. Very funny, well written, wonderfully illustrated. Thanks to learning daily for the link.

2. heritage scrapebooks. Over 1500 images of amazing heritage scrapbooks from the last 300 years.

3. meiri ishida jewelery. Surprising felt, fiber and metal jewelery design. Thanks to valdemar lindekrantz for this link.