Sea of Shoes

Lately I have been obsessed with fashion: fashion movies, fashion blogs, fashionable clothes (which hurts the wallet, but hey, what can a girl do?) Here are my top 3:

Valentino The Last Emperor. This is a must see for anyone interested in fabulous evening wear, and never mind the great dynamic between 70+ year old Valentino and his partner of 50 years, Giancarlo.

Style Rookie: Tavi is a 13 year old girl, living in Chicago’s suburbs, who has been invited to almost all of Fashion Week’s runway shows to report on her fashion blog and in her rookie style. With an average of 130 comments on each of her blog postings, it’s no wonder she is the blogger of the moment. The best part?…designers are asking her to help style and create their look.

Sea of Shoes: ANOTHER teenager fashion blogger! I love it. Remember during the dot.com boom when business-folk were up in arms about 26 year old creative directors telling them what to do to make money? Imagine how the fashion industry feels now. Take that Anna Wintor!

Hello Designers wants to give a big warm hug to everyone who helped make our first year in business a BIG sucess. We have a lot of exciting new developments right around the corner, but we are still keeping it on the DL until we are ready to share. (I am so bad at secrets, I’ll give you a hint: product lines and partnerships, but don’t tell anyone I told you:)

What a better way to introduce the new year with Pantone’s 2010 color of the year, drumroll please… Turquoise (PMS 15-5519)! “In many cultures, Turquoise is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky.” It reminds me of my Mexican honeymoon last May. Now, present day, in Chicago it’s a balmy 16 degrees. A girl can dream, right?

Planning your own wedding? Get ready for this, Pantone has tools and inspirations for wedding colors too! Check out my photographer, Edyta’s, blog for all the details.

We spent most of our weekend watching Ovation TV, I just can’t get enough! Could I be a better target audience for shows like, Everything Is Art, featuring John Maeda and MUJI?

Or Designer Profiles with Stella McCartney? My favorite part is when she casually said after graduation she rang a few editors from fashion mags to come check out her show during London Fashion Week. And, not surprisingly they showed up. Do you think she mentioned her last name?? She is an absolute doll and extraordinarily talented…and now affordable too! I was not surprised to see her latest line with The Gap for kids out this fall.

copyright: Stella McCartney for the Gap

I have followed John Maeda for years ever since I saw him speak at and AIGA Chicago event called Guru or Garbage. He is one of my favorite graphic designers and speakers, and now I love his sneakers. In his segment of Everything Is Art he explained the concept behind his Reebok collaboration. There is so much depth and soul (literally) in his work that I would love to own a pair, but never wear them. Is that wrong?

take some time to reflect

In my Yoga Journal Magazine this month there is a great article about wisdom and I want to share a moment of reflection for your busy day: Close your eyes and ask yourself

“When I am not busy, not productive, who am I? When I am not thinking, not moving or not emotionally engaged, who am I?”

Instead of looking for a verbal answer, tune into the space that opens up inside of you right after the question. It is an interesting take on YOU. Now exhale. Here are a few tips on how to savor life’s delights, which is right in tune with our Just Because series. Take some time for you- just because.

Yep, it’s that time of year again. AIGA Chicago is ramping up our sponsorship for 2010.  You aren’t going to believe what we have in store for Twenty-Ten! As the Developmental Co-Chair, I want to introduce two fantastic peeps who are joining me this year:

Francine Carlino has been part of AIGA Chicago since 1998 after moving from Indiana where she started her career as a graphic designer for a state bank and a printing company. After moving to Chicago she worked for one of the major accounting firms as a graphic designer for seven years. In 2005 Francine joined the sales and marketing force at Finch Paper where she continued her support with AIGA Chicago. Francine currently runs her own design studio, focusing on high-end custom invitations, cards, stationery, unique gifts, and décor.

Rosemary Walker and the Creative Circle crew (much love!)
A proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Rosemary Walker started her career as an Account Manager with a firm focused on healthcare marketing before making the transition to a relationship management role within recruitment for advertising and marketing. Rosemary has been with national creative staffing agency Creative Circle for four years and currently manages the Chicago office. In this role, she has leveraged her exposure to the creative and strategic process to partner with clients and help identify talent that will strengthen their creative impact. Rosemary has built relationships with hundreds of names across the design, advertising and marketing industry. Her daily exposure to talent requests and candidate portfolios provides her with an active pulse on the status and future of the Chicago design community.
Next week I am going to give you direct access to our 2009 Sponsors, be on the look out..

Rebranded American Flag

Gotta love Bono. In this Sunday’s NYTimes Bono wrote an article, Rebranding America, about the global view of Obama as a world celebrity with big britches to fill. He questions America’s view of Obama as clouded. The world wants Obama to succeed and in turn, wants to love America, just as much as we want to be loved. (I can see a song forming here!)

With right-winged news affiliates like FOX News barking  to who ever will listen, it is hard to hear the viewpoints of people outside our boarders. It was an interesting article, with eye opening ideas, but not a how-to rebrand “America.”

From a proactive point of view, we have started the rebranding process by electing Obama. A brand is something you can’t see, but something you feel. It is something a collective group feels in their gut, and once it becomes a united effort, your brand, in this case America, is defined. With our internal divisions and media gossip it is hard to form our own opinions about America, but Bono starts that conversation. I appreciated the clarity Bono shines on our clouded  state of being.

Here is the full article.