I’m SO excited to announce a new collaboration series between cassie and myself ( bre ) : Branding Backwards. Of course we loved bringing you Recreate It posts weekly, but after 20 weeks, we felt it was time to move on. Being that Cassie and I are both graphic designers who love branding, we thought it would be neat to focus on identities this time, and work backwards to their beginnings. I find making moodboards to be extremely therapeutic, so this new bi-monthly series is right up my alley! Our goal is to pick out brands we love and dissect them. Essentially, we will be coming up with moodboards that match the aesthetic of a brand for exploration + inspiration!

First up for me is Mignon Kitchen Co. I fell in love with this little shop and their brand within seconds of seeing it. Their overall look is light and airy with a hint of modern flair in their logo. Everything is extremely simple, but done with care. See that little swoop in the “O” of “MIGNON?” Yeah, that’s my favorite.

mignon / landscape / woman / palm trees / floral print / j’adore / breanna rose

I thought I’d switch things up a little this week with a different type of inspiration and a fresh layout.  Fashion editorials are always pushing the envelop with creative concepts, so much in fact that they are truly works of art.  When I first got into graphic design, I really wanted to work for a fashion magazine – it would be impossible for me to not be bursting with ideas for layouts when you have material like this to work with!  This spread is from JNC magazine…I am blown away by how well the saturated color and the devoid thereof pair so well to build this ethereal story.  I had a lot of fun putting this week’s post together – hope you enjoy!

Editorial from JNC Magazine via Behance

How is everyone today. I hope you are enjoying the changing seasons and feeling the need to do some spring cleaning. I’ve been throwing stuff away like a mad woman, and boy does it feel good!

Today we are gaining some more insights about home styling and design from stylist Kirsten Grove of Simply Grove blog. Her design vision is just amazing and picking her brain has been truly insightful.

If you missed the first week of tip/suggestions, go check it out, and don’t forget to stop over at Simply Grove to see my latest color palettes!

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I’m a self-admitted paper hoarder, so it’s probably only natural that I find paper collages to be the holy grail of all pulp and fiber-based delights.  Artist Jessica Bell created these patchwork-like beauties; I chose these particular two works to share here because I love the neat, meticulous folds in the first, and the more haphazard, free approach in the second. Both pieces have stellar compositions and color palettes that I find very appealing.  It’s always commendable when an artist can make his or her work seem effortless – which is how these read to me -  although careful thought and multiple attempts at reworking probably went into the end result.  I hope you enjoy this week’s post!

Art via Jessica Bell

Today’s RECREATE IT comes from one of my favorite + new magazines out there, Wayfare. They’re a travel magazine, which obviously helps satisfy the little travel bug in me … for now. Here’s the thing about their spreads : alignment is spot on.

Often times, you’ll find that they use their strong imagery to help guide where type sits on the page. In this case, they fit their spread’s paragraph in the crook of the centered chair, which makes everything a little off kilter and perfect. In my example, you can see that I used the pole to left align my text, and then vertically centered the two lines between what was above and below them. There’s always little hints here and there to help you decide where to place text, you just have to look!

wayfare / quicksand / photo / breanna rose

If I was absolutely forced to choose a favorite artist, I would probably name Winston Chmielinski as my guy.  His use of color is unparalleled, the variation in texture is delicious, and the sheer amount of detail that goes into his work is mind-blowing.  I’ve shared some of his paintings on my blog before, but I had a feeling that Veda House readers might really enjoy Chmielinski’s art too…so I couldn’t resist spreading the word!  Isn’t his new work gorgeous?  Winston updates his portfolio/blog pretty frequently – LOTS of eye candy over there if you want more…

Art by Winston Chmielinski

Here is a spread from the latest RUE magazine that caught my eye. But why?? Key word : multiply. See how the right image of water is sort of translucent over the right image? Well, it’s not exactly opacity we’re dealing with here. Have you ever tried setting layers of images in photoshop to “multiply?” You can get some pretty neat effects from doing so, just try! The colors evolve in all sorts of new ways!!

rue magazine / bauer bodoni / franklin gothic / photo one / photo two / breanna rose

Hi guys. Today marks the start of a new fun little project on both my blog and over at Kirsten’s blog, Simply Grove. I’ve admired Kirsten’s eye for styling and found her little space of the internet to be quite inspiring. She seems to just “get it” when it comes to home interiors, so I’ve enlisted her expertise.

Here’s how it’s going to work:
Every other week I’m going to send Kirsten some images of interior spaces that have been particularly inspiring to me. She’s going to study them and then provide some styling suggestions for each space. I’ll then share her suggestions with you and we can continue to chat about it.

I really look forward to gaining a little more knowledge about styling from a professional level and you never know how this will help us transform our own spaces, right?

Also, head on over to Simply Grove for my post series called The Perfect Palette. I’ll be sharing some colorful spaces and their color palettes! Don’t forget to check back in a couple weeks for some more tips and suggestions from Kirsten :)

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We’re finally back at it with another “Trending Graphics”over at Design For Mankind. Things have hit a little crazy patch over here. Last Friday I was sharing a new graphic trend that was all about black and white packaging. One of my biggest pet peeves about the packaging industry is that most packages are cluttered with unnecessary “stuff”. I loved how the simplicity of black and white was paired with the simplicity of design elements. Hop on over to see some examples!

Previous Trends:
Week 1 // Geometric Assembly
Week 2 // Typographic Packaging
Week 3 // Double Exposure
Week 4 // Vintage Inspired Graphics
Week 5 // Ampersand Love
Week 6 // Iconography
Week 7 // Handwritten
Week 8 // Bold Brush Strokes

* The above image is from All Things Stylish on Tumblr

It’s very hard for me to resist a color palette that conjures up a bright summer day at the beach (especially when you’re stuck in Seattle’s winter gloom!)  These acrylic sculptures from Phillip Low are the perfect antidote to my current battle against gray skies and rain.  For me, art is something I instantly turn to when I want to remedy a bad mood!  I hope this post brightens your day right up too, wherever you may be.

Art by Phillip Low