DESIGN outside the box

Although my main interest lies with print design, I do, from time to time, get caught up with a piece of architecture. Generally speaking, I don't really understand the push to design buildings in a fantastical way for the sake of being fantastical. It seems an awful waste of money and resources to make a building into an arbitrary shape for the sake of making something that doesn't relate to anything around it.

I suppose I understand that the monotony of modern cityscapes is probably the reason many of us suffer from perpetual depression... But it seems like the building needs to have a function or a reason in order for me to truely appreciate its fantasticalness. Perhaps its just that, not coming from an architectural or spacial design background, the functionality or purpose isn't apparent, but I fear that many times the reason for building something out of place is purely for the self-importance of the architect or commissioner to leave their mark as being different.

The Ted talk shown here was referred to me by a coworker during one of our long commute-discussions. Although being stuck in the car for 4 hours every work day is a huge drag and can be a sacrifice in terms of work-life balance on those days, the opportunity to share experiences, stories, reflections on the day or other events and just basically working through ideas is invaluable. You learn about so many little tidbits of life and get new perspectives on seemingly unsolvable problems.

Yesterday we were talking about everything from marketing strategies and of tragedies of Groupon to the definition of prostitution and somehow this Ted talk came up. It profiles a company who's sole purpose is to think outside the box. But the results are by no means arbitrary or purely aesthetic, they truly take into account the idea of the human experience and although still fanciful and fantastical, can be distilled down to the very essence of an experience.

Who knew seeds are so... British?

Obsessed with Letterpress

If you haven't discovered Pugly Pixel, you're missing out big time. Literally, everything, including the kitchen sink, and then some... The blog site is chalked full of tutorials, tips and leads on design tools including a market place or subscription option for monthly goodies. I just discovered Katrina's site and have so far enjoyed learning how to tie a bow tie, collected some great new photoshop brushes and were inspired by cupcake colour palettes!

Check out her tutorial for creating digital Letterpress effects in photoshop. I get the oxymoron of digital letterpress, but hey, not all of us are blessed with the tools for the craft so if we can fake it with style and not cheese, its as close as many of us will ever get.

Enjoy! And thanks Katrina!

Reving up

Sorry for the silence of late. I've had tonnes going on and really want to explore all the thoughts whizzing around my head of late, but time has just caused forced TidBits to slip on the priority list. I promise I'll take some time in the next day or so to post!

DESIGN confidence

I just ordered Creative, Inc authored by Oh Joy!'s Joy D. Cho and Meg M. Ilasco (author of Craft, Inc.) and am antsy for it to come in the mail. Just recently, my freelance business has surged with a couple of jobs that offsprouted into several more and because I haven't experienced this level of interest before, am not about to turn any down incase the well dries up again.

I am learning some very important lessons in the process in terms of client relations, how to stand up for myself, when to keep my mouth shut, what battles are worth fighting and when do my design principles trump the payout... None of which I've really ironed out yet and constantly live in fear that I've screwed up somehow in how I conduct my "business." It's very weird to think of myself as running a business which just reinforces how badly I need to know more about the ins and outs of being a freelance designer.

I have resisted taking on "real" jobs because of my inexperience with business. I don't know legal mumbo jumbo and don't know how to make it work to my advantage (tax deductions, km for my car etc.) I just know that people know how to work the system and I am so naive that undoubtably I'll end getting taken advantage of.

The one thing I've taken away in the last 6 months is confidence is the key. Stand behind your worth, believe in your skills, stand tall and exude a professionalism that doesn't allow clients to undercut you. Confidence is something I struggle with a lot but have held my chin up and had the attitude if I can see myself as a strong, wicked professional, who can question it? Its a tough balance between having confidence and coming across egotistical. You need trust and not resentment.

Needing to not take things personally is second. Something I've had to employ a LOT during one of my latest projects where I was hired for my skills but have been widdled down to something a kin to a trained monkey. A tough lesson but gained respect from those on the team who know what's involved with doing the dance and delivering a product that meets objectives but keeps the masses happy. The balance of design principles vs. giving them what they want.

Anyway, I'm hoping this book, written by 2 sage women in the industry, will help clear up some of those tougher lessons and warn of impending scenarios that every freelancer is sure to encounter.

Below is the ladies uber-creative promo video for the book. So cute!

DESIGN subpixel rendering

GEEK MOMENT WARNING:

I have just been thrust into the world of online design, kicking and screaming. I feel safe and secure with my print world. There are edges, dimensions and, well, substance. But as I feared, the day has come where I needed to step up to the challenge or retreat into the world of out-of-touch designers who tote themselves as having a craft rather than embracing the fact that our world is changing at lightning speeds.

Don't get me wrong. I think it a fundamental necessity to know your craft and the basics before getting dirty in the flashy stuff, but at a certain point we, or I suppose I, as money-making professionals need to be able to deliver the goods or else clients go elsewhere, like to nephews and friends who know the programs but don't know how to design. It's important that if we want to have the right to bitch about bad online design and advertising, that we know what we're talking about. We need to take the skills we've learned and adapt them to the digital world.

The marketing coordinator I work with is keen to jump on any opportunity that might benefit us by reaching an ever narrowing audience. Working for a museum, the next generation is always the ones we need to grab and identify with or else we too will find ourselves as extinct as our specimens. Finding the balance between talking with a fresh and modern voice and still being relevant to our aging audience is tough. You want to appeal on some level to them all but yet not become too much of one or the other, unless of course that is the mandate of your museum.

So, full circle, last week I was presented with the task of designing 3 flash ads in 3 days and having never opened the program. So I took to free online tutorials (most of which were garbage) getting bits and pieces of advice from whomever passed by that knew ANYTHING about flash and losing a lot of hair. One of my tasks was to design an ad for mobile devices in 4 increasingly small formats, all the way down to 120x20 pixels at 72dpi. AND the files couldn't exceed 5KB. 5KB!! I didn't even know you could save that small!

As expected, type falls apart when you only have 10-15 pixels of height to work with. Although its a reality all web and online designers face, I was sure there was something that could be done.

Well, I found a bit of a solution and am sharing with all you type geeks out there:

Simulating sub-pixel rendering

Deke's Techniques | by Deke McClelland

View this entire Photoshop course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

DESIGN dna

I've been fascinated with HGTV's 'Design DNA' (really bad website...) but only catch it on occasion because for some reason my pvr refuses to record it as a series. Just between you and me, I think its jealous because it knows its a clunky, awkward, first generation piece of junk and has issues with me watching a show dedicated to objects of good design.

The show profiles products and objects with good design that we may take for granted because of just that; they're so well designed that we take their functionality and aesthetics for granted. It's so true how only once you get to know the background of some"thing" can you really appreciate it.

The latest episode I saw profiled the Jacuzzi tub (missed that segment), the Alessi bird kettle and the Umbra Oh chair. The one that really got me was the kettle. Growing up I'd been vaguely aware of the tea kettle that looked somewhat like a big-peoples fisher price play thing. When in design school, my Design History 101 instructor was going on and on about how when she worked for Michael Graves blah blah blah and brought up the kettle as a mastery of design. I suppose to her, knowing its background and particulars, it was an object of affection but I just didn't get the hype. All I knew was that "designer" people understood its virtues and I did not. It had a plastic bird on the end and a chunky handle. So what? Doubting my place in the design world, I squirreled it away and only took slight notice when it gained media buzz once more as an item anyone could get at Target. I'm sure millions of college students bought one because of the kitsch factor but, like me, didn't really get its significance.

After watching a 6 minute segment, something clicked. The thought and detail behind every element. The fact that it has evolved over its 2 decade lifespan to accommodate the new induction stove tops (something I only recently discovered as well though my 3rd house building project.)

I couldn't download the specific episode that talked about the Alessi kettle, but I below is segment profiling Pyrex and all its wonderful properties. Don't knock it till you watch it...

FUN rocket John

A friend of mine stars in this little diddy as Rocket John. I get a kick out of it each time I watch it. It's so great to see creative people just having a really good time with their craft. Plus, the music gets stuck in my head.

ART watercolour; the unforgiven/ing

I stumbled upon Samantha Hahn's illustration during one of my daily jaunts around the design blog block. I was struck by the vivid colours she uses in her watercolour work. She clearly is a master of controlling the uncontrollable. Soft bleeds and floods of colour yet contained just enough. Her work displayed on her website portfolio has a strong fashion focus which I can imagine being an extremely difficult subject to portray in watercolour (getting just enough detail to be recognizably unique but retain an emotional feel through soft illustration) yet she is able to highlight the pieces beautifully with her technique and palettes.

Watercolour is a medium I yearn to master yet don't have the ability to throw caution tothe wind and let the life of the medium do its thing. The discomfort with its "unc

ontrollability factor" is something I have never overcome. I am acontrol freak to a fault and if it what is in my head doesn't immediately leap to the page, I have NO ability to just go with it. It's such an unforgiving medium yet those, like Samantha, who can so artfully let gravity, water, air and the other earthly elements just DO THEIR THING, the results are breathtaking.

Nearing the due date of my son in 2009, I was apparently high

on pregnancy hormones and agreed to do a contract while on leave for the museum I work for. Approaching their 25th anniversary, the museum was planning a silver celebration exhibit highlighting 25 of their most fantastic finds. Having worked closely with the hired illustrator (Julius Csotonyi) we had used on numerous previous projects, I felt comfortable with the relationship and agreed to try my hand at watercolour work while he provided the line art. I wanted this to be an opportunity to force myself to learn a new skill and breech that discomfort zone. Many hours were spent frustrated and hallucinating from lack of sleep as a brand new mother and late nights working on version after version of each painting. We are all our own worse critics, but I am so hard on myself. I had no technique and absolutely no idea what I was doing.

In the end I made it through and the final pieces look great in the space. The painted illustrations were used in print, ads, text panels and other misc. applications. Looking back, past the frustration and the tears, I'm really glad I pushed myself to try and therefore grew in the process.

Below are a few of the final paintings in the series.

DESIGN letterpress lovely

I am a huge fan of letterpress printing. Typographic elements take on a 3 dimensional life of their own. Soft impressions on soft paper.

I am totally in love with Madcat Press and their incredible design and print work.

I'm embarrassed to say that I've never been in the presence of a letter press machine and are pretty perplexed by the process, but are eager to get the opportunity. Get my hands dirty. See a pro at work whose results are textural, graphic, beautiful and done with care. Some of the best results are unexpected outcomes which just reinforces how mechanical craft over digital has so many virtues. The limited colour palette, the shallow impressions, misregistration; it all comes together in a treasure you can hold and feel and covet. My new goal is to understand the print process better from a mechanical, craft perspective. As a graphic designer, I've visited printers and been guided on tours which show their warehouses of industrial machines, whirring and clicking but haven't really understood the evolution.

My father, a communications professor, has written books on the process of communication. I remember as a child (too sick to go to school but surprisingly well enough to sit in on his classes...) listening to him teach about Gutenberg and the printing press. How this single invention truly revolutionized our society and brought ideas and academics to the masses. Fast-forward 20 years and now I make a living based on printing and bringing ideas to the masses through type and graphics arranged to communicate an idea. But I work in a very digital bubble. I design, have ideas, talk to printers about how to make those ideas come to fruition and then voila! The product is delivered to my doorstep, usually as predicted, sometimes not. But my design could be so much better if I understood the insides, the guts, the amazing potential and possibilities that can be produced with the right knowledge of the craft.

Now to find the time. Sigh.

Letterpress Poster Printing from Joshua Gerken on Vimeo.

FASHION purse 'N boots

To continue my mini theme on boots, I heard about this shoe designer on a recent CBC radio morning show. Pretty awesome idea but on radio I couldn't picture how they work. After spending some energy searching for these, I finally found them and were impressed. Form and function. A good mix. Now, if only I could wear boots with style! As earlier mentioned, I am no fashion plate, but surely appreciate and drool from afar!

Check out Elizabeth Anne's website and her blog, puss 'n boots on which she shares her love for fashion photography.

ARTS outside comfort zones

Recently, a group called Improv Everywhere (out of New York city,) did an improv stint at the Met where an actor impersonated King Philip IV in front of a recently restored figure painting of the monarch. Watching the video, the execution made me a tad uncomfortable, but was so happy to see people engaged in an environment which traditionally ends up being a very introverted experience.

After signing autographs for several minutes, a security guard became uncomfortable with the hallabaloo and asked both the king and his handler to leave. While exiting, the actor continued to sign photographs as people continued to ask for his X.

Why is it we are so uncomfortable with the idea of interaction? There are no laws against a guy dressing up in costume, and after a highly publicized restoration of the painting and announcement of its return to the gallery, why would the Met snuff at further free publicity? The buzz in the room was intoxicating and people were actually interested and engaged in conversation. Who is that guy? Why does he look like the guy in the painting? What is he handing out? How old is he supposed to be?

I think museums need to take a page from the IE book and figure out creative ways to engage their visitors. And not more bad onsite plays were a mediocre actor pretends to be a famous figure. The brillance of this stint was that it was subtle. No script, no wigs and no canned music.

I think they were pissed off just because they didn't think of it first!

FASHION: these boots were made for stompin'

I am not, by any means, a fashion plate, but I do appreciate good wearable design whether it be pretty, practical or whimsical. As the weather steadily improves in this part of the world, people are coming out of the woodwork and starting to sport shiny new spring attire. Perhaps a little premature for this climate, but with the first real melt of the season underway, kids everywhere are itching to pound some puddles!

I bought these for Sam last fall when I had no idea what size he would be this spring, but just couldn't pass up shark boots. After a brief stint outside, and a few wet falls trying to get a sense of balance under control when one's ankles are locked in a 90 degree position, the chill got to us and we had to move the fun inside. After refusing to allow me to take off the shiny new footwear, we made some puddles of our own.

DESIGN a disappearing art

Cd covers are such a fantastic opportunity for artists and designers to really sink their teeth into the creative process. There's something fantastic about designing based on another sense, like sound or taste. The fact the cover should say SOMETHING about the music offers both a challenge and an opportunity to really feel the subject matter.

But it seems the CD is a dying breed. With the advent of the digital era where everything is downloadable, where does that leave the case? I still enjoy buying cds (often from Starbucks) because I like having something to hold

in my hand. I like opening the cases (especially the cardboard ones with leaflets and lots of folds,) but that being said, once I get it home, I upload it to my various technology devices and the case gets shelved. Still, there's something great about that experience when you first open it.

True, even when you have your music in a digital library, most devices and programs want to give the listener some kind of visual so there is still a market for a design, but that's it. No typographically composed playlist, no cd label, no leaflet to pull from the envelope like a little treasure, no photos, no textured papers. It's too bad but a reality.

All that being said, with the uprise of the digital era has come other opportunities for design in the music world; websites, apps, ummm...

I guess that means as designers and artists we need to figure out ways to give that "added benefit" factor. Give the audience the something extra. I don't know what that is, whether its working with programers to give more control to individual cds in how they're presented within a library (going beyond just the album cover), or when you buy a cd you get a fantastic something in the mail (poster, collectable postcard, notecard...) I don't know, but I suppose when one door closes another opens with a creative opportunity waiting to be discovered.

Ruth Moody's Solo Album The Garden. Beautiful music and beautiful album design.

DESIGN Down Home Patterns

I've been making a point to look closer at the every day things in my home that have charm and that I take for granted everyday. Of course we all love the things we buy at the time because something in them struck us as having the "it" factor, but over time they become blasé as we see them every day. So, I'm making a point to open my eyes again and give my everyday things another look. Perhaps a closer look, perhaps just in another light. Either way, I hope to continue to refresh them from the function.

The shower curtain in the guest bath. Organic neutral lines but with lots of variation and texture close up:

Our upstairs couch cushions:

BRANDING crispy packaging

I recent bought some goat cheese encrusted with craisins and wanted something decadent to put it on. So I splurged on these heavenly grain crisps. Such a treat for the mouth and the eyes. Simple type, simple graphics, bold colour. Lovely.

DESIGNERS oh joy!

I'm embarrassed to say that I hadn't discovered Joy Deangdeelert Cho until this weekend. For shame! Her graphic work is bold yet delicate, she writes an award-winning design blog AND gets to work with cupcakes! Check out her website for a little daily dose of inspiration.

BRANDING no more joe-shmoe

Have you been into Starbucks recently? Its my ultimate weakness. Overpriced, average coffee, but I get sucked into the culture and the experience.

In celebration of their 40th anniversary (and a bold business move to appeal to a more international audience,) Starbucks released their new logo, sans a wordmark. It's gutsy to believe your brand is so strong it can stand on a symbol alone. Prince tried and failed miserably. But after 40years, the coffee shop has certainly carved out their own place in the market and can certainly hold their own with just a Pantone and some squiggly lines. Something every company strives to accomplish.

Looking at the evolution of their brand, it just cements the age old adage, less is more. True, they did need to establish themselves first with more obvious, bang-the-customer-over-the-head logo/wordmark "We are starbucks, we are carving our niche in the marketplace with a throwback to classic literature and we serve coffee and tea" but the new logo is so strong in terms of line weight, color and derived graphics. Refreshing in a world of stimulus overload. Plus, I'm just glad they dropped the mermaid spread-eagle. Who thought THAT was a good idea?!

The coffee shop is a refuge. Have you noticed your stand in line increasing lately? Apparently, the idea of the coffee shop as an escape was losing its "relax-factor" and quality was perceivably suffering as baristas raced to juggle 20 custom drinks. I have no resources to support this, other than word of mouth, but apparently baristas have been told to take their time, return the experience back to what it used to be where waiting in line was an opportunity to hear the music, chat with your neighbour and peruse the baking cooler. I opt for the drive through whenever possible because I really can't be bothered waiting, but I get where they're coming from. Not sure if it will help slow people down or increase frustration, but kudos for trying.

Regardless of the rush factor, I do give them points for a strong 40th anniversary brand, inside and out. Everything from bold, graphic sleeves too the clean, sanserif menu boards. As finishing this entry, I finish my Venti, skinny, caramel Machiato and look forward to my next cup.

DESIGN for babies

Since becoming a mother, a whole new world of graphic design has opened up to me. Its amazing how in a category like babies, there can be such BAD and such AMAZING design. When I was first introduced to this world, I actually cried, imagining my home over run with hideous plastic junk and horrible "cutesy" shirts that say "I'm a boob man" and "I-pood." Cringe.

But you really don't have to look far, or spend a lot, to find really lovely baby/kid stuff. Although you can't control what family and friends generously give you as thoughtful gifts, you can choose to seek out the rare and unique. A new trend in retro inspired and minimal graphic inspired wooden toys has risen. True, although I do drool over the vintage-looking ride on cars, I quickly snap back to reality when I look at the price tag with more digits than the car has wheels.

I get inspired by the whimsy and softness of some of Sam's treasures. The simple shapes of the wooden toys and the simple, derivative illustrations in both books and greeting cards we've been given. I did get a tongue lashing from a few members on an online mommy board where I was asking if people could recommend a line of baby gear that was neutral because I was freaking out about all the plastic crap out there (although I did word it better than that.) I was told babies respond to loud colours and cartoon characters. I don't personally remember b

eing a baby, but can't imagine going from the dark, warm softness of the womb into the cold, harsh world of Barney as a pleasant experience.

Edna Mae, or Edna Mae Originals, has her own blog and Etsy shop. Beautiful custom baby books.

Another Esty find were these beautiful hand-felted mobiles by FishyFishy. I got the goldfish one for a friend who was doing a fish theme for her new baby girl's nursery.

Some of Sam's new Baby cards that I've kept out on his book stand because they were just too lovely to hide away:

DESIGN Digital Prints Charming

Sock Monkeys.

Weird. I've never understood the attraction or cult-like following to these collectables. It seems they've become mainstream in the last 5 years. Everything from the floppy stuffed animal to actual apparel. I've seen stands in the mall with SockMonkey hats and mittens. What a mind-boggling conundrum when you think about it... the idea of an old, dirty sock, to monkey, to hat that no longer is a monkey or a sock but now vaguely reminiscent of both. Strange what people will pay money for.

Where did this fanaticism with sock monkeys come from? Our culture seems lately to be on a rebound for retro things, making them new and trendy. Throw-back to the past but with a twist; the sock, monkey, hat, thing. We see this yearning for handcrafted look everywhere, but with a modern crispy cleanness.

In graphic design, the stamp, letterpress, woodcut look is all the rage. Misregistration, uneven pressure stamping, bleeding linework is all highly trendy yet the majority of it is produced digitally. It can give that much needed human factor to our daily grind. Seeing the posters on lamp posts, the cd covers in Starbucks, greeting cards in boutique shops all have that charm many of us want to relate to. But how odd is it that all of these mass-produced items are still just that, mass-produced with a hand-crafted feel. Something that I do find myself paying premium money for none-the-less. The beauty of the handcrafted art is that it records human error in a charming way. Prints that would have originally been thrown out due to mass misregistration or because the uneven pressure of the press makes them nearly illegible, is now the desired look. Because we can make the most unnatural, crisp line infinite times with our technology, we no longer want to.

Check out this video about the digital letterpress:

All that being said is nothing revolutionary or even that interesting. But when digital handcraft is done poorly, boy is it bad. Will that be the wave of the future? Bad digital representation of ancient handcrafted techniques? Bad fake stamp work is one of the worst visual assaults I can think of, yet it runs rampant in clip art and bad free-fonts. Will clip are one day become... dare I say it.. Charming??

So back to the SockMonkey. Cool because it seems to be the incantation of an endless possibilities? Or gross, because really, its just an old sock in disguise?

A SM Little History: c/o wikipedia

Origins

The sock monkey's most direct predecessors originated in the Victorian era, when the craze for imitation stuffed animals swept from Europe into North America and met the burgeoning Arts and Crafts Movement. Mothers there took to sewing stuffed animals as toys to comfort their children, and, as tales of the Scramble for Africa increased the public's familiarity with exotic species, monkey toys soon became a fixture of American nurseries. However, these early stuffed monkeys were not necessarily made from socks, and also lacked the characteristic red lips of the sock monkeys popular today.

John Nelson, a Swedish immigrant to the United States, patented the sock-knitting machine in 1869, and began manufacturing work socks in Rockford, Illinois in 1890. The iconic sock monkeys made from red-heeled socks emerged at the earliest in 1932, the year the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to its product. In the early years, the red-heeled sock was marketed as "De-Tec-Tip". Nelson Knitting was an innovator in the mass market work sock field, creating a loom that enabled socks to be manufactured without seams in the heel. These seamless work socks were so popular that the market was soon flooded with imitators, and socks of this type were known under the generic term "Rockfords". Nelson Knitting added the red heel "de-tec-tip" to assure its customers that they were buying "original Rockfords". This red heel gave the monkeys their distinctive mouth. During the Great Depression, American mothers first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks.

[edit]Developments

Around 1951, the Nelson Knitting company discovered that their socks were being used to make monkey dolls. This company became involved in a dispute over the design patent on the sock monkey pattern. They were awarded the patent in 1955, and began including the pattern with every pair of socks. The sock monkey doll was then used in promotional campaigns celebrating the widespread application of their product by inventive homemakers in the field of monkey manufacturing.

In 1958, the "scrap-craft" magazine Pack-O-Fun published "How to Make Sock Toys", a guide to making different sock animals and dolls with red heeled socks. Frequently cited as being their most popular book ever, this pamphlet went through multiple printings and was being produced in new editions up until the mid-1980s. In the late 1980's the sock monkey was reborn by a company called Marketing Tide of Willouhby Hills, Ohio which sold kits with the original socks and instructions in numerous craft and sewing magazines. Their kit was featured on the ABC-TV Network Home Show in 1992, which put the Sock Monkey firmly back into American Culture.

The Nelson Knitting Company was acquired in 1992 by Fox River Mills, and the original brown heather, Red Heel monkey sock is still in production by Fox River Mills. A distinctive change in the red-heeled sock design distinguishes monkeys made with Fox River Mills socks from Nelson Knitting Company socks. Fox River heels are more uniformly ovular, without the end points that gave Nelson Knitting-made sock monkeys their smiles or frowns.

[edit]Sock monkeys today

Sock monkeys remain a popular toy to this day. Most vintage red-heel sock monkeys found today are no older than the late 1950s, and many date from the 1970s. A number of methods for dating sock monkeys have been debated by collectors, including the shape of the red heel, the tightness of the weave, sock seams, the style of clothing worn, and other features. The term "vintage" red-heel sock monkeys is typically relegated to sock monkeys made from red-heel socks knitted by the Nelson Knitting Company and from similar socks knitted with red-heels by other companies in the same time period. The term "modern" red-heel sock monkeys is normally relegated to sock monkey dolls created after Fox River Mills, Inc. acquired Nelson Knitting Company in 1992. Home made red-heel sock monkey dolls usually have unique faces and body characteristics and are considered one-of-a-kind. Sock monkey dolls are also mass-manufactured in the marketplace. Sock monkey dolls mass-manufactured by a company normally all have the same face and body characteristics. Not all sock monkey dolls are created from red-heel socks. A new trend is growing to create sock monkey dolls from colorful striped or polka dot socks—even mismatched socks.

[edit]Sock Monkey Festivals

The continued popularity of the sock monkey encouraged the city of Rockford, Illinois to embrace the doll as a part of its history. In 2005, Midway Village Center in Rockford held its first "Sock Monkey Madness Festival", while simultaneously opening an exhibit highlighting the industrial, legal, and creative history of the Nelson red heel sock and the sock monkey.

Other festivities have been held in other geographic areas, too, with sock monkeys as the event's main or supporting theme. Sock monkey novelty items are normally available for purchase in gift shops at such events, and also on the web.

Renewal

The focus of this blog has now changed from being a place where I leave things to fester to being a place where things are left to inspire. I want to reflect on things I see everyday, things that catch my eye, things that I wonder about. I have lots of creative-based blogs that I visit regularly looking for ideas or seeds with which to grow from. I envy how the writers can see beautiful things in everyday situations and the mundane. I want this to be that outlet for me.

So here it is. A new day and a new blog.