honest little plants

Here's a calming and warm color palette for a hazy summer day. The image comes from a home tour found on Design*Sponge. Succulents are very trendy right now, in terms of house/patio plants. They're easy to take care of, they are beautifully lush (a welcome sight, especially in drier climates), and most of all they are aesthetically simple and sturdy.

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I think trending revolves around the overall feeling of society, and in financially and politically unstable times, the beauty in simplicity and honesty are more attractive than ever. In the past five years, there seems to have been an explosion of products in the market that are focused on being well-made and reliable. Which is such a wonderful turn of events, as China takes over the world market, creating more waste for landfills. 

A remarkable display of this was witnessed last weekend at the Walden Super Flea (affectionately referred to as the Dirt Mall). Here, you may see a maze of rickety shop stalls occupied by second hand has beens and has nots, operated by white trash mediocrity. A large portion of the flea, however, is now taken up by the aptly named "Made in China" shop. Rows of bins containing molded plastic and cheap steel products with price tags all under $5 fill the space. And it's here, where I see how even the consumerist machine is ashamed of this exploitation. 

-e

experimentations with color

I have started a new job! It's with a printing company, preparing artwork for screen printing, hot foil imprinting, and laser etching. It's only my first week and it's been a bit of a whirlwind; there's a lot to learn and a lot going on. It's a very large company in terms of output, but our location in the US only has five people occupying it (it's based in Toronto), so it's actually very homey. I have been working on items for Nike and New Balance, as well as some safety wear companies and municipalities. Soon I'll be working on a project for Dead Mau5. I'm working on Illustrator mostly so I feel right at home with it. It's my first real job, and I'm hoping it stays interesting! 

Aside from the 9 to 5, I've been putzing around on Illustrator at home. I had a few color palettes that I threw together after finding some really lovely images in the blogosphere, so I put them all together in one design. It's color overload and that's what I love about it ;)

© Erin Curry airandseadesign.com