COOKBOOK north/south

One thing that I really love about Melbourne is how it's suburbs have such distinct cultural identities. These identities have been developed over time by the people who live there, and being a big culinary city, food often tends be at the very heart of this. For instance, head over to Balaclava for yummy bagels and go straight to Footscray for the best dumplings in town.

It's for this reason that I love the idea behind the new publication COOKBOOK north/south, and it's really no surprise that the book has already been posted about all over internet land. Developed by the creative designers at Wolfgang, Shlomo & Max, COOKBOOK north/south is a not-for-profit publication that has been letterpress printed by hand at the Melbourne Museum of Printing in a limited-edition run of 500 copies.

The book features an exploration of ten of Melbourne's suburbs, with contributions from a range of both local and internationally-renowned names, including Stephanie Alexander, Robert Castellani and Andrew McConnell. Each contributor was asked to interpret their suburb, and each entry (made up of individual cards) features a lino-cut artwork, a short story and three recipes. A unique collection of letterpress forms, typography and colour create the visual identity for each suburb chapter. Wow! And to top it all off, all of the profits from the books go to SecondBite, a not-for-profit organisation that identifies sources of nutritious surplus fresh food and produce that might otherwise go to waste and facilitates its safe and timely distribution to agencies and people in need.

If you're in Melbourne, you can head along to the book launch at Craft Victoria this coming Monday, 29 November, from 6-8pm, and you'll also be able to purchase copies for $100 AU there after the event. And if you're interesting in seeing how the book was put together, there's an interesting slideshow on the Broadsheet website.

I really think this is a fantastic idea, and helps to capture the essence of Melbourne's suburbs. It's definitely going on my Christmas/wants list!

Speaking of exploring Melbourne, I will be away from my computer next week spending time with some good friends who are visiting from the UK (maybe I should set up some sort of B&B/tour business?), but I will see you back here on Monday 6 December. I hope you all have a fantastic week ahead!

[Photos via Wolfgang, Shlomo & Max / Shona Stark]

Clare Owen for Papermash

British online stationery shop Papermash recently commissioned Cornwall-based illustrator Clare Owen to create an exclusive print, and the result is this lovely London snow globe print that incorporates an air mail-inspired colour palette. The print is quite Christmassy, but could equally be enjoyed at anytime of the year. Clare has a great portfolio of work, and her illustrations are often quite feminine. Clare also has an Etsy shop where she sells some of her work as digital prints.I think someone needs to get me that Make Do and Mend print for Christmas! Clare's London Snow Globe print is available now through Papermash, and pop over to Clare's website to view her portfolio and visit her Etsy shop to stock up on her printed goodies.

Robert Kaufman Metro Cafe Collection

Have you seen the Robert Kaufman Metro Cafe collection of fabrics? The collection has been developed by a number of designers and the fabrics feature kitchen-themed patterns with bold colours and retro patterns, which makes it all sorts of lovely. My favourites are the coffee cup and coffee pot prints designed by Suzanne Ultman, the kitchen mixer prints designed by Monaluna (Jennifer Moore) and the cutlery, tea cup and tea pot designs by Louise Cunningham.

Pop over to the Robert Kaufman site to view the full collection.

Porceleain Rove

I thought I'd today follow on from yesterday's theme and post about New Zealand artist Jamie Young, who goes by the name Porcelain Rove. Jamie makes a variety of lovely slipcast cups and cupcake bakers, which are available for puchase via the New-Zealand-based online design and handmade shop Foxes. Too pretty. Head over to Jamie's site to find out more.

Citta Design

I recently read out about Citta Design via the lovely Studio Home blog (which, incidentally, is a great read), and am now in homewares love... they have some very nice designs! Citta Design is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and each year releases a summer and winter collection with a focus on globally-inspired themes. Their 2010 summer collection has been inspired by Mexico, and in particular, the contrast between Mexico's elegant coastal region and its vibrant and unique popular culture.

The Citta Design 2010 collection reflects both sides of Mexico and combines sea blues, natural tones and vivid colours together. Citta Design products are stocked in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, so pop over to their website for stockist details and to peruse their lovely range of products.

New from Present&Correct

British stationery label Present&Correct have recently added some lovely new Christmas items to their online shop. I love this paper garland, which has been stitched together using a variety of paper stocks in bright and colourful colours.

These crackers are a little more exciting than the norm. Made from graph paper, they are stuffed with a foiled pencil, a tag notebook, a wood rubber stamp, a scrabble magnet, a vintage animal eraster and a chocolate sixpense. And a bad joke, of course!

I also really like these cute, folksy Christmas cards, which feature a variety of Christmas traditions from around the world, such as a sixpence in a pudding from England, yule logs from France, drums from Greece and hay in clogs for the Netherlands. Merry Christmas is written in five languages and the card is plain inside.

Present&Correct are a super stylish stationery label with a fantastic website that features very nicely styled photographs, so if you haven't already, pop over to their website and take a good look around. And if you're in London, you can also head along to the Present&Correct pop-up shop, which is being held from December 4-21 at 5 Back Hill, London.

I've had what seems like a very long working week, so am looking forward to a nice weekend. I hope you have a good one; see you back here on Monday!

A Darling Clementine Christmas

I've posted about Norwegian design label Darling Clementine before. I'm a big fan of their lovely stationery items, and even though it's only mid-November and I did a double-take when I heard Christmas carols in the supermarket earlier in the week, I can't help but post about the new Darling Clementine Holy Holy Christmas range, because it's ever so retro and lovely. Inspired by Scandinavian tradition with a hint of modern block colour, the range is available as single cards and box sets.

Darling Clementine also have some other Christmas designs available, including their Candy Cane, Jinglebells, Collections and Noel card sets. Visit the Darling Clementine website to view the full collections and their online shop for purchasing information. If you're in Australia, ou can order Darling Clementine cards via the lovely Lark online shop.

Craft Victoria's Christmas Catalogue

For their 2010 Christmas catalogue, Craft Victoria have created four unique pages that reflect the palettes from their past Coloured Christmas events - Yellow, Blue, Green and Red - and I very much like the results. Each page features a selection of work that is available for purchase both online and in-store, and when you hover over each item in the shot the specific product details appear. I'm admittedly a bit of a sucker for colour co-ordination, so think this kind of styling is really effective, and is also a nice break away from traditional Cristmas-themed catalogues and gift guides. The styling for the shoot was done by Anita Cummins of Craft Victoria, with photography by Richard Brockett. I think my favourite has to be the yellow theme - how about you?

You can check out the Craft Victoria Christmas catalogue here and read more about it on the Craft Victoria blog.

1canoe2

More letterpress goodness today, this time from1canoe2, a studio based in Missouri, USA. Run by childhood friends Beth and Carrie, the name 1canoe2 comes from years of dreaming up big ideas around a campfire and floating down a Missouri river in a canoe. And if that didn’t sound picturesque enough, the pair run their studio out of the loft of a big red barn! Beth and Carrie like to sketch out patterns and scenes from daily life and convert them to woodcut or letterpress prints using a 70-year-old Chandler & Price press.

The pair have recently released a series four 2011 calendar designs – Farm Illustration, Flower Garden, Boats and Things that are Long (please, get your mind out of the gutter).

I also really like Beth and Carrie’s Kitchen Utensils block print (an original hand-drawn design that was then carved into a linoleum block) and the Things that are Round letterpress coaster set made up of – you guessed it – illustrations of things that are round.

Check out the 1canoe2 website and Etsy shop for further details and to view the rest of their products.

Gemma Correll's Ampersand Print

I haven't made an ampersand-related post in a while, but that's because I haven't seen any ampersand-related awesomeness lately. Well, British illustrator Gemma Correll's letterpress ampersand print changes all that (I posted about Gemma Monoblock London journal the other week). How lovely is it?! The ampersand is made up of little illustrated objects such as clouds, cupcakes, cute creatures and houses.

The print measures approximately 21cm x 30cm, and has been letterpress printed in black and orange inks on heavyweight textured Somerset stock. Each print is individually signed, titled and numbered from an edition of 250, and is available for purchase from the Little Otsu website. Definitely adding this to my Christmas list!

Gustav Dejert

I've decided to round things off this week with some lovely, retro illustrations from Swedish illustrator Gustav Dejert. Gustav graduated from Forsbergs School of Design in 1997. He lives and works in Stockholm, and his work includes illustration, graphic design, motion graphics and animation.

I just love Gustav's 1960s-inspired characters and colour palettes. You can check out Gustav's full portfio at his website and via his agent, Woo Agentur.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We have another international guest staying with us, so will attempt to get out into nature and hopefully spot some koalas. See you back here on Monday!

Moonlight Cinema Graphics

Things have officially warmed up here in Melbourne, and the coming summer months mean the Moonlight Cinema is almost here. And I'm thinking that sitting in Melbourne's Royal Botanical Gardens on a warm summer's evening watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a very good plan indeed. But the films aside, I really love the graphics that have been used on the cinema's website this year - cute owls, birds, clouds and other colourful icons... it's all very sweet. I'm yet to see any print brochures or advertising, but I'm hoping these cute icons will be used across all of the marketing material.

The Moonlight Cinema site was designed by Nautyfish in Sydney, and the site development was done by Sakari in Melbourne. You can check the Moonlight Cinema website out for yourself here.