pattern pals - sweet tooth

...and we're back! After a pretty significant hiatus (we are Busy Ladies if nothing else) Emma and I finally dipped a toe back into the Pattern Pals pool, where there are always free margaritas and never any sunburns. In honor of Valentine's Galentine's Day, we went with a candy theme. My brain is currently in holiday mode thanks to the screwy schedule of stationery releases, so here, have some starlight mints in pastel!

Are you dying to see this every time  you open your phone? I thought so. Here's a wallpaper download for your iPhone 5 and iPhone 6. 

The Good Twin + Madewell

Well, winter is in the air in Los Angeles...just kidding, it was like 80 yesterday, yikes. But regardless of the weather, the holidays are coming, and this year, I've got a really fun lineup of events for The Good Twin!
Madewell at The Grove has been kind enough to ask me in for a night of cards, denim, and tasty treats, so if you're in the area, swing by on Friday, November 14th from 6-8 pm. I'll be there with Peggy, and both of us can't wait to meet you. We'll have a selection of Good Twin cards for sale, as well as complimentary drinks and sweets, free two hour parking, and 20% off Madewell purchases over $125 - which also get a little card bundle from The Good Twin. It's a great opportunity to pick up some great holiday cards, as well as splurge on a pair of new jeans (they bribed me with a pair that I haven't taken off since they arrived, ha). Hope you see you there!

Fond of the frond

More patterns, because kicking one of these babies out makes me feel like I finished something. I love this color palette, and I wanted to shine some light on all these little frond and leaf guys that have been waiting around like second string in a tight game.

Summer in the city

Ah, August in LA. So hot. All I want to be doing right now is drinking gallons of beer on a porch in a glamorous muumuu while not sweating, but sometimes we don't get what we want. So instead, I rounded up two of my favorite people with crazy amazing brains (that would be Scott and Kate) and together, we shot a cool little look book for the new release that I just finished up for The Good Twin. The sets were assembled using some neat origami techniques I learned at the library (thanks for the knowledge, LAPL!), and we used paper printed with some of my patterns. You can check out all fifteen new cards in my shop. 

Stay breezy, dudes!

florals for a Friday

I've been neck deep in patterns lately - I finally have (sort of) mastered the art of a complicated repeating pattern. Much of that is due to this amazingly simple tutorial (and so, so much practice). And so, just for fun, a floral for your Friday afternoon.

craftacular spectacular

If you're in my neck of the Los Angeles woods this weekend, come check out the Bust Craftacular! I'll be selling The Good Twin cards and boxed sets, with super special show deals. A bunch of other awesome vendors will be in attendance, including a bunch of tasty treats out front (seriously though, bring me a coffee). There's also a DIY nail bar and a flower crown station, so you can get all decked out for the rest of your Saturday.
The Craftacular is at Mack Sennett Studios this coming Saturday, from 11-6pm. Mack Sennett is conveniently located just around the corner from El Chavo and Tiki Ti, both of which are highly recommended to hit up before or after, or both, no judgement here.
I'll be at booth 26, say hey!

summer's coming

Happy Memorial day, everyone! We hit the BBQ train a bit early this year, as the rest of the long weekend was reserved for plowing through some work. In true work-from-home style, I'm sneaking out for a little overnight getaway tomorrow with a couple of ladyfriends rather than braving the crowds over the holiday weekend. But before I head off on a mystical journey to the sacred sands of Joshua Tree, have a look at the shoot Scott did! It makes me think of summertime and sherbet and faded out tank tops. I've updated The Good Twin site so you all can see real live photos of actual cards, rather than just vector illustrations (that foil is just soooo shiny) and above you can see a nice GIF supercut. Here's to a fantastic start to summer - may there be creamsicles and cold beer in your near future.

change is good

Well dudes, I'm just going to jump right in. It's springtime, and change is a comin'. After almost six years working with my friend John as the sole employees/makers/manufacturers at Dude and Chick, I'm moving on. Not entirely, and not immediately - I'll still be managing inventory, filling orders, handling accounts, and emailing all the amazing customers we have at Dude and Chick, at least for now. John will take the reigns, creatively speaking, and I have no doubt that he's going to continue the stationery sweetness that we built together.

But I'm ready to move in a different direction. I've found myself itching to start something new, something that is completely my own from the ground up, something born and raised under the bright California sky. So, after many jam packed evenings and weekends of preparation, I'm sending my own little stationery line into the daylight!
The Good Twin will be shown at the National Stationery Show this May in the Crow and Canary booth 2824 (where Dude and Chick wares will also be on display). I'm hoping to expand my offerings pretty quickly, but for now, I've got 25 brand new designs, both two-color and foil stamped, featuring my illustrations and hand drawn type as well as a bit of my pattern work. All of the cards are letterpress printed, and I've done my research to source high quality recycled papers, envelopes, and packaging to keep your letter-writing friendly to the land. You can check out all the goods on my new website/shop, thanks to the always amazing Kate Miss. It's worth mentioning that she also made my logo, and has been indispensable in more ways than I can count throughout this whole process.
So! Hooray for change, and new things, and all the hard work that keeps us fresh and growing and learning constantly. I'd like to start sharing a bit more process and stationery bits on this blog, so you have that to look forward to. Thanks for hanging in with me, there are good things ahead.

lovin' spoonful

It's Valentine's Day, aka the holiday that I am contractually obligated to love as a person in the Greeting Card Industry. To be honest, I'm just not that into it, but maybe that's just because I don't have the same affinity for conversation hearts as I do for other crappy seasonal treats (see: candy corn, eggnog, Budweiser with the special patriotic flag label). At any rate, I made you guys a little valentine, because insanity is the spice of life...isn't that the saying?

new news

Dudes, my site is all new and shiny! You may have noticed a new header on my blog, but the fanciness does not end there. Thanks to Kate (a seriously amazing friend and all around fantastic person, not to mention a pretty darn talented designer), I now have an expanded portfolio site, complete with a print shop. Take a look! The above designs, as well as five others, are available as 8 by 10 and 16 by 20 inch prints.
Alright, end shameless self-promotion. Next week: back to our normally schedule programming. Coming soon: new designs from Dude and Chick!

pattern pals: halloweenie

I'm really feeling this spooky October theme. It helps that my evenings have been consumed with horror movies this month (why yes, my significant other DID purchase the Friday the 13th boxed set, thank you for asking). We're on day sixteen of our month of terror, which means we've begun to hit some real deep cuts - think 1970s italian psychedelic flicks. It's getting weird. In that spirit, I dove a little more into abstraction for this pattern, with a sort of occult-ish spiderweb theme. As usual, see above for the repeating square, application below. 

Sweet dreams! I'm off to finish CHUD (it's as insane as it sounds, trust me).

evil eye

October, huh? Fall really sneaks up on me around these parts - it's still pretty toasty in LA, although early mornings and late nights have that crisp feel to them again, that feeling that makes you pull the covers up to your ears. It's nice, but I have to admit I'm pretty jazzed to be heading out to Boulder this weekend to see my twin brother, and maybe some fall foliage while I'm at it.
In the meantime, in the spirit of the spookiest month, and while I'm in the thick of Scott's our thirty-one nights of horror (more on that later), here's an evil eye inspired pattern. I've been whipping out the old brush occasionally, so this one's got a bit more of a painterly feel. As usual, the repeat square is above, and an applied example is below!

endless summer

This summer has been mild by LA standards - sunny during the day, cool at night...I think we've used our trusty AC unit once. Until now. It is HOT. Not just wear a crop top hot. More like camp out by the swamp cooler until it's over hot. And so, in honor of this lovely heat wave, which is sure to overextend it's already very limited welcome, a pattern of succulents. I've been meaning to make this sketch into something for a while now, so at least something is checked off my growing list of to-dos.

xmas in....August

HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Just kidding?
In greeting card world, these babies really should have shown their faces in about March, but they're here now, and that's what matters! Just in time for the NY Now gift fair (going on as I type this - we are being represented by Crow and Canary, in booth 7843), Dude and Chick proudly presents our new holiday offerings for 2013, available single and in cute little boxed sets of six (see links below, if you so desire). I'm sure you all have about 3.5 months before the idea of holiday cards even crosses your mind, but I'm excited now so here you go. Consider these the card equivalent of giving your loved ones a lump of coal and a flask of whiskey.
097 - Mistletoe
098 - Ugh, Christmas
099 - Warmest Wishes
100 - Egg Nog Season
101 - Stressmess Lights
102 - Mad Stack

pins and needles

I could pretend like this pattern has some sort of deeper meaning, but really it's just that I draw bobby pins a lot because they are everywhere in our apartment, and I wanted to put those drawings to good  use. Also, I am slightly concerned about the vacuum that I just bought (such an adult purchase, a necessity thanks to Peg) and how it it will react to sucking a bunch of these guys up, because the application of this pattern definitely bears a strong resemblance to the area behind our couch. 100% excitement in this neck of the woods, can you tell?
Above is the repeating square, below is the pattern applied. Color palette inspo from the great Kate Miss.

wall to wall

A quick repeating pattern to send you into the weekend...Christmas in July (aka the Dude and Chick holiday release) is scrambling my brain, and sometimes the best way to organize your mind is to just Tetris a bunch of random shapes together. ENJOY.

sketchy dudes

And now, just for a change of pace, here are some sketchy dudes from the past few weeks. I've been drawing a lot lately - practice makes perfect, right? I'm trying to make good on my promise to myself to take an hour or so every day to get a few things down on paper, and it's going well. Now I just need to weed out the good stuff and find the time to finish up a few things...

sketch gallery

Ye olde sketch(e?) gallery is a little looser, a little more varied these days. Looking back through my warm up drawings is weird - so many different styles. There are days when I end up with really weird faces, sketchy faces, detailed faces...sometimes just poorly rendered bad faces. Reminds me of the different handwriting styles I tried on back in the day. You know, cursive, dotting the i with a heart, extra flourishes on a and g. Sometimes it's beneficial to comb back through this stuff and pick out a style I'd like to work in more, but mostly it's just nice to make a little something out of these throwaways because it's Friday and I felt like it.

ladies in blue

Here it is, midsummer, and despite the heat, I'm feeling....productive. I scanned in pages and pages of new inked drawings and texture experiments yesterday, and decided to treat myself to a little Photoshop fun (phun? ha) involving my new friends, the dodge and burn tools. My digital illustration teacher would be fuming if he saw this, but I'm into this seventies blue fade vibe, so I'm going with it.

welcome to the ad industry, bitch

On a Monday, at the beginning of a bonanza of Dude and Chick holiday release madness (in living color on site in St. Paul!) all I can manage is sharing a terrific mashup of my two favorite things. Get ready to have Phantom Planet stuck in your head for the rest of the day (and for the record, if you don't understand the title of this post, you have three seasons of excellent mid-aughts television to watch before we can properly chat).