I Scream, You Scream!

The National Post put together a round-up of their contributors' favourite summer treats for the cover of The Weekend Post. I had fun drawing and painting all 12 of them!
(best. summer. assignment. ever.)
Here are just a few of my favourites....

destineau dives into the press

destineau swimwear getting love in the August issues of Toronto Life and ELLE Canada.
A Must-Have!

congratulations

A pretty Congratulations to two of my best buddies, Devin & Darcy, who recently got engaged in Italy!
I did this little number up for their impromptu engagement party...nothin' says I love you like hand-sewn typography in flag form!

Playing House

love from design*sponge, in the form of a mini sneak peek

http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/06/sneak-peek-courtney-wotherspoon.html

xo

Welcome. Please, make yourself at home....

(Thanks to the anonymous grammar police for helping me caption this one.)
A feature on me and my home...

http://www.hgtv.ca/BLOG/archive/2010/06/22/hgtv-ca-original-home-tour-courtney-toronto.aspx

Advice From A Caterpillar

Here's a little number I whipped up for the Dyer girls for the walls of their upcoming children's store, Advice From A Caterpillar. The store will be stocking international brands the likes Toronto has never seen, as well as a capsule collection of spoonstudio cards, prints and original artwork for sale. Coming soon!

show her you care

Some gift ideas in anticipation of Mother's Day...

Alfresco All the Time

Final spread for Avenue magazine's Alfresco All the Time patio feature

MORE Magazine

A piece I recently finished for the wonderful Faith Cochran at MORE Magazine.

Karen Von Hahn's commentary on the Spring/Summer runway trends, where designers took our preconceived notions of what we thought we'd be wearing in 2010, and threw them right out the window. Instead of cold, white, Jetson-inspired spacesuits, designers are piling print on top of texture on top of print, creating a beautiful mess and a new definition of "futuristic".
Below are 2 of the handful of sketches and a process piece.

Avenue Magazine

I'm working on a fun spread for Avenue Magazine, illustrating the joys of Alfresco Dining on some of Calgary's great patios. Thought I would start showing some secret process pieces on the blog, so here they are....A couple sketches with a conscious effort to leave room for a large headline at top and text all around. It should be a fun one, and I'll post the finish here when it's done!

Oskar and Barbara do American Illustration

As I look back and see that all of my posts of the past 6 months or so have been type-related, I'm thrilled to be able to repost these two, in honour of their admission into the exclusive American Illustration Club. They are among my favourite pieces of the year, so I'm overjoyed to see them getting the recognition of the respected jury.
Look for the launch of the bound-to-be-beautiful book in November, and view all the winning images online.

Oskar

Barbara Van Allen

Thanks AI!

can't wait

change

One of my first forays into hand-embroidery, since I was a young child sewing alongside my grandmother. The stitching bug is back and, apparently, hereditary.

This piece was created for a show entitled 44 Obamas, at the former Barbershop Gallery

As The Spirit Wanes The Form Appears

A typographic interpretation of Charles Bukowski's poem, ART, realized on blackboard.

Every few months, the folks at GRAND Creative let an artist in to muss up their studio's blackboard. Past guest artists include Graham Roumieu and Clayton Hanmer. Luke Canning, the shop's Creative Director, wanted to go typographical this time around. I did my best to appease. Here is a selection of shots from the evening, documented by photographer Dave Katulic

commend

Evelyn Kasikov's CMYK Alphabet is an amazing feat of embroidery, colour, form and typography.

See the alphabet and process here, but don't stop at that; her other projects and sketchbooks are wonders in and of themselves.

Major kudos.

COUGAR Boots

Here's a wonderful campaign I'm involved with for COUGAR Boots, a homegrown Canadian family-biz done right.
They are launching a much-anticipated campaign across all media platforms, and I have the pleasure of creating the hand type for them and the great folks at GJP. Look for more ads here and across Canada as they roll out.

Helvetica Goodies

check out these cookie-cutters by Beverly Hsu!

for the typographically inclined baker...

STUDIO SALE

new type

Here are just a couple of the pages I did for Rotman School of Management's new campaign, which includes brochures, posters, banners, folders for new students and more. As mentioned before, projects like this don't come along often, but when they do, I just count my lucky stars to be able to do what I do. The amazing gang at Underline Studio made it all happen, and the pleasure of working with such folks was that wonderful icing on the perfect-project cake.

Your New Favourite Blog

THERSIC, a collaboration between two of my favourite individuals, Kiersten Essenpreis and Wes Cox, fuses art, industrial design, fashion and funny into my new favourite blog. Kiersten and Wes have an endless amount of talent to share and, collectively, four of the best eyes in the biz. Read about their inspiration and the meaning behind THERSIC here.

After you visit, it'll be your new favourite blog too.

Knowledge is Power is Beauty

photo by JulianaNeufeld.com

My ceramic mug that I created for the One Less Paper Cup show raised $320 for Grounds For Health! Thanks to Adam Pesce for putting on a fantastic show and to the always wonderful people at UNIT for a great night.

Holiday Stocks

A holiday postcard I did for Darcy Morris which illustrates the top stock picks for the holiday gifting season.
**update: see Darcy's fantastic new website here**

One Less Paper Cup

A show I'm taking part in next week, with a great cause.
Read more about the event and it's goals, from show curator Adam Pesce:

"In the coffee community's effort to make our product as sustainable as it can be, we have come to realize that empowering and assisting women in every way possible is a top priority. The One Less Paper Cup event is just one of the many small ways we are attempting to do so.

On Tuesday December 8th, we hope you'll join us to raise money in support of Grounds for Health (http://www.groundsforhealth.org) - an organization that works in the coffee-growing regions of developing nations to provide women with cervical cancer education, screenings and treatment. Coffee is grown almost exclusively in Third World countries and cervical cancer is the number one cause of cancer-related deaths in those regions.

To raise money for GFH, we have commissioned 15 artists from across the country to create unique designs on re-usable ceramic mugs. The mugs will be the featured items in a silent auction that will begin at 6:00. The event will be open-house style and run from 5:00pm til close, with the auction ending at 9:00. It will feature celebrity barista Sam James (http://samjamescoffeebar.com/) crafting complimentary lattes and capps, as well as a cash bar.

By supporting Grounds for Health, we are providing the women of coffee communities with a much needed service -cervical cancer is both preventable and, when caught early, one of the most treatable forms of the disease."

Check out the show if you can, or check back here where I'll be posting my own finished mug.

Bird Book

This catalogue of birds, courtesy of Andrew Zuckerman, is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen (the photographs especially).
Prepare to be amazed here.

Another Year, Another AI Party

American Illustration took New York by storm again this fall, celebrating some of the best images in the industry. I am honoured to have been included among such talent again this year - Kiersten Essenpries, Jordin Isip, Leif Parsons, Christian Northeast...you get the idea. The book looks fantastic.
And the party ain't so bad either!
See a great picture of the celebration in action on Kiersten's blog, you fail.

Can't wait 'til next year!

Fuzzy Peach

My new niece, Georgie, born October 9th, 2009 rounds out the clan and beats out Campbell as the littlest Wotherspoon. Deliciously sweet, tasty and perfect.

ART

The sketch for GRAND Creative's blackboard wall, that I had the honour of messing right up.
Charles Bukowski's poem, Art

Going Wild

Spike Jonze adaptation or not, I love this compendium of Wild Things tattoos...

Commend

The sheer talent of this artist is so totally mind-blowing...

See more of the work she did for the Neiman Marcus Christmas Catalog here.

And here, I thought I couldn't be any more excited for Christmas!

thanks to Yulia Brodskaya for the inspiring work

Step 3: Shower Them with Gifts

I'm feeling inspired by the beautiful colours and textures of the season.
Here's part of a piece I did last October, in honour of fall. See the final published piece here.
Enjoy the bounty-a pile of pumpkins!

Step Two: Show Them You Care

It's getting brisk out there, kids. Don't forget a sweater!
I wouldn't want you to catch a chill...

(you're welcome)

Step One: Admitting you have a Problem

I've been an admittedly bad blogger as of late, and feel as though I ought to enlist in some sort of 12-step recovery program. Bound to the studio with work, I tend to lose most communication with the outside world, save for the required "it's on it's way", "of course that's not a problem, I agree that shade of purple is soooo late-2008" and of course, "make it a double".
I can't promise that I'll get better, but I can promise that I will try. Really hard. Starting now.
Below is a handful of the editorial pieces that I've recently finished.
Please enjoy and please forgive.

Nick Drake, Uppercase magazine

Perspectives on Career Management and Family, Stanford Business magazine

Kawabata, The Walrus magazine

Fall Type

lyrics courtesy of Nick Drake

Commend

Beautiful short by Alexi Parizeau.
The Parishil Boys explain:

"Over the course of two days in July Alexi Parizeau captured the process of Adam Hilborn's first solo show "HOMEWARD BOUND" at the Barbershop Gallery. The camera was capturing images every 3 seconds with a Canon 5D Mk2 and 24mm 1.4F lens, tethered to a laptop.

The first night was a special invitation "Dinner with the Artist". The Dinner was prepared by Justine and Sara Wood of Les Louises. Friends and family were asked to attend the private viewing.

The following evening "HOMEWARD BOUND" was open to the public.

This is how it went..."

Homeward Bound from Alexi Parizeau on Vimeo.

Covet

I love all of Kiel Mead's jewelry, but how sweet are these Forget-Me-Knots?

I want.

Dime Bag Online

Giant Robot has posted the entire Dime Bag Show online.
View the show and buy some art here.
Some seriously fun work to be had.

Also see pictures of the packed New York opening here.
Enjoy!

Commend

To this day, one of my all-time favourite websites, Jonathan Harris' The Whale Hunt.
Begin the hunt here.

just beautiful.

Crave

For my first post, I can't choose just one, as I crave, covet and commend this.

"Collectors...with an appetite for late 19th-century relics like apothecary cabinets and dressmakers' dummies, are turning their homes into pastiches of the past."

From The New York Times Home & Garden

It seems these collectors and I are cut from the same cloth as I shudder with delight at every taxidermied head, every curious antique, every perfectly thoughtful vignette.

Crave, Covet, Commend

I like things.
I want things.
I like to look at nice things and wish that I had them.
I like to come across interesting ideas and wish that I had come up with them.
Whether it be a fresh new illustrator, an innovative way to roast marshmallows, or a current favourite font, there is so much out there that deserves cred.
Thus Crave, Covet, Commend, a new feature I'm adding to the blog that will include a daily item that I crave, covet, ....well, er, you get it.