Jed Heuer is another one of our amazingly talented friends who is a graphic designer in NY.  His recent studio work has been compiled onto a color printed, newsprint ‘zine.  Here are some of my favorites:

Check out more of Jed’s work HERE.

This year Wes and I decided not to exchange gifts, but rather make a donation to our favorite animal shelter, Sean Casey Animal Rescue.  What I like best about this shelter is that he takes in animals from other shelters that are marked to be put down due to overcrowding, sickness or lack of adoption interest.  Sean also cares for abused animals, pets rescued from animal hoarders and abandoned pets.

When we adopted our (now very spoiled) cat, Bruce, we were told that he was rescued from another shelter who was going to put him to sleep because of an eye infection he had.. which would have been too expensive for the shelter to pay for.  So Sean took him in, cleaned him up, bought the medicine (with donation money) and put him up for adoption.  I really hope he is able to continue to save animals and place them in good homes for a very long time..  we couldn’t be happier.

Happy Holidays from Kiersten, Wes and Bruce!

For more infor on Sean Casey Animal Rescue, or to donate, please click HERE.

I love these hardcover, cloth-bound classics put out by Penguin.  The only problem is that they released just 8 of them in the US and I need the whole set of 20!

This car was built in England  in 1929 and had a J.A.P. motorcycle engine in it.  It was raced, and called the Bloody Mary to taunt the race announcers/commentators.  It is featured in the Oct. 2009 issue of Octane Magazine, and more of the above can be found here.

-w

I could spend days (and a year’s income) at Chicago’s Architectural Artifacts in Ravenswood.  They have absolutely everything when it comes to furnishing my nonexistent dream home.

Argentina Iron & Glass Vitrine

Argentina Glass & Steel Candy Display

American Industrial Spotlight

-k

I was really sad when I heard about Luella losing their financial backing this past November.  The British designer always featured clothes that were really fun, quirky, feminine and wearable.  RIP Luella, you will be missed.

My favorite Luella through the years:

Luella fashion illustration I did last year for Paper Magazine

A Twitter based Save Luella campaign has started to try and save the label HERE

Design/art group Design 99 has been working on creating a sustainable home in Detroit for the last year or so.  In 2008 they purchased a 900 sq ft home for only $1900 (originally valued at $85,000) and have been working on creatively flipping it since.  You can view their progress/projects on their site HERE.

On their site they also feature a map of other foreclosed homes in the neighborhood that are available for purchase, some of them that they are working on expanding to.  Since Detroit is currently losing millions of its residents, I think projects like this are essential to bring some life back to the city!   -k

Audrey’s work makes me want to go back to art school to learn how to paint again.  She spent a couple of years at Pratt Institute, but now lives and works in Los Angeles.. her work can best be described as a cross between Art Nouveau and Japanese manga.

She currently has a solo show up at Jonathon LeVine Gallery, which I highly recommend..  it’ll make your eyes pop.

See more of Audrey’s work HERE.

I saw this gigantic Limited Edition, 6-vol. Playboy set at the Taschen book store while down at Art Basel Miami and thought it was pretty fantastic.

It presents an illustrated autobiography of Hugh Hefner and chronicles the first      25 years of Playboy running from 1953-1979.  I really love all the design and illustration that was used in the old issues!

-k

click below to see more Playboy!

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I was up on our roof today checking out the drifts.

-w

These THERSIC made display cases are made from windows that were being thrown out down the street.  Wes has weakness for old, discarded windows (our apartment and studio are full of them) so I was thrilled when he started to put them to good use.

Hinged on the inside to finger-jointed maple,  they have been great for displaying our collections of junk.  It’s amazing how much better things look when they’re displayed behind glass!

I first came across Jen’s work when she participated in a small group show at Johansson Projects in San Francisco a couple of years ago.  She creates amazing sculptures out of stacked paper that give a whole new meaning to precision cutting.. and maybe the term OCD.

See up-close details of her work after the jump.. read more »