I am so excited I can hardly contain it! After two years of always planning to redesign my own site (I think every designer will understand), I have finally created a site that I absolutely love and am so proud of. I feel like the essence of me, who I am as a designer, and where I want to take my business is living in these pages – please go take a look and let me know what you think!

Amongst the excitement is a little bit of sad news however… after a particularly quite couple of months I have decided I will no longer be blogging at August Empress. I’ve  enjoyed building this blog over the last two years and connecting with so many lovely readers that it was a difficult decision, 2013 has other plans for me to focus on other (fabulous) projects.

All the content will remain on the blog so if you need a hit of inspiration you can still look through all the archives from the past two years.

It’s not all sad news though, I have created a little space over on my website – The Journal – where I will be occasionally sharing designs, illustrations and thoughts about work and life, so I do hope you join me over there. You can subscribe to the rss feed to receive all the latest entries.

I hope 2013 has been amazing for you so far (it’s already going so fast!), it’s farewell for me here – but hello to exciting new changes!

Well things have been very quiet here over the last few weeks, a mixture of wrapping up client projects before the holidays start tomorrow as well as taking some time out to think about what I’d like to focus on in 2013. Needless to say there’ll be some exciting events and changes to come in the next few months! Top of my list is to launch the new website for The Darling Tree in the next few weeks, followed by making some awesome updates to the Your Darling Blog design workshop. There may also be some changes to August Empress but this is still up in the air, I’m sure things will become clearer in the new year.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you, my lovely readers, for your support and encouragement here over the last year. I’ve loved sharing with you all the things that inspire and excite me in the design world and beyond. I hope you have wonderful christmas and new year celebrations, enjoy your loved ones, and be merry!

Let’s catch up again in 2013.

x

Image via Chris Little.

Wander. Discover. Connect. Truth. Four things that I feel like I need more of in my life. This collection of photos seem to speak to me right now, if I could bottle them all up into a single moment, I think it would be pretty amazing.

Images: plane sunset / road map / girl in window / quote / white dress / teacups / girls in hammock / reading girl / boho tent

I came across this illustration on Pinterest created by artist kiwiTACHAN and immediately thought ‘that’s me’. I often replay past and future conversations in my head, wondering if I should or shouldn’t have said something, or imagining scenarios that never eventuate. Even when I’m designing I will spend too much time on the smallest detail while trying to get inside the head of a client, over time I am learning to try and go with my gut. I’m sure many of you can relate to the illustration too, and while you are overthinking your overthinking, here’s a little timelapse video of how the colourful ‘head explosion’ was created.

A while ago I created a blog post featuring some lovely Floral Fonts that could be used in a design, and today I have sourced some gorgeous examples of fonts with illustrative elements and drawings (also known as dingbats) that you may find useful. I can imagine the cooking illustrations looking fab as tools and ingredients in recipe posts: Ride my Bike Dingbat / Knitting and Sewing Doodle / LiebeCook / Vintage Wedding / Coffee and Tea Doodles / Royal Oak Decor / Reading and Writing Doodles / Antique Macabre Ornaments / Diva Doodles Too / Fruit and Veggie Doodles

I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in Byron Bay for the wedding of two amazing friends, it was so beautiful and such a great weekend I wish we could do it all over again.

Images 1, 2 – Arrived in Byron and headed straight for the beach to relax and catch up on some reading.

Image 3 – Enjoyed breakfast before heading off to meet the bride for hair and makeup

Image 4 – Hair and makeup done! Really loved the braids and soft curls, I wish I could do these things myself.

Images 5, 6 – Progress being made getting the venue pretty, the reception was held around the pool area, the garden area was being setup for games, with the ceremony in another little pocket of the estate.

Images 7, 8  – The ceremony, so perfect. And happy snap with the bride.

Images 9, 10  – Day after, the nice weather didn’t stick around, so some time was spent looking around the cool little boutiques.

Image 11   – Came home to a new toy, part of my Thirteen by 2013 to attend a darkroom class.

TGIF! Today I’m sharing a wonderful talk by Tina Roth-Eisenberg of swissmiss, where she shares her thoughts on being a Swiss designer now based in NYC, creating and building her blog and launching her own product TeuxDeux (she also created Tattly!).

Image via smissmiss.

In the same fashion as last year’s Twelve before 2012 list, these are the things I’d like to get done by the time 2013 rolls around:

1. Pre-launch a new digital product

2. Redesign The Darling Tree‘s website
6/11: Most design done, copywriting and development will be done in January so there’s still a little wait. 

3. Run 10km – DONE!
18/10: Bought this in neon pink/grey to track my runs here
4/11: 5km in 30:23 mins
9/11: 8km in 48:55 mins
30/11: I did it! 10km in 1 hr 2:33 mins

4. Book flights somewhere overseas

5. Finish the sketchbook project

6. Take a photography or darkroom class
23/10: Bought this 80′s film camera to take photos for class
6/12: Looking at this class for January 

7. Go jet skiing

8. Finish a painting on canvas

9. Find a fabric to revamp some furniture

10. Read at least 6 books – DONE!
22/10: Looking for Alaska (Nowhere near at good as The Fault in Our Stars)
4/11: The perks of being a wallflower (Loved it!)
8/11: The Gifts of Imperfection (Exactly what I needed to read)
9/11: This Way to Spaceship (Love Rhys Darby, thought the book would be funnier)
10/11: Make Your Idea Matter (So much wisdom)

11. Volunteer at AWLQLD - DONE!
11/12: I now volunteer once a week with the dog team, loving it!

12. Pay off the credit card
6/12: Half way there! 

13. Create a fun video for the blog
4/11: Have filmed some work in progress, may do a timelapse type of video

Do you have a list you’re working on? I’d love to hear what you’d like to achieve before the end of the year.

Images: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

Over the last few years there have been some incredible Pengiun classics cover redesigns by designers like Coralie Bickford-Smith (I particularly love her culinary themed book covers) and I was fascinated to read about a new Penguin Drop Caps collaboration between illustrator Jessica Hische and Paul Buckley. This will be a 26-book series of hardcover classics, each one feature a unique drop cap that Jessica is well known for through her project Daily Drop Cap. Judging by the first six covers, I would imagine that the whole set together will create a full rainbow of colour.