A Web Designer's Inspiration File

Hi there, my name is Michael, and I have the pleasure of wasting some of your time this fine day.

Not 'what I'm going to talk about will waste your time'-waste your time', but rather 'if you're anything like me, one thing will lead to another and you'll find that it has grown dark outside and the cat is clawing your leg for having forgotten to feed it'-waste your time.

And I don't even have a cat.

My personal blogging usually centers on web design, film and games (which I used to develop, now I do freelance web design). Today however, in honor of Tina, I thought I'd highlight some of my inspirational watering holes.

Starting with the ultimate rabbit hole: Ffffound. A chaotic stream of design, typography and photography ranging from the cute through the absurd, beautiful and outrageous to the sexy and mysterious. It's amazing. It's driven entirely by its community, and is updated... always. Blink, and there's something new.

Now, it bears mentioning that you do risk coming across nude photos; so depending on your temperament and surroundings... But then, that's true of most of the internet, isn't it? Luckily, their site mechanics seem to magically keep you around the kinds of images you're looking for, so don't let that keep you away.

Of course going there just now, I spent half an hour picking out stuff for my inspiration folder:


I'm a Star Wars nerd as well, did I mention that?


I have no idea how this was done, but wow.


I want these for my new office!


And yes, there's even plenty of room for nesting envy (I've got a folder full of 'God I wish I lived there'-images from Ffffound).

Then there's wine label designs, flower wrapping designs, fashion, ehm..., this guy, fantastic posters, impossible architecture, landscapes like you wouldn't believe and of course aliens from below.

So that's Ffffound. My favorite watering hole of them all

Then there are some of the more eclectic, like Sleevage, a site dedicated to album cover artwork. One of the unfortunate side effects of downloadable music, is the loss of the album cover. I personally love UNKLE's War Stories and Pocket Symphony by Air, which is covered in great detail, including the manufacturing process of the figures used on the cover. I'm also a huge Trent Reznor fan, and Year Zero is about as good as it gets, with regards to making an album feel like a worthwhile purchase.

Then there's Letters of Note, a site that features... ehm... yeah. Me being a science fiction and film fan, this letter from Philip K. Dick talking about Blade Runner was a great read, as was this 'letter', albeit short.

Now we come to something a bit less... arty. Namely Information Aesthetics, dealing in data visualization, one of those things I like to follow peripherally, and in which wish I had some talent. It sounds dull, but then you see the visualizing of the song lyrics from the band OK Go, or the human body as a subway map. I don't have any idea what most of it means; I just like looking at it.

Related, by the way, is Visual Complexity.

Also check out The Ampersand, a blog dedicated to just that. The Art of the Title Sequence (so many memorable ones; I hold a special place in my heart for Bullitt). The Orientalist Gallery, which features paintings of the romantic middle-east of old. My favorite of the orientalists is Jean-Léon Gérôme, whose art I could lose myself in for hours at a time.

I could keep going on and on, but at least let me leave you with Swiss Miss, run by Tina Roth Eisenberg, a Swiss designer living in New York, who runs one of my favorite design blogs, and who is in a sense one of the sources of inspiration for my starting up as a freelance designer on my own.

Whew.

I hope that wastes just half as much time for you as it's done for me.

Editor's Note: This post was created by the very modest Michael Heilemann, computer code master and creator of WordPress' legendary Kubrick theme. His brilliant design helped establish the framework for the modern blog. For more on Michael and Kubrick's secret history, please see the story I had the honor of writing recently for the Huffington Post! -- Tina

abby try again

Beautiful film photography from Abby Try Again.
~
x Liss

PS. I miss Tina, I hope shes doing ok.

true scandinavian

A sneak peek at soon-to-be published book True Scandinavian by lifestyle and interiors photographer Pia Ulin. I like the mix of quirky and vintage with white light filled spaces, I think this is exactly how Id like to have my home one day.




You can look through more images as well as her other published books - I also like a room of ones own - on her website (discovered via From Scandinavia with love)

I really must get over to that part of the world, I think id love it!!

x Liss

Blogger Meetup

Hello everyone! My name is Micaela and I'll be a sporadic guest blogger, popping in every now and then while Tina is away. I run an inspiration blog, The Drifter and the Gypsy, where I write about photography, art, interior design, and anything else that inspire me.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting Tina in person. It was such fun. Tina really is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet. We went to brunch, then hit up these amazing boutiques in South Pasadena that were so visually inspiring.


The first boutique we went to was Marz run by a lovely lady named Marcia. She has such a great eye for pretty stuff! The store was so beautifully decorated with flea market finds.

The boutique next door was Camille. Unfortunately, the owner, Camille was away so I didn't get to meet her. She has this awesome wallpaper of faces in her fitting room. All the clothes there were so pretty and feminine.

Blogging is a funny thing. You don't get it unless you're part of it. Which is why it was such an amazing experience to meet up with a fellow blogger-we pretty much talked about blogging the whole time, blogging nerds we are! There's a certain buzz, a certain excitement that only comes when meeting other creative people. And I felt it that day. Days like these should be cherished.

Forever is Today

Hello all, Liss here.... I've been spending my morning checking emails and looking through the archives on this blog I came across, Forever is Today - written by Hilda Grahnat, a graphic design student from Sweden.

Hilda posts pictures of her flea market finds as well as interior shots from her lovely home.



Plus I really love the name of her blog! I remember having this realisation after turning 25 about how life is now and how I spent to much time thinking about what I want to do "one day". That was a big year of change for me.

Any blogs you've come across lately that you've been really enjoying?

Jane Campion's Scrapbook

I've had this in my bookmarks for a long time and had forgotten all about it. It's the inspiration and scrapbook of film maker Jane Campion whilst she was working on the film Bright Star. There was a website too where she had all the work laid out like a big inspiration wall, but it has since been taken down.

I love seeing stills and the process that goes into creating the final work. I went to a photo shoot last week where I took some Polaroids of behind the scenes. I'm thinking Id like to make them into a scrapbook of some sort.

Hope you all had a great weekend!! x Liss

src: find more images from the scrapbook.....here and here.

Something funny...

Hello dear friends, I wanted to share this picture with you! It made me laugh. Here are our cats looking out the bedroom window, like Laurel and Hardy. I would have loved to have seen them from the other side, with their funny cat faces. Even during adversity, life serves up some serendipitous joy!

I'm off to spend the day with my father. Thank you for your well wishes. If it's ok, I'll stop in here once and again with a post while Liss has the reins over the next few weeks. We're also lining up an amazing array of guest bloggers, including Michael Heilemann, the famed creator of WordPress' legendary Kubrick theme!

I hope you enjoy the posts in the coming weeks! Tina

cosmos✦travel

Hello readers, It's Liss here from Daydream Lily and I'll be posting here every few days while Tina takes a much needed break. I'll be sharing beautiful things and words that inspire me, similar I guess to what I blog about on Daydream Lily.

So first I want to share a pretty little shop Dear Oly - its full of treasures and flea market finds from Oly's travels. I've posted about this shop on my own blog before but Oly has updated it with some more beautiful things!! I also love what she writes about travel....

the point is re-discovering yourself and the world, of all those that are subtle and common,
everyday and not everyday, living and traveling, breathing slowly,
observing and also understanding, cherishing every single second when you wanna take a picture,
a spark of light, and then, go back home safely :)

♥

A request....

It's raining tonight in Los Angeles and I'm trying to keep my spirits up. I snapped a few pictures of my latest decor finds: A 1950s ashtray, a colorful vintage Balinese screen, a black and white poster of a grandfather clock (with an actual clock that runs on a AA battery), more books to stuff into my giant pine armoire.

Decorating our new apartment has become my respite. Maybe it's because it's the one area of my life that I can control. I know this is going to sound very dreary, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by uncertainty and sorrow. Not exactly good fodder for an inspiration blog, that's for sure.

Last summer, my dad was diagnosed as having a serious bone marrow disease. (I took some time off work to take care of him. Even though I now believe it made me an easy layoff target, I would not trade the time I spent with him for the world.)

This week doctors confirmed what we've feared for several weeks: my father now has leukemia and the prognosis is not good. He is skin and bones.

One of my well-meaning blogger friends sent me a long email this week lecturing me about my low morale. Yes, my morale is bad. This is my year of loss, I guess.

So I have a request: Does anyone out there want to guest blog here for a few weeks while I sort things out? Email me if you do :) Posts with photos of funky flea market finds are always welcome here...

UPDATE: My friend Liss at the gorgeous blog Daydream Lily has generously offered to keep things running here at the English Muse. Liss (who has been nominated for a 2010 Cosmo Woman of the Year award!) will be posting, with occasional cameos from other talented bloggers. Thank you so much for helping me out during this very difficult time! I love you. Tina

Volcanic Sunset

Hello everyone! I've been enjoying this evening looking at the flickr photos coming out of Europe on the volcano eruption in Iceland. This one, taken by mark1alpha on Chesil Beach in Portland, UK, is one of my favorites, with the ash turning the sunset red. Flickr has a blog post of other gorgeous volcanic sunset photos here. Lovely how the sun seems especially jumbo sized.

I took my friend Elaine to LAX last night for her flight back to Paris, where she lives half of the year. I was so happy to learn this morning that she safely made it home before they shutdown the airports.

An important PS:
Thank you all for your thoughtful, touching comments on my Isabella post earlier this week! Bella was so heartened to read them. They gave her a boost of confidence like you wouldn't believe. I wish I could reach through the computer and give you all virtual hugs. Thank you, thank you!

Wisteria

I was so happy today to discover this young vine growing next to our new flat!

Chairs with personality

I have a crush on a chair. I spotted it yesterday in the Anthropologie store at The Grove in LA. It's colorful -- orange and white -- and way too expensive, like those silkscreened Prada shoes a few seasons back.



Upholstered chairs seem to me like the ultimate decor investment. They become characters in a room. The more tattered they are, the better -- like an Hermes bag with a life well lived. I have a friend who believes that every kitchen should include an upholstered chair, a place to curl up in with a cup of coffee and the New York Times. Her chair is a well-worn, cream-colored Club on wheels. It's draped with an old paisley throw.

The best chairs, of course, are found in thrift stores. But, as usual, I'm in love with all the ones on the Anthropologie site. A sampling:




I can live without the Prada heels these days, but furniture has become my favorite luxury item!

Monday morning...

Here are a few snapshots at our flat on this rainy morning:


White linens, a tattered paisley-covered club chair, books inside a Chinese chest, a large jewelry box (with a reflection of our cat Kali in one of the mirrors), a stool covered with an old suzani.


I'm listening to the rain on the roof. It's pouring here! It's a nice day to stay in. I'm in decorating mode and re-reading all my old Dominos. BTW, I heard a rumor last week that the former editor of Domino is in discussions with one of the Huffington Post financiers to start a Dominoesque website. Wouldn't that be divine?


PS: UPDATE on my dog training efforts
I've discovered that pounding two escargot pans together helps stop the barking. I couldn't bring myself to throw around the Calphalon.

Little dog love

I know this little dog looks very innocent in this picture, but she's a fierce beast. How long does it take to housebreak a Pomeranian (never?). And what about the ankle biting?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

The cats are out...

Our two cats emerged this week from under the couch...
They immediately took up residence on the windowsills. They seem to be recovering from our move. I am too.

There's only one way to fight these house blues: Decorate. I'm putting most of my rustic pine furniture from the old house on consignment. Tomorrow I'm starting my quest for new things for our new abode!