So Yesterday

So, I accidently destroyed the old presets for  dear-melissa.com, and when I tried to fix it the design spiralled into a pre-set design disaster! I have done my best to set up a new layout that is more-or-less the same vibe as before, hopefully even an improvement!

In order to doument the past, here is a snippet of the previous 'today's inspiration', which actually had probably been punching around for a year or so!

=fabrics
=leather work
=dainty laces
=heavy metal

=wild horses

=paisley prints/spots and stripes!

=homemade jam

=quilting

=70% Aged Columbian beans, 30% Yemen = Strawberry Fields forever, the most amazing coffee blend ever.

=handwritten notes

=love hearts

=my lace collection

=seijima's gifu housing estate in japan

=riding my bike around the suburbs

Above all

 

 

 

 

"...and above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it" - Roald Dahl

folding...folding folding

 i've been busying my fingers today with some origami tessellation folding... I haven't made anything spectacular yet - but practice makes perfect, right?

i should be doing work... instead i'm making pom poms...

zombies and things....

this is a collaged section of darlington graveyard - complete with zombies, gravekeepers, and st stephens church in the background. Click on the image if you'd like to play where's wally!
my graduation project is getting very spooky indeed!

Not Mountains

My friend  Matt from South Africa drew this in my notebook while we were doing an architecture presentation last week. I just saw it while I was flicking through it this afternoon, and I like it. Thanks Matt. I don't really understand it but I like it. I hope it's not rude.

hello hario

with all the talk on the streets about rising coffee prices and trouble with importation, making cups of coffee at the cafe sky rocket,  i feel more relieved than ever to wake up to my lovely hario filter! It's so beautiful and as it is porcelain, it will hopefully last a life-time. how eco is that?!
this morning i delighted in the Rwandan 'cup of excellence' winning coffee. filter style. you just put the filter cup over your coffee mug and filter way. barely any washing up too. nice.

summer hill silo

these are from a freelance project for a friend's band that I did at the end of last year. they were made into posters and t-shirts.
at the moment I am working on an off-shoot project that should be unveiled in the coming weeks...

Advertising Architecture/Designing with friends

My dear life friend and designer-buddy Angela Woda recently blogged about our poster design that was exhibited in the Architecture Association's 'Advertising Architecture' (that's a lot of 'A's!) 2010 competition. 

The design process for the submission was carried out from our separate studios in Sydney and Melbourne, via skype and emails. You should definitely keep an eye on Miss Woda. She is going to change the world.

This is the final product that was exhibited at Surry Hills library:

...And this is our statement that went along side it in the catalogue (which I lost on the night...)...

"Man does come into the world with eyes, but only by slow education does he learn to see"  Walter Gropius.

We are all born with spatial imagination and awareness. There is a fabulous difference between the world that we create within the flatland of paper space, and the physical limitations of the real world beyond. All built form has the potential to give their inhabitants delight, comfort and joy. These are experiences that you can’t find in a line, but are drawn by an Architect in the knowledge of what the line will mean when the drawing on paper is transported into the third dimension.

The hero shot can sell an image. But this is not a pipe.

What makes architects so important?

An Architect knows the difference.

beauty of passion

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

Chloé - Winter 2011/12 runway

I have the world's most terrible migrane - I have had it since last Thursday! 
Bringing some relief to my head trauma and bed rest is the Chloé winter runway.  These are some of my favourite looks.

siteless somethings sometimes

François Blanciak’s book ‘Siteless’ features 1001 architectural designs unconstrained by scale or context. Each of his hand drawn sketches represents a possible design for a building anywhere –or maybe nowhere– in the world. Each drawing is complemented with a title, which is just as imaginative and humorous.  However, as I have spent much of the summer reading Heidegger, I am still unsure of how this concept sits in my head! Regardless, it is fun.

a dance for one

this morning i took my first peek at the new lover lookbook.  lover is probably my most favourite brand, i have gone great distances physically, emotionally, and financially (hehe) to secure purchases in the past and i am sure that this collection will be a similar story.  i love so many of the pieces - it will be hard to choose! The silhouettes and colour palette are totally in keeping with what i am wanting to wear at the moment - how does lover keep reading my mind!?

double exposure

this week dan mountford has provided me with endless inspiration.  Double exposures within the shots happen 'in camera' and then he uses photo editing software to further enhance them into beautiful finished images as shown below.  I love the mix of analogue and digital technology in his pieces, something I have been considering a lot lately in the current state of architectural education and practice.  I think that it is equally important to master both physical and digital tools of production, manifestation and communication within architecture and design at large.  In order to arrive at the best outcome, it is important to be able to throw into the ring whatever technique is best suited to achieving the end result, regardless of how archaic. no?

Anecdote -  I went to by perspex today to make a model and the lady at the checkout said " I didn't think architects ever made models anymore.  I thought they did everything on super high tech expensive computer systems that are invented by astronauts".  I had so many responses racing through my head, what a funny thing to say!  Crazy! ...and ended up just saying "yeah, pretty much...".