Oh Merci Loire Valley!!!

I thought I'd wrap up the Loire Valley today. She really is a very pretty pattern, May in our 2009 calendar. She also is the first card to debut in our new thank you note collection. We have a couple new collections that take the traditional note card (such as thank you) and change the wording to match the place of the pattern. So our French Loire Valley pattern becomes Merci. Tomorrow I'll show you our new Savannah thank you card. It has been really fun/interesting to think about the different ways that people say the same thing. Not just in terms of different languages, but even regional slang throughout the U.S.

Here is a conversation between me and Sasso last night, something funny:
(setting the scene: searching amazon.com for a fold able hand truck for the stationery show on a laptop at approximately 11:30pm in a dark bedroom)
Jennifer: Oh I'll get this one. Ugh, overnight shipping is $40 to get it here by Thursday. I'll go to Tarjet tomorrow to see if they have it in the store
Sasso: Just get it regular delivery
Jennifer: Um... I need it before we leave on Friday, duh.
Sasso: Where are we going on Friday?
Jennifer: (stunned silence - I mean I've only been prepping for this since January) New York. For the Stationery Show.
Sasso: WHAT!?!?! The show is this weekend?! Are you sure? I can't go! I have to work! I thought it was next weekend! We should really have a calendar for this stuff.
Jennifer (continued stunned silence while thinking about the calendars that I MAKE, one of which is hanging in our kitchen with all the NSS days marked on it) Why do you think I was packing everything up, got the car tunned up, took most of this week off and all that.
Sasso: I thought you were just really over prepared....

This is why I wear the planning pants in the family.

Valley of the Flowers

I had originally designed this pattern to be big, bold and kind of in one's face. But when I put it next to the other patterns for the 2009 calendar, it seemed really out of scale. So the whole thing got shrunk down. And in the end I like it very much, the only sad thing is that you loose a lot of the details in the flowers. I spent the majority of a dreary Saturday this winter drawing these flowers, each one blown up to like 800%. So I thought I'd blow them up a bit so you can see the detail in them here. The funny thing is I swear that I wrote down the name of each flower so that I could show you an original picture too... but apparently that was a good idea not followed through on.
Today my mom is coming in for a short visit and we are going to go wedding dress shopping. I'm not a big clothes shopper. I prefer to obsess over something online and then order it in 3 sizes and try it on in the comfort of my bedroom. Something a bit more difficult to do with a wedding dress. I'm looking for something white that is simple and costs less than my share of the booth fee to the stationery show. We'll see how it goes....

It's a Chateau Dahhhhling...

I wrote about my love of the word Villa in my Cabo wrap up, well I have the same affection for the word château (and also Chalet). Basically any word that is a bit more romantic and dreamier than "house". There were 3 châteaus that I thought of when I did this pattern.


1. Petit Hameau: The original inspiration for the patten was this little rustic place built for Marie Antoinette at Versailles. Do you remember in the movie when Kirsten Dunst was running around in tall grass in the most beautiful sun light glow? Then she picked strawberries and poured the most delicious looking cream from a pitcher.... mmmm. After checking it out I decided i wanted it all to be a bit more in your face and not so delicate. So I went on search for more châteaus.


2. Château de Chenonceau: The château was a gift from King Henry VIII to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. The place is so magical the way that it extends over the river. It has some amazing geometrically designed gardens too. You can visit the château's website here.


3. Château de Villandry: The gardens here are amazing. There are all sorts of geometric shapes including one part that is all hearts, which is where I got the inspiration for the hearts in the Merci pattern. You can visit their site here and see some amazing pics here.

I wish someone would say "Bonjour Mademoiselle!" and whisk me off to a château today. It has been a rough couple of weeks. The kind that makes you say, "Holy crap. The universe is trying to kill me!!" It has involved print proofs gone awry, burned hands, head colds, unresponsive vendors, torture via dentist, crazy client phone calls, a broken cell phone (which is just plain maddening), and one mess otherwise known as our engagement party / wedding.
But I'm not gonna let it get me down no more! The sun is out and even if I have to sit in my yard (with a box of tissues) instead of a château's that will do for now. To make things even better Eric the UPS man just brought all the new Thank You, Hello! and Holiday cards to me. The printing is SO beautiful! Lots of new stuff to show you soon.

Floral Couture

I write this with a throbbing face, cheek really I guess. My tooth had been aching and I had to go to the dentist. I made my last minute appointment thinking, "oh this is no big deal... I can do it in the A.M, have the whole day to work and then I can still make that Design Salon event I've been looking forward to in the evening." So I went, shed a few tears (you would too if you had 18 teeth pulled as a young one), and when I was leaving the (wonderful) dentist said to me "so once the Novicain wears off this is going to hurt at least twice as much as that root canal you had. Here, go get some Vicodin." Oh it appears I gravely miscalculated my procedure. Which is why I'm sitting at home with a throbbing face.

To take my mind off that (and how I really can't buy a M.J bag from the employee sale cause I just dropped the equivalent at the dentist) I thought I'd write a bit about the beginning influences of the Loire Valley pattern. Well, it was all those flowers over flowing the Spring runways. I mean they were EVERYWHERE! I could have filled an entire sketchbook with inspiration, forget just a few pages. Here are a few glimpses of my floral sketchbook pages.

Matthew Willamson, Prada, and Balenciaga. Balenciaga was the big time influence. All those cool floral patterns, and those crazy black and white gladiator sandals totally inspired the Chester, England pattern (I want those sandals, I know... where would I wear them... but I want them anyways). So here, take a look.

Introducing Loire Valley

Soooooo.... I need to note that right now I am sitting in the studio with all the windows open getting a fantastic cross breeze of warm air. So warm that when I walk through the kitchen I check to see if the stove is on, I've been doing this all day. The scent of a neighbor's BBQ have been wafting in... I've been waiting for this weather to return since November.



A while ago I wrote about what was inspiring some new patterns. The first new pattern to be released is Loire Valley. She is French and very bright (as in colorful, though if she was a person I think she'd also be very smart and clever), and just bursting with flowers. The pattern was inspired by the flowers that flooded the Spring 2008 runways (especially the Balenciaga collection - swoon), a few chateau gardens in France and the idea of a colorful fruit basket (not sure why but that popped in my head the whole time I worked on this pattern).
This is also the first release of the new Thank You card line, which Loire Valley graces on the Merci card which you can see here. The cards are sold as singles as well as in packs of 6 and they are all enviro friendly as mentioned before.
This pattern had so many great inspirations and I can't wait to share them all. I know posting has been a bit light. Sometimes it is tricky to get pumped up about the inspiration for patterns I did like 18 months ago, so I'm really looking forward to sharing the 14 new patterns I have with you!

On another note my dear-dear-dear-lovely intern Alston is leaving me in Mid-May so I'm on the lookout for another talented design intern. If anyone is interested please email me at jhilldesign (at) mac.com for more details. One of the big projects for the summer is the rework of the Studio's website which will soon have a wonderful database driven shopping cart (adios paypal buttons!). Good experience and fun :)

Places I Have Never Been... 2009

Oh God I have no idea what month or year it is. Sometimes I sign my therapist's checks 2007, others 2009... See I'm showing at the National Stationary Show in May, and I need to have the new collection/calendars ready then. Which means, in theory, in June I should be working on the 2010 calendars. See my problem?
Oh but it is so exciting to have my new Moleskine sketchbook obsessively divided into places and being filled with ideas for new patterns. It's also a bit trying. I swear to god it is like conceiving and giving birth 12 times over. Every year I get a little cranky during this time. It's crappy outside, Sasso has been LOUDLY playing Call of Duty for 24 hours straight in the room next door and I have to give birth 12 times.
But I am excited about the new places! I can't tell you all of them, (what would i talk about here for the next year) but I thought maybe I'd share the one that I am wrapping up this weekend: The Gardens of the Loire Valley in France.
Sasso says I do too many France patterns - but I LOVE France. I have dear friends from France and it is the only foreign language I can speak. My only regret is that I can't do a macaron pattern for "Placse I Have Never Been" because I have been to Paris (and fully indulged in macarons). Well, the Loire Valley pattern is inspired by Balenciaga's Spring 2008 line (I mean look at those flowers?!) and the movie Marie Antoinette. I just keep thinking about mazes and the phrase "A riot of color". Oh, it is fantastic... you will see it in all its glory in a few months.
I thought perhaps I'd solicit a little help. I'm stuck on a pattern. I want to do a piece about Portland, Oregon and for some reason I haven't gotten that bolt of inspiration yet. My best friend 'Ris lives out there, the PIHNB line is sold there in a few lovely stores... for some reason all I can think of is moss. So if anyone has any little tales or favorite things they'd like to offer shoot me a line or leave a comment.
Tomorrow a new place begins.... I'm thinking we'll start talking about Tuscany.

Currently Imagining: The South of France

Turns out this week I'm going to post a lot of the little art driven travel books that inspire me. Things are a little too busy, plus we have the Red Sox parade today, for me to get my act together to do otherwise. But this will be fun nonetheless.
Sarah Midda's South of France... I believe I got this in college and it was instantly a favorite. Midda is a British illustrator who's work has all the things that I love: style, detail, facts, color and concept. I love concept (in case you couldn't tell from the whole "Places I Have Never Been" thing).
Other things I love about this sketchbook:
• It has lists – tons of them actually (I’m a big big list maker).
• Midda draws unconventional maps of gardens with color-blocked keys
• She includes some amazing collages, one in particular is just about eggs (see above)
• One whole page (73) is a charatcer's gesture drawings
• Interesting factual monthly pages, such as the one above. They include such things as: “dragged to beach for last swimming days of the year” as well as "14th of September 1927: Isadore Duncan dies in nice – strangled when her scarf becomes caught in the wheel of car in which she is passenger."
• She draws an entire chart of olives on pg 94. Brilliant
Midda also has a book about gardens and abc's for adults. You can pick it up here from Amazon and see a few more scans of the book here.
Every time I pick up this little sketchbook I'm inspired more, I'd love to talk to Midda about it. I think we could have a nice chat over a "spot of tea". 'Til then I will be devouring her pages, well - after I go cheer on the Sox with thousands of other people.

The Bordeaux Pattern

Well as I previously mentioned this pattern went through SO many revisions I thought it was going to be impossible! But here she is, and I think she came out quite nicely. Feels very feminine and fun, just like drinking red wine with your lady friends, (or while drinking red wine in your hot apartment while perusing a Lionel Richie special on PBS - which I may or may not be doing at this moment.)
The pattern is available as a print, as part of the 2008 calendar, as a notecard and now as a notebook, (which I just launched this season).
While at MassArt I took a bookbinding class and I just fell in love with it. I know many graphic designers enjoy the methodical craftsmanship involved in making books. My favorite is the coptic binding which leaves little knots running down the exposed spine of your book. Well back to the notebooks. The large ones are stab bound while the small ones are saddle-stitched with color coordinating staples (I found colored staples and I knew that i needed to do something with them). Each book is handmade in my studio and I think they are just perfect for notes and lists (of which i make a lot). Check them out here...

The Colors of Red Wine

My sketchbooks are filled with "mini-collages". Cutouts from Vouge, Elle and other magazines help me formulate the color schemes and textures that I am looking for. In this case Benjamin Moore and Ralph Lauren chipped in with their paint swatches swiped from Home Depot. I could spend hours playing with all those paint chips...

Adventures on the Wine Route

As previously noted I am quite the bookworm and reading is one of the main ways that I research the "Places I Have Never Been" collection. To learn about the Bordeaux region of France I picked up Kermit Lynch's "Adventures on the Wine Route: A Wine Buyer's Tour of France". There is a chapter per region, and though it was a bit over my head because of my lack of wine knowledge, (I know there is red and white and that white is generally chilled - or that is how I like it), I still very much enjoyed the book.
Lynch talks about Bordeaux being "a land of facades", the biggest one of all being the name chateau, because "many chateaux are nothing but dilapidated sheds in which wine is produced, (reminds me of how loosely the term "luxury condo" is thrown around here in Boston).
Lynch writes of "wine factories", the négociant (middle man) system of Bordeaux, and the lack of female wine makers except for the wonderful Madame de Lacaussade. Some of Amazon.com's reviewers panned the Bordeaux section of this book, saying that the rest of the book was much better. Once I get through it I will let you know.

mmmmm... Cannelés!

The text for the Bordeaux print states that I would eat a tower of cannelés if i was to travel there. Well, in full disclosure, I have an amazing bakery just a few blocks from my home, and they make some great cannelés and I could eat a tower of them there, (or maybe I already have...). Canto 6 is on the corner of Washington and Green in Jamaica Plain, MA and they specialize in "Rustic European Pastry". The cookies (the chocolate cherry), biscuits (ham, carmelized onion and blue cheese), scones (the strawberry), tarts (goat cheese and asparagus), quiches (potato and onion), sandwiches (the franklin park) are amazing. Thank god i have to walk up a big hill to get home. (check out their menu here).
Ok back the the cannelés. It is a small French pastry with a soft and tender custard center and a dark, caramelized crust. The pastry looks like a tiny bundt cake and is approximately two inches in height. This Bordeaux specialty is made from egg, milk and flour flavored with rum and vanilla, the custard batter is baked in a mold, giving the cannelé a caramelized crust and marrowy inside. They remind me a bit of French Toast, only a lot better. If you live in the area stop by Canto 6 (3 cannelés for $1, can't beat that), other wise give them a call... maybe they will ship some to you!
That little lady in the top picture is Agnes, my brother's 7 mth Old English Bulldog and we are dog sitting. She is scared of a lot of things around our house (this is her first trip to the big city) but she certainly isn't afraid of those cannelés!

Bordeaux, France

Well the real inspiration for this print was my dear friend Lisa and her never ending love for a little "Cab Sav" after work. She often mentions this in her blog, which is the funniest thing i have EVER read, (seriously everyone go over and read her blog www.yourgirlfriendisugly.com). We've been friends for a good six years, brought together by my former and her current employer "The Spoil", and have partaken in a good amount of red wine tasting together, (not the "this has notes of blackberry tasting", just the "mmmm... good wine!" tasting). Besides being inspired by my muse Lisa, I did a some reading on the Bordeaux region and tasted some local canelés (I actually plan to go get some more after posting this). I wanted to do a pattern that represented the different shades of red that appear when you swirl your glass of wine. Let me tell you, this pattern did not come easy and took months! I think i did close to 10 revisions, I'm sure Sasso got sick of critiquing them too. But in the end it all came together and you can check it out here.

Drinking Stars

The story goes that the monk Dom Perignon said “Come quickly, I am drinking the stars” at his discovery of Champagne. Many refute this, and say that this quote was actually used by Dom Perignon, the champagne company named for the monk, in advertising in the 1800’s. Well regardless, what a wonderful quote it is and it greatly inspired my pattern. All I could think of was stars and bubbles spiraling their way up the champagne flute.
“Drinking the Stars” is also the name of a cocktail served at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room in SF. A $650 cocktail... wait they offer it for $325 too... my mistake, i was going to say they were crazy.
So what is in it… gold dust? Tiny specks of diamonds? Um, no. Chateau De Ravignan 1979 Bas Armagnac infused with Madagascar Vanilla Bean, Orange Peel, Raisins and Dom Perignon. I know nothing about Armagnac so maybe that is akin to specs of gold.
The above images are from my champagne note card. Each one is hand silk screened in metallic inks by me in my studio. The inks are all hand mixed so each batch's colors are a bit different from the next. Available online at www.jhilldesign.com and in NYC at Trunkt, 393 Greenwich Street

Evolution of a Champagne Drinker

The first time I had Champagne involved new years, high school and a bottle that may have been pink and was definitely under $10.00. I'm pretty sure I hated it.
In college I moved on to the "Andre", not pink but still under $10.00, and i think I enjoyed it slightly more than the aforementioned bottle.
It wasn’t until I was in Paris with my dear friend Sarah that I began to truly enjoy champagne. We were on a backpacking-through-Europe trip our senior year in college. One night at a café she ordered me a Kir Royale. Mmmmm… creme de cassis and champagne, it is still one of my favorite cocktails.
After college I went on to design for a beauty company who’s parent company happened to be LVMH. The M stands for Moet and Moet stands for Champagne. I always had visions of walking in and there being a nice bottle of Champagne on my desk from our “parent”, just cause we were doing a good job. Well, I've yet to have a bottle of Moet & Chandon.
Last year at Sasso’s company’s holiday party I got asked a question that every champagne drinker likes to hear. “Would you like a glass of Dom Perignon?” Ummm… yes, please! We all had our fair share of glasses that evening. I knew from experience that free champagne, (and Dom Perignon at that), doesn’t come around that often.

A bit of info about Champagne

She is a historic wine region in the northeast of France, about 100 miles east of Paris. The region is famous for that sparkly drink. That’s right… Champagne. Anyone anywhere can make sparkly wine, but only someone in Champagne can make Champagne. The 100+ Champagne houses produce about 220 million bottles each year. The most famous producers (the grande marques) are Moet et Chandon, Taittinger, Mumm, Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin and Perrier-Jouet. (Wouldn’t it be fun to get a bottle from each house for a little tasting?)
You can tour the houses and head underground into the “caves” where the “remuers” give each of the millions of bottles just a tiny bit of a turn every day. Hmm… I have visions of water fountains and sprinklers spouting champagne, glasses flowing everywhere. I had the same vision (but with chocolate of course), when we took a tour of the Hershey Factory in Hershey, PA when I was 10. The only chocolate we got there was a kiss at the end so I’m going to guess that the champagne tour is the same way.
“1,000 Places To See Before You Die” points you to Pommery, the largest and most impressive vineyard in Champage. Their cellars were carved by the ancient Gallo-Romans and used as schools, hospitals and shelters during the wars. Looks like it has this whole underground DaVinci Code feel to it.
Champagne is also home to the famous Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims with the amazing stained glass windows by Marc Chagall.

“drinking and eating stars” was the subtitle that got me.

I was reading through the great book “1,000 Places to See Before You Die” when I came to the entry for “Champagne and Les Crayères” in Reims, France. The description of this famous restaurant, this famous region and this famous drink… well it sounded just magical…