JHill Design Giveaway

Well folks, you wouldn't believe it but I need to start working on designs for the 2010 calendar. I know... nuts. I thought that perhaps I could pick your brain for a little inspiration. Or I guess bribe you with some JHill Design goods :)
Email your thoughts on places you want to go or places you have been, (feel free to include low-rez images) to pihnb@jhilldesign.com by August 1. After August 1 we will pick 3 random winners to receive a JHill Design gift pack full of notebooks, note cards, a 2008 wall calendar and even a 2009 desk calendar (sneak peek for you, no one else has seen this yet!). So send away, we can't wait to start reading your emails!

I'll be away from the blog for a few days. Tomorrow I will be one year away from 30... to lessen the blow I'm going for a facial with Mrs. Boggy and then to stuff myself with food while in the company of dear friends. Have a lovely weekend!

Redesign!

So you'll see we've gone through a redesign here. Oh there just wasn't enough white space in the old one... it killed me really. It occurred in the wee hours of last night... perhaps spawned by my landlord's sudden (and unannounced) ripping down of our fence and back porch this week. The "landscape" guys are currently chillin' in our lawn chairs on our deck chatting... I wish I could understand what they were saying. Anywho - the design has a few quirks but those won't be fixed until I get back from the Cape (yeah!) on Monday. Happy 4th. I hope you like to new look.

Ooooh... lovely!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with designer Lisa DeJohn. She came to the house/studio to do an interview for Design*Sponge's guest blog, which she is writing this week. (Sasso loves when writers come over cause that means I super clean the whole place) I've been a fan of Lisa's work since we started chatting via email over a year ago. I thought I'd post some of it here for you to check out, see above. Aren't her paintings and patterns great!? You can see more of her work here.
Well I feel fully recovered from NSS now and back on track. Which is good :) Now there is lots of follow up to do, but with the help of my lovely new intern, Johanna, I think it should go pretty smoothly. There are a few new cards that will be up on the website in the next week (or sooner), the new Cheers! card and the new Top of the Mornin' card inspired by Galway, Ireland. The Galway pattern was inspired by my Grandma's travel journal through Ireland, which I can't wait to share here!

NSS Wrap Up

So sorry for never getting those booth photos up this week. I grossly underestimated how wiped out I'd be from the show. All in all it was a good time. It was great to put a face to a name for buyers, vendors and press. I finally met Miss Grace from Design*Sponge in person, and she is just as lovely as expected. You should check out her coverage of the Show here, it is quite good! I also met another online friend, Emily over at Orange Beautiful / The Scoop. She too is lovely (and hilarious), plus she has some killer new letterpress goods coming out! Paper + Cup has always been a company that I looked up to in terms of how they have grown their business and such. We were lucky enough for them to be right next door to us. I loved seeing all their work in one place and Minhee and Truman... you couldn't have nicer people. They were great booth neighbors. Check out their show coverage here.
The show left me with a lot of thoughts and ideas and questions about the PIHNB line. I told Sasso I needed to go write it all down and think about it for a bit to which he replied "Of course you do". Above are pics of our booth. The tall one is me and next to me is Anna from Sub-Studio (beautiful silk screened cards, and she has a great new jewelry line called Brevity), Tara from Ink + Wit (sweet animal letterpress notes) and Janet of RSVP Press (lovely letter pressed bridal invitations). We got a lot of great comments on our booth, I think it helped that it was all white (including the hardwood floor) so our work really popped. I'm all about white space so I thought it was perfect. I'd like to just relax for a few days because next week the next 2 big project starts: the redesign of the new JHill Design site (yeah!!! a real content management system!) and the beginning of our wedding invites/website design. Ta-Ta, have a nice loooooong weekend! (ps.below are a few more pics from my wanderings around NYC).

Hola from NSS!

Well well well. After months of prep the big event is finally here. So lets see.... The drive from Boston to the Javits was totally beautiful. All these lush chartreuse parkways lined with what looked like big bonsai trees. I was nervous about driving into NYC but it was so easy, as was finding parking. I think I worried about everything so much that it all seems like a piece of cake now. I also have to say that - and I never thought this to be true - NYC drivers are a thousand times nicer than Boston drivers. I mean they actually let you switch lanes without trying to force you off the road and flipping you off.
I'm staying at the Courtyard Marriott in Jersey City for a few nights and I'm totally loving it. It is on the water, free wi-fi, a big room and next door is a great sushi place, a B of A, a Starbucks a great deli/market and the path train. What more could you ask for? Well there aren't any bathrobes, but I guess I can let that slide. Next year I'll book the whole week here and make sure to bring my own robe to complete the hotel experience. This morning I got a coffee and a bagel and sat by the water for a bit before I secluded myself to my room to watch the live web cast of my brother's graduation from college (congrats Chris!) and then it was back to the Javits.
So today we finished setting up our booth. There was a small snaffoo with the dimensions and it isn't quite as large as we were imagining. In the end with some compromise it looks very nice. Tight, but nice. It's been great hanging out with ladies that I've been talking online with for the last 5 months. We are right next to Paper + Cup and a few booths away from Knock-Knock so it has been great meeting /seeing companies that I so admire.
When I left tonight not everyone was done with their walls so I'll wait to show pictures of the booth until tomorrow. But here are a few shots of what I was enjoying while I was sitting in traffic tonight on my way back into jersey.

Oh, Much Appreciated!

And here is our 2nd new thank you note, Much Appreciated, she hails from Savannah, Georgia. This pattern is a "re-coloration" of this year's (May in fact) Savannah pattern. I love the pattern but just haven't been all that crazy about how the colors have printed in the past so I changed it to cream, a gold and a light grey-blue. I kind of love it now to be honest. I think she looks like a starlet.
The card was inspired by (other than Savannah) my dear Alston, who's last day was today :( Alston is from Georgia and we were talking about how sayings change through out the U.S. When she said people in Georgia say "Much Appreciated", I thought... "god I love that". I have a real thing for southern accents. I'm somewhat memorized by them (I'm also mesmerized by the accents of Southie - see the departed or gone baby gone - but just in a different way). I find Southern accents so charming and sweet. Miss Alston doesn't have much of an accent, but she does say y'all occasionally which I totally love.
I think this is going to be a really interesting thing to explore, the different ways people say things like thank you, happy birthday, congratulations and such in the U.S.
Well I am leaving you my darlings. The car is packed and I'm headed to New York for a week to show our goods at the Stationery Show. I'll be staying for the weekend at a hotel (I'm so looking forward to the bathrobes, cable tv, hbo and take out) sans Sasso and then at my dear Marie's place. I'm hoping to blog from the show so I can show you the process of setting up and the booths and our wares... I'm a bit nervous but more excited to meet so many ladies that I have been talking to online for the last couple years.
I just need to add this (WARNING: ANTM SPOILER)........
Ok, that was fair warning. I am so pumped that miss Whitney won. So so so pumped. It's nice to see a lady with a booty get some recognition. Plus she is gorgeous. Oh boy, what am I going to watch after Gossip Girl's Monday night finale... all my teenage shows will be over for the season. Ta-Ta

I'm drowning in boxes

There are so many boxes here that people probably think we're moving. So many I should probably bake Eric the UPS man cookies. A little break in the Loire Valley posts for a moment. This is for all those loved ones and friends who I haven't called / emailed back and for those clients that are like The Station-what? For those that have no idea what I've been doing and why I still can't go out tonight (but you can come come over to stuff envelopes!).


Postcards + Orderforms. Thanks to Brother Chris & Sister Becky for folding 500 of these things, just out of the goodness of their hearts. And to Becky for telling me to fold them the opposite way after I had already done 250, she was right.


Cute New Stationary Show Shoes and my most recent Arch Nemesis: Grand Theft Auto 4. I can't take the sirens anymore, it is driving me batty. Here lies Sasso's game map. I will not shred the map, I will not shred the map..... And there, a lovely box of glassine envelopes that are being labeled and then stuffed with said order forms and the line sheets... when Eric brings me my line sheets tomorrow.



God Bless Ikea. Seriously, we are outfitting the whole booth with Ikea goods. Thank god for cheap modern designed goods that are only 30 mins away.


Yeah for New Cards that come out perfectly printed!!! Greener Printer rocks.

Thanks to Alston I'll have some lovely press kits at the show. She came up with a lovely design when my stamping idea turned all "holly hobby". And here are all the labels for all the products.... sooooo pretty.

So there it is, that is what I've been doing the last few weeks. I need to stuff press kits, buyer packs and package samples too... so that is why I can't go out... but you can come here and help :)

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 :)

A Roman Wrap Up

Big news. I have finished all design matter for the stationary show. Cards, Note Pads (oh yes there are going to be very pretty note pads coming your way... I'm such a list maker), Calendars, Prints, Order Forms, Postcards, Business Cards, Line Sheets = in the bag. Now I just wait for Eric from UPS to drop it all off. Now I also need to bribe friends over here to help me stuff hundreds and hundreds of buyer kits... any takers? I'll supply Champagne I swear.
It's nice to see 5 months of Stationary Show planning come to an end... though now I need to start planning something else, a wedding. Which has been anything but fun up to this point, except the dress part. That has been fun :)
So I had bought this funny little book which is a guide to all the gelato in Italy. It was hard to get my hands on cause it was out of print, but it really does have quite a lot of info about Gelato in it and is written in a very cute way. I was going to do a whole list of the top places to get Gelato in Rome but... I'm too burnt out. I am, however, launching a new pattern and part of the new line on the website tomorrow. Loire Valley - she is very pretty. I leave you with a glimpse at my display and Mr. Man The Buyer here.
PS. How good was Gossip Girl last night? Sooooooooooo good.

Speaking of Magazines....

A few months ago I was interviewed by Blythe Copeland of Boston Magazine for the Spring Issue of Boston's New England Travel magazine, which just came out yesterday. The girl who does Places I Have Never Been needed to pick a favorite New England travel destination, (see, people don't think I actually go anywhere - but I do). I spoke to Blythe right after Sasso and I can back from a trip to the Berkshires, a favorite area of ours. It was so nice to see all the details I mentioned to her in the article, I'd forgotten most of them - like how much I liked the mushrooms at Mezze (they were very good). I talked about what we do when we travel - and that is eat great food, be it a hot dog or a 4 course meal.
The article also made me realize why people have headshots taken. Here I've got Sasso's glasses on... we are on the beach in Cabo... the sun is setting... a great memory - but not the most flattering picture. I'm just not all that photogenic - and I'm ok with that. My ladies Jsutt and Leeees take some very nice pictures, I might need to take some lessons from them. Next thing you know Sasso will come home and I will be playing ANTM in my studio.
Oh, you can read the full article online here.

Inspiration: The Last Page

Seriously, the last page is almost ALWAYS my favorite page of the entire magazine. It's so nice when a mag doesn't just fill the final page with ads, but considers it a little goodbye treat to the reader. Here are a few top favorites of my Mag Shelf:


1. Gourmet July 2007 My favorite food magazine by far. How can you beat their food photography?! Their last page is always a few simple recipes on a theme, here is one of my favorites. The Art of Reduction includes 5 different fruit syrups to slather on ice cream or mix with some soda water and vodka for the perfect summer (warm weather will eventually get to Boston this year, right?) cocktail. Here is the recipe for my favorite.


2. New York Magazine The Crossword Puzzle This is like, one of the only crossword puzzles that I can complete and I look forward to it every week. It does rival, however, their Approval Matrix which I always read first. Check out this blog which is a brilliant look at the Matrix. (As a disclaimer, NY now has a new last page, which appeared after the crossword called Artifact, but I can't quite figure out what the deal is with it, so I'm just ignoring it for now. )


3. Vogue March 2008 My favorite last page by far. Vogue's Last Look always has one amazingly designed and amazingly expensive object accompanied with just a small text blurb. These objects have influenced many a PIHNB pattern, including the upcoming Galway, Ireland pattern. Here is last month's Last Look. Mmmmmm a $7,950 Balenciaga bag.


4. Domino April 2008 I'm a big list maker, I love them. So naturally I'm a big fan of Domino's "10 Things That Make Me Happy". Since you've probably seen most of the April 2008 issue on other blogs (Drew's office was absolutely everywhere) I'll share the last page. I think Zoe Ryan and I would be great friends because I have almost everything she likes on my wish list, including the Girard dolls.

5. Sherman's Travel Fall 2007 I found this magazine at Logan Airport a few months ago and immediately loved it. It has everything that I love about the Time's travel section, but just more of it. I've totally given up on Travel + Leisure and CN Traveller, I just can't take the "Top 100 Hotels You'll Never be Able to Afford to Stay In" articles anymore. ST always ends their mag with a little blurb/photo about something fantastic. In this issue it was a balloon ride (including a light champagne breakfast) over Myanmar's Bagan Valley... imagine that!


6. Elle March 2008 I love Elle dearly. I do. I love chopping it to bits and filling my sketchbook with collages from her pages. Elle's last page always is an interview with some interesting person. This past issue talked with one of my favorite people: Rainn Wilson aka Dwight Schrute from The Office. I love Dwight Schrute and I think Rainn is hilarious. See him here at the Emmy's with Kanye West and in my favorite Office outtake here.

Inspiration: Magazine Round-Up

Last night I was laying on the couch indulging in a repeat of Gossip Girl when Sasso came home from work. He said, "Would you like to go through these magazines and throw out the ones that you don't want... there are like 2 issues of Elle right here." I became a bit irritated because:
1. I was in the middle of watching the debacle that was the debutant ball (what an evil grandmother that Serena has).
2. I have a hard time parting with magazines and it shall not be done on a whim.
3. There weren't 2 issues of Elle, it was an Elle and a Vogue - 2 very different things.

I have a magazine addiction and I am well aware of this as is the postman who crams them all into my P.O. Box. This year I let ALL my subscriptions run out cause it got out of hand and then I renewed after giving careful thought to each. (My theory is if you are going to pay $4 for one issue you may as well pay $12 for 12 issues) Subscriptions now include:
• Sherman's Travel
• Lucky + Domino
• Elle
• Vogue
• New York (a weekly)
• Gourmet
• Vanity Fair
• Wired + Rolling Stone (I get these for free for some reason and never end up reading them so I don't think that they REALLY count.)
But there are some new ones that I want... like Portfolio (Oh I love this business magazine), Departures (if only I too had a Amex Platinum card... someday), Home Companion, City, Art on Paper and the biggest guilty pleasure of all: Us Weekly (I just can't do it, I mean it is like over $100).
Much of the inspiration for the Places I Have Never been series comes from articles and fashion spreads that I read, clip + save. As you can see I don't throw away magazines lightly, what if there is an idea for a pattern nestled inside there?!
I thought that I'd do a few posts about some of my fav clippings and stories from my favorite magazines. Above you can see the stack I collected from around the house, many in their delivery bags. I think weekend might be one of reading... What are your favorite magazines? I'm always looking for a few more....

Just a note on the Spring Cleaning Sale...

Well it is still going on over at www.jhilldesign.com, I know it was supposed to end Tuesday - but I've been too busy to change the code. So it is still up and will be until I get to go in there and change everything back... so yeah for discounted prints!

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.

Just A Little Note....

Just a little note that the 2008 Desk Calendars are on sale now for $12.00 a piece at www.jhilldesign.com. I'm in the midst of designing the new collection, which means I need to start cleaning out the inventory closet soon (bad for me) and that some card designs will be going on sale shortly (good for you) so keep your eyes peeled!

All That's Left...

All that is left of my lovely sunny trip is this half eaten (but still not stale - good thing the ingredients are all in Spanish cause if i could read them i'm sure i wouldn't be eating them) bag of tortilla chips and some faded tan lines. I think I ate 2 or 3 bags of these very fattening chips while in Cabo, they are sooooo good.
So after a week of a pretty hefty cold (which I have since passed on to poor Sasso) I am getting back into the swing of things. I am working on 2009 Places I Have Never Been and am thinking about places such as Laos, Austin, Santa Fe, Positano, Versailles, Portland OR, Sierra Leone, Tipperary County in Ireland and so on. (If you've ever been to these places and want to share stories or pics just send me an email.) I'm working on some new products, reworking the shopping portion of the website and attending one of the "big gift shows". Something I'm doing in the next couple weeks (hopefully) is hiring an intern. If anyone is interested/knows anyone that may be interested you can check out the full description here.

Also, it is really snowing here and I'm going to be procrastinating shoveling for the next few hours. Here is the view outside our door (unfortunately we didn't know it was going to snow today and we left mr grill outside to suffer) and here is Mr Mischief looking disgusted. All he wants is to go outside. He really is the optimist because he asks to go out every half hour or so thinking all the snow will be gone, but alas... it is not. He is stuck inside all day with me.

Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays

Well we are off for a bit (yeah!) first to see the families in VT + NH and then to escape the shoveling and cold weather in Cabo. Luckily Mr. Mischief has a nice little cat sitter to tend to his needs while we are away. Happy Holidays to everyone! I'll see you here on January 4th!

The Costa Rica Pattern

On one of my many strolls along one of many beaches on the coast of Costa Rica I noticed this strange and somewhat complex pattern in the sand (see above photo). And then I saw it again. And again. And again, you get the picture. So I snapped a photo thinking it would be a cool pattern. Although it looks like a woodblock design embossed in the sand it is really made by a shell swirling around and being pulled out by the tide. How cool is that.
Later I sat on the steps of the lovely house, Casa Vista Azul, we stayed in and did a quick sketch of what I thought the pattern would look like. Later in February when we returned to the states I finished the above pattern and decided to use it as part of the JHill Design branding. I had just started the studio a few months prior and I needed to layout a new website, business cards, forms etc... so it was perfect timing. It's one of the only patterns I've done about a place I've actually been to.
Going back over my travel sketchbook to Costa Rica I can't believe that it was almost four years ago that I was there and that I've been running JHill Design for that long. When I started the studio it was a necessary fix to an immediate problem, (my dad had early-onset Alzheimers and having the flexible schedule that comes with having your own business let me work and help take care of him at the same time - it was wonderful), but in the last year it has been great to see it grow and change directions.
But back to Costa Rica, later I'll share some of the amazing foods we ate, (my entire sketchbook is made up mostly of drawings and listing of what I ate), the dogs that we met, and a few of the adventures we had. Most importantly though... the first game of the Red Sox ACLS series is tonight and I am sooooooooooooooooo looking forward to it. Go Sox.

Oooooh... Costa Rica

Disclaimer, I know it is called Places I Have Never Been... but I've been here, (see i DO actually go places...). The first travel inspired pattern was the one I use in the JHill Design branding, (see above banner), which was based on some natural designs I saw in Costa Rica. I thought I'd share not only the inspiration for the pattern but some of the great things we did there.
In 2004 Sasso, JBatt and Picy and I all traveled down to Playa Negra, Costa Rica where we spent a good week sitting on the beach and another one traveling around the coast. We met a lot of adorable dogs, some strange cows, we drove through rivers, played in the ocean, ate tons of great food, almost had to chew and screw on a dinner, and watched our Patriots win the superbowl, (luckily we missed the whole Janet Jackson debacle).
It was such a great trip and i can't wait to show you photos and our travel sketchbooks. Then it will be back to Places I Have Never Been as usual!

Gracias, Merci, Thanks!

Thanks to everyone that came out to Open Studios on such a beautiful weekend. It was a lot of fun meeting new people and talking about the "Places I Have Never Been" collection. My favorite part about doing shows like this is hearing people's travel stories. I head some great ones about Bavaria, Toppsfield, Kansas, and Varanasi. Feel free to post some of your favorite travel places here or email them to me at jhilldesign at mac dot com. I've got to play catch up and process a lot of credit cards today, exciting huh? I'll be back tomorrow with a series of new posts.
One thing, Grace at Design*Sponge launched her new site design today. Check it out here, she is using textures in a really cool way.