I Often Dream of Trains in New York DELUXE EDITION

Gamil Design worked with Yep Roc and Robyn Hitchcock to create a deluxe CD package for a limited Deluxe Edition of “I Often Dream of Trains in New York”. The classic looking CD package unfolds and transforms into a phenakistoscope, or moving picture machine. Original CD and DVD artwork can be viewed as animations through the included viewer. Gamil developed and produced the package concept, design and artwork. Each part of this deluxe package was made in the USA. This Deluxe Edition can be purchased at Yep Roc!

Robyn Hitchcock Deluxe Edition

Robyn Hitchcock Phenakistoscope Assembled

Check out the video below that Yep Roc put together showing the phenakistoscope in action!

My momma is an amazing woman. She is fun, smart, thoughtful, and so very creative. A month ago she started a little blog to document/share her stamping and crafting projects. It has been such a great fit for her, and so much fun for me to watch her grow in her “new found” digital creativity in the blogging world!

When I was a child, momma hosted kids crafting workshops at our house. She instilled and fostered the “Making” gene in me. I am so thankful for her sharing her gifts, had it not been her love and encouragement growing up who knows if I would have become a designer!

Happy Mother’s Day Momma! I love You!

This Buddhist complex in Thailand was built using over a million recycled beer bottles.
Yet another inspiration to drink beer
… cheers

The ‘early 00’s version of disguising a breaker box was to stick a giant plastic rock shape over it. These late 00’s look new and fresh, at least in Playa Vista, California, thanks to the creativity of Joshua Callaghan. If you stand on the right place it actually IS like it’s not there, instead of some giant plastic tumor rising up outta the ground…

via urbanprankster.com

Check out what your Christmas will look like this year! A fellow Raleigh design agency, R+M (and also friends!), put this fun li’l setting together. No matter whether you are deemed Naughty or Nice, you’ll surely be able to blow some time finding the hidden Christmas gems.

Macy’s Windows

Saks fifth Ave window 1: based on children’s book, “A Flake Like Mike”

Lord and Taylor windows

The blatant commercialism of the yearly “shopping season” can get really overwhelming, but I do love traditions such as these that add artistry and creativity to the craziness.

The pain reliever, Motrin, lost a major bonding opportunity by poking fun at new moms who use baby slings and other “close to the body” carriers. A new online and magazine ad was pulled Monday with an apology on their home page due to thousands and thousands of twitter comments by outraged moms and blogs around the world analyzing the intent of the ad. From there, the big guys then had to pay attention and report on it as well. Check out Advertising Age article on it.

Designed by Taxi to possibly follow (or knock off) the look and humor of “The Baby Owner’s Manual,” the ad, instead sounds like a snide and snarky “I’m too cool to be a mom, but I do have a baby,” woman who generally looks down on the very idea of bonding or closeness. One line in the ad even uses the “s” word, the one word definition of cynicism: “Supposedly it’s a real bonding experience…”

I’d bet too that Motrin has incured the ire of every baby carrier brand out there, as the ad is flat out insulting to them. We all know many many ergonomic studies are done, safety studies and R&D development in order to design baby slings and alleviate or reduce fatigue and pain from repetitive hours of carrying a baby (a wriggling extra 10-20lbs) each day. The ad negates that honest intention and declares the slings themselves as the reason for back pain.

And, yes, Mom’s are “supposedly” a huge market. But the ad could only appeal to that niche market segment, as motherhood is everything to mothers but not really an empathetic or understood state of being for others. So the only people who truly understand the ad are pissed off. AND, the ad was supposed to coincide with International baby wearing month! Now that’s funny.

Ultimately, it’s an interesting study— what makes sense to a design team might not hit the target market the same way. And the incredible power of social media will amplify the resulting consumer tantrum to a level that makes the ad agency wish they’d never left the house.

calendar dreams...

Hey, I hate to brag on the creative scene in North Carolina but Mebane is the home of this online service for the ultimate in DYI fabric fun! The crafting revolution is going tech in all the right ways with sites like Etsy and Raleigh based groups like The Handmaidens.

pretty bird...

Upload your ideas and get sewing your dream weaver fantasies today…

fashionSPARK photo by NewRaleigh.com

WOW! NewRaleigh.com has fantastic and thorough documentation of SPARKcon’s fashionSPARK runway show September 19, 2008. If you didn’t get to the show, or couldn’t see it cause somebody’s big head was in your way, check it here!