There are so many small mom and pop shops out there making amazing things. This one though, Herriott Grace, is a Dad-Daughter collaboration. One that spans across multiple states. Where the Dad, Lance, is the maker and his daughter shares his craft with the world. Both his and her talent are to die for. Just look at these rich photographs. I want to buy everything on the site. As should you.

And read their blog when you have some time. It’s beautiful.

PS: The site looks rad thanks to the endlessly talented OMFGCO .

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Montréal-based design studio Feed‘s “straightforward approach” has produced a portfolio full of memorable work. Typographic experimentation seems to lead the majority of their projects, leaving an illustrative mark on their otherwise minimalist compositions.

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Troels Faber and Jacob Wildschiødtz are the duo that make up the design studio NR2154 (“NR2154 is a project number emphasizing that the project always comes first”). Their body of engaging work runs the gamut from museum exhibits to postage stamps. And to top it off, they do it all while living thousands of miles apart (NYC + Copenhagen). Well done.

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Luca La Greca is a photographer based in Naples, Italy who has some serious skills. I particularly love his on the road series.

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Conceptual sculpture by Parisian artist Vincent Kohler, who seems to have no preference in medium at all. Check out his portfolio and you’ll find him bouncing back and forth between the likes of wood, concrete, electrical installation and more and more and more.

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A while back, I posted about a little side project I’d been working on and was raising Kickstarter money to try to get off the ground.  Well thanks in part to the generosity of you good-lookin’ OKGreatsters, we were able to raise the money we needed, and as of just a few weeks ago, Bound Custom Journals is a real live company.

I’m pretty damn proud.  From the beginning, Bound was something that first and foremost, we wanted.  When Joel (my biz partner) was going on a road trip a few years ago, he thought surely teh internetz would be surely able to create a custom journal with exactly the content he needed for the trip – calendars for planning, maps for marking sweet spots, blanks for sketching, lines for writing.  But unfortunately, it didn’t come through, so we set off to make it real.  Because we wanted one.  At the very least, we’d have our own journal.

But it turned out that a lot of other people wanted one too.  Kickstarter for us was just as much about validating what we thought was a good idea as it was about raising some capital to get things going.  It was a thrill – I don’t think email will ever be as fun as it was during those 50 days.

Fast forward through about 4 months of late nights of designing, coding, beer drinking, and a decent bit of profanity (mostly by my ridiculously talented brother, and Bound CTO, David, when deciphering shipping APIs), and we finally pushed our site live and caught our breath while we planned the next steps.  We enjoyed another beer, and then got back to work improving the site, adding content, and telling the world.

All this to say that I’m excited that Bound Custom Journals is live, and I think you should check us out.  Find us at boundforanything.com, or just click the link in the ‘Friends’ section in the right column.  And if you have any ideas for content, products, or just want to say hey, drop us a line or leave a comment.

Sometimes I take my local NPR station for granted. I don’t mean to do it. In fact I hate that I do. The programming has become such a routine part of my commuter/late twenty-something life that I can’t really imagine life without it. Unfortunately for NPR, the times that I’m listening usually tend to be while I’m busy doing something else. My attention is always divided, never fully devoted to a show. Occasionally, however, I’ll hear a segment that will make me stop what I’m doing and focus. Really focus. It’s captured my imagination in a way that watching TV or reading a blog (ahem) never do.

Recently, I experienced this while listening to The State of Things on WUNC. It’s an excellent show about life & living in North Carolina that features an eclectic mix of guests and features. Recently the show’s host, Frank Stasio, announced that The State of Things was rolling out a new weekly segment about a crime fighting superhero called The Jade City Pharaoh. The amazing thing about the show? It features the first African American superhero in the history of radio. Wham!

Here’s how the show is described on WUNC.org -

“Welcome to Jade City: Join hero Herald MF Jones as he protects the people of Jade City from a corrupt criminal called The Beef Cooker and his money-hungry henchmen on WUNC’s new super spectacular bad ass radio drama series, “Jade City Pharaoh.”

Super spectacular bad ass indeed. I love that in the middle of a workday, bookended by nonstop blabbering about America’s Next Top Republican, I can escape to Jade City. If only for ten minutes. Bravo, NPR.

Listen to the pilot episode here -

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*The image above is my quick visual homage to the show.

The work of Barcelona’s Studio Aparte recently caught my eye. With multiple projects that feature bespoke typefaces (which is never a small feat), their understated approach speaks volumes.

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New York photographer Julian Hibbard‘s photos take the form of uncomfortable snippets. Scenes obscured so that only their most unwieldy and strange elements make it to the frame.

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I always admire other people’s style. I love to dream about being that inventive and that coordinated and that bold and bright and RAD. Which brings me to my latest tumblr obsession. The Daily Ray. A blog about Aaron—his fashion, accessories and brilliant quotes—and some guest characters… Where can I sign up for fashion class? (PS: The above fabulorious necklace is a “success-ory”)

Happy Monday friends.

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