I was blessed with a magical gift over the holidays. The gift of beer. I’ve been wanting to take a stab at home brewing for a while, but it just always ended up lower on the list than every other project that sprung to mind. Since Santa was able to cram a seven gallon brew kit down the chimney this December, the time has come to brew!

I’m kicking off my first batch this weekend, but up until now, since high school really, I’ve been done an extensive amount of field research to help ‘refine’ my palette. Lately, I’ve been frequenting Sams Quick Shop in Durham, and Tasty Beverage in Raleigh for an assortment of brewery tastings.

Something I’ve come to realize during my time at these two fine establishments is that there is potentially a huge opportunity for designers in the form of craft beer labels. It seems small/craft brewers are producing seasonal & specialty beers more frequently than ever these days. I think breweries should treat the labels on these specialty beers like book covers, and let the label truly reflect the uniqueness of the beer itself. This could mean a complete divergence from the brand style of the brewery & their main beers, but that’s ok. I think the target audience involved would be particularly forgiving in this instance, and as long as there is some visual thread among the entire line of beers, I think unique (well designed) labels for specialty/seasonals are the way to go.

I stumbled on the work of Nathan Golub of Durham, NC while checking out the entries for last year’s poster competition for the Hopscotch Festival. It makes me so proud to see such amazing work coming out of the little city that could.

Such beautifully demented paintings from Amy Guidry. I’ve been watching a lot of Breaking Bad lately, and maybe it’s just the desert landscapes prevalent in her work, but I can’t help but associate Amy’s series “Wild West” with the show. Twisted, but oddly familiar.

I’m really digging the punchy, handmade work from Ayaka Ito. Born in Japan & now residing in Brooklyn, Ayaka is an interactive designer at Big Spaceship. Awesome to see interactive creatives with a healthy portfolio of hand-crafted work.

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.

(he swears he won’t outsource his posts to his daughter Jana)

Big news, people! Please help me in giving a warm welcome to our newest contributor Michael Lassiter from Durham, NC!

Michael is an outstanding freelance designer with a great eye for clean design & minimalist compositions. His critical eye will be a wonderful addition to our team, and we are happy to have him. You can start expecting Michael’s posts to drop every Thursday starting next week. In the meantime, take a peak at his blog & learn more about Michael on our team page.

Huzzah!

Check out the outstanding collaborative photography from Julia & Cody.

There’s a lot of artists out there dedicated to making something cool everyday. Charles Bergquist is another one of them. Go enjoy Charles’ photos & videos, everyday. Also, check out his surf & skate studies he did with an Olympus I3. Slow motion Friday.

I love this animated promo for Dan Bellos’ new book about language & it’s effects on the human experience. I think it’s so smart to run a promo like this, which packages the core messages the book into beautifully animated typography. Self referential in a very good way. Animation by Matt Young.

Tim got in touch to tell us he dug our site. We’ll guess what Tim? We dig your work even more. Fancy that! Check out the fine illustration & identity work from Tim here.