THE ENGLISH NATIONAL BALLET GETS THE VIVIENNE WESTWOOD TREATMENT

These breath taking images are the outcome of a re-brand collaboration between The English National Ballet and the one and only Vivienne Westwood!

Vivienne Westwood agreed for her clothes to be used in their first campaign to help them achieve their vision to be the UK’s most creative ballet company. 

The rebrand incorporates a new logo, dramatic new production images and a palette of new colours, this along with VW's signature stamp ensures the atmospheric images make an impression. 

Vivienne Westwood believes that: 

“My clothes allow you to project your personality, and are theatrical in the sense that they are real clothes, well-designed, and they give you a chance to express yourself.” 

This attitude ensures she is still a very relevant figure in the creatives industries even after over 40 years as a fashion designer and business.

www.missled.co.uk

A PICTURE TELLS A THOUSAND WORDS

I totally believe that a picture can tell a thousand words but while reading this weeks "Stylist" (a magazine that I absolutely love and can't believe they give it away!) I noticed a number of images contained so much texture within them that you could actually feel or experience the place or thing they were representing.

I created a montage of the images that appealed to me most; the cool relaxing ocean, hot, sweet pancakes, shattered but beautiful glass and a big red pout.

Each image made me think of the word that I have paired it with and it got me thinking; is this the future of advertising and photography? Once I had noticed this theme I saw it everywhere and the textured images definitely made sure the product / brand made a bigger impression than adverts that used a more editorial / studio shot.
What do you think?

FEEL THE LOVE THIS VALENTINES!

I have been super busy in the DeesignGeek studio but Valentines Day holds a special place in my heart and even though it's a bit early I have already started planning for it.
It doesn't matter if I'm going steady with someone or happily moseying around on my own. I love doing little things for people to let them know you're thinking about them, whether its your sister, mum or your best friend who's always been there.

I started looking for the perfect cards for everyone and just found them too soppy. I am a geek for collecting inspiring quotes and decided to create a range of Valentines cards. Because there are some people who don't love Valentines as much me I also created cute Anti-Valentines cards.My favourite is the "Kapow" card as it also works as a poster and reminds me to start each day with "KAPOW!" and I couldn't resist adding the card images to a picture of my dream office to see what they would look like.

www.cargocollective.com/mercedesdebellard

HELLO ADVENTURES

I am so excited! My 2013 goals I made to travel more and to take photography classes have become a reality.In the last couple of weeks I have been given the opportunity to book trips to Barcelona and Sweden and I now have confirmation of a place on a photography course that starts in March!

I feel like this year is going to be one big adventure and even though I have visited Barcelona 5 times in 7 years, every time has been different but the people, food and landmarks are ALWAYS amazing and I honestly can't wait for this trip.

Sweden is somewhere that I have always wanted to visit, I love scandanavian designs and I don't know if that's why but its always held a sort of mysterious air about it for me and even though the highest temperature will be 4degrees I am sooo looking forward to it.

As the photography class is an introductory class for beginners I fully expect to be learning about exposure, lens and focal points (I honestly have no idea what I'm talking about) but as long as I learn how to take pictures of cityscapes and traffic with the long swirly light tracks I'll be happy. 
I've also noticed I have an slight obsession with sunrises and would love some clear recordings of them that I could actually frame instead of the out of focus variations I have on my HTC phone.

MY LITTLE PONY PROJECT

If you are a child in the 80's you probably possessed at least one of the "My Little Pony" toy characters available at the time.
However I don't remember them looking as fantastic as this collection!
The images above are a small collection of my favourites from the "My Little Pony" Project, a pop-up exhibition that was showing in New York that I discovered.

20 artists were given a blank horse canvas on which to apply their unique artwork. The designs are so different and fabulous and each pony / artist definitely makes their own statement and stands out.The artists that took part were: 6%Dokidoki, 64Colors, Bei Badgirl, Beast Brothers, Camilla d'Errico, Chikuwaemil, Cope2, Dabs & Myla, eimi, Hanazuki, Hime+you, Indie184, Jeremiah Ketner, Malcolm Stuart for Joyrich, Junie Moon, Julie West, Lisa Alisa, Lamour Supreme, Luke Chueh, Madoka Kanoshita, Martin Hsu, Onch Movement, Perez Hilton, Rob Reger, Shojono Tomo, Sucklord, TOUMA, and more.

My favourite designs that featured were from OnchMovement, Edward Fong

and Julie West.
Why not check out what else they are working on!

http://beibadgirl.com/

FREE PRINTABLE JANUARY CALENDAR

OK so I like to be organised but I admit it, I am also a total procrastinator! Sometimes I will give myself the task of organising my calendar before I start that really important (but boring) task. I wanted to gift a calendar which people could download and decided to design a monthly printable with a "motivational" quote that is more like a punch in the face (which we all need sometimes) but also soft (because we don't want to be too hard on ourselves), this was achieved by including a sweary word (apologies if you're offended) and a sweet colour palette, which makes it cute right? I have been blogging a bit more that usual and have noticed how important it is to schedule your posts and have a resource of subject ideas which is why I also included a January Blogging Calendar with space for a "To Do" List and a section to write your post ideas. Hope you like it! Follow the instructions below to print your own. Download the January Calendar HERE Download the Blogging January Calendar HERE If you have any issues downloading, try right clicking (Control and Click on the mac) on JPEG and save directly to your computer. All photos and artwork are © Stacey Wilson for DeesignGeek. Artwork in the downloadable PDF is free strictly for personal use, not for commercial use. Sharing these photos on Pinterest is welcome as long as you credit and link back to deesigngeek.com. If you'd like to blog about this post, a) I will love you forever and b) feel free to use a couple of photos provided that you link back to the full post on this page. Please do not distribute my downloadable artwork from your site and, as a courtesy, please do not link directly to the PDF download on my site- Instead, please link back to this page. Thanks so much for reading this boring stuff!

REMEMBER THE GOOD TIMES

I follow a fabulous Blog called Design*Sponge who recently asked their followers what their 2013 Resolutions were.
Someone said they would be taking part in a jar project and it sounded like such a great idea I HAD to share it!
Its simple do and will be sure to set up you up for the next year in a great mood. I'll definitely be doing it.

THE JAR PROJECT.
1. Find an empty jar.
2. From News Years Eve start filling it with notes and pictures of good things that happen   through the year.
3. On the next New Years Eve empty it and remember all the amazing things that happened.

GOALS FOR 2013

So how many of you made New Year resolutions?
Personally I'm more of a fan of reflecting on all the good things that happened and making goals that will hopefully make the future year even better. Apparently if you write them down you stand a better chance of them becoming a reality. So here goes!

1. Take photography classes.I feel like you should constantly be learning but sometimes life takes over and you need to allocate a specific day to let you concentrate on a project. I have always wanted to learn how to take good quality images, especially as images are so important in my work as a graphic designer and I love how you can capture a moment or memory forever.
I have signed up for a 10 week evening class that starts in March can't wait to get started.

2. Create a T-Shirt design.

I absolutely love a cool T-Shirt design.
There's nothing better than pulling on a fresh T-Shirt for that perfect night or day "look" and I am planning to design a beautiful, simple, one colour design as I feel "less is more" which will be able to be worn with either sequin shorts or skinny jeans.

3. Create a Tote Bag design.

I never have less than two bags with me at all times. I try and fit as much as I can in each day so you can easily find me going to work, then the gym or meeting friends for drinks. Any girl that's worth her salt has her token handbag to hold the essentials but I find I always need an additional shopper style bag, whether its for my lunch, workout gear or a change of clothes.
I want this bag to look as good as the rest of my outfit so I decided to create a design that will be printed onto a black tote bag in metallic ink. I just need to work on the design now!

4. Travel More.

Goal no. 4 is to travel more this year but 5 (Rome) and 7 (Berlin) are two specific places that I am aiming to go to. Image 4 is of the Sagrada Familia in Barcalona, a beautiful building inside and out. I try to visit as many places as I can so I tend not to visit anywhere more than twice but Barcelona is the one place where I felt at home instantly. I have been five times in the last six years and every time I go I love it a little bit more and have still got tons of things to do and see.
I honestly feel that travel and places are good for your soul.

6. Run a Half Marathon.

I generally like to keep fit but I do get bored heading to the gym 3 times a week. I've always liked running and joined a local running club at the end of 2012 this helped motivate me to give 100% at the gym and also look into mixing up my fitness regime with Yoga and resistance training with weights. For me exercise helps me feel relaxed and creative - for some reason all my best ideas come to me at the gym. I also became aware that to stay motivated I need a goal to work to so I have decide to keep my fitness levels up I will work towards a half marathon in Sept 2013 (a full marathon just feels too scary at this point!) and use 10km races along the way to help with my training.

Good Luck with your own goals and I'll let you know how I get on. Fingers crossed!

http://illustratorslounge.com/tag/petra-dufkova

HELLO 2013

Well 2012 is officially over and we are at the start of a brand you new year.
I hope everyone had a fabulous time whatever you got up to.

I spent New Year at a Wedding in Glasgow, this was the first year where I haven't been in a club or a house party for "the Bells" and it was absolutely fantastic. Spending time with friends and family all wishing a single couple love and luck not only for the year but for their future put me in thee best mood.

I love the start of a fresh year, full of reflection of what has been and full of expectation of what might come. I found myself thinking about all the things that happened to me that I would never have guessed I would be doing at the start of the year;
- Visit Dublin
- Drive around the Scottish highlands after 6 years NOT driving
- Survive T in the Park 2012, the most waterlogged and muddy it has ever been... and love it!
- Visit a medium who asked if I was planning a trip to New York (I wasn't)
- Visit New York (3 months later!)
- Bump into friend who I hadn't seen for about 5 years and pick back up where we left off
- Read "The Secret" and for it to have a massive positive influence in changing my outlook on life
  (I'd always thought of myself as a positive person anyway)
- Join a running club (and meet the loveliest bunch of people)

I have already started thinking about all the things I want to achieve and do this year but for now I will simply sit here feeling very lucky and grateful for the opportunities and support I was given to do the ton of stuff in 2012.

Happy New Year!!!