Jaqk Cellars

Quite frankly, I wouldn't care if this wine tasted terrible... the packaging and the overall concept is just delightful. Jaqk Cellars have a 'packaged' marketing approach – they sell really great merchandise (including beautifully designed packs of playing cards, of course) along with their varied wines. Have a look at their website and online store here.

Jon Contino

Here's some more clever hand-drawn typography, loaded with personality and charm. Have a look at the New York-based creator's portfolio here or his Tumblr here.

Lady Rene Typeface

Here's a lovely new font designed by Laura Varsky and Alejandro Paul which you can find at Myfonts.com. As part of the promo there's a darling pdf booklet you can download. It's a story about a black cat, which is perfect for Halloween.

Love your work

Boheem Design was recently featured in "The Transit Lounge", which is part of the Uniting Church of Australia and an online magazine focussing on relationships, reflections, lifestyle and culture. Check out the editorial here. Not sure how big their readership is, but we feel a little bit famous in any case!

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

We're allowing ourselves a little more time these days for our book club reads. We need to allow some time in our lives for being creative, right?!

So we've all just finished reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. Generally speaking, we really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone wanting an entertaining page-turner. The book is basically about a journalist by the name of Mikael Blomkvist, who takes a year out of his life to help an old guy Henrick Vanger solve the mystery of what happened to his niece Harriet, who went missing 40 years prior. Lisbeth Salander is the one with the dragon tattoo, and she joins forces with Blomkvist in this whodunnit.

Heads up for those who haven't read it yet that there are a few not-so-nice scenes… I'm not very brave with scary stories though! Hot tip would be to skip the first chapter altogether about the Wennerström affair – all you need to know is that Blomkvist has been framed and is heading to prison for a couple of months. The details are a bit tedious and not a great start to an otherwise easy read.

A few unresolved sub-plots we thought, and we reflected that the biblical references which had started about a third of the way through the book would continue to some kind of climax, but instead disappointingly those themes tapered off. Blomkvist is the protagonist, but we really relate to Salander more, whose thoughts and feelings we end up getting more insight to.

A recommended holiday read for the summer!

Unusual, tragic and alive

Who out there is cottoning on to the Tumblr phenomenon at the moment? My good friend Amy has a delightful Tumblr site, and then this week whilst researching for new brand direction for a client, I found one displaying these pictures and thousands of others like it by a young lady by the name of Andrea. The collection makes me want to drink beer, laze around in the sunshine, go on long road trips, listen to Joy Division and be seventeen again. The clever young contributor uploads posts really frequently, so there's constant inspiration to be found. Check out the many other lovely pictures at this link.

Mei moves on

They say that all good things come to an end... and whilst I'm not really prepared to fully embrace that as a life philosophy, it's what comes to mind when I try to understand why Mei couldn't work for us for 30 years. Our fabulously talented designer has moved on to other (not greener or greater I'm sure!) pastures, and we are very sad to say goodbye. Mei has worked with us for almost 4 years, and in that time she's been responsible for much of the beautiful branding work we've done for UnitingWorld, PLC Sydney, The High Tea Party and many more satisfied clients, who I know will miss her as much as we will. The team headed out to Toko Crown St on Friday for a farewell lunch.

Three Potato Four

Found this lovely recently opened homewares/design store located in Philidelphia whilst researching for some coffee branding we're doing this week (I promise I was working..!). It's called Three Potato Four and by the looks of things they do offer international shipping...

Feltmaker: Esther Turnbull

Many of you would already know that we've been on the hunt lately to find a new Boheemian to join our team. It's been such a pleasure meeting so many talented people and pouring through their very inspiring portfolios. One of my favourite projects was this one by Esther Turnbull. For her final year university piece Esther made by hand a range of felt textiles, photographed them and then featured them in her own art book. The textures and colours were just gorgeous; literally took my breath away!

The High Tea Party Moodboard

We just love a mood board, it's the most perfect way to kick-start a brand or bring redirection to an existing aesthetic. The girls at The Peppermint Group are some of our favourite people to work with, and their main event is an expo for beauty-and-fashion-conscious women known as The High Tea Party – check out their site here, illustrated and designed by us. Team Boheem is looking forward to heading to The Westin this Friday for an extra special cuppa, a spot of shopping and an insight to whether florals are the new black this summer, etc etc...