Merry Christmas

And so that's a wrap for the year, and this is my chosen festive Christmas image, albeit a little creepy! Thank you to all of our readers for checking in with us through the year: in our blog's first year we have picked up quite a number of followers. Boheem is back on January 10th, so we'll ensure to have lots of new, interesting and inspiring things to share then. Hope you have a lovely holiday and some special time with loved ones.

Gingerbread House extravaganza!

The Boheem Team enjoyed a fun Christmas activity on Thursday last week. Using supplied gingerbread house kits, we each made our own little candy home. The studio looked like Santa's workshop – we were floor to ceiling lollies, icing, and all things colourful and sweet!

The Lowercase

Friends of Boheem recently launched a lovely online store called The Lowercase. Featuring beautifully designed children's bed linen, contemporary artwork, tableware and many more little treats. Their whimsical site is definitely worth a look and for all those in need of some last minute Christmas shopping they have a 25% off sale this week. Hooray!

www.thelowercase.com.au

Hennie Haworth

Just delightful. Hennie Haworth has nailed the ability to allow her imagination to run wild and free. Check out more of this very talented illustrator's work at www.henniehaworth.co.uk

The Sketchbook Project

This year, Boheem is participating in the Arthouse Co-op's Sketchbook Project. It's a basically a massive, global collaborative artistic event whereby artists and designers from all over take a Moleskin Journal, fill it with stuff and then release it to tour around the US and then end up in the Brooklyn Art Library. Our journal's theme is "Secret Codes", and so far the team have come up with some really lovely, playful (as well as clever and conceptual) compositions. The books will be available to view online after the tour finishes.

Kenzo Christmas

I don't know who Kenzo are, but I sure like this Christmas promotion created for them a couple of years back by the Cosfibel Group.

UnitingWorld Everything in Common Catalogue 2010

We recently completed the UnitingWorld Everything in Common Catalogue and all of its associated material. The campaign features a range of overseas aid projects you can choose from, the idea being that you can sponsor a project as a 'gift' to a loved one. This year we went with a newsprint as a recurring background pattern as a reference to the way newspaper is used as warmth for some and as a source of information and awareness for others. If you're stuck for Christmas gift ideas this month, head to the Everything in Common website and buy a gift with a difference... to make a difference. You'll be sent a card with a description of your nominated project.

Mmmmmmm!

My mum is sending cards out to her friends soon for her birthday, and she asked me to design it for her. Her name's Marianne, and I designed a M-mmmmmonogram for her. Here are a few of the other decorative M's I found along the way.

Farewell Glenda

Today we heard the very sad and shocking news that our team member and dear friend Glenda Duncan passed away earlier this week. Glenda was our extremely diligent book keeper and worked with us in the studio every Tuesday for about five years. She looked after the accounts here at Boheem, and I like to think we did an ok job at looking after her too. This picture is a painting Glenda finished in June this year. Its title is "Viva La Vida" which means "Live Life".

We are so sad she is gone and will miss her hugely.

Sydney Terraces Tea Towels

Meanwhile at Boheem, we've been busy making things. This year our studio has put the retail 
wheels in motion, our online store has just made available these thick 100% cotton tea towels, featuring hand-drawn illustrations of Sydney terrace houses. They’re SO Sydney. We’ve got 100 tea towels currently in stock, so be quick. We’ll be printing more next year along with some other designs, so watch this space...

Available for purchase online at www.boheem.com.au/shop.html.

ps. Feel free to leave a comment... we'd love to hear your feedback!

House Industries

Charming plywood prints featuring retro typefaces and using an unlikely colour palette available from House Industries. This online store is the perfect place to find that special something for the graphic designer in your life!

Claire... squared

You'd think that one Claire would be enough. Since about three weeks ago, your chances of getting the "Boheem, Claire speaking?" greeting when you call the studio have exactly doubled. Claire Robinson has joined our ranks and is already proving to well compliment our already strong team. She studied at St George TAFE and has since worked at Frost* and Ok Sony, and has also squeezed in a few overseas adventures as well. Her interests and design aesthetic aligns perfectly with ours, and her strong conceptual approach is already bringing a new exciting dimension to our clients' projects.

Next Book Club Book

Just a quickie: We've decided on the next book club book, and it's (drum roll please): To Kill A Mockingbird. We'll probably shoot for a late January meeting. Clients and friends most welcome, please let us know if you'd like to come along!

Eye Magazine

Tell me, is it just me, or does everyone else's heartbeat quicken just a little when they see elegant, flowing typographic shapes, so perfectly balanced and oozing in confidence? These spreads show a collected feast put together by Eye Magazine in the UK.

A few old tickets to ride

We've been working on some packaging at the moment and for reference I have been using old train and bus tickets. From small and conventional to ornate, each ticket has some really interesting typographic and decorative elements. I also love the colour palette it creates when they're all together.