+ Been mulling over Jessica Comingore’s post, In Transition. It’s about the struggle between balancing your own business and maintaining an active blog. And while I could fill my own post on this topic alone, it’s also 6pm on Friday and my mind is clearly mush, you should just go read Jessica’s instead. It’s as if she wrote this directly from my own brain anyway, ha.

+ Clever photography series, Things Granny Never Told You About the Internet.

+ How one design conference made itself less of a bro-fest. (Related, I’ll be there. Ahem.)

+ Been jamming to this week’s Mykind Mix from Design For Mankind. Classic Hip Hop, a few new sounds, very danceable and good for general upbeat-ed-ness (shh, that’s totally a word). I’ve started a similar playlist on my Spotify if you want more like this.

+ Typefight: another fun typographic blog pits two custom letterforms against each other & readers get to vote on the winner. Excellent source for unusual typography.

+ Artwork supplied by Australia’s Andrew Frazier.

Unplanned blog hiatus; so lame I know. Does writer’s block ever announce its arrival? Or perhaps it was a social media hangover from last week’s Pinterest debates. Regardless, it’s passed finally. It was these album covers that jostled me out of the funk, discovered after spending several hours internetting researching today. I’ve posted similar Jazz album artwork before, but I may even like these classical covers more. Why precisely they grab me so, I don’t even know, just feels like running into an old friend. Plus, I have a hard time believing there’s any chance the music inside could disappoint. More on Symphonie Fantastique, the same folks who run Project Thirty-Three, which is also well worth the visit for more like this. Via But Does It Float.

No Black Friday shopping for me! Instead I’m cooking and eating like it’s still a holiday while catching up on the interwebs and my heaping pile of work. Here’s this week’s dispatch of linky goodness.

+ My friend Brandon from FRANK emailed me their latest & greatest: a video of Little Scream’s newest single, The Lamb. What’s interesting is how low-fi the production is, it’s all lit with flashlights which is the perfect accompaniment to Laura’s delicate and expansive sound. Fans of Bat for Lashes, First Aid Kit and/or St. Vincent will dig this as well.

+ New to me Favorite blog: Plenty of Colour.

+ Officey goodness at Muhs Home. I’ll take one of everything please!

+ Holly Wales on keeping your employees happy.

+ I’m excited that my friend Jana’s quirky happy illustrations have a new internet home! Congrats on the new site, lady!
 

+ This Baths kid’s got summertime in his fingers.

+ New design blog, Moxee, put together a legit piece on branding your blog here.

+ I wrote a post on the Fox is Black about austism in the arts.

+ My other bloggy-gig, Outpost, is picking up speed. Carly’s our newest contributor, she’s now doing weekly posts on styling vintage fashion.

Happy weekend, friends! First full day off in about ten days, I’m exciiiited.

I could watch an entire film like this video. By Ptarmak with illusrations by Sissy Emmons and animation by David Hobizal.

Since it’s a holiday today, most folks are trying their hardest to inject a little extra summer into their weekend. ie- Not reading blogs posts like this. Which totally means less pressure for me to get this writing project I’ve given myself off the ground, alright!

I cheated and got a bit of a brainstorming head start over the weekend, so I’ve already got a slew of posts and exciting things to share in the works. Figured I start with a little dose of nostalgia in the form of re-posting this song from my first ever blog post on September 9th, 2008. First Aid Kit’s Fleet Foxes cover only had a mere 2k views on youtube then, now they’ve got over 2 million. Perfect for music Mondays, long lazy weekends that actually feel like summer, and a reminder to get the new Fleet Foxes album too. It’s a goodie.

First order of Project Blog Improvement Bonanza: an FAQ page. Occasionally I get emails from students asking for design advice and/or general questions so I’m thinking of posting some of those, but it’s a pretty short list so far. If there’s anything you’d like to know, deposit your inquiries into the comments por favor.

And course you can also reach me these ways too:
twitter: @pitchdesign
email: margot at pitchdesignunion.com
Skype: mkharrington
Google chat: margotharrington