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For the past few weeks, we have busily been creating a brand identity for a new fashion client. Without giving away too many details (yet!), this brand is sexy, sophisticated, and feminine. While creating a logo and identity based on these concepts, we discovered a recent obsession with black on black. It's mysterious, alluring, and sexy, but with a sort of modern meets classic sophistication that we love. Although we may or may not end up with anything black on black for this particular brand, we thought it was definitely worth a blog post of our favorite black on black finds!

Images via: 1. Coke can from Designspiration  2. TSDS business cards from Lovely Stationery  3. Franklyn Rodgers The Philosophy of Strangers by Studio8 Design  4. Black frames interior from Desire to Inspire  5. Black on black interior from Charles Emerson on Tumblr  6. Wine bottle from Design Work Life Blog  7. Cards from From Up North

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This week's design blog of the week goes to This is Paper. This is Paper curates a well rounded collection of architecture, product design, fashion design, interior design, fine art, graphic design, and photography. The blog features works that reflects an elegant and delicate design aesthetic full of soft pastels and neutrals complemented by clean lines and a touch of wood here and there. Aside from This is Paper's impeccable taste, we want to highlight that the blog often showcases student work. It is nice to see young artists and designers with fresh new ideas and even nicer to see well-known blogs recognizing the importance of supporting the up and coming not just the established. 

All Images via This is Paper

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This week in the studio we're hard at work trying to create the perfect logo that says "vintage romance" in a modern, contemporary way. We love these black & white logos because they have an old-world feel, but they still feel relevant and packed with emotional appeal . Paired with these black and white photos of couples in love? Swoon.

Images via: 1. What Makes True Love  2. Ray Vellest  3. Creative Confab  4. Designspiration  5. Pinterest  6. Designer Blog  7. Graphic Exchange  8. Designspiration  9. Beautiful Weddings  10. Ray Vellest  11. Graphic Exchange

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We do a LOT of designing in our studio, but not all of it (not even half of it) makes the final cut. However, we love some of the designs we've made that aren't ultimately chosen by our clients. Even though these designs are "killed", they're still great work in our minds. These three package designs and logo for our skincare client, Onsen, were inspired by water - specifically light beams shooting down through the ocean and the great angles that are created as a result. Although these designs weren't actually "finalized" (since they weren't chosen - if they had been, we probably would have played around more with the color palette), they were a great first draft of a fantastic idea.

Water images from top to bottom: 1. Wallpapers Craft  2. Unity 3D  3. Beams of Sunlight on Ocean
4. Flickriver  5. Miss Modish Blog

Packaging and logo designs by Drawing From Memory

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We don't often feature our own designs on our blog, but we love how these business cards turned out so we thought they belonged here! We just completed the business cards for our Baltimore based design client, Stephanie Bradshaw. With a new logo, new brand color (bright gold), and painted edges, these cards are beyond cool. Next up is Stephanie's new website, which we're close to being finished with designing! Check back in about a month and hopefully we'll have announced that it's up and running. For now, enjoy these business cards and have a fantastic weekend!

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Last week, we went over to the Aardvark Letterpress in downtown Los Angeles to get our client Jennifer Joanou's letterhead done. It's always exciting to watch the process and see what they can do! Click here to see Aardvark's site and read more about their history.

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After a brief hiatus recovering from our travels and all the amazing holiday and new year's food we ate, we are finally back in the swing of things in Los Angeles. This pretty picnic basket invitation from Charleston, South Carolina is a very welcoming greeting to 2012 indeed! Designed and printed by Sideshow Press in South Carolina on a pony sized 1926 letterpress, the invitations were created for a private dinner gathering of the finest chefs in the Charleston area. We love the inventiveness of this invitation, but what's even better is that Sideshow Press is a collaboration of a few women who love what they do and are passionate about great design. Sounds familiar! Happy 2012 everyone!

All images via The Dieline

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Mrs. Lilien (aka Kelley Lilien) is the graphic designer, stylist, and blogger mastermind behind The Mrs. Lilien Styling House, our website of the week (http://blog.mrslilien.com). Mrs. Lilien: "applauds luxury and anything red-letter. She delights in the good life, because it's just better. With boundless enthusiasm and an exuberantly sunny disposition, she just might knock your socks off with her MRS intuition." We're hooked already.

This blog stands out not only for the content, bright colors, and diamonds (love!), but also for the awesome rhymes. Mrs. Lilien, unlike any other blogger we've ever seen, writes her posts exclusively in rhymes. Like this post (below) about hair styling - it reads: "I consider myself a bit of a vanity ritualist - in other words, a serious beauty habitualist. There are few things as satisfying than holding court at the vanity - and playing the '...who's the fairest of them all?" fantasy. Mirror questions aside, this ritual is rather paramount - it's honoring the pleasures of beautification on every account. I have my coveted pleasures, some of which I'll share - these ones in particular are centered around my hair." How awesome is that?!

The look of each post is fantastic. The entire blog looks and feels fun, professional, and stylish - and like a single post may have taken HOURS to research and create. Having a blog of our own, we really respect that! It's a time consuming process to maintain a blog, and to keep it looking fabulous. Our hats off to you, Mrs. Lilien!

And who can forget her home site, www.mrslilien.com? Although the blog is more fun, we love the look of her styling site (and all the work she's done!). Major kudos to NYC based Peniferella Creative for the website design. We love it!

All images via Mrs. Lilien

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