FFFFOUND! Daily Find #6: Lovely Package®

Lovely Package's posts feature frequently on FFFFOUND!, and a good thing too. The site is a fantastic resource for visual artists and designers of all kinds, showcasing the best, most beautiful packaging designs to be found today. Designing packaging, of course, is an art in itself, but the designs on Lovely Package combine graphic design, typography, illustration and form to create little works of art that are not just visually appealing, but also functional. Lovely Package also offers readers the chance to submit their own designs, leading to brilliant work by young designers also being featured.

You can follow Lovely Package's tweets, add them to your likes on Facebook, follow their feed, or simply keep up to date with their FFFFOUND! posts. I do all of the above; wouldn't want to miss anything! Below you can find some of my favourite recent Lovely Package posts, along with COLOURlovers palettes inspired by the designs.

Philippe Becker

A-B-D

Cari Caldwell

FFFFOUND! Daily Find #5: Melissa Haslam

A gorgeous Daily Find today from Melbourne-based visual artist and painter Melissa Haslam:

"With an emphasis on narrative theme and a romanticized, escapist view of the world, Melissa's paintings are populated by beautiful females in fairytale-like scenarios. Influences include botanical drawings, the pre-raphaelites, japanese illustration and contemporary fashion photography."

Melissa's beautiful artworks have been exhibited in Melbourne, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and, more recently, at the Spring London Affordable Art Show. She also runs a blog, Cherry Fields, and a Facebook fan page here.

Here are two COLOURlovers palettes based on the above paintings by Melissa, "Desert Field" and "Laundry Service"...

Design in a Hailstorm #6: Geninne Zlatkis

Geninne Zlatkis - a watercolour illustrator and artist living with her family in Queretaro, Mexico - runs a lovely art blog and Etsy shop showcasing her beautiful paintings, prints, and decorative mixed media artworks. Geninne's gorgeously coloured jewel-like birds and flowers are pretty enough to keep me browsing her shop for hours, and her blog is full of lovely sketches, journal entries and paintings. Take a look!

FFFFOUND! Daily Find #4: Wallpaper by Dan Funderburgh

Featured today on FFFFOUND! are some beautiful surface pattern designs by Brooklyn-based designer Dan Funderburgh. Available at Flavorpaper, Dan's screenprinted 'Farmers Market' and 'Chinatown Toile' designs are my favourites; intricately detailed, beautifully coloured and designed with a charming sense of humour, anyone would be lucky to have these on their wall.

Here's a palette inspired by Dan's 'Farmers Market' design in the Tangerine colourway.

Design in a Hailstorm #5: Laura Laine

Fashion illustrator Laura Laine's portfolio comprises dozens of exquisitely detailed pencil-drawn figures for a variety of clients, including the New Yorker, as well as many fashion houses and high street brands. Her whimsical, elegant, gorgeous girls make me want to pick up a pencil again... here are my favourites, a wallpaper project for Kitsune Noir:

...and an amazing logo design for Wunder fashion store in Helsinki.

FFFFOUND! Daily Find #3: The Artwork of Mike Dornseif

Multi-talented Chicago designer Mike Dornseif's wonderful retro style caught my eye on FFFFOUND! this morning. The gorgeous warm, autumnal colour palettes and simple geometric shapes used in Mike's designs for Yael Meyer's 'Heartbeat' EP are my favourite...

-but I also love the quirky animal characters from his 'Illusive' series.

Finally, here are a couple of COLOURlovers palettes inspired by Mike's work. Enjoy!

New! Book Cover Design, 'The Other Sister'

I've just finished the colour artwork for Cheri Paris Edwards' new book, 'The Other Sister,' due to be published by multicultural literary publisher Plenary Publishing in June. I illustrated one of Cheri's books before, a Warner Books hardback version of  'Plenty Good Room,' a few years ago and its been a pleasure to have a little more contact with the author this time. I can't wait to read it!

-here's a very simple version of the colour palette I used:

FFFFOUND! Daily Find #2: Kevin Tong Poster Design

Here's our second 'Daily Find' from FFFFOUND!, this gorgeous limited edition colour print from illustrator Kevin Tong. Kevin, a Los Angeles based designer, creates gig posters, paintings and narrative illustrations with wonderful retro colour palettes and lush detailing, any of which I would be delighted to have on my walls. My favourite part of Kevin's website is his Poster section, which includes stunning gig posters for bands such as St. Vincent, The Decemberists, and Camera Obscura; when I grow up, I would love to learn how to printmake like this!

-and here's the palette, 'Wildbirds and Peacedrums.' Enjoy!

Design in a Hailstorm #4: Lissy Laricchia

I've just stumbled upon the work of Lissy Laricchia, a photographer whose many incredibly beautiful, enchanting images can be seen within her fairytale Flickr sets. Lissy's amazing photostream is made up of whimsical, elaborately arranged scenes, with dreamlike, feminine characters carefully arranged in lace-draped boudoirs, bare rooms, forests and cornfields. Some photographs are even innovatively taken through sheets, with a gorgeous use of lighting and swathes of fabric; the 'Get Back in your Book' series features models 'hanging' in the air, fictional characters still firmly attached to the stories from which they came, yet simultaneously attempting escape. My favourite of these neo-conceptual photosets is 'Let's Play Pretend,' starring a modern-day Alice amongst surreal, magical 'Wonderlandscapes.' Here's Lissy's Flickr profile:

"I live in Canada, where the moose are. I take pictures of anything that will stay still long enough. If you asked me if I would rather see one of the seven wonders or Las Vegas, I would always say Las Vegas. I admire Dr. Seuss and Chuck Palahniuk more than you (sorry), and you bet your ass I would sooner tear out my own eyes then spell Panic! At The Disco without the exclamation point."

Need I say more?

Design in a Hailstorm #3: Felicia Atanasiu

I was recently contacted by Felicia Atanasiu, an illustrator and fine artist from Toronto, Canada, looking to exchange links on our portfolio sites; her work is so gorgeous that I was delighted to agree. A stunning collection of richly illustrated figures and decorative motifs, Felicia's portfolio contains some of the prettiest fashion illustration I've seen, as well as exquisitely observed portraits and vividly coloured lifestyle and business illustration.

Felicia's describes her work as follows: "My style is inspired by avant-garde fashion and native European culture. I specialize in both traditional illustration and digital illustration however most times my work reflects a combination of various mediums, using traditional illustration techniques & new media techniques (such as digital and vector illustrations.)"

Follow Felicia on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn, or add her to your favourite Facebook pages for regular updates from this highly talented illustrator.

FFFFOUND! Daily Find #1: Dick Bruna Book Covers

Here's the first of - hopefully - many "Daily Finds" from design blog FFFFOUND! FFFFOUND is a site made up entirely of contributors' image finds from across the web, be they illustration, photography, typography or graphic or packaging design, and every day I'll be picking my favourite to add here. I'll also be adding the colour palette of each image to my profile at the wonderful COLOURlovers community site:

"COLOURlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes and patterns, discuss the latest trends and explore colorful articles... All in the spirit of love."

So here it is... our first 'Daily Find', a wonderfully simple, beautifully composed and coloured vintage print designed for a book cover by famous Dutch illustrator and creator of childhood icon 'Miffy,' Dick Bruna.

-and here's the palette, 'Moravia.' Enjoy!