Fort Defiance

I work in Red Hook, Brooklyn. (though not for long! DUMBO here we come!) It's on the water & once upon a time Red Hook was a port run by the shipping industry. Those days are long gone and gave way to decay, feral dogs and a Meth clinic. Those days too are in the past. Red Hook is thriving and growing with hot spots like Saipua, Baked, The Good Fork and the largest IKEA in the world (not that that's a good thing, but it's here). The newest edition to Van Brunt Street is Fort Defiance, set to open this Saturday. St. John (owner, mixologist) asked me to do a large chalkboard sign in the cafe/bar. He wanted it to follow the identity that by boss, Steve, did for all of the print pieces for the cafe/bar.

It was really a great hands-on project for a few reasons: 

1. You can't get too perfect with a chalkboard (though I used pastels to grant myself some control). 

2. With the opening being so soon I couldn't play around too much with different methods etc. it was a "get in, get it finished!" project. I loved that because I know I have a tendency to want to explore all of my options for weeks before I settle on how/what I'm going to do for a project.

3. The imperfect typesetting was exactly the look we were going for, like an old historical document where the kerning and printing is just a little off.

*Thanks Steve for recommending me for the job & St. John for giving me the opportunity!

sneak-peek!

I've cryptically mentioned "projects in the works" & "new work to come..." in the past. Well, friends... I can't release some of them yet but here's a little teaser of of what's been going on in the studio of Paper City Design.



More photos with details to come (I promise).

a confession...

This is my weakness. Especially on days like today when my fridge holds no fruit or things of quick, yummy, healthy nature & my lunch is a lame can of Amy's soup. I don't care what you say about Amy's other quick foods, some are quite good but her soups are lame, mushy & flavorless. (Obviously, we are over due for a trip to the COOP!)

So, what's a girl to do... lame lunch laking in flavor & texture with a bagel shop on the corner. Warm, toasted, cream cheese slathered (and I do mean slathered) goodness. I can't even wait to get back to the office before I tear into it getting scallion cream cheese all over myself.

It is important to note that this issue is severely compounded by the fact that I live in New York City.

pretending it's warm and springy outside...

It's a good thing pansies can with stand the cold 'round here... pretty sure it snowed yesterday.

*photo taken last week at my local garden center when it was warm and I was doing research for an article about gardening.

snow day.

It's still a work day for me but nothing's better than Nutella & Ethiopian coffee for a snow day breakfast!

*J left for school at 6:25am only to get to the bus and find out that school had been canceled! yay for being stuck inside working!!!

fire hydrant love.

I'm not exactly sure what it is about love & fire hydrants but I think I can get into it. I saw this one while awaiting my chariot, the B77 bus (read: the bane of my commute on days with too much bad weather to allow me to ride my bike) out of Red Hook yesterday.

*enjoy!

lunch break.

Okay, so I don't actually take a lunch break most days. I'll eat a burrito and send an email but I mostly just keep truckin'. (the first issue of the new magazine goes to print on Friday...not a lot of down time these days!)


However, I was freezing my toes off the other day and took a mid-morning break to take a quick walk around Red Hook with my camera. (Yes, I left the indoors to go for a walk in the evil winter because I was cold...I was hoping the physical activity would help.) Any way, Red Hook is sort of a weird place. I've worked (2 jobs) in the neighborhood for 4 months now and it's like a small, industrial town...in Brooklyn. It's sort of off the map of public transit but it has the best view of the Statue of Liberty with out tourists.