Featured artist: Jesse Link

Better late than never. I wrote this blog post almost exactly a year ago and somehow never published it. That also means that the show is no longer up at All City Coffee, but please enjoy Jesse’s wonderful anyways!

Here’s the original post:

Nothing better than going for a good cup of coffee (single short soy latte) in an artsy coffee shop (All City Coffee) of a cool Seattle neighborhood (Georgetown) while a local artist (Jesse Link) puts up new art for July.

From Jesse’s website:

“Jesse Link grew up in a small town just outside of Pittsburgh, PA but has lived in Seattle for the past 5 years. He has a degree in Industrial Design From the Art Institute of Pittsburgh but is a mostly self-taught painter. His subject matter has become more diverse in recent years as he expands his sphere of artistic interest but whatever the subject, Link tries to create a harmony between nature and urban culture through his imagery and styles. www.jesselink.com“

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Today is bike to work day!

What a great idea to make this an official day. Since I work from home I don’t have a commute, so here is my way of participating: through illustration. Have a safe ride home and a great weekend!

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The wonderful world of Kelly

On my walk through the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle last night I looked into the window of the cute boutique CakeSpy Shop, where I saw a few of my dear friend and crazy talented artist Kelly Brownlee’s paintings. I asked for permission to take a picture of the paintings to share them here with you. Aren’t they just adorable?

I met Kelly 5 or 6 years ago through Biznik and we’ve been in touch ever since. We’ve collaborated a few times on projects. She designed a bunch of stunning collections for MOGO and recently illustrated the artwork for a Swiss startup called unblu that I am designing for.

Make sure to take a look at Kelly’s website and her Etsy shop, you’re bound to be smitten!

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Underwater color magic

As a child, I had a fish tank. A very small one and just fresh water, but I really go into it and spent endless hours looking at the beautiful colors of my guppies and zebra fish. I also had some pretty plants and colored stones in there. Then I moved away from Switzerland and never got a new tank. Somehow I just came across this stunning YouTube video of a salt water reef tank. The beauty of nature is truly blowing me away, I am in awe!

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Reconnecting with mother nature

I spent a beautiful weekend in Portland, reconnecting with mother nature. On Saturday I walked around trees and bushes and tried to pay special attention to the subtle details in leaves, flowers, tree bark and how the wind gently kisses nature to let it breathe. Below is a tribute to that beauty in my own abstracted style.

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Ever lent something you love and didn’t get it back?

I love lending stuff to people, especially books. If there is something I enjoy, I wan to share it with others. When it comes to books I’m usually cool with people not giving them back to me. I am a minimalist and try to keep clutter down, plus I hope that they will then lend it to more people once they are done reading it. But sometimes I lend special things to people that I really want back, like accessories or gadgets or family heirlooms. And then I forget who I lent it to and they forget I gave it to them and I’ll never see it again.

For the last 20+ years I thought that it would be really cool to have a lent items log book. You know a home version of a library system. Did I ever do it? Not until today. I just got an email from a friend who is looking for a killer wig that he lent to someone and can’t remember who. So I took the opportunity to finally make this book. Now let’s just see if I’ll actually remember to use it!

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A cute visual puzzle

I found this puzzle on Facebook last week and have to admit that it’s one of the cutest ones I’ve seen in a long time. Take a look and don’t try too hard, it’s right there for you to see if you blur your eyes a little.

Hint: Number 5 and 8 might be hard to guess if you didn’t grow up in Europe. Enjoy!

A friend just told me that the puzzle is designed by a German agency. The name of the creator is: Matt von Jung.

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Introducing my first line of rugs – Satori

I am thrilled to announce that my long time dream to design a line of rugs has become a reality. As of today, my first rug collection Satori is now available through Lindstrom Rugs, a rug company based in Los Angeles.

My collection consists of 8 rug designs in 4 featured colors. The rugs are hand woven in Nepal and are primarily sold to interior designers who can customize the rugs by choosing their own color schemes, size and materials.

Below are a few samples in various color schemes. You can see the entire collection at lindstromrugs.com/satori.html

This is the first of two collections. I am currently working on the second collection which is scheduled to launch on Mai 1st.

TARGET PRACTICE

WAVE LENGTH

SOLID PATH

SITE PLAN

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From battleship gray to rainbows and unicorns!

11 years ago today, I shipped my first product at Microsoft – Office XP. Looking back, I am realizing just how far technology has come in the last decade. Wow…! I left Microsoft in 2006 to work for myself as a User Experience design consultant. While my love for software design is still strong, I am happy to be able to balance that with work from my heart through Nadja Design: art, color and form. Here’s to looking back at battleship gray and moving forward to a place where rainbows and unicorns unite.

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Love birds

Whenever I go on an an airplane trip, I bring a sketch book along to doodle around as I “wait” to arrive at my destination. These birds came to life on a trip to Switzerland last December. Yesterday I looked through my sketchbook and decided to scan my love birds and start coloring them in Illustrator. Here’s the beginning of what I hope will become a full collections of love birds in paradise.

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