A new female in the studio.

It’s a bouncing baby butterfly! Meet Violet. She emerged today as the perfect Eve to our first-born male.

With all of our fast turn-times and challenging work (not to mention the pressure of our creative pride), miracles happen in our studio often. . .but this one takes the cake. As always, it’s a regular zoo in here, complete with nature’s wonder to remind us to pause and look around.

 

Say Hello to our resident Monarchs.

These are models for a signage project that we are developing for the Butterfly Grove down in Pismo State Beach.

Since early March, we’ve been sharing a work space with these critters, to capture all the fine moments of their growth and metamorphosis. We received 10 eggs, plus some further in their development for good measure. These photos show off some of the ones we’ve been nurturing since birth.

From top to bottom: Egg, Larvae (yup, their first meal is the egg shell), Caterpillar, Chrysalis

We love our parents.

Today is Melissa’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary—such a rare feat in this age. What better way to celebrate than with a hard-bound and stamped book? This is an ode to Moms and Dads, and all the things they were right about:

Two books, each with one silver wedding band stamped into the cover, live harmoniously in this slipcase. The set is entitled Extraordinary.

And we cook, too!

This was created to introduce a set of dishes that we drummed up in the spirit of an amateur “Iron Chef” cooking competition, with a group of professionals who normally do their sweating outside of the kitchen. Of course, a menu was required! . . .at least, by us. (For most happy designers, design is inextricably tied to life—for the better.)

Here’s a gander at the food that our team presented:

The required ingredient was basil, with the extra challenge of using basil + wild game + sausage in one dish.

Boy, did we eat well that evening! And if it means anything, we won, too.