In November the D.O.E. crew went up to Wrangell Alaska to meet with the fine folks of Wrangell Seafoods. The purpose of our visit was to examine Wrangell’s brand, to see what sets them apart from their competition so we could highlight this in future projects.

After speaking with a lot of people, watching sea cucumbers be processed, and riding on a boat we came back to Seattle with a lot of information and ideas about their brand. We needed a compelling way to communicate our findings to the people at Wrangell Seafoods, we thought their story was fitting of a hand crafted book. Built from teak wood and hand bound by our friend and outstanding craftsperson Debra Fabrizzi, the book is meant to speak to the small town look with a tough work ethic.

The copy outlines all the strengths Wrangell has in their brand as it exists today and is followed up by our recommendations to make them stronger. More photos of the book can be viewed after the break.

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This year, our New Year’s cards for our Utility & DOE friends have been made by hand via the old school method of letterpress printing. Many of us designers here have creative talents outside of the screen. This is one of my (many) others. The above image is a teaser of how they look by hand, so hopefully you’ll get one in the next few weeks. If not, make friends with us this coming year to get in our address book for next year (or drop me a line at jynn@deptofenergy.com to get one of these this year)!

To see & read more on what I did, keep reading on (more…)

My friend Drew works at a studio in Toronto called Taxi. Taxi just celebrated their 15th year in business, and instead of sending out a gift box or throwing a party, they did something pretty incredible. When the temperature drops to 15ºC below 0 the Canadian government issues a cold weather warning. When this happens homeless shelters are instructed to let more people in to gain refuge. To help these people Taxi designed a jacket that is insulated, with newspaper.

Check it out! It’s really awesome. Good work guys.

The last of my holiday craft projects worth sharing with you is my snowflake wall. This was a happy accident, having a revised thought on my original idea. My early intent was to buy all of the needlepoint looms I could find in the local thrift stores and then fill them with various swatches of colored fabrics. But as I was looking through the scrap fabric piles at Value Village, I came across an old crocheted doily and made the creative leap on how it looked like a snowflake. Back went the fabric and instead the hunt for all the vintage doilies I could find commenced.

Once home, I matched the doilies with a matching loom size, arranged them, and then double stick taped the outer fringes to the wall. Done!

Cost= $17 in looms, $20 in doilies. Time to construct: 45 minutes.

Over the weekend I finished up all but one of my holiday craft projects. There two are in my front entryway when you walk in. On the left, I took another fallen branch from my backyard (free!), took a spool of 10lb fishing line ($2.57), and then strung these white paper cupcake holders (5 packs of 50 quantity-$1.27 a piece) on the line. Before stringing ‘em, I flattened ‘em (mostly) and made them imperfect in shape for visual interest. I tied one end of the fishing line to the branch, and the loose end to a needle in order to string the cups, several at a time.

To keep ‘em in place, I used white yarn scrapes from the other piece you see in the picture to tie a knot at the bottom of each paper cup. After stringing the amounts I wanted on each string, I arranged them visually to my desire and then tied off the end of the line with a button (free from my collection) to weigh it down when hung.

Total cost=$8.92 and approx. 6 hours.

The other side of my entryway, I constructed this beast-a cascading string snowfall the entire length of my banister. Again, more free branches from my yard, and 8 skeins of yarn at $2 a pop. I tied up the two (huge) branches to my top railing, then took a skein, tied the end yarn to the branch, and threw it over the edge below. I figured out how my “arm length pulls” of the yarn were needed as yanking the yarn back up to me, then snipped the line-being careful to hold tight the other end so I wouldn’t have to keep running up and down the stairs. Repeat process again & again & again & again………..In the end, I trimmed any extra long strands to skim the floor and called it done.

Cost=$16. Time approx. 28 hours.

I’ve been spending the past week in holiday craft mode, getting my house ready for the upcoming seasonal gatherings. I used to manage an Anthropologie store, and though a few years removed at this point, it’s home-spun influence on my decorating aesthetic is forever in my blood now. Mass-market cardboard cut-outs of reindeer tacked to the wall will no longer suffice for this artsy gal.

This yarn ball mantel piece took 12 hours to pull off and 8 skeins of yarn-at $2 a pop thanks to Wallmart. I crunched up paper from my recycle bin into various size balls, then picked a color of yarn and started to wrap until there was no more paper showing and it was a perfect sphere. I tied it off and left a long tail of string to then wrap & tie off around the branch I salvaged from my backyard from a recent windstorm (free!), each ball at various lengths. (Total cost=$19, plus 7 vodka tonics during the process-split between 2 days!)

Once I was happy with the quantity of balls and placement, up it went, and then about an hour later of untangling the balls from the hanging process, I snipped the hanging yarn that went beyond the bottom of the yarn balls, stepped back, and admired my handiwork.

On the mantel itself, I laid out a scene of cut logs pilfered from my wood pile, then unraveled a skein of fuzzy white mohair to create “snow”. Then I made more white yarn balls in various sizes (same way as above minus the tails) for the snowballs, placed them, added a string of tree lights, and called it a snowy yarn mantel masterpiece. Total time, 45 minutes. Total cost=$5 and a shot of Whiskey neat.

While checking scores around the league on NFL.com yesterday I noticed an ad for a Super Bowl retrospective. I thought it was going to be a DVD box set so I wanted to see what the story was. Turns out it wasn’t a collection of DVDs, it was a book. But not just any book, this book is 7 color process printed, 900 pages, 1200 photos all spot varnished. Every page is lined in silver leaf. the book is 20 inches by 20 inches and weighs 80 POUNDS! It’s hand bound to premium leather and comes with a silk clamshell box and a pair of white handling gloves. And it retails for three thousand dollars. But that’s the standard edition.

The MVP edition comes with signatures from every living MVP from ever Super Bowl, as well as 20″x24″ polaroid prints from every living MVP from Walter Ioos Jr., one of the most high renowned sports photographers in the world. And if you buy this edition Walt will come take your portrait in a style that matches all the MVPs.

The MVP edition will only set you back FORTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.

After doing some research this book was created by a company called Opus, who turns out, designs 3 thousand dollar books regularly. They have editions for Formula 1, Manchester United and of course, the Super Bowl.

Truly awe inspiring. A designer’s dream, a project manager’s nightmare, a printer’s apocalypse.

Click the image above, or check it out here.