Ampersand Design Studio

pattern peak: Kendra of One Love Organics

admin — Tue, 15 May 2012 15:45:15 +0000

We have a really fun Pattern Peek for you all today!! Our long-time, and über-talented friend, Kendra Inman is sharing a pattern-filled peek into her world. Kendra is the Chief Creative Officer for One Love Organics – our absolute favorite all natural cosmetics brand – and judging by this inspiration board, we sure are excited to see what she’s up to next! Make sure to check in with the One Love Organics blog for what’s happening in the world of simple, natural beauty! And, you guys would be silly if you don’t start following Kendra on pinterest (we’re talking serious good taste, here).

Alright, here’s Kendra:

Is there anything better than an inspiration board? All your favorite things often combine in unexpected ways. I love the act of pulling things together that I’m drawn to and discovering an overall trend or color palette. Naturally I’m obsessed with pinterest too. An inspiration board that changes constantly? Amazing! But I still like put together an old school board with magazine tears, ephemera collected here and there, and a few of my current favorite designs. My current inspiration board features a good deal of pattern, dominated by florals and bright pinks.

Floral cards by Lisa Stickley (discovered at Urbanic) http://www.lisastickleylondon.com/

Floral postcards from Liberty of London (picked up on a recent trip to London) http://www.liberty.co.uk/

Pink Chevron, Grid, and Kraft Pattern Envelopes by Whisper Graphics: http://whiskergraphics.com/

Floral Ribbon from Knot and Bow: http://www.knotandbow.com/

Love card by my friends at Hammerpress: http://hammerpress.net/

Hints for Better Living Video (Sleeve) created and drawn by my friend Mike Afsa

Faile Postcard from their show in Venice: http://www.faile.net/

New Years Card from my friends at Urbanic http://urbanicpaper.com/

100 Layer cake pop up card: http://www.100layercake.com/

Pattern Peek: Jess of JessLC

admin — Fri, 11 May 2012 14:40:43 +0000

Happy Friday all! Today we're sharing another Pattern Peek and it's coming to you from Jess of JessLC! You might remember that we had the pleasure of actually working with Jess on this collaboration and we just bonded with her right off bat! She's totally brilliant and also completely genuine and she's created such an amazing brand! Make sure to follow along with Jess on her blog, Make Under My Life, to get some insight into her world! We promise, you will be amazed at what you learn about yourself by following Jess! So thanks to Jess for taking over the blog today....we love having a little peak into your closet...and yes, it's completely reminds us of your products! love it all!

DIY: gumball necklace

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:00:24 +0000

We are thrilled to be introducing a new DIY series today coming to you from our dear friend, Laura, of Laura Parke. You might remember when we introduced you to Laura back in January. She has been busily creating amazing craft projects galore since then and sharing her talent and style on her blog and around the interwebs and now we get to host her every month! How lucky are we?!?! We just love Laura to bits and think you will too after you see what she’s come up with for her debut project for Ampersand. A grown-up candy necklace! Gorgeous and edible. Here’s Laura:

Remember the candy necklaces of our youth where the elastic string would get soggy from hours of sucking on that chalky candy that we all loved? Well here’s an updated version that can easily serve as a fashion statement while keeping your taste buds satisfied.

MATERIALS:

- 24″ string or cord (similar here: )

- gumballs (i used ones from crystal temptations because the colors were so amazing)

- large sewing needle

- power drill

- 1/16″ drill bit

STEP ONE: Using the power drill make a hole in the gumball. To get cleaner holes, don’t push the drill bit all the way through to the other side of the gumball. Instead, make the second hole directly across from the first one so they match up. Drill holes in all of the gumballs that you want on your necklace.

Using the drill bit without it turning, you can make sure that the holes are directly across from one another, shown below.STEP TWO: Thread your needle and string the gumballs onto the necklace.

STEP THREE: Tie the ends together into a knot and you’re finished!

That’s it! Helpful hint…don’t wear this necklace in the rain as the colors will rub off when wet.

Brand new site

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 19:00:45 +0000

Welcome to our brand-spanking-new website! We hope you’ll stay and look around awhile. We are so excited to share it with you and we’re thrilled about all of our new features! We love finally having everything in one place including our portfolio so we can share a little more of what we’ve been up to (have a look at our work). We hope that it’s much easier now for you to leave comments and for us to reply because what we’re really hoping to do is interact with you all more.

Along with our new site, we’ve decided to accept some hand-picked advertisers. It was a big decision to include ads in our sidebar, but we want you to know that only companies whose products we love and use will get placement on the blog. You’ll notice our first three ads are from some pretty great companies: Pinhole Press, One Love Organics and Voz Jewelry. We’re thrilled to have them all as they are some of our faves.

Whew! We’re so glad this is up. Designing your own website while you’re trying to prepare for a tradeshow is a lot more work than we anticipated. We can’t express the relief in having “website” crossed off our to-do list!

photo by martine franck

Announcing our newest collaboration: minted.com

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 06:00:13 +0000

We are really excited to share this latest collaboration with you all! Of course you’ve heard of minted.com and surely used them for invitations, personal stationery, journals or the like! But just this year, they started selling art prints! YAY, right? They are all museum quality, archival pigment ink on 100% cotton rag paper and sold in a variety of sizes. How great is that? So if you see one you like, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to make it work somehow, the sizes range from 5″ x 7″ all the way up to 44″ x 60″! AND…many of the nursery and children’s art prints are customizable with a child’s name!

Our Paper Cut ABCs design comes in three color variations, we hoped to design one that would be a cool gender neutral design and then something perfect for a modern little boy’s room and a cool little girl’s room! We hope you just love them! And make sure to check out the rest of the amazing new wall art! We are seriously flattered to be among such amazing design and artistic talent! Thanks for having us, Minted!

pattern peek: michelle of second street east

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:00:44 +0000

Today, our Pattern Peek comes from our new friend, Michelle! We met Michelle at Alt Summit and bonded with her immediately. (So much so that we vowed to get together regularly to sample our favorite Thai restaurants in Kansas City!) She is so fun and has some seriously great taste as you will see here and on her beautiful blog and shop. She is also a major inspiration because she’s switching her career path, going back to school and following her dream of becoming an interior designer! We are so thrilled to introduce you to her! Thanks so much, Michelle, for taking over the blog today! And without further ado, here’s Michelle:

Hi Ampersand Design Studio readers! Michelle from Second Street East here to share with you a few favorite patterns in my home! So excited for Carrie and Morgan going to their first year of Surtex! I know they will do amazing and sell tons of designs! Hopefully this will give them a little inspiration : )

1. The first custom pillows I ever had made – Chiang Mai by Schumacher. Brings back good memories!

2. A pillow from my shop that is ready to be sent to a customer!

3. Pattern from the hand-carved thai armoire in my living room. Don’t know that I will ever be able to get rid of it!

4. Pretty pink and orange on a quilt in the guest bedroom.

5. Chinsoire lamp in my bedroom – an amazing eBay find!!

6. Leopard outdoor rug that greets all my guests at the front door.

Thanks for having me, Carrie and Morgan! Can’t wait to hear about your success!

we heart kc: little freshie

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:00:08 +0000

Are you drooling yet? Well, we are and we are dying for the grand opening of Little Freshie, the newest project from Lindsay Laricks of Fresher Than Fresh Snowcones (featured here). How lucky are we that this soda fountain and espresso bar is opening soon here in KC!?! And those gorgeous macarons pictured above? Morgan’s own mom, Barbara Shaw, owner of Au Bon Macaron, makes those, and I can personally attest that they are incredible!!!

pattern peek: shayna of pattern pulp

admin — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:00:40 +0000

Well hello there everyone! In the final weeks leading up to Surtex, we have reached out to some of our favorite blogger friends for some help posting on our own blog. We have been so excited about some of the great stuff we have been receiving that it’s turning into a new guest series called, “Pattern Peek”. What we asked of our friends was to snap a photo (or more) of some of their favorite pattern and color in their homes or closets!

It’s no surprise that Shayna Kulik, of Pattern Pulp, was one of the quickest to get back to us seeing as her house and closet are apparently chock full of pattern goodness!! Coming to us all from New York, Shayna’s blog, Pattern Pulp, tracks emerging concepts in print and pattern design and is a clear extension of her own design and brand strategy work. We were lucky enough to meet Shayna at Alt Summit and have become big fans of her blog ever since. If you love pattern and trend as much as we do, make sure to keep up with Shayna. The girl knows what’s up!

Best part of her photos? The little message she sent along with them:

“It’s actually a coincidence that my skirt matches the living room rug – same goes for the polka dot skirt matching a painting I made years ago…guess we know what palettes I’m drawn to. : ) “

Thanks Shayna for being our guest on the blog today! We loved having you!

—Morgan & Carrie

We’re exhibiting at Surtex 2012!!

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:00:53 +0000

There are just 20 short days until Surtex 2012! Yep, we’ll be headed to NYC before we know it! (SO excited!) We have been working like crazy to put together a great assortment of patterns! For any companies that are looking for a fun, new design duo to partner with, come on by and see us! We are going to be strutting our stuff in booth #474, right on the corner! We’re really excited about the patterns we’ve been creating and although we won’t be sharing our new work here (sorry, we’ve got to save it for the future products it will be adorning), we can’t wait to share it with any of you who might be attending Surtex!

For any licensees or manufacturers still on the fence about attending….we want to say, just do it, we want to meet you!

Here are the details: Sunday, May 20 – Tuesday, May 22, 2012 in New York City at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Please email us with any questions or to make an appointment: hello@ampersanddesignstudio.com.

let’s hear it for the boys: j. press neckties

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:00:00 +0000

I just stumbled across this site, J.Press. Maybe the guys out there are familiar? Anyway, I was totally drawn in by the fun color palettes and patterns of these ties (a picked a few of my faves above). Makes me kinda want to wear a coat and tie to work.