August Empress

Allison Langton is the talented lady behind Big Print Little. A Melbourne based textile designer and illustrator, her work includes beautiful floral artwork, adorable editorial illustrations as well as many colourful textile collections. Allison’s blog features these lovely photos of the view from her desk creating the Flower of the Month for Australian House & Garden magazine.

The blog also features some gorgeous pressed flower collections of  ‘Langton’s Herbarium’.

I also love this colour swatch collection.

So be sure to take a look over at Big Print Little for lots of visual goodness from Allison, it’s so wonderful to come across yet another talented Australian illustrator and designer.

Nan Lawson is a self-taught illustrator from Los Angeles, I immediately adored her gorgeous illustrative style and cute characters. Nan was kind enough to answer a few questions for August Empress.

Your illustrative style is quite original and quirky, can you share a little about your process?

I start off usually by getting inspired by something, whether it’s something I see in real life, or in a photograph, or on my computer screen. Then, I sketch out my idea roughly. I work digitally, so all of my sketching is done in photoshop. Then, I draw my “ink” lines over my sketch layer. I usually stick to a simple color palette and add textures to my digital coloring to make it feel more organic.

Where is your favourite place to work?

I love working at home. I live in a lovely little apartment with my boyfriend, it has a lot of big windows and gets great light.

Where do you find inspiration for your artwork and quirky characters?

Like I mentioned above I can be inspired by many things. I’ve been drawing a lot of characters from films and television shows lately and that seems to resonate with a lot of people (including myself!)

When did your passion for art begin?

I honestly don’t know when it started, I’ve loved drawing and creating since I was a child, so there isn’t exactly that one moment where I could say it began. I can say it really crystallized when I was working a boring day job and needed a creative outlet for myself and turned to drawing and painting. Now drawing and painting is my day job!

What are the top 3 blogs you love to read?

Wow, I love so many blogs, mostly interior design related ones, ok…

1. SFgirlbybay
2. Design Sponge
3. Decor8

What are the top 3 items on your wishlist to buy?

Definitely the top choice would be a Wacom Cintiq, which I will probably never be able to afford. I really want a faux taxidermy head to hang above my television. Like the ones here. I also need a new floor lamp for my living room, I was thinking something vintage, but similar to a task lamp.

Thanks so much Nan! Be sure to visit Nan’s portfolio, blog and etsy shop for much more great artwork.

Molly Jacques is a classically trained illustrator with a beautiful talent in lettering and calligraphy. I particularly love the lettering combined with letterpress, every piece of work has such a special quality to it and just looks amazing.

Check out Molly’s website and blog to see more of her work.

For a little while now webfonts have been increasing in popularity in web design, and thank goodness as there is only so much you can do with the same few websafe fonts we had been using. There are a few services around the web now that allow you to implement different fonts into your website, but the one I now use the most is Google Webfonts. It’s free and doesn’t require you to create an account, and super easy to implement into your html and css.

The collection of fonts offered by Google is continually growing, below I am sharing a few of my favourites that I love using in website and blog designs.

Font Selection: Josefin Slab, Yeseva One, Oswald, Old Standard TT, Amatic SC, Raleway , Muli

Firstly I’d love to thank everyone who left such lovely comments and feedback about the new shop, who helped spread the word, and especially to those who purchased their faves to use on their blogs. Be sure to let me know if you’re using any graphics from August Empress on your blog as I’ve love to see them in use.

I hope you all had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was a lot of fun with getting some more quality beach time before Winter gets closer, reading, eating, and finding some new things for our house.

Images 1, 2, 3 – Quite often it’s gorgeous and sunny when I leave home, but overcast when I arrive at the beach. Still enjoyed some relaxing/reading at Main Beach.

Images 4, 5, 6 – A short walk from this beach is one of kikki.K‘s lovely stores, I picked up a few Organisk pads, and the two cutest books with Inspiration & Love quotes. If you take a look at the patterned floor of the front window display, that will soon be mine to place under the glass top of my office desk, I think it’ll look great!

Images 7, 8, 9 – Headed down to Burleigh Heads to check out The Village Markets, and picked up the lovely green bottle including the peacock feathers, and an adorable little teacup candle and saucer. I did forget to take photos at the markets to share, next time!

Images 10, 11, 12 – Hanging out at the beach in Burleigh Heads with my awesome friend Eirin.

Images 13, 14, 15 – A visit to Ikea means getting my hands on some great typographic fabric to make some small curtains for the horizontal windows in my office. They will be hung on a curtain wire, since curtain rods would be too bulky. That will be my project for next weekend!

I’ve just launched a new online shop selling digital patterns, graphics and social buttons which are available for both personal and commercial use. There’ll be more designs added over April, why not give your blog or website some new bling! Check out the shop

What I’m inspired by: Behind the Mask image by Heather Louise Photography

Collection of images:

1. Aqua Quartz Gold Dipped Necklace by Friedasophie
2. Old Havana Dinnerware from Anthropologie
3. Vintage Sequins from The Gilded Girls Stash Society
4. This Is It Dress from Princess Polly
5. Gold Chantilly Lace Cuff from Stella & Dot
6. Aqua & Gold Stripe Vase by Up in the Air Somewhere
7. Moët & Chandon Packaging via The Dieline

I’ve mentioned Emilie de Griottes’ fantastic blog Griottes here previously. While catching up on the blog I was blown away my these amazing images she created for a special feature in a french culinary magazine. These dessert tarts recreate pantone colour swatches using berries, bananas, tomatoes, candies, and other foods. So creative!