I just picked up Dwell’s “100 Houses We Love” special issue and was glad to see a home featured on Madeline Island. “Two Black Sheds” sits on four and a half acres of forest and meadows overlooking Lake Superior and is vacation home to Minneapolis residents Golob and Freeman. Architect David Salmela worked with the couple to achieve a house that was simple and didn’t involve a lot of work while having a space where everything worked together. Very cool. Read more about it here.
With this great weather, I’ve seen more and more bicycles dusted off and out on the town. It’s always fun to buy a new accessory for the season to spiff up your ride. How about one of these gorgeous leather bike seats from leather artist Kara Ginther in Madison. Kara creates these incredible hand carved brooks saddles that are almost too pretty to sit on. Kara says “nothing pleases me more than to be able to rejuvenate old leather with fresh pattern and color. I love giving new life to antique luggage, purses, belts, shoes… anything really.”
Turning out a stellar stable of craft brews, Madison, Wisconsin-based Ale Asylum is far and away the most daring from a brewing as well as a packaging perspective. Their evaluation criterion for what makes good packaging is poetic: “If it looks like something someone would tattoo on their body, it belongs on their bottle”. Enter Madtown Nutbrown. Using an autumnal color pallet, moonlit backdrop and unstable typography, Hiebing’s re-designed artwork implies something sinister but gives no answers.
Allison of The Social Type was recently featured on the Minted blog. Originally from Madison, Allison graduated from UW-Stevens Point and took her designing skills out to San Francisco. She teams up with friend Jessica to create fresh greetings and stationery that often win the Minted design challenges. Read their interview here.
Natalie’s handmade skirts have caught my eye for sometime, but now that it’s warm out, I’d really like to buy myself one of her “Jane’s”. OrangyPorangy (as her husband calls her orange hair) sells her skirts at the Madison Farmers Market as well as several stores in WI and online. They’re clothes for the modern lady with classic style.
Update: Natalie is opening a storefront at 2606 Monroe Street in Madison featuring her OrangyPorangy clothing. In addition to her handmade skirts, the shop will have a nice selection of womens vintage dresses, mens vintage shirts and handmade art & home goods from artist all over the U.S. including her husband Mike’s work. Check out zip-dang.com for more info.
Madison’s Creative Communications Company Knupp & Watson, recently rebranded to become KW2. (They added another “W” owner). They launched a new identity and website which can be seen at kw2ideas.com.
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