Spotted on Swiss Miss this morning, Linkedin finally let’s you display your portfolio. Maybe I’ll consider joining now… just maybe. Read more about it here.

Happy Father’s Day to all those rad dads out there. Shirt/Pin via Space Oddities.

What better on a rainy day, than some internet surfing and a steamy cup of strong coffee. A while back, I posted about Caribou’s rebranding and Eric commented that he was a fan of Alterra’s design. Totally agreed, so I thought I’d give a salute out to Alterra Coffee. Does anyone know who does their fine design?

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.

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.

My sister and I stopped in a lovely new bake shop today called Bloom. It’s located in downtown Middleton and the owner Annemarie greeted us with a warm welcome. Their cupcakes are delicious, but we also loved their long list of organic ingredients and “sweet” store branding. Madison designer Gage Mitchell can take credit for their logo, along with their all-around environmentally-friendly design.

Spotted on DesignMom.com, these Robot Letters from Milwaukee designer Jimbot, are too cool. Get them in pink, green or blue.

I stopped in one of Milwaukee’s Caribous the other day — mmmm, tasty. I didn’t notice their re-branding yet, but saw on Allan’s Peter’s blog that Colle+McVoy updated their look. Although I think Caribou should have a play corner like some Starbucks (us moms appreciate those things), I do love their coffee and the new look. What do you think?

While browsing the How Design Blog, I came across this typographic t-shirt by Julia Sonmi Heglund from Madison. Looks like it’s no longer in print, but she has plenty of other rad designs to choose from. Check out sonmisonmi.com.