Today's Inspiration: les BALLETS de FAILE

les BALLETS de FAILE. Spotted this morning at the Carroll Street stop in Brooklyn. If I hadn't already been running extremely late, I would have jumped off the F train to get a snap of this breathtaking poster. (Plucked instead from fastcocreate.com) Based in Brooklyn, the fab FAILE duo creates a custom blend of high and low brow art: Lichtenstein meets Neck Face meets Toulouse-Lautrec meets American Pickers ... I'm in love. For more FAILE art and their upcoming exhibition at Lincoln Center for the launch of the New York City Ballet Art Series:

Today's Inspiration: Patterns of Infinity

Patterns of Infinity. I post a lot of patterns, but this one by Andy Gilmore especially caught my eye. Spotted yesterday on WeTransfer (a file transfer site that generously provides interesting backgrounds for easily distracted designers, like myself, to zone out on while waiting for files. Think: elevator music for the eyes.) Well, unlike crappy elevator music, I was mesmerized by Andy's work and had to take a screen grab. Not only do I want to live in this color palette, I find that this kind of conceptual art fuels an obsession I've developed with the notion of infinity, in time, space, nature, shapes, color, relationships, etc. Will be obsessing over this and his other work for a while:

Spring Fever

It's feeling a little Spring-like outside (hey—when we're not buried in snow, I'm hopeful!) so here are two new Spring reads coming from Amulet Books.

Bruised by Sarah Skilton 

When Imogen, a sixteen-year-old black belt in Tae Kwon Do, freezes during a holdup at a local diner, the gunman is shot and killed by the police, and she blames herself for his death. Before the shooting, she believed that her black belt made her stronger than everyone else—more responsible, more capable. But now that her sense of self has been challenged, she must rebuild her life, a process that includes redefining her relationship with her family and navigating first love with the boy who was at the diner with her during the shoot-out. With action, romance, and a complex heroine, Bruised introduces a vibrant new voice to the young adult world—full of dark humor and hard truths.

 Available March 5, 2013  ·  Pre-order now!

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters 

In 1918, the world seems on the verge of apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she herself has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she’s forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death, for her first love—a boy who died in battle—returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her? Featuring haunting archival early-twentieth-century photographs, this is a tense, romantic story set in a past that is eerily like our own time.

Available April 2, 2013  ·  Pre-order now!