I’ve made no secret about the fact that writing Christmas cards is one of my favourite seasonal activities. So I like to get on it quickly. If you’re looking for the perfect card to wrap your warmest wishes in, here’s a selection of my favourites from small maker run businesses so you can feel great about your purchase as well as the card you’re sending.

My own cards!

Okay, so I couldn’t make a list like this without kicking off with my own Christmas collection. Inspired by the warmth of the season and some of my favourite things, these square cards are the perfect way to send your love through the post. They come with matching gift wrap, if you’re all about that coordinated life. Plus right now, if you buy 4 you can get a third for free!

Annie Dornan-Smith

Annie is one of my favourite makers all year round. Her stationery is beautiful, I’ve had so many compliments on the bits of peachy keen collection I sent out. Everything is wonderfully shot and packaged too, so it’s like you get a gift too!

Dorkfeatures

Dorkfeatures AKA Lauren Goodland is just all round wonderful. Her cards are hilarious. If you’re looking to send your Christmas greetings with a little bit of extra sass or sarcasm you have to check out her cards. I wish we were doing a work secret santa this year, so I would have the excuse to startle and amuse a colleague with one.

Katrina Sophia

If beautiful botanical designs are more your jam, then Katrina Sophia is your lady. Her cards this year are super classy. Plus while you’re in her store you can pick up some gorgeous plant based prints, so you can do a bit of a gift present double whammy!

Clover Robin

I’ve only recently been introduced to Clover Robin’s work but her collages are stunning. Her cards remind me of picture books I loved as a child in the best way, and who doesn’t want to spread some childlike joy at Christmas?

Any purchase you make from a small business can really make someone’s day, so where you can these holidays shop small!

The days are dark, the nights are long, the weather is cold. So that must mean it’s the perfect time to curl up inside with a warm mug of tea and some of the best articles on the web. If you get the tea, I’ve got your reading material sorted.

SHORT READS, IF YOU’VE ONLY GOT A FEW MINUTES:

These UX designers are rethinking the voter ballot

It’s been a big month for elections. At these big moments, I can’t help but turn on the bit of my brain that wants to be a service designer and wonder why arguably the biggest service of any democracy, voting, is always so questionably designed. Clearly and thankfully, I’m not the only one thinking about it. (If anyone knows how I can get a job doing this please let me know!)

In Praise of Mediocrity

“The pursuit of excellence has infiltrated and corrupted the world of leisure.” We need to get comfortable with the fact that sometimes just being okay is okay.

30 costumed dogs from the Topkins Square dog parade 2018

Okay I know this isn’t technically within the remit of what I share in this roundup but these dog costumes are definitely works of art and oh so adorable. You can thank me later.

Are public parks and unalloyed good?

I love my local park, walking through it on a daily basis has brought a world good to my year. “Cities need parks, but not just any parks will do. How they’re designed plays a crucial role in determining whether they benefit surrounding communities.”

LONG READS, IF YOU WANT SOMETHING TO GET YOUR TEETH STUCK INTO:

12 Authors Write About the Libraries They Love

One of my biggest sadnesses coming out of uni was that (despite spending an awful lot of money on my education) I didn’t get continued access to the bodleian library. So I loved this piece in The New York Times where Susan Orlean asked several authors to tell her about their local public library or to share a memory of a library from their past.

How Instagram Saved Poetry

The likes of Rupi Kaur and Charly Cox have undoubtedly changed the face of modern poetry, and they’ve done it by harnessing the power of social media, The Atlantic delves into how.

How to successfully pitch The New York Times (or, well, anyone else)

I want to be more proactive with my work. There are some bigger things I want to make and som platforms I want to approach, so this piece from Nieman lab on pitching was super interesting. If you’re interested in pitching (of any kind to any outlet) I think it’s a great starter for 10.

Craftfulness: Meet the life-long friends who say making things can mend your mind

Crafting is good for everyone. “People are tough on themselves. So many of us are working hard, raising kids and running a house. I know I certainly felt like crafting was taking time out of something I should be doing instead. But it’s not self-indulgent, it’s good for you.”

Going to Paris. What Van Gogh’s arrival in Paris can teach us about timing.

Van Gogh, supposedly, once said “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”. He’s right. But this post from Marcy Pederson suggests that sometimes we have to learn when to attempt things and when to find our crowd.

How to talk to people, according to Terry Gross

It’s not necessarily design based, but my design job requires talking (and mainly listening) to people all day. Plus we’re in the season of small talk, so I thought I’d share some wisdom from an expert. It’s fair to say Terry Gross knows some things about talking to people. The host and co-executive producer of NPR’s “Fresh Air” has interviewed thousands of personalities over the course of her four-decade career.

WHO TO FOLLOW, IF YOU WANT TO SPRUCE UP YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED:

@littledoodles

Everything Kate Wilson, AKA Little Doodles, shares brings a smile to my face. I think sometimes we just need some goodness and she delivers in spades.

@emsutton1983

Emma Sutton is a wonderful illustrator from my hometown. I’d seen her work before in the window of iconic tea room Betty’s but I’d never known who she was until the lovely people at One & Other mag did a video feature on her. I’m so glad they did because I’m obsessed with her richly detailed illustrated worlds.

@alicedes_illustration

Alice Des’s illustrations are just so stylish. I love how she draws hair in particular, there’s just something so nice about the waves on waves. She also balances positive and negative space brilliantly in her monochrome pieces, definitely something I personally want to work on.

It’s officially autumn, my big coats are down from the wardrobe and I am in my element. Now the weather’s that little bit cooler, it’s the perfect time to stay in and catch up with some reading. So here are my best picks for the month.

SHORT READS, IF YOU’VE ONLY GOT A FEW MINUTES:

The Secret History of Ctrl Alt Delete

Ctrl Alt Delete has become ubiquitous with the panic of things not working. It’s the title of at least two novels about life in the digital age. It’s perhaps not the simplest of actions though. But its creator “David Bradley, tells Great Big Story, it was a pain by design.”

An Enemy of Envy

I think we’ve all felt jealous at some point and with the age of instagram and everyone sharing their best lives on the internet it feels inevitable we might be feeling it even more. I really enjoyed Austin Kleon’s words and collected passages on moving beyond envy, however hard that may be, this week.

Can a typeface help your memory?

I’m always game to hear about a new productivity or memory hack, and the “researchers behind the typeface Sans Forgetica claim it can help you remember your notes”.

LONG READS, IF YOU WANT SOMETHING TO GET YOUR TEETH STUCK INTO:

Blue Peter: Secrets of the show’s badge room

I spent a lot of my early life wishing and working for a Blue Peter badge. It was the ultimate accolade. As a wonderful article in It’s Nice That says it’s “still given out to children who submit creative work to the programme – a fact which makes us feel oddly warm and fuzzy and like maybe, just maybe, despite Trump and Brexit and global warming and everything, that life is OK.” Earlier this week Blue Peter, and its much coveted badge, as designed by Tony Hart, turned 60 so here’s a look at some of the badge’s secrets.

Home is a Mug of Coffee

I loved Candace Rose Rardon’s illustrated essay on tea last year, so when I saw she’d shared something new on Longreads I had to read and share it with you. So, without further ado, here are her wonderful thoughts on why “It takes a lot of percolating to become your own person.”

It’s Not About “Engagement”: Using Social Media To Make Ideas Happen

I’ve been thinking about how I want to refresh how I do social media for a while now. These tips from “social media mavens, community managers, and grassroots organizers” suggest that “mastering social media means learning how to communicate your ideas with sincerity and passion. It’s not rocket science, it’s reciprocity”.

20 Years In, a Look at Google Doodle’s Milestones and Innovations

Google’s doodles have been going for 20 years now. This piece from Artsy looks at how they became the beloved, Emmy worthy, animations we know today and what might be in store for them in the future.

7 Writers on How Their Go-to Fonts Make Them Feel

What’s your favourite font? It’s a question a surprising number of people (non-design people no less) have a very emotive answer to. “For proof, [Aiga] asked a handful of writers about their typographic preferences” and the answers they gave are wonderful

The Art Practice Dr. Seuss Kept Hidden from the World

I have loved Dr Seuss, as lots and lots of people have, since I was very small. The worlds he would create in a mixture of weird words and wonderful illustrations were just magical. But alongside his great books,  he “spent his nights creating what he called his “midnight paintings,” a part of his practice he kept hidden from public view”. This was work just for himself, and Artsy is offering us a look inside.

WHO TO FOLLOW, IF YOU WANT TO SPRUCE UP YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED:

@margaret_elisabeth

I’ve been really enjoying M. Elisabeth McNair’s short comics on instagram, so I wanted to share them with you. They’re simple and witty and wonderful. She also creates cartoons for the New Yorker so there are some cutting ones in there too.

@lulu.illo

Whether you’re diligently creating, just watching, or are somewhere inbetween, it’s impossible to ignore that inktober is upon us. I’ve been loving seeing what everyone has been making so far this year and Lulu Diemer’s inktober paintings have been some of my favourites – especially the tiny angry dog. It’s also well worth scrolling down her feed to enjoy her more colourful pieces as well as her ink-y wonders.

@guardiandesign

It’s been another politically fraught week, pretty much no matter where you are in the world. So I wanted to share an instagram favourite that really makes you think about how the stories you read are framed, visually. Guardian Design documents The Guardian’s design team’s favourite layouts and takes you behind the scenes of how they put them together.

I’m a big fan of Alex Mather’s Red Lemon Club, it’s full of great advice and normally some pretty wonderful illustrations to go with it. I recently revisited a post his personal blog from a while back about using idea adventures to keep your mind feeling fresh.

I’d encourage you to read the full post, it’s not too long and it’s full of wisdom, but here’s the premise in Alex’s own words:

“I decided to bring adventure into my daily life instead of a once in a year short burst.

On every day that I can, I will go on a walk, sometimes a long one, and I will bring my notepad and my phone to take pictures and videos. I will use this adventure to collect and note ideas or simply document things I see as I go.

I call them ‘Idea Adventures.’”

As someone who’s a big fan of routine, I don’t have a lot of adventure in my life. So this really resonated with me as something I could actually do to broaden my horizons and push my thinking out of its little habit box.

Last year, when I was working in a different office, I challenged myself to head into the one of the National Galleries, find a painting and just sit with it for 20 minutes. I did that every lunch break for about a month and it did me a world of good. I came away from it feeling more peaceful but I also started noticing more details in what was around me. That led into me pushing the details of my own ideas that little bit further.

I want to do something like that again, inspired by Alex’s idea adventures.

I love a good autumnal walk, and I always find the act of pacing around helps stir up new ideas – I guess that’s why the urban flanneur is such a popular trope. Plus, now I’ve moved offices, I want to explore the area and get out of what can be a very sanitised high rise tower block. The combination of movement and a new perspective is incredibly enticing, even if it doesn’t do anything for pushing my creativity. But I have an inkling it will.

While I don’t think I can commit to every lunchtime straight away because the job I do now is quite different, I do want to make a commitment. I want to go on a walk to somewhere new, or using a new route, 3 times a week over lunch and just sit. Sit and watch and record something.

I don’t want to pressure myself to sketch, so I’m open to taking photos or notes too, anything that documents the experience and I can draw from in a more permanent form. In part because I want to be able to collect up those experiences and use them. In part because I know that the act of having to crystalise an experience down in a physical format always requires you to think about it a little bit more. You have to examine the experience in order to frame it.

I’m going to be documenting this mini project over on my Instagram stories, and perhaps on Twitter too, as a more informal ad hoc way of sharing. But if it turns out well I’ll be sure to write about it more thoroughly on here.

Who’s up for adventuring with me?

In the past I’ve made plenty of these inspiration gathering type posts (see here, here and here for just a few examples) because I love having this blog as a space to show off things I love. Today, I want to spotlight some of the non-illustration/art favourites which are influencing my work right now in the form of a moodboard because I’ve been enjoying seeing other people make them and I, jealous only-child that I am, wanted one of my own.

Tarot

I’ve spoken at length about my new love for tarot. But it’s still a major inspiration for me. First, I love looking through how the same symbols and ideas have been reinterpreted over and over and over again in new ways. I’m still a really big fan of the “classic” tarot designs though, there’s just something about them. Second, the act of interpretation and reflection is something I want to incorporate into my own work more. It was something I was really interested in when I was more focused on “art” at school and that I’ve lost somewhere along the way. Tarot has inspired me to bring it back in a little more.

Food

I love food. I love cooking. I love the process of cooking. For me it’s a space to play and make without worrying what something looks like, and let me tell you what it’s mighty freeing and also delicious. The sources of inspiration I normally turn to for this are the likes of Nigel Slater and Ruby Tandoh, but recently I’ve been loving Bon Appétit’s videos. Everyone there is incredibly talented and professional, and what they make looks so good, but there’s something about their style which is relaxed and feels like a real encouragement to just have fun making. In particular I’m thinking of Brad’s It’s Alive series, even though I’ve never made a pickle in my life, at least I know all about allicin now!

Knitwear

This might seem like an odd one. I mean we all love wearing a good jumper right, but how do you find inspiration in one? Well let me tell you, it’s all about the pattern. I create a weekly wednesday pattern over on my Instagram. These are usually repeating illustrations. But recently, I’ve been more drawing into fabric patterns and how these are methodically created. So while I’ve been snuggling up in my favourite sweaters I’ve been spending hours looking at Swedish folk knitwear. When you start searching for it, you can’t stop.

Landscapes

I realised recently I don’t draw backgrounds. All of my illustrations happen without context. It’s not something I’ve ever done intentionally, but it’s what I’ve ended up making. So I’ve been trying to sketch landscapes. I’ve turned to nature for references, which has inadvertently become a great source of holiday inspiration too.

Museum displays

Above my desk I have a Mariano Pascual print of one of his pieces to accompany an interview with MOMA’s curator Paola Antonelli and I love it. I was looking at it one day and it got me thinking about how museums display their pieces and in particular those cabinets of wonders you get at places like the Ashmolean, which then got me nostalgic for Oxford. But I pulled myself out of that reflection and started pulling together images of museum displays because one day I’d love to have my work shown off in something similar – perhaps a future rebrand?

If you want to keep up with what I’ve loving, I’m a bit of an obsessive Pinterest user so give me a follow and join the over 1,500 other people (how did that happen?) who like to have a nosey in my moodboards.