Karla Burns

I am currently studying a Design Entrepreneurship module, and it is absolutely fascinating. We had a truly inspiring talk from lecturer and entrepreneur Chris Murphy, who explained the whole entrepreneurship ethos to us, and the idea of making money whilst you sleep. He asked us why we were not making money from our designs and this hit home to the entire class. It has got me thinking and inspired me to go out and find my place in the world of entrepreneurism. Chris directed our attention to a website called Etsy that could be our first footing into this world. It is a beautiful site where artists from all fields come together and sell their designs to a global market. This site could make you broke, there are so many beautiful items on it, I always go onto it and find atleast 10 things I just NEED! I have picked out a few of my recent Graphic Design favourites from the site. I love beautifully crafted typographic pieces and these three pieces I would buy in a heartbeat, not for any practical purpose, just purely for the the design quality of each piece. I am a nerd when it comes to typographic pieces, they just excite me, no matter how plain a design the type always speaks for itself!

I wish they made these as purses as well as wallets as I absolutely adore them. This is just a beautiful and quirky crafting of helvetica on a practical everyday object. Personally I am not one who has sold into the whole helvetica hype, but that does not make this design any less exciting for me. I love humour in design, I love when it is designed to be enjoyed as the soul purpose.

This was the designers sales pitch, short and sweet, it is a wallet designed for a target audience; designers and type enthusiasts:

” I am not one to Who’s the original and who’s the impostor? I think we all know the answer to that one. This wallet was designed to further the debate between the Arial and Helvetica camps, while firmly stating its own position.

Wallets come in two flavors-Helvetica Good (white) and Helvetica Evil (Black). This is the evil (mwa ha ha) version.”

BUY ONE HERE!

Again another take on helvetica with a humorous treatment. It is a beautiful layout on the bag. Tote bags are just part of everyday life, they are just like plastic bags, every supermarket, clothes shop, music shop etc have jumped on the Tote band wagon, so it is nice to see something different and exciting done with the design on them. Again this piece was crafted with a target audience of typography lovers in mind. It is not a generic design designed to sell to a wide audience. It is carefully crafted and thought out and this is what attracts my attention. I adore that effort has also been put into the production as the totes are silk screen printed.

This is the designers sale pitch:

“silkscreen some days feel like helvetica tote

be green while making a statement!
this tote is inspired by helvetica. playing on syllables, words & meaning while creating visual interest with typography. perfect for any font savant, designer or typoholic.”

BUY HERE!

These are created by the same designer as the above totes. They are beautiful, playful cards and I want to collect them all. I would love to receive one of them. They are letterpress printed which gives them a beautiful quality and texture. They are beautifully designed and the lay out uses debossing and negative space. They are designed with the designer or type enthusiast in mind, and they really speak out to this audience not only through design but through the quirky humour.

This is the designers sales pitch:

“letterpress futura card

this card is part of a series. the series is based off some of my favorite & maybe even one not so favorite fonts. playing on words & meaning while creating visual interest with typography. perfect for any font savant, designer or typoholic.”

BUY THEM HERE!