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HI + LOW has been a collection of interesting things I've come across or made. Now that that particular focus has shifted, you can find me over on Instagram @abbyclawsonlow. Think of it as HI + LOW 2.0 -- the... Continue reading

Posted Oct 19, 2013 at HI + LOW

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HAPPY CHAOS

Over the summer, we bought an old house. Since then we've been in a renovation marathon working out the details of the many repairs and improvements in order to make the home safe and habitable for our small family. It... Continue reading

Posted Sep 6, 2012 at HI + LOW

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KID CHAIRS

Mondo Cane and Partners & Spade present an exhibition of children's furniture: Kids Chairs! with over 50 examples of the form from the years 1890-1990. Exhibit is on view at Partners and Spade May 17th-June 10th. I definitely want to... Continue reading

Posted May 10, 2012 at HI + LOW

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CIRCLE GAME

TOP: "Airbrush Floral Colored Origami Paper II - 5 Colors 80 Sheets - great for crane, flower folding." Beautiful. Along the same lines are: MIDDLE + BOTTOM: Circle Paintings by Kenneth Noland. *[I'm loving the soundtrack on his website --... Continue reading

Posted Apr 30, 2012 at HI + LOW

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MINI-ECO

I happened on this blog late last night: Mini-Eco by Kate Lilley, also a mother of two little boys. Her approach to crafts and kid friendly projects is fresh and clean and unlike any other I've seen. The design appeals... Continue reading

Posted Apr 27, 2012 at HI + LOW

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WELL-ROUNDED

This New Year's card by Walter Marti reads (on the bottom) “Wishing you a happy 1960.” I love the play on the typographic "bowls" in the numbers 1-9-6-0. Check out this design, among others, in the Herb Lubalin Study Center's... Continue reading

Posted Apr 25, 2012 at HI + LOW

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COLORS + LAYERS

Sometimes I am surprised where I find design inspiration. These happen to be packages of gum from the supermarket. Although these are not the best example of gum packaging, the color pairings and the minimal presenence of copy on each... Continue reading

Posted Apr 24, 2012 at HI + LOW

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1, 2, 3, 4,

"How many can you count -- arms on a starfish, toes on two feet, hours on a clock, flowers in a bunch, raindrops in the sky?" Numbers is a book by John J. Reiss. It was published by Bradbury press,... Continue reading

Posted Apr 19, 2012 at HI + LOW

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HOUSE FLAGS

The National Maritime Museum has over 1000 flags including two large collections of house flags, used to identify shipping lines, or owners of vessels. Here are a few I selected from the collection. *[Take a look at the Jack Spade... Continue reading

Posted Apr 18, 2012 at HI + LOW

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HAPPY CORN

These packages of Caramel Corn came from that big, awesome, Japanese grocery store in Edgewater, NJ. I couldn't pass these up. The stencil typeface, the happy/cute/goofy faces, and the glossy packaging kills me. So good, right? *[This makes me want... Continue reading

Posted Apr 12, 2012 at HI + LOW

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GOOD REFERENCE

I bought this Macmillan Dictionary for Children (Copyright 1975) in February at an estate sale near my parents' home in the California Bay Area. About 2.5" thick, its pages are full of animated vintage illustrations. I especially like the section... Continue reading

Posted Apr 10, 2012 at HI + LOW

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SPRING CHICKEN

I visited the Marimekko NYC flagship store on Fifth Avenue last week. In the store windows was this Easter inspired textile (approx. 5 feet wide) Designed by Maija Louekari for Marimekko, it is 100% cotton. Full color and giant graphics.... Continue reading

Posted Apr 5, 2012 at HI + LOW

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A.P.C. XS

A.P.C. Children is now available in "unisex clothes, from 2 to 12 years, 100% cotton, featuring stripes and a parrot." You can outfit your petit enfant in a "blouse, t-shirt, jeans, bermuda shorts and a bag inspired by the A.P.C.... Continue reading

Posted Mar 30, 2012 at HI + LOW

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IN SUPPLY

The Uline catalog is bananas. And, it's HUGE. There are hundreds of pages of office supplies: Custom tape, kraft stay flats, colored plastic bags, tape dispensers. I've been ordering from them since 1998 (starting at my first studio job). It... Continue reading

Posted Mar 28, 2012 at HI + LOW

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IN PIECES

On Saturday, I picked up these four New York Times Historic Puzzles (Parker Brothers, 1968) at an estate sale in NJ. The whole lot was only $2! The puzzles were down in the home's basement stacked and one was labelled... Continue reading

Posted Mar 27, 2012 at HI + LOW

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ART STRINGS

String art has its origins in the 'curve stitch' activities invented by Mary Everest Boole at the end of the 19th Century to make mathematical ideas more accessible to children. It was popularised as a decorative craft in the late... Continue reading

Posted Mar 22, 2012 at HI + LOW

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TACTILE TYPOGRAPHY

Amazing. These two sisters, for a fee, will custom embroider your own initials. They call themselves "makers of things assorted" and have "an unusual obsession with paper and patterns, like geeking out with gashapon toys and enjoy getting crafty with... Continue reading

Posted Mar 21, 2012 at HI + LOW

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CUT-UP

Bradford Shellhammer, the cofounder of FAB, made these collages when his "obsession and collection of design objects deepened and expanded, into the world of art." So he took the logical next step and began painting. "And paint (and cut and... Continue reading

Posted Mar 21, 2012 at HI + LOW

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WE DO

This was a fun wedding project. I was fortunate to work with Alix, who is so lovely and nice. She was familiar with my handwriting/doodling (from our days working together on Madewell Musings) which turned out to be a perfect... Continue reading

Posted Mar 20, 2012 at HI + LOW

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BACK & FORTH

These came in a lot of Creative Playthings toys I won on Ebay. Included were two sets of the rocking horse and see-saw, as well as a swing set similar to this one. We sent the duplicate set out west... Continue reading

Posted Mar 19, 2012 at HI + LOW

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DOT DOT DOT

This partial sheet of dog stickers was tucked between the pages of my 2-year-old's sketch book. He had stuck some transparent, color-coding, circle labels over the heads of the dogs. Not unlike John Baldessari whose artwork involved "placing colorful dots... Continue reading

Posted Mar 16, 2012 at HI + LOW

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MAPS!

These maps are from Graphis Diagrams a wonderful book on the "graphic visualization of abstract data." The first map was taken from Plan for New York City, designed by Don Page and Frank Williams. The second map is from Etude... Continue reading

Posted Mar 15, 2012 at HI + LOW

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SHAPE OF THINGS

While perusing the READ section at Present & Correct, I came across this book: SHAPES by John J. Reiss: "a riot of geometric illustrations and bright acid colours. Follow Mr Fox as he explores each shape and where we find... Continue reading

Posted Mar 14, 2012 at HI + LOW

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FOOD STUFF

Recently, while visiting my parents in Northern California, I spotted dozens of these large cans on a shelf tucked behind their basement stairs. These are food storage cans circa 1970 (definitely expired) with corresponding recipes (typeset in black Courier, no... Continue reading

Posted Mar 12, 2012 at HI + LOW

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COTTON / POLYCHROME

This striped quilt was inspired by Mary & Matt's post on John Nixon's stripe paintings. I based the design on one of his Polychrome Paintings from a series he did in 2007. Machine pieced and quilted stripes, I chose yellow... Continue reading

Posted Mar 8, 2012 at HI + LOW

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