Have been very busy in the design studio recently, here is the latest logo design for a florist in the Central West. Sheriden creates beautiful arrangements for all budgets and occasions. 3 petals will be at this weekends Bridal Expo in Dubbo, Sunday 4 July at the Dubbo Regional Theatre and Convention Centre. To have a look at the other work elki design studio has been busy as, click here.

In the spirit of the upcoming festive season, we’re giving away our own festive swing tags. Every purchase made from today up until Christmas Eve, you will receive four swing tags, neatly packaged in their own case. PLUS we’ll also giftwrap each purchase!* Its our little gift to you. Keep an eye out for our new products this Christmas…

So there will be no excuse this year for presents to ‘go missing’!

* we will send an email to confirm whether you would like your purchases gift wrapped.

Well, I am super dooper excited (yes, I said super dooper!). I have my wedding invitations in my hands, having had a huge weekend in Sydney doing lots of wedding things. I don’t want to give them away, just yet (as I’ll be posting them tomorrow, and would hate for any of our guests to see them here first), but here is a sneak preview. Enjoy

Just letting you know that our ad in The Land’s ‘Mail Order and Internet Catalogue’ is out and printed. So if you regularly get The Land, then have a look for us. We also had a great editorial written about us, so hopefully the elki word will spread further. I’ve had two phone calls from Tasmania already!

Back to the grindstone, after a lovely weekend in Mudgee for the food and wine festival. It was my first time to Mudgee,  it had that great country charm with some ‘city-fied’ influences. Had great coffee all weekend, and of course the surrounding wineries and cheese houses offered fantastic tastings. Here are a few of the highlights from the weekend.

Coffee at The Butcher cafe (above) – this great cafe set up in an old Butchers, white and blue tiles and all.

Wine tasting at Andrew Harris Winery, set just outside Mudgee on the Sydney road, it had a very quaint tasting room set up in an old shearing shed and beautifully decorated inside. We bought a great white and should have bought this fabulous port we tasted. Best one I’ve had!

Then along to Logan Wines – one of my all time favourite wineries. With a gorgeous modern tasting room, set against the rolling hills and landscape of Mudgee. The wines are fantastic and a regular on our dining table. You can order online and receive their newsletter. The packaging and design were created by Sydney studio War Designs (also very brilliant), and this only adds to the experience at Logan (recently shown in the design bible D&AD 2009 book).

We discovered the beautiful homewares store, Juliet Horsley, whom had just recently opened. A truely lovely store with everything ranging from beautiful linen napery, to Birch tree lamps and tea light holders, to straw cowboy hats and white dinnerware.

The wineries offer great tastings and food goods. We tasted some great free range proscuitto from The Farmers Pantry, who also sell in Sydney at the Pyrmont markets, and tasted some beautiful wines. My only recommendation, is try and organise a tour or a designated driver, because after a few little tastes driving is that last thing you should be doing. Rather sitting out in the sun, enjoying the local produce.

(images taken by elki. Juliet Horsley from her site here)

Next month I’ll be looking around for letterpress printers to print our wedding invitations – I can’t wait. Of course there will need to be an ‘excursion’ involved to the printers! If anyone could recommend Australian based letterpress printers, I would be greatly appreciative.

(images: top, Mika78, bottom Bespoke Press)

and this is one of those heart stoppers. Not much more I want to say, its truly spectacular.

(images found via fffound, via here)

Is is just me, or does everyone love a swing tag? Maybe its ‘in the details’, that really sells a product for me.

Pretty ribbon, heavy uncoated card, simple design etc. I even love it when the store person takes great pride in wrapping my item that I’ve just purchased, even if it is only a singlet top. So, its my love for details that will hopefully give elki that ‘whole’ package, a whole brand. Here are some of the swing tags which I’ve designed, just simply designed on uncoated stock with twine to wrap to the item. Would love to know your thoughts…

Work are considering getting the 10 pack mug set for our office, so we can be Pantone geeks together. For those keen on buying their Pantone mug, click here. If you want to find out more about Pantone, and why it is the backbone of our designer world (think 8pm press checks, arguments with printers, the ease of selecting a colour etc)!, click here.

If I could select my own colour, I would pick PMS 382 (chartruse). What colour are you?

[images of my desk, emma kaveney]