Kristin Cofer - Design That Kills

here i am on a normal corporate kristin day- walking down market street to meet lisa marie for blue bottle at the ferry building-

two hours earlier, i said goodbye to a face at the oakland train station, and felt a much needed sense of internal peace, yesterday was the start of feeling good again and i am truly flattered by what bunny and JT wrote about me in their well written, adorable san francisco street style blog, SFStyle.

hi.

favorites and inspiration oh my!

the beautiful anonymous poster and postcard designs posted on creative review

i forgot about the beauty of this suede album cover designed by peter saville and posted on FFFFound!

twitter is extremely addicting.

jordan crane reprints two of my favorite posters!

the magick daggers being dark and sultry in my headphones!

yes, i want pantone stairs!

i can’t stop staring at these new david lachapelle images.

this image by jessica-m which was right in synch with my recent rope girl work!

more your earbuds, san francisco band veil veil vanish are lovely and i’m meeting up with one of them tomorrow to discuss future evil art plans!

i watched the 2005 movie “the lost” and found it visually stimulating and great acting by marc senter who reminds me of my other favorite man, crispin glover.

the illustrations of jason thielke

my coworker, anna main, is a secret talented poster designer.

being stopped on the street for the SFstyle blog, the cure’s “entreat” on headphones, warm san francisco days, nude fishnets, and much needed heart peace are making my lips turn upward this tuesday.

i stepped out and fell in love, please listen to the magick daggers, described as, “…A haunting resonance that embodies a diabolical merge of 1920s Weimar Cabaret influences contrasted by horror film shrieks and ether static sung through a wall of reverb.”

yum!

model: alex kammen
styling: dee larsen
make-up: lindsey griffen

lovely image of alex from a wednesday photo shoot evening…

thank you for reminding me! from the nausner and my favorite visual blog FFFFound!

today is a new day.
my eyes are open again
yes, i am back.

these images arrived in my electronic mailbox over the course of twenty-four hours, this girl is a similar soul and i do adore her- i can see her creating many spectacular pieces, she has that familiar drive and i was speechless when i saw the final product- jessica- m is amazing. and if you know me in real life, i think you can figure out who these two characters are… and if you are really good, you know what movie she depicted below- (which is one of our favorites…) thanks jessica-m, now dear readers, go heart her art!

jessica-m continues to inspire me and this last week provided the support and friendship i needed for daily survival, thanks girl.

these are the coolest horror film festival poster designs i’ve ever seen, by a london designer with a “fetish for typography”, rick banks

michelle’s soul mix is amazing go listen!

the fashion and charm of the dark comedy film, the heather’s- “If you were happy every day of your life, you wouldn’t be a human being; you’d be a game show host-”

by chance finding a beautiful portrait of an old friend, marcelo cunning, on the flickr fashion photography pool

great post about typography resources by the lovely nubby twiglet

joy division’s unknown pleasures was voted the most iconic album cover of all time by music fans at this site

moving on, growing up, adding color, and being ok, not looking back, but doing great things- tell me what opened your eyes this week. xo

1. dead daughter in the river, 2. mystery bruise, 3. your babysitter, 4. Untitled, 5. death set, 6. Untitled, 7. your fever is safe with me, 8. multiple, 9. alone at night

i met this beautiful girl in two thousand four when she modeled for one of my first fashion, sixties mod styled photo shoots- we always have remained electronic friends and recently had a friendship awakening. jessica is such a talented artist and illustrator, i am so inspired by her fashionable, dark, retro ladies- they all have such meaning behind them, you can see it in their water colored eyes and blood stained cheeks-

(dtk) describe yourself:
(jm) I am a self-taught, semi-trained, illustrator of women in trouble. I love zombies, suspense, and big hair.

(dtk) when is your birthday?
(jm) april 15th 1984

(dtk) ten favorite things? (anything)

1. old samsonite luggage
2. white gouache
3. red and turqouise
4. travel
5. horror movies
6. valium
7. coffee
8. David Lynch
9. Speedball #104 Extra Fine Litho Point pen nibs
10. technicolor

(dtk) earliest art memory?
(jm) I have no idea! I recall being in the third grade and doing what I thought was a Picasso cubist painting. It’s of a little girl reading a book with her mother, the girl is crying and the mother is smiling. It’s very strange, I found it in my garage a few weeks ago.

(dtk) favorite shoes?
(jm) Cream colored leather peep-toe pumps with yellow snake skin. They’re probably from the early sixties.

(dtk) describe your working process from start to finish-
(jm) I like to save old photos, weird photos, and neat things that I find. I try and write down ideas when I get them, but I have forgotten at least 50, 896 amazing ideas. They always come to me when I should be doing something else. I like to do gestural sketches first and then ink the lines in. Ink is messy and I am prone to accident so most of the time I end up doing two drawings, or sometimes more. Then I paint over the drawing with watercolor. I like to use watercolor with white gouache.

(dtk) do you consider yourself an artist?
(jm) yes!

(dtk) how did you evolve to what you do now?
(jm) As a child, I always made art. It’s the only thing I have ever done. I used to illustrated little short stories that I would write. I drew patterns for clothes that I would make for my dolls. I didn’t live near any other children. I would draw on my homework, during class, even during recess sometimes. After high school I went to California Institute of the Arts- San Francisco. I excelled in design and illustration but did not enjoy the pattern drafting and construction classes. After two years, my mom became ill and I decided to come home. When I left school I decided to abandon fashion design/illustration and attempted to go back to a more traditional way of drawing, doing figure drawing, still life, and sketching with charcoal and all of that academic stuff. Then about two years ago I tried pen and ink and decided to go back to fashion inspired drawing because I never was able to break away from the nine-head model. I still do straight fashion illustration gestural sketches to warm up.

(dtk) favorite song of the moment?
(jm) TSOL “funeral march”

(dtk) describe your personal style (you and art)-
(jm) Sweet, old-fashioned, and morbid.

(dtk) where do you want your art to go?
(jm) In the near future: I am slowly gathering suitcases and handbags that I intend to paint on with enamel. I also plan on getting into printing soon. I want to make stationery, cards, posters etc. I have also been working on larger pieces recently. My best friend is working on a children’s book (she is so talented) and I am illustrating it.

(dtk) advice to other illustrators?
(jm) It’s the same advice everyone gives but I feel it’s relevant to me. If you want your work to be authentic, draw what you love. Love always comes through. Don’t forget about all that composition stuff too, it’s totally important.

links:
jessica-m has a blog that i love to read, my favorite entry is this one

she is on flickr
and the evilspace

super inspiring british design firm
studio 8 design

current favorites:

triple shot americanos and blue bottle coffee

interview: ten things karl lagerfeld could do without

american apparel over the knee socks, which i wear both over and under the knee

this look, from sephora’s current mother’s day campaign

this vintage vogue image by rawlings

the song, “run to your grave” by the band “the mae shi” that i downloaded from unpiano

skoka photography who captured amy hemmen’s fashion designs perfectly

muxtape is a brilliant idea, expect weekly themed mixes from now on!

roxanne’s cat top from i’m your present on etsy

what is capturing your fancy?