Blog Inspiration

I like this blog (and the rest of the site) quite a bit: http://zand2ohs.com/fun/. My favorite part of the page is the image preview/review for navigating through the entries.


I found this site via the July 2008 issue of Communication Arts (Illustration Annual 49).

Flash Inspiration

Class ended quite a while ago... but I still feel the urge to share this awesome website here: http://christiansparrow.com/.


I found it via Craig Campbell's School of Flash (which I just used as a reference for building a simple preloader on Kira Elizabeth's website).

I plan to continue to utilize this site for posting future projects, other sources of inspiration, and whatever other design-related content I can create! I might eventually move this stuff to amy-berg.com, as a more permanent home. Stay tuned!

Polymer Plate Printing & Final

Images of Polymer Plates


Munchkin Kitty Proofs


Lining Up Paper for Print


Lots of Kitties!


One of the Best Prints (some day I'll scan a print)

Crash Printing

On Thursday I completed my "crash printing" assignment. I designed two prints using plates from the Bell Museum of Natural History's archives (from Francie Lee Jacques and Walter Breckenridge) and experimented with typesetting. I was so into it (and my hands were so covered in ink, anyway) that I forgot to take photos during the inking (pulling out the ink and applying it to my plates with a brayer) and pressing process. The photos below are my layouts and results.

Polymer Plate Images

This is what my final image will/is supposed to look like (after letterpressing):


Here is how my colors split:


So, unless I decide to make any other changes (more drastic stroke around the Munchkin? tail entwined with the DNA double-helix? any thoughts?) - I think I'm good to go!

Polymer Plate Ideas

"Custom Made"

When I started thinking about a simple two-color design I could create in relation to the phrase "custom made," I thought about furniture and clothes and kitchen cabinetry... All very domestic things, but perhaps not such interesting illustrations. Then I began trying to think about "custom made" in relation to the place where I work, the Bell Museum of Natural History. Images of dioramas and taxidermy came to mind, but then I thought: natural selection. Of course, natural selection isn't exactly customized - so I opted for something more along the lines of trait selection.



Munchkin cats are bred for their short legs, which is actually a genetic mutation. Some professional cat registries don't recognize this breed (for show) for that reason.

My design incorporates an illustration of a Munchkin cat and a DNA double-helix. I will be editing this design to incorporate "custom made" more organically - the words might form the links between the two strands of DNA. "Couture cat" was a suggested label from a friend who is studying clothing design. I am still considering how to use this phrase, if I decide to keep it.

New Assignment: Polymer Plate Printing Project

For the next assignment, everyone in my class will be creating his or her own 4"x6" two-color design revolving around the theme of "-made." We were each assigned our own prefix - I was assigned "custom(-made)". Other examples that were assigned are: re-, hand-, and home-. We will be producing polymer plates with Boxcar Press and printing them on Vandercook letterpress machines (pictured below). In the end, we will be compiling our prints into books and each taking (at least) one home!





This assignment will be very fun - and an exciting break from the computer!