Happy Birthday, Hungry Caterpillar

 

Happy 40th Birthday to The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Eric Carle's classic book was published on March 20, 1969 and has been a favorite of toddlers, parents, preschools, and craft teachers ever since.

  Google is honoring the occasion with an Eric Carle-designed banner today:

Read about the ongoing celebration at the excellent Eric Carle website:

 

Mudpuppy is very proud to have worked with Eric Carle to create puzzles based on his books. In fact, they make excellent gifts for birthday parties!

For example, a Very Hungry Caterpillar Block Puzzle:  

, a Very Hungry Caterpillar Floor Puzzle:

and a great Very Hungry Caterpillar First Puzzle:

Please have a look at the whole Mudpuppy Eric Carle Collection..

    

You can bet that The Very Hungry Caterpillar will enjoy a piece of birthday cake every March 20!

---Susan

Sarah Wilkins at Galison and Mudpuppy

 

Today I had a look at the The Design Alphabet, a daily blog featuring product reviews, stores, designers, etc. in the field of home and product design. The November 4th posting was for letters “V” and “W”, and featured for the letter “W” was one of our Galison and Mudpuppy illustrators, Sarah Wilkins.

Sarah illustrated four childrens’ products for Muduppy: two sets of ring flash cards---Spanish/English  and French/English, ABC Alphabet Blocks,and a Spanish-English set of 2-piece puzzles.

    

For Galison, she did the illustrations for our Chocolicious recipe portfolio of note cards that are blank inside and have recipes for Cheesecake Brownies, Chocolate Creme Cookies, Chocolate Tea Cake, or Espresso Truffles on the back.

Sarah was born in New Zealand, began illustrating in Australia, lived and worked for many years in Paris, and is once again in New Zealand.

Have a look at Sarah Wilkins' terrific new website, and visit Galison.com in January to see Sarah’s new illustrations for our not-yet-published Javalicious Recipe Portfolio. Think Cappuccino Pie!

---Susan

Ann Wood Birds at Galison Holiday

Ann Wood creates great little birds! Adorable!

Several years ago our creative director saw Ann Wood's work on a design blog, and since Ann works from her studio in Brooklyn, invited her over to Manhattan for a meeting at our office.

Among other projects, Ann creates unique or only-small-quantity birds from vintage and antique fabrics. The birds are stuffed with wool and are approximately 3-1/2 inches tall, and she offers them for sale as annwood at Etsy.com, and you can see other examples at her website, Ann Wood Handmade

As our current creative director tells it, Ann put one of her little handmade fabric birds on the conference room table, and the company president and CEO laughed and laughed. Everyone loved the bird! We decided to commission her to create some holiday birds to be photographed for some Galison Holiday Time greeting cards: 

We thank Ann for showing off these cards on her website and on her blog and linking to where they are featured at Galison.com. Please have a look at some of our other contemporary holiday cards, too.

Then be sure to visit Ann’s website and her beautiful blog, too.

---Susan

P.S.  Enter Galison's Holiday Card Giveaway contest here at the Galiwag and you could win 2 boxes of these Bird Suite cards---or any others of your choice!

 

A Little Bird Recommends Alena Hennessy's Work for Galison

I first discovered Alena Hennessy's artwork on a walk through the New York Gift Show about a year and a half ago. Her booth was modest in size, cute, located by the handmade section. A little hard to spot.

At that time, Alena had her prints hanging on the booth wall, along with some of her tote bags, pillow cushions and other attractive handmade products. As soon as I saw her prints, I was immediately drawn into it. Her unique “forest animal” drawing  combined with pretty color choices really gave me some sense of peacefulness. I loved her work and all I could think at that moment is to get Alena to collaborate with Galison.

Long story short, back at the office, after I showed Alena’s artwork to the team, everyone was very excited to work with her. And that’s how the story began.

Thanks to Alena's beautiful drawing and a great effort from the design team, Galison produced a beautiful stationery collection, The Garden Party. So far it includes seven different products: in our Home Office division, we have a file tote, file folders, and magazine holders. We also have thank you notes, mini journals, and fliptop notecards. Have a look!

You can find out more about Alena at her website, http://www.alenahennessy.com/ and her blog. Her work is featured on lots of design blogs, too. 

---Juanita Dharmazi

It's a blimp, it's a sub, it's...Mudpuppy illustrations by Brian Biggs!

Take heart, everyone who likes to draw planes and trains and trucks and other things that go! You can do it professionally if you’re as talented as one of our Mudpuppy illustrators, Brian Biggs.

Thanks, Brian, for blogging about your work for a new mini puzzle for Mudpuppy to be published next June. Visit http://mrbiggs.com/childrensillustration/chillustration23.php for a sneak preview of the art!

As I learned from his great website, Brian, a.k.a. Mr. Biggs, has not only illustrated books, but written one of his own, Un mode de transport, for the French publisher Éditions du Rouergue. It’s available new through Amazon, France and used from abebooks.com.  I especially like the detail of the “Mr. Froid” ice cream truck staffed by a penguin!

The new Mudpuppy puzzle won’t be published until June 2009, but in the meantime, kids will love Mr. Biggs' illustrations of things that go applied to current Mudpuppy products.  I warn you that to me, it looks like everyone returning to NYC after the Labor Day weekend!

Have a look at a 63-piece puzzle, a sticker set play scene,  or some stationery.

And if you really like THINGS THAT GO, Brian Biggs' illustrations are the way to go!

--Susan