Pinterest Find of the Week: Mary Kate McDevitt

Alright, guys. As has been the routine lately, this week's Pinterest Find of the Week is a tad behind schedule. Things have been pretty busy at my day job, and I'm simply exhausted by the time I get home. I know, I know- excuses, excuses. Anyway, let's get this thing rolling! This week, I chose to feature Mary Kate McDevitt, who is an illustrator currently located in Portland, Oregon. She also just so happens to be phenomenally talented at hand-lettering. I've come across some of her designs a few times now, and I can't remember when I had actually seen any of her work first. Here's the initial pin that I found this week, which is a logo for a vintage clothing and accessory boutique:

I love this design. Love it. I love the dream-like quality of the lettering, and the swirls and curves they produce. I think it fits well with the idea of Wanderlust, by itself, and I think that's pretty cool. It helps move your eye around the logo, and the whole design just gives you a good feeling as it's very pleasing to look at. I also really enjoy the choice of colors. Just a simple mint and salmon (salmon? sure!) working together to create that vintage, retro appeal. I've been on a huge mint kick lately, and I really like seeing it used in different places. I looked around Mary Kate's website, which is also beautifully designed by the way, and discovered she had designed the cover for this book:

I have this book on my Amazon wishlist! Mary Kate designed the cover! How cool is that?! When I started researching ideas for Ruby July, I looked at a bunch of different books supporting various techniques, and this one honestly caught my attention right away. It absolutely made me want to learn more about hand-lettering and to try to study and execute it for myself. I like the appeal of pen-on-paper designing, as I think it takes you back to classic age of design and advertising. Everything was created and drawn by hand, and nothing was computer generated. I really like this approach to design, and I do plan to challenge myself with a few projects utilizing only a pen and paper in the future. For one final image for this post, I looked around Mary Kate's site a bit more, and discovered that she does illustrations as well.

This particular image was used for holiday cards, which she sent out to family, friends, and any internet strangers who requested one. That's pretty cool. I wish I had known then, because I'd totally (hopefully!) have one of these guys hanging on my fridge now! Mary Kate has built up a beautiful portfolio of work in just a few years, and she gives me a lot of hope for my future in design, whatever that may be. I think once you can figure out what you're good at, you do it and you do it well. Mary Kate does hand-lettering and illustration very, very well. Check out her website here, and hopefully you'll be as inspired by her work as I am!