New Links Now Up

I've been pretty crazy busy lately with several design projects, on top of a pretty substantial home remodeling project, but got a short break in the action this morning! After doing a little paperwork and tracking down some overdue invoices, I thought I'd use a little time to finally put some cool links up on my site. You can now check out some of the cool blogs that I visit regularly for design inspiration and trend updates, places I like to shop when I need something really unique and design conscious, websites I frequent for content that is useful in the work that I do, and even a list of some art hot spots in the Twin Cities! So, if you're stuck inside on this rainy day like me and want to do a little web surfing, come on in...the water's fine!

New Original Amigurumi Crochet Design: Rocket Ship

3...2...1......Blastoff!!


I am excited to announce my newest crochet pattern addition to the site...an Amigurumi Rocket Ship! I made this for my 1.5 year old for his space/robot themed bedroom which is in the works, and decided to write it down as I went to make my 2nd pattern. Check it out here!



Exiting Earth's atmosphere:


Orbiting Earth:


As you can see, my Photoshop skills come in handy for many projects!

MOMS Club Newsletter Design

I've just recently taken on one "pro bono" project, designing monthly e-newsletters for our local MOMS Club here in Bloomington MN, of which I'm currently a member. I always enjoyed doing the newsletters while I was president of the IDSA Minnesota chapter, and thought that I'd offer up my services to do another!

This pdf newsletter is emailed out to all of the members each month, as well as published on the chapter's Yahoo group page. It contains articles, an events calendar, new members, birthdays, classifieds, etc. I have also developed a set of rotating color schemes that change with the seasons.

I hope to be able to share more of my upcoming projects (non pro-bono), when they enter the public eye and are no longer confidential...stay tuned!

What does crochet have to do with design?!

What on earth would compel an industrial designer to put amigurumi toy patterns up on her design site?

Check out my answer to this question here to see how I ended up creating a new shopping section at GF Design with this cool robot as my first "Cosmic crochet pattern," now available for sale!

DWR Champagne Chairs On Tour!

This past Tuesday, April 21st, my husband and I visited the Minneapolis DWR studio to check out the 50 champagne chairs "on tour," one of them being mine! (in the photo above) This is the third year that I have had one of my chair designs chosen to go on tour. (Check out my previous entries on my portfolio page)


I was never into sports in high school, and me as a cheerleader would have been disastrous, so this is about as close as I've ever come to being on the top of the pyramid.

Here are a few photos from the show...

There was another Minnesota-designed chair, and his was also on top of another pyramid:


Here are a few more chair shots...





The "Spring 2009" chair by Gavri Slasky won popular vote:








This "Grape Divine Chair" by Tony Nemyer won "DWR Staff Pick:"






Jesse Menayan's "Kub Armchair" won "Judges Pick:"


It's always fun to see the winning entries and marvel at their feats miniature craftsmanship!
The top 50 chairs are still on tour through May 15th, so check out the schedule here and see if it's coming to a DWR studio near you!

Welcome to the new GF Design blog!

I have been wanting to start a blog for some time now for GF Design, but have been reluctant just because I already maintain several other blogs. But, every now and then I blog about something that seems to fit more within my design business, so I thought I'd finally start one here! So, welcome!!

I also have just given my GF Design logo a fresh re-design, as well as my website. I am still updating some of the pages to the new layout within my portfolio so please bear with me, but feel free to check it out here!!

Thanks for stopping by!