Every time I go to The Water Club at the Borgata I always say how I love the Sunroom’s logo. So I finally took a picture of it and decided to share. Thoughts?

via Phaidon

Eataly one of my new favorite spots  in NYC opened by two of my favorite chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali. Eataly has everything from gelato to homemade pasta. It is a marketplace and an eating space all in one. Eataly is located in Flatiron on 5th Avenue. Definitely check it out! Phaidon has an excellent picture gallery of the inside of Eataly.

I recently ate at Lalezar’s in Montclair, NJ and had a delicious Turkish dinner. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant in addition to the way they presented the bill to us in this unique box.

I was recently at REI prior to a camping trip and I had a great appreciation for the design of the door handles which are ice picks. I thought it was very appropriate for this outdoors store. The first time I remember seeing such a thing was years ago at Commerce Banks with their logo being the door handles.

At one of  Las Vegas’s newest casinos, Crystals I stumbled upon Marni’s
window display. The window display of the store was playful as it represented an abstracted clothing line in a unique form displaying women’s clothing. While on Marni’s website, I came across a video for The Denim Project which was pretty fun as well.

I was recently at Dylan’s Candy Bar which is reminiscent of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. It contains three floors of sweet treats and magical goodness. Dylan’s was created and owned by Dylan Lauren the daughter of designer Ralph Lauren. I love how the wall of the check out counter utilizes jumbo size candy such as gumballs, runts and sweedish fish.

I am a part of the AIGA’s Mentor Program and I was recently with my mentee, Jennifer and we discovered Sur la table. This store is both a chefs and bakers dream. It has everything you can think of from cake pans to kitchen linens. I love the details of their branding like the above photo with the door handles being a fork and spoon and their tag line “The Art and Soul of Cooking.”

I was in Bethlehem, PA visiting a friend and we went to this wonderful Christmas market full of crafts, artwork and decorations. I came across Georgie LeHoop who painted with drumsticks. Yes…Drum sticks that you play the drums with.
His work was very unique and on canvases as well as t-shirts.

I was running errands in the city and passed Print Icon one of my favorite paper and stationery stores. What made me stop and look in their window was the bright colored rolled up paper that formed flowers on this corrugated like board. The idea behind the wishboard is to write a a wish on the paper roll it up and place in the wishboard. What is unique is that you can use a variety of colors and form shapes and objects with the colored paper.