Did you all have a nice Thanksgiving? Oh, good. We’re glad. Now it’s time to think about Christmas.

While we can’t help you with baking, present wrapping, or insane shopping malls, we can help you with cards. After two years of no new card designs, we’re back to screen printing some holiday greetings.

Check them out. Let us know what you think. And buy them to send to friends and family. (But maybe not until tomorrow since we’re plotting a Cyber Monday deal.)

We’ve gotten a lot of our work through word of mouth (thanks, you guys). And as we’ve mentioned in the past, much of it has been infographics.

To hone our process, we’ve been compiling resources and building a list of best practices. Here’s where we netted out. As always, we’d love to hear what you think.

Less Is More
Infographics are a great way to make facts and figures easier to understand, but that doesn’t mean every inch of the page needs to be covered in stats. Content should be edited down to only what’s necessary to the story.

Stick To The Story
Every infographic should have a narrative, complete with a beginning, middle, and an end. A bunch of stats with a pretty design are just as confusing as a 100 page research paper. It’s not enough for content to be interesting, it needs to keep the viewer moving forward.

Have A Conversation
Facts and figures aren’t normally associated with fun, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. An infographic’s copy tone should be conversational and easy to understand. What’s the point of simplifying design if the language is going to stay stuffy?

Keep It Consistent
Consistent style, color, and icons are essential in guiding the user through the data. Sure, words are important in telling a story, but a lot of times visuals can get it done faster.

Drive The Point Home
A conclusion is key. If your infographic leaves people with the feeling of “so?” you’ve lost. Every element should be move the viewer closer to what you want them to learn.

Here’s a few infographics that inspire us.

A lot of our work has been in the area of infographics, thanks to a biking infographic we did for GOOD Magazine in March of ’09. Since we’re recommitting (yes, again) to blog posts on the 2nd and 21st (errr…22nd in this case), we wanted to give you a glimpse of what’s been keeping us busy. Check out some little snippets below. As always, we’d love to hear what you think.

Our first endeavor was for Artcrank, a small bike show that started in Minneapolis in 2007, which has spread across the country (and across the pond) like wildfire.

Then, we were asked to design the official poster for the 2011 Minneapolis Bike Tour, an annual event put on by the Minneapolis Board of Parks and Recreation.

Take a gander at both our posters and the series of small prints that accompany the MBT piece. We’d love to know what you think.

The parades run for almost 2 weeks. Each Krewe (organizaiton that puts together a parade and rides on the floats) is allowed to have a parade during Mardi Gras. A parade means a minimum of 14 floats. Last year there were 50+ krewes participating. That’s over 50 parades, each with a minimum of 14 floats, and some with as many as 30! It’s incredible. And the large majority of floats are pulled apart and redone with a new theme for the following year.

The Mardi Gras museum staff that works on the floats year round to produce these amazing displays. It was amazing to walk through the workshop and storage area to see both the size of these pieces but also the amount of detail that goes into them. Truly inspiring.

The awesome people over at the Park Board are debuting our poster for the 2011 Bike Tour. It’s taking place on September 18th. The route follows the Grand Rounds which weaves through the city and takes you directly by some of the coolest spots in Minne.

Working on this project was a ton of fun. Thanks to Shane, Alice, and everyone else involved for giving us the opportunity to share the things we love about MPLS and biking in our city.

Our official sneak peek is below. Can’t wait for you all to see the entire thing!

For more info on how to participate in the Minneapolis Bike Tour, visit their site.

On the menu?

Yes. That is a mac and cheese pancake. And it was awesome. The inspiration and recipe came from Kenny Shopsin, a chef who owned a diner in NYC. He is also awesome.

See…

Right now, we don’t have much to show in terms of completed projects, but don’t worry, they’re coming. To give you an idea of the variety of things we’ve got going – we’ve almost finished the cookbook, we’re getting down to designing for the Minneapolis Bike Tour, and we’ve got a couple top secret projects that we can’t share just yet.

Happy 2nd, everyone! Can you believe it’s May and snowing? Gross.

Look for more updates soon.

And let me tell you something, brunch rules. So here’s a quick rundown of the places we’ve been frequenting. And why we (ok, mostly I) love them.

Citizen Café – This is probably the official restaurant of 2&21 brunch. Eat the cheddar chive biscuits. And the gravlox. Do it.

Barbette – I love brie. Pretty much every time I see brie or hear the word “brie,” I say “I love brie.” There is a lot of brie here. BRIE.

Town Hall Tap – They have brie curds. (I love brie.) And sandwiches that are twice the size of my head. And beer. You should stop what you’re doing and go there now.

The Lowbrow – We didn’t go here for brunch, but they have $2 Hamm’s and a really cool mural done by Aesthetic Apparatus. No one can be mad at that.

Black Bird – This was the place that burnt down a couple years ago on Bryant and 50th. Now they have a new spot on 38th and Nicollet. We went here for Clarissa’s birthday, which isn’t technically a 2&21 meeting, but whatever. It was awesome. They had brie celery soup. (I love brie.)

Even with all this eating, we’ve still managed to keep working…

Our Artcrank concept is finalized. We’re supposed to (ahem, Peter and Clarissa) email today with design ideas and I’ve got a few lines to share. Then we’re meeting for brunch (!) on Sunday to keep movin’ forward.

We’ve also got a pretty good handle on our Minneapolis Bike Tour idea. Which will share more of once all this Artcranking is done.

And as one final reminder, our cards are now stocked at I Like You. So buy them, please. We’re also in talks about expanding our greetings into birthday and wedding stuff. So, if there’s anything else you’d like to see, let us know before we start b-stormin’.

Beautiful Snow Type from Norway, thanks to Veronica Falsen Hiis.

Rich Vreeland blurs the line between video games and art with “January”

And Flurrious is back and more beautiful than ever. Create your own custom snow flake.

In more directly related to 2&21 news, as we huddle for warmth and protection from the Yeti, we will be meeting this week to finalize our concept for the Artcrank Bike Poster and get into the design/writing phase of it all. Without giving away too many details I can only say that it will be.

Viele lieben Grüsse
- Peter