Happy World Graphics Day!

Today is World Graphics Day. From Wikipedia:

World Graphic Design Day is celebrated on April 27, the anniversary of the founding of Icograda, the world body for graphic design, in 1963. It is a day to celebrate the profession of graphic and communication design. The day has been celebrated since 1995. On this occasion, designers reflect and hope that an international network can contribute to a greater understanding between people and can help to build bridges where divides and inequities exist.


As you should be aware, I (along with other Manitoba Chapter delegates and representatives) attended the GDC National AGM (held in Winnipeg) from 23 April to 25 April. Lively debate, discussions and passion was evident around the AGM table, with much fun to be had in the evening, as the photographic evidence shows in the GDC National 2009 AGM Flickr Group Pool... ;)

Above is a group snapshot of the GDC National Council which I took on the front steps on the Fort Garry Hotel. Thank you to all the National Executives, Chapter Delegates and representatives from affiliated associations who made this AGM, one to remember. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Winnipeg.


Much was accomplished at this year's AGM. One of the most important (IMO), and in celebration of World Graphics Day, the GDC adopts 'Sustainability Principals'... read the full story on http://www.gdc.net/ - cheers!

GDC National AGM Winnipeg 2009...

A warm welcome to all the GDC National Executives, Chapter delegates and representatives from affiliated associations who arrived in Winnipeg for the GDC National Annual General Meeting.


The GDC National AGM will be held in Winnipeg from 23-25 April. The AGM kicked off Thursday evening at the Red River College Princess Street Campus, which saw the delegates give their chapter reports. It's great to see and hear about all the exciting things that are happening across Canada... I'm looking forward to a lively weekend of debate, decisions and discussions. It'll be nice to reconnect some familiar names to faces, and some familiar faces to names... ;)

Look for pictures from the AGM to appear on Flickr, here - enjoy!

Image: Adrian Jean (MGDC), for the first time on record, a representative for the GDC Members-at-large was in attendance at the National AGM.

GDC Manitoba - Portfolio 1-on-1 Night...

On April 14th, 2009 the GDC Manitoba Chapter held another successful Portfolio 1-on-1 event at the Kings Head Pub (located in Winnipeg's historic Exchange District).


Industry professionals volunteered their time to act as student mentors and portfolio reviewers...



Students from both the Red River College and University of Manitoba design programs participated in the event... more images from the evening can be found on my Flickr, here - thanks again to all the volunteers who made the event a success!

Cheers!

And (Ampersand)...

Ampersand... an experiment in ceramics - a collaborative, typographic, art piece made by the talented hands of ceramist Evelin Richter (What? Clay Art and Curios) and Circle colleague, Robert L. Peters.

From Wikipedia:
An ampersand (&), also commonly called an 'and sign', is a logogram representing the conjunction "and". The symbol is a ligature of the letters in et, Latin for "and". Read more on Wikipedia...


Close-up detail...

Sweet. 'nuf said. Thanks to Rob and Ev! ;)

Cheers!

Antique Road Trip...

This past Saturday, I attempted to go see the Marilyn Monroe: Life as a Legend exhibition at the WAG with good friends, James, Doug and Raelene. Unfortunately for us, we were a bit late in arriving, and opted to visit the Forks Market instead.

For those of you who are familiar with Winnipeg and the Forks, you can see in the picture above, the river walk is completely invisible, covered by a thick (and rising) layer of ice. Flood worries are definitely running high as the ice 'jams and dams.'


We ended up exploring the Antique Mall located on the lower level of the Johnston Terminal. It's quite an interesting place to say the least...


I've always enjoyed classic pop bottles... for nostalgic reasons perhaps? I wonder what Snow White pop actually was? I'm guessing cream soda? I wonder if it was actually white like Calpis or Calpico (a Japanese beverage).


James offered $10 to anyone who would drink this (after signing a waiver of liability that is)... ;)


Doug aka The Orange Kid, posing with his Elvis shades amongst the Elvis antiques(?)...


One of the more interesting finds was this creepy, Colonel Sanders statue/bank (enhanced creepiness via Photoshop). It was immediately dubbed the 'Why so serious?' Colonel (ala Dark Knight - Joker).

View the rest of the pics from my antique road trip on my Flickr, here - enjoy! Cheers!

Happy 33!!!

Circle turns 33 today!

No joke. Today marks 33 years since the birth of Circle Design Incorporated (known as Circle Graphics back then), sharing the illustrious 1976 April Fools’ birthdate with a little company called Apple Computer. ;)

Happy 33rd Birthday Circle!

Learn more by visiting Circle's website at http://www.circle.mb.ca/ - cheers!

Go James Go!

It's been rather hectic as of late, I've got tons of things that I could blog about, it's finding the time to do it that seems to be rather difficult... aside from work, Karate, GDC and social commitments, I've become addicted to Xbox/Xbox LIVE... ;P

Anyhow, I received a package from Amazon in the mail last week which, amongst other books, contained the Mail Me Art book shown above and below (sorry for the crappy pics).


You might recall (if you frequent KALAMAFRAZ), that my good friend, local designer, illustrator and Kyokushin Karate-ka, James Gillespie submitted http://kalamafraz.blogspot.com/2008/11/mail-me-art-going-postal.html a piece for the Mail Me Art project sometime ago... well, the book finally arrived in my mail box! Excerpt from the Mail Me Art website:

Mail Me Art is a British-based project, run by Darren Di Lieto, the founder and co-editor of the illustration news portal the Little Chimp Society. Over the course of a year, the Mail Me Art project brought together a vast collection of artistic work sent in the form of mail by both professional and amateur artists of all ages from across the world. A wide variety of media were used in an equally wide variety of styles and the work arrived on everything from postcards and envelopes to boxes and pieces of wood.

Contributions have included work by internationally-renowned illustrators such as Dan May, Michael Slack, Jon Burgerman, Kristian Olson, Catalina Estrada and Jeff Miracola and in total there have been in excess of 600 pieces of mail art submitted to the project.


Of course, I had to ask James to autograph his page in the book, he was also nice enough to honor my request for him to include a sketch (of a naked space monkey?). So you there you have it! Good stuff James! Keep it up bud!

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the Mail Me Art project, visit the Mail Me Art website at http://mailmeart.com/ - perhaps I'll submit something for Mail Me Art Two... I'll be sure to keep you posted. ;)

Cheers!

Spring is in the Air...

Well, you know that spring is just around the corner in Winnipeg when (said with tongue-firmly-in-cheek):

- the potholes out number the cars on the street
- sidewalk pedestrians are seen doing 'the shuffle step'
(both to avoid slipping on icy sidewalks and all the other crap that surfaces when the snow melts)
- the GDC Manitoba e-News arrives in your inbox... ;)

The GDC Manitoba Chapter proudly presents the first inaugural edition of the GDC Manitoba e-News. Put together by the exceptionally talented, designer, illustrator, photographer, blogger-extraordinaire, Jeope Wolfe (MGDC, GDC Manitoba Chapter Communications Chair), this issues covers a wide range of articles/topics...


...such as Rob and Ian's recent trip up to the high artic for a photo-shoot for The North West Company.

Check out the e-News for yourself, here - enjoy!

Cheers!

The Forks Market 7th Annual Art Festival and Auction...

I was at the Forks Market this past weekend, where the 7th Annual Art Festival and Auction was in full swing. The Festival saw Red River College second-year graphic design students create original works of art using a variety of drawing and painting techniques at the Forks Market Centre Court; they had less than 24 hours to complete their work before the pieces were auctioned off to the highest bidder!

Proceeds from this year's event are to benefit Winnipeg Harvest and the RRC Graphic Design Students’ Graduation Fund. A live auction took place Sunday March 8 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Steve Vogelsang was the auctioneer.



It was great to see all the folks come out and support the students (there are a couple more pics on my Flickr, here)! It brought back fond memories of my own experience with the Festival during College. I'm sure that my classmates would agree (for the most part).


A mixed media conceptual exploration for the piece I did, still resides on my studio wall at home... if I recall correctly, the final piece didn't end up looking the exact same... I think the paint was still wet when it went to auction. I'll have to check with my classmates... maybe one of them has a pic? ;P

Congratulations to all the participants, faculty and volunteers, it looked to me like it was a great event, as always! Looking forward to seeing the graduating shows this year - cheers!

Life is...

Crazy.

Apologies for the radio silence... but, things have been crazy as of late. I hope to be retuning to more regular postings soon... stay tuned! ;)

In the meantime, here's a little music video treat (a favourite of mine), Crazy by Gnarls Barkley, watch the embedded video above or check it out, here - via Google Video.

Cheers!

COOL! Happy Valentine's Day...

...from Marian Bantjes. I received this in the mail earlier this week. Mysterious...


...lovely (and sweet - FYI, the chocolates weren't from Marian, they're from the equally lovely & sweet, Carol MacKay)


...and very much appreciated! Thank you Marian!

Happy Valentine's Day! Apologies for the poor quality images, as usual they really can't do Marian's work justice.

Go visit Marian's website at http://www.bantjes.com/ to see better pics and read the description of the project by Marian, here - cheers!

Recommended Viewing | The American Package Museum...

If you're a fan of nostalgia or packaging, I highly recommend that you take the time to visit The American Package Museum... where curator, Ian House has taken his personal collection of early 20th century packages and created an online gallery/archive to share with everyone.


There are some really neat old packages in this gallery, it's interesting to recognize some familiar brands and see how they've evolved... check it out at http://www.packagemuseum.com/ - cheers!

COOL! Quotes on Design...

Another gem of a link via Tina Roth Eisenberg over at swissmiss, an entire website dedicated to nothing but Quotes on Design...


... sweet!


Check it out for yourself at http://quotesondesign.com/ - enjoy!

COOL! Helbotica by Jonathan Yule...

Digging through a folder of bookmarks on my desktop the other day (labeled 2B_Blogged), I came across this little gem... Helbotica by Jonathan Yule is one in a series of Font-Bots, typographic illustrations based on his favorite san-serif typefaces. Very cool IMO... see the rest on his website at http://www.invdr.com/ - enjoy!

Recommended Viewing | 2008 GDC Manitoba Chapter Annual Report...

The 2008 GDC Manitoba AGM and Graphex 2008 exhibition was held yesterday evening at the Park Theater. In case that you missed it, pictures from the event have been uploaded to the GDC Manitoba group pool on Flickr and a PDF version of the annual report (designed by Jeope Wolfe, MGDC and Communications Chair for GDC Manitoba) has been uploaded to the GDC Manitoba Chapter website.

Visit the Manitoba Chapter website to download a PDF copy of the annual report, here - enjoy!

Thanks to my fellow Board Members/Executives for an awesome two years, to those who are leaving, you're contributions will be greatly missed! For those who decided to stay, and the new members who decided to step-up, I look forward to working with you over the next two years. Cheers!

Gung Hei Fat Choy! Sun Lein Fai Lok!

Gung Hei Fat Choy! Sun Lein Fai Lok!
Happy Chinese New Year!

The Lion Dance is a part of traditional Chinese New Year festivities. If the dance is done correctly, it's believed to bring happiness and luck, and will ward off evil spirits. The amateur video footage embedded above (from YouTube user, ghodax), was shot in Victoria, BC a couple of years back during their Chinese New Year celebrations. I doubt that they'll be having any Lion Dance celebrations outdoors in Winnipeg today as it's a balmy, -40 degrees celsius (with the wind chill).

2009 marks the year of the Earth Ox. May the Year of the Ox bring all humanity, good health, peace, love and happiness - cheers!

GDC Manitoba 2008 Annual General Meeting & GRAPHEX 2008 Exhibit...

Join us next week Wednesday, January 28th for the 2008 GDC Manitoba Annual General Meeting! Once again, the AGM will be held at the Park Theater on South Osborne.


This year we're presenting the Graphex 2008 exhibit. Come see the best of the best of design in Canada. The exhibit will only be on display for the one evening - so don't miss out! You can also view the Graphex 2008 winners online at http://www.gdc.net/graphex/winners/ - enjoy!

GDC Manitoba Chapter attendees who have paid their membership prior to the meeting will be entered into a draw for a $200 gift certificate for Future Shop.

When: January 28, 2009, 7 pm
Where: Park Theater, 698 Osborne Street

For more information, please visit the GDC Manitoba Chapter website at http://www.gdc.net/chapters/manitoba/ - I hope to see you there! Cheers!

R.I.P. Shigeo Fukuda | 1923-2009

It's with great sadness that I learned today through Rob that Shigeo Fukuda (an internationally recognized Graphic Designer, Design Sensei, artist, sculptor, and master illusionist) has passed on. Long have I been an admirer of Fukuda-san's work, I love his poster work.



The international design community mourns, as one of its brightest stars (or a comet if you prefer) has fallen. There's an article in the Icograda eNews regarding his passing, here. You can view some examples from his prolific body of work, here and here - enjoy.

Rest in peace Fukuda-san. You will be missed.

So You Think You Can Cook?

I came across this culinary quiz today (over on mental_floss) and thought it would be interesting to see how others do with it. I'll admit that I do have a slight advantage, having worked in the F&B (food and beverage) industry for over a decade... but, to be honest I didn't think that it was all that tough, nor would I ever consider myself on par with a top chef.

I'm curious to see what others think, as I've been hearing a lot in the news lately about what the younger generation considers to be cooking. FYI, using a microwave to heat a pre-prepared meal is not considered cooking in my books. ;) Take the quiz and let me know what you think of it... have fun!

COOL! HTML-Ipsum...

This one is for all you webbies, cause regular Lorem Ipsum just isn't good enough for your comps... along comes HTML-Ipsum... ;) I'm sure that this will come in handy... check it out for yourself at http://html-ipsum.com/ - or visit http://www.lipsum.com/ if you still prefer good ol'regular, Lorem Ipsum - enjoy!

Thanks to Jean-Sebastien Dussault for sharing this on the GDC Listserve - cheers!