It’s been almost a year since the first and only time I’ve been to La Habana, Cuba and since then the country has moved even further away from the isolationist history (imposed or voluntary) of the last 50 years towards globaliz [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, September 26th, 2008
Categories: Art, Inspiration, Photography, Travel | No Comments »
The best reason to go to a conference like HOW is the potential that you'll meet a very cool person who you should really know. Someone you soon discover is really rather like you—imagine that! A designer meeting a like-minded designer? At a design conference? No way!
And this has to do with a fake mustache...how? Well, here's what happened. At the end of the first day of the conference I exchanged cards with some interesting folks—one of whom became an instant friend. It didn't take long for our new friend to admit she had slipped into the local costume store and bought fake mustaches of all shapes and insisted we wear them out (I went with "The Rogue" obviously). Which we did of course. To the opening keynote. To dinner. To drinks. To a local jazz club. We'd have worn them all night had the sweat and laughter not caused them to eventually fall off.
Did I mention this new friend and the others in our group were girls? Yup. Two Canadian dudes wandering the streets of Boston until dawn (in search of breakfast of course) with three of the coolest mustachioed girls you'd ever meet. We looked like a bunch of freaks escaped from Barnum & Bailey.
(Gotta love the graphic design on the mustache packaging by the way. Like we need instructions to remove the staple first? Oh wait, maybe they'd analyzed their audience and knew there'd be drinking involved.)
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Having just returned from HOW Design Conference, I have a hundred stories and many photos to share about the last five days in friendly Boston. But before I do that (and to buy me a little bit of time to get organized), let me just post thi [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008
Categories: Events, Inspiration, Travel | No Comments »
Reuters has put up a great new website called Bearing Witness that documents and discusses the role of journalists in Iraq. It’s interesting to see a little bit from the other side of the lens and hear people who put their life in jeo [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
Categories: Travel, Websites | No Comments »
' /></a>Oh FINALLY. If you're like me, and you absolutely <a href=)
Oh FINALLY. If you’re like me, and you absolutely abhor using Translink’s website (for countless reasons, one of them being it’s slower than the second coming of Christ), then you’ll be all over this. Translink final [...]
Posted by: Leigh Peterson on Friday, November 2nd, 2007
Categories: Travel, Vancouver | No Comments »
In the past few years, my role with GDC has happily collided with my love of Cuba, first with the sold out Colours of Cuba holiday fiesta party we hosted in 2005, then the Shared Dreams Cuban design exhibit we were able to bring to Vancouver in 2006. Now, I am again fortunate to be able to travel back to Cuba as part of a small delegation of GDC designers to the Icograda World Design Congress being hosted in Havana October 20–26, 2007. We're also bringing with us two deserving young GDC student members selected from an impressive field of entries to expose these young designers not only to the diverse Cuban design scene, but to the international design landscape early in their career.
A GDC colleague of mine, Robert Peters of Winnipeg's Circle Design, is also a fan of Cuba and has made numerous trips there, studying their culture and design community. He recently published a wonderful and well-researched article in Communication Arts called Cuba Si! about life, history and politics on the embargoed archipelago and their impact on the design community. Peters himself is an inspirational Canadian design leader—there's a great interview with Robert Peters on NetDiver if you'd like to learn more about his personal history and perspectives.
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It’s common knowledge (among those who know me) that I love Cuba. My wife and I were married there. I may not entirely agree with their politics, but the Cuban people are amazing—perhaps the warmest and most enjoyable culture I̵ [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, October 11th, 2007
Categories: Associations, Design, Illustration, Reading, Travel | No Comments »
When I touch down in Tokyo in a few weeks, the first thing I’m looking for is Human Tetris. Enough said.
Posted by: todd smith on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Categories: Fun, Travel | No Comments »
I prefer to prepare for travel by reading fiction set in or about the places I intend to go, but aside from travel reference material, have never used texts of the non-fiction variety. Having just returned from my trip to France, I just got [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, June 15th, 2007
Categories: Architecture, Design, Travel | No Comments »
That was the mantra of Airstream founder Wally Byam, but in 2000 architect-designer Chris Deam gutted a vintage trailer to create a booth for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Turns out DWR, purveyor of iconic furniture, liked [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, June 6th, 2007
Categories: Design, Travel | No Comments »
Check out the ad compared to a still from the movie:
[post_title] => Lost in...France
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Recently while in France I did a double take when I saw an ad for Nespresso featuring George Clooney. Stars selling their image (souls) out for big bucks in markets other than North America is nothing new, but I thought this one was so very [...]
Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Categories: Advertising, Film, Travel | No Comments »
Art in nature, urban art, but art at 30,000 feet? This video tracks flight patterns over North America and displays them in a quicktime vid. Pretty cool and completely unexpected results.
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, November 9th, 2006
Categories: Art, Fun, Inspiration, Travel | 1 Comment »
Here’s a new fun game to take on the bus. Someone always gets on or off at your stop. (…… almost always) Therefore Steve’s First Law of Transit says that you never need to pull the stop signal and you’ll always [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Monday, October 23rd, 2006
Categories: Fun, Pop Culture, Travel, Vancouver | No Comments »
The idea behind this was when someone sat down on one of the cubes, the appropriate instrument in the orchestra would start to play and bystanders would hear the resulting composition. Since the sound was coming from the seats themselves (all weather speaker system), a participant in this project would hear the composition from their own seat (aka themselves being the loudest etc). This installation piece was augmented by lectures, live performances and functioned as a great use of technology to broaden the appeal of a very traditional artform. The supporting website has great resources for musicians and audience members alike. The one downside was that the quality of the produced music was pretty.... well...... bad. With some sampled instruments or even decent quality synthetic ones this project would be more realistic.
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The day after finding a bus that had crahsed into a building, I found myself wandering aimlessly around London’s South Bank and found what vaguely resembled an empty orchestra pit. In fact it was a project put on by the Philharmonia O [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, October 6th, 2006
Categories: Music, Pop Culture, Technology, Travel, Websites | No Comments »
Having a creative block? Being bugged by that pesky client? Art Director riding your back? Things could be worse, you could have driven a double decker bus into a London building! During a recent trip, I came out of a tube station and saw t [...]
Posted by: Steve Mynett on Thursday, October 5th, 2006
Categories: Fun, Travel | No Comments »
Fine wine, gourmet southern comfort food and a huge raging fire! What could be better? Whoopemup Hollow Cafe in Waitsburg, Washington, just twenty minutes east of Walla Walla, serves up fabulous homecooked fare that’ll remind you of y [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Sunday, September 10th, 2006
Categories: Food, Inspiration, Travel | No Comments »
Greeting us upon arrival were the ever-smiling front desk staff. Even under pressure from a reservation mix-up, Claire, Ed and Misty handled themselves with grace and style. We were settled in and off to enjoy the conference and explore the city knowing we had the hippest rooms in town waiting for us when we returned. And within walking distance of some fabulous restaurants, shopping and live music venues.
If you have a designer's aesthetic, and especially if you know what someone means when they say "It's so Bauhaus", then you must check out this hotel next time you are in Seattle. It's style is elegant, clean and stylish. The minimalist-inspired interior is nearly all white with stainless steel and leather accents. And best of all, the prices are very affordable with flexible rooms available from standard (with shared bath) to deluxe with gorgeous amenities. Either way, you won't regret it.
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When we were planning our trip down to Seattle Design Week, the event organizers recommended hotels out near the University District close the conference. I’m not sure what they were thinking exactly. Other than the convenience factor [...]
Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, July 17th, 2006
Categories: Design, Events, Travel, We love | No Comments »
