Things have been pretty busy and exciting around here of late, but possibly the most exciting thing to happen for me this year (and I can say that safely because my wedding was last year) happens next week. Graphic designer, and the man behind Field Notes, Aaron Draplin, is coming to give his Tall Tales From a Large Man talk at the Princess Twin on Thursday April 26.

Way back in January or something I heard that he was going to a conference in Toronto that I had no reason to go to other than to see his talk. I got it in my head that maybe I could get him to come give a talk here in Waterloo while he was near by. I sent him a long-shot email, and he responded with an excited yes!

This is a guy whose body of work is awesome. A guy whose blog I've been reading for probably 8 years. A guy you want to come and see talk. It's going to be a great evening. Draplin's bringing a new all things Canada poster along with his other crazy merch, and a friend of mine is printing up some sweet letterpress Draplin-inspired swag for people who come out. Can't wait.

Words from the man himself: "Tall tales. Big words. Orange things. Big posters. Loose chatter. Laffs. Truth. DO NOT miss this!"

You can grab advance tickets here.

------

Just to keep people on here informed, other busy/exciting things in my life as of late:
- Sold my wares at Stitch 'n' Kitsch last weekend
- Designed a new flyer for the S'n'K winter show
- Designed and installed a window display at Bon Mot with the amazing Andrew Frazer
- Designed a new Blueprint cover
- Got featured in the first issue of Fuss
- Working on a new Bearface.ca with Chris Collins
- Brewed and drank some beer
- Currently printing my first custom wedding favour order

Pretty exciting times.

And my summer blogging hiatus-ey kind of thing continues. It's been a pretty awesome summer though. Old friends in town. Screen printing. Disc golf (finally made it to St. Thomas this weekend). Other stuff. Great summer.

But I've returned because there are things I have to share... Hold on for a tonne of links, and then another long break likely... Exciting things coming in the future though, I promise.
------
This Patches comic is one of my favourites in a while. SO CUTE. And sad. Don't you just want to hug him?
------
Speaking of wanting to hug comic characters, I think I might need to make my own Beartato pillow. I was tempted by the shirt, but realized I don't really wear brown anymore, so I figured it was impractical. BUT, I have been wanting a stuffed Beartato (this guy is close, but not quite, and yes, we do own one) for some time, and this looks like it's as close as it gets...
------
Wow, Coca Cola made a great move in the re-branding of Mello-Yello. Nicely retro. The one thing I don't like, is that the can seems to be having an identity crisis, trying to make the retro look a little more modern with the citrus in the back. Take the citrus out and drop the outline on the text, and the whole thing looks a lot better. But still, nice work.
------
The best Emmy's opening ever?
------
Love this pin-up girl hot chocolate packaging. Clever.
------
These bottled smoke art pieces are beautiful and a little haunting. Really nice stuff.
------
The Birds art installation in Vancouver's Olympic Village. That's something that would be exciting to come across.
------
United States Postal Service theoretical re-brand. Really nice. If they switched to this, I would be so jealous!
------
Stubby Beer Bottles. While tall cans of Red Stripe have definitely taken over my summer drinking, I'll never not love a stubby. They do look a little silly when I'm holding them though...
------
I guess that's it for now, maybe you'll hear from me again sometime.

Labatt, will you please go back to the above label design for 50? The current one is pretty much the worst I've seen. It was pretty nice when it was printed on the bottle and had that massive 50, but this version, and this version were still better. This trippy, multi-lined one though, for sure my favourite.

Also, Labatt was making an India Pale Ale in '54? Interesting.

------

I've been spending some time on the twitter lately. One of the best things I've seen yet is this picture of Questlove from The Roots. Even as a kid, big afro and drumsticks. Apparently he's always been awesome.

------
If I didn't already really want to see it, this poster for Kick-Ass (and Doug Benson's tweets about it), would totally solidified that want. Check out this red-band trailer.
------
New blog on the radar thanks to the DDC getting burned on it. Beardist. Beard wearer. Beard fan. Call me what you will, I do love love things beard related...

------

In a slew of beard link clicking that followed getting to the previous blog, I came across this amazing shirt design: Beard River. Beards and bears, two things I very obviously love. The print on the shirt is actually a little big for my usual liking, but I would wear that shirt, based on its beardy-beary-ness alone.

I believe I've said it before, but I have to say it again, you really should check out the Studio On Fire blog Beast Pieces. They're consistently doing super nice letterpress pieces and sharing them with the world.

Here're two I've been keeping unread in my reader to share with you:
Birds of Sadness poster
Shine flashlight (yet more self promotion that I'm loving...)

And an example of how they're just straight up bad-ass: Vintage beer can wall. The image above comes from this one. That would pretty overwhelming to stand in front of, I think.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So it's been awhile since I've posted. Not much time to relax and compile stuff lately, lots of other things to do...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one's from a little while back on Deputy Dog: weird church ceiling. Seriously, why would someone do that?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Does anybody want to give me $6000(us) so I can buy this? I've been thinking for awhile that at some point I'll want to move up to the MacBook Pro, but the problem is, none of them are black. Good thing these people solved that problem! Matte black, soft touch, limited edition of 10. Ridiculous. Amazing.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazing promotional material for a library. Seriously. Nice stuff. (via draplin)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This clock clock looks pretty amazing. Gonna have to look into how it works a little more, 'cause that second picture just looks nuts.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You may or may not know that I'm a fan of vintage office supplies, particularly staplers. As a result, this Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies particularly appealed to me. Going to have to keep an eye on this one for gems like this colour wheel, and this lead pointer and lead cleaner. Nice stuff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Watched the movie of the 2003 edition of the Gumball 3000 last night. Envious of those cross country racers, for sure. I kept thinking, there's gotta be people who do this in regular cars and close to the speed limit, don't there? The $44,000 entry fee ($120,000 last year because they flew the cars to numerous locations) would clearly be a hindrance too, but still, a guy can dream, can't he? Here's hoping we'll be able to get another road trip in this fall like last fall. Maybe around Michigan?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The best party of the year is almost here. Disc Golf is on the 27th, and I am so looking forward to two days of not thinking about doing any work at all. Stressful times for sure being a new home owner, and having lots of stuff at work (and getting asked last second to design disc golf materials...).

Funny thing about the new house? I was so excited about getting away from the Erb St. construction, and what happens today? They start ripping up our street. Yay.