Photo from jennataylr

2012 has been a big year around here. The last half got so busy, it's hard to even remember what happened in the first half, but I'll give a shot at some highlights.

January saw BRFC products going on sale at Dots & Loops in Lunenburg, NS. It's an amazing looking shop, and I couldn't be happier to be selling there. My relationship with Dots & Loops also ultimately resulted in BRFC getting the attention of and then going on sale at Scout in Toronto. I'd been thinking of trying to get into a store in Toronto for awhile, and think it's funny that my Nova Scotia connection helped bring that around. Jenna and I got to visit Scout very briefly recently and I am dying to go back.

In April, I brought Aaron Draplin to town to give a talk. I've been following him for years, and was super excited to get to meet him and hear him talk. The fact that I made it happen myself made it even better.

In July we got our puppy, Finnegan. And everything kind of changed in various ways. It kind of became hard to figure out how to work everything in, but things are smoothing out.

In August, two of my favourite people got married to each other. I got to design and print their wedding invitations. I really enjoyed working on the project for them, and was very happy with how they turned out. And the wedding itself was amazing, of course.

In September and October, the Princess ran the design film series I've always wanted to book, which was really exciting to see.

 

Eventually we buckled down and got to work on new Christmas BRFC products for the winter Stitch n Kitsch sale. With new pillows, and banners, and lots of help from Jenna's mom, we ended up having our best sale yet, which felt really good.

And through all of that I was still working on posters and other stuff for all kinds of different people. The last part of this year became my busiest one yet, design-wise. A big part of that was that I received a number of requests for logo design work. Some of it just started coming out recently, so I'm really excited to get to share them...

The Grad House at UW renovated over the summer, and I was asked to work on a new logo for them. I have some fond memories of going to see bands play at the Grad House, so I was honoured to be asked to do this work for them. After a couple different ideas based on things we'd talked about, Henry from the Grad House asked me to do just one more, whatever I wanted, and this is what I came up with. Glad it ended up being the one.

While working on that, another of different projects came up. One of them was this design for local architect, Graham Whiting. It was a little scary to work on a redesign for a very personal business like this, but I had a good feeling that we had similar tastes, and was pretty optimistic about how it would all turn out. The circle is the primary mark we came up with, and in the end I put together the smaller, secondary mark to compliment it, as it can be handy to have the option for different applications.

As soon as there was talk of food trucks in Waterloo, I knew I wanted to design for one. That chance came up when my friend Brad decided to start Schmuck'n Gourmet/The Schmuck Truck. I designed the original Schmuck'n Gourmet knife/tomato logo, and it has since morphed into what you see on the truck. It just started making appearances around town, and it's pretty cool to see it out there. The food I've eaten off of it is great too!

Last but not least is the Taco Farm logo. I think it's still a little while before this guy really gets out there, but I am super excited about it. The people involved are awesome, and it's bringing tacos to Uptown. More to come on this one in the future, but I definitely had to mention it here.

I'm sure there's a tonne of stuff I've missed here, but it's an overview. A big year for sure.

Coming up in 2013, I should have more time away from my day job to focus on my own stuff. Look for bearface.ca to finally become a real site, BRFC products to finally return to etsy, possibly a whole new project, and whatever else gets thrown at me. Looking forward to all of it.

So much lego stuff going around these days! Check out these art pieces. This one is definitely my favourite.

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THIS is super clever logo design. Love it.

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Rubik's cube for the blind. Can you imagine trying to do that? I mean, as a sighted person with no knowledge of braille. Well, either way, those things are hard!!

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Stormstache. I feel like I link to a lot of Star Wars stuff on here. It's funny because I'm not really a big Star Wars fan. I mean, I like the (first 3 [by year made, not year set]) movies and all, but I was never a huge fan or anything. Just an appreciator. And there's a lot of neat/cool/funny stuff that huge fans make.

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USB 'thumb' drive. Jenna and I seem to sit on opposite sides of the fine hilarious/creepy line mentioned. (In case you're wondering, I'm on the hilarious side...)

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Probably the only time I'll mention U.S. health care reform on here.

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Wrecking ball lamp. Awesome.

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Spaced Flash Mob Slo-Mo Gunfight. Hilarious. Awesome. Wish I could have been there.

How awesome would it have been to receive a letter on that letterhead?

Where does letterheady find all of these great letterheads!?
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Things to watch!

The Sandpit - pretty great tilt-shift-esque film about "A day in the life of New York City, in miniature.

AFOL: A Blocumentary - Adult Fans of Lego! Great little doc.

Logorama - The video is at the bottom. I've really been itching to see this Oscar nominated animated short. It did not disappoint. LOVE it. (edit: I started this post days ago, and since then this short became not just Oscar nominated, but an Oscar Winner. I was so excited for it.)

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Since Leno's back on the tonight show, here's Plenty of Reasons to Just Say No to Jay Leno.

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Hey Marc, here's one of the things I wanted to tell you, and then forgot today: The Grilled Cheese Bacon Burger from Carl's Jr. How much do I want to eat that? A LOT.

Funniest part of that blog post: "It was apparently first invented by Carl’s Jr as a vegetarian option for their menu, but some executive said, “Why not add a beef patty and bacon”? Brilliant."

Have I mentioned how great of a blog baconbaconbacon/It's All About the Bacon is? I love it. But it makes me hungry (and jealous of people who can go to Carl's Jr.).

Been thinking a lot about Halloween lately. Still no idea for a costume, but every time we're out shopping, I always get lured in by the decorations. I've kind of always wanted to be the people on the street who go over the top for Halloween... We definitely won't be this year, but maybe once all the decorations go on sale after the fact, we might have to stock up...
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I spotted those Goodwill face variations up there in a banner ad the other day, and I have to say I love it. I'm already a fan of the original logo, and these variations are cute and fun, and the whole thing looks pretty well executed. The colour, the lines, cute, weird. I like it. There's a short commercial too apparently. Love that they got Jason in there.
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Just saw this optical illusion yesterday. Pretty weird. Hard to trust them ol' eyes sometimes, eh?
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Back on the Muppets train, here's one I sent myself awhile ago but I don't think I've posted. With last night's premiere, I guess now the timing is more apt anyway: 30 Rock is a rip-off of The Muppet Show. Well played Brian Lynch. Fitting that Jenna Maroney is Miss Piggy? Well, I do hate them both, so yes.
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Stairporn? Okay. (It's really not at all dirty, trust me) Seriously, there's some pretty neat stuff.
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Racoon Wedding. (yes, that is how they spell Raccoon, one 'c'.) I love this band. They finally have an album out. Wavering on ordering it from them over the internets, or impatiently waiting for their Halloween show at 130 King. I think I can make it that long...

Yesterday we celebrated Jenna's dad's birthday by sending him off on his bike to parks all over town. I made the logo up there to adorn his shirt, and the sheets that each of us handed him at each park to tell him what to do and where to go. Amazingly the rain held off until the end. Good day.

Tomorrow is another event I did some design work for, the Jane Bond disc golf tournament (aka the best party of the year). There's something I hope we get good weather for. If the weather works out real good I'll be heading up there and camping out tonight. Can't wait!
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The other day I received an invitation to join this facebook group, protesting the new UW logo. I was expecting to click on it and see crap. What I saw was something I actually kind of liked. The other thing I saw was thousands of people up in arms about change.

A quick search for a group supporting the change has yeilded nothing, but, thankfully, one of my favourite blogs has posted some great insight on the matter. This paragraph in particular really summed up what I was thinking about it wayyy better than I ever could have:

"The main complaint throughout is that the new logo is not dignified enough and it does not represent the school. But somehow, a crest, like thousands of other crests — who the majority of people don’t know what they stand for anyway — does. Unfortunately this is antiquated thinking. Universities can not get by with traditional crests in today’s über branded environment and, if you look around, most large universities operate with a “marketing” logo and use a traditional seal for boring things like diplomas or the back covers of their catalogues."

And while he does admit that there are some problems with the logo, he also says this:

"But, in application this logo and its extended identity could be very interesting. However, this post and the controversy around it doesn’t have as much to do with whether the logo is good or bad — it’s neither really — but the propensity of students and faculty to cry foul with any change that has been carried out thoroughly by a range of committees. If they respect their university and its values they need to trust their leadership. Not whine about how 12-year-olds could do a better logo. Because they can’t.

Dear Waterloo-people-in-charge: Stick to your plan. Don’t succumb."

Straight up.
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Here's a cross merchandising idea for the TCRG: Rise n' Shiner coffee from the Minnesota Roller Girls. Real nice package design there. Makes me really want that coffee!
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I really hate how much shipping can be. I'd love to buy this print, but the shipping cost is only $1 less than the print itself (actually, you even get two for that price, which is really good for Obey stuff...).

For that matter, this poster, which I would also LOVE to have, combined with shipping puts the price high enough that I just straight up decided not to buy it. So sad.
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I guess that's it for now. Lots of stuff to do. New windows are supposed to go in tomorrow (sadly while I am away, so Jenna has to deal with it), and I've got a bunch of stuff to get ready for that before I leave (whenever that is...)