Expanding My Circle

Last night at the DX I was shocked when I ran into a friend from college. I was even more shocked when I recognized someone from my new work at the event. To top it off, this morning I rode past my boss on my bike ride to work. I often tell my friends that its hard to meet people in Toronto, that there are so many people that its actually worse than when you live in a small town. All of this is turned on its head when I happen to run into one of the 20 people I know out of the 2.5 million sharing Toronto with me.

This morning when I recapped the events of the past 24 hours with my co-worker he said that it must be that my circle is expanding and I agree. As much as I hated my bike ride home from work this evening (a 20 minute ride became a two and a half hour work out with my superb navigation skills), with each new place I go, I discover more of Toronto and am given to opportunity to meet more people. My biggest fear about getting a new job was leaving my work friends, but I guess I needn't worry, I still have them as friends and am broadening my circle with new co-workers.

Funnies

I realize it is only Tuesday, but it has been a crazy week. I recently accepted a new job and have been working very hard to try to finish things up at my current employer. To make light of the situation I have collected a few of my favourite 'Funnies' sites, enjoy!

Tall Girl Problems – a website chronicling my (not really, but I've thought about many of these things) thoughts about the humourosly tough realities of being tall

Toronto Strife – top quality GIFs about the lives of twenty-somethings living in Toronto

35 Greatest Animal Photobombs – general cuteness and hilarity ensues

The Future of Retail Packaging Design

During my lunch today I attended Robert Smith's webinar about retail packaging design. Unfortunately my work pulled me away from it a few times so I wasn't able to fully enjoy the webinar, but even without hearing the whole talk, I thought that it was interesting, pertinent and that he offered some great sources for inspiration. When I joined the webinar (oops five minutes late), Smith was telling a story about his parents reaction to one of his projects. He started by saying that his parents like to see his work in the stores and that they had ventured out to find some of his latest projects. When Smith's parents told him about their excursion they also sheepishly admitted that they didn't like the wrestlers on his chip packaging and that they much preferred his more sophisticated work for a different brand. Smith explained to his parents that they didn't need to feel bad since the product was not intended for them. This line of chips was marketed specifically to 20 to 40 year olds and fittingly the packaging his parents liked was targeted to their age demographic. All of this clearly illustrated the importance of knowing your target market to produce the most effective product possible.

Shortly after Smith finished telling this story I was called away to proof a book (the black printed grey again, guess who is looking for a discount!). When I returned he had moved on to how to implement the information you have once you have chosen and researched a demographic. Smith went over a number of different considerations, but one of the things that I had never thought much about was the way that QR codes change the demographic of a product. By putting a QR code onto a package you are assuming that the consumer has a smart phone, has a program to read the codes and that they know how to use both of these technologies. Smith pointed out that because of this necessary knowledge, many consumers will be turned off and will not purchase the product. After all of this, he mentioned that to the target demographic this can be a great feature as easy to read ingredient lists, suggested recipes, and other added bonuses can be linked using the QR code.

At the end of the talk Smith reminded us of a few of his favourite websites (lovelypackage.com and thedieline.com are favourites of mine as well) and gave a list of suggested reading. Embarrassingly I had only heard of one of the books. Following is a list (i.e. my new reading list) of the books he suggested: Box Bottle Bag, Packaging Essentials, I Miss My Pencil, The Art of Packaging Design and Not a Box. I always enjoy these sorts of design talks and will be sure to continue documenting them for your enjoyment and my own future reference.

Insights on Making Ideas Happen

Often when I am on Twitter I get annoyed by the overzealous people in my feed. I want to hear about the news, but if there are four posts in a row from the same feed it's too much. On the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of people that I am always excited to see pop up throughout my day. One of my favourite feeds to follow is the blog The 99 Percent - Insights on Making Ideas Happen, created by Behance (an online portfolio website for creative professionals). The blog has articles from working designers about exciting new innovations, career advice, skill development and a slew of other things that are helpful for young creatives beginning their careers.

The articles are to the point and written by people in the field, because of this they are easy to relate to and inspire me to keep wanting more for my career. I enjoy that the length and format of the posts vary and that their website is so user friendly. If I need to look up an old post I can easily search by theme and find what I am looking for. Overall I think this is a great resource and encourage you to take a few moments to read one of their articles.

Garage Sale-ing

Last weekend I went home to visit with friends, spend time with family and go to garage sales. It may sound silly to go to another town to go to garage sales, especially since I have happened upon some lovely pieces for sale in Toronto, but my bike just doesn't cut it. My main reason for going out last Saturday was to find a table and chairs for my balcony. It is a great size and I feel guilty for not using it, but without any furniture it wasn't very functional. Luckily, with Mom in tow, I was able to find two great wood laminate chairs as well as a handy rolling table for a grand total of twenty-seven dollars.

When we returned home with what I considered treasure, it was quickly pointed out that the chairs were in terrible disrepair and that I had a lot of work ahead of me. Because of this, I wanted to document a few before photos and follow up when the project is completed with another post. Unfortunately, the weather is a bit wet today so I wasn't able to take photos but I found a similar chair to wet your appetite (assuming you like the same types of furniture I do). Hopefully the project will turn out great and I will have tons of photos to show for my work. If you don't see any posts for a while, you know where I am.

Wood you like to be friends?

This week will be a busy one for me, but after getting my Design Exchange membership last week I couldn't help but go to another DXTalk. Tonight's talk was by Jim Taggart FRAIC, recent author of Toward A Culture of Wood Architecture. The theme of the book and tonight's talk was the importance of wood in architecture and how he would like to see things improve in the future.

The talk was very interesting, Taggart's illustrated many of the prominent styles in wood architecture with ample examples from Canada and around the world. While some of the information was a bit over my head (most of the attendees were architecture students), I especially enjoyed what he had to say about the renovations at the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga. Taggart started by asking a simple question, "What do you do when you want to relax?" His answer was the same as mine, go to a park, go for a walk in a forest, enjoy the outdoors in any way possible. For people dealing with cancer, this may not be an option. The renovation (pictured below) allows patients and visitors to escape to a more relaxed atmosphere without having to leave the hospital. Further to that point, Taggart indicated that a study conducted by the University of British Columbia proved that including trees and wood in your environment improves general happiness. I suppose that explains why I have always loved walking down tree-lined streets and going on hikes.

Discovering the Wrong

Tonight I went to the Design Exchange for another DX Talk. I prefer this type of event rather than events where it is required that I meet new people and speak intelligently about things I don't know a lot about (often I end up studying prior to those sorts of events). At these talks I have the opportunity to mingle but can also go, enjoy the talk, then leave without being pressured to do anything but enjoy the speakers. I really like the relaxed atmosphere and the opportunity to hear from designers from a variety of backgrounds.

Tonight Ann Thomas, Curator of Photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, spoke to Lynne Cohen about her work throughout the years and specifically about the pieces she is currently showing at the Design Exchange. Cohen's work consists of photographs depicting domestic, commercial and institutional spaces in cool, but welcoming compositions. Cohen creates her photographs by reframing interior spaces in intriguing ways. I say that the work is cool because the the photographs are generally devoid of life and the stark appearance of the spaces are uneasy in an almost wrong way (Cohen spoke a lot about how she is always looking for something that is wrong to photograph). One of the members of the audience brought up an interesting feature of the photographs, while they are cool, they are also welcoming because of the angle they are taken from. Cohen never creates barriers in the foreground, each of the photographs feel as if you could walk through them and into the space (Cohen thought perhaps that was the reason for all the nose smudges on the glass frames). The scale of her work also helps to create the illusion that you could walk through them. Rather than using a traditional film camera, Cohen works with an 8 x 10" view camera, and produces photographs that are approximately three feet by four feet, with both portrait and landscape compositions.

I found the talk very interesting and was happy to learn more about the photographs that I viewed beforehand. I find that when someone, be it the artist or a curator, explains the intention of the work it is more memorable and inspiring. I decided to get a membership for the Design Exchange after returning home from the talk, I realized that I really enjoy immersing myself in design and that having a membership will encourage me to go to as many events as possible.