My Happiness Project

Snowpocalypse 2010

2010-12-29T10:43:00.000-05:00

December 2010 Blizzard Timelapse from Michael Black on Vimeo.

Flying

2010-12-22T13:17:00.000-05:00

Superior, Speed Fly from Marshall Miller on Vimeo.

Color Wheel of time

2010-12-20T15:36:00.000-05:00

Entire calendar

Section view of winter; note the frosty blue colors.

Even more zoomed in sectional view of fall; note the fall color scheme.

Lene Mirdal's All Year Round Calendar — a color wheel calendar for 2011 is pretty amazing. Time is visualized as a circle, with the months, weeks and days radiating outwards, color-coded by the time of the year. I am not a big fan of hanging up calendars on my wall for the year — wish I was — otherwise, I would order this lovely one from the MoMA store immediately. Check it out, here.

Via: Fast Company Design

Circles

2010-12-16T10:42:00.000-05:00

I saw a Bridget Riley piece earlier this Fall at the DIA Beacon, and was not only mesmerized by it, I totally wished I had the sort of budget that afforded me to buy really nice art...because I would like one of her pieces hanging on my wall one day. I only hope that when I am 80 years old, I am still creating art and making things that I love.

Joy vey!

2010-12-14T14:55:00.000-05:00

I heart Brooklyn

2010-12-13T18:00:00.002-05:00

Via New York Magazine: As more-established groups go hunting for better real estate and newer groups replace them, the cultural map of Brooklyn we carry around in our heads quickly goes out of date. Sunset Park is becoming less Chinese and more Mexican, Bensonhurst less Italian and more Chinese, Flatbush more Jewish and more Muslim at the same time. The South Asian enclave in Kensington is expanding into Midwood and down to Brighton Beach.

“Anytime there’s a vacancy, it’s a South Asian family that’s moving in,” says Mohammed Razvi, executive director of the Council of Peoples Organization, a nonprofit group that helps new immigrants from its office on Coney Island Avenue. “Brooklyn is the Lower East Side for the South Asian community: As soon as they get out of JFK, they head here.”

The data streams don’t reveal much about the borough’s spiritual life, but this deceptively dull intersection anchors a rich religious ecosystem. The gorgeous eighteenth-century Flatbush Reformed Church hosts a Ghanaian Presbyterian congregation and also offers services in Spanish. Over on Coney Island Avenue, Makki Masjid, Brooklyn’s largest mosque, is undergoing a renovation to merge three buildings and accommodate 3,000 worshippers at once. A few blocks south, a Jewish girls’ school, Bet Yaakov Ateret Torah, has added new quarters.

Nowhere outside of Jerusalem do so many Jews and Muslims live in such intense proximity, observes Rabbi Bob Kaplan of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York—and here they enjoy a more uneventful coexistence. “No group is in control here,” says Kaplan. “They’re all here to participate in the American lifestyle.”

We head south toward Neptune Avenue in Brighton Beach, where the data show a surge of Mexicans and Bangladeshis among the Russians, whose children have been settling in Bensonhurst. Sure enough, several Spanish-speaking women are herding preschoolers into a doorway marked “Young Israel of Brighton Beach,” which houses a Head Start program. Across the street is the neighborhood Islamic Center. Just up the block a store advertises “Asian, Mexican, and Russian groceries.” Salvo chortles. “It’s nice when you can see the data. This is the future.”

It's gonna be a Honeysuckle year

2010-12-13T09:51:00.000-05:00

via Pantone:
Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing “everyday” about it.

While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many, Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting. It elevates our psyche beyond escape, instilling the confidence, courage and spirit to meet the exhaustive challenges that have become part of everyday life.

“In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going – perfect to ward off the blues,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Honeysuckle derives its positive qualities from a powerful bond to its mother color red, the most physical, viscerally alive hue in the spectrum.”

Eiseman continues, “The intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages. In fact, this color, not the sweet fragrance of the flower blossoms for which it was named, is what attracts hummingbirds to nectar. Honeysuckle may also bring a wave of nostalgia for its associated delicious scent reminiscent of the carefree days of spring and summer.”

and the best part?
Whether you’re buying groceries, paying the dry cleaner or shopping for a pair of new pumps, now you can do it in style with a PANTONE Visa® Platinum Rewards Card in Honeysuckle, the 2011 color of the year...Nice.

Lotta sale

2010-12-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

Bunny and I are going to check out the Lotta Jansdotter open studio, on Saturday afternoon. And then maybe get some pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds afterwards, as it is right around the corner. I am thinking about a slice of salty honey pie, or maybe the honeyed pumpkin. Or both.

Cozy tea

2010-12-09T11:10:00.000-05:00

A crocheted cup of tea sent to me from Mimi, since I am not feeling 100%. This honestly has perked me up considerably, if only mentally. Perhaps because I am a sucker for crotched nouns with smily faces on them.

2010-12-09T11:07:00.001-05:00

A quote sent to me this morning from my career coach. I am trying, Rich...

Sunflower seeds

2010-10-18T21:56:00.006-04:00

“Sunflower Seeds invites us to look more closely at the ‘Made in China’ phenomenon and the geo-politics of cultural and economic exchange today.”

In China, sunflower seeds are a staple delicacy especially reserved for Chinese festivities. And Ai Weiwei's most recent piece, “Sunflower Seeds,” consists of roughly 100 million hand-painted and hand sculpted porcelain sunflower seeds covering the vast expanse of Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern, to the depth of about four inches. Each seed was made by one of the 1,600 residents of Jingdezhen, a village that once provided porcelain to the imperial court of China.

For Ai Weiwei, sunflower seeds — a common street snack shared by friends — carry personal associations with Mao Zedong's brutal Cultural Revolution (1966-76). While individuals were stripped of personal freedom, propaganda images depicted Chairman Mao as the sun and the mass of people as sunflowers turning towards him. Yet Ai remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds as a gesture of human compassion, providing a space for pleasure, friendship and kindness during a time of extreme poverty, repression and uncertainty.

And as such, Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds challenges our first impressions: what you see is not what you see, and what you see is not what it means. The sculptural installation is made up of what appear to be millions of sunflower seed husks, apparently identical but actually unique. Although they look realistic, each seed is made out of porcelain. And far from being industrially produced, 'readymade' or found objects, they have been intricately hand-crafted by hundreds of skilled artisans. Poured into the interior of the Turbine Hall's vast industrial space, the seeds form a seemingly infinite landscape. The precious nature of the material, the effort of production and the narrative and personal content make this work a powerful commentary on the human condition.

Lovely Day: rated an A-

2010-10-11T21:17:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been less than stellar for a myriad of reasons which I will not go into boring detail about here. But it was enough to cause me to actually dream about trying to schedule an appointment with my therapist, however in my dream he had gotten remarried and was too busy and too happy with his own life, to see me at this critical juncture in my life. So, yeah. It's been a few of those kind of weeks.

That being said, after napping around the house yesterday for the majority of the afternoon, I had a very nice and quiet evening with the dog. We even went to bed at the very reasonable hour of 10pm. At some point in the middle of the night, he was causing our feet to be too hot and therefore was asked to move to the couch. Where he promptly started crying softly. Until...I reached out my arm to pet him — he snuggled down next to my hand and immediately started snoring. Every so often he would try to nestle more spoonishly into my hand, until my arm fell asleep and I had to retract it, sadly. Upon which, it was required of me to shove over, so he could climb into bed and lay his hand on the pillow where only moments before mine had rested so comfortably. Now my head was squashed between his and J's and while it may sound like I am complaining, I immediately fell into a blissful sleep..and probably was smiling.

I woke up feeling rested and full of general aura of pleasantness. Caught a cab on the corner of Boerem Place and State Street, where I was able to not only able to get into the office in under fifteen minutes (thank you, Christopher Columbus!) my conference call with a colleague in Europe was not disconnected even one single time on the way into the city.

The day was spent checking lots of stuff off of my list, which was highly satisfying. Finished a project I have been working on for at least five months. Finished in the sense, that I received final approval to send it to the printer. I met a childhood friend for lunch at 'Wichcraft. Had the tomato soup — it was that kind of cozy day. And in the late afternoon, went with my team to see the Matisse exhibit at the MoMA on the last day of the exhibition. The exhibit was pretty incredible...I particularly loved the sketch of the little goldfish where his mouth was a little round "o."

And then the evening has been spent leisurely eating dinner and leafing through design magazines, getting inspired. It's been very zen...until it started hailing with crazy sounding winds whipping across my 11th floor balcony, that is.

Happy Clothespins

2010-10-11T19:56:00.000-04:00

I was reading the most recent issue of Communication Arts, and came across these cool, clothespiny environmental graphics for the 2009 Aires Libres event (where a section of Sainte-Catherine Street is sectioned off for a few months of summer activities), designed by Paprika — a design firm located in Montreal. Love them...

imma star

2010-09-17T10:35:00.001-04:00

1001 books you must read (before you die...)

2010-09-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

http://www.listology.com/list/1001-books-you-must-read-you-die

2010-09-01T16:02:00.002-04:00

I am a design pirate

2010-09-01T15:30:00.001-04:00

My contact has been bothering me all day, and in trying to compensate for the blurry vision, my left eye now is twitching from severe eyestrain. And I am sitting at my desk unable to do anything. In an effort to help, my colleague who used to work on Accuvue and Medical Devices came up with this nifty work around patch, using an Accuvue rubber band and a paper napkin from lunch.

2010-09-01T12:47:00.002-04:00

Feeling all jazzy and shit

2010-09-01T11:29:00.001-04:00

Via NPR music: As a student at the Berklee College of Music, Meghan Stabile's peers were jazz musicians who grew up with hip-hop as popular music. So during her last semester of study, she first put together a show that brought together musicians from both jazz and hip-hop communities, exploring the connections within.

Stabile's operation, now based in New York, has become Revive Da Live, a concert production group presenting street-savvy jazz artists like Robert Glasper, Jaleel Shaw and Esperanza Spalding, often on stage with hip-hop performers like Talib Kweli, Pete Rock and Large Professor. Revive Da Live produces frequent performances around New York and the world; the Revive Music Group now also manages and books a roster of artists.

Revive's underlying goal has always been about education through live experience: Of jazz to the hip-hop crowd, and vice versa. In lieu of being able to bring a Revive show to all blog readers, I recently sat down with Stabile and two associates, MC/DJ Brian "Raydar" Ellis and pianist/writer Jared Pauley, to talk about jazz records for the hip-hop crowd.

"There's a way back to jazz through any kind of song that a 13, 14-year-old loves," Raydar Ellis said. "It's just a matter of tracing it back in a way that they find appealing. And that's what we do. That's our thing."

1. Dorothy Ashby, Afro-Harping (1968).

Meghan: A lot of stuff comes from listening to Pete Rock. He sampled a lot of records. We were speaking yesterday about Dorothy Ashby, and Raydar had mentioned this record. Even from that, another record called Dorothy's Harp: you can find samples from Madlib, Rahzel, Jay-Z, Pete Rock for sure — the list goes on.

Patrick: What about that particular record makes it so interesting?

Raydar: It's the way that that record was made. It's the sonic — and maybe this is just the audiophile in me, but — the way it was mixed and recorded. Her harp has this beautiful delay on it, but the bass has most of the low-end along with the drums. ... You can also hear what she did on some of Stevie Wonder's records.

2. Donald Byrd, Stepping Into Tomorrow (1975).

Raydar: I think the stuff that got me into jazz was, oddly enough, it was Incognito and Pieces of a Dream. My dad played a lot of the smooth jazz stuff on the radio — he'd be listening to CD 101.9 — and then he also had a bunch of records at the same time.

Coming at it from a perspective that a hip-hop listener understands, which is where the samples are generated from, I guess Donald Byrd Stepping Into Tomorrow has the "Think Twice" cut — "Looking out the Front Door," by Main Source is a direct link. But it's also been covered by J. Dilla on Welcome 2 Detroit, and by Erykah Badu. And that's just one song, let alone the whole record, let alone his whole catalog. That's a really dope record to start with.

3. Miles Davis, In A Silent Way (1969).

Jared: Miles Davis' In A Silent Way really changed the way I could hear music. I hate to go back to the word "organic," but everything is such an "organic" blend. As he progressed further into his fusion phase with Bitches Brew and On The Corner, it became a little more chaotic with the way he and [producer] Teo Macero edited all the tape together. But In A Silent Way — it's got this meld of electric pianos, and vibrato, and abstract, atmospheric music going on. It's hard to describe it. And it's like every great piano player of all time is on it, and every great musician — anybody who ever did anything great in fusion was on one of [Miles Davis'] records. Fact.

4. Charlie Parker, "A Night In Tunisia" (March 1946) and McCoy Tyner, "Impressions" (from Trident, 1975).

Meghan: With Hip-Hop 1942, we took records from the '50s, '60s, '70s — well, specific songs — and we played the original. For example, [a] Charlie Parker version of "A Night In Tunisia" was later used to create Gang Starr's "Words I Manifest." So we had a line up of stellar musicians — Marc Cary, Ben Williams, Louis Cato, Casey Benjamin and bunch of others — and they performed the original, as the original, and transitioned it into "Words I Manifest." So it went from the jazz record to the popular hip-hop song that derived from that record. And we had a whole audience there, which was mainly a hip-hop audience, that didn't know the original. So we had the album covers on a screen behind the band, showing which song this was, and what it was [sampled] into. They went crazy. It was a ridiculous show.

The other, which is my personal favorite, is McCoy Tyner's version of "Impressions."

Ron Carter's bass solo was later used to create Black Sheep's "The Choice Is Yours." So Ben Williams — this was his idea — when he was soloing ... he just went into this subtle "Dum-dum-dum-dum Dum-doo-dum-dum," and then just went into it real hard, and the audience is screaming, 'cause they just didn't expect it.

Patrick:: Ben has that way of just plucking really hard — making you feel it.

Raydar: Yea, that's my cousin! [laughs] It's all in the family.

5. Robert Glasper, Double-Booked (2009).

Raydar: I really think it's great for a hip-hop head to come into jazz with that record because Rob was born from both sides of it. He has equal footing in both worlds, and he represents that on the record really well, whether it be that breakdown before "Butterfly," where they kind of flip the "F- - - Tha Police" joint, or the "Forever" joint, where [drummer] Chris [Dave] is laying the drums back kinda crazy. It's something that a hip-hopper can instantly recognize, but that they can sit back and listen to multiple times, and find the subtleties in the solos and performances. It's a really good record.

Red Jacket Orchards' Rhubarb-Apple Juice

2010-08-31T13:33:00.002-04:00

Dear Red Jacket Orchards people,

This juice is absolutely superlative in flavor. Rhubarb doesn't get enough play, in my own opinion, with people purposefully overlooking its tartness as a negative. Or else people think its poisonous and therefore...bad. Thanks for not player hating on the Rhubarb, because this juice rocks. And I thought that the Strawberry-Apple juice from you that I drank this past Friday was pretty freaking awesome...well, you outdid yourselves, because this flavor is even better. If that is possible.

kind regards,
Aimee

ps. thanks, Dane.

Yellow is underrated

2010-08-31T13:23:00.001-04:00

I think that the color yellow is wholly underrated. Not sure what has prompted my interest in this color, of late, but it has crossed my visual radar and lodged itself somewhere deep in my subconscious, sending out these waves of yearning for yellow, every so often. For instance, I am really desiring these sheets from West Elm:

Maybe because here, the color yellow is paired with my favorite color for the home, which is gray. And it is in a cheerful little flower print. Since I have slept on pretty much only white bed sheets for the past seven years (every once in a while I switch it up with a gray set of sheets), this is a huge departure for me. Not only is a color other than white or gray, but it is a floral print in a cute, maybe even girly pattern. Despite the odds, I am still totally lusting after these sheets.

And then there is my lunch today:

which is lemon-pepper pappardelle (from Trader Joes), with lemon zest, fresh corn and tuna. Hellooooo, delicious.
No wonder why I am craving some yellow in my life right now, because interestingly enough, yellow relates to self worth: how we feel about ourselves and how we feel others perceive us.

Yellow is full of creative and intellectual energy. Yellow means joy and happiness. Yellow daffodils are a symbol of unrequited love (This is probably why this is my favorite flower — ironically). Like the energy of a bright sunny day, yellow brings clarity and awareness. Orange-yellow imparts a sense of establishment. Clean light yellow clears the mind, making it active and alert.

Supposedly, you should put some yellow in your life when you want clarity for decision-making, relief from 'burnout', panic, nervousness, exhaustion, sharper memory and concentration skills and protection from lethargy and depression during dull weather. Good to know.

Lego man + tatoos = Pilot Pen campaign

2010-08-31T12:04:00.001-04:00

Above is a series of "badass" tatoos drawn on Lego characters, showcasing the extra fine lines of the Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.25 mm pen. Straight out of your mother’s nightmares, these Lego people pay homage to the vernacular of biking subculture — with lots of angry skulls, and in one instance, a rather racy tramp stamp. Developed by Barcelona's Grey Agency, the goal of the campaign was to showcase the superthin lines of the Pilot Extrafine pens (also known as Pilot Hi-Tec-C Gel pens), made by Pilot of Japan and available in the USA from online retailer Jetpens. I love it.

Note: I personally prefer the Uni-ball Signo DX 0.25mm pen, also available from the same retailer.

Email to Sheri from Tianjin, China

2010-08-30T22:23:00.007-04:00

From an email that I sent to Sheri on June 13, 2008. Two years later, this still makes me laugh out loud. She just resent it to me today. 感谢反燃i。

Dinner at Roman's on DeKalb

2010-08-28T15:47:00.004-04:00

Dana, Rob and I ate dinner last night at Roman's, after coming back from the Rock the Bells festival on Governor's Island...we needed a dose of our beloved and familiar Brooklyn reality after the hot mess that was the festival. (literally, it was a hot mess.) So Dane picked Roman's on DeKalb Avenue in Fort Greene, because her hairdresser apprenticed in the kitchen making pasta, once upon a time.

To start, we all shared a salad of watermelon cubes, kirby cucumbers + ricotta salata dressed with olive oil and sea salt. Unexpected, since the menu had just said "melon" so we all were expecting the expected — some sort of boring honeydew. Watermelon was a nice, and refreshing, surprise. We also shared a potato pancake made with crispy red rice, topped with stewed cherry tomatoes, a fried egg and some spicy baby arugula. It was like Hannukkah had a baby with dolsot bibimbap. So many different tastes all in one bite; again, it was amazing.

My main dish was the semolina fettuccine with sweet corn and padrón peppers. Which sounds a bit ho hum, except that the peppers were the kind of spicy that made my nose stuffy (which is a good thing), and the corn was exceedingly fresh. There was not really a sauce other than the sauteed-y stuff exuded from the three sole ingredients. And maybe there was some behind the scenes magic, like butter, also. I ate almost the entire bowl. And it is pretty unusual for me to almost finish any dish, at any meal.

But dessert, well that was the best part. There were two choices (overall, the menu is incredibly spare, which I appreciated, given that all of our choices were done in a surprising, yet delicious, execution) of which they were a chocolate sorbet (with sea salt) made from some crazy chocolate from Ohio (which had a name that sounded like a Native American Indian tribe), and a dish of peaches macerated in grappa covered in fresh whipped cream. A giant, dreamy cloud of whipped cream, I might add. Rob was like, "We'll take both." Given that I rarely ask for the dessert menu, let alone order dessert, I was startled, but given the day we had just had, decided to go with the flow.

The chocolate sorbet can only be described as, insane? In a superlative sort of way. One bite, and we all were like, "This is fucking amazing." But then we had to follow each intensely rich spoonful with a bite of peaches and cream as a respite. And then we decided to get crazy and mix a half spoonful of the sorbet with the peaches + cream and it was such a delicious match up, that we told the waiter that he ought to recommend to people that they should order both...that each dessert needed the other in order to feel complete.

Now, I am wondering how lame it is if I go back to Roman's tonight and order the exact same dishes. The only thing stopping me is what if it is not as good the second time, and then I get all sad? And albeit, the company of Dane and Rob were also what made the food taste so delightful, but still... I cannot get the perfect toothiness of the pasta or the richness of that sorbet out of my head.

ps. Our waiter was awesome, too. A nice guy with glasses.

photo by Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times

A hot mess

2010-08-28T12:00:00.010-04:00

photos by Okayplayer87

Dane, Rob and I went to the Rock the Bells festival today, on Governor's Island. It was insanely hot outside, and for whatever reason, I chose to wear my skinniest jeans — i.e. they were like wearing a mini oven on each leg. I think I had sweat stains behind my knees.

I had such high hopes for the festival, despite Rob's statement:

I am sorry that I never want to go to these hip hop events, but I honestly dislike rap shows.

The sound is almost always bad, the artists consistently go on super late, and it ends up being just a ton of people on stage yelling.

I sound like an old man i think.

and yet, it was sort of exactly as Rob had imagined, but even more so visually overwhelming.

Like the girls sitting behind us, where one of them was sitting all spread legged, wearing a pair of red underpants with a set of Rolling Stone lips all over the crotch. Totally, and disgustingly, distracting. Cause I could have been spending more time gawking at the couple sitting in front of us who brought their toddler, which unto itself was pretty crazy. And then they proceeded to smoke a spliff right next to their kid, as he was awake and sitting in his stroller. Girls were wearing high heeled shoes with fish net stockings and super tight cocktail dresses, or else their Timberland boots paired with baggy jeans and basketball jerseys that showed their bras underneath and did nothing to conceal the fact that they needed to lose at least 20 pounds. Hipster chicks from Williamsburg were wearing old skool tube socks paired with their Nike Dunks and high waisted shorts. One guy had on his freshest "killa bee" outfit where his wrist bands, head band and whatnot accessories all neatly matched the golden yellow of the Wu Tang logo on his black tee shirt. And there was Dane, Rob and I. Like three normal people floating within a sea of some of the craziest outfits I've ever seen.

Hence the term hot mess.

We arrived right before Lauryn Hill went on, and while we were on the ferry, we were all like, "oh, we'll stay at least for Wu Tang, maybe leave before Snoop". And then some of the festivalites boarded the ferry, and started sitting on each other laps taking photos and being rambunctious, and we suddenly were like, "huh. maybe we will just stay through Tribe Called Quest." And then after trolling the field of broken down vegetation that could no longer be called grass, and parking ourselves in the midst of chaos and listening to the terrible feedback that kept screetching during Lauryn Hill's performance, we were like, "um, I could go now, if you all want."

Sweet + Low Campaign

2010-08-26T12:13:00.005-04:00

I am loving the new Sweet 'N Low campaign from Mother NY. I am not a big fan of the color pink, nor do I even use artificial sweeteners, but the appeal of the campaign is such that it makes me want to go out and buy a big box of the sweetener, if the little packets all had these super cute illustrations on them.
The ads, drawn by two illustrators, Nate Duval and Jen Skelley, depict gleeful taste buds, a preening peacock, a sparkly owl, a pair of ladybugs, two birds and some kind of swirling design that might seem familiar to the cast of “Hair” — if not the cast of the recent revival, then certainly the cast of the original.

“In some ways, Sweet ’N Low invented the category” of sugar substitutes, says Michael Ian Kaye, partner and creative director at Mother New York. “A lot of the thinking was to reinforce that and give the brand a sense of bold confidence, to retain or regain its iconic status.”

“These ads are so connected to the experience of the product, which is a zero-calorie sweetener,” he adds, “and the ads are meant to be a zero-calorie sweetener” — that is, providing “a sweet moment that mimics” the use of Sweet ’N Low “with my iced tea, my lemonade, my coffee.”

The cues in the ads that suggest the ’60s and ’70s are intended to “recall that time when happiness and food went together,” Mr. Kaye says, and yet the graphics “felt very contemporary at the same time.”

It turned out, he adds, that the illustrators chosen for the campaign are “a couple, in a relationship, and that was a sweet thing, too.”

The concept going forward will be “to give people more sweet moments sponsored by Sweet ’N Low,” Mr. Kaye says, a mnemonic device “in the truest sense of the words.”

And as “different people’s sweet moments are slightly different,” he adds, each ad has and will have “a slightly different spirit,” but “always keeping pink and the packet.”

The Beauty of Data Visualization

2010-08-24T16:04:00.001-04:00

Going Bananas

2010-08-22T15:01:00.001-04:00

An excerpt from the NY Times Magazine, today, to continue my obsession with Chiquita's banana stickers (you can see my previous posts on this topic here and here...

This makes it all the more impressive that Chiquita has received so much notice by being creative with the little blue stickers that adorn its flagship fruit. The campaign involved using this inconspicuous and familiar little bit of branding turf for a visual experiment: instead of the familiar logo, the stickers carried bold and whimsical iconish face imagery — a monkey, a happy Cyclops, a vaguely anime-style girl, a luchador and so on. Using the same colors as the familiar Chiquita logo, the designs were genuine eye-catchers.

And they may have caught even more eyes online than they did in the store: Chiquita set up a Web tool for people to whip up their own sticker drag-and-drop mixes, and an obliging public created more than 25,000 of them in less than five months, according to the company. This enthusiasm has led to a competition — 1,355 entries were submitted over several months, and online voting starts tomorrow at eatachiquita.com to pick 18 designs that will be stuck onto actual bananas.

I spoke to a couple of Chiquita representatives about the popularity of the sticker-remixing stunt, and in less than 10 minutes they used word “emotional” at least five times — as in “designed to re-engage that emotional connection with consumers” or “really resonate on an emotional level.” Are people really emotional about their banana shopping? I suppose anything is possible. (Although probably the people who are most emotional about the Chiquita brand, really, would link it to a history of controversy over labor practices, the overthrow of the Guatemalan government in the 1950s and the $25 million government fine it paid in 2007 for paying protection money to paramilitary groups in Colombia.) I think the site Design:Related is closer to the truth when it points out that the stickers “just look cool.”

According to the company’s Web site, the former United Fruit Company was “the first company to brand a banana” by introducing Miss Chiquita in 1944. (Originally she was an animated banana; over time she evolved into the woman in the unlikely fruit-filled hat.) Its use of little blue stickers began in 1963. In retrospect, that was a brilliant way to solve the problem of how to apply some version of branded packaging to an item that literally grows on trees. And emotions aside, I suspect that Andrew Ciafardini, a Chiquita assistant spokesman, hits the right point when he explains that the sticker-redesign campaign was driven in part by the question “How do we leverage the iconic real estate that we already have on all our bananas, throughout the world?”

A big part of being “pop” anything these days is prodding the masses to participate directly; hence the contest. The hundreds of designs submitted — interestingly, contestants were asked to not riff on Miss Chiquita herself — take the sticker image into a huge variety of new graphic directions. By actually contributing to the defamiliarizing of something familiar, the contestants layer new “intrigue” onto one company’s supply of what is, after all, a pure commodity.

Ciafardini says Chiquita is particularly interested in communicating to the under-25 crowd that the company offers the “convenient healthy snacking platforms that people are looking for these days.” (I believe that means bananas.) “You know,” he continued, “people want to be able to find a banana in the supermarket so they can eat healthy instead of picking up a candy bar.”
Obviously, anybody can find fruit in the supermarket.

What’s more unusual is the possibility that someone who’s looking for Chiquita’s product might be doing so just to see the stickers on a physical fruit — something that will be true again when the winning designs make their way into the produce section later this year. Now that’s a successful bit of design branding. The little sticker is the most minimal form of packaging imaginable, and yet it’s completely plausible that people will not only seek it out but also buy it. And as a bonus, it even comes with a banana.

Nike Air Max 360 + Goldfish = :)

2010-08-12T12:48:00.000-04:00

NIKE78 - W+K Tokyo LAB | 'ABUKU -泡-’ from NIKE78 on Vimeo.
Link from Flytip, via Vimeo:
"The shoes we received were AIR MAX 360, which emphasizes the air in the soles more than any other NIKE shoe. So we decided to create something based on the concept of air, the main quality of this model. What we did was keep the soles filled with air as is, but take off the upper part of the shoe and use it to mold a clear material into that shape. This became an aquarium for goldfish, a representative aquarium fish in Japan. What you can see from the relationship between a goldfish and air in this microcosm, a shoe, is the human society and the microcosm that contains it. It’s the relationship between the earth/nature and creatures, and the correlation between athletes and NIKE, who contributes to the characteristics of the human body by giving air to shoes. That is the thinking behind the name of this art piece, the ABUKU (Japanese “BUBBLE”). We hope that the people who see this small aquarium built on NIKE Air will stop to think about the artificial/natural environments that surround us and the connection between humans and other living creatures."

I wish: Design Fantasy Camp

2010-08-11T14:43:00.000-04:00

Some one in the office is always in the know and posts these great things on the pin up board in the hallway. I have been so lame lately, that I have had to look no further for happy inspiration than the hallway about 20 feet from my desk. I know...things will improve shortly. This latest one, Design Fantasy Camp, is a cartoon from Lunchbreath's website. Check it out, here. I also love the below info graphics on Maslow's hierarchy of human needs and then a hierarchy of a dog needs.

How to choose the right typeface

2010-08-04T16:58:00.002-04:00

...designed by Julian Hansen, a 22 year old graphic design student from Copenhagen, Denmark. His work is really lovely, and it makes me wish I had chosen to go to design school in Scandinavia. Not that I am knocking Carnegie Mellon and all, but seriously, I think that I might be such a better designer had I been educated in a more rigorous environment that most likely would have frowned upon using Scala Sans for most of my portfolio.

How he chose the right typeface for the poster...

Hasbeens

2010-07-26T13:35:00.001-04:00

While searching for dog beds for Russian, through the six degrees of digital media separation I came across these super hot summer sandals from the Swedish company, Hasbeens. Their story is as follows:

Her name was Anita and she was the hottest mum in all of southern Sweden in the 1970’s. While smoking Camel she screamed at her kids until her curlers fell out and just looked fabulous in her white high-heeled clogs.

One summer day in 2006 we found the shoes she wore (300 pairs of red, white and black beautiful clogs from the 70’s) in the basement of an old clog factory in the neighboring village and brought them to Stockholm. So for all these people that shared our love for Anita’s wooden shoes and for ourselves we started Swedish Hasbeens.

That mental picture is so very Mad Men, and I love it. And consequently, I am torn between ordering the silver sandals and the Pisello green sandals. If they were not $200, I would order both. Technically, I think I actually deserve both, because I am a very nice girl and have had a shitty summer overall. But I think I ought to practice some restraint because I am not sure of the fit of this brand, and whether I wear a size 36 or a 37. They apparently run a little long, but a little narrow. Dilemma! The green is awfully cute, and I already own a pair of silver heels. Yet, silver is a more practical color and I could wear them with anything. Although, I could probably rock the green with everything as well. Help...

The Best Cupcakes in the City

2010-07-22T20:32:00.008-04:00

1. Baked: If you're even remotely familiar with the baked goods scene, then the fact that Baked produces some excellent cupcakes won't come as a surprise. This Red Hook bakery makes some of the best goodies around, and their cupcakes delivered. The lemon drop was one of the overall favorites of the tasting, with bright flavors that reminded us of summer citrus and not jarred lemon curd. The vanilla was a big pick for best of its category, in that it really "tasted like vanilla" and had a light, fluffy texture. The chocolate got solid marks for "excellent flavor," despite being more cake-y than fudge-y. And the sweet and salty, a truly brilliant creation of a chocolate cupcake generously sprinkled with sea salt, made our tasters scream "wonderful"; "fluffy cake and frosting!"; and "wooooo, salty!" What more can you ask for? Baked: 359 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (map); (718) 222-0345; $2.50/cupcake

12. Buttercup Bake Shop : The chocolate from this long-time New York favorite got decent marks, with tasters commenting on a "very chocolatey" flavor. But the vanilla was ill-received, with notes of "crumbly cake" and "overly-sweet frosting." The red velvet had "good cake flavor" but still, the frosting was too sweet. The cupcakes were of a decent size and cake:frosting ratio, but some of the flavors let us down. Buttercup Bake Shop: multiple locations (locations); $2.25/cupcake

via Serious Eats

Backyards gardens

2010-07-16T10:54:00.000-04:00

This morning I was reading the NY Times online and read about Alexandra Reau (click here), a teenager in Michigan who has her own CSA (community supported agriculture) farm with 14 subscribers. I was really blown away by her determination and dedication to such a large project that was/is obviously a tremendous amount of work. What a terrific summer job. At the same age, I was indoors in a permanent state of air-conditioned-ness, filing medical documents into alphabetical order, at a job that my mom got for me because she worked for the same company. While I certainly worked everyday, it leaves a lot to be said as to whether I worked hard at alphabetizing those documents, and it certainly was not as gratifying or as good for the environment in the way that this teenager's summer job certainly is. It makes me happy to know that the next generation is chock full of thoughtful, intelligent and resourceful children who genuinely care about their impact on the world. Now, we adults have to change our perspective as well. And it is more than just joining a CSA or recycling our water bottles, but rather we need to change how we see the world and the people in it.

A sheep for today

2010-07-09T11:55:00.001-04:00

Sheri sent this to me to cheer me up, knowing my extreme love for lambs. And it made my day, to be honest.

I heart Honey Bees

2010-07-07T12:01:00.002-04:00

I have a particular fondness for honey bees. My great uncle John used to keep his own bees to pollinate his farm of fruit trees in western Pennsylvania, and I have really fond childhood memories of watching him collect their honey. And it helps that I also fell in love with the actual taste of honey about six years ago. So much so that I excitedly bought a jar of honey from Habana Outpost, a few year ago and then refused to eat it, because I cherished the idea of honey made a few blocks from apartment and I didn't want to use it up (um, hoarderistic logic?). The honey being made from bees that lived on the roof of a certain Mr. Howe's Fort Greene brownstone. Read more about that here.

However, up until this March, it was illegal to keep honeybees in New York, as they were considered dangerous and venomous animals, you know, sort of like keeping a rattle snake in your apartment. However, at one time, honeybee hives were found on the roof of the Museum of Natural History and in Radio City Music Hall.I would have loved seeing bee hives on my way into seeing the Christmas Spectacular.

And now that I have spent considerable time at Natty Garden, I just am in awe of the job that honey bees do for all of the plants...without them, we would not have any fruits or flowers. (I am also loving the butterflies, but that will be another post, another day.) And so for that, I am extremely grateful for their industrious little fuzzy bodies.

In fact, "then there’s the health of the city. Take the honeybees of East New York Farms!, an organization of urban farmers and neighborhood farmers’ markets. These Brooklyn bees pollinate crops for the entire neighborhood. They aren’t just making honey: they’re building community, creating income and employment and maintaining vital urban green space."

Go bees! You rock.

ps. see my post here about Honey Bees from two years ago. It seems like the inevitable has finally happened. Something that made me happy before has come around again.

The Highline after work

2010-06-28T20:15:00.002-04:00

Rather spontaneously, I decided to walk to 14th Street, via the Highline. I have only been up there one other time, and I was woefully underwhelmed...at the time, it had been crowded and the landscaping was rather dreary and dull. However, today it was incredibly empty (no people!!) and the wildflowers were thick and so delightfully wild looking. I wish I had brought a picnic and a friend, so we could have laid on one of the sun chairs, and eaten snacks while the sun set before us.

Bling

2010-06-28T20:04:00.000-04:00

As I was walking to 14th Street, I cut across on West 20th Street (I think), and saw this terrific blue smiley thing with a blinging good tooth. Everything about this completely appealed to me...the giant smiley face (of course), the gold star on his forehead as his nose, the fact that the address is painted right into the blue ear...I don't know why, but I just think it is just super compelling. I mean, who doesn't enjoy a giant blue maniacal smiley face bursting out of the wall?

Words of wisdom

2010-06-28T17:48:00.003-04:00

Ben Fry ▶ RT @shitmydadsays Don’t focus on the 1 guy who hates you. You don’t go to the park & set your picnic down next to the only pile of dog shit.

Tweet from the Dalai Lama

2010-06-28T08:34:00.003-04:00

Dalai Lama ▶ Ultimately, the reason why love and compassion bring the greatest happiness is simply that our nature cherishes them above all else.

Lilies, part 7

2010-06-27T20:18:00.007-04:00

I woke up this morning and found these lilies sitting in the watering can in the sink, waiting for me patiently. Which is even better than waking up to pancakes.

McClure's Pickles

2010-06-26T20:25:00.001-04:00

Bob, from McClure's Pickles comes to the shop every so often and buys a few dozen bags of topsoil. We usually chat for a moment or two about how business is, as he is always at the Brooklyn Flea and other places around Brooklyn, selling their pickles. Or you can find the pickles (and other pickled stuff) at Brooklyn Larder, as well. Joel bought a jar, and we spent the rest of the afternoon digging pickles out of the jar with our grubby hands. Eating incredible tasting, hot and spicy pickles, on a sultry Saturday afternoon...it really doesn't get much better than that.

A lovely day

2010-06-26T19:32:00.007-04:00

Russian resting...for the millionth time.

The car barricade.

DJ Takashi.

I love you, Portulaca.

This morning, I woke up and decided that I ought to walk to the shop, instead of spending $10 to take car service. This involved having Russian walk the 1.5 miles, as well. But since he has been so much better about actually walking when we go for a walk, I thought it would be good exercise for him. What I did not anticipate was that walking a four month old puppy a mile and a half is pretty much the equivalent of walking a toddler the same distance. He would walk for about a block, and then sit down to rest. And then lie down. People would pass, and want to pet him and he would roll over for a full belly rub. This happened approximately every four minutes or so. And then it got to a point where Russian was so hot that he would not walk any further, so I had to carry him the last few blocks. Which was the equivalent of carrying a 20lb fur coat, that is all nestled into your neck licking your ears, on a 90º day.

But we made it...and it only took about 75 minutes. To walk a mile and a half.

When I got to the shop, I noticed that the whole block was cordoned off for a block party, with broken cars from Mr. Richards' auto body shop serving as the barriers. Unlike the other block party that I passed along the way; which had both proper yellow police tape clearly marking the street off and a big blow up pirate ship made out of that giant air bubble stuff for kids to play on...Washington Avenue had two camping tents pitched in the center of the street so people could eat barbeque without getting sunburned, and DJ Takashi was under a tree, curating (is it called "spinning" any more?) quintessential reggae classics out of giant speakers perched on the curb.

I was eating some veggie patties that I had purchased at Golden Krust (after dropping off Russian's fecal sample at the vet down the street) and the mood of the day was languid and the plants were lush. Somehow, the entire vibe put me into the most perfect mental space, where everything seemed delightful and as if I was looking life from a whole new perspective. I fell even more in love with the portulaca hanging baskets, dreaming of a place in my apartment where I could hang one.

After work, I went home and watched a few episodes of Friday Night Lights while Russian slept, which was the perfect way to end the day.

Bring your dog to work day

2010-06-25T22:27:00.001-04:00

Russian picture(s) of the day

2010-06-25T11:25:00.011-04:00

This dog brings me so much joy.

I can't believe that I just wrote that.

Best Moment of the Day

2010-06-24T23:28:00.002-04:00

from Design Boom:

---
paul smith
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I actually really do love getting up in the morning, really early. I normally leave my house about 5:30 or 6 every morning and then I go swimming. no matter where I am - be it paris or tokyo, I'll still find a pool. I wouldn't say its the best moment of the day but I like it very much.
---
may, 2010

---
pei zhu - studio pei zhu
---
what is the best moment of the day?
its after 3pm until around 9pm. I think that's my best moment. normally I work quite late. during the day I usually discuss work with my team to see the progress and if we have achieved a good result..
---
march, 2010

---
rojkind arquitectos - michel rojkind
---
what is the best moment of the day?
waking up before the sun-rises and starting the day but that would have to
compete with seeing my daughter no matter what time it is.
---
january, 2010

---
MAD architects/ ma yansong
---
what is the best moment of the day?
he best moment of the day is when I get to escape from
work and pick up my children from kindergarten..
---
december, 2009

---
REX architecture / joshua prince-ramus
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I come home and my daughter yells 'daddy' and runs at me.
---
october, 2009

---
michael young
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I don't know. it changes everyday.
maybe sitting in my hot tub on my balcony at the end of the day.
---
august, 2009

---
julien de smedt
---
what is the best moment of the day?
lunch break with friends or collaborators…
---
july, 2009

---
shigeru ban
---
what is the best moment of the day?
dinner time, as this is the only time I have to relax.
---
may, 2009

---
jun aoki
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the early morning. I like to see the sunrise.
---
april, 2009

---
luis mansilla and emilio tunon
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I finish working at my office and I have the chance to walk home, spending 20 minutes reflecting on what I have done during the day and what I think I will do.
---
february, 2009

---
edward barber and jay osgerby
---
what is the best moment of the day?
o: cycling to work in the morning.
having about half an hour to empty your head before you get to work.
b: for me it's swimming. I'll go for a swim in the morning. it just makes me wake-up. I haven't had one this morning, that's why I feel terrible. (laughs)
---
january, 2009

---
vince frost
---
what is the best moment of the day?
sunrise. I just love the beginning of a fresh new day, especially on the beach
when you're overlooking the water and the sun is coming up looking all shiny and new.
---
december, 2008

---
sou fujimoto
---
what is the best moment of the day?
morning, I usually wake up early rather than late, and mornings are very
precious for me. I like the beginning of everything. the morning is the
beginning of a day and I like to think of it as the beginning of architecture.
---
november, 2008

---
inga sempé
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning.
---
october, 2008

---
massimiliano fuksas
---
what is the best moment of the day?
between 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock when I am still in bed.
it is a time when you are dreaming (but you are not dreaming)...
---
september, 2008

---
tony oursler
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the best moment is a shifting moment. everyday is a different experience.
sometimes it's just seeing an ant walk across the sidewalk and that might do it for that day...
---
august, 2008

---
jaime hayon
---
what is the best moment of the day?
breakfast, definitely - and dinner!
---
july, 2008

---
tezuka architects
---
what is the best moment of the day?
returning home, seeing the smiles of our children.
---
june, 2008

---
bruce sterling
---
what is the best moment of the day?
just some pause. it's got to be one of those transitional moments when you've stopped doing one thing and before you've started doing something else.
---
may, 2008

---
minsuk cho (mass studies)
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the best moment of my day is when I'm in a transitional state. when I am in the shower in the morning, I have a hard time getting out, because I love just standing and completely being in between.
---
april, 2008

---
francois roche
---
what is the best moment of the day?
whenever you discover what is behind reality. if you can find a way to open a door, the right door, you see what is inside reality. I really love that.
---
march, 2008

---
francine houben (mecanoo architects)
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I'm dreaming in my bed.
---
february, 2008

---
do-ho suh
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it differs from day to day, but maybe it is the time right before I go to bed.
I enjoy a quiet moment alone.
---
january, 2008

---
theseus chan
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it's when I have a chance to play my guitar in the morning.
---
we met theseus chan at his studio in singapore, on november 29th, 2007

---
paulo mendes da rocha
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the end of the day.
---
we met paulo mendes da rocha in cagliari, on july 2nd, 2007

---
bill viola
---
what is the best moment of the day?
twilight is the most important moment of the day because that is
the time when nature herself is unstable.
---
we met bill viola in venice, on june 9th, 2007

---
giulio iacchetti
---
what is the best moment of the day?
early in the morning, from 5am on.
---
we met giulio iacchetti in milan on january 13th, 2007

---
richard hutten
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the best moment of the day is by far after work when I come
home and play with my children before they go to bed.
---
we met richard hutten in milan on april 17th, 2007

---
jean nouvel
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I am a night bird so I prefer the evening and the night.
---
we met jean nouvel in milan on april 16th, 2007

---
chuck hoberman
---
what is the best moment of the day?
after my first cup of coffee, which I have when I arrive to work,
I spend a few minutes whilst the caffeine kicks in just thinking about possibilities.
---
we met chuck hoberman in new york on may 20th, 2007

---
ivan chermayeff
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it varies, it's never the same. usually it's when something good happens, like a cheque arriving in the mail!
---
we met ivan chermayeff in new york on may 18th, 2007

---
joep van lieshout
---
what is the best moment of the day?
in the evening when everything is done and you can begin to relax, drink and then sleep.
---
we met joep van lieshout in milan on april 18th, 2007.

---
toshiyuki kita
---
what is the best moment of the day?
in the morning because my head is clear.
---
we met toshiyuki kita in milan on april 20th, 2007

---
patricia urquiola
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning, when I first wake up. at the moment this is a different story, with a small child ...
---
we met patricia urquiola in milan on march 26th, 2007

---
tom kovac
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it used to be very late in the evening. the first important act of the morning is the coffee time. it determines the mood for the rest off the day ...
---
we met tom kovac in milan on january 15th, 2007

---
zaha hadid
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it used to be very late in the evening ... if I'm in london it can be different than if I‘m somewhere else. ...
---
we met zaha hadid in cologne on january 16th, 2007

---
ross lovegrove
---
what is the best moment of the day?
about four 'o' clock in the afternoon as I tend to slow down a little and contemplate what has happened, and what's still got to be done that day ...
---
designboom interviewed ross lovegrove on november 30th, 2006

---
tord boontje
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I think first thing in the morning, getting up and discovering the morning freshness. and then probably last thing at night, when everything is pretty calm ...
---
designboom met tord boontje in london on september 20th, 2006.

---
hitoshi abe
---
what is the best moment of the day?
afternoon. between 2pm and 4pm ...
---
designboom interviewed hitoshi abe on october 11th, 2006

---
marc atlan
---
what is the best moment of the day?
first waking up alive. then, every moment related to the anticipation
of what might be coming that day... anticipation can be very exciting ...
---
designboom interviewed marc atlan on october 4th, 2006

---
hussein chalayan
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I guess it's the early morning and late afternoon ...
---
designboom interviewed hussein chalayan on april 6th, 2006

---
vito acconci
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I'm alone...
---
designboom interviewed vito acconci on may 21st, 2006

---
stefan sagmeister
---
what is the best moment of the day?
in the early evening and the early morning.
---
designboom interviewed stefan sagmeister on may 23rd, 2006

---
massimo vignelli
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I go to bed with a feeling of some accomplishment ...
---
designboom interviewed massimo vignelli on may 21st, 2006

---
michael gabellini
---
what is the best moment of the day?
twilight, twilight on. late afternoon into early evening ...
---
we met michael gabellini in milan on april 5th, 2006

---
cameron sinclair
---
what is the best moment of the day?
usually get up early in the morning to have an hour to myself and have a coffee
and catch up on news and email. however I wouldn’t pinpoint a specific time ...
---
we interviewed cameron sinclair on january 12, 2006

---
edouard françois
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the most private one: the pee moment. ...
---
we interviewed edouard françois on october 12, 2005

---
kengo kuma
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I'm driving from my house to the office. I have a convertable,
I can feel the winds of the morning ... and when I see the green leaves, the big trees ...
---
we met kengo kuma in tokyo on november 4th, 2005

---
SANAA : kazuyo sejima + ryue nishiwaza
---
what is the best moment of the day?
just before I go to sleep, everything is finished then ...
---
we met SANAA in vicenza on october 29th, 2005

---
yasuhiro yamashita / atelier tekuto
---
what is the best moment of the day?
midnight, that when I heal my tired body, relax, and yes ... I drink maybe alcohol (I like wine) ...
---
we met shuwa tei in tokyo on november 2nd, 2005

---
makio hasuike
---
what is the best moment of the day?
maybe morning when I have just woken up, or when I go home in the evening ...
---
we met makio hasuike in milan on october 21st, 2005.

---
shuwa tei / intentionallies
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the early morning, when there is a free flow of ideas ...
---
we met shuwa tei in milan on april 14th, 2005

---
yves béhar
---
what is the best moment of the day?
falling asleep, when thoughts end and dreams start.
---
we interviewed yves béhar on june 20, 2005

---
philippe starck
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when you make love to the person that you love ...
---
we interviewed philippe starck on may 23, 2005

---
ora ito
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I have a lot of pleasure during the whole day, when I fall asleep, when I wake up, when I take my shower, ...
---
we met ora ito in milan on april 16th, 2005

---
luca trazzi
---
what is the best moment of the day?
from the moment I wake up I am already enjoying the day.
but honestly I also like going to sleep. maybe it's the moment before falling asleep, that I enjoy most ...
---
we met lica trazzi in milan on march 10th, 2005

---
eero koivisto
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I think walking to work (in the morning) and... kind of starting to sort out things... and everything you do is kind of planned and nothing else goes wrong in the today...
---
we met eero koivisto in cologne on january 19th, 2005

---
marcel wanders
---
what is the best moment of the day?
let me think... waking up.
---
we interviewed marcel wanders on december 16st, 2004

---
hella jongerius
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I like the morning.
---
we met hella jongerius in london on september 25th, 2004

---
scott adams
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I like the moment when I realize I have an idea for my comic.
---
we interviewed scott adams on september 21st, 2004

---
tokujin yoshioka
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the early morning, when I’m alone I think a lot ...
---
we met tokujin yoshioka in milan on april 13, 2004

---
shigeru uchida
---
what is the best moment of the day?
dusk.
---
we met shigeru uchida in milan on june 14, 2004

---
milton glaser
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when the new idea emerges from deep of the back of my brain
to the front of my brain. it happens any time.
---
we met milton glaser in new york on may 18, 2004

---
naoto fukasawa
---
what is the best moment of the day?
late afternoon, before I go home. I look up, I see the sky... that's a good time.
---
we met aoto kukasawa in milan on april 18, 2004

---
maurizio cattelan
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I LOVE THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING
---
maurizio cattelan answered the designboom questions on april 13, 2004

---
mario bellini
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I’m moody and unpredictable. any moment is a good moment, preferably when the sky is not grey.
---
we met mario bellini in milan on april 05, 2004

---
dieter sieger
---
what is the best moment of the day?
evening, I plan and design late in the evening, because it's the
moment because its peaceful, I listen to music, smoke and draw.
---
we met dieter sieger in cologne on january 19, 2004

---
fernando + humberto campana
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when we swim in the morning.
---
we met the campana brothers in cologne on january 19, 2004

---
helmut newton
---
what is the best moment of the day?
working under lights at night.
---
we met helmut newton in milan on september 20, 2001

---
andrée putman
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning when I wake up. I have a vision of what the day will be like.
---
we met andrèe putman in london on september 27, 2003

---
ronan bouroullec
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I find a solution or get an idea... the evening.
---
we met ronan bouroullec in london on september 26, 2003

---
daniel libeskind
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when suddenly you're surprised by something, which is all the time.
---
we met daniel libeskind in london on september 24, 2003

---
amanda levete / future systems
---
what is the best moment of the day?
for me, early morning, when you wake up and the sun's out and your ideas are fresh.
---
we met amanda levete in london on september 26, 2003

---
james irvine
---
what is the best moment of the day?
lunchtime, I like to take a break.
---
we met james irvine in his milanese studio. june 4, 2003

---
dominique perrault
---
what is the best moment of the day?
oh... now, it is the morning, very early in the morning. with the fresh air, the fresh light, a fresh body...
---
we met dominique perrault in milan. april 8, 2003

---
ben van berkel
---
what is the best moment of the day?
it is around 12:00 in the night. sometimes working still, working but also trying to slowly go to sleep...
---
we met ben van berkel in milan. april 8, 2003

---
marc newson
---
what is the best moment of the day?
.....ummmmmm.... siesta time. I suppose. (ha) after lunch. you know when you start to fall asleep...
---
we met marc newson in milan. april 9, 2003

---
alberto meda
---
what is the best moment of the day?
early morning.
---
we met alberto meda in his milanese studio. february 24, 2003

---
andrea branzi
---
what is the best moment of the day?
either the morning when its time to start working or the afternoon when its time to start working.
---
we met andrea branzi in his milanese studio. februry 21, 2003

---
paolo deganello
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning, as early as possible.
---
we met paolo deganello in his milanese studio. january 10, 2003

---
pierluigi cerri
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the afternoon, when there is a sort of balance between what I am doing and my state of mind.
---
we met pierluigi cerri in his milanese studio. november 27, 2002

---
peter cook
---
what is the best moment of the day?
about 6:45 in the morning because I wake up very early, and I think my best thoughts, my mind is very clear... ---
we met peter cook in london. september 28, 2002

---
matali crasset
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning, when I get up early and see my daughter's face, she has a great smile and it is nice to wake up to that.
---
we met matali crasset in lausanne. september 16, 2002

---
mira nakashima-yarnall
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I take my swim at the end of the work day, floating on my back and looking up at the sky and trees.
---
mira nakashima-yarnall answered the designboom questions on july 23, 2002

---
peter eisenman
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I think when I wake up. I get up very early and I have a lot of energy...
---
we met peter eisenman in milan. april 8, 2002

---
jasper morrison
---
what is the best moment of the day?
waking up and going to sleep.
---
we met jasper morrison in milan. april 6, 2002

---
hani rashid
---
what is the best moment of the day?
there are two, very early in my office before anyone gets there, and the other when my cell phone is turned off...
---
hani rashid answered the designboom questions on march 6, 2002

---
oliviero toscani
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I wake up.
---
we met oliviero toscani in milan. march 5, 2002

---
karim rashid
---
what is the best moment of the day?
5 o'clock in the evening-- you know why, the sun. I love this time when the sun is going down...
---
we met karim rashid in mlan. february 10, 2002

---
toyo ito
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I like the evening very much, naturally for working the morning is the best time, but in the evening the city totally changes...
---
we met toyo ito in vicennza. october 25, 2001

---
tadao ando
---
what is the best moment of the day?
no particular moment. morning maybe good because of the feeling of beginning.
---
we met tadao ando in milan. october 1, 2001

---
david lachapelle
---
what is the best moment of the day?
hopefully its the day I'm out taking pictures.
---
we met david lachapelle in milan. september 27, 2001

---
franco maria ricci
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the evening, because I tend to wake up very late, the few times that have
to get up early its because I have to take a plane...
---
we met franco maria ricci in milan. july 21, 2001

---
hugh m. hefner
---
what is the best moment of the day?
well it depends on the day. the nighttime is the right time for me. I have the best time with my girlfriends.
---
we met hugh m. hefner in milan. may 5, 2001

---
john maeda
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the best moment of the day is when I see my kids get up, it gets me going.
---
we met john maeda in milan. april 3, 2001

---
william sawaya
---
what is the best moment of the day?
in the morning when I get here and my mind and physical strength are fresh
---
we met william sawaya in his milanese studio. march 15, 2001

---
ingo maurer
---
what is the best moment of the day?
there are different moments: in the morning when I wake up, when I am in harmony with my wife and sometimes at work.
---
we met ingo maurer in cologne. january 15, 2001

---
vladimir kagan
---
what is the best moment of the day?
early in the morning when you wake up is nice, but I think breakfast is the best.
---
we met vladimir kagan in cologne. january 15, 2001

---
giorgetto giugiaro
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning or the evening when everyone has left and I can take stock of the day in peace.
---
we met giorgetto giugiaro in moncalieri. january 25, 2001

---
paola antonelli
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I get home after work and lie on my couch and read.
---
we met paola antonelli in milan. december 18, 2000

---
david byrne
---
what is the best moment of the day?
my favorite time of day is to get up and eat leftovers from dinner, especially spicy food. its a great feeling.
---
we met david byrne in trieste. november 27, 2000

---
renzo rosso
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the evening, because I relax and spend time with my family.
---
we met renzo rosso in molvena. november 22, 2000

---
dieter rams
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I am more active in the evening, I can work until 1am.
---
we met jdieter rams in kronberg. october 20, 2000

---
ron arad
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I like driving my real children to school, and driving in a traffic jam,
listening to radio 4, and it's fantastic walking in this door here ...
---
we met ron arad in london. october 5, 2000

---
tom dixon
---
what is the best moment of the day?
oh oh oh mornings.
---
we met tom dixon in london. october 5, 2000.

---
ross lovegrove
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I suppose it depends on the time of the year, on the light, I like evening because I can just lie on a bed and relax.
---
we met ross lovegrove in london. october 8, 2000.

---
ettore sottsass
---
what is the best moment of the day?
never or all day.
---
we met ettore sottsass in milan. september 7, 2000

---
alessandro mendini
---
what is the best moment of the day?
when I feel at peace with myself.
---
we met alessandro mendini in milan. september 7, 2000

---
matteo thun
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the evening, because I get up late.
---
we met matteo thun in milan. september 21, 2000

---
antonio citterio
---
what is the best moment of the day?
definitely the morning, breakfast with my children,
my other best moment is when I drink a glass of wine in the evening.
---
we met antonio citterio in milan. september 18. 2000

---
konstantin grcic
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the morning, from 8 to 9.
---
we met konstantin grcic in munich. august 21, 2000

---
aldo cibic
---
what is the best moment of the day?
late afternoon.
---
we met aldo cibic in his milanese studio. june 6, 2000

---
stefano giovannoni
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the evening, when I’m back at home and I have time left to listen to some music,
or spend time with my children.
---
we met stefano giovannoni in milan. june 9, 2000

---
marc sadler
---
what is the best moment of the day?
early morning, I’m more alert. I start work very early in the morning
so as not to be disturbed.
---
we met marc sadler in milan. june 12, 2000

---
elio fiorucci
---
what is the best moment of the day?
its sort of like the seasons: either spring or fall, that is either morning or dusk.
---
we met elio fiorucci in milan. june 30, 2000

---
gaetano pesce
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I have no idea, it depends on the day.
---
we met gaetano pesce in milan. april 16, 2000

---
li edelkoort
---
what is the best moment of the day?
I like the earlier morning, I wake up rather early to have time to recover,
so I have coffee in bed and watch the news on television...
---
we met li edelkoort in his milan. april 14, 2000

---
denis santachiara
---
what is the best moment of the day?
early in the morning.
---
we met denis santachiara in milan. march 28, 2000

---
vico magistretti
---
what is the best moment of the day?
the evening, because its nice not to think.
---
we met vico magistretti in milan. march 22, 2000

My new mantra

2010-06-24T19:04:00.002-04:00

I saw this statement on the side of the Brooklyn Industries store on 19th Street, as I walked to the 2 train this evening. So often these days, I come home and end up doing a whole lot of nothing. And I miss creating things, and inspiring myself. So, like my goal every morning when I wake up — to be more compassionate — (this is after reading the tweet of the day from the Dalai Lama), I will aim to create something new and inspiring every day. The compassion thing is only lasting for about the ten minutes I lay in bed before I shower, so hopefully, the creative thinking thing will extend slightly further into the day. We can only hope.

We work for candy

2010-06-24T18:57:00.000-04:00

This morning when I arrived at the office, I noticed that someone had filled the snack bowls with miniature Milky Ways, Snickers and Kit Kat bars. I took two miniature Milky Ways (because they were the biggest, I have to be honest), and was pleasantly surprised with my unusual sense of will power. I only ate one of the candy bars, and it was not until 3pm. On a normal day, I would have eaten both, immediately. I am going to chalk up this abnormality to stress. (As you can tell, the Milky Ways were popular with everyone, as were the Kit Kats. It's all about bigger is better when it comes to mini chocolate candy bars.)

Blooming Geraniums

2010-06-23T22:58:00.000-04:00

Karin pointed out that the scented geraniums that I brought for her were each blooming with the cutest white and magenta striped flowers. I was pretty surprised because I was under the misguided impression that scented geranium didn't bloom...as if you could not have both scent and flowers on one geranium. Not sure why I thought that, but I have been telling most people that the geraniums were the non-blooming sort. I guess everyone is going to be in for a really lovely little surprise.

Absolut Brooklyn

2010-06-23T19:04:00.011-04:00

I saw this poster for Spike Lee's newest collaboration, on the Borough Hall 2 train platform. I found it interesting, to say the least. Apparently, Spike Lee, the born and raised Brooklyn filmmaker, is encouraging people to drink the special edition Absolut Brooklyn. The vodka is inspired by the borough and the bottle features a brownstone with Lee’s childhood address. The vodka is also inspired by New York City, flavored with apple after the Big Apple. Absolut plans to donate $50,000 to Habitat for Humanity to fund homes in Bedford-Stuyvesant. “We have a long history of collaborating with creative visionaries, and nobody says Brooklyn more than Spike,” Sarah Bessette, a spokeswoman for Absolut, told the Daily News. In addition, the Lars Olsson Smith seal, never before altered on the iconic Absolut bottle, has been “Spiked” – Lars wears a baseball cap and glasses evocative of Spike Lee.

Midsummer Eve

2010-06-21T22:48:00.002-04:00

I had the idea today that this evening would be a perfect night to go to Brighton Beach. I thought that we could take Russian and he could run around on the beach while we ate snacks, celebrating the summer solstice. So I went shopping and bought some English shelling peas, some blueberries and packed a bag that also included Doritos and cashews for a more well rounded snacking scenario. By the time I arrived at the shop, it was 10:30pm and by the time we arrived at the beach, it was exactly midnight...
and I have to be honest and say that Brighton Beach at midnight is full of sort of under the influence looking Russian couples, age 20-something, who seemed to be one step away from some sort of illicit activities. So we wisely made eye contact with no one, and took Russian onto the beach — just thinking about it now, I am sure it was really weird that we were running around, yelling, "RUSSIAN!," while at Brighton Beach. Everyone must have been about one second away from beating the shit out of us.

Tomato seeds = tomato plants

2010-06-21T21:03:00.000-04:00

The roma tomato seeds that I planted about six weeks ago have turned into super robust, albeit wiley, looking seedlings. I had to remove the chopstick stakes this evening and replace them with more substantial bamboo stakes as they all had grown so tall. While I don't totally adore fresh tomatoes as much as say, peas, I do love the idea of growing fresh tomatoes.

Russian picture of the day

2010-06-20T23:11:00.001-04:00

Russian picture of the day

2010-06-19T23:13:00.001-04:00

Bird's nest hair

2010-06-18T23:16:00.000-04:00

This is what my hair looks like when I wash it, don't comb it in the shower, and immediately put it up into little honeybuns on the top of my head. I get a giant frizzy bird's nest on my head.

Russian picture of the day

2010-06-18T23:15:00.002-04:00

2010-06-16T13:37:00.002-04:00

I'M COMIC SANS, ASSHOLE.

BY MIKE LACHER

- - - -

Listen up. I know the shit you've been saying behind my back. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm immature. You think I'm a malformed, pathetic excuse for a font. Well think again, nerdhole, because I'm Comic Sans, and I'm the best thing to happen to typography since Johannes fucking Gutenberg.

You don't like that your coworker used me on that note about stealing her yogurt from the break room fridge? You don't like that I'm all over your sister-in-law's blog? You don't like that I'm on the sign for that new Thai place? You think I'm pedestrian and tacky? Guess the fuck what, Picasso. We don't all have seventy-three weights of stick-up-my-ass Helvetica sitting on our seventeen-inch MacBook Pros. Sorry the entire world can't all be done in stark Eurotrash Swiss type. Sorry some people like to have fun. Sorry I'm standing in the way of your minimalist Bauhaus-esque fascist snoozefest. Maybe sometime you should take off your black turtleneck, stop compulsively adjusting your Tumblr theme, and lighten the fuck up for once.

People love me. Why? Because I'm fun. I'm the life of the party. I bring levity to any situation. Need to soften the blow of a harsh message about restroom etiquette? SLAM. There I am. Need to spice up the directions to your graduation party? WHAM. There again. Need to convey your fun-loving, approachable nature on your business' website? SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring.

When people need to kick back, have fun, and party, I will be there, unlike your pathetic fonts. While Gotham is at the science fair, I'm banging the prom queen behind the woodshop. While Avenir is practicing the clarinet, I'm shredding Reign In Blood on my double-necked Stratocaster. While Univers is refilling his allergy prescriptions, I'm racing my tricked-out, nitrous-laden Honda Civic against Tokyo gangsters who'll kill me if I don't cross the finish line first. I am a sans serif Superman and my only kryptonite is pretentious buzzkills like you.

It doesn't even matter what you think. You know why, jagoff? Cause I'm famous. I am on every major operating system since Microsoft fucking Bob. I'm in your signs. I'm in your browsers. I'm in your instant messengers. I'm not just a font. I am a force of motherfucking nature and I will not rest until every uptight armchair typographer cock-hat like you is surrounded by my lovable, comic-book inspired, sans-serif badassery.

Enough of this bullshit. I'm gonna go get hammered with Papyrus.

via McSweeneys from Lara.

Ben Schott on the World Cup

2010-06-11T09:49:00.003-04:00

via the New York Times.

World Cup Coca Cola

2010-06-10T10:50:00.000-04:00

Today when I went to get lunch, I noticed the Coca Cola South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup cans in the refrigerator on the 8th floor. The cans brought back a mixture of emotions for me, nostalgia mixed with some serious longing. For when I lived in South Africa 13 years ago, I collected Coke cans, for whatever reason, and came back home with a flattened pile of Cokes. At that time, it was impossible to buy Pepsi, not like I would have anyway, because Pepsi left South Africa in 1985 because of its apartheid policies. Coke stayed on, and became a beloved drink because of its loyalty to its South African consumers. The FIFA cans completely captured the essence of how I remembered South Africa, so it was really a nice surprise to find remember such a series of nice memories in such a unexpected place.

My birthday tee shirt

2010-06-10T10:03:00.001-04:00

This morning when I came into the office, I found a perfectly lovely polka dotted wrapped package on my desk from Cherith. When I opened it, there was the most perfect tee shirt from Threadless. Combining almost all of my loves in life — biking, plants, cute little animals, and talk bubbles — this tee shirt absolutely made my day in every single way. I noticed that this birthday, even more than usual, was full of the most perfect gifts from all of my friends. From the wrappings to the cards to the gifts themselves, everything felt so reflective of all of the things that bring me delight, and I am so lucky to have such astute friends who know me so well.

Thank you Cherith, you rock.

Salon Series #4 Investigate: Round foods

2010-06-03T11:02:00.001-04:00

As part of the Johnson + Johnson Global Strategic Design Office's (GSDO) internal speaker series, I am in charge of the cocktail hour food, drink and entertainment/decorations. For this week's salon, the theme was investigation. My colleague Rusty and I came up the idea that if all of the food was round, the only way you would be able to tell the difference between what you were eating was color and texture. Shape was taken out of the consideration set. I envisioned people with plates of ball-shaped food rolling around, and this image brought a certain level of weird delight to me. The idea also was that the foods were round, but could be any sort of foods, so that you might eat a meatball, followed by a Whopper malted milk ball, followed by a blueberry followed by a doughnut hole. The only unifying factor across all of the disparate foodstuffs was their underlying shape. Sadly, the popcorn balls, Whoppers, and cheese balls (with real cheese!) arrived a day late.

May birthday cupcakes

2010-05-13T20:50:00.000-04:00

As is the office custom, cupcakes were ordered today for all of the birthdays celebrated in the month of May. Usually, the birthday people are not even in the office, for whatever reason. But everyone rushes over to get the banana or red velvet cupcakes, as Billy's seems to do an excellent job with both of those flavors. However, today, I opted for a plain vanilla cupcake because it had such perfect looking frosting. And I also a sucker for the round ball sprinkles. I like the crunch. I liked how the frosting looked SO MUCH, that I ate off all of the frosting and then felt so sick that I was unable to actually eat the cupcake itself, which was a shame.

Macarons from Koryodang

2010-05-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, when I was in Koreatown, I stopped by Koryodang Bakery to check it out, and ended up purchasing sixteen macarons for my team. (They were only $1 a macaron!) I brought them into the office today, and after the meeting we sat on the red couch and indulged in some macaron time. I have to say, they were really really good tasting macarons. And they looked perfect.

Rating: A

2010 FIFA World Cup

2010-05-12T20:56:00.000-04:00

I don't even like soccer all that much but this particular commercial has gotten me so super excited for the FIFA World Cup. I am not sure if it is because I am feeling nostalgic for when I lived in South Africa or what, but something in this commercial just affects me.

Change up

2010-05-11T13:58:00.002-04:00

I have spent about five hours trying to get my blog updated with a new look and feel. This was inspired by my co-worker's blog which took him about 27 minutes to put together, approximately. I wish there was an easier way to wrestle control of my blog's looks, but this will do for now. I am at least happy to change after the past three years...it was long overdue for a new outfit.

What's for breakfast: fried egg + frisee sandwich

2010-05-10T21:10:00.000-04:00

My lavender is finally happy

2010-05-07T21:14:00.000-04:00

My lavender is blooming!! I have had it since last year and it was sort of pouty, and refused to bloom. So I just left it alone to do its own thing, and over the winter it maintained its little plant dignity and never died. And now this spring, it started sending up new arms, and now it is blooming. I feel like it took an entire year for my lavender plant to finally feel at home in its window box. I feel like there is some irony in the fact that I have such high maintenance plants that require everything to be just perfect, before they feel like cooperating with what nature intended for it to do.

For Juliana

2010-04-28T13:52:00.002-04:00

Touring Isabel Marant's New Boutique

Posted to New York Magazine by video on April 16, 2010

Click to Play | View Details

What's for lunch: ส้มตำ w/brown rice

2010-04-26T11:20:00.000-04:00

I acquired my love for Som Tam when I lived in North Eastern Thailand one month during college. Usually, I go for the super spicy, but lately, my spicy taste buds have been on hiatus, so I had to order it mild today, for lunch. And while it is usually eaten as an accompaniment to sticky rice and barbeque chicken — I don't eat chicken and sticky rice is nutritionally negative in fiber, so I eat it with brown rice in the typical American fashion of ruining most cultural dishes through substitution.

Carmelo Anthony ad = Weirdness

2010-04-25T13:13:00.000-04:00

Venus Fly Traps

2010-04-25T11:12:00.001-04:00

I am particularly loving the mini Venus Fly Traps that are at Natty Garden right now. ($9.50 per plant.) While I am not usually into weird looking plants, Venus Fly Traps seem to appeal to me with their carnivorous appetites, paired with their bright lime green arms and little pink mouths. So, I set one up in its own little saucer of water, which is what the instructions specified, and then spent the afternoon waiting for it to catch some appropriately sized bugs. Like a gnat or something. Which never seemed to happen, in the sense that I was waiting for some sort of aggressive gnashing of its claws with an audible snap. Albeit, this plant is maybe four inches tall from the base to the tip of its little claws.

Person of the Day: my friend Ladan

2010-04-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

This is a picture of Ladan and I, hanging out on her couch. I stopped by her place after having drinks with my old boss, and there was a bit of "dark + stormy" color in my cheeks. We were trying to think of where we were going to go for dinner. Ladan and I used to live in the same building, and befriending she and our other friend Michelle has made me incredibly thankful that I moved there, despite not wanting to, initially. OVer the past three years, Ladan and I have grown incredibly close, and I think of her as the sister I never had. And I feel so lucky to have her in my life, so thank you to whomever aligned the planets just so, that allowed us to meet when we did.

Around the World in 80 Seconds

2010-04-23T08:17:00.002-04:00

I saw this posted on Twitter by Mark Bittman, and it was enough inspiration to at least get me motivated to walk to the kitchen and get a hot chocolate/coffee which I had wanted before but was to lazy to go and prepare. Seriously, though, I should be working on a cool project like this...I need to get my act together.

I love Spring

2010-04-18T18:19:00.003-04:00

Someone had chalked this onto the ground at Natty Garden yesterday after I left, and it was a delightful surprise when I arrived this morning. It is amusing how something as simple as a heart chalked onto the pavement can bring into clarity the love that I feel for everyone in my life.

Ackee + Saltfish on a Sunday

2010-04-18T15:30:00.001-04:00

I am not sure if I am just not a picky eater (or not that picky, I should say), or I can easily learn to enjoy new foods, but I am slavishly devoted to eating giant platefuls of ackee and salt fish at every opportunity. Being that I am not Jamaican, this is obviously this is not a dish that I grew up eating — my mom made meals that were more in the camp of meatloaf or chicken a la king; tacos, if she was feeling exotic — in fact, we did not eat many meals that even featured rice as the starch. Yet, I honestly think that I could eat ackee with salt fish at least once a day, for a good few months before I even tired of the thought of eating it, and then maybe would switch to having it once every few days to break up the monotony...

Moto with Sheri

2010-04-16T22:57:00.003-04:00

Sheri and I met for dinner at a place called Moto, in Williamsburg. It is on Broadway, between Hooper and Keap, right under the JMZ train tracks. It took me all of 8 minutes to get there, thanks to the close proximity of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

I am pretty certain I helped my friend Elizabeth move into an apartment right next door to the restaurant, about eight or nine years ago, when this neighborhood was still sort of sketchy. (Not that it still isn't a bit lowbrow, considering that when we left, a guy was standing next to a phone booth openly pissing on the sidewalk at 9pm.)

Moto was empty when we arrived at 7pm, and was fully crowded by the time we left at 9:30pm. At that point, there was also a musical trio comprised of a string bass, an accordion and some other instrument, playing live music — which added to the overall niftiness. Our food was pretty satisfying, especially on such a rainy (i.e. crappy) night — I had the warm lentils with a slab of cool feta and a crostini with fig paste to start and then a panini of roasted eggplant, arugula and goat cheese for my main course. Sheri had the roasted tomato soup with a giant crostini floating in it (how do you eat that, we wondered?), plus an artichoke with saffron mayonnaise (a biggish glop that seemed a little like too much mayo to me, but I am truly biased), and the beet salad with herring, sour cream and whole wheat matzoh to finish. There was chocolate pudding on the menu which was sort of calling my name, but I have wisely learned when to stop while I am ahead. Chocolate pudding could have totally taken me down for the count.

In addition to eating a great deal, Sheri and I spent the evening catching up on the current events in our lives. There is always lots of drama, and it never seems like we have enough time to cover everything...the Sheri-Aimee hang outs have been a bit far and few these days because we both are so busy, so it is always super special when we have the chance to catch up with just the two of us.

Amy's Omelette House in NJ

2010-04-16T18:41:00.001-04:00

I met Lani + Inez in New Jersey for a much needed "Lani-Aimee hanging out" day. First off, we had to have brunch at Amy's Omelette House on Ocean Boulevard North in Long Branch, NJ. It is important to note that the North part of the address makes all of the difference in actually finding the restaurant. Otherwise, you will be at 440 Ocean Boulevard, looking at a condo complex, wondering where the hell the pancake place in the strip mall is, and getting increasingly frustrated.

I know this, because despite Lani looking up the address online, we could not find it for an hour — and we have been there before. We tried 44 Ocean Boulevard (which is what she actually wrote down), and then 440 Ocean Boulevard, and then finally, I noticed that there was an Ocean Boulevard North...and Lani finally had to call her brother-in-law Jim, as well, to clarify whether or not the place had vanished into thin air. Or a condo complex.

Thankfully, we found it. And then we proceeded to go nuts and order the harvest pancakes (pumpkin pancakes with granola and raisins on top), an egg white omelette with (extra) feta, lox, and sauteed vegetables, complete with home fries on the side (well done). We also ordered the berry pancakes for Inez, and a side of dry toast. For Inez, the whipped cream was a big hit, as was the dry toast. For Lani and I, the pumpkin pancakes are always a winner, and the omelette was also super delicious with the inclusion of the lox.

To be honest, Amy's is worth driving the hour and change from Brooklyn for the pumpkin pancakes, alone.

Note:

The fact that Lani and I like almost all of the same foods (there are only a few things that I hate which she loves, like olives and vice versa), that reinforces why she and I loved being roommates together in college. After Amy's we bought jumbo boxes of candy at Walgreen's — Jujubes for me, Jujyfruits for her — and proceeded to snack ourselves into a candy coma.

My (foster) snake plant

2010-04-15T19:13:00.003-04:00

This is Cassandra's snake plant, but she had — according to me — neglected it woefully, by not repotting it in a timely manner. So I took it home and asked Joel if he could repot it for me. And then I brought it back to work and put it on my desk. My feeling is such that if you don't take care of your plants, you don't deserve to keep them. Sort of like CPS for plants. Cassandra became a bit peevish about this arrangement, understandably, so we compromised and the plant now belongs to both of us...and sits on the coffee table in the office.

Note:

Since being repotted, it has grown almost double in size.

Musical Nike Shoes

2010-04-14T22:29:00.003-04:00

A friend posted this on Facebook, and it has honestly inspired me do something creative with even the most mundane objects, instead of sitting around and whining about how long and tiring my day was...just do it, I guess.

Aimee 287, Scrabble 207 — enough said

2010-04-14T22:00:00.000-04:00

Ortine with Ladan

2010-04-11T19:17:00.002-04:00

I took a quick break this afternoon and went across the street to meet Ladan for a little tea time at Ortine. Ortine is located right next door to her apartment building (my old building) on Washington Avenue, and is owned by Steve — who gave me acupuncture treatments to cure my vertigo — and his wife, Sarah. I have been there many times and Ladan loves to go there every morning for a coffee and a croissant. Today for tea time, she had a coffee with some dulce de leche ice cream, and I had an apple juice and a side of roasted almonds.

Nice use of the state of NY symbol

2010-04-09T19:27:00.000-04:00

I saw this license plate on West 23rd Street, as I was walking to the 1/9 train with Lara.

Goodnight, sleep well

2010-04-07T19:34:00.000-04:00

Just before I went to sleep.

Trashy hair

2010-04-04T19:35:00.000-04:00

I am particularly delighted when the handles + airholes on boxes become anthropomorphic faces. I guess I am guess a sucker for smiley face things. I saw this on Summit Street between Van Brunt and Columbia Streets, right across from Gowanus Nursery.

Happy Birthday, Ren!

2010-04-04T15:45:00.000-04:00

Today is both Easter AND Ren's second birthday party. I don't really celebrate Easter other than to rejoice that is is finally spring time, so it seemed like a perfect day for a two year old's birthday party. The weather was amazing and begged for a bunch of bike riding all over Brooklyn, first. When I arrived, there were about 10 little kids running all over the place, and then Ren was wandering around, playing by herself in the jetsam of the older kids' chaos. At one point, there was an Easter Egg hunt, which caused the kids to run around even more frenetically. A three year old little girl had so many eggs that her bag threatened to tear from the sheer force of so many candy-filled plastic eggs being jammed in there. She was clearly the outstanding winner, from an "I have way more eggs than anyone else" perspective.

Ren was a bit overwhelmed by everyone singing Happy Birthday to her, so much so, that her older sister Demi had to assist in the candle blowing out part. Which is why I still wish that I had an older sister...so that she could step in when times were stressful and take control of the situation.

Brunching in Dumont's garden

2010-04-04T12:54:00.000-04:00

I had brunch with Ladan at Dumont, in Williamsburg...it is on Union Avenue between Metropolitan Avenue and DeVoe Street. The owners are also the owners of Dressler — my most favorite restaurant since 360 in Red Hook closed. I have been to Dumont Burger before, but never to the actual Dumont, so it was nice to check it out. And it was a perfect day for brunching outside in a garden. I had two glasses of fresh orange juice in about six minutes flat, because my run in the morning (hello sub seven minute miles!) had completely worn me out.

I heart Okomiyaki

2010-04-02T20:01:00.000-04:00

Michelle, Ladan and I went to Geido tonight for dinner...I had my usual Geido order of the veggie okonomiyaki without mayonnaise. For whatever reason, I became violently ill and had to actually rush home so that I could get sick in the private confines of my own bathroom. Despite it looking disgusting, okonomiyaki is actually incredibly delicious, and I must have become sick only because I ate it in about four minutes due to extreme hunger.

It's Springtime at Natty Garden!

2010-04-02T18:07:00.003-04:00

M&Ms for Easter

2010-04-02T16:17:00.000-04:00

I am loving these limited edition M&Ms for Easter, with little ducks, chicks, lambs and bunnies made from the traditional "m" stamped on the tummy of each M&M.

How to make Peepshi = Peeps Sushi

2010-04-02T11:25:00.007-04:00

posted by Grace Kang on Serious Eats.

Photos by Robyn Lee.

What you will need to make Peepshi:

a sharp Knife

Peeps: 6 Peeps per roll, 1 Peep per handroll, 1 Peep per nigiri

1 box of Rice Krispies Treats

1 box of Fruit by the Foot

1. Slice off six 3/16th inch slices lengthwise from a Rice Krispies Treat (Please don't kill yourself trying to get exactly 3/16 inches. There are more important things to worry about, like beheading Peeps!).

2. Execute six Peeps of your color choice by decapitation. Cut off more neck than you think is appropriate. If necessary, you can trim off more later.

3. Portion out a length of Fruit by the Foot slightly longer than the Rice Krispies Treat slice.

4. Flatten and elongate the Rice Krispies Treat slice slightly and shape it into a hollow circle. It's okay if it breaks, just mold it back together again.

5. Take a Peep head and tuck it into the top of the hollow Rice Krispies treat cylinder. Use a toothpick or tip of the a knife to help get it snug.

6. Wrap the Fruit by the Foot strip around your roll. Some folding and nipping may be necessary to get the cleanest look.

7. Serve at room temperature.

I heart Books

2010-04-02T11:06:00.002-04:00

This is brilliant...sent to me from my friend, Lara...and validates that while I might truly want an iPad, I also will always love printed books and magazines.

I want this bike

2010-04-01T20:24:00.000-04:00

Hydrangeas on the UES

2010-04-01T17:24:00.000-04:00

I saw a randow window box laying on the sidewalk on 68th Street, filled full of hydrangeas and ivy. Not sure how they got the hydrangeas to bloom this way (pink to blue and back again), since it is the acidity of the soil that causes the color of the hydrangea to be the color it is. Or so I always thought.

The Whitney Biennial

2010-04-01T16:28:00.001-04:00

My most favorite thing at the Whitney Biennial was this window in the Whitney, and how it provided a little slice out of the museum world onto what was happening outside on 75th Street. Other than that, this year's Biennial was pretty lame, sadly.

Kit Kats for Marcos

2010-03-31T20:31:00.000-04:00

closed

open

I bought this box of limited edition Kit Kat minis for Marcos, keeping up my usual tradition of buying him unusual Kit Kat flavors. This one in particular has little cookies somehow sandwiched above the wafer thing. However, in a fit of snacking, I broke it open and proceeded to eat all of the minis in pretty much one sitting. (It was a stressful day.)

Animals that are "friends"

2010-03-31T13:08:00.002-04:00

-excerpted from The New York Times, by Jon Mooallem

The Laysan albatross is a downy seabird with a seven-foot wingspan and a notched, pale yellow beak. Every November, a small colony of albatrosses assembles at a place called Kaena Point, overlooking the Pacific at the foot of a volcanic range, on the northwestern tip of Oahu, Hawaii. Each bird has spent the past six months in solitude, ranging over open water as far north as Alaska, and has come back to the breeding ground to reunite with its mate. Albatrosses can live to be 60 or 70 years old and typically mate with the same bird every year, for life. Their “divorce rate,” as biologists term it, is among the lowest of any bird.

When I visited Kaena Point in November, the first birds were just returning, and they spent a lot of their time gliding and jackknifing in the wind a few feet overhead or plopped like cushions in the sand. There are about 120 breeding albatrosses in the colony, and gradually, each will arrive and feel out the crowd for the one other particular albatross it has been waiting to have sex with again. At any given moment in the days before Thanksgiving, some birds may be just turning up while others sit there killing time. It feels like an airport baggage-claim area.

Once together, pairs will copulate and collaboratively incubate a single egg for 65 days. They take shifts: one bird has to sit at the nest while the other flaps off to fish and eat for weeks at a time. Couples preen each other’s feathers and engage in elaborate mating behaviors and displays. “Like when you’re in a couple,” Marlene Zuk, a biologist who has visited the colony, explained to me. “All those sickening things that couples do that gross out everyone else but the two people in the couple? . . . Birds have the same thing.” I often saw pairs sitting belly to belly, arching their necks and nuzzling together their heads to form a kind of heart shape.

About two dozen birds were knocking around when Lindsay Young and I arrived at Kaena Point one afternoon. Young dished about a few of them — “Her mate didn’t show up last year”; “God, this one’s annoying” — as they waddled by. Laysan albatrosses are not nearly as graceful on land as they are in the air; even they seem surprised by the size of their feet. (Later that week, at a nearby resort, I would recognize their gait while watching an out-of-shape snorkeler toddle back to his beach towel in rented flippers.)

Young and I ambled around for half an hour, maybe more. Then she pointed and, in a monotone, said, “So, that’s a female-female pair.” We crouched and watched the two birds, numbers 169 and 983. They sat under a spindly, native Hawaiian naio bush. They made baa sounds at each other.

Homosexual activity is often observed in animal populations with a shortage of one sex — in the wild but more frequently at zoos. Some biologists anthropomorphically call this “the prisoner effect.” That’s basically the situation at Kaena Point: there are fewer male albatrosses than females (although not every male albatross has a mate). Because it takes two albatrosses to incubate an egg, switching on and off at the nest, a female that can’t find a male (or maybe, Young says, who can’t find “a good-enough male”) has no chance of producing a chick and passing on her genes. Quickly mating with an otherwise-committed male, then pairing with another single female to incubate the egg, is a way to raise those odds.

[Only a few months before I visited Kaena Point, two penguins at the San Francisco Zoo became the latest in a tradition of captive same-sex penguin couples making global headlines. After six years together — in which the two birds even fostered a son, named Chuck Norris — the penguins split up when one of the males ran off with a female named Linda. The zoo’s penguin keeper, Anthony Brown, told me he received angry e-mail, accusing him of separating the pair for political reasons. “Penguins make their own decisions here at the San Francisco Zoo,” Brown assured me. And while he stressed that there is no scientific way of determining if animals are “gay,” because the word connotes a sexual orientation, not just a behavior, he also noted that, being the San Francisco Zoo, “there’s definitely a lot of opinion here, internally, that we give in and call the penguins gay.”]

“There's two mating right there,” Lindsay Young called out. They were right below her, 10 yards away on a flat, vegetated ridge. It was late afternoon. One albatross lay on its stomach, wobbling with its wings pulled back — the way penguins slide over ice — while a second stood upright behind it, fat rippling down its telescoping neck, as it pumped its pelvis. The birds carried on for a while. Then the male shivered and retracted. The female came to her feet and walked off.

Young read the female’s leg band with her binoculars. “You just hit the jackpot,” she told me. The bird was part of a female-female pair. The male had another mate.Young started scribbling notes, and we sat there rapidly rehashing the details. The sex didn’t seem forced at all. In a rape, Young said — which, for all the talk of albatross monogamy, is not uncommon in the species — a male will pin a female’s neck to the ground, or back her into a bush to tangle her up. (One study observed four different gangs of males forcing themselves on a single female, which lost an eye in the process.) But these two birds hardly seemed in a rush. Young made more notes. Then, with the male bird frozen right where he’d been left, the female slapped her rubbery feet on the ground, caught an updraft and disappeared over the ocean.

The next morning, Young still seemed to be assuring herself that her interpretation of what we’d seen was reasonable. “We didn’t see how it started, but how it ended looked . . . ” — she searched for a precise, nonanthropomorphic phrase. She couldn’t really find one, and let out a self-effacing laugh. “Mutually beneficial?” she said. “I don’t know!”

Chiquita Banana Refresh

2010-03-30T16:13:00.006-04:00

About a year ago, I blogged about bananas (here) when I talked about how I might have started liking bananas a whole lot sooner if they had their cute new labels way back when. Then today, I stumbled across a link on The Dieline to this posting on Design Related about the new labels that were designed for Chiquita...

Chiquita Banana Brand Refresh

An Interview with the Designer, DJ Neff

by matt sung, February 04, 2010

Chiquita's latest ad campaign imbues its audience with an instant sense of wonder. Using playful illustrations on stickers juxtaposed to the iconic Chiquita stickers, the product and brand become more engaging to the consumer—plus they just look cool. We got a chance to ask the Art Director, DJ Neff, some questions about the process of making bananas (even more) fun.

What can you tell us about creating this new campaign for Chiquita?

The process relied heavily in spending as much time with the product as possible. In this case it meant my partner Mark Krajan and I eating a bunch of bananas a day. Thankfully, we like bananas.It helps to immerse ourselves in the product and research as much as we can before coming up with ideas. In this case that emphasis was on the fruit and its cultural significance. After filling up on information, we let it all spill out in different ideas, drawings, sayings, photographs, then start to figure out truths. These truths all stem from the product and work outward, pulling from research and ideas to build upon the foundation, laddering up to a big idea.

The cornerstone of the campaign relied on the little blue stickers, the biggest icon for the brand, and the biggest way to get the word out. It was obvious the character stickers were going to be a must do, but we pushed to create more, something fun for people to do, a hub for Chiquita fans to go to. Further thinking led us to giving bananas personalities and how all bananas start out good but eventually go bad (and for consumers not to let that happen). "Dont Let Another Good Banana Go Bad" was the through line of our campaign and it was incorporated into all of our work. The idea grew into a fully immersive microsite that contained viral videos, a sticker generator, and a completely unique 3D flash game called Banana Boogie Battle. This experience gave the users opportunities to create their own banana sticker personality and breakdance battle against bananas that have turned to the dark side.

What were your client's goals, and how did this project help communicate them?

The client’s goals were kind of like that dream brief you get handed that simply says: “Make bananas cool.” At first it’s like, “Whoa that’s easy,” but many times the more open the brief, the more you have to do to check yourself creatively. It can be easy to get caught up in a landslide of slick executions or fad creative wrappers. These kinds of approaches often do little for the campaign’s longevity or brand image in the future. Our client expects us to come to them with the coolest and most innovative stuff, but it was still up to us to really figure out strategically what about Chiquita bananas would always be cool. Determining what was cool fell into a few different areas: creativity, expression, and entertainment.

We created a range of ideas that we felt kept true to the Chiquita brand equities and allowed consumers to interact with the brand in new cool and exciting ways. In partnering with The Famous Group in Los Angeles, we were able to execute all of our ideas in the same facility, from shooting videos, editing, 3D modeling, and designing the website itself. We weren't creating just a campaign, we were creating a multi-faceted, interactive brand experience from the ground up. Also, knowing the client would want to track results in real time, we felt integrating with Facebook gave us a lot of advantages in exposure and instant communication between the brand and its enthusiasts.

These illustrations are really great and fun. What inspired you to create this family of characters?

Inspiration for the face idea first came from seeing what people did with the chiquita stickers after they ate the banana even before we put faces on them. So, the hope was by creating the characters, now when they eat the banana, they are even more excited and inspired to put that sticker somewhere special to keep it. The designs themselves had to be fun, so I just thought about all the fun things I like, cartoons, toys, people I know, and they sort of just came out. Honestly, we did so many stickers the hardest part was picking only 25.

How did your interactions with the client evolve? Did they give you guys creative freedom from the get go, or was it something that took more effort to express your own vision?

Our interactions with the client were fairly typical, but fortunately the client was hungry to do something different. Surprisingly working with bananas isn’t the bowl of laughs most think it should be. Being a commodity, it’s a pretty straight business. It’s hard to sway consumers when purchases are made primarily based on price. Luckily, Chiquita had already made efforts to “cool” up the stickers in the past—nothing like we had imagined, but it helped pave the way for our ideas for sure. Once we showed them the direction, they were excited about the possibilities, but pushed us to create a campaign that would have longevity. We were given a lot of freedom to design and create it the way we imagined it, but we liked involving their input as much as we could. It’s really important to maintain an open communication channel about our goals as designers while trying to integrate the clients needs and educating them on solutions we felt could work. A lot of the time you have to not only be creative with the campaign, but also be creative with the way you talk about it, coming up with ideas sometimes on the spot to help keep your client interested and excited. All in all it was a great experience and I am thankful we had clients like we did. It showed in the work.

So, what is “brand equity”, and what makes it significant not only for Chiquita but also for other brands out there?

I like to talk about brand equity in what I do because I feel like it is the most important starting point to rebranding any business. I think brand equity is a pretty simple notion: unique value. Sometimes it’s an easy to see value, like the Chiquita stickers, or sometimes it can be harder to recognize, like an old forgotten tagline that was abandoned because of changing fads. This is where my job gets fun, in discovering unique traits a brand has to build on, even if they may be lost in the marketing shuffle over the years.

The great thing about looking hard at something the brand already owns, no matter how small, is that there is usually a cultural recognition there already. With some application of this value to an idea you have, it creates a familiar association with an unfamiliar dynamic, therefore creating intrigue in the viewer—much like pop art does. In the case of Chiquita, we felt that there was a lot of brand equity in the stickers, both with product interaction and marketing potential. Creating a campaign to really maximize its potential creatively was a smart decision and gave added value to an already established brand equity.

Sometimes brand equity is created and not found, like with a product that is new or unprecedented. In this case brand equity can exist within brands surrounding the product in the cultural landscape. Similar values with other companies, many times from different categories, can lend themselves to a new product because of a familiar association or cultural significance. Then our job as designers becomes recognizing the area that our product lives in, or wants to live in, and creating value to allow its seamless placement amongst its peers. Like if you’re going to a black tie affair you don’t wear a Hawaiian shirt, you wear a tuxedo or formal dress. So when designing a brand for your product, make sure you know what party you are going to go to because what you wear speaks wonders about who you are.

Many times as designers we are tasked to help brands build or rebuild their identities. We may initially think that a clean slate is required to achieve a better identity, and in some cases that can be true if the existing brand identity has little to no value. But in most cases, there is always something that can be built on, discovered, or championed with any brand. It really just requires spending as much time as you can with the product, immersing yourself in it. Like method designing, you just have to live it and the work will flow through you.

French crunchy caramel things

2010-03-29T20:36:00.002-04:00

they look like this before you pop it in your mouth

they look like this on the shelf at the store in France

Elysha shared some of her coveted chocolate caramal crunchy candies with me today during a meeting. I had never tasted these particular candies before and I have to say, they are incredibly addictive. It is a good thing that I don't live in Paris...I would be so fat.

A knitted world

2010-03-29T11:10:00.002-04:00

Helen sent me this link this morning, and it made my day. Which says a lot, since I left both my of my lunch options at home this morning, forgot to brush my teeth before I left the house, and I didn't eat any breakfast.

Vinegar Hill House

2010-03-28T20:09:00.002-04:00

I met a friend for brunch today at Vinegar Hill House — a place that has been on my list for while, but which I haven't gotten around to eating at until today. It is a quick bike ride from my apartment, and located about a block away from where all of my stuff is living in storage, deep in the Vinegar Hill part of DUMBO. Or maybe it's it own little neighborhood, and it is not a part of DUMBO. Whatever.

Either way, I had a perfectly yummy meal of toast fingers (strips of toasted focaccia) with two poached eggs over fava bean puree, cucumbers and pickled onions. It came in a medium sized bowl and the portion was about what I would have made for myself at home — i.e. not too much that I could not finish it all — although I had to ask for two more strips of toast as the ratio of toast to stuff to stick on the toast was not quite right. Poached eggs and fava bean puree require toast for eating properly, in my opinion.