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Okay so this is going to be a tiny bit embarrassing and very personal, but at the same time it’s kind of interesting. I’m hoping this will become interactive and someone else on the team will post a reply, or maybe even some readers will share some links?

Anyway, I was recently forced to sort through a bunch of my childhood items that were in storage at my parents place, now that they’re moving, it was time to downsize and get rid of a lot of toys I had been storing away.

But, this post is not about the toys I’ve given away, it’s about the one’s i’ve decided to keep, because they were a big part of my childhood and i’m still attached to them….even at the age of twenty-six….(I know, kinda lame, but i’ll probably never grow up).

Meet Pound Puppy, Pooh Bear and Glo Worm.

Now here’s where I ask you the question, what was your childhood toy or item? A bear? A blanket? G.I Joe?

I’ve had Pound Puppy since I was a toddler and he travelled around the world with me, I used to use him as a pillow for my little head. As for Pooh Bear, I think he was given to me at a very young age, he’s super old and very worn. And lastly the ever trendy Glo Worm was just cool to use as a night light every time I went to sleep.

And I think that about wraps it up for my super personal and a little bit embarrassing post of the year!

Ikea has just released it’s 2010 catalog and in honour of this joyous occasion I thought it would be great to share the few photos of a catalog from 1965 that I recently came across while browsing the online world. It’s funny, the layout and fonts still manage to give off that “Ikea” feeling.

I think the images really speak for themselves and honestly I wish they still made some of the pieces that are shown in these pages.

It was 1977 when I first saw this movie poster and even at the young age of eight I knew that it was going to be the greatest movie ever. And it was!

I lived the next several years being a full time Jedi. I was so stoked when my mom got me my blue Star Wars shirt with this same poster graphic on it. Yes, I thought that I was pretty cool on my first day of school, but new clothes for the first day of school is another story. The more Star Wars branded merchandise one had the cooler you were. Yes, I was only 8 and given the times it didn’t take much to blow our minds, but even still I think that this poster creative is just as cool today as it was 32 years ago.

There’s 2 movies coming out in the near future, that are sure to be amazing. The art direction for both of these films look so divine, in fact, I actually haven’t felt this excited to see a blockbuster type of film in a long while.

Where The Wild Things Are

Alice in Wonderland
You’ll have to wait until 2010, but i’m sure it’ll be well worth the wait, below is the preview and some character portraits.

On the weekend Vancouver had some amazing weather. Perfect sunshine, blue skies, then suddenly rain and clouds came out of no where along with a really intense thunderstorm. It’s been a very long time since i’ve seen fork lightning in this city, and for so many hours too! Too top that all off there was this intense firey sunset which ended with the HSBC Celebration of Light Fireworks.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to take any photos or video, but I did find this wonderful little timelapse showing just how crazy the day was.

While looking through various design sites, I came across a link to the history of the Coca Cola bottle. While the images were really small and not worth sharing, I did find images on google. It’s really interesting to see how the quality of the glass changes throughout the years.

Although this is obviously not the full history, it’s definitely a nice look at the early history of packaging.
(unfortunately I don’t know the exact source of these images, but there’s many all over google)

I recently realised that I have an awful lot of toys on my desk. It makes me wonder, why do people like to put little chotchkies on their desk? Is it for personality? Is it for style? Is it just because they have no where else to put these odd items?
I do it because it makes me smile and sometimes makes other people smile too (or scratch their head a little).

I used to read this blog that would show pictures of various work places, but they haven’t updated in a very long time…check it out: On My Desk Blog

Now the question is, what’s on your desk?

Last week I went to a designer colour premiere show. They discussed trends for 2010.

They went through everything from, interior design to fashion to cars and more, but to be honest it wasn’t that impressive, and to me colour
forecasting is different everywhere so don’t take this like it’s written in stone of course!!

Here’s some rough notes from the show:

Crafty/Organic:

• Handmade
• hand works
• hand knitted

Luxury is key:

• GOLD GOLD GOLD (probably due to the recession, bling is now going to be in, to prove that you’d still got “it” ? who knows)
• liquid metallics, high gloss materials
• http://www.boardbar.de shows custom flight bars for your customized jet.
• silk embroidery
• http://www.luxuryecostampofapproval.com
• The use of bold colours in alternative combinations. Colours you wouldn’t think go together are now paired.
• Grey and muted tones off set with bright bold colours ex: bright pink with a silver metallic grey
• airbrushed shading (sort of looked like gradients of monochrome colour)
• Optical black and white patterns

Eco Chic is very in still:

• naturals, BEIGE!!
• cardboard, felt, plywood, raw materials etc…
• think of your natural earth surroundings and translate that into design
• Handmade from recycled/found objects
• monochrome colour schemes
• bronze, gold, yellow
• citron, orange, copper, pumpkin
• plum, purple, grape combine with greys, mauves

True greens:

• citrus
• grass
• acidic
• menthol
• lime green mixed with avocado green

Not related to what we do really, but they showed that the modern kitchen will look like something from the 70s…frilly curtains, old style cabinets, avocado green…it was so horrible people were walking out of the presentation. I don’t believe that trend will last very long…I understand that retro is cool and all, but that’s just wrong.

That’s about all i grabbed from them. I think our generation is more up to date with what’s going on, but it’s all really trivial in the end.

Summer has arrived, the sun is shinning and it’s almost Canada Day!

Now if only I could avoid getting a farmers tan from being outside on lunch breaks.

I recently joined the hype and tried Japadog for the first time. It all started with bad service at a restaurant, my friend and I walked out after waiting forever for food, we were starving, so we wandered around for a while and eventually decided Japadog would be perfect.

The line was so long, I was really confused about what to order. In the end I went with veggie misomayo and turkey teryimayo. That was the first mistake right there, ordering 2 hotdogs was far too much.

After 45 minutes, we were finally eating.

In the end I think it was tasty at first, but far too salty and the bread was really doughy. I won’t be going back there for a long time, but I do think that if you haven’t tried it, it’s definately worth experiencing just once, but you should walk over to the Coal Harbour location, it’s on the water and there’s never any line up!