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Two months from now the International Olympic Commitee will name the host city of the 2016 Summer Olympics. I came across the logos of all the candidates as well as the bronze finalists.

If the decision was based just on identity/logo design, which candidate would you choose?

Chicago, USA
Designed by VSA Partners, this is Chicago’s second logo for its 2016 bid. The first (which featured an olympic torch with flames resembling Chicago’s skyline) violated Olympic rules which prohibit the use of the Olympic symbol, motto, flag, flame, torch, or medal. With the slogan “Let friendship shine,” the new logo uses a six-pointed Chicago star representing a compass pointing out in all directions of the world.

Madrid, Spain
Designed by 26-year-old Argentine Joaquín Malle, the logo was one of 2,700 submissions in a contest chosen by a public vote. Named “Corle,” the logo features a hand in the Olympic colors—which intends to represent unity among different cultures, people, and nationalities—along with silhouette of an ‘M’. The city’s bid slogan is“Hola everyone.”

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Designed by Ana Soter and selected by a special jury, the logo uses a stylized Sugarloaf Mountain in the shape of a heart to represent Brazil’s passion and enthusiasm for sports. With the slogan, “Live your passion,” Rio’s logo also features an exclamation point replacing the ‘1’ in ‘20!6’ symbolizing the excitement of the games.

Tokyo, Japan
Using the slogan “Uniting our worlds,” the logo ties the five Olympic colors in the form of a traditional Japanese knot. The knot, known as ‘musubi,’ has long been utilized in Japan to signify blessings during times of celebration.Tokyo’s logo was created by acclaimed designerKenji Ekuan of GK Design Group (you’ll recogonize his work if you’ve ever eaten sushi).

Bronze Medalists
These bids made it close, but were eliminated from the race in June 2008: Doha, Qatar; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Prague, Czech Republic. Since we are judging by identities, I believe these eliminations were spot on:

All information taken from: http://idsgn.org/posts/race-for-the-2016-olympics/

It’s full on into the Summer season now and one of my favorite ways to enjoy it, is to sit on my patio. When I come home from being at C&F, there’s nothing like lounging on my deck with an ice cold beverage, watching the people pass by and having a little BBQ too.

It took over a year for me to finally get my patio the way I wanted it to look, plants wouldn’t grow, chairs were too big, but now it’s just right.

I recently got my place featured on a website called Apartment Therapy.

Check out my tiny little oasis on Apartment Therapy

Since then, i’ve managed to build a large cedar bench (with the help of my boyfriend) to replace my previous seating.

The bench ended up costing half of what i’d pay for one in a store and the benefit is that I could customize the length to fit my patio perfectly. Most quality wood benches in the store are anywhere from $100 – $300 and my bench was about $50. All the wood was untreated cedar which was all pre-cut at the hardware store to the sizes that we pre-measured before hand. We also purchased some extra long screws, some boat varnish to finish the wood, sandpaper, and the decorative cushion for the top.

You can find this cute cushion at Canadian Tire for around $35

To top it all off, I found a retro style Coca Cola crate to store all my BBQ accessories in and next to that, the little BBQ fits right in just so.

My best friend is always introducing me to new music. In fact, I practically rely on her to keep my music collection fresh. We went to the Decemberist concert last night at the Vogue Theater. I never thought a mix of Rock n’ Roll+ bookish indy pop+Opera would leave you so refreshed the next morning.

Apparently the album-The Hazards of Love was written as a screen play and ended up as a rock album, which gives the performance last night a Phantom-of-the-Opera-ish tone in the beginning. It was an outstanding concert, and the crowed loved the opening band too…Blind Pilot from Portland Oregon.

I’ll buy both the CD’s to support the bands and add it to my official summer tunes for my road trip on the August long weekend!

Check out the tunes here.

Photo credit:  here

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.