a few scenes from my trip...

double click photo to make it larger.

feel good friday

photo of Blake's (TOMS) shoes via the selby

I want to introduce you to 2 companies that are interconnected but more importantly have a greater giving to their philosophy. Tom's shoes and Imagine Home. Tom's shoes has been around a while and the objective is brilliant, for every pair of shoes sold a pair of shoes is given away to a child in need.
Imagine Home has a little more of a coplicated story. Staci was a designer for some very rich people, she got a little fed up and took a sabatacle to Africa. Incidentally to travel with Tom's shoes for a "shoe drop". while she was there she found many troubled single mothers fighting poverty and disease but were just trying to get by with the goods they were making by hand.
Staci is out there with her new start up company Imagine Home to "take first world product designs and have impovershed people in artisan communiteies", awesome.
Go out there and in the spirit of Thanksgiving next week, do something that gives back.

mendhi

taken from aditi's facebook

Aditi Amalean, a girl we know from I.arc just posted pictures from a wedding she was involved in - isn't this picture gorgeous???

sweet relief

find image and more great ones HERE



What a day in history!

VOTE!

because 537 votes have made the difference.

DesignForObama

This website, designforobama.org, has hundreds of posters and prints by designers from a pretty big variety of backgrounds, all showing their (nicely creative) support for Obama. I have a few favorites shown above, but this, seriously, isn't even a small fraction of those on the site. Check it out.

ps: "graphic designers for obama > you had me at the logo." -- LOVE.

GOOP... yes please

I have a feeling this one is going to be good. GOOP, Gwyneth Paltrow's life guide.

quirky..check, clean pretty graphics...check, taste...check.

We'll see.

make mine...

I have become ADDICTED to this presidential campaign. I have listened to both sides... for research of course, and the more and more I hear from each side the more I know that Barack Obama is the right choice for this nation. So.... I was very excited to see this on The Scoop.

From The Scoop and Sidedown for Obama:

Whether you've already decided that Barack Obama is definitely your candidate, or maybe you're still undecided - here's a way to contribute to the campaign & receive a piece of art that (beautifully) gets your point across to others.

For us, this election is about our right as American citizens to choice. We want to live in a country that accepts its people... ALL of them. A country that believes in the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence as they pertain to the freedom of all who reside here, and that does not discriminate against its citizens on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious creed, social status, or station.

We do not believe this is a matter of Democrat vs. Republican. When Abraham Lincoln became our first Republican president, he redefined the way our nation saw itself, and reshaped what it meant to be "an American". If one lawyer, Illinois statesman, and member of Congress can do as much for the country as he did, we'd like to see what a second one can do.
Both candidates will tell you that in November, you have a choice to make. Only one of them would allow you to make choices after the election is over. That's why you should tell them to "Make Mine Barack".
- Sidedown for Obama

visit http://www.makeminebarack.com/ for more...
images c/o Sidedown for Obama.

The nest... and happy friday!

image from nbc.com (games start at 7.30-6.30 tonight)

08.08.08.... prosperity as the Chinese say.

I am so psyched about the games tonight. (despite human rights issues I am not so happy about). But you have to admit, although there are farmer's without water so that China can look good.... China looks good. The nest (main stadium) in particular is pretty RAD.

GO TEAM USA!!!

image from nbc.com

Dansk Design Center

One of the things that I insisted on us doing while in Copenhagen was go to the Dansk Design Center. It was a small museum but very cool and informative nonetheless. They had an interactive Living Wood exhibit going on which was really neat because you could go up and examine the way the pieces were made.

I bought one of those little wooden birds by Danish architect Kristian Vedel (although I got it later in Aarhus because I was obsessing over it. I knew I would be sad if one didn't come home with me).

My other favorite thing that I saw at the museum was the Stingray rocking chair by Danish designer Thomas Pedersen. You can read more about it here.

Then there was the Muuto Nordic design group that I learned briefly about... this one is definitely worth some more research.

Progress

Throughout the last couple of weeks, as Barack Obama has pretty much earned the democratic nomination for President, I've heard, read, watched, and seen a lot of commentary on the subject. It's like everyone that had started to "get over it" is now wide awake and back in the game- both in a good way and otherwise.

I understand everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I also understand that none of these candidates are perfect- can someone please tell me when we've had any in the last 24 years? Exactly. However, as torn as I was in the last election trying to pick the lesser of two evils, I'm totally sold this time around.

I love- LOVE- this poster and it's *subtle* support of Obama. I'd love to have one, but the price on a post-college girl's budget just isn't going to fly... so for now, I'll drool about it.

back in the USA (denmark-england part 1)

I have returned from my trip and it was a BLAST. i really had fun bouncing around London, Copenhagen and Aarhus with the boys. i took over 560 pictures so you can only imagine, that's what i'll be posting on for a while.

So anyway, I will start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). first was England. one really cool thing we noticed was the art down in the tube (underground) stations. There were some abstract installations, and then some were real ornate tile situations. Here are a few photos of that.

snowshow '04

I'm looking around for photos / examples of text carved into paving for a project we're working on and some reference imagery, and I keep thinking back to the project from the 2004 snowshow exhibit in kemi, finland- "pure mix" by john roloff + diller & scofidio.

these were squares carved out of the gulf of bothnia (an inlet of the baltic sea) and filled with a strip of LED lights + a brand of purified water. then the respective logos were carved into each square + lit from beneath- it was awesome. you can tell from the earlier progress photo that all of the lights were the same hue when they were originally placed, but as they reacted to the extreme cold they kind of "aged" differently- it was just another part of the installation... made it even more impressive.

that's one of those things I will never forget- sitting ON the baltic sea with other volunteers from all around the world, looking at those lit from within, watching the sunset and pretty-much forgetting about the sub-zero temperatures of a winter ON the arctic circle.

photo credits: the snow show

US Campaign for Burma

If you've ever looked at Keeping Up With MK you might have seen that MK, as well as being an amazing photographer, is also an activist for the US Campaign for Burma. As she recently posted, they've released a new campaign, so far involving some short videos with celebrities. This one is great- a good message that gets your attention with some humor + a familiar face.

Guggenheim : Lithuania

I just came across this post on Prairie Mod about the "Guggenheim Trilogy." Somehow I missed the news that Zaha Hadid was designing the next Guggenheim for Vilnius, Lithuania. I'm sure it's a welcome progression into the story the Guggenheim architecture is telling, but I'm still incredibly partial to the original... thoughts?

ps: am I the only one who expected it to be designed by another frank?

gen 1 : frank lloyd wright, NY

gen 2 : frank gehry, bilbao, spain

gen 3 : zaha hadid, lithuania

dallas world aquarium

busy busy week already!! Brandon is in town so we went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Sunday. a lot of hanging out and lots of good eating has been going on since he got here on Saturday.

the aquarium is pretty awesome and it is privately owned. that's a very impressive collection for one individual. I do believe it is almost comparable to the awesome aquarium in Baltimore! i think my favorite this was the tree kangaroos and the manatees. i highly recommend this outing to anyone in the Dallas area.

Happy.

goin oldschool... i busted out the construction paper last night to make a few special valentines.

I hope your day is fantastic!!

oh! Today is the 10th anniversary of V-day (Vagina Monologues.) if you ever get a chance to check this out please, PLEASE do!! it is a fantastic show empowering women and standing against women's Domestic Violence. I saw it twice in college and would see it a million times more. For what it stands for I believe every woman should be involved in this movement!!!

blog'd travels

One blog I visit almost daily and post about pretty frequently is Keeping Up With MK, blogging photography and experiences by MaryKate McKenna, out of the D.C. area. Besides taking unbelievable photos, she's pretty well-rounded when it comes to paying attention to the world around us.

She just posted pictures from a trip to Burma- these are (of course) amazing. Check 'em out.

On that note, one of my coworkers in Colorado is taking a leave of absence soon to travel through Central and South America for A YEAR with his wife. I'm not sure what their specific plan of action is, but I know they've made arrangements (and been making them for about three years) to do this responsibly, from paying bills ahead of time, timing this with apartment leases, and saving up at least enough money.

They're blogging their experiences leading up to the trip and soon blogging the experiences they'll have while on their trip, from what they can (and can't) pack to their anxiety and fears going into this experience. Like with most traveling, I think they're aware that the after-effects of this experience will probably be almost as challenging as the trip itself. Something else to check-in on...

the masdar initiative

A coworker of mine sent this link to me describing a new (Carbon Neutral!) city planned for Abu Dhabi. Its pretty interesting...

Harbin Ice / Snow Festival

I just got an email about this- very similar (although quite a bit more literal) to the Snowshow we worked-on building in Finland a few years back.  In Harbin it reaches something like 40 below 0- also really similar to the Finland climate we tackled for three weeks.

These first pictures are built of snow:

A few miles away, there's an ice festival- all of this pictured is built out of ice, with neon buried within these huge blocks of ice- some of these structures are upwards of 90 feet- no supports inside any of these, just ice.