new work

tattooed bottoms & other interesting things

| kirsti

DRAGON_w_interface

Dragon & koi tattoos, from Jonathan Vaughn Strebly’s 2011 talk on the stories told by tattoos.

I’ve just finished a fun little project illustrating some promo materials for the talented team who have put together this year’s Interesting Vancouver. The primary use is for the website, so that informed the format. They are intended as visual texture behind the content and were inspired by soundbites from past Interesting Vancouver talks.

SHOES_city

High-flung soles, from Todd Sieling’s 2011 talk on his photographic obsession.

WAVES

Drifting Bucket, from Tori Holmes’ 2012 talk on rowing across the Atlantic.

There are so many other great topics, with so many evocative stories I wish I had time to illustrate too, like: suits/armour/codpieces, iguanas, incarceration, terrified dancing dads, chocolate science, perfume science, beer, a transgender journey, foraging in the wilds of Vancouver, BC’s absurd liquor laws, and sex work in Vancouver, to name a few.

All the past talks are available through IV’s Vimeo page (where you might catch a glimpse of an actual tattooed bum).

This year’s Interesting Vancouver edition, taking place at the Museum of Vancouver, is sold out! As is the pre-talk dinner. If you’re interested in taking in next year’s Interesting Vancouver talks, subscribe to updates through their blog, twitter, or facebook page.

New work – Vancouver Art Gallery

| kirsti

The Colour of My Dreams | Vancouver Art Gallery

I’ve just put up a few photos on my website of an exhibition I recently co-designed with Darren Carcary of Resolve Design.

The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art opened at the Vancouver Art Gallery on May 28, 2011. It is a massive show with around 350 works ranging from photography to sculpture.

I’ll write a bit more on the design process a bit later, but for now, here is a link to a few images on bechance.

New work – Affinity Bridge Design & Illustration

| kirsti

Back in the winter I worked with Vancouver Drupal developer Affinity Bridge Consulting Ltd. to redesign their identity and home page.

Affinity Bridge’s original logo employed the symbol of a bridge and while the company’s philosophy is very much in keeping with the idea of bridges and bridging, they weren’t sure if they felt tied to the literal iconography and were interested in explorations of more abstract iconography for their new logo mark. For the first couple of rounds I focused on aspects of the company’s personality: environmentally and social conscious and playful, with a friendly and social company culture. I worked with ideas of connection and affinity and steered away from the original blue/green colour palette into more juicy and less typical “green” colour options.  For the first rounds of design, bridging and connection was implied without the use of an actual bridge icon.

IMG_8782_a_sm

icon exploration  | focus: connection, affinity, social interaction

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New Work ~ Calgary +15 illustrations

| kirsti

2 +15 illustrations

+15 illustration – Winter Activities Scene & +15 illustration – Snowball Fight | vector illustration

I’ve added new work to the illustration section of my portfolio (here and here). These were created for 2 +15’s (the covered, elevated walkways located above street level) in Calgary, AB to celebrate winter activities in the city’s parks.

The final illustrations were cut from frosted vinyl and adhered to the windows (vinyl and install by Artcraft Display Graphics), then lit by Eos Lightmedia. I haven’t seen the photos of the final install so I’m not really sure what the final installation looks like – but this is what the final vector files looked like when I handed them off for vinyl cutting. The work was installed January 2010.

The top illustration is 7’6″x aprox 90′ and covers all the window panes on one side of the walkway. The lower illustration (the snowball fight), spans 4 windows.

+15 illustration (winter activities scene) detail

Winter activities scene – detail
+15 illustration (winter activities scene) detail
Winter activities scene – detail

+15 illustration (winter activities scene) detail

Winter activities scene – detail

+15 illustration (winter activities scene) detail

Winter activities scene – detail

+15 illustration (snowball fight scene) detail

Snowball fight scene – detail

+15 illustration (snowball fight scene) detail

Snowball fight scene – detail

Snowball fight scene – sketches and rough inks

Winter activity scene – sketches

Winter activity scene – sketches

New work – Art of Craft films

| kirsti

film still | Jinny Whitehead, wood-fire potter

I’ve uploaded four films we shot and produced profiling the process of 4 local Vancouver craft artists, to my website . We created these films as a personal, side project while we designed the Museum of Vancouver’s exhibition Art of Craft and then screened them in a subsection of the Art of Craft “By Hand” gallery. We were inspired by the objects in the exhibition and the craftsmanship that went into making them and wanted to introduce museum visitors to (a small hint) of the artists’ process.

The films can be viewed on my website, Resolve Design’s website, or on Resolve Design’s vimeo account.

Thank you to the Canadian Craft Council for facilitating, to the artists who opened their studios to us, generously accommodating our film making. Also to our talented friend and soundtrack engineer, Jeff Griffiths for doing us such a big favour. Additionally, to Chad Crouch, who’s music ended our long and painful search for appropriate Creative Commons music. Got a film project that needs music? Looking for music to license for a commercial project? Want to buy an album to listen to? Please check him out.

 

film still | Peter Kiss, wood sculptor

film still | Barbara Heller, tapestry artist

film still | Barbara Cohen, sculptural jeweller

New work – Britannia Heritage Shipyard film

| kirsti

I’ve been really behind in updating my portfolio and blogging about recent work. This film is from way back in the spring and was for the Britannia Heritage Shipyard’s new museum. I’ve recently added it to my portfolio and the film can be viewed there. My involvement included photography, editing and photo editing. Full credits listed below.
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Britannia Heritage Shipyard – These Walls Can Talk

Documenting the historical residential experience at Britannia Heritage Shipyard, Steveston, BC
client:: City of Richmond
creative director + producer:: Darren Carcary
editors:: Darren Carcary and Kirsti Wakelin
soundtrack:: Jeff Griffiths
writer:: Dianna Carr
photographer:: Kirsti Wakelin
photo editing:: Kirsti Wakelin
cinematographer:: Darren Carcary
archival imagery:: City of Richmond Archives, City of Vancouver Archives, Harold Steves

New Work ~ lululemon Walnut Street

| kirsti

Portfolio update:

I’ve added work that I designed for lululemon‘s Walnut Street, PA store to my portfolio. The Ganesha in the process image above is the centerpiece for it. A while ago, I blogged a few early drawings.

Like the East Hampton and the Palmer Square artwork, I haven’t actually seen the final pieces as they were printed and assembled in Boston. I’m used to doing everything from beginning to end, including going to the printer’s and hovering over the piece as it slowly inches out of the machine. So it feels a bit odd to send the files off across the continent all by themselves and never see the result.

I’m assuming this piece made it up onto the wall… I’m not likely to be in Philidelphia anytime soon to see for myself, so if anyone else does, do let me know.

I’ve also licensed another version of this piece for another East Coast lululemon store, so you might come across a very similar one in another city.

New Work ~ lululemon Palmer Square

| kirsti

Portfolio Update:

This is a portion of the manifesto artwork I originally designed for the Palmer Square, Princeton, NJ lululemon store. This photo shows the top panel before it was cut out and mounted on a printed background. (photo courtesy of Seaport Graphics). The artwork was printed, cut and assembled at Seaport Graphics in Boston.

I’ve posted the full piece in the illustration section of my website.

There are a few work in progress drawings blogged here.

New Work ~ lululemon Chinook Centre

| kirsti

This is actually new old work from back in May, but I only recently got a chance to get photos of it when I was in Calgary for an event. These are photos of lululemon athletica’s Chinook Centre storefront. I illustrated the bison (my drawings were then cut out of layers of wood by the fabricator). This was the first time I saw them in 3D. They’re pretty big in person. More images, including the original drawings that were the basis for the final wooden artwork, are now up on my illustration portfolio.