If I were the type, I’d totally design this for reals but I’m not, so it won’t get any farther than my budget photoshop mockup. Besides, I’m sure there’s a product like this floating around out there already.
Although, I think something like this is probably more accurate:
(it would come in a variety of hues & genders, naturally).
My friend Megan is launching her Spark Girl spring line tomorrow night at JEM Gallery!
date: Friday, April 24 2009
time: 7pm
place: JEM Gallery – 225 East Broadway, Vancouver)
Back in October I wrote about the King Eddy Lives event in Calgary. Darren has now put together some short films of the event and posted them on the Resolve Design vimeo account.
There are a few versions:
If you’re not familiar with the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) passed in the United States in August ’08 and set to come into effect on February 10th, 2009 you’re probably not the only one. The ‘popular’ Canadian news seems been rather quiet about the whole thing. I heard about it only because I got an email from Small Magazine at the beginning of the month calling attention to it and its possible effect on small handmade toy companies. And then I forgot all about it:
The CPSIA rules now requires all children’s products, including natural handmade toys and clothing to be tested by a Third Party Lab, often at a cost of up to $4,000 per item. That could cost a small company more than $20,000 a season.
–Small Magazine
Christine Visneau & Olivia Pintos-Lopez
I was reminded of it the other day when my publisher mentioned it in passing. (Apparently it effects books too – I did not know that.) However, If you are a small toy manufacturer, etsy artisan making toys and items for the under 12’s, or are a children’s book publisher in both Canada and the States, I’m sure you know about what’s going on.
With all that’s happening with the economy today, and all the promises this politician and that politician have been making in the United States about creating and keeping jobs in America, this act seems a hastily and poorly thought out solution to a very serious problem (lead levels found in some toys). It also seems a little counter productive since many small handmade toy companies offer toys crafted of natural, sustainable or organic materials as alternatives to large mass marketed products that may be made of PVC, stuffed with synthetic petroleum-based fills or non-organic cotton or constructed from wood from non-sustainable sources. The act seems like a good start, but the execution seems a little off. Or at the very least, confusing. And that confusion isn’t helping things either. Especially where books are concerned.
From a Canadian perspective, what happens down south, has a huge impact on us in the north. Especially if you have anything to do with children’s books (which do not appear, at this time, to be exempt). However, publishers are fighting the inclusion of books (and here’s an update on that article). But it’s already having an impact and at least one publisher that I’ve spoken to here in Canada who distributes books in the US has started to feel the effects. In an industry as fragile as the Canadian children’s book industry is, this is not great news.
From the Publishers Weekly article linked above:
CPSIA FAQs
• The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act goes into effect February 10 and requires third-party testing of all products for children 12 and under, including books, audiobooks and sidelines. This includes older products on-shelf as well as books shipped after the deadline.
• AAP and other industry trade groups are lobbying to have print-on-paper and print-on-board books exempted. They also are looking for clarification on testing protocols and other specifics.
• If the Act stands as currently written and interpreted, significant costs and longer production times will negatively affect publishers and retailers, potentially putting some out of business and causing books to be removed from stores, libraries and schools.
• The industry is struggling to comply with the Act in time for the deadline, even as it waits for resolution and interpretation from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
For the latest updates and clarifications, go to www.cpsc.gov/about/Cpsia/cpsia.html.
–Industry Scrambling to Comply with Child Safety Act
By Karen Raugust — Publishers Weekly
The passing of this act brings up so very many issues and arguments… And I could go on and on and on but they are perhaps more eloquently made by other people in the various discussions on this topic taking place elsewhere in the World Wide Inter-Tubes. And the point of this post wasn’t to get into all that anyway, believe it or not. In fact I’ve gone on much longer than I originally intended (as a sometimes-children’s book illustrator I am a bit attached to the industry so I get a little carried away). I meant instead to focus on CPSC’s inexplicable and ironic logo design.
If lead and phthalates look like us now, then nothing the CPSA can do will save us.
[Thank you to Darren who has impressive logo-recall powers and first noticed that the CPSA logo looked oddly familiar…]
#2 Misuse tools
It is snowing again. This might not seem like a big deal, but since it’s snowing outside my window and that’s Vancouver out there, I can assure you it is. It’s snowing on top of the snow that arrived over Christmas and they’re not just those big sloppy pseudo snowflakes usually delivered to Vancouver, they’re the ones that mean business – the small, dry innocuous ones that slowly, deliberately and patiently bury your car and maddeningly delay your bus.
1. When cleaning the studio become distracted by poorly executed, failed and abandoned sketches or paintings and make feeble attempt to resurrect or fix them.
(I had all sorts of grand plans to paint my own postcards while on my travels last summer. I managed to paint, write and post 2. I got caught in a rain shower with this one, the third, so it ended up a bit destroyed – paint flowed into carefully planned negative spaces, wouldn’t dry fast enough in the damp and smeared during transport, and an attempt to save it with an over-drawing in ink just made things worse.)
Charlemange is way off in the distance in the center. The busy square emptied out when the shower hit and everyone ran for cover. This is just afterward, when they started to come back.
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After spending most of the year not painting, this is a first getting back into it piece. It’s painted over an old oil sketch I did in college, on a badly primed piece of panel (that’s why the vertical lines). It’s meant as a bit of a *throwaway piece – something to do to get the feel back but not feel too precious about. The reference photo was taken in July during a trip to Orkney. I stayed with cousins on their farm in Orphir. Our room had a view of Scapa Flow, the church yard where the ruins of Earl’s Bu and the round church are, and the fields and fences seen in this painting.
The incomparable and globally connected kc dyer invited me to write a list of my top 8 of ’08 as a guest blogger on leftwriter. The subject was open. And, like any open subject, I found it really hard. I have lots of things to list from this year, they just didn’t fall into any sort of theme. And I like my random list of things to relate somehow.
My top 8 of 08 list isn’t earth shattering, particularly well written, eloquent, profound or selfless in any way. But it is accompanied by pictures.
What’s very cool about it though, is that it sits there in the middle of a bunch of other people’s top 8 of 08 lists. It’s a very diverse bunch of lists from a group of literary folk.
Read my list over here on leftwriter.
Inspiration pops up in the usual places as well as the unusual places.
The other night, while watching a Bowen Island Film Society screening of Starting Out in the Evening, I caught a glimpse of a design in the wallpaper behind the main character and it gave me an idea for something I’m currently working on and struggling with. It also reminded me to get out and see and do things more often – to allow in a little fresh air and some new sights to feed the creative creature.
And that’s exactly what I did this weekend, making time between my working hours for visits with friends, excursions to the beach and walks with the dogs.
This is a photo of a little gilded glass bowl I bought at Gilt Studio Gallery in Bowen Island. The lovely layered colours, the result of colouring the leaf with dyes, have inspired me to try to approach my paintings in a way that allows the natural personality of the medium to be expressed, rather than always controlling it and bend it to my needs. I’m looking forward to getting back into the paint now, as well as exploring some new mediums and becoming a bit more spontaneous and experimental.
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My other favourite source of inspiration comes from the misty coastal region of British Columbia. I love the colours, the ragged always-changing clouds, the smell of the sea, the chaos/order of driftwood, the textures, the wildlife and the regular sound of waves that seem to be keeping eternal time.
I just have to mention (because I’m pretty giddy about it right now), if anyone is thinking of heading over to Bowen Island from Vancouver for a little escape from the city, give BC ferries a miss and catch the water taxi from Granville Island instead.
This little boat carries 12 foot passengers (+bikes and luggage) and takes approximately 30 minutes to make the crossing. And the views are wonderful. It has completely changed my travel experience to and from the island from now on.
The beginning of my week of work in the Bowen studio got off to a great start, thanks to a beautiful, swift crossing, on calm waters lit by a low November sun. Having the option to skip the bus trip (and all the random weird and obnoxious things that come with it) from my home to Horseshoe Bay (and the extra wait caused by incompatible bus/ferry schedules) was totally, totally worth the water taxi fare. I arrived at Snug Cove in 1/4 of the time it usually takes me to get there.
It’s advisable to call ahead though, as sailings during the commuter times are often booked solid.
This past week I was in Calgary photographing an outdoor event for Resolve Design who was part of a team that put together a digital graffiti and animation show that was projected on the side of a building. The event hosted by CMLC and the Cantos Music Foundation was to celebrate the King Edward Hotel’s planned renovations and new life. (fyi-that link has music)
We’ll be putting together a little film of some of the hightlights, but for now, I have just have a few photographs.
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We invited local graffiti artist The Kid Belo to drawn on the building as well:
At the end of the night, I did a little bit of drawing too:
snail in the lupines, Jericho Park | canon g6
Kirsti Wakelin 