“20,000 Cans Under the Sea” by Team West Coast Signals
If you haven’t checked out this amazing event yet, you still have tonight (til 8 pm), Saturday (10– 8) and Sunday (10–5) to get yourself down to the Cruise Ship Terminal at Canada Place for Canstruction Vancouver 2008.
I’m very proud to announce that on Monday night at the Awards Gala, Team West Coast Signals (Signals Design Group and Coast Paper) took home the coveted Graphic Designer’s Choice Award (local) AND an Honourary Mention at the Nationals! We worked very hard to achieve this and are all quite excited. More at the Signals blog including a time-lapse video and great team photo displaying John’s fabulous t-shirt design. (You’ll see I’m not in the photo, as I was at the Northern Voice conference on the final build day.)
See photos of previous years’ sculptures (since 2003).
So get on down, bring your friends and family, and be sure to have your cameras ready!
The North Shore/Stanley Park skyline
Someone asked me recently about my interest in environmental conservation. I replied that I’ve always been interested in it. In recent years, however, this interest has come to fruition in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Growing up, my parents taught me to turn lights off when I’m no longer using a room, to keep dimmer lights on lower, to compost and to recycle. It was part of our everyday lives. School programs from BC Hydro drilled energy savvy and safety into our little brains through fun performances. TV shows like Captain Planet and the Planeteers made earth-saving fun. I couldn’t understand people who brought themselves to litter (and still don’t), and used to make faces at semi-truck drivers for their polluting vehicles. In the summertime, the evidence of pollution in the Lower Mainland manifested itself as “hospital gown green” haze in the corner where Mt Baker sat behind the Valley. Mom took her library books home in a cloth bag and brought her plastic Safeway bags back to the store for recycling. She encouraged me to wash clothes on reduced energy settings and in the summer we let the sun take over for the dryer. (Eventually all my clothes needed to be washed in cold water and hung to dry.) From a young age I was aware of clear-cutting, Amazonian deforestation, and acid rain.
All this culminated in an unquestionable responsibility toward the environment: keep it clean, reduce/reuse/recycle, plant trees, and conserve energy.
Continue reading How I became an eco-crusader »
Posted today to CBC.ca: “Michigan restaurateur makes 61-kilogram burger and hopes for world record”
The “Absolutely Ridiculous Burger,” made with beef, bacon and cheese, was delivered on a 23-kilogram bun, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press reported. It sells for $350, and orders require 24 hours’ notice.
How much water, corn/other feed, cow’s meat, cow’s milk, gasoline, energy and waste products went into making that? How much of it was meat? Moreover, how many third world people would it feed? How many of them would be shocked that humans consume crap like that?
“Where’s the Beef?” Signals Design Group / Coast Paper at Canstruction 2005.
Meanwhile, in our corner of the continent, Canstruction® Vancouver starts showing tomorrow. I wonder if we beat any records for numbers of cans this year? All cans/food packages go toward nourishing the people who rely on the Greater Vancouver Food Bank. There, they appreciate the value of food!
Some months ago I wrote about Canstruction® Vancouver‘s new website and mentioned the event this spring. Well, it’s coming up next week and teams are getting ready to make this an awesome competition and exhibit. I’m eager to see how our team’s sculpture stacks up against the others! (Har har har.) This year’s theme is Books & Bytes, so expect to see some of your favourite characters or scenes in a dramatic new way.
Public exhibit:
Sunday February 24th to Sunday March 2nd
Cruise Ship Terminal at Canada Place
10am – 5pm Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed
10am – 8pm Thu/Fri/Sat
Please bring your cash and food donations to help out those in need. See you there!
Join the group on Facebook and invite your friends to make this the most successful Canstruction Vancouver ever!
What better to write about over a Monday lunch than food?
I never got around to posting about it, but I’ve been on a “restricted” diet for almost a year now (what an accomplishment) that requires me to find alternatives to cow’s milk and cheese, sugar/honey, soy sauce, cashews and products that contain any of the above (and any form of soy), plus some food additives like red dye. For awhile, corn was on the list, too and I’m just bringing it back into my diet now. The repercussions of this are not just psychological, physical, and emotional, they are also financial. But wait… are they?
Continue reading Is expensive food actually so in the end? »
Who knew saving the planet could be so self-serving.
I’ve been thinking lately about how good I feel when I’m using or eating something that’s healthy for me and/or the planet. Now, “good” is a very broad term, but in this context it encompasses feelings of excitement, reward, self-satisfaction, accomplishment and wellness. (In other words, opposite of the dental pain and regret I’m feeling after having eaten a naughty piece of Toblerone. Glad it was the last one.)
I think it’s important to emphasize the personal benefits of doing good for the earth, and oneself. There are, in fact, many opportunities and I’m always looking for more.
I feel good when…
Continue reading Green at heart: feeling good starts with doing good »
It’s Monday. It’s lunch time. It’s the Monday lunch blog… Do I need a catchier name?
Lately I’ve been thinking about where I want to be in my career in the near and distant future. There are so many things I would do aside from design if I had the time and training or expertise — mobilize transit users to demand better service, start a community garden project on a vacant lot, crusade publicly against plastic bags, that sort of thing. Fortunately, as a designer I have the opportunity to help other people pursue the causes I value. It’s not entirely selfless as I know I’d get some kind of satisfaction knowing I made a difference but it’s out of my inherent care for people and places that I want to make a change.
Continue reading A designer’s role »
