(That’s a lesson that my Daddy taught me [he just turned 92]… Respect!)

Vancouver, British Columbia

I feel very honored to have been invited to give the keynote talk at the 2012 GDC/BC Salazar Student Awards, the annual juried competition and awards-presentation event held to celebrate BC’c most talented and promising design students and their inspirational work. The event takes place at UBC Robson Square on the evening of Friday, 11 May 2012.

The awards competition is open to all students who are enrolled in BC academically recognized certificate, diploma, or degree graphic design and advertising programs, with work in the categories of Print Design, Interactive, Brand Identity, and Video and Motion. Entry deadline for submissions is 12:00 pm on 30 April 2012. More information can be found at the event website here.

My talk entitled ‘Aim Higher’ builds on presentations I gave in Norway, Taiwan, and Spain last fall—the abstract reads as follows:

Our globalized society is morphing rapidly from an information era into an age of ideas—at the same time, we flounder in the uncertainty of tumultuous political, social, economic, and ecological instability—even as our fragile planet accelerates towards the edge of survival.

Designers have greatly influenced the shaping of the over-consuming, hyper-stimulated, non-sustainable world we are in—suddenly we find ourselves thrust into a leading role as necessary change-drivers. This presentation will address a shift in design’s role and the power it holds, share diverse perspectives from around the globe, and offer a challenge to “think about our thinking.”

Winnipeg, Canada

I was delighted this week to receive a signed copy of my good friend’s new coffee-table book, Mike Grandmaison’s Prairie and Beyond, published by Turnstone Press. There’s a book launch and gallery show of some of Mike’s recent photography work on Monday, 7 May at 19:30 in McNally Robinson’s Prairie Ink Cafe. Reservations are recommended—call Prairie Ink at (204) 975-2659 to reserve a table (or join me at mine).

This stunning book features Mike’s breathtaking photography from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, sorted into chapters; The Grasslands, The Wetlands, The Drylands, The Forests, The Mountains, and The Subarctic. Turnstone had asked me a few months ago to write the book’s back cover text, which appears as follows…

Mike Grandmaison’s passionate quest to capture the essence of this great land and his tireless effort to create meaningful, relevant images of lasting beauty have resulted in a truly remarkable, award-winning body of work. Many share my view that his intimate portraits of the natural world and exquisite landscapes are unexcelled, and I am delighted that he has “turned his lens” to the prairies in this collector’s volume.

The fine gallery of light-filled imagery you’ll discover herein reflect Mike’s exceptional eye and uncanny ability to unearth the photogenic in the “here and now”—he finds resonance and beauty in what many would pass by as being commonplace, and he brings a singular viewpoint to his work that is born of intuition, an innate humility, deep respect for the natural world, and an undying attitude of discovery.

ISBN 978-0-88801-393-4

Montreal, Canada

Best wishes to designer colleagues and creative communicators near and far on World Communication Design Day, which is also the 49th birthday of Icograda. This week I took on a new interim role as Acting Director at the Icograda Secretariat, providing advisory and management services and helping to ensure a smooth transition between outgoing Managing Director Brenda Sanderson’s departure and the inauguration of a new Managing Director in the coming months.

Cheers!

(just saying)

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Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year old cousin Virginia Clemm in 1835 when he was 27. This image of Virginia was painted after her early death in 1847. Poe’s entire life-story reads (pretty much) as a cautionary tale…

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The incandescent light bulb above my desk died yesterday, and I was thinking about what I could do with it… Bingo!

(image sources unknown)

(anonymous)

Happy Earth Day!

General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. By volume, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth, with a height of 83.8 metres (275 ft), a diameter of 7.7 metres (25 ft), an estimated bole (trunk) volume of 1,487 cubic metres (52,513 cu ft), and an estimated age of 2,300 – 2,700 years.

In 1879, this tree was named after the American Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, by naturalist James Wolverton, who had served as a lieutenant in the 9th Indiana Cavalry under Sherman. In 1931, following comparisons with the nearby General Grant tree, General Sherman was identified as the largest tree in the world. One result of this process was that wood volume became widely accepted as the standard for establishing and comparing the size of different trees.

(source)