Winnipeg, Canada

Today marks 33 years since the birth of Circle Design Incorporated (founding partner Geoff Hayes and I actually started as Circle Graphics back then— we share our illustrious April Fools’ birthdate back in 1976 with this little company called Apple Computer :-). Carrying on, with gusto…

Moraine Lake, Alberta

This is the time of year where I really start dreaming about getting onto rock again… and the Grand Sentinel (at 2766m, the tallest of several large quartzite obelisks located on the northern slope of Pinnacle Mountain) looms large in those dreams. There’s just something about topping a rock needle that defies description…

I first climbed the Grand Sentinel at the end of the 1990s (in what seemed like a mini-epic at the time, replete with a wet summit blizzard, near-hits by rockfall, stuck double ropes on the abseil, and a subsequent benighting on the descent…). Due to summer grizzly bear closures in the Larch Valley and Sentinel Pass ever since (restricting access to contiguous parties of six or more) repeating this classic has proved elusive—but with access restrictions having been lifted in 2008, the Grand Sentinel holds promise as a key goal this summer…

Photos by Dow Williams and  ‘Phil.’

(book review)

Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change The World

by David B. Berman

AIGA Design Press / New Riders (Peachpit)

David B. Berman’s important new book is honest, timely, and hard-hitting, delivered with in-your-face directness—it presents a strong argument regarding the inherent power of design to shape our world and takes on greed, excess, and the scheming tendencies of advertising and “targeted” visual communications. Full of pithy quotations, well illustrated (with wide-ranging examples of manipulative media and manufactured needs) and impressively annotated and cross-referenced, Do Good Design rails against the consumptive excesses of the so-called “developed world” and urges designers to help steer a better course for our planet—before it’s too late. David combines his keen observation skills with courage to question the status quo, expressing his marathon call for positive change with passionate zeal. In his words, “the future of civilization is our common design project.”

I have known David (Duv to his friends) for nearly 20 years and have had the ongoing pleasure of interaction with him on matters relating to design ethics and the role design can play in shaping a more equitable and sustainable future. Thanks for writing this important book, Duv—and keep up the “good” work.

+ + +

I highly recommend that you buy this book, that you read it, and that you then act on it. Next, donate your copy to (or buy another for) your local library—it’s that important. See David’s call to action (from an Icograda talk in Hong Kong) here.

Winnipeg, Canada

I met up with long-time climbing buddy (and talented [also very modest] architectural technologist) Simon Statkewich for brews and dinner last night. At Simon’s place I noticed a copy of Cottage magazine lying on his coffee table—replete with a cover feature on the new Fay Hut in Kootenay National Park that Simon designed (as a volunteer) for the Alpine Club of Canada—to replace the original built in 1927 after it burned down in 2003.

Top photo by Matt J. Simons; bottom photo by Marta.

Winnipeg, Canada

Geez magazine is looking for a half-time, Winnipeg-based person to help with business aspects. The new Associate Publisher would work closely with other part-time staff. Application deadline is 31 March, with an anticipated start date of 15 April.

Churchill, Manitoba

These shots just in from good friend Mike Grandmaison, who’s been hanging out with local polar bears in Churchill again, (on Hudson Bay, about 1000 km north of Winnipeg). Enjoy more of Mike’s outstanding photography—spanning the entire breadth of Canada—here. (Images ©2009 Mike Grandmaison).

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Noah Richler (son of the often acerbic Mordecai Richler) has written a glowing tribute to Winnipeg in today’s Toronto Star—all I can say is I fully concur… and I feel very fortunate to have anchored my design career in this very special place. Read the article here.

(Thanks to Oliver Oike for the heads-up, and to Mike Grandmaison for the great photo looking across the mighty Red River).

Winnipeg, Canada

…in the alley behind our office—a sporadic truism.

Bowen Island, British Columbia

This may sound wierd, but I feel honoured to be one of the 150 people on Marian Bantjes’ Valentines list. And so it was once again a delight this past week to receive a mysteriously engaging missive from the lovely lady, in handwritten script on glassine paper this time…  Eye magazine described the Valentine letter they received here; my friend Adrian has blogged about his here; and the prolific Marian fills in the full back-story here. (Take a look at the personalized hand-drawn Valentines this crazy gal drew up in 2007. Maid Marian—gotta love her).

Winnipeg, Canada

Working in the core of this city’s Exchange District for over three decades, it’s easy to take for granted the wonderful “texture” and “acquired patina” of this 20-block area (designated as a National Historic Site in 1997). I have yet to find anyone who’s documented the aging glory of the architectural jewels that comprise our downtown community (and the idiosyncratic signs that adorn their facades) than Bryan Scott… kudos to you! (I’ve mentioned Bryan’s oeuvre before, here, thanks to my colleague Adrian Shum).

All photographs were taken within a few blocks of Circle; all images from Love & Hate Winnipeg © Bryan Scott.