Berlin, East Germany

Quite the unbelievable moment (twenty years ago today) for those of us who grew up in a divided land… I still have a bag of broken bits of the Berlin Wall as evidence of its demise.

Toronto, Canada

Julia’s work is both conceptual and intuitive… her illustrations have garnered recognition from awards annuals and associations including 3×3 Magazine, American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators (LA), Lürzer’s Archive and Taschen’s Illustration Now! Julia is also an educator, currently in her seventh year as an instructor at Sheridan College, where she explores Conceptual Process and Visual Language with her illustration students. Her first picture book, An Eye for Colour, the Story of Josef Albers (written by Natasha Wing) was published in September by Henry Holt.

See more of Julia’s work here…

…is having yet another exhibition, opening at the Bialystok Museum (Poland) on 20 November 2009. Best wishes, Stasys!

Which seems like a perfectly fine reason… if you think about it.

Shenzhen, China

I was surprised to receive this by e-mail… today’s Shenzhen business paper has run a lead article about the back-story of Icograda’s initial introduction to China (back when Professor Yu Bingnan of Tsinghua University in Beijing and I served together on the 2001-2003 Icograda board). I just wish I could read what’s been written…

Five years ago, I penned a feature piece for Communication Arts entitled “No Sleeping Dragon” about the dawn of visual communication design in China, drawing on some of the early visits facilitated by Professor Yu. A PDF version (4 MB) of the article is available here.

Beijing, China

Saturday’s the best day to ply the thousands of stalls of the infamous and somewhat chaotic Panjiayuan market (“Dirt Market” in Chinese) on the Third Ring Road, a “must-experience” destination we’d been told, for flea market aficianados, history buffs, junk collectors and the likes of us. As promised, Panjiayuan was chock-a-block with beads, bangles, books, jade, jewelry, Mao and Cultural Revolution memorabilia, Ming pottery, Yixing teapots, Tibetan souvenirs, silk galore, traditional crafts, and junk of every kind and description.

I scored a few Qing Dynasty brass water pipes (don’t ask me why), antique tools, and miscellaneous gift items, while Ev picked out some beautiful old celadon beads and some cute little teapots—we both acquired some additional Chinese seals and blanks (I had purchased some hardened chisels for carving seals earlier in the week at CAFA so that we could give this a go ourselves once back in Canada).

Beijing, China

We spent a delightful (though unbelievably smoggy) day today wandering serendipitously through the myriad alleys and galleries of 798 Art Zone (aka the Dashanzi Art District), an avant-garde artist community thriving in and amongst 50-year old decommissioned military factory buildings—a combination of contemporary art, architecture, and alternative creative expression that has evolved into a truly unique cultural concept. Certainly not the China I encountered on earlier visits only a few years ago…

Beijing, China

Today Ev and I linked up with about a dozen other Icograda delegates from various countries for a full-day guided outing (by means of a mini-van commandeered by our unstoppable guide ‘Sally’) to the north of the city, taking in a portion of the Ming Tombs (where 13 Ming Dynasty emperors are buried); lunch (replete with rigorous “everything you need to know about jade” instruction) at a government-owned jade factory; and then an afternoon ascending a portion of the Great Wall of China (Badaling section) along with several thousand others. The weather was outstanding (though a bit hazy for good photos) and we felt fortunate to take in this outstanding experience in the good company of friends. A fine day we won’t soon forget…

Photos: The ubiquitous security, here at the entrance of one of the tomb buildings; a photo of Mao at the very same spot taken the year I was born (notice the same tree to the right); Sally with yellow flag in hand trying to rally our troupe of designers (a bit like herding cats) in the Ming Tomb courtyard; a skilled jade carver (without proper eye, mouth, or ear protection)—Ev and I each ended up acquiring custom-carved seals featuring our respective initials; Ev on the Great Wall (alongside my good friend Gediminas Lasas from Lithuania); yes, it’s crowded at the top—and according to Chairman Mao, once you’ve been to the very top of the wall you can truly be called a “hero.”

Beijing, China

My first scheduled dinner engagement, (followed immediately by another late meeting), began a mere two hours after we arrived here from Canada last Friday… what with the 23rd Icograda General Assembly on the following two days, and then three consecutive days of the 2009 Icograda World Design Congress, the past week has been somewhat of a blur. While I’ve been busy with formal daytime activities, Ev has been out “touristing” and exploring the city on her own… then meeting up with me again at assorted venues for late-day show openings, dinners, receptions, exhibitions, and other design-related evening activities. Never a dull moment…

Photos: Ev and I at an evening opening (thanks for the photo, Halim); the remarkable Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) where the last two days of the Congress took place; a piece of quirky student work; Ev posing with a cast of Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker at CAFA; Ev’s auto-portrait at the Forbidden City.

(View tons more photos of the Icograda-related events in Beijing on friends Mark & Andrea Busse’s flickr site here).