watermelon

this split watermelon’s

sweet red flesh

glistens wet

with cool black seeds

Vitrine

is not a medicine nor an object found in la salle de bain. I found the word in the latest issue of Décor, a lovely yet expensive interior design magazine. If you know me, you know I cannot resist the lure of the glossy pages, and I love to lose myself in the colours and textures.

I hadn’t heard this word before, which is simply a display case with glass panels. It can easily be made of wood or metal, but the key is the glass panes that allow us to see inside. I have a beautiful vitrine from Bali, made of teak, with glass panels set into scalloped wooden frames. Possibly your grandmother had a tall traditional one that held her fine linen table cloths in the drawers below and Royal Albert figurines on the shelves above. What you see above, is a traditional 19th century vitrine, masterpiece by Francois Linke. Ooh la la!

amuse-bouche

I am in Edmonton, staying at a budget hotel, and my Libra sensibilities were so offended by the room that I Had. To . Get. Out. So off I went a wandering, and it crossed my mind that just around the corner I could find a little happiness. And there was the Wildflower Restaurant (excuse their flash website, they don’t know any better, they are restauranteurs).

A lovely room, with soft beats, and a varied menu that would do the trick. So I ordered the Napa Savignon Blanc, beef carpaccio and crab cakes, and enjoyed some quiet in the nice light. To my surprise, along came an amuse-bouche. Something with avocado and crispy bits and cream, it was delightful, unexpected, artful and whet my appetite for something more.

I love the idea of an amuse-bouche.

So I did a little exploration, and of course the Wiki had something:

“The amuse-bouche is the best way for a great chef to express his big ideas in small bites.” ~ Jean-Georges Vongerichten

The amuse-bouche is something unexpected, free, and a showcase of the chef’s talents, a brief insight into his way of cooking. So an amuse-bouche for design? How can you express yourself in a concentrated, unexpected way. I know I will be thinking about this!

Mementos

Sort out my photos and keepsakes. I have a giant pile of “mementos” that I just can’t live without, and haven’t looked at in years.

I went through my keepsakes the other evening, and I was surprised at some of the things I have been toting around with me all these years. A cassette tape of Roxette? Well, there were a couple other tapes too, but really, we can look at those on the internet if we want to remember. I don’t even have a means to play them anymore. Can we really be sentimental about technology if it’s useless?

But there were tons of photos, and what fun to look at them. Trips to NYC, Montreal, weddings in FSJ, they were all delightful to look at and remember good times. Which prompts me to believe that I am very poor at documenting my life these days, I MUST get more active with my camera. And also make sure I keep these new digital memories in a format that I will always be able to enjoy. It’s wonderful to be digital, lighter, but we lose something in virtual reality, the sheer bulk of experience that is represented in tangible forms. But does that just leave us more space to enjoy the present and the tangible presence of other living beings?

It does feel good to know what I have, and to choose again what to bring with me. No more dusty boxes in my closet!

40 Before 40

I am turning 40 this year, October 13, and I want to accomplish a few things before that day arrives. I have seen other people do this, so here is my list that I’d like to accomplish. I have grouped them into similars, as I think some will influence others and I want to see the general trends of my interests. A lot of these things don’t sound very glamorous, but they are things I have been meaning to do, and wouldn’t it be great to get them done?

And just to be clear, this is NOT a bucket list. Cause if life ends at 40, then I’m staying 39. Forever.

1. Design a tattoo for Jenn and Natalie. They have requested a sugar skull, so we will see what I come up with.
2. Make a glass mobile for my window. I bought these cool hand blown glass beads this weekend, and I just need to find a piece of drift wood to tie them too.
3. Make a mosaic out of my shell collection. Yeah, this has been sitting around for a while, get it done!
4. Listen to a new band every week. I am already a few weeks ahead on this one, after the music fest last weekend.
5. Use up my movie tickets. If you are like me, you bought a fistful 3 years ago, and you still haven’t used them.
6. Sort out my photos and keepsakes. I have a giant pile of “mementos” that I just can’t live without, and haven’t looked at in years. DONE!
7. Get a portrait taken of myself and send it to my loved ones. You know, commemorate the occasion. Lucky peeps!
8. Redesign my blog. Because this design has got to go.
9. Get my portfolio online again. Market myself. Get prepared.
10. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Which I have never done, and I am sure is a Good Thing. This can’t all be about me, people.
11. Talk to one stranger every day. “Because you might just make someone’s day” sold me on this idea.
12. Do the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup in September. Another Good Thing, and I love the ocean, so why not?
13. Skip a meal once a week to understand hunger. Which maybe we should all do. Ever said the phrase “I’m starving?” Yeah, you’re not.
14. Buy ‘that’ purse. I have my eye on one…
15. Buy a lovely couch for my apartment. It will be nice to have a place to sit sometime soon.  DONE!
16. Get rid of all those clothes I will not ever wear again. Bad fashion choices abound. And my closet is very small. DONE!
17. Burn all my CD’s and get rid of the ones I no longer want. Already started this process, and it’s fun to listen to all my music again.
18. Take cooking lessons (maybe indian or thai). Yummeh! Anyone want to come over for dinner?
19. Make a chocolate soufflee. Cause we may have dessert too!
20. Take a mixology class. And some drinks. Perhaps lots of drinks.
21. Loose ‘that last 10 pounds’. After the dinner party.
22. Read “The Hatha Yoga Pradipika”. A seminal book that has been sitting on my shelf for a few years now. There are hints and mysteries to explore in those pages.
23. Master a handstand. That’s right, bitch, a handstand. Better get practicing!
24. Hike a local mountain. And I don’t mean the Grind.
25. Yoga a minimum 3x a week (‘cept for moontime). Because it makes me shiny and happy.
26. Eat vegan for two weeks. After the dinner party!
27. Read a book on massage. Cause I like touching people, and I heard I am good at it.
28. Take a dancing lesson, like bhangra! More joy, more bliss.
29. Write a thesis proposal. I have some thoughts that I’d like to explore, and I am feeling school may be the direction for me.
30. Research Masters programs. Started this. Will publish findings soon.
31. Learn a new word every week. Fugue was this week.
32. Read “Design is the Problem”. Cause I haven’t and I should.
33. Read “About Face”. Same goes.
34. Read “The Design of Everyday Things”. I know, shame on me, this is seminal.
35. Read “The Art of War”. On my shelf for years, and possibly could come in handy.
36. Make a plan for Europe travel in the next year. I’m thinking Barcelona…
37. Go to New York City for my birthday. I went on my 29th, and it was so wonderful. I love that city!
38. Walk the Highline. Only in NYC would there be an abandoned rail line that grows fields of flowers. A must see.
39. Go to the Statue of Liberty. Cause I haven’t, and why not? She’s beautiful and French.
40. Go to Carnegie Hall to see Cyro Baptista. Who is a master, and he’s playing on my birthday, and I’ve never been to Carnegie Hall. Triple win!

Yeah, this is a lot to accomplish in the next couple of months, and I am not even sure it’s possible. But I’m going to have fun checking off my list, and I will share as much as I can. Wish me luck!

Commercial Illustration Complete!

I’ve been pretty busy the last month, I think the doldrums of winter pushed me to say yes to many things, without me keeping track of my commitments. However, with a little sacrifice, I did get through the work, and enjoyed it as well.

I was fortunate to take the Commercial Illustration course at ECUAD with Robin Thompson over the last few weeks. We had our final class this week, and I must admit, I am a bit sad not to have a drawing assignment due next week that I would have to work on this weekend. It was wonderful to step away from the computer for a while and just draw. Robin gave us a good assignment each week, and I was happy to see that by the end of the six weeks, I was able to work through concepting, roughing out ideas, fine tuning and finishing the illustrations in less time and with more skill.

Here’s one of my favorite assignments, a t-shirt design that I scanned and colourized in PhotoShop. I still have to put in on my shirt, but overall I really like it. I love patterns and especially the work of William Morris, so this was an opportunity to create my own flower pattern. After completing this one, there are so many more variations that I want to try with colours and shapes, as well as the difference between working the designs in Illustrator vs. PhotoShop. So many more hours of fun!

Things I’ve been thinking about

I really have been lax in my blog posts, so here I go with another attempt at capturing my thoughts here on Lightfast.

I’d like to get out there are drum up more UE focused work. I think there are a lot of opportunities, but as everything, you just have to go out there and find them. I’d like to put together a presentation that explains the value of User Experience, with the audience being non-traditional audiences. For instance, Marketing and IT groups will be familiar with our practice, but what about Finance or Human Resources? I’m thinking the outline looks something like this:

UE Visioning

• What is User Experience?
• How is User Experience research done?
• What kinds of projects are User Experience focused?
• What are the benefits of User Experience visioning?

I think this will help lead me to doing more of the work I’d like to do. Wish me luck!

Design on a deadline

I’ve been busy tonight preparing for the Web 3.90 class on Friday morning. Half of the class will be reviewing the first round of mock ups for everyone’s portfolio site. I’m excited about this part – it’s always fun to see where the students take their wireframes and moodboards.

The second half of the class, however, is my presentation on 1 wireframe, 3 ways. Pretty self-explanatory – I will show how one wireframe can be skinned in three ways. This is easier for a blog template, in that is can be themed in a multitude of ways (as long as it makes sense with the blog’s name). I have completed one design last semester, which I think is valid to present again, but tonight I worked on another one. Needless to say I’m a bit tired, but it’s been fun just to be visually creative. I wish I had more time to tweak this one!

What I have enjoyed about this exercise is having to flex my creative muscles in a set time period, which like any muscles, get lazy if not used. I can see with my design tonight that I have fallen back on many of my design tricks to get through the exercise, and I hope that i can break out of these patterns tomorrow evening when I have to work on the third design.

Here are some of the resources I used tonight to get my materials:

Istockphoto.com – super good for inexpensive images. I particularly like the lightbox feature, it really helps in creating a scrapbook of images to use. I created a little lightbox of fabric related imagery to work with tonight. I was especially intrigued by the patterns that I saw on the site, and wanted to use some, but I must create my own, and time was of the essence this evening.

Dafont.com – excellent source for free online fonts. I really like that I can type in my sample text into the custom preview feature and see it displayed in different fonts. Very helpful and they are easily screen-grabbed for testing in my layout quickly. I used Antipasto in my layout tonight, it has simple flare that works for my style.

And of course the design! Not bad for 3 hours…

Second Design option for Lightfast Blog

A collaborative approach to design and development

I’ve been working on a fairly complex web form the last few weeks, and I’ve been lucky to have a very smart business analyst and systems developer to work with. Between the three of us, we have been able to engage the client in a fairly meaningful dialogue regarding the business rules, the users’ needs and the system constraints, and have made a lot of decisions along the way.

We’ve used a variety of methods for capturing comments (sticky notes, OneNote, and notebook scribblings), but there came a point when the decisions we have been making need to be visualized. We’ve developed a particular rhythm to our meetings which has facilitated great progress, and ultimately, getting to yes. We have been playing leapfrog with our sessions, with a discussion-visualize-review & revise pattern that seems to really be working. What I like about these weekly meetings is that they are just far enough apart to get some work done, but close enough together so the group of stakeholders still remember what we are working on.

Fortunately, I will also be applying the visual styling and interactivity to the project, so I am able to keep one eye on the aesthetic needs. Also, having the lead developer in the room really helps when the conversation leads to how the back end system will need to integrate with our web application. Finally, the business analyst is doing a fantastic job of capturing all the fine details. It’s a far cry from the waterfall approach, and far more effective.