The Winterhawks

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Digging this logo for the Portland Winterhawks. I found this while in a resale shop looking at some old clothes. I remember going to a few games at the Memorial Coliseum when I was younger. The organ music and everything.  Pretty awesome.

They are always overshadowed by the Portland Trailblazers, Beavers, and now the Timbers. 

After looking up the franchise history they seem pretty respectable in the Western Hockey League. They've even won the Memorial Cup twice.  Might not be the bigs, but seems like they can hold their own. For a sleepy town Portland has a lot of sport options.

The W+K Gallery will be hosting the 100 Show. I was able to submit a piece into it (see below). It's a global showcase of art and illustration from artists around the globe. Wieden+Kennedy received over 800+ submissions from artists all over the world. Glad to be a part of it.

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The only parameters for the show is that the piece needs to be roughly 10" x 10".  The art is sold for $100 each.  Fifty dollars going back to the artist and $50 going to MercyCorps.

The opening party for the show will run this Thursday from 6pm-10pm.

Come by and buy something to pretty up your wall or shelf. You'll be doing good for all.

Wieden Kennedy
224 NW 13th
Portland, OR 97209

If you can't come, check them out here.

Welcome 2012

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The above image is a quick poster that I made  for a buddy of mine who decided to rebrand his hometown video store in Waldport, Oregon.

So, seeing that I got inspired and decided to put together my stuff. Time to embrace the world-wide-web thing.

Okay. Impromptu New Year's resolution time. Try to get back on the internet and make it a playground and experimental place for some ideas.

Maybe make it a more useful place.

Bruce Lee on the Pierre Berton Show

I'm always a Bruce Lee fan and I admired what he did on the ol' silver screen. This interview shows the Bruce's confidence, charisma and focus. People think of him as just a movie star chop-socky fighter, but I think he was a pioneer in of scientific fighting (ex. boxing and freestyle wrestling). The principles that he put together were very postmodern and are the basis of mixed martial arts.

But more importantly, I think it shows the philosophy change from a young Bruce Lee who adhered more to Taoism and other Chinese belief systems to an human expression with Taoist leanings.

Fourth Annual Aaron Lee Birthday Party

Another year down and my friend Aaron Lee rents the Portland Spirit and invites 800 of his best friends for his birthday party. The man of the hour was dressed in a classy red silk robe, striped swimwear, captain's hat, delightful aviators and was garnished with a delicate gold chain. About 350 people came to set sail on the Willamette.

This year's attire for the guests and crew. Snobby yachters. Men looked great in their polo knit shirts with the popped collars and the women in large sun brimmed hats. It was like Martha's vineyard with a dash of PBR.

Other party revellers showing their affiliations. But the most common affiliation was to tomfoolery.


Three DJ's played the party for hours. One on the lower deck and one on the upper deck.




Delightful night lights on the river.


A view of the packed upper deck.


Here we see a sampling of the carousing carnage left afterwards.

Helvetica

This is a better graphic design movie that I've seen lately. Actually, it's the only graphic design movie that I've ever seen, I think. The movie talks about Helvetica and it's origins. How it started with the Modernist movement and the legacy it leaves behind. But more than that, it shows many different high-profile designers and their reactions to the font. It's a little bit of navel gazing because of the subject matter. Since I'm a type "nerd", this film really appeals to the design side of my brain and I love a good story.

It talks about the creation of Helvetica and it's implications upon the western world (possibly globally) of design. The ubiquitious typeface has turned 50 this year.

This is a little summary of Gary Huswit's film:

From its modest beginnings on the drafting board of a little-known Swiss designer in 1957, Helvetica has since grown to become the most commonly used font in the contemporary cultural landscape. It is the official font for thousands of corporate logos, used for signage in transportation systems around the globe, and is the default typeface for Apple Macintosh’s OS.

Through insightful interviews with design moguls like David Carson, Matthew Carter, Massimo Vignelli, Erik Spiekermann, Experimental Jetset, and many others, filmmaker Gary Hustwit uses the proliferation of a single font to guide the viewer through an intelligent conversation about the evolution of design over the last half century and how graphic design is impacting us in our everyday lives. Filmed in the United States, England, the Netherlands,
Germany, Switzerland, France and Belgium, Helvetica takes the viewer on a tour of our urban spaces to illustrate how design is impacting the visual culture.

And since we are speaking about ubiquity, Microsoft made it's own version of the font called, Arial. Can you spot the difference?

Urban Forest AIGA Poster

The Urban Forest Project was originally conceived by AIGA's New York chapter in 2006, where banners created by top designers promoted environmental awareness in Times Square, one of the world's busiest, most emphatically urban intersections.

As a leading city in both design and green building, Portland seemed the natural place for the next phase of the initiative to evolve. Design Portland: The Urban Forest Project will be a series of events in April to unite the community in celebration of collaboration, problem-solving, and greener design choices during the week of Earth Day.

In its initial year, the AIGA selected a variety of local designers or teams of designers, illustrators, photographers, and artists to create banners promoting the week of events 22-27 April, 2007.

I felt like the Benson bubblers are iconic in Portland's cityscape. Therefore, I did a poster reflecting it. Not to mention, I went to Benson Highschool back in the day. Big ups to the Techmen. What! What!

Last Days in Shanghai

I will miss those few weeks in Shanghai. I've included some images that you may like.

To finish off I included a picture of WK Shanghai's house auntie. She always prepares breakfast for everybody at the beginning of the day. It reminded me of my mother who always did that. The funny thing is that I would eat the Western buffet at the Regal Hotel, walk to work and then eat the Chinese breakfast. All this food on WK's dime.

Thanks, Uncle Wieden!

Shanghai Biennial

Took a gander to get some inspiration at the Shanghai Art Museum. It's in a beautiful old building. The exhibition definitely had a China twist to it. Reflects a lot on Chinese culture, Communism and the emergence of modern art.

The Chinese are not afraid to ignore signs and walk up and touch the exhibits. Crossing velvet ropes, no problem. Its funny we put art on a pedestal, but only to be humbled when somebody throws it in a landfill.

Regardless, it has some value and I was glad to see the whole exhibit for about 5 USD. Imagine that. Six floors. What a value!

Old Shanghai.

You Talking to Me? You Talking to Me?

I had posted that getting a taxi could be dangerous. A fight broke out between a traffic assistant and a cab driver. They got into an argument and the cabbie came out of his cab (while his passenger remained inside). The traffic assistant started swinging and a whole crowd surrounded the scene. The funny thing was that people still tried to cross traffic as they were punching each other out.

This is a normal day on the streets. The worst thing that I saw was a fight between families for a cab. This happened during the National Holiday that coincided with the Moon Festival a few weeks back. A young mother was punching and kicking 2 cops while holding her baby in her arms. It was the worst case of a baby's head whipping back and forth I've ever scene. It was almost like watching a baby being shaken.

I struggled taking photos of that scene because I felt terrible just observing. So I didn't. I regretted it. Am I a bad person?

The taxi cabbie and traffic assistant was a little easier to rationalize away. There weren't any babies involved. Unless you count the traffic assistant crying after he got his butt kicked. Robert Dinero style.

View from the Bund.

So this is the usual air quality on a nice autumn night looking at Pudong. It'll be interesting when China is considered a fully developed country. Shanghai is rocketing towards capitalism. So at the moment, there's no holds barred when business is concerned. Anything goes. The population and consumption just blows my mind.

Cold Lampin' at the Temple.

The Downfall of China through Misinformation.

So I wrote a few weeks ago about how China has blocked lots of sites including Wikipedia. Well, Wikipedia is now open and now it possibly corrupt the minds of many Chinese. History will be written and re-written. HA!

Seriously, it's a good thing. Maybe the Chinese can learn about Tiananmen Square in the 80s.

Dirty Pork Leg.

Tastes pretty good. Seems like a common thing to eat in the farming towns.

I just got into a fight with an old beggar lady. She tried to snatch a plastic bottle from my hand as I was drinking out of it. I wasn't finished with the contents inside the bottle. I also had the preconception that people don't really recycle here after seeing tons of rubbish on the streets. She was just trying to get some money if she turned in some recycling.
We walked for about 2 blocks together as she was following me.

End result, I gave her the bottle.

ZhouZhaung, the Venice of China.

As I was on the plane to Shanghai, I watched Mission Impossible III. From my understanding the canal scene that they tried to pass off as Shanghai is actually ZhouZhaung. Therefore, I've walked the same streets as Tom Cruise, both in this small town and Shanghai. So we have one thing in common, I guess. That and being short. Did I mention the part about not taking drugs to combat postpartum depression? That and jumping on couches. I guess that would be four things. And crazy. Don't forget crazy.

Suzhou No. 1 Silk Factory.

It takes a lot of silkworms to make silk. I also learned that if you burn silk there should be white smoke. So when you buy a silk item make the salesperson burn it in front of you. It is a perfect way to tell a fake.

Day Trip to Suzhou & ZhouZhuang

Qiao and I signed up to go to Suzhou and ZhouZhuang. I think that Suzhou was appointed to be the sister city to Portland, Oregon a while back. So it was pretty neat to go there. Suzhou craftsman stayed in Portland for approximately 2 years and built a small classical Chinese garden.

We had an English speaking tour guide. Five people including us. Gloria, the tour guide was getting frustrated that we took a long time taking photos. Adding insult to injury, we forgot to tip her at the end of the day trip. We didn't realize till the tour minivan drove off.

It's cultural not to tip for service here in China, and we missed the opportunity when it was the exception. I still enjoyed the day.