Ohio Design

I came across the design work from a designer working at Pentagram - clearly a previous resident of Ohio. I found the design very playful and fun as well as promoting Ohio as a good place to be. Ohio often gets a bad wrap from it's coastal cousins as farm country-bumpkins but the state is actually quite populated by small cities and a diversity of academia propelling young people off to bigger and better jobs. But anyway, I digress. This post was only meant to capture the pro-ohio sentiment coming out in some designer's work these days that I'm happy to see!

Inspirational Typography from Veer

This young upstart stock photo house has been really catering to the design audience with great online and offline design to sell their photos. The Gettyimages giant which used to rule the roost has definitely had to step up to compete. Getty has even launched a new more 'designed' site to give it an edge. Although it is not only the nice design that Veer has going for it. Corbis also has had excellent design from the design firm T26 but yet they are still lagging as well. There is something about the simplicity of the pages, the ease of navigation and page load times that is seamless about Veer's integrated approach. All of their print mailers are also very smart and reflect in tone of voice and design the same feeling as the web site evokes.

Coney Island Mermaid Parade

This is the last year for Coney Island... AGAIN. Well so they say -- apparently this parade is a tradition that won't go away that easily. People just enjoy dressing up in strange aquatic themed costumes and walking along the boardwalk on a summer day. It never fails to draw a huge crowd. We watched from the fringes, sneaking some photos where we could and drank the yard long summer cocktail... which for unlimited refills was pretty good, some sort of Koolaid spiked drink.

world traveler visits

Our globetrotting friend Lisa made a pit stop in NYC to catch up with old friends and work a spell before heading back out on the road in Africa. It was great catching up on old times, although I miss her dog Darwin! Lisa was a first grade teacher here in NYC and put her career on hold to chase her dreams of adventure. She likes to keep everyone guessing.. where in the world is Lisa?... Somewhere in Africa right now!

Don Gato Live!

Rod got a new Flip video camera and Don Gato got curious about it.

memorial weekend grillout

We finally made a long overdue trip up to Boston again for a visit. Maya and Maizey are changing so fast and are getting so pretty! The last time we saw them, Maizey was barely crawling. This time Maya was quite a showboat -- posing for the camera and insisting on seeing the digital photo to examine the results. We enjoyed a delicious grillout and great bonfire. We also saw the new 'Indy' flick which didn't really meet our expectations or rather just didn't exceed them.

Johnny Hollywood comes to town

Johnny came to visit last week for 10 days of fun in NYC. His main stated purpose was to meet Señor Don Gato and win her over. I think one could say that he won her love as much as anyone can, as she slept on his feet and laid belly up next to him on the couch. True Love. I'm pretty sure she misses him. We had an action packed week of adventure despite the poor weather conditions of drizzley days and low temperatures of which Johnny has grown unaccustomed.
Johnny's second stated purpose was to eat as much 'good' pizza as he could get down before returning to L.A. where they reportedly do not offer such quality in their pizza-making— so he stocked up on Smiling Pizza and Grimaldi's. We spent a few days exploring the cultural institutions of the Moma and the Brooklyn Museum of Art where we saw such exhibits as 'Design and the Elastic Mind' and the 'Murakami Exhibit' respectively. We walked through the Botanical Gardens to view the Cherry Blossums in bloom and also Prospect park to heckle a few little league baseball games. Many lovely days exploring the fine eateries and drinking establishments that Brooklyn has to offer such as the Gowanus Yacht Club where there are certainly no Yachts and it's not a club and also the Montauk Club which is a club. We walked the Brooklyn bridge when some sunlight broke through the clouds. Some sports were played at the Tennis Courts. And we even managed to catch the final race of the Kentucky Derby over a cannoli where alas Blue Bells ran her last race. So we had a really eventful week and enjoyed Johnny's visit! Hope he had fun too!