Squid Sighting + Awesome Connection + AWESOME WORK

I tend to overuse the word "awesome", but in this situation I mean it in the full ALL CAPS FOLLOWED BY 17 EXCLAMATION POINTS DEFINITION OF THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, since I've front loaded this post with high expectations - I'll just start with the AWESOMENESS!(x17)

Synn Labs is a group of folks in LA who are becoming increasingly well known for making Rube Goldberg sequences for music videos and commercials. Their other projects include installations and sculpture that blend  art, engineering, tech, and cool kid aesthetics. I apologize for the white wash of terms I just listed - but since I can barely understand the tech involved in most of their pieces - I'm just going to leave it at that, post some videos, and trust you to follow the link to their site if you want greater depth.

The video that (I think) started it all:


Synn Lab's most recent video for Google:


What's not to love?

Here come the awesome connections:

1. Deservingly, Synn Labs has been getting a  lot of work, a lot of "buzz", and was recently featured in Fast Company Magazine.

2. I went to school with Hector and Doug from Synn Labs. I know that doesn't give me cool points, but we're friends on Facebook.

3. We're friends on Facebook - so when Hector posted their article in Fast Company - I read it, admired their work, felt very happy for them, and spent a little time watching awesome videos.

4. I got an email last night from a lovely customer who purchased one of our Squid Jackets for her boyfriend last July. She just wanted me to know that her BF was wearing our Squid Jacket in a recent article in FAST COMPANY Magazine!

5. Her BF is Hector, and he's wearing our Squid Jacket!

Small world!

B-BAM!

We're happy to announce that our notebooks are now available at the Bellevue Arts Museum Gift Shop! How great is that? Especially since they ordered mostly covers from our collaboration with local artists, Slow Loris.

To save on shipping and take in a little cul-cha, Jean and I decided to personally deliver the order and check out the current exhibits.

Prepare to be hypnotized by this video by Etsuko Ichikawa. It shows her process of drawing with molten glass on paper.


Traces of the Molten State from Etsuko Ichikawa on Vimeo.

It's tempting for me to use this paragraph to discuss the appeal of the organic forms resulting from such an elemental process - but I think I'd take away from the work. It's badass that she draws with liquid fire, but when the results are stunning and grand and meditative and calligraphic and visceral and remind me how much I dig skilled mark making in drawing - how can I not share a few words that come to mind?

Comment dit on... Always Sunday?

Ahhhhh.... le sigh.... Je veux aller a l'existence.... That's how I feel when looking at the photos of pastries and places on the French Canadian blog, Toujours Dimanche. 

Oh la la.... pretty pictures of pretty things, but also a journal about opening a bakery in Quebec. A tour de force of our favorites at Chikabird: food, design, and renovation! The BEST part of Toujours Dimanche (pour moi) is that it's written bilingually in French and English. I can brush up on my rusty high school French while reading about opening a bakery. A sugar coated pill of multitasking... if you categorize blog surfing as a task... or a pill...

(p.s. When I write things like "pour moi", in my head I say it like Miss Piggy)

Stalking the Interwebs: The Village Mews

The rabbit hole of the blogosphere can lead you all over the world, and sometimes it leads you to... yourself! And your friends, and your friends of friends, and your favorite things, and your own neighborhood!

That's where I found myself after an interview on the Design Sponge guest blog led me to google Chelsea Green's blog - The Village Mews. The Village Mews focuses on art and design in the Pacific NW - what's going on, who's doing what - with occasional mentions to other noteworthy happenings happening elsewhere.

I tend to use my blogroll as a way of mentally acquiring design and imagery from far away or long ago. One of my pitfalls is allowing the vastness of great works out there make me feel more wistful than inspired - "The Australia design scene is so cool.... So-and-so's already doing that thing I was thinking of doing.... I wish I lived in Brazil/Tokyo/Copenhagen/Cape Town.... How is that guy selling so much of THAT thing?.... I wish it was the 60's...." All very milk-toast thinking and certainly not productive.

So it was both exciting and encouraging to scroll down the Village Mews and see a lot of people and projects to which we are directly or indirectly connected, some work I'd seen online but didn't know was local, plenty of work that was news to me, and ourselves! In addition to reminding me of all the strong work in Seattle and nearby, it reminded me to not get discouraged by the vastness - but to focus on what I do in the pond I'm in.

Chelsea started The Village Mews in hopes of luring her NYC friends out for a visit. Once Summer starts, I'm sure she'll be hosting non-stop.

Under the Magnifying Glass: Ladies&Gentlemen, Iacoli&McAllister, Join: Design Seattle, Nicholas Kamuda, Justine Ashbee, Cairo

Hostess with the mostess!

Is that still cute? Let's pretend it still is, and move onto more interesting topics.

Such as: Herman Yu's studio opening party! Where the most interesting folks in Seattle design and beyond mingled with... us? What a space! What a spread! As you can see in the pics, Herman's new studio feels like the waiting room to heaven. Flooded with light, open and airy, homemade Vietnamese food, and a sweet loft. I swear the egg roll and mango salad platters kept refilling themselves.

We're lucky enough to know Herman through her incredible work and locational coincidences (she and my fella were studio neighbors). We've Wii bowled together! A really cool lady, who's so warm and generous (and modest!), and great fun to chat with. I won't embarass her by gushing about her work, I'll just say she creates the most beautiful images you will ever see in your life. That's all.