Dance Festival on Film

Enjoy my first “Weekender” Edition. Every Friday I am going to post five things you should do in North County during the weekend.

1. Ski and Snowboard Megasale - Del Mar Fairgrounds

2. Eat a Burger - If you haven’t had a burger at Luxus 101 yet, now is the time. Kobe Beef, Turkey or Veggie patty, you can’t go wrong.

3. Cocktail Sunset - take a gander at the sunset with cocktail in hand at either Viewpoint Park (off D Street) or on Neptune in the never-ending staircase parking lot.

4. Zenbu Cardiff- Check out their ALL NIGHT happy hour on Sunday, but remember, you have to work on Monday morning.

5. La Paloma Theater: Frost/Nixon starts there this weekend and on Sunday (3/1) they are playing “Dance Films from Around the World“which looks incredibly cool!

Check back next Friday for more stuff to do in NoCo!

Good-lookin cool

Bad-lookin nice

Can BAD design actually be good? I’ve posted a sample above to illustrate a classic case of “Designer vs Client”. As a designer I think the logo this company ended up with sucks, but as a Consumer, I believe they somewhat nailed it. The “designer” logo is clean and cool, can easily be put on t-shirts, hats, business cards, etc… and looks great. However it’s cold and uninviting. The “client” logo is obviously amateur (anyone that uses Comic Sans should be banned from using a computer), however is friendly, inviting and tells the entire story. I am still not 100% sold on this concept of “story trumping graphics” but that must be the designer in me talking.

I am curious, if you were the buisness owner, which would you have choosen? Good-lookin cool or bad-lookin nice?

Peace man

A flag to represent all of mankind, quite a bold concept. But I love the idea! Check out what the world has submitted for the The One Flag Contest on Adbusters and vote for your fav. I have 3 favorites, one of which is posted above. Although I do admire all 32 finalists’s designs for thier unique perspetives on how to illustrate a united world. Give peace a chance, right?

whut up g?

I just came across this iphone app, called Huge Type. I really like the concept of this experiment. And the website is superbly simple. Now instead of storing the cool type I see when I’m out and about in my brain, I can put it online. YAY! Check it out here hugetype.com.

ohhhh..color!

I often find myself trying to compose fresh color palettes for clients and surprisingly, it’s one of the harder things to do. You’d think after years of PMS books and color theory classes, it’d be second nature for me. Even choosing a color scheme to paint my bathroom recently took me hours. But, now that I’ve come across Colour Lovers (yea, it musta been created by some Brits) I’ve gotten loads of inspiration not only for design, but for my home and style. Check it out at colourlovers.com.

pretty packaging

I don’t think it’s possible that packaging can get any prettier, cooler or more innovative than the things on thedieline.com. If you’re a designer looking for inspiration or just a sucker for good packaging, look no further. Anyone that can make wine in a box look appealing is ok by me!

charity : water

Did you know an average american uses 150 gallons of water a day, while citizens in developing countries can barely find 5? I just learned that fact and a whole bunch of shocking others on a very cool new site, it’s called charity: water and it’s all for the good of the people. But I like it too because it’s really well designed and has stunning (literally) National Geographic style photography, and the stories to match. Read the stories, feel the facts and then you might find it impossible not to donate. And if not, at least remember to turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth.