So last weekend I took a quite trip to McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location. The freelance book design I worked on as a print on demand piece got a little more traction as a proper book in a brick-and-morter store! You’ll have to forgive the lighting, as I was trying to get a quick picture while nobody was looking and fluorescent lighting is not always very forgiving. But it proves the book does in fact exist. And can be found in the “Armchair Travel” section of the store.
So here are the pics (such as they are) that prove that we did meet Peter Mansbridge, if only briefly. The second one is quite blurry, which just goes to show you that you can have a pro camera, but without a pro using it, you can still wind up with pretty crummy images from time to time. 🙂
The Call of Fame?
A Very Gracious Guest
So today I got the privilege of meeting Peter Mansbridge. You know, that guy from CBC’s, The National? Now how’d a nobody from Winnipeg manage to score something like that? Well, I just happen to be married to a somebody, that’s how!
Peter Mansbridge was in town as part of a fundraiser for some local charities. My wife has a fairly strong connection to one of those charities, and was asked to photograph the event. I was her +1.
So after skulking around the VIP room for about an hour, holding Kim’s photography gear, somebody grabbed myself and Kim and threw us into a photo with the guest of honour. Since Kim didn’t take the shot herself, it did turn out a little burry, so it might be a pic of us standing with Peter Mansbridge, or maybe the Loch Ness Monster. I’ll post the picture once I’ve got it in my hot little hands. Either way, he was gracious enough to shake my hand and pose with us. And quite a few other people as well.
The rest of the dinner was fabulous. Though I do prefer my beef a little more cooked than that. I heard a distinct “moo” come from my meat the fist time I went for a bite! And the talk Peter gave after dinner was very good. Quite an insight on his career and I am sure quite an inspiration to the students in attendance. All in all, a good night out!
So every year I put my fear of slicing myself to pieces and my sometimes acute sympathy pains aside and lobotomize a pumpkin. Not sure why, as we only had six kids this year. An all time low. We usually hit the double digits. Guess that’s what you get when you live on a sometimes busy street and almost none of the neighbours do anything for the trick or treaters. Also means we have quite a bit of candy to get through. Darn it all to heck.
And anyone know if you lobotomize something, and it was a vegetable to begin with, does the procedure make it any smarter instead?
So it was an interesting night out.
I first went to the grand opening of AssentWorks. An interesting collective that was created so entrepreneurs, inventors and hobbyists would have a space to work and have access to rapid-prototyping equipment. CNC routers, mills and 3D printers oh my. Just to name a few of the goodies they have there. In other words, they had some pretty cool toys you can play with for a monthly fee. Definitely a guy place, (and most definitely, NOT a Pierre Lavoie place) though there were a few young ladies walking around who both seemed interested in the tools and knew about how some of the equipment worked (which is more than I could say for myself).
I did have to laugh when I saw the “tool crib” though. It was basically a room totally branded by Princess Auto. Seems they donated a lot of hand tools. Kimmy didn’t know anything about it. Too bad she wasn’t there, I think she would have gotten a kick out of the “blue and gold” room.
So after seeing a few of the projects that have been made there (including a whole car!) I was off to The Secret Handshake (that so far doesn’t seem to actually have a secret handshake – so much for truth in advertising) and hopefully something to eat. But before that, I had some time to kill, so I went to MEC to see what was there to see (and hopeful find a much needed bathroom!) All I really succeeded there was scaring the bejesus out of some woman who hadn’t locked the bathroom door to a co-ed, single stall bathroom. I knew there was a reason I avoided the downtown area…
Anyways, the meeting was held at the Lo Pub. A very cool little place (with mediocre food – more on that later) in a rather rough part of town and sharing space with a youth hostel. Methinks they need a better location. Though being right by the Exchange District, it wouldn’t be so bad in the summer. The meeting started off slowly, most of the creatives there seemed to already know each other, but I eventually found a few other newbies who were all standing around wondering what the heck was going on. And then some of the more regular members took pity on us and helped us mingle. Quite an array of people with different backgrounds. Too bad my wife couldn’t make it – there were quite a few photographers there. And if they keep having meetings on Thursdays, she’ll never be able to go. Except for maybe in the summer. All in all, a good night, even if I feared for my life heading home.
Now for the food. It’s a vegetarian place. Let me say first off, I have no problem with a meatless meal. Chana Masala is one of my favourtiest meals. I had “The Philly”. Maybe not the best choice. Didn’t taste like a Philly cheesesteak, and it sat around for quite a while once eaten. The fries were good, the price very reasonable, and the portions generous. And I understand the vegetarian poutine(??!!!?) was quite good. And the nachos seemed popular. So maybe I didn’t order the best thing on the menu.
So I think the Secret Handshake gets a passing grade. At least for now. Means I’ll be attending future meetings. And anyone who wonders who this Pierre guy is and why he should never be within 1000 ft of a laser cutter, you can see his work here.And I hope he’s now satisfied. 🙂
While technically, this is my second post this month under this category, I think it’s safe to assume the first one I posted at the beginning of the month is for September and this one will be for October. While not a seasonal image, strictly speaking, I did resurrect this image from a job that died an untimely death quite a few years ago. So I guess there’s a strangled tie-in to Halloween…
I did a bunch of pencil roughs of a whole series of people. A real cross-section of North Americans. They were all punted in favour of a mod/hipster type drawings similar to this guy here. (that were ultimately rejected in favour of just not doing the project at all). I always thought it was a shame the drawings never made it past a very early conceptual stage. So I set about to change that. This is the first one. I’ll maybe do a few more later on.
This one was my favourite of the bunch. My wife thinks he looks a lot like Billy Blanks of Tae Bo fame. I have to admit, there is a resemblance, but he was the furthest thing from my mind when I was originally sketching out the images.
The image started off as a scan of the pencil drawing and then I went to town dropping in colour. Starting out with flat tones of colour and then built up the highlights and shadows. Pretty straightforward. The only really crazy thing I did was essentially re-do all the linework directly in Photoshop. Lots of fun with the Paths tool and a custom Photoshop brush. Resulted in some nice a slick lines.
Enjoy.
So I’m testing DragonDictate to see if this is a good way to blog without having to do too much typing. So far it seems to be working pretty good. I just have to remember to actually use punctuation when I talk. This should be a good way for me to blog while I’m waiting for my wife at the Pan Am pool. So I get to be the strange guy at the Pan Am pool, who is going to be talking to his iPod. It’ll probably also be a good way to get that seat all to myself on the bus!
This is a small sampling of the various publications I’ve worked on over the years. Shown here are some pages I helped put together for Travel Manitoba. Though another company designed the original sample pages,the company I was working for at the time was assembling the bulk of the travel books for that year,. Due to some miscalculations and miscommunications, I would up doing most of the cover pages for that year. Example pages for the NorthWest Company, and some miscellaneous stuff for Freedom 55 are included as well. I’ve also done work for the Canadian Dental Association, Manitoba Moose, and the Investors Group.
You can read more about these items here and here. I figured these two were worth having in my portfolio.
Eye Opening Design 