I’ve uploaded a selection of images from the design process of Eli’s logo, including a few sketches, idea generation and a couple of drafts. I’ve also included a preview of Elifer’s website that will be online soon. Thanks to both Shelby White and David Airey for inspiring this post.

Sketching

A simple mind map to start exploring logo options

A few of the sketches that influenced the final logo

Drafting

Some drafts of the final logo after the direction had been finalised

I was playing with the idea of a ‘signature’ style logo with a much looser appearance – a couple of the explorations I did of this are shown above.

Strong influence from the Georgia typeface – still a little adjustment to do on the logo

Finals

The final logo after minor adjustments

The logo attached to Eli’s name

The logo on a dark background

The tail of the S runs into the middle curve on the logo when it is placed on dark backgrounds, so I also supplied Eli with a slightly adjusted version for this purpose to maintain the integrity of the mark.

Business Card

A business card to complete the package

Website

Website coming soon!

Jungen is an artist from Fort St. John, BC and specialises in found art. The work featured on the postcards is from his Prototype for New Understanding series; basing the forms of his creations on Pacific North-West aboriginal masks, Jungen has repurposed Nike Air Jordans into incredibly striking works which combine traditional artforms and commercial products to create a compelling dichotomy. The shapes and colours he uses are distinctly aboriginal, but the Nike swooshes and jumping Jordan silhouettes which intermittently dot the pieces are unmistakeable markers of the origins of the material.

Jungen has also used hanging black human hair in a number of these sculptures, which give them an eery life of their own. As soon as I picked up the book I knew I was going to be buying it; I’m not sure I’m going to send any of the postcards though, they’re too beautiful! I’ve featured a selection of his pieces below.

Prototype for New Understanding #8, 1999

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Prototype for New Understanding #11, 2002

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Prototype for New Understanding #12, 2002

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Prototype for New Understanding #14, 2003 (detail)

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Prototype for New Understanding #22, 2005

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Variant 1, 2002

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An image capturing a segment of Jungen’s process

Does anyone know any other artists who meld the past and present in such a striking way? I’d love to hear about them!

We saw the first show at English Bay, but after experiencing how crowded it got there, decided that we’d be better off moving to the southern side of False Creek and viewing the fireworks near Kitsilano beach. I took a lot of photos, but I’ve tried to cull them down so only the decent ones are in this entry.

The Celebration of Light 2010 barge – view from English Bay

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English Bay panorama at sunset

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An escaped balloon in front of the North Shore mountains

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Synchronised kite-flying at Kitsilano

We found this guy just North of Granville Island Markets at the entrance to False Creek; he was an old man flying three synchronised kites, and impressively good at his hobby.

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Dips and salad from Granville Island Markets

While at Granville Island, a fantastic local Vancouver farmer’s market, we picked up dips, salad and crusty white bread for a delicious afternoon picnic.

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Sunset at the entrance to False Creek in Vancouver

We set up camp at the entrance to False Creek on the night of the second fireworks display and ended up returning for the rest of the nights; it was much less crowded than English Bay.

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Eli taking photos

A friend of ours who I’m currently building a portfolio website for was taking pictures as well, I got a nice portrait shot of him.

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A beautiful Eastern-European-esque apartment building close to where we were sitting for the fireworks

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It glowed so vividly at sunset

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It was covered in ivy

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The colours were very striking

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The sunset shone through the glass of the Vancouver Maritime Museum roof

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The sunset was extremely vivid almost every night of the fireworks

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I only got a few decent shots of the fireworks

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China’s finalé was spectacular and lit up most of the sky

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Motion exposure of the fireworks

I got bored of trying to keep the camera steady for regular exposures of the fireworks (I’d neglected to bring a tripod), so I started to try motion exposures (or ‘light painting’, except with a moving camera rather than a light source), which worked out very well. I’ve included the best ones below, some have been slightly retouched for colour.

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V was pretty happy with this one!

We found some extremely reasonably priced flights with Delta Airlines for AU$1500 return, Melbourne to Vancouver. The travel time was 32 hours in total, and we transferred from Melbourne to Sydney, Sydney to LAX then LAX to YVR.

Sydney

We got into Sydney at 8am with two hours to spare. We made our way to check-in, only for the attendant to explain to us that because we were passing through the US, we would need a visa waiver for security reasons. This was news to us, and extremely distressing news as our flight left in an hour. Sydney airport had set up a computer terminal for travellers like us, but there was a long queue of equally distressed travellers and the connection between the terminal and the ESTA visa waiver website was ropey at best.

Because of the queue and the connection, I ended up having to sprint between our bags and a downstairs internet café to secure our waivers so Delta would allow us on the plane. Apparently without the waiver, you’re sent back to Australia on the next flight at Delta’s expense. We finally got everything in line and ran through the airport to make it to the boarding gate, which they told us was closing in five minutes. Turns out that after we got onto the plane, the gate stayed open for a good half an hour; we assumed to wait for more travellers who were caught out like us.

A waterspout created by a plane’s jet engine at Sydney airport

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Some nice plane livery at Sydney airport

I took these shots of the planes at Sydney airport, while we were still unaware that we needed to get the ESTA visas.

LAX

We thought that our troubles would be over when we arrived at LAX, save the boredom of a 12 hour layover. The procedure in LA is to exit the plane, collect your baggage from the carousel and recheck it immediately. What purpose this serves I can’t imagine, as it seems only to act as an inefficient intermediary step to draw out the process for frazzled travellers. Unfortunately, V’s suitcase wasn’t on the baggage carousel. After 3 hours walking around the airport, trying to figure out what had happened, the consensus was that it was probably still sitting at Sydney airport, and the wrong numbers had been entered from our boarding pass into the flight by our check-in attendant.

We wandered, ate, wandered, drank coffee, ate a little more and played some cards until it was time to board our flight to Vancouver with Alaska Airlines. I took a photo of their tailfin as it featured an Inuit; quite unique as far as tailfins go. I took a couple more photos of other airline tailfins in the downtime as well.

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Interesting Inuit tailfin decoration on Alaska Airlines planes

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Some more tailfins that caught my eye

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This is precisely how boring our layover in LAX was

Vancouver

We thought things couldn’t possibly get worse on the way to Vancouver. We were tired and sleep-deprived, but we were nearly in Canada! The weather was clear, and we had a beautiful view of the mountain range coming up the coast. We arrived in Vancouver airport on an extremely hot evening; it had been 30 degrees in the city the day we arrived. We arrived at the carousels to be greeted only by our ski and snowboard equipment; my luggage was nowhere to be found. Fortunately, after heading over to the Delta desk, they directed us towards the Alaska Airlines desk, where there was not only my suitcase, but V’s bright red suitcase with a big ‘URGENT’ tag on the handle. Needless to say we were incredibly relieved.

We jumped on the new Canada Line of the skytrain, and headed to Vancouver Central in Downtown. It was only $7 for a 25 minute ride, and saved us a huge cab fare and the hassle of buses. We exited the station to incredibly oppressive heat, and slowly rolled our luggage through a Thursday night in Vancouver, about 6 blocks to our hotel. We were staying at the St Clair Hotel in Cathedral Square, a quirky cross between a hotel and a hostel. The price was right at ~$26 a night each, and although our bedroom was on the second floor and extremely warm due to lack of air-conditioning, the staff were very friendly (particularly Hans, the manager!) and the facilities were consistently clean and well-maintained.

Unfortunately we had to leave our hostel on the second day as we hadn’t booked in advance, and spent a night at the Cambie Hostel around the corner. This left a little more to be desired; surly staff and very noisy due to the bar underneath. We were able to move back to the St Clair on the third day, but as we were on the second floor again, this counted the third time I’d had to move all our luggage up and down two floors. It was worth it for the view though; the room we were given had a great view on Cathedral Place, and we were able to see the Holy Rosary Cathedral from our bedroom window.

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The Holy Rosary Cathedral in Cathedral Place, Downtown Vancouver

We were in the hostel for just over a week before we found a place on Twelfth Avenue (near Cambie and Broadway), and we’re now comfortably established and employed. I look forward to making more interesting updates about what we get up to in Vancouver, and hopefully sharing some photos.

Silhouetted against the sunset

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In the process of webbing its food

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Beautiful colouring

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Looks quite menacing, really

The focus is less on selling useless gifts and more on shovelling as many intoxicants into tourists as their bodies can safely handle, and perhaps slightly more. Subsequent to this, Vang Vieng’s inhabitants goad you into floating down a river in an inflatable tube. The riverbed is naturally carved from razor-sharp limestone, and is lined by bars which practically force you to drink more alcohol and use their rickety rope swings to leap tens of metres into the deep spots, which are few and far between. And you love every minute of it.

To give a rough idea of what to expect when you get to Vang Vieng, we arrived after a hideous 6 hour bus journey through pouring rain with dozens of fellow tourists. It was dark, cold, and our focus was to find a place to stay as soon as possible. We gladly coughed up for the (admittedly reasonably-priced) guest house into whose courtyard we had been tactically discharged from our foul-smelling transport. After setting up camp, we wandered down the street and checked a couple of bars for food options. We opened the menu of the first one we settled in, and the first page listed the local delicacies: mushrooms, weed and opium.

We didn’t partake, but we had acquired a flu bug somewhere during our border crossing into Laos and the rain that had been persistent since shortly after we arrived in Vientiane stuck around for the next two days, ensuring our first impressions of Vang Vieng were not particularly astounding (especially given the gastric results of that first bar meal; the next couple of days weren’t pretty).

Rain from a cafe in Vang Vieng

This shot was taken from a bar where we ate a few times. I can’t remember the name, but I do remember it having the best (read: spiciest) Tom Yum Gai (tomato, lemongrass, lime, chili and chicken soup) I had anywhere in South East Asia. Trust Laos to do it better than the Thais.

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A guesthouse in front of Vang Vieng’s limestone cliffs

On the second day, the clouds started to clear and we realised exactly how impressive the landscape around us was. When we arrived it was dark, and when we woke up it was foggy and raining. It let up briefly in the afternoon and the limestone crags started to poke their way through.

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It really felt this dreary for the first couple of days

The rain was a little depressing, particularly given we were both feeling pretty fragile health-wise at the time (V moreso than I, it must be said). It felt a little surreal at times, and we worried that we weren’t going to get to experience Vang Vieng properly. The rain and our health was one of the major reasons we didn’t push on to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO heritage-listed city in the centre of Laos which I was keen to visit.

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The weather made for some nice layering of the landscape when the clouds parted

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The dreary weather didn’t put off the other tourists

We went tubing on the river one day. For those of you who don’t know, tubing is where you get given an inflatable lorry inner tube and float sedately through the serene Laos landscape, stopping only to chug whisky buckets, throw yourself off bamboo scaffolding and listen to horribly out-of-place electro music blaring from the gigantic speakers of the ~20 bars that line the river. Seriously though, it was a lot of fun and you don’t have to get wasted if you’re not keen. We didn’t. Apparently people have died on the trip before, which I don’t find hard to believe. I have some photos we took while tubing from a waterproof camera, but I haven’t scanned them in yet. I’ll update this post at a later date.

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The ducks were loving the rain

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The rain stopped! The clouds parted! A glorious sunset

The rain finally let up on the evening of the second day and gave us a beautiful view of the river and the cliffs. It closed in again on the third day, but it confirmed it was worth the wait for the weather to improve.

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The weather became slightly more conducive to tourism

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The remaining clouds produced some spectacular lighting

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This cloud caught the light of the sunset opposite nicely

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I love the reflection here

There were lots of rickety bridges like the one you see above spanning the river; there was a small island in the centre which had been commandeered for guesthouses and tourist bars serving whisky buckets. We were in Vang Vieng for Australia Day, and had coincidentally met one of V’s Canadian friends earlier in the afternoon. We ended up having some drinks with him and his roommate that evening (a character named Michael Jackson no less!) and played a remarkably awful game of pool.

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This little guy went and sat there voluntarily; V didn’t have a clue

We chilled out in hammocks one afternoon and ended up playing with some kittens. V napped above this one for about 45 minutes.

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The train border crossing between Laos and Thailand

We eventually bought combined coach, border and sleeper train tickets to get us back to Bangkok from Vang Vieng. We caught a coach to Vientiane (and saw the beautiful Laos countryside we’d missed on the way out due to the rain), hopped on a short train across the border, then transferred to a sleeper train to Bangkok. It wasn’t incredibly comfortable and the breakfast was absolutely exorbitant (~300 baht / $10 for two pretty shoddy meals if I recall correctly) but it got us there, and we actually got some sleep which was traditionally a difficult proposition on the large tourist buses.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the photos. I’ve got plenty more from other trips I may work my way through at some point – it’s quite relaxing to pick out the best shots and writing a little about the trip helps cement the memories.

More photos

• View part 8 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 7 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 6 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 5 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 4 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 3 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 2 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 1 of my photos from South-East Asia

We arrived safely (after praying for our lives most of the way; minibus drivers don’t mess around in Thailand) and spent a couple of hours riding bikes around the temples and taking in the sights. It wasn’t a great day for photos unfortunately, but I tried to make the best of what we had.

One of the larger central temples in Sukhothai

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A different angle on the central temples

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It looked like porous volcanic rock made up much of the construction material

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There were plenty of pigeons enjoying the ruins

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The ruins were broken up by moats and other water features bordered by trees

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Low angle on the temples

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This statue was easily 20 feet tall – there were plenty larger

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There were plenty of beautiful relief carvings that have survived

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We saw these in a number of locations across SE Asia – little piles of rocks which I assume are tourists’ cairns

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Look at these tourists! From left: Sam, Mitch, Kung, V, Alice and Robin

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Nice view of a stupa across one of the moats

I’m planning to get photos from Vang Vieng up within a couple of days, but hopefully you’ve enjoyed this little set in the meantime.

More photos

• View part 9 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 7 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 6 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 5 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 4 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 3 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 2 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 1 of my photos from South-East Asia

It’s been less than a week and I’ve actually found the time to get some more photos up, who would’ve thought? I’ve combined two locations into one here because there weren’t enough high-quality photos from either one to make the post a decent size. The first set of photos are from Siem Reap in Cambodia. The name literally translates to ‘Siam Defeated’, and refers to a Cambodian victory over the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand).

Siem Reap also serves as a gateway to the temple complex of Angkor, Cambodia’s biggest tourist attraction. The town of Siem Reap itself is medium sized, and has plenty of attractions of its own. We visited the night markets, ate cheap tacos on Pub Street (yes, it’s actually called that), and visited a sculptor’s exhibition of his miniature temple carvings.

This guy was just chilling out on the miniature temple wall – scaled up, I like to imagine him T-Rex size

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The sculptor had captured details like windows, doors and pillars

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It almost looks full-size in this picture

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A better view of what it looked like

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A sculpture constructed of recycled rifles

We went to a gallery in Siem Reap which had some amazing photos, original art and sculpture. It was called the Red Gallery, and my favourite pieces were the metal sculptures made from recycled rifle barrels and frames. A close second was the book of infrared photography of the temple complex, which unfortunately I don’t have photos of.

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Beautiful green verges bordered the river

The part of town we were staying in wasn’t directly adjacent to the centre and stayed quiet at night, thankfully. We were right next to the river, which was lined on both sides with beautiful lamp posts, sculpted animals, and old trees. We stayed at Rosy Guest House which I can thoroughly recommend. If you can fork out for one of their nicer rooms with an ensuite ($12/night), don’t hesitate. Otherwise, the rooms on the top floor with shared bathrooms are also very nice.

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Sculpture of an elephant next to the river

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Sunset on Pub Street while eating delicious, cheap tacos

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This is at X Bar on the third floor just next to Pub Street – there was a halfpipe!

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the halfpipe being used; apparently the skaters come out at around 4pm, and we were there much later.

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View of Pub Street at night from the X Bar

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They loved tiny bananas in Cambodia – very reasonably priced and a great breakfast

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Vientiane

The second set of photos is from Vientiane in Laos. It was our first stop in the country after an all-night trip from Bangkok on a Super VIP bus. The trip wasn’t incredibly comfortable, but was worth it to see the bus, which was literally the plushest road vehicle I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting in. Still not enough leg-room though.

Vientiane is a very nice city. Not incredibly cheap, but quite quiet and low-key. We stayed at a guest house a couple of streets away from the square in the centre of the city for a very reasonable price. I forget the name, but make sure you shop around, as there are much more expensive options for similar facilities. Unfortunately both V and I spent the entirety of our time in Vientiane feeling awful; we’d both managed to contract some kind of flu bug from the bus we took from Siem Reap to Bangkok. I’d love to go back and see it properly someday.

This is the national icon of Laos, the Golden Stupa

Unfortunately it was raining on and off while we were in the city, so the photos were all taken while it was overcast. Lost a bit of lustre off the gold, but you get the idea.

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Another beautifully-decorated pavilion near the Golden Stupa

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A closer view of the Golden Stupa

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Awesome dragon sculpture in the courtyard of the Stupa

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These entrance gates were locked on both sides – guess they don’t want tourists tramping all over the thing

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Another beautiful gold-plated dragon sculpture

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I’m not sure who this guy is, but I like to think he’s a samurai wizard

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Buddha sculpture close by – I like the framing of this shot

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Entrance archway to a Buddhist temple

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Another large temple near the Stupa

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The Wizard and the Stupa – next Harry Potter book right there

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I’m not sure what these were, but they may have been burial markers or memorials of some kind

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Beautiful murals in a Buddhist temple

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Beautiful murals in a Buddhist temple

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Our kitten

We found this little guy while we were looking around the Buddhist temple near the Golden Stupa. He was wandering around looking for attention, so we played with him for a while. He nestled up on my backpack and then peed on it, which wasn’t quite as cool. Before we left we tried to put him somewhere we thought he would be safe, but the monks assured us that all the animals in the temple were fed regularly and looked after. This didn’t inspire a lot of confidence, as we found him near another cat, which was very dead indeed.

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A better view of our little friend – hope you’re still doing well buddy

And that’s it for now. I still have two locations to post up, so hopefully I’ll get around to that in the next week or so. Look forward to Sukhothai and Vang Vieng!

More photos

• View part 9 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 8 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 6 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 5 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 4 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 3 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 2 of my photos from South-East Asia
• View part 1 of my photos from South-East Asia