A talented graphic designer that I’ve hired several times over the years had me photograph some of her work for her portfolio. Photographing printed work sounds easier than it sometimes is. Marie-Claude Gosling of Blink Creative Design is a great designer,having done design work for success story companies, like Howe Sound Brewing, Galileo Coffee, Green Sapphire Imports, and Silverfoot. Our initial try with shooting the work on a white background just didn’t give us a result we were happy with. It came out looking kinda blah, too literal… so, back to the drawing board we went. We decided to take a break for dinner and try again. I thought that warming things up with wood would help and Marie brought several pieces back with her to the studio. In her truck, of course. And just the fact that she has wood laying around in her back yard is cool. Did I say Squamish women are Squawsome?!

After adjusting the lights, the next thing I realized was that to accent the artful feel of her pieces, it would help to use selective focus, just allowing specific areas of type and design to be clear and sharp. Aha! Now we were getting somewhere. Constantly asking ourselves how it could be better and asking “why isn’t it good like this?”, allowed us to switch things up and we got a good result in the end. Here are a few examples… do you like that only parts are in focus or do you think that detracts from the work?

Just a few random shots after I dropped my darling daughter Saphira off for her day of French daycare: Diamondhead at 9am, ice on a windshield and some images from downtown Squamish.

Could I get your opinion on something? The first two images posted here are identical. The first rendition has been given an antique photographic feel with a fair bit of graininess, the second is a more natural but warmed up version of what I saw from the main floor window. Which one do you like best, if any, and why?

While I was editing and retouching in the office, my good friend Auli Parviainen dropped by to pick up Regina. Re is going along with Auli as she meets as many people as possible before we go to the polls on Saturday. Hope they brought their mittens, it’s chilly today. Auli will be a great Mayor! I’ve known her almost 10 years after having worked with her as a photographer for many weddings and events she organized, mostly in Whistler. I can tell you firsthand of her competence at listening to several (often conflicting) viewpoints and then getting a big team together, then organise and with panache, pull off amazing rave review events. She’ll do the same for Squamish. Are you voting in your area?

Cheers, I hope you are having a great winter’s day. Say hello from wherever you are! Ok, back to my editing.  :-)

Brian

Last night I attended this get-together at the Squamish Arts Council Building to get the skinny on my local candidates’ platforms. Art is a reflection of culture and is very important to me. It was good to see that we have some excellent candidates this year. Among others, Auli Parviainen is running for Mayor and Susan Chapelle is going for council, both of whom I endorse. Their passion and ability to work creatively and get things done will be great for our little but lovely burg. I am still getting to know the other candidates, many of whom spoke eloquently or impressed me in other ways with how they came across. One thing that was unanimous was the sentiment that we all are in love with where we live and consider it a truly special place. People don’t just end up here, they made a choice to live here and want to continue to keep it special, prepare for the future and create new opportunities for everyone.  After the meeting, several people made the walk from the Squamish Arts building to the Howe Sound Brew Pub to hang out and politick. I had a pint of the excellent (and only seasonably available) Father John’s Winter Ale, which is just awesome… if you can get it in your local liquor store or bar, go for it!

Cheers!

The concept of a Digital Barn Raiser is a community outreach to create and complete an online project for a common cause. In this case, members of Inside Edge http://insideedgebc.org/ and the broader community gathered to build a web presence and online auction site for the Howe Sound Women’s Centre’s http://hswc.seatoskycommunity.org/ store, Pearl’s Second Hand and Vintage. http://pearlsauction.ca/ The “greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts” team worked collectively over the weekend to successfully finish and launch the project.

The Howe Sound Women’s Centre was the winning candidate from the Eagle’s Den  http://www.squamishchief.com/events/6407841/20110920/squamish/62 night where three District of Squamish not-for-profits competed for the winning spot in the Digital Barn Raising event occurring on the weekend of the 29th. Inside Edge members, along with the Howe Sound Women’s Centre, local sponsors and our District community will come together to help bring greater resources to an important Sea to Sky District Not-For-Profit.

Pearl’s store is stocked entirely by donations, and serves a number of functions for the Women’s Centre, providing fundraising through its sales, access to clothing for women and children who had to flee in the night, and an eclectic shopping experience for the broader community.

Since their expansion and upgrade, Pearl’s has seen an increased quality and value in their donations. The auction website is intended to provide Pearl’s access to a new set of customers through an e-commerce storefront, leveraging the larger online audience with their now broadly sought vintage donations.

It was amazing to see some of the talented people in this town putting their minds together for a common good deed! We all got together at the Squamish Adventure Centre, had a general meeting, then broke down into groups and got to it. While working in the boardrooms, there was a silent auction (that raised $1600) and face painting for the kids in the main area of the Adventure Centre. I’d like to personally thank Galileo Coffee http://www.galileocoffee.com/ for brewing their delicious beans for the volunteers, I really enjoyed my espresso! In my not-so-humble coffee snob opinion, they make some of the best coffee in the Lower Mainland. If you are a coffee lover and are in Squamish or on your way to Whistler, stop by the café in the Adventure Centre (or I’ll spank you)!

If you have something you really believe in, that could use a boost to get noticed and succeed, seriously consider a Digital Barn Raiser. For me, it was a tremendous opportunity to do some good for my community, meet some new like-minded  friends and see how collectively our talents could accomplish a lot in two days. Go for it!

http://pearlsauction.ca/