Bee Square Fabrics

Besquarefabrics


I find it very inspiring to look at prints on fabrics, they make me want to make stuff for our house, for Lode’s room or handmade presents for Christmas … Bee Square Fabrics is an excellent place where you can buy some fantastic fabrics online. I particularly like the ‘Fish‘ inspired fabrics by Heather Ross … I could easily frame a piece of the golden fish fabric and hang it on one of Lode’s walls …

Besquarefabrics_2


After years of working as an architect, Diane Hoffman switched gears and is still very happy to have opened up a shop,  Bee Square Fabrics
selling the one thing she has always loved — fabrics and I understand
her passion … just look at the printed fabrics above from Alexander Henry… on the flickr page from Bee Square Fabrics you can find so many craft examples of what you can make with the gorgeous fabrics …

Case Study: Interacting with Hormel

Hormel Brand Interactive Kitchen

Hormel Brand Interactive Kitchen

Recently our team, in conjunction with our partners at Hormel Foods, launched the new Hormel Brand web site. We were challenged with the task of both creating an engaging and memorable interactive experience while also giving information about the wide variety of products housed within the Hormel Brand.

The resulting site features prominently on the home page, an interactive kitchen where users can zoom around and explore areas of the kitchen where they can learn more about Hormel products. We even included an MP3 player where users can preview and download musical mixes to play in the background while they entertain friends and loved ones and serve meals made with delicious Hormel products.

I’m grateful to be lucky enough to have a ton of great clients and client projects to work on every day but this was one of the most satisfying for me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that we really tapped into the deep reservoir of creative resources at our disposal at Burson-Marsteller. From visual designers, to copywriters, to Flash animators/developers, to developers, to project managers, etc. This project represents a phenomenal effort by everyone involved and I was proud not only to be a part of it but also to have such wonderful clients who truly partnered with us to create something really special.

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Top Ten Top Tens

These are the Top Ten reasons why I’ll click on a link that has a Top Ten anything: 

  1. Turns Out: I’m a reasonably intelligent person that loves pop culture. 
  2. Paris Hilton (or not. pick your favorite celebretard and we’ll go with that) 
  3. Best Game Ever? Fight amongst yourselves. 
  4. I Love Cracked. 
  5. I Want to Bitch About How Their Top Ten Wasn’t Knowledgeable Enough. (Welcome to the Club) 
  6. Vh1 Has Brainwashed Me Into Oblivion. 
  7. I Am Very Interested in That Field. 
  8. I Have No Life. 
  9. I Wanna See What’s the Best. 
  10. I Love the Mystique.

Podcast interview with Allie Osmar @ The Creative Career

My most recent podcast interview

My most recent podcast interview

In my most recent post, I wrote that there was a new podcast on the way. Well my last post was 3 months ago and the podcast interview occurred around the same time. This time it was me who was the subject and former Burson colleague Allie Osmar, of the blog/podcast The Creative Career, who was the interviewer.

.chris{}

      

Bianchi & Acne Jeans

Another cultural/counter-cultural zeitgeist collaboration: the Italian bicycle manufacturer Bianchi and the Swedish high-end fashion house Acne teamed up to produce some track bikes in great colorways with some typography from deep in the archives.


Acne x Bianchi Bicycles


The bicycle itself looks to be identical to a Bianchi Pista with respect to geometry and components. As a bicycle, the Pista doesn’t do much for me. The geometry doesn’t make any sense, particularly because Pista riders typically ride in the streets and typically don’t ever see a velodrome. Why, then, cling to the 28mm fork rake? Your feet most certainly get in the way of turning the front wheel. The Pista fork is actually hideous in all respects. Acne just put lipstick on the pig, but it works well visually. I could see myself ordering one of these frames.

Machine that squeezes water out of thin air.

The WaterMill is a machine that makes water from air. Well, to be honest it doesn’t actually make water. It just extracts the water that is already in the air, but that is pretty cool, too. Furthermore the WaterMill system can distribute the extracted and purified water to your fridge, to a tap on your kitchen sink, to a water cooler or to its own dispenser. The actual machine is placed on the outside of your house, so it won’t dry up the inside air you’ll be wanting to breathe. The filtration is supposed to be good enough to produce water that’s better in quality than the stuff that comes out of your ordinary tap. The Canadian company behind the WaterMill claims that it’s able to extract 12 liters of H2O per day, and that should be enough for most needs. The only hitch in our eyes is that it’s powered by electricity. But if there’s a solar version in the works (and it can be produced at a reasonable cost) it could very well be useful right were it’s needed the most. Places that are short on good water usually have more than enough of sunshine and humidity.brbr

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving.

Cookies by Maria Silva. Photo by Eric Silva.

Eco friendly paper water bottle.

When one considers the huge number of plastic bottles for drinking water being produced, filled consumed and discarded, (examples here, here, here and here), one can’t help but pondering the sheer madness of it all. In places where there’s no usable drinking water, okay. But here, where access to perfectly good water is virtually limitless… The best thing would of course be to stop buying bottled water. But if this is not possible, another way could be to do something about the packaging. We’ve seen water sold in plastic bags, (like milk in the States and other places), but this is far from enough. This idea for water packaging, however, could be a better one still. The concept for the package above has bee produced by Brand Image, and their idea actually won a prize in IDEA 2008.brbr

Tryst by Kerry

… everybody who is celebrating today … Happy Thanksgiving …

Trystbykerry

{a large vintage brass locket with a hand screened image of a little wren}

I don’t write about jewelry very often on Bloesem … I guess I’m not a person who wears a lot of jewelry either, but jewelry like this is what I Love, it has so much character and style … Kerry from Toronto, is the women who creates these unique pieces, she started designing jewelry under the tryst name in the summer of
2006 as a creative escape from the technical and scientific stresses
that came with being a university student.

Trystbykerry_2

Ad how about these antique Acorns for your ears, they are vintage as well, Kerry carefully wire wrapped them and simply hung them on an antiqued brass shepherd’s hooks, wonderfully lightweight with a matte satin finish … Kerry not only loves to use nature inspired objects for the Tryst collection
she is also very  consciousness for the environment, she always tries
to reduce the amount of mining required to extract metal from the earth
… please visit her website and shop right here …

Smart step stool to reach on top of large cars.

This tip comes from our very good friend, Lars S. What he’s found is the Step-up car step from Yellowsmarts, a step up helper for tall cars. It’s kinda clever, and you don’t even have to own one of those out-of-favor SUVs; an ordinary estate with a car box on top could be just as difficult to reach. With the Yellowsmarts step up even shorties like us would have a chance to reach high enough to load or unload, wash the roof or brush off snow. The step rests with one end on the car’s tire and with the other on the ground. When you don’t need it anymore it folds into a smallish flat-pack for the cargo compartment. The step-up is available in three heights, and it is USD 49:95 in America (no web shop) and EUR 51:47 in Europe. Prices from the Yellowsmarts website. Thanks Lasse for the tip!brbr