June

June's blurry. Here are some of the more memorable events.

The weather is not-so sunny, but it's warm.


The new season of herring was celebrated with a public festival at Scheveningen.


Dutch people love black licorice candy (drop).




Tanya and Abi visited for a few days. Abi just moved here for school, and Tanya lived here for a semester a few years ago, so she remembered her way around. It was really fun.

The Euro Cup was (still is) on. Holland was doing amazing, and this city was cra-zy! They've since been eliminated, but there are still remnants of the fever.





Everywhere there are backpacks hanging off the flag poles of houses. I thought this was connected to the football games, but I was wrong. These backpacks mean that someone in that house just graduated highschool. As in, "I don't need this anymore!"


There was a celebratory BBQ with Ross' classmates on the weekend.

Guess what the Italians made:

P-A-S-T-A
Guess what type:

G-N-O-C-C-H-I (that is a truly amazing 'H')

My younger brother Colin was here this last weekend.





Among many activities, we went to the beautiful and un-Dutch-like Maastrict in the very south of the country. It was so hot when we got there, and then it wildly stormed in the early evening. It was so warm, though.

Waiting for the first storm to pass.

Waiting for the second storm to pass.

Waiting for the third, and largest summer storm I've ever been caught in, to pass.

We only have a few more days left in June, and this country. It's going so fast.

Type & Media Eindexamen

Here's some more photos of our final exam yesterday and the posters everyone made.
It was easy at times to loose track of how privileged we were to have such an amazing body of faculty and students so seeing everyone together yesterday was absolutely awe-inspiring. It's rare to see so much talent in one room.

I could not imagine a group with higher standards than TypeMedia 07/08. At times this became incredibly stressful but everyone grew so much because of it. The quality of work speaks for itself I think.












And of course, we were all so happy to be done so were ready to relax in the warm weather with all the students, our teachers and some drinks.

Introducing Foxtrot

After 10 intense months of work culminating in a final two week push with 1/10 the healthy amount of sleep, I am finally finished the Type & Media course that I came here for.

The examination went exceptionally well for all the students and we are all ecstatic to be done and able to return to (semi) normal lives. At the same time, it's a bit sad to know it's over. We've all become incredibly good friends and the year far surpasses any of our expectations.

So, without further adieu, here is that mysterious project that I've been working so hard on for the past 4 months. My typeface is comprised of 10 corresponding weights that allow the designer to scale up in point size without affecting the stroke width of the letterforms. This means that the designer has more tools to create degrees of emphasis in a text. I also designed the upper/lower case with basic punctuation for an italic and heavy weight. Click the image for a bigger view.

This is the 2m x 1m poster presenting the typeface for the examination and exhibition. I had the idea that it should be an advertisement to sell something (inspired by certain 19th century ads I referenced throughout my project) so I decided to make the entire poster a personal ad. The text is comprised of my favourite things people were looking for in a man/woman as posted on the New York Times personal site and Craigslist.

And here is the character set showing all weights and styles:

That's it!

Hup Holland Hup!

If you're a soccer fan, you're probably aware that the Euro Cup is currently happening, and last night Holland defeated Italy in a very important match. Italy, being the world champions, is tough team to beat but the boys from Oranje did it.

We had the game on, but I wasn't watching it the whole time. Luckily I didn't need to: you see, I was able to follow the action as I could hear the reactions of everyone else in The Hague through my open windows.

Immediately following the game, the honking started. I'm not sure what time it stopped, but I do slightly remember hearing our neighbor's after party at about 3:30 in the morning. I woke up to the strangest music. It was like he was playing a record of the Dutch national anthem.

The next game is on Friday. It's going to be a big one.

PS:

Big News!

We're counting down the days left of our time in Holland:

10 days until my final examination
21 days until graduation from Type & Media
23 days until Grace's final day of work
25 days until we leave Europe
1 Month until Grace starts her brand new job as a design fellow at Chronicle Books in San Francisco...

Wait, wait, wait. San Francisco? What happened to a nice trip to Italy before heading back to Vancouver to find jobs and settle in once again?

Well, Grace had the bright idea a few months ago to apply for the Chronicle Books fellowship program (like an elevated, paid internship) in San Francisco and after two rounds of short-listing we finally received news last week that she had been chosen as one of over 80 applicants.

So, after a big change of plans, we are currently looking into possible employment options for myself, and generally figuring out the chaos that will be the next month of our lives.

We have no idea where we'll live nor what to expect, but we're starry eyed and incredibly excited to be moving to San Francisco for at least the next six months.

At the same time, we're a tad bit sad that we won't be able to see everyone in Calgary, Fruitvale and Vancouver, but of course, you are all welcome to visit us in sunny San Francisco once we're relocated and things settle down.

On the bright side, at least it's closer than Holland.

Congratulations Grace!

Berlin walls

I spent last week in Berlin with Ross' class. When we weren't attending a typography conference, we were sightseeing and discovering why young creative people flock to the city.

Easily the most famous thing about Berlin in the wall that once divided the city. Although Ross doesn't remember when it came down, I do. I was eight and as my family watched the news together on tv, and I remember my parents telling me to remember what we were seeing, because it was very important. I always did remember the event, even if I didn't understand what it really meant until ... well ... until this past year.

Berlin's most famous wall may no longer be standing, but it didn't take long to discover that there were no shortage of fascinating walls around.

There were walls full of expression,






scarred WW2 walls,


big grey Nazi walls,
big, sober, Socialist walls,



muraled walls that remind us of the promise of socialism,




windowless walls,




pastel tiled walls of the metro,


wall of shoes,


type walls,


Frank Gehry walls,


walls housing art,




walls of lead books,


walls of glass at the Reichstag,


walls containing space for anyone,



et cetera.

This brick path throughout the city marks where the Berliner Mauer once stood.


Some portions of the wall are still standing. One section stretches for a kilometer and is covered in paintings and graffiti. It is a monument to personal expression.




I already want to go back.