Dooi CabFab

Last week, my employer at my second job offered me full-time work. Although working at two different Dutch design studios has been a great experience, I knew it was an offer I couldn't refuse.

I told my employer at Job #1 on Monday. My contract states I have to give one month's notice, so I was expecting to start full-time at Job #2 on March 1st. But . . . things are really slow in the studio right now, and she decided that for me to start February 1st was better (honestly, I had no idea she was that willing to get rid of me! :)

So, today was my last day. It felt strange. It was such an accomplishment to get the job in the first place that I can't believe I just left it. We had tea and cake with some members of other studios and I said my thank-yous and goodbyes. It really was a fantastic experience in an amazing place. I can only hope I am fortunate enough to work in such a creative environment again.

Here are some more photos of the beautiful factory:








Goodbye CabFab.

Open Dag 2008

Yesterday was KABK's annual open house. I met up with Ross who was hanging out at the type & media studio. Students and staff were easy to spot with these bright yellow t-shirts with either K, A, or B on them.

KABK students , or fans of a certain Swedish pop band?


Here's some Type & Media students, hard at work.


When he's taking a break from foozball, this is where Ross works.


Open Dag's wayfinding.


Obviously we were interested in the undergrad grafisch ontwerp.







Overall I found the graphic design department to be very expressive compared to ECI's. The use of typography and printing techniques were varied and experimental. It was really interesting to see the strengths of another school's program. It made me think about the strengths of my education.

A full circle

Three years ago, I created the book, Typography for Bowlers.


Last night I went bowling with the typographers.





Disco bowling was pretty much the same as any other time I've been bowling with one exception: the shoes. This bowling alley was so relaxed about the shoes! Usually it's like trying to cross a border just to get your footwear, but here you just chose your own pair, and wore them wherever you wanted. I'm pretty confident we all could have worn them home and no one would have noticed.

The bowling alley had more of a lounge aesthetic, as opposed to the florescent lighting/molded plastic 70s aesthetic that I associate with the sport.


"Disco" is kind of a misnomer. "Techno" is definitely more accurate. Or, Dance Mix '92-Bowling if we want to get specific. Here's Ross' classmates pumpin' up the jam.


(Pump it up. )


A slice of my life's work is now complete.

Three-legged dogs ... forbidden – what?

Does anyone else agree there's a little too much information here?
Is that highlight really necessary?

legal!

Ross & I have both received our residency permits, meaning we are legal residents of the EU until September.

I never thought I'd be a resident of the EU . . .

The Paripve Family

We ordered a pizza the other night, and supposedly this is my name on the bill.

Either this is the worst spelling attempt at 'Partridge' in the history of all Partridges, or we ate the Paripve's pizza.

Kijkduin

We rode our bikes to Kijkduin – The Hague's other beach resort – to look at the dunes. If you spoke Dutch you would notice I just made a pun. Kijkduin literally translates to "look dune."

. . . anyway, there is currently an installation of 150 glowing balls in the dunes. They are LED powered and their colour is constantly evolving. The largest ball has about a 1.5 metre diameter, and some of the smaller ones are buried in the sand.


The blackness beyond the balls is the Noordzee.


Focus Films?





It was so pretty.

Spam for breakfast?

Apparently the email as work has a small problem with receiving junk. Here's my inbox at 9:00 am:


Every single one is offering me pills, free Adobe products, or specific advice on how to please my woman. Yikes!

Heart-Warming Small-World Story

When we were in Vienna, Ross' classmate (who is from Vienna) gave us the heads up on a few great coffee shops to hang out in. One of them, Das Möbel, is both a coffee shop and a design store. The interior completly changes every few months, and if stocked with the fresh work of local designers. Everything in the café us for sale and has price tags hanging off it.

Obviously we loved it.

The art on the wall was also hip and strange, and Ross told me it looked like the type of art I made. I corrected him and told him it was the type of art I wished I made.


After three days in Vienna, Ross' classmate and his girlfriend from Berlin joined us. She mentioned something about Das Möbel selling some of her stickers, and after some clarification I realized the art we admired so much was hers. Crazy, eh?

This delightful gal's company is called Can't have it? Stick it., and she creates stickers of things that people might desire, but aren't able to for one reason or another. Like a plant that your apartment might not have enough light for. Instead of just wishing for the object, you can stick an image of it to your wall. It's the next best thing!

Her website is here. Buy something now before she becomes recognized for the genius she is, and the price of everything doubles.

Type Walk

We spent Saturday in Amsterdam, for no reason other than the fact it's not even an hour away. We did a "Type Walk" which means we walked around and looked at the typography on the old buildings.

This is what all those Dutch type masters are living amongst:

















And my favourite: the canal names.