Browsing “In The Village on False Creek”

Welcome to In The Village on False Creek, a unique project inspired by Live@YVR and 365 Days of Dining. I’ve moved my family into this community with my mission being to showcase the myriad of things that make it awesome by bringing you a weekly scoop!

Last week I ANNOUNCED that as a wrap-up to my year-long #inthevillage project, I had curated a group of local illustrators and designers to come up with t-shirt designs that reflected what they perceive to be the awesomeness of this place that I call home.

Click the image below to visit vancouverisawesome.com/inthevillage and vote for your favourite! The top three will go to a jury where one will be chosen to be produced in a small batch, then given away.

Yesterday we shared THIS photo of the urban beaver that showed up in The Village on False Creek on Wednesday, and today… THIS!

Video by James Shearer on Youtube.

No biggie. Just a beaver swimming around Southeast False Creek near the Village, before he made his way into the wetlands and lurked around in the community gardens.

Photo: Tosh Young on Instagram

I heard he’s been around since Wednesday but haven’t caught sight of him yet. I’m going to do some investigating over the weekend to see if I can shoot photos of my own. Meanwhile, if you’ve spotted him, post your photos to Twitter and Instagram and tag them #urbanbeaver!

Welcome to In The Village on False Creek, a unique project inspired by Live@YVR and 365 Days of Dining. I’ve moved my family into this community with my mission being to showcase the myriad of things that make it awesome by bringing you a weekly scoop!

My family and I have been living in the Village for a little more than eleven months now and as I hit the final stretch on this year-long series I’m writing, we’re switching gears a bit and bringing in some friends to share their interpretations of the awesomeness of this neighbourhood.

We’ve commissioned ten local illustrators and graphic designers to produce designs inspired by the Village on False Creek, and in the next few days we’ll be sharing those with you and allowing you to vote for your favourite. The top three voted designs will then be put in front of a jury which includes myself, Bob Rennie, and one yet-to-be-named judge. We’ll choose one design from those that’ll be printed onto t-shirts which we’ll be giving away.

Meet the crew!

They are [click each person's name to see some of their work]…

1. Jane Koo
Jane is an illustrator who has been releasing some amazing designs lately, like those sweet Farmer’s Market posters you’ve been seeing over the past couple of years.

2. Colin Moore
Colin is currently working as one of the lead graphic designers at Lululemon. I’ve worked with him on a few projects I’ve curated over the years, the first being An Awesome Showcase that we did during the Olympics back in 2010.

3. Leah Gregg and Kim Ridgewell
Leah is a community builder/photographer/creative/neighbour of mine in the Village who works at Rethink with another friend, illustrator Kim Ridgewell, who will be teaming up on a design.

4. Todd Falkowsky
Todd founded the Canadian Design Resource years ago – “the first digital platform to discuss and nurture Canadian design” – he heads up an agency, and recently moved back to Toronto from Vancouver. He was the person who started the Penny Smash Vancouver project that we co-produced.

5. Melanie Kimmett
Melanie is a super adaptive illustrator and designer who worked on Vancouver 2010. Lately the work she’s been producing has a stark Canadiana look to it, which I love. Hands down just awesome.

6. Tyler Quarles and a bunch of little kids
Tyler has worked with a lot of great brands over the years, including Herschel, ION and Capita. He also does graphic design for the V.I.A. print magazine! His design will be a collaboration where he’s going to take drawings that kids who live/hang out it in the Village make and adapt them into a design. He’s going to donate the fee we’re paying him for working on the project (all of the artists are getting paid, of course) to the Developmental Disabilities Association which runs the preschool at Creekside Community Centre.

7. Danika McDowell
Danika is a lover of all-things-handmade, with a crafty flair, who I first met when our office was above Blim in Chinatown. She’s an illustrator and designer with a rich history in printing, especially on fabric.

8. Calen Knauf
Calen is a streetwear designer turned industrial designer and has done a lot of work for Stussy and similar brands. He most recently released a thoughtful lamp design crafted from airplane wood which comes in an 11″x17″ envelope and is assembled by the user.

9. Helen Eady
Helen works at St Bernadine agency in Chinatown and has produced projects like the Vancouver rum running piece we once featured. She was a longtime illustrator for Vancouver Review magazine and as skilled of an illustrator and typographer as you could aspire to be.

Next week we’ll be unveiling their designs and opening up the voting. Serious awesomeness is on the horizon, folks.

Learn more at TheVillageOnFalseCreek.com and stay tuned each week as I expose the unique qualities of our new community.

Welcome to In The Village on False Creek, a unique project inspired by Live@YVR and 365 Days of Dining. I’ve moved my family into this community with my mission being to showcase the myriad of things that make it awesome by bringing you a weekly scoop!

As we’ve hit the final stretch of this year-long series I’m sharing some larger pieces of the puzzle that make up our neighbourhood. Much like Habitat Island (which I WROTE ABOUT a couple weeks back), the Creekside Community Centre located at One Athlete’s Way has been a part of a number of other features but I’ve never done a standalone piece touting its awesomeness. It takes up the lion’s share of the building that houses Tap & Barrel (FEATURE HERE), it was once turned into a police station on a TV show (HERE), it is the home of Portobello West (HERE), it was a key part of the London 2012 send-off celebration for our Olympic athletes (HERE), it houses the Dragon Zone where dragon boaters use as home base (HERE) and it once held an event that Red Robinson hosted (HERE). It’s time I focused in on the Community Centre itself which supports so many cool things in our neighbourhood, far beyond those few I’ve already written about.

These vines in front change their look from season to season. I like them stark and wintery like this!

Like Hillcrest, our Community Centre is a legacy of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter games. They (literally) fly the flag throughout, with plaques and posters and all sorts of paraphernalia. Not simply holding nostalgia, the building also houses the offices of the Canadian Sport Institute which actively helps our Olympic athletes achieve their goals. I wrote about them HERE as we were sending some of our best off to London last year.

If you’re not an Olympian there are plenty of programs, classes, drop-ins as well as a first class fitness centre to take advantage of.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

The Bone and Bowl pet store in the Village on False Creek has been open for a couple of months now (have a look INSIDE), and next week they’re holding their grand opening soirée. See below for details.

To celebrate we’re giving away a $50 gift card that you can use to get your dog or cat their food, some toys, treats, a pet bed, a harness, a sweater… anything they’ve got. All you’ve got to do to enter is sign up for our “What’s Awesome Weekly” newsletter and you’re automatically entered for this giveaway and future ones: http://eepurl.com/tppSX