Browsing “The Proof”

Nathan Lee is a talented award-winning designer who is allergic to bees. This is not so strange, except that when Nathan isn’t creating something genius out of someone’s unrecognized opportunity, he’s poking around in a box of 50,000 stinging insects. Crazy? This is the kind of dedication, curiosity and recklessness that Nathan brings to his design work on a daily basis. As one half of Contexture Design he fills his non-beekeeping hours by telling rich layered stories through designed objects. He has a way of finding the juicy nugget that makes each bit of reclaimed material special, highlighting the history that it brings with it, and rebuilding it into a beautiful narrative. And that’s just at his day job; you should see what he can do after hours with some boiled hops, barley, malt and a handful of spruce tips. Talk about a beautiful narrative. Throw in his genuine personality, his enthusiasm for his local community, and his mad breakdancing skills, and what you have is an awesome individual. We are lucky to know you, Chachi.

-Trevor Coghill

The Proof

01 This is my family, and probably the best picture I will take in my lifetime.

02 These are my folks just before they were married in 1967 riding a BC Ferry with my aunt, uncle, and grandmother. Timeless

03 These are my pals (and me too)

04 These are my bees.  I try not to play favorites, but the ladies pictured here are the most photogenic.

05 These are my teammates.  Hurry Hard!

06 This is my favorite new Vancouver discovery, a life-sized cutaway through the public infrastructure of a typical street.

07 This is my inspiration, materials that tell a story.

08 This is our latest project and newest studio ornament, a canoe made from the old sails from Canada Place.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
Between Commercial Drive and Hastings Sunrise.

What do you do and where?
I am a designer and co-founder of Contexture Design, a firm whose work is often inspired by reclaimed materials with historical, cultural or environmental significance.  Out headquarters are in East Vancouver.

What are you working on?
We just finished CANOE: A Canadian Convention, an all-consuming build for IDSWest and are now catching up on production.  We produce a line of products using reclaimed materials like maps and scrap veneer.  All of our work is produced locally, and most of them are hand made.

Where can we find your work?
You can see our products and special projects at www.contexture.ca. You’ll also find our work at local retailers like Vancouver Special, Paper Ya, and Giovane Café at the Fairmont.

Adam O. Thomas is pure energy. I’ve seen him recreate the destruction of mountains under ancient tsunamis with nothing but his voice and a full-bodied gesture. What’s more, Adam does this in the service of getting actors to leap beyond their limitations or co-writers to see beyond the obvious plot twists and turns. Adam Thomas is pure energy with a point; he wants to get the creative job done with as many laughs as possible along the way. I met Adam in 1999 at the Blinding Light Cinema!  He was fresh out of film school, bursting with plans to overthrow the status quo. Since then, he’s made a name for himself in the independent film scene with over 22 comedic shorts through the comedy collective Narcoleptic Videographer and also the inimitable doc “Peace Frog Goes to Quebec”, a shot-from-the hip piece covering the 3rd Summit of the Americas with Adam in a frog costume. Adam’s also been instrumental in Vancouver’s independent media scene with his work in establishing the Only Magazine in one weekend out of the ashes of the old Terminal City.  He’s also a great bud, a bud of pure energy!

- Kevin Spenst

The Proof

01 This was taken at first light in one of this regions greatest secret places. Storm Bay. You can only get to it by boat and have to bring everything in and out with you. When I left work to go on holiday I just told everyone I was going to paradise. I wasn’t lying.

02 One of the simple pleasures of summer.

03 My wife Sarah. She’s a great partner and knows a lot about Vancouver history.

04 I often take my daughter out for coffee and a muffin. I get the coffee. Then we go to comic stores and I buy her 25 cent old comics that she then paints on and/or tears up while in the back seat of the car. I stopped her here before she did either to my friends collection.

05 As it is the season, this was one of the two best pumpkin carvings I have ever done. Just look at the technique.

06 THE perfect quick picnic getaway pack. It’s got it all, a blanket, cups, plates, cutlery, even a spot for booze. Great for the beach. ‘Natch.

07  Inspired by the documentary Marwencol, so I did some doll installations. Hicks Lake is great in the summer.

08 I love this view and this is one of the last secret neighbourhoods in the city. Which neighbourhood? It wouldn’t be a secret then.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
Kensington. Up Victoria Dr.

What do you do and where?
I’m a filmmaker and writer…mostly. I dabble in many other things but I have always wanted to make movies, ever since I discovered it was a “thing” you could do. But I’ve always wanted to write too, so filmmaking seemed kinda perfect that way. Then running a magazine and freelancing took over from making a movie every week like we were doing for a few years. That was exhausting. But also amazing.

What are you working on?
Trying to convince HBO to buy my TV show. And in the off chance they don’t, writing another one, which will be even funnier and with more sleaze.

Where can we find your work?
Videos

Writing

Follow me at

“Alexa Lupul is an analog girl in a digital world. She executes her projects with an innate understanding of new school graphic design aesthetics, balanced perfectly with old school sensibilities. Her calligraphy skills are impressive, and so is her knowledge of rock ‘n roll.

You see, Alexa has a thing for so called “cheesy dad rock”. She once paid $100 to go see ACDC in Tacoma. She’ll admit it. Young, Jagger, Morrison & Plant, she’s an expert on them all, you could say her work is an amalgamation of each one of their fucked up and beautiful personas.

Her artistic design skills are as genuine as it gets, she’ll spend the time to get to know each client and seems to effortlessly translate their ideas into beautifully appealing and original work. Constantly inspired by her home city of Vancouver, Alexa has a natural ability to recognize exactly what’s missing here, to conceptualize projects of her own and to bring them to life in her work.

This palindrome named, Barista by day, 60’s rock ‘n roll incarnate’s time is coming, and Vancouver will be a much better city with her work out there to see. You just wait. ”

- Romany Williams

The Proof

01 My desk at home.

02 Some of my sketchbooks. I just bought a new one. Exciting.

03 We had the amazing experience of visiting Jim Rimmer’s (RIP) letterpress studio in school and I scored this awesome tiger print!

04 Some of my records and books. My uncle let me raid his vinyl collection years ago to start me off. I love typography books and finding old gems at Value Village, then buying them solely for their covers and illustrations.

05 Crab Park is one of my favourite spots to hang in Vancouver. Perfect place to play bocce or frisbee. There are always cute dogs, plenty of sun or shade,  and it’s never too busy.

06 I have a super dorky thing for My Little Pony….and unicorns.

07 Our back porch! The best.

08 in my time between school and pursuing graphic design as a career I’ve learned to make a mean cappuccino.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
Strathcona. In a big old character house on the edge of Chinatown.

What do you do and where?
By day, I’m currently making coffee in Chinatown to pay the bills. But as often as possible, I’m working as a freelance graphic designer. I’m living in Strathcona and love being in this area of Vancouver right now. Cool new things are popping up everywhere.

What are you working on?
Finishing up a project doing packaging and promotional materials  for a friend whose starting up a skin care line, where she makes all her products in her kitchen. Currently in the process of coming up with some new projects, and looking for people to collaborate with.

Where can we find your work?
www.alexalupul.com

“In the days well before Twitter, Mark’s fingers were fused together with model glue. Constant rubbing on his black velvet posters in his pre-Harry Potter, Harry Potter-like closet left him with black, glued together fingers. He was lean, but saddled with the baggage of a sex educator nurse of a mother, an ample supply of gasoline to burn or huff at his whim and a friend and yet-to-be business partner guiding him in the black arts of backyard arson and needle darts.

The stage was set.

Enter Industrial Brand. Then blogging, Twitter, rich food, long hours, debilitating eye twitches from printing ink fume mismanagement and a burning desire to put Vancouver on the Graphic Communication, no, Communication Design, scratch that…Graphic Design, no, Communication Design map as President of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada. He also (fill in with laundry list of accomplishments and other cool shit he’s organized, taught, brought to Vancouver, exported from Vancouver and exploited for Vancouver including such hits as Foodists, Interesting Vancouver, Design Week, Creative Mornings and those really awesome little hors d’oeuvres made with Medjool dates, hazelnuts and blue cheese).

Seriously, splash him with a little truffle oil and you could just fucking gobble him right up. Creative doer. Design leader. Internet bastard. Generous soul. Business leader. Self-serving ass. Yes, to all of those and more. Bring it.”

- Ben Garfinkel (business partner and creative director at Industrial Brand)

The Proof

01 This photo is of me giving a lecture to a local design organization. Seems no matter how badly I behave, I find myself in front of crowded rooms sharing opinions or telling stories. I still find public speaking terrifying, but I do like to talk so I mask my nervousness with lots of words.

02 This is a shot of the more than two dozen event or conference ID’s I’ve collected over the last few years. People often ask me how I have time to be involved in so many professional associations, community groups and charities. Truth is, I have no idea. I guess not having children helps, but I like to be busy, I like to learn, I like to make things, and I like people.

03 My dog Charlie may be blind from birth, but he sure does love to stick his head out the window of the car and let the wind blow his hair back. Car travel must be such a mystery to him. By the way, his favourite thing is to play fetch, which is hilarious to watch.

04Two absolute truths about me: I love to travel and I adore Asian food. When Icograda World Design Congress brought me to China, I was in heaven. At this street food stall in some Hutong (back alley neighbourhood) in Beijing I ate sheep’s penis, spicy boiled pork blood and intestines of some sort. Absolutely loved it.

05 The fact that my wife Andrea married me is proof enough that she’s a lunatic. This photo of us dressed up as a booby trap and spice rack is ancillary. Yes, I realize how pretty she is and that I married above my station. Lucky me.

06 Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for years and I finally made it there this year. Myself and two close friends spent a couple weeks in Peru and five days hiking the Inca Trail to these ancient ruins. I wheezed and gasped all the way up and cried when I got there.

07 I love this t-shirt, but I fear it’s going to get me beat up one day. It’s no secret I love food and especially meat—I even once said that vegetarians were untrustworthy and should probably all be in jail…on CBC. Oops. I love food so much I co-founded a food collective called Foodists.ca with some friends. It’s my vice.

08 This is where you can find me most days and many late nights. I’ve been accused of being a workaholic, but I love what I do. Suppose I should clean up my desk soon though.

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
I live just off of Commercial Drive in East Van with my wife and my blind Havanese Charlie. I love the energy, diversity, cultural mix and unpretentious vibe of The Drive, not to mention the numerous restaurants, cafés and live music venues.

What do you do and where?
I am the Design Director (a fancy title that means I do whatever needs to get done) at Industrial Brand, a brand strategy and communication design firm I own with my business partner Ben Garfinkel. We’re in our 15th year of business and our studio is located in a loft building just off Main St. near 2nd Ave—my second favourite neighbourhood in Vancouver.

What are you working on?
I split my time at work between business development, working with clients on defining their brand strategy and design needs and collaborating with my design team on identities and websites that work. Much of my time recently has gone into bringing CreativeMornings to Vancouver, a free monthly breakfast lecture series for creative professionals from a variety of industries.

Where can we find your work?
Depends how you define my work I suppose. The obvious place is www.industrialbrand.com or www.foodists.ca, but I’m perhaps most proud of the work I don’t get paid for. Google me, you’ll see.

Kevin Spenst is a man of many words. Many, many words. So many words, so little time might be his motto, if he weren’t so busy writing every day, then riding around Vancouver, camera crew in tow, reading the words he just wrote and then writing about the whole experience. But don’t let all these words fool you. He’s no wordsnob just throwing them out to seem superior. Whether writing at kevinspenst.com or at twinnegganswake (where he’s enlisted twitter to translate James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake), reading or reciting he puts his whole body into it. Literally, he once blew a testicle during a wild performance as Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream. And finished the play. Awesome.

But maybe, just maybe, it’s more than words that draw you in. His eruptive laugh and fascination with the fringes of everything only hint at his passion for life. With a metabolism so fast he measures days in minutes, Kevin Spenst is equally liable to sketch you in squiggles as he is to buy you a beer. But if you see him biking down the street on his midnight black cruiser, don’t be intimidated by that glint in his eye. It’s just the sun refracting off his arctic blue glass eyeball, or  what he likes to call his “envisioner.”

-Adam O. Thomas

The Proof

01 This cat adopted me one year ago. He’s been teaching me the art of blissful insouciance ever since.

02 Looking up is not just about optimism. I find myself staring into clouds or looking at birds a good chunk of every day.

03 The love of my life and a life vest made of love and all the juxtapositions we’ve found.

04  I’ve been teaching ESL for fourteen years. It’s a fun day job!

05 I like writing either at my desk or on the floor. (I guess it’s the cat in me.)

06 I’ve learned tons from classmates and profs through my MFA in creative writing at UBC.

07 My morning commute to work takes me through a park (or over the surface of the moon (yes, I like squinting at the world to squeeze out other things))

08 I love playing with the juxtapose app on my iphone. Here’s a friend with his girl’s head on his shoulders. Creepy but fun!

The Questions

What neighborhood do you live in?
I’ve lived in the Hastings-Sunrise hood for five years.

What do you do and where?
I’m a teacher by day and writer of poetry and prose by early morning and night.

What are you working on?
I have three poetry collections that are at various stages of completion: one of conceptual complexities, one of lyrical verse dealing with schizophrenia and one of love poems.

Where can we find your work?
Come visit me at kevinspenst.com!

Naomi MacDougall  is an award-winning designer based in Vancouver, Canada. That’s what the bio on her website says, so I went ahead and stuck “Naomi MacDougall + Award” into Google, because she’s not the type of person who would ever brag about  winning something. Frankly, the results left me a little intimidated. Serious award-winnage.  Google for yourself.

Look at Naomi’s designs and photography and you’ll see her talent is self-evident. But because they don’t hand out awards for random character traits, you may not get the full picture of why she’s all-round awesome.  Some hypothetical prizes she would totally win if they existed:

“Best Giggle” — Not only does Naomi have a wonderfully musical laugh,  it’s also super easy to get it out of her, making you feel like the funniest person ever when you’re in her company.

“Best Use of Hippie Parentage” —  Nomes has the most biting hippie jokes out of anyone I know, but still has the tenderness and open heart that you’d expect from a child of bona fide Vancouver Island hippies.

“Best Supporting Artist” —Need a third for karaoke-ing a Wilson Phillips song? Want to redecorate your apartment to look like a Hitchcock film?? Throwing a ’80s theme party with fake cocaine made out of FIMO on the table ?!? Naomi is down to help.

You get the idea. Nomes is full of win. And by transitive property, so are those of us who get to have her in our lives.
- Elaine Corden

The Proof

01 My muse Butters. He’s very intellectual.

02 I had a dream that Bill Murray was my best friend and ever since I feel as though I’ve know him for years. He’s kind of like my spirit animal.

03 Every time I ride past this mural it brings a smile to my face. I’ve imagined the whole complex relationship of these two lovers out on a Sunday ride at English Bay.

04 I grew up on the Island and take the ferry a LOT. It lost its novelty forever ago so I stave off the boredom by …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>