This post is for these reasons:
That is all. Happy Tuesday!
My friend and former design classmate Katie MacLennan writes a great blog called Polka Dot Soup. On it she writes a post some Mondays called “Multitude Monday.” She writes, “Mondays are about documenting the little (or big!) things in life that make me oh-so-happy. Let’s make Mondays a day to reflect on the goodies, and not the baddies.”
Also, last year I read Brené Brown’s book “Daring Greatly: How The Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead,” in which she writes, “The shudder of vulnerability that accompanies joy is an invitation to practice gratitude, to acknowledge how truly grateful we are for the person, the beauty, the connection, or simply the moment before us.”
(The last Multitude Monday post I wrote, last week, is here.)
The ten things I’m most grateful for right now:
171. A good job with good people.
172. A weekend away with two other female graphic designers.
173. Exploring new-to-me hiking trails in a beautiful part of the island.
174. Doing yoga by the beach on Saturday.
175. Delicious meals at the place we were staying.
176. Good, heartfelt, belly laughs.
177. Hearing about all kinds of neat projects that other Cape Bretoners are working on.
178. Sharing blog links with the other gals and hearing about new ones.
179. Coming home to my fellow. It’s a simple joy that makes my heart just about burst.
180. Plants growing in the garden still. The honeysuckle is really making progress on the railings!
What are you grateful for today?
Seriously, how is it Friday again already!?
Answer: because life is good, and busy, and full. But not in an “over-stuffed” way, just in a “filling it out in all the right places” way. There has been time for gardening. Time for puttering in the house. Time for working on blog stuff. Time for work. Time for relaxing.
When I got back from last weekend’s getaway on the Sunday night, I thought “I will totally post these photos. Maybe Monday, but definitely Tuesday.” Yeah… that didn’t happen. I guess I felt the CBU brand was more important to write about, lol.
Anyway, here we are, Friday, and it’s time to share these with you: the pictures I took in the Annapolis Valley last weekend. (Don’t know where the Annapolis Valley is? Read about it here.)
This gal is the reason we were there: Ashley Laurence! She’s getting married in four weeks and this weekend was her bachelorette celebration. She’s excited!
Magic + wine + bus? Ummmm… yes please!
You can tell I’m excited. And possibly already drunk. This is only the first vineyard, people.
This was intriguing! I didn’t check it out further, but it looked neat. Whatever it was.
This is the second one we went to. And also the one where we had to wait an extra 30 minutes because the bus was too full. Ah well. There are worse places to wait than a vineyard and winery on a sunny Saturday. Yeah.
Magic wine bus, indeed.
These olives! The guide said, “These olives will change your life,” and I thought she was exaggerating until I tasted them.
I can’t resist hand-lettering on a chalkboard. It will be my downfall, I’m sure! It’s a strange Achilles heel to have, but oh well.
Beautiful view from the restaurant we ate at, in the evening after the wine tour.
A basil-and-cucumber mojito-type drink.
Cheesecake with local blueberries? Ohmygosh yessss.
The next morning, this was the view from our rented cabin: the Bay of Fundy.
Sunday morning we made a big fry-up breakfast, sat around and gossiped, and then walked on the beach. So, pretty much what Heaven is.
And then on the drive home I took the obligatory “crossing the Causeway” shot and posted it to Instagram. I may have cursed a little. What can I say? I was excited. Life is good.
+++
Relevant links:
The Magic Winery Bus tour.
Gaspereau Vineyards.
L’Acadie Vineyards.
Luckett Vineyards.
The Port Pub.
+++
Hey! If you’re going to the big Aerosmith show tonight, have an amazing time!!! I’m off to St. Peter’s for a women’s graphic design retreat. It’s going to be super rad and I’m really excited about it. I’ll share more next week.
Have a great weekend!
So it seems a lot of people are interested in the new brand at CBU! Yesterday my site traffic ballooned after I wrote about my reaction to the “Happen” brand, people left a bunch of comments (some anonymously as they are CBU employees), and shared the link a bunch too. (Thanks!)
I kept waiting for a comment from someone who really liked the brand, but that didn’t, err, happen.
Also, I was somewhat hoping someone from CBU would see my tweet and respond, but that didn’t happen either.
Someone I know at CBU did write and suggest I meet with their Marketing Director to chat about the brand, and put us in touch, so I’ll likely do that. Hopefully that’s not an exercise in futility (I can imagine a person in a role like that essentially reading the press release back to me), and actually is an interesting meeting that provides some answers to the questions I posed in the post yesterday. We’ll see! I’m nothing if not optimistic.
Anyway, I always like to share stuff like site stats, because it’s so interesting to me, you know, which posts do well, which ones strike a nerve. I don’t want to just write about controversial stuff for the sake of driving up my site stats, but when it’s done right and it’s topical and it’s something I actually care about and want to write about (like the post last year about the Bell Museum, another high-view day) then it’s neat to see when the stats confirm that people are interested in the topic.
I’ll keep you all posted!
Recently the local university, CBU, went through a rebranding. It took a year or so.
At the end of it, just last month, they released their new brand to the media and the public. It’s essentially one word: Happen.
I’m underwhelmed. I’m also confused. I know the university says in a press release that “‘Happen’ encapsulates the spirit and drive that is inherent in CBU today and which will become increasingly clear to the world in the future,” and that it’s about “the journey, the experiments, the things we learn along the way,” but for me as a designer, this feels like the focus groups and the designers just found a slick-looking sans-serif font and came up with a word that could apply to a number of situations, and worked out a vague design rationale for it.
It doesn’t feel like it grew, rooted, from the soul and history of the university, this one or any other, frankly. It feels like it just, well, happened. (Sorry.)
(It also happened to Staples, apparently.)
Mind you, I didn’t go to CBU. Nor was I part of the branding process. I also don’t know enough about the culture of studying or working at CBU, either, to comment on that. So that’s where I’m confused. Since this brand doesn’t really do it for me, as a CBU outsider, I’d love to know more about the process they went through, and why they did go with what they went with. I love branding and rebranding, and I love design. I guess I should qualify that: I love rebranding when it comes from somewhere genuine, and isn’t just a fresh coat of paint. I think the process of designing a rebrand starts way before you pull out the Pantone swatches and the slick fonts — I think it begins with a deep and honest look at what the existing brand is, what people think about it already, and figuring out ways to serve your customers better. The process fascinates me, and I’d love to know more about it in this particular case.
I must also say that I’m disappointed that the university went with a Toronto design firm. Imagine what a bold statement and shot of confidence into Cape Breton’s economy it would have been, if CBU had announced they were trusting a local design firm like Vibe Creative Group with their university’s branding process?
Again, I don’t know what went on behind the scenes. Maybe local places like Vibe submitted a bid and were thought too expensive. Maybe local firms were too busy to take on the work and never submitted a bid. I don’t know. I mean, I want to be supportive of a local institution, CBU, and not just be critical for the sake of being critical. But, I’ve got questions, and I’d really love genuine answers.
What about you? Does this brand speak to you, make you feel excited? Or are you in the ‘underwhelmed’ camp?
My mind: Why why why why why why why?
My body: Because, oh because, because, because this. This feeling.
++++
Photo taken this morning.
My friend and former design classmate Katie MacLennan writes a great blog called Polka Dot Soup. On it she writes a post some Mondays called “Multitude Monday.” She writes, “Mondays are about documenting the little (or big!) things in life that make me oh-so-happy. Let’s make Mondays a day to reflect on the goodies, and not the baddies.”
Also, a few months ago I read Brené Brown’s book “Daring Greatly: How The Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead,” in which she writes, “The shudder of vulnerability that accompanies joy is an invitation to practice gratitude, to acknowledge how truly grateful we are for the person, the beauty, the connection, or simply the moment before us.”
(The last Multitude Monday post I wrote, last week, is here.)
The ten things I’m most grateful for right now:
161. Downloading new tunes after a road trip with two other women, tunes that they introduced me to.
162. Nova Scotia wine.
163. Montreal bagels with Nutella for breakfast on a Monday morning.
164. Cheese.
165. Olives.
166. Did I say Nova Scotia wine yet?
167. Gal pals + laughter + silliness + a rented cabin by the sea.
168. Coming home after a fun weekend away, to my sweetheart.
169. The new Outlander TV series.
170. Oh that Nova Scotia wine…
Have a lovely Monday!
