Proof...

...that UPPERCASE readers are the GREATEST, most CREATIVE people in the world.

Made my day! Thanks, Donovan!

Happy Halloween!

I wonder how many Wild Things will be out there trick-or-treating tonight?

Brett McDermott, a friend of mine, will be masquerading in the mountains in his homemade Max-inspired wolf suit. I bumped into him a few days ago and was inspired to hear that, on a whim, he had picked up a fleece blanket and some gold buttons from Value Village and decided to sew himself a suit, never having sewn a stitch before!

The results (via cell phone) are pretty fine:

Hope you have a festive Halloween eve in Banff Brett. May you win best costume over all the other men in uniforms. Thanks for sharing!

Talking Type

Stephanie Orma invites us to listen to the San Francisco radio program “Live From the Left Coast” this evening from 7-8pm PST for a lively and humorous discussion on how type affects (or doesn’t affect) our everyday lives. (Listen online at green960.com)

"Spurred on by the recent uproar in the graphic design community over Ikea's change in typeface, as well as the New Zealand woman who got fired for using all uppercase letters in an email, designers and non-designers alike want to know, "what the font is going on?" Why do some people care so deeply about typography and yet, it's virtually non-existent to others?"

{Image from >>Gady<< flickrstream}

Wild Things

In my lovefest for Spike Jonze's filmic adaptation of Maurice Sendak's beautifully macabre children's story, Where The Wild Things Are,' I came across a lovely and inspiring website devoted to the years and years of creative collaboration, blood, sweat, tears and sewing on burlap! that went into the making of the film.

It's called We Love You So and it's well worth a visit if you are a fan of the book, the movie, Spike, or simply creativity in all its mad, determined, triumphant glory! This site celebrates the many, many people behind the scenes and the quieter moments of bringing the project to life.

It's also got an amazing set of Links to tap you into music, fine art, books and other scenes related to and inspired by the people behind WTWTA. Cool!

Lisa Congdon: Bonfire

Lisa Congdon's original painting and many other fiery works are available from the Bonfire show.

'House' for Halloween

The Calgary Cinematheque folks have done it again! Thanks to brilliantly macabre programming, local audiences are being treated to the cult classic House (1977), a Japanese horror show like no other.

Descriptions of the film from the CC website put a fine point on its genre defying strangeness:

"... a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby Doo as directed by Dario Argento? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home, only to come face to face with evil spirits, bloodthirsty pianos, and a demonic housecat. Too absurd to be genuinely terrifying, yet too nightmarish to be merely comic."

If you're looking for early Halloween frights, be at the Plaza Theatre to get your tickets early. The film starts at 9:15pm Thursday October 29th.

To glimpse the film's odd spooks, click here.

Magazine Gift Box: issues 1,2,3 now plus 4,5,6,7

If you're signed up for our emails, then you have an hour's head start on this news: we have a limited number of gift sets available in our shop. We've been saving the last remaining copies of issues 1 and 2 for this year-end gift set which contains our first three issues, plus the promise of more goodies in the new year: Issue 4 will be mailed in January, followed by Spring (April), Summer (July) and Fall (October). (Sorry, single copies of #1 and #2 aren't available.) (Eight sets left!) SOLD OUT! thank you.

Whether you've been wanting to subscribe for yourself or planning ahead for Christmas gift-giving, the UPPERCASE magazine gift set is just the thing!

Gift subscriptions are also available starting with either issue 3 or issue 4, when ordering simply enter your name and contact info in the billing address but input your recipient's name and address in the shipping fields.

On my desk

The past few days have been very exciting! Not only did the magazine surpass 800 subscribers (thank you!!!), I finished the design of Camilla's book and the file is off to the printer. (Not a small file, either: 615MB with just about 500 placed images, 192 pages!) Here are some shots of my desk during the final design and proofing phase. The cover will be chipboard with black and red ink plus a debossed gloss foil, gently rounded corners and then closed with a custom-printed rubber band. {More images over here.}

Type Tuesday: Luggage Tags

Camilla Engman's upcoming book (at the printer, available for preorder!) is part of The Suitcase Series. This series presents in glorious detail the lives of artists and designers from around the world. Small and intimate, each book contains a special treasure: in this edition we have included a glassine envelope of postcards with which you can create a Camilla-inspired collage. You’ll also find a booklet of the adventures of Morran, the little Swedish dog with a big imagination. The pre-orders and first few hundred books sold will also include a two-colour art print. Each book in The Suitcase Series is a precious souvenir of a creative journey shared between the artist and you, the reader.

In addition to these goodies, I've also designed a luggage tag/bookmark:

Here are some of my inspiration images for the tag:

{ Sources: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. }

Craft Inc. Business Planner Giveaway

Entrepreneur and writer Meg Mateo Illasco is an expert at turning creative ideas into marketable products. Her latest book is designed as planner to assist you in setting up and running a creative business whether it's a small Etsy shop or a larger-scale papergoods company.

From Chronicle Book's website: "Craft Inc. Business Planner — This action-oriented take-along planner is packed with advice and worksheets that guide creative entrepreneurs in their hot pursuit of profit. From big picture goals (writing a mission statement, developing marketing campaigns, launching a new line) to immediate to-dos (getting a business license, pricing products, packing for trade shows), this essential guide brims with how-to tips from industry experts. Roomy pockets catch important business cards, while tear-off notepad pages offer space to jot thoughts on the go. The lay-flat portfolio packaging makes this planner both easy to tote and durable enough to withstand all that the bumpy road to success may bring."

Promoting your creative enterprise is a necessity for success: people need to be able to find you and your products! May we suggest taking an ad in the upcoming issue of UPPERCASE magazine? Our print ad rates are very affordable (starting at just $72 Canadian for subscribers) and in each issue we have a full page dedicated to Etsy sellers and small independent shops.

We will be holding a draw for a free copy of the Business Planner. To be eligible, you must be an indepedent seller or small company who commits to an ad space by November 13. Click here to contact us for more details.

800 reasons to celebrate

Today we reached an amazing milestone: 800 subscribers! I am so grateful to each and every one of you — and those of you purchasing single copies through our shop and our amazing stockists: thank you! Congratulations to Jennifer M. who will receive a full library of the books we've published.

For our inaugural subscribers (issues 1,2,3,4) I'm setting up the renewal system and we'll send you an email later this week with instructions on how to continue your subscription.

THANK YOU!!!

The Working Proof

The Working Proof is a new online shop and blog that offers affordable prints (under $100). I love seeing images of the work in progress: you can almost smell the ink!

"Each print is paired by the artist with a charity to which we will donate 15% of each sale — creating what we believe to be a product with not just aesthetic, but social value. Our charities support a wide range of causes including humanitarian outreach, animal rights, environment, and research. Prints are produced by the artist, rather than by us, giving the artist complete creative control, and allowing for a wide variety of print mediums (upcoming: screenprint, letterpress, linocut, and giclee, to name a few!).

This week, we released "A New Rescue", by Heather Smith Jones — a five-color letterpress print on Rives Heavyweight 175gsm paper.  Heather paired her print with Smile Train, a charity that offers free cleft surgeries to children in need. What Heather says about the print: "I like to layer representational imagery with pattern and arrange the parts in an abstract or narrative way. In this print I have included imagery of a butterfly, seashell, rose of sharon blossom and a wooden boat, each growing from a vine that originates from a tree stump. The boat to me symbolizes the idea of a rescue and the stump or tree represents a source of life."

In transit to Australia & New Zealand

Look at this fabulous new Mag Nation location in Sydney! How I'd love to browse the magazines in this shop. Our magazines are on the way to Mag Nation shops in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. (Please contact their shops first to see when the magazines are available: we ship to a freight forwarder in the USA who then sends them onward overseas, so it does take some time. I suspect it might still be a week or two before they arrive.)

For our blog readers down under, I've got a mission for you: I'd love to have a picture of UPPERCASE magazine in this amazing shop!

New stockist: Collage Collage

Thank you to Erin of the newly opened Collage Collage in Vancouver for stocking our little magazine for the creative and curious.

"Collage Collage is a place that strives to uphold the tremendous creative abilities that children have, in surrondings that adults find equally stimulating, provoking and above all, inspiring. Collage Collage is a store, a school, a gallery and a workshop for children and adults. It's a place to find some art supplies, a story book, a small sculpture or a new pair of scissors." Sounds marvelous!

Their workshops sound fantastic: I want to sign up for this one:

Inspired by Marcel Dzama, Mixing Colors
Drawing and Painting for 5-6 years

Students will experiment with a palette based on Dzama's work. After reading a story book based on his work, and looking at some of the works of his collective, The Royal Art Lodge, children will be shown how Dzama mixes imagery from life and the imagination. Children will experiment with trying out their own dream-like creatures and then painting in their drawings. Ideas will start in a sketchbook warm up, and then move to large paper. Like Dzama, students will start with pencil drawings then layer ink and paint washes.

If you're in Vancouver, go visit Collage Collage this weekend!

Take me to your leader

Lisa Brawn, possibly the most prolific artist I've ever met, has a new show opening this Saturday at neighbouring Axis Contemporary Art. (Check out the feature about Lisa and her woodcuts in our latest issue.)

Objectified

A newish (March 2009) documentary film, Objectified by Gary Hustwit explores the complex relationship we have to our things, and by extension, to the individuals who design them.

From the website: "It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability." Sounds intriguing...

Orange Beautiful (and smart, too!)

Emily and Laura of Orange Beautiful have created a lovely and clever perpetual calendar design for 2010 and beyond. I really like the three-tier design and paper stand. Available now in their Etsy shop.

Ana Tuominen

Finnish artist Ana Tuominen, discovered via Poppytalk.

Re-used Cassette Tapes by Contexture

Disguise your iPod in obsolete technology. "Made from handpicked, locally sourced cassette tapes" by Vancouver-based design collective Contexture.

Home Sweet Phonebooth, made by Contexture.

Re-used Records by Cat Davison

This is the work by Cat Davison, a London-based jewellery designer in her final year at Central Saint Martins.

"I love loud and expressive jewellery, and believe all accessories carry meaning and - whenever possible - should be elevated to art status. I also believe jewellery should be fun as well as environmentally aware... sometimes there's nothing better than the feeling you've created something nice from something ghastly - much of my 100% recycled jewellery, I have no qualms in admitting, is made out of Des O'Conner records. Sorry Des!"