MOV Conservator Carol Brynjolfson working on The Blue Eagle Café sign in the Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver exhibit | photo: Kirsti Wakelin 2011

The opening party for Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver is tonight (Oct 12, 2011), the exhibit opens to the public tomorrow, and already the show is getting a lot of press. Here is a Global BC segment on the exhibit with MOV’s Marketing Officer, Amanda McCuaig, as well as an article in the Vancouver Sun.

If you would like to see some photos of the exhibit (before it opens), the blogger preview has resulted in a few articles with lots of pictures of the show – the signs do make good photography subject matter:

• On Vancouver is Awesome

• On Ariane C Design

• On The modline

Owl Drugs @ Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

Our newest exhibit design project is scheduled to open to the public on October 13th at the Museum of Vancouver. Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver showcases a selection of neon signage from Vancouver past, and explores the controversy surrounding the aesthetics of a changing city.

Drake Hotel @ Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

The exhibition process has afforded us a fascinating look into Vancouver past – there is a nostalgia these days for Vancouver’s old neon, but the signs didn’t all have the iconic charm of Save-On-Meats, The Only Seafoods and Hellen’s swinging girl – there was a virtual signage free-for-all and, as curator Joan Seidl puts it, neon was the lightening rod for the critics of the signage jungle. Within the exhibit, the passionate arguments both for and against are woven in amongst a selection of signs from the Museum of Vancouver’s collection, as well as photographs of Vancouver street views of the past by Vancouver Sun photographer Walter Griba.

For the full experience, we recommend taking one of the curator talks and tours (the first one is November 3rd, 2011):

Did Vancouver’s flashing neon signs signal glamour, excitement and big city living?  Or was neon part of a tawdry display that disfigured Vancouver’s natural beauty?

Joan Seidl, Director of Collections and curator of Neon Vancouver, will delve into this question an more, in this in-depth talk and tour. Learn more about the history of the signs in the exhibit, Vancouver’s evolving hate/love relationship with neon, and how MOV came to hold a significant neon collection.

- Events: Curator’s talk and tour - Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver

Drake Hotel, Chops & 'Rant @ Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | © Kirsti Wakelin 2011

further reading:

• Museum of Vancouver - Neon Vancouver/Ugly Vancouver | Advance release | July 26, 2011 
• Vancouver Is Awesome - Vancouver Was Awesome | The Old American Hotel
• Vancouver Is Awesome – Helen’s Swinging Again in the Heights
• Vancouver Is Awesome – Vancouver Was Awesome | The Only Cafe’s Neon Seahorse 
• Vancouver Is Awesome – Vancouver Was Awesome | The Pigs of Save-on-Meats

2010 was notable for us as it became a year of exhibit design, beginning with full scale exhibition design for the Museum of Vancouver shows The Art of Craft and Fox, Fluevog and Friends: the Story Behind the Shoes and continuing with graphic and colour design for The Modern Woman: Drawings by Degas, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Other Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris and In Dialogue with Carr: Douglas Coupland, Evan Lee, Liz Magor, Marianne Nicolson.

Continuing on that trend, 2011 sees us working on the exhibition design for the slightly more succinctly named exhibit The Colour of My Dreams: the Surrealist Revolution in Art for the Vancouver Art Gallery. We are very excited to be working on this exhibition and after spending months working with digital images of the artwork, we are looking forward to seeing the works in person when they arrive in Vancouver for installation and the opening on May 28, 2011. The exhibition includes works by Louise Bourgeois, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray, René Magritte, Joan Miró and more. So many more.

For more information on the exhibition, please see this Vancouver Art Gallery press release.

Residential experience video for Britannia Heritage Shipyard | View video here

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Another project in our shift this year to diversify our storytelling was an interpretive video for Britannia Heritage Shipyard. The work documented the varied experiences, across social and ethnic bounds, of residential life at the former cannery and shipyard site.

Documentary narrative and interpretive work is a direction I’ve been wanting to explore further for some time now, and we’ve managed to work elements of it into previous projects when we can. All our storytelling aims to be experiential, but relating an historical sense of place is an entirely different challenge to relating a lifestyle one.

And as much as I enjoy traveling to exotic locales for photoshoots, it was nice to work on a project so close to home and learn more of the incredible history of our area – I certainly gained a greater sense of my place.

View motion design here

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I had the chance recently to help two of my good friends, Trevor Johnston and Jonathan Mentzos of Thought Shop Creative, with motion design on their video for Replay Resorts. In the past, we shared some great times as a team, creatively and socially, so it’s always a welcome opportunity to reunite on a project. And they provided me a much appreciated venue to do some fairly involved motion design – what I enjoy creating more than anything else.

It’s nice to move from type and image storytelling to type as image storytelling. Developing extended sequences like these also allowed me to integrate transitions and edits much more than the short, isolated motion design sequences typically seen in our videos. I’m seeking out more opportunities for this professionally, in addition to developing some ideas personally, so expect to see more diversity in my motion design featured on this blog soon.

Completed MOV Studio space | view more photos | read more about it on Kirsti’s blog

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While my focus and passion in design has centred on motion design for some time now, I’ve had the opportunity to work in many varied media over my career. Kirsti Wakelin and I recently had the chance to get back to a little experiential design with the newly rebranded Museum of Vancouver. To help introduce their new direction and identity, we transformed the existing, cluttered orientation gallery into the new MOV Studio.

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Completed MOV Studio space | view more photos here

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Formerly known as the Vancouver Museum, MOV’s new vision has a much greater contemporary focus while still honouring the city’s past: “To hold a mirror to the city and hold provocative conversations about its past, present and future.” The MOV Studio is the first expression of that new direction within the physical space of the museum itself.

It’s varied usage demanded a flexible yet engaging layout. Day-to-day, it serves as a lounge connecting the permanent collection and special exhibition galleries – it’s a space to meet in before viewing the exhibitions or to reflect in afterward. During openings, the room is required to function as an event space, accommodating up to 300 people. And as any museum, it hosts a steady stream of school groups and acts as a gathering and learning space as well.

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The Vancouver Museum’s Orientation Gallery prior to redesign

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So our first step in giving it that flexibility was to simplify. Egyptian mummy – out. Taxidermied animals – out. Interpretive mountains – out. Vancouver and world timelines – out (for now at least). We had the most contemporary and relevant exhibit – a panoramic view of the West End – right outside the window, so why not show it off? We drew from the clean, bold new identity to give the Studio the feel of an art gallery and keep the focus on the exhibits and setting. Wayfinding banners clearly define pathing to the permanent collection and special exhibition galleries, an ongoing source of confusion in the past. Seat groupings give places for contemplation or relaxation. Brand and paint applications on the entry wall serve to introduce the new vision and identity, while giving energy to the minimalist design of the room.

A limited budget ruled out a hi-tech interactive feedback solution, so we went hi-touch with a blackboard wall and simple call to action – “What is your Vancouver?”. Ongoing documentation of viewers writings and illustrations on the wall could be a great historical record of prevailing opinions and issues in the city’s evolution. The opposing wall, that formerly held cluttered Vancouver and world timelines, was re-designed to a more gallery-like feel as well. Reduction to a simpler Vancouver timeline, with fewer objects and greater prominence and wall-space given to each artifact, is planned for the future when time and budget allow. In the meantime, it functions as a temporary exhibition wall with a series of short-term installations planned for the future, lending another dynamic element to the Studio.

To some degree, a lot of the concept was addition by subtraction. But it’s been rewarding to hear that what was one of the least inviting and liked spaces in the Museum for many MOV employees, has now become their favourite.

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CLIENT :: Museum of Vancouver

EXPERIENTIAL DESIGN :: Darren Carcary and Kirsti Wakelin

BRAND and BANNER DESIGN :: Kaldor Brand Strategy + Design

View motion design here | View full trailer here

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Best line from creative brief: Warning. This program may contain coarse language, scenes of nudity and general badassness. A pretty good indication that this would be slightly different than my recent real estate work.

I came to creating the motion graphics for The Geez Show trailer through friend, and producer, Jeff Griffiths. He’s helping Keith “The Geez” Giesbrecht pitch a 13-episode television experience rather unlike any biker shows seen before. I think the trailer pretty much speaks for itself, but my favourite description of the show so far is this: If Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Round and Peter Fonda’s Easy Rider had a drunken one-night stand, The Geez Show would be their bastard child.

Check out thegeezshow.com for a more detailed description of the show.

You’ve been forewarned.

Opening screen | Hacienda 30-second TV spot

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I just had the refreshing opportunity to complete a project with a quick turnaround. Seeing as our project timelines are often counted in months rather than days, it was nice to have some near-instant gratification.

And, even more refreshing, the piece itself was counted in seconds (30) rather than minutes. The constraints of a 30-second piece were actually liberating rather than limiting. I was able to focus on selecting only the best images and spend time refining the motion design and editing to a finer degree than a 7-10 minute film usually allows. The focused amount of time you have the viewer’s attention also keeps you acutely aware of information overload and maintaining balance in the layering of graphics, imagery and narration. It was a nice little exercise in creative and strategic thinking for me.

Unfortunately, not being a Tennis Channel subscriber, I won’t have the chance to see it broadcast. Ah, the quirks of digital cable and niche marketing.

Tacos al pastor taqueria signage | Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

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Without a doubt, the most enjoyable perk of my job is the opportunity to travel. And working from home only makes those opportunities all the more welcome. 

But truth be told, beyond my advance research of the project and location, the thing I’m most likely to be Googling before my trip is food – regional specialties; unique or acclaimed restaurants; anything seemingly delicious.

I may not have the most refined palate, but when it comes down to it I just really like to eat. Maybe too much at times, but it’s still something that can bring me a great deal of simple pleasure. And I think that simplicity is what appeals to me so much about my favourite Mexican food. Fresh ingredients, prepared and presented simply. Add a Bohemia or margarita on the rocks and I will most certainly (and simply) be pleased.

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Tacos de carnitas – Los Michoacanos | San Jose del Cabo, Mexico

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While I’ve always enjoyed Mexican food, my appreciation has grown considerably in the last couple years. So have my cravings, so I hope my time working in Los Cabos is far from done. The first four visits were for photo shoots, so it left little time for culinary explorations. But we were lucky to stay at the Marquis Los Cabos and the thought of their ceviche for our daily post-shoot dinner was soon sustaining me through our 15-hour days. Being all photo-ed out by the end of those days, I somehow never managed to get a photo of our meals, but I’ll try to remedy that on the next visit. Our favourite was the Yucatan mixed ceviche. The mixed part referred to the seafood – calamari, lobster, shrimp, white fish (not sure which kind) and possibly octopus and scallops (the accompanying margaritas tended to dull the powers of deduction), while the Yucatan referred to the style – marinated in lime juice, seasoned with Habanero peppers for heat and combined with deliciously fresh cilantro, tomatoes, red onion and chunks of avocado. All delivered to the mouth on fresh-made tortilla chips. Between the ceviche and the creamy, fresh guacamole and pico de gallo, the appetizers could easily constitute a meal in themselves – and often did.

But my other revelation was their flank steak. I’d previously only known the flank steak as an inferior, tough cut of meat – my ignorance. Marinated to melt-in-your-mouth tenderness, it’s been responsible for more out-of-the-blue cravings in the last year than any food I’ve had in that time. On my last trip to Cabo in November, The Tropicana Hotel in San Jose del Cabo was recommended to me by my friend Stu, who has years of experience traveling Mexico. I can only say I was so blissed out by my flank steak that I remember deliriously asserting “this is one cow who did not die in vain” before I threw all sense out the window and phoned Kirsti on my cel to tell her how good my meal was. I’m sure she was as thrilled to hear me wax poetic on flank steak as I was to receive the $80 charge for the call on my next phone bill. Another reason why maybe I enjoy eating too much.

Stu also introduced me to Los Michoacanos who specialize in deep-fried pork – tacos de carnitas. Deep-fried in huge vats and cleavered into bite-size pieces, it’s served on corn tortillas with diced onion and cilantro, four salsas and accompaniments of lime slices and radish. While the deep-frying may sound unappealing, it actually cooks the pork more like a tender pork roast, with slightly crispy bits on some pieces. Amazing. I’d also noticed another table being served a plate of what looked like dry ribs and our server obliged us with a small gratis sampling of gorditas. Basically they’re deep-fried bits of pork fat dusted with a mildly spicy dry rub and alternate between a-little-too-rich-I-shouldn’t-be-eating-these and decadently-fatty-goodness-I-can’t-stop-eating. I’m glad it was only a small sampling.

In addition to sit-down meals, you can buy the pork by the pound for take-away. Tempting as it was, I wasn’t optimistic on a positive reception at Customs. But the curb-side counter did give me a moment’s pause on our way out for another reason altogether. So I hereby ask you to help me “spot-the pig-part” and identify the pork pieces in this photo.

Well, I could similarly go on about our Chostomo mountaintop burrito dinner, Rossy’s, Mega, tacos al pastor, Tajin on fresh fruit, Club Ninety Six fish tacos, Sunday paletas in San Jose and my never-ending search for the definitive margarita, but I’ll leave you to peruse some photos of these culinary experiences here.