Category: Explorations

  • now I know

    For those of you who have asked me if I created another Christmas Snowflake book for my nephew, I have. I was just remiss in posting it. As each year passes it gets a little more difficult to create a brand new book and figure out what the idea for the new one should be.…

  • Fun in the Snow

    Usually my day is filled with similar strategy and branding issues for various companies. But things are slowing down as Christmas approaches even if the snow has yet to fall. For the last two years I have produced a children’s book for my nephew Nathan about the life and times of a snowflake. The first…

  • A layout and design critique

    I have never included anyone else’s thoughts on 418QE before but after reading my very good friend and mentor Keith Branscombe’s rant, I could hardly resist. I asked him if I could publish it. His ‘rant’ makes some obviously valid points and it is certainly food for thought – enjoy!

  • My Dream Time

    Well it’s that time of year again and even if the snow hasn’t fallen, Christmas is around the corner. Last year and around this time I made a children’s book for my nephew Nathan about the life of a snowflake. This was the first time I ever attempted to make a book of this type.…

  • All this for 30 seconds

    For the last three days I have experienced what it is like to have a film crew come into my house for a one day commercial shoot. Over a year ago a friend of mine told me that my place would be perfect for filming, but up until this week, it had not happened. Since…

  • My Snowy Life

    A few weeks ago my family and friends gathered together to celebrate my birthday. One of the people in attendance was my friend, Keith Branscombe and with him he brought a book he made about his visit to Cuba. I was immediately intrigued and asked him how it all came about. To make a long…

  • Family Photo Wall

    I have been prodded by several friends to showcase my ‘Family Photo Wall’ but I don’t really like the idea of placing my personal life on display. However a good friend suggested that I write a brief instructional of how I accomplished this task because they knew that I documented the whole procedure. (Actually they…

  • BookCamp Toronto 2010

    My initial thoughts about the day were: “Okay so it is supposed to be the first nice day this week and I am going to BookCamp Toronto 2010 to sit inside Robarts Library all day and listen to and participate in various discussions.” I was conflicted, I really needed a sunny day and I wanted…

  • ebook nausea

    I am part of an ebook group that began at OCAD about one year ago. We call our ebook the ‘sbook’, short for ‘smart book’. Our goal is simple: to envision the successor to the printed codex – not so simple.

  • Spineless eBooks

    Ever look at someone’s bookshelf? It is one of the first things I do when I enter a room with lots of books at eye level. I start scanning the spines of the books and reading their titles. But until the other day I had never really noticed all the different logos that represent the…

  • Unique Circles

    This Thursday June 11th I attended a lecture entitled ‘Tools of an attention trader’ at KDMI (University of Toronto) given by Greg Van Alstyne who is an Associate Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design. For the first half he lectured about various aspects of what a designer does and his toolset and…

  • Bookcamp Toronto 2009

    On Saturday June 6th of this year Bookcamp Toronto was held at the University of Toronto. It was the first time it was held and I believe the event surpassed the organizer’s expectations. They put on a wonderful event, brought in great speakers and were even able to provide everyone with a great free lunch,…

  • The Future of Newspapers

    I recently sat down with Gary who was writing his graduating thesis on the topic of newspapers. Because of my background in traditional and online news media he wanted to pick my brain about what I thought were the real issues concerning the future of the medium. This topic is of great interest to me…

  • Reading the Future

    Last week I participated in a sLab Exploration session identified as ‘The Smartbook Project: Rethinking the Book’ at the Ontario College of Art and Design. In attendance were a diverse crowd of people, from students, librarians (information sciences) and user interface specialists to a physics professor from the University of Toronto. And within the hours…

  • Designing a Better Gate

    I have always liked metal work and thought that most of what we see while we walk through our communities could be better. I also know that some areas, like mine, or most areas in New York City, have too much metal work and there needs to be a new approach. Now that is all…

  • India Trip

    Here are a few of the images from the India trip taken back in 2008.