Minimalist posters are nothing new (especially minimalist movie posters) but I love David Popov's interpretation of different cities in his 'Round the World Travel Project. You can see the entire collection here.

Photos courtesy of Behance.

Working in the advertising industry, your mind has to be fit like those dancers in cirque du soleil. In a single day you could be thinking up new names for a dentist office, working on festival artwork, or writing the script for a commercial. You have to hone your creativity so that you are agile, adaptable and efficient, and just like an acrobat, the end result has to be seamless and graceful. While our minds are stretching, bending and doing back-flips, our bodies are doing exactly the opposite. For 8 hours a day while our fingers click away translating ideas into reality, the other 98.5% of our bodies are in a state of comatose. If you drink a few cups of coffee you will probably walk a total of  20 meters to the washroom and count that as your exercise for the day.  As a species who evolved to be on the move we have to find other ways to find balance. True health can only be achieved when the mind, spirit, and body are operating at some kind of equilibrium.

Here at Honest, we are extremely lucky to have a built in solution to the problem of physical lethargy. This month we had our very first lunch-time yoga session, with our art director, Kerri. Everyone swapped out their office chair for a yoga mat, and their clicky shoes for bare feet as Kerri lead us through a series of poses to open the hips and clear the mind. Cal, having forgot his Lululemon tights raided the storage closet and found some florescent coveralls from an old Richlu photoshoot. For anyone working as a physical laborer out there, you will be happy to know that these cover-alls are also great for doing downward dog and tree pose. After lunch we returned to our desks feeling refreshed and clear-minded, bringing  renewed focus to our work in the afternoon. How many times have you thought how nice it would be to have an afternoon nap? Savasana guys, is pretty much just that!

The success of this little yoga practice, had everything to do with all the work Kerri has done to become the instructor she is. Spending a year practicing as an energy exchanger for Moksha Yoga in 2012, she traveled to Brazil to complete her Yoga instructor training. Living in an Eco-village and rising before the sun, she learned a variety of techniques and found her method and voice as an instructor. She did all the work and we are reaping the benefits, as we are privy to our own in-house yoga instructor.

I hope this starts a yoga tradition and we get into some kind of habit. Better than any ergonomic chair, is a little mid-day stretching and hitting the refresh button on
your mental clarity.

A few examples from a very clever ad campaign for Expedia using 3-letter airport baggage codes. I give this one slow clap.

Winnipeg hosts a coulourful array of cultural showcases every year at Folklorama. It's a fantastic chance for the city to experience and learn about other lives and cultures.

Kick-off is this weekend (August 4) at the Forks. Here's an inspiring video by Variable about Holi, the Hindu festival of colours, in India.

 

Holi from Variable on Vimeo.

My wife and I were down in Minneapolis the other weekend on a good ol' fashion "working holiday". That is, under the guise of a holiday, we spent a good portion of four days at IKEA and other stores purchasing furniture for our new office. It was less a holiday as it was an exercise in patience, what with the multiple trips to the checkout, driving through the city's first snow storm of the year and missing pretty much every exit on the freeway. All that, however, I can handle. What I can't handle is not being able to get a single good cup of coffee when you need it the most. Case in point: I like McDonald's coffee. And for those who are sitting there saying to themselves "McDonald's coffee sucks", check again mr(s) negative, it's actually pretty much on par with Tim Hortons. And for those who are saying to themselves "Well Tim Hortons sucks too", while I neither agree or disagree with you, billions of coffees sold per minute says you're wrong. Anyhoo, my point was, every time we stopped for coffee, we were punched in the face with a giant handful of disappointment. Whether it was McDonald's (undrinkable), our Hotel room (upsetting), our Hotel's restaurant (disturbingly unsettling), or IKEA (curiously flavourful, just not the flavour of coffee) we could not for the life of us find a good cup of coffee. And yes, we could have tracked down a Starbucks but surprisingly, there wasn't one near our hotel. So, on to the point of this post. On our last day, just before we were about to leave the city, we decided to stop off at this breakfast joint called the Bad Waitress. For me it was the culinary highlight of the trip. I was half expecting bad service given the name (and would willingly accept if they would just give me a good cup of coffee). To my delight, the service and the coffee were both excellent. Not as excellent, however, as the restaurant itself. Every table was "numbered" with superhero or monster cards, there were campy movie posters on the wall, and the theme was both simple and consistently presented throughout the restaurant, right through to the washrooms. Kudos to you, Bad Waitress. You saved my taste buds.

I apologize in advance for the lengthy post but I just got back from my friend's wedding in Maui and I have to say, it just might be heaven on earth. I have a few photos that I'll share and even though I'm quite happy with them, they don't even begin to do Hawaii justice. I spent the first week of my trip in Lahaina, Maui and ended off my trip with 4 days in Waikiki, Oahu. While Maui was more my style, (and pace for that matter) Waikiki was definitely an experience and I would encourage anyone heading to the Hawaiian Islands to check it out, even if only for a couple of days. I would compare it to Las Vegas, in a sense, where Kalakaua Avenue, which stretches the length of Waikiki along the beach, is comparable to the Strip. Just substitute surf boards for slot machines and, well you get the idea. Maui, on the other hand, is more quaint and is made up of little towns and villages that are scattered about the island. Lahaina is on the west side of the island, also known as the dry side of the island, which made for some super-sweet hot weather. Our condo was about a block away from Front Street which stretches the length of Lahaina and is lined with shops and restaurants that all overlook the ocean. The streets are incredibly narrow, and while much of the original architecture has been updated, this town definitely maintains the vintage charm of it's early origins. I haven't included any photos of the wedding, but if you're interested in checking them out you can head over to the Kamp Photography Blog. They've already posted some Hawaii photos and should be posting the wedding pics soon so keep checking back. Photos below (from top to bottom): A view of the summit of Haleakala from our helicopter tour :: Black Sand Beach at Waianapanapa State Park, Maui :: Cave that opens up into the ocean at the same park :: One of the many water falls along the Hana Hwy and a Rainbow Eucalyptus tree :: The next four images are from the Old Lahaina Luau :: Pipeline Beach, North Shore, Oahu :: Halona Beach Cove aka: Eternity Beach, Oahu :: And what would a trip to Hawaii be without a few pictures of Hibiscus flowers?