Life in cosmopolitan presents complications that can easily be resolved or not. Aging infrastructure and limited finances leave citizens distraught. Urban sprawl has motivated architects and designers to find ways to alleviate the stresses that affect city-dwellers. The best example is condominium development.

The vertical growth of a city centre can be used as a measure of economic growth and development. However, when a boom in development ensues, it has been observed that a recession takes place upon these projects’ completion. Dubai’s Burj Khalifa comes to mind from recent history.

On a much smaller scale, stacked settlements like condominiums have inspired industrial designers like Teddy Luong. His FishHotel for Umbra is an ingenius piece of design that applies the concept of space conservation. Traditional fish tanks and bowls have been points of interest in a space. (Feng shui states that a fish tank is a means to attract wealth and abundance.)

With its design, stacked FishHotels are a refreshing way to play with a space. I can see a wall of different coloured Siamese fighting fish. I think they’re going to be big this year.

Dress by Thakoon, from gorunway.cm

Ferrari

ikea.com

Design by Nuno Grande and Pedro Gadanho, Portugal

Confusing Pantone for a baked good is a mistake that can easily be forgiven, if not by your waistline. Indulging in colour is a paralyzing fear that can easily be overcome with effort and patience. After all, not everyone is going to look good in 2012′s Pantone of the year: 17-1463 Tangerine Tango.

Orange coaxes feelings of happy mornings and as well as a ride through Spain in late summer when the orange trees are in bloom from Valencia to Madrid. It’s a particular colour — only the bold dare to wear an orange angora sweater or invest in an orange Lamborghini. It is a difficult hue but leave it to the experienced to teach us mere mortals a lesson. Is it the new red?

With the season of gift-giving in our midst, a list is in order and better yet, a list of gifts that I would like to receive. They are the only gifts worth giving unless you prove me otherwise.

This SIWA Backpack by Naoto Fukasawa is made in Japan. The material is wash-suki paper which is quite deceiving because it is resilient, waterproof and become softer with the wear and tear of commuting. Ideal for the urban nomad in everyone. $250 at Mjölk.

The iPad has been a game-changer since it was introduced to the market in 2010. Carrying one everywhere has been a constant for the person who is always on the go. Once you’re home, wouldn’t you like to have your sidekick come home to a nice cradle? I have been crushing on this iVictrola for iPad designed by Matt Richmond. It’s like the composite creature in Mary Shelley’s novel without the monster stigma. There is an old repurposed Magnavox horn from the 1920s to be used as the speaker with a handcarved walnut base. If you’re lucky enough to run into one, I know who has two thumbs and would like to find one under his tree. This guy. $985 from Design Within Reach.

Since it’s the holidays, we think about our friends and loved ones and how we can spend more quality time with them. It is all about being efficient with time and being always prepared for last-minute parties or dinners (maybe some that might have slipped one’s mind until about an hour before the appetizers). The Mini Cooper Coupé 2012 is a present that will keep on giving. Impromptu visits to the parents, aunts and uncles are on my list of resolutions. Please help make this possible. Starting at $25,950 at MINI.ca.

If there is one thing I love, it would have to be photography. The masters Henri-Cartier Bresson and Ansel Adams have a pretty fierce grasp of two heart strings right here (points to left side of chest). It is amazing what one can do with a piece of equipment, suspending one moment in time, to be relived over and over. It is magic, really.

Talking photography means talking about hardware. All the camera manufacturers in the world seem to quicken the pace at which their goods are produced and distributed, satisfying gearheads with every shipment to the nearest retailer. I’m not one to think of the good ol’ days because let’s face it, nothing gets accomplished and that is waste. However, there is also the adage ‘Haste makes waste.’ Could we apply it to today’s pieces of technology?

What is fascinating right now is the nostalgia that younger people have for a technology whose tail-end they caught: film or analog photography. Lomography has picked up with the sales of plastic cameras that take pretty funky images. Stores catering to the 12-25 set like Urban Outfitters carry cameras of the same nature. There IS an interest in film. Still.

So far, the camera that I have my eye out for is a compromise between analog and digital: the Fuji X100. I am certain that I am not alone. The camera is a beauty. Let’s not get too much into the specs but the camera physically is loosely based on rangefinder cameras from decades ago, only digital. The buttons are all manual (but with their automatic counterparts, for the lazy) unlike other digital cameras that have been designed and released thus far in the last couple of years. It may be the best compromise, so far with the convenience of digital and the regal appearance of a Leica. (A fundraising event is slowly getting organized for the 2011 holiday season. Let me rephrase that: for my 2011 holiday season. Cheques accepted but PayPal is best.)

The selling point of this camera is the old-school appearance but with the practicality its digital compatibility with our digital lives. At $1200, is keeping up appearances worth it? To some, yes. To others, no. The equipment that was once but a tool to capture images is now an image unto itself. It is like being caught between two mirrors facing each other, and the neverending hall of repeating reflections. Which is the original? No one really knows. The camera is only coveted until the updated version is available. Is that a waste? You decide.

Around this time of the year, a design-hungry hog would be salivating about the thought of going to Salone internazionale del mobile where designers, manufacturers and consumers congregate to see what is in store in the very near future. The thought of being in the same room as the jewels of some of our time’s brilliant minds could induce short bursts of euphoria akin to Beatle-mania, if only those hyperventilating were full-grown adults, with refined tastes that are only be appeased by limited edition Eames chairs made from recycled bamboo chopsticks. I must confess I took the liberty in inventing this particular collector’s piece.

Not even an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano could keep the design-obsessed away. Last year, patrons and enthusiasts risked being grounded in Europe just to behold innovative products in design. What heaven does one live in where being stuck in Europe is the worst thing that could happen? Sign me up. Please.

The issue of personal space becomes a important point of discussion as population densities increase especially in urban centres. Personally, the sight of people in the subway (where I spend a hefty chunk of my waking life) with earbuds and headphones makes me think of the days of yore when music had to be on a medium independent of the personal entertainment devices the we use today; in short, the image of the Sony Walkman came waltzing into my brain.

When music was still distributed analog, at the risk of sounding like a luddite, human relations were better, if one looks at the Sony Walkman’s design. Contrary to the way music is consumed now in bubbles of private space in a public setting, thanks to earphones, music was shared between two friends, thanks to two phone jacks. If one was resourceful, four people can be on the same Walkman device at the same time. Music was shared. Wouldn’t you call that a party?

The idea of experiencing music on the go was such an innovative idea that no one could have predicted how much the technology would affect the industry in ways that we know of today. Before MP3s, kids, there were big discs made of vinyl that had music, physically recorded on both sides. Think of CDs but bigger and more sensitive to heat and pressure, hence more prone to warping. It was impossible to carry them in your backback and listen to the music at the same time, hence the invention of headphones with extra long cables for walking around the house.

8-Track paved the way for a smaller, portable device that allowed people to go outdoors with recorded albums without commercials like the radio. One can argue that the move towards portability was the destiny of music and the Sony Walkman was the medium.

The cassette tape made recording and transporting full-length albums possible; the easy-to-use recording mode of cassette players made compiling songs easier to do than ever! The age of the mixed tape is born.

Another testament to how human relations were better, the time and care it took to curate a mixed tape was in itself a statement. Personal compilations were made according to mood, subjective tastes, themes, etc. The mixed tape became a declaration of whatever the maker wanted to declare. A ‘mixed tape’ was usually a love note passed between lovers. ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ had a place in any 60 or 90 minute blank cassette tape sold between 1981 and 1992.

The move towards a more compact, easily distributed medium beginning with the cassette can be blamed for the music industry’s current perilous state; digital piracy is the big elephant in the room. Although it’s not a direct correlation, compact media like the cassette tape made blackmarket commerce of music grow at a rapid pace. It was more difficult to counterfeit vinyl recordings, for sure.

A mixed CD is just not the same as a mixed tape. The quickness of a drag-and-drop has taken away the involvement and the time needed to add sentimental value to the ‘Summers Jams 2009′ compilation that you made on your iTunes library. It’s just not the same.

The next time you are on the subway, look around you and notice the earbuds and headphones-shared space with personal headspace. The only sharing I have noticed is of the unwanted kind (see: overhearing ‘Umbrella’ at 8:30am is not as fun as the acoustic version played at the Open Mic night before). Sharing music on the Walkman, with the two headphone jacks, is no longer a practice. It would be just too awkward. Bye-bye mixed tapes. Hello Ping friends.

A lot has happened since my last entry but the motivation for the blog remains the same. Little responsibilities have gotten in the way but here is Urban Peanut: A Gallery’s redux. It’s still far from becoming a brick and mortar gallery but here it is with a vengeance.

The theme of rebirth has fascinated humanity for a long time and various faiths and schools of thoughts have found new beginnings, for better or for worse, to be inspiring; this might offer a small clue about why popular brands rebrand.

The Gap, Starbucks, and American Apparel have in the last couple of months decided that a new take on their respective logos for different reasons.

For the Gap, the general consensus about their new logo was so utterly horrible that within days. I am quite certain that Monster.com received new business in the aftermath.

Starbucks’ reason to rid its logo of its written word is valid; to reach new, non-English speaking markets is a goal that any company would like to have on its five year plan, to the dismay of some loyalists who might feel alienated.

Just walking on Queen Street over the weekend, I noticed that American Apparel on Toronto’s esteemed street, also went through a little facelift. (I tried looking for a press release regarding the new look and was unsuccessful.) I was thinking of using ‘touchup’ but changing the typeface is  closer to butchery and is not turning anyone on as much as their well-placed ads on the back of weekly magazines, right after the adult ads. Inspiration: ugly script is the new Helvetica.

The more image-saturated our daily lives become, the more we rely on visual cues to speed up the way we process information. Logos symbolize, in one image, what we want and expect. It is still a mystery to me why the Gap thought it would be a good idea to change their logo. A new beginning evokes hope and rebirth/rebranding is on the same plane. Ultimately, though, rebirth can sometimes just mean a second hack at life as a dung beetle.

It’s elementary semiotics: signs are universally acknowledged whereas symbols are more personal, societal. Feel free to use any adjective denoting subjectivity.

Graphic design is the practice of perpetually crafting symbols to represent a business, company, association or product. The eventuality that the symbol becomes a universal sign is circumstance, luck and above all, good design. It is the combination of all three that comprises the recipe for graphic design immortality and one example comes to mind: Milton Glaser.

Milton Glaser is the graphic designer behind the I Heart NY graphic that can be found at all the tourist shops in New York City. The simplicity of the graphic has made it a sign that has inspired many copycats to, well, copy and reinterpret Glaser’s work with the American Typewriter typeface, my personal favourite.

The red heart on Glaser’s graphic has been adapted to a maple leaf, in the case for Toronto, the Apple sign for the Apple Store in (irony!) New York City, a clover for Ireland and the list goes on. I think collecting all of the ‘tributes’ to Milton Glaser’s clean and simple work would make for a great book, if there is not one already in print. Taschen, I called this one.

It still boggles my mind how low of a priority graphic design is for organizations, yet we admire branding that has become an everyday presence among us. (Apple, anyone? or Nike’s swoosh?) Graphic designers are the unsung heroes of commerce and individuals working in business should realize that there is more to graphic design than font size and typefaces; creativity and vision are also very important.