So the day has arrived Lolo, this past ninth of May, on a Thursday we celebrated your 4th birthday.

Hey kid, you made it!

It was a bright, blue-skied morning, followed by a breezy afternoon as a herd of billowy clouds galloped into the evening light. 

It was a beautiful day. A lovely day. 

You awoke and woke the entire house up as you usually do these days. Our living room was as it was just like any other day, except for a giant gently tattered thrice-used banner of ‘Bonne Fête Loïc Hiêu’ and big wrapped box on the sofa. You’re old enough now to understand about birthdays, and all its glory. So you knew what do to do immediately. You gave quick kisses and hugs along with a even quicker ‘thank-you’ as you tore into your new mega building block work bench super-duper set. Some assembly was required.

We had a breakfast of waffles and maple syrup, one of your favourites. Anything with maple syrup quickly becomes one of your favs. Today, a few house rules are banished for 24 hours, therefore you were allowed to bring a toy to the table as you ate. You, of course, brought 5. As you ate and mostly played, we listend to a lovely voicemail of ‘Happy Birthday’ sung by your ma tante Heidi, mon oncle Sean and your cousins Allyson, Haden and Nessa. First in english, then in french. 

The rest of the morning and early afternoon was followed by a lot more play, a quiet lunch (toys at the table) and your nap. Yes, you still napped. You have outgrown many things, but this bit of wisdom you retained. Far past most of your peers, but without them you have a very restless night. In the evening, we had a family gathering of your Grandpapa Ladouceur, Ong noi, Ba noi, Ba co, Bac hai, Bac hai gai, your cousins Nico and Anjali even Co ba and your cousin Sigourney were here from Toronto. Surrounded by loving family, always. Your lovely maman made you not one but two cakes. She always make sure that your birthdays are done properly.

You screamed and jumped and ran and played until you collapsed into your bed that night. You had a good day.

Four years. So much can happen in 4 years and so much has happened. Change is the life you were born into and the past year is no different. You have a great ability to love and you allow us to love you. You give wet kisses and warm hugs with ease, that much hasn’t changed. You are bright, happy, considerate, caring, loving, sweet, gentle, curious and shy. You are also sometimes, the exact opposite of all those. As you should be. You have explored almost every emotion for a boy your age, at its highest high to its lowest low. On these roller coaster rides of emotions, we sit right along you. You’re a strong little boy who rarely cries after a bump or a fall, but tears come easily if you know that you are in trouble with your maman or I.

You have always been tall for your age. You are athletic and love sports and activities of all sorts. Art, drawing and painting has taken a back seat these days, but this summer may change that. You still have a great love for reading, and the library is one of your cherished places. Music and singing you gravitate to, singing made-up Viet-Franglais songs is some of our favourite things in the world.

NEWS FLASH—Two weeks ago, you swam in a pool by yourself for the first time without gripping tightly to either of our necks—NEWS FLASH

Being loud, talking back are normal for you. You talk back in a sentence that starts in Vietnamese, continues in English and ends in French. It must exhaust you, this language experiment we started with you because it sure tires me out. These are willfully headstrong and wonderfully maddening moments for us all. Arguments and timeouts are common at home, as are loving embraces and quiet reading times together. Dinner time—let’s not speak of dinner time for that—is a time where you exercise your will and non-violent resistance the most. 

Lego and superheroes are your sun and your moon, and when you discovered superhero-themed Lego, your imagination exploded as these two things collided.

Spider-man, Batman, Ironman, Superman, Joker, Bane, Loki and the rest of them. They are your first and last thoughts of the day. You are fascinated with whether they are good or bad, and how their friendships are related. You ask questions about them that don’t have simple answers. Sometimes, we’re simply not ready to answer them yet. Being one of the youngest in our family and neighbourhood, you are exposed to many things from your older cousins and friends. Your mom and I struggle with this, so of course we question everything. We came from a different time and grew up in a different way and four years into this and we still don’t know what we’re doing. That much we know. We try to find a balance between protecting and letting you explore. By your tears of frustration or fear, we sometime fail at finding this balance. Is this age appropriate? Are you too brand aware? Is there too much sugar in this raisin? You are very patient with your weird parents and for that we thank you. Sometimes we forgot that we should just let you be a little boy who likes little boy things.

Relationships are very important to you. Having stayed with your grandparents during the week as we worked, you have never been to daycare with other children, therefore you look for it at the gym, at the pool or the park. You are slowly learning about how to be with other people your age. Just a few hours ago, you had your first birthday party where you chose who you invited. A big step. It will be even more important this fall as you start kindergarten 4. You were unsure during a visit and a tour to the school but you show signs of wanting to go from time to time.

This year, your entire world changed. The same world you just started discovering. You became a big brother to Théo, who came this past April. While you knew that he was in mom’s belly, you still had our undivided attention until his arrival. Now, we have to often tend to Théo in the most inconvenient times for you. The fights and tantrums of a 3 year old have been increased by the new addition. You have been amazing with your brother. You have never punished him for taking away our attention. You adore him as he adores you. You always want to hold him and be with him. You hate it when he cries and do your best to soothe him. You anxiously wait for him to be old enough to play with you. It’s difficult for little boys to be absolutely quiet while their little sibling sleeps, but you try. Sometimes you fail miserably, but still you try. 

This change has been big for us all. While I work at home growing our little business and mom is on leave, we have been spending more time as a family and you are no longer at your grandparents 5 days a week. Just the 4 of us on most days, just perfect.

At four years old, you are a good-hearted little boy; you are a loving son; and you are a great older brother.

Happy birthday my boy, my Loïc Hiêu. 

— Love Ba

A few months ago, I started this logo hack. It was in response to Research in Motion and the steady media coverage of their slow yet certain death knell. Every (Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, Nokia heck even Motorola) rumour, announcement and keynote signaled another nail its proverbial coffin. Of course, it was a mostly hype. Tech news hoopla. Sensational, SEO-friendly headlines and mostly meatless. Layoffs, firings and animated pie charts of market share decline are sexy. RIM still had a nice slice of corp market share and they have a healthy phalanx of loyalists that would neck punch Apple/Android fanboys at a drop of a hat.

Disclosure: I have never owned a RIM device. I can count the hours of my usage for either testing purposes or just plain old curiosity. BUT. Huge but. I support RIM. I own about 8 Apple devices yet I support RIM. RIM is was a Canadian story of success and innovation. RIM helped bring great tech into the market, along with job creation and philanthropy. RIM help develop the current generation of touch devices that have become ubiquitous. Directly or indirectly.

Sure, they went from hero to zero. Much smarter people have much better theories and analysis of the why’s and how’s. RIM is still in shift, they have tried various marketing voices and tried to play everyone else’s game. To me, they’re still searching for their heart. The same one that got them to the top just a decade or so ago.

Today was a big day for them. New hardware, new OS, new attitude to the developer community. New public name. Today they became Blackberry, Research in Motion (RIM) is no more. Another big move that hopefully marks a new era. Only time (and tech writers and their crystal balls) will tell.

Back to this logo. I never posted due to self-censorship. I didn’t want to pile on the dying horse. And because I love RIM, even though I never showed my support with my wallet. Although, I do own (and paid) for Alicia Keys’ music. That’s a start right?

Previously posted on N-Product blog.

It’s been almost a year since I left my full-time job to dive head first into this little entreprise of ours. In my past life, meetings were an essential way of doing business. Meetings to pitch clients. Meetings to receive our design briefs. Meetings to brief the team. Meetings to check and measure the projects status. Then of course, all the other little meetings sandwiched in between. You get the drift.

Now meetings are still an important part of doing business—emails, phone calls and carrier pigeons just don’t cut it sometimes—they’re just not a daily occurence and they’re certainly not scheduled back to back to back to back. 

Then Thursday, October 11 happened. I usually try to use 1 or 2 days a week to have meetings, and with that there’s usually only 2 max. I find that they really cut into the day and I lose momentum to my design and or production process. 

This day can either be viewed as a master stroke or the dumbest thing a small business owner can try to pull off. I had 6 meetings at 6 different locations with 8 different people plus a surprise canine appearance.

Use your inside scream.

This morning, a friend and fellow designer tweeted an interesting link to a Behance project: Redesigns. It featured the collaboration between, Bruce Mau and Studio 360. Their mission was a noble one, fixing America’s perception of Canada. No biggie.

In our redesign, we began with an assertion that Americans simply don’t understand Canada. Our view is that Canada doesn’t need a redesign; rather, Americans need to be educated. 

To achieve this, they used simple graphic elements and a play on a very famous Canadian song. The two bands (that represent the 2* oceans that border Canada’s coasts) from our national flag is used to re-enforce great Canadian facts and people. Capping it all with a cute tagline. Know Canada. It totally rhymes with ‘O, Canada’!

Here’s an example of the whole maple-glazed doughnut, as imagined appearing in the middle of Times Square.

As a designer that has previous worked on numerous Canadian governmental branding campaigns and having travelled quite often to the states, I can understand the motivation. There are lots of misconceptions regarding Canada and Canadians. But I argue that it would equal the same preconceived notions we have about America and Americans. This campaign feels like it’s about us and not Americans. You know, the standard Canadian inferiority complex. The reality is that a majority of Americans never think about Canada at all, if ever; but that’s a whole other blog post most likely for a whole other blog. 

Back to the subject at hand. I like the simplicity, I do like the tagline. It’s fun. But I think it’s overly ambitious. We should start with a more achievable campaign like:

‘Canada, We’re a Real Country. Really.’

As I looked more and more on the concept designs, I couldn’t shake one thought. 

PONG.

So, I had to make one small little change.

Why not adopt Pong as one of our national past-times? Pong wasn’t invented in Canada or by a Canadian? Big deal. I’m kind of tired of knowing the fact that Canadian James Naismith invented basketball, yet we can’t even beat Puerto Rico in a qualifier to make this year’s Olympics. There’s a fact for ya.

What’s the commentary here? Simple, Canadians would be sad and disappointed at the fact of how rarely Americans (or the world for that matter) thinks about us. And that’s ok. we’ll just go about our business doing what we do. Creating things, inventing things, changing things. Big things, little things and everything in between. I rather see that billboard in NYC being used to communicate which car J-Lo is endorsing anyways.

O-Yeah, Happy 145th birthday Canada. You big sexy, misunderstood beast!

Know more about the actual campaign at knowcanada.org.

*If anything, our flag should add another top red band to represent the Arctic ocean. 

Many summers have come. Many summers have gone. This summer will be like no other. If you’re not nodding your head in silent agreement to that statement, you should be. Truth.

Forget 2006, the Summer of Yes. Pretend that 2001, the Summer of Happiness never happened. 2008, the Summer of Discovery? Forget about it. You’re gonna have to. All those textual tributes to our favorite season are gone forever.

Literally. 

The 1-bathroom Wordpress blog that housed them was hacked by some Russian teenage syndicate. Fucking. Russian. Hackers. Up into the ether they went, floating up to a spot right next to Cosmonaut Yuri and the Int’l Space Station. Is that irony?

But this isn’t about (somewhat) ironic open-source backdoor exploits or the blog ghosts of summers past. This is about you and the next few weeks of pure, unadulterated magic.

It’s about the Summer of Tank (Top). Put your hands up ‘cause this is your anthem.

Ok ok, we’ve all seen this guy or this guy before, even Cornwall’s sweetheart rocks one when he fights crime. Nodding yet? You’re thinking ‘what’s so special?’.

Did you see the pics/video in the links? Now look at them again like those strip mall store 3D posters that made japanese children vomit and pass out. See through the tank top, past the two panels of poly-cotton blends. Past the Ed Hardy graphics or multi-colour striped ribbed jersey. The tank top is a metaphor. You don’t wear it because it’s hot, you wear it when you want to bring the heat.

This isn’t about a fashion statement. We’re talking about an action statement.

Last visual evidence to support this claim. Look at this guy below.

This is Carrot Top. Man. Artiste. Ginger. I cropped out most of his face because let’s be honest, cosmetic surgery and the laws of physics have betrayed him. Now focus. Focus, on his chiseled shoulders, his ripped pecs, his carved arms, his curled lips, his double six-shooters. In sports terminology, they call this the “Ready Position”. 

You: Ready for what?

Me: Does it fucking matter?

He is good to go. Good for whatever, down for whatever. This summer, in your mind—deep behind your fears and insecurities—photoshop your less muscular head onto his tank-topped torso. Do this on the regular. All day, everyday. You beast. You destroyer. You Baron of Get’rdoneshire.

Because, during the Summer of Tank (Top), if the world beckons (and it will), you throw an armour of cloth on your back, you crank up the ghettoblaster inside your head, you kick the screen door open and you take care of business. Let your partially-covered nipples and exposed triceps be a hot throbbing beacon to universe; pulsing out a distress signal for everyone and everything you leave in your wake.

While you may have not started it, you certainly will finish it.

Rememeber, the tank (top) is here (pointing to your head), here (pointing to your heart), here (pointing to your junk) and here (your junk again). It helps if you repeat that last sentence in Mr. Miyagi’s voice.

Today, just like the past two years, is your birthday my little boy who is turning into a bigger little boy. For the next 12 months, you will need 3 fingers to show your age.

Today is a Wednesday and the sun and clouds were playing a light game of chase. A soft breeze flowed all around us at the Horticulture Museum, or “la ferme!” as it’s known to you. This is where you wanted to be on the day of your birth. Among the animals and tractors and barns and countless other kids.

Every year, in the days leading up to the 9th of May, your mom and I look back at all the milestones you’ve surpassed. Each one is monumental simply because they are. There have been millions of little boys before you, and surely there’ll be millions more after, but— never in the history of the world has there been a “you”.

With every “new” that you do, your mom and I feel 2 deep and separate emotions. First we feel our hearts swell with pride, quickly followed by a slight ache. Pride, for the honour to be able to watch you come into your own. Ache, for the exact same reason. You see, there will come a time when you will be off on your own or with friends, and only later will we hear about your adventures…if at all. So these moments are precious to us.

When this year started, we had decided to move you into our bed. As a family, we shared a bed on most occasions. Sometimes, your mom or I would use your room to rest. In the dark, a little boy’s room full of fluorescent stars and woodland wall stickers looks about the same as any other room. We then slowly moved you back to your own room, after a ‘3 bedtime story’ minimum, you finally dozed off clutching your favorite doudou, a blue plush dog named, Monsieur Bonhomme. Sometimes, your mom or I would fall asleep before you.

The night is not especially a restful time for you. Since your early months, you have always awoken during the night, sometimes 3 or 4 times. It’s just the way it is. You have started dreaming much more now, sometimes we’d find you upright in your bed, crying or talking or a combination of both. Slowly, you’d be coaxed back to sleep, forgetting all the ills from moments ago. Oh, you’re a sweater. Always have been, within 2 hours of your sleep, your bed would be soaked as your body’s core temperature would match that of a race car engine. Long sleeve or short, pants or otherwise, it didn’t matter. Your grandfather is a sweater, your father is a sweater and now you are a sweater too.

Another physical quirk you have, started somewhere in your second year. Your teeth began getting a dark stain on them. It started on a couple of the molars, then it slowly jumped around your mouth. Daily brushing and normal dental hygiene has been powerless against it. Your mom and I fret over this, but your dentist says that it’s normal and is harmless. Out of (your parents’) vanity, we recently brought you to the dentist to have them polished. While you were very good in the chair, you did not like that experience at all. If the stains has diminished your smile at all, I would say that it is just 1 or 2 lightbulbs short of a 1000 watts.

From Monday to Friday, you are at your grandparents. You are still a year away from starting school. You are anxious about it, you know that your cousins and older friends attend school, so naturally you also want to attend. A couple times a week you attend a play group where your habits have changed a bit. You now welcome a playmate, you even seek it out. Before, you would be content in playing alone or with your grandparents or your mom or I. Friends are becoming more important to you. You adore your cousin Nico, he is your hero. You also adore Samuel, who lives across the street from us. Every time we leave the house, you look for him. Every time we come home, you look for him. You love playing with Sammy and his sister Evelyne. You love-love it.

What else do you love right now? You love being outside, trekking in the nearby forest. Together, we’d return from a hike covered in mud and dirt. You love building, drawing and painting. You love sports of all variety and animals of every kingdom. You love to help your mom bake. Together, in your aprons, you’d whip up the most wonderful cookies, breads and cakes. You love music, and dancing to it. You love jumping on your bed completely naked after your bath. You love watching animations. Love is an understatement. You LOVE Pingu, Wonder Pets, Max and Ruby, the Log Driver’s Waltz, Marianne’s Theatre, the Sweater, Asthma Tech and a plethora of other NFB titles.

You love to laugh, so much so that sometimes your laughing fits leads to a bout of the hiccups. You love to make others laugh, with facial antics or with a twist of a phrase. Our home is often filled with your delirious giggles.

No surprise, you now love sweets. Since the beginning, we have held off giving you too much sugar. So when you get it, you cherish it for a profound moment before you inhale it in a single gulp. Cookies. Ice cream. Cakes. All of it. You still love eating fruit, sometimes you even prefer it to sugary confections. Vegetables on the other hand, you’re not so head over heels for. Sometimes during dinner, you state how you already had veggies for lunch so it isn’t required to do so again.

Which brings me to the other things you state. French and Vietnamese are still your staples, English is slowly gaining ground. You can express your self quite well in English, sometime in a broken accented form. I secretly want you to have your accent for ever. I think it’s amazing. You ask what things are in English, you want to learn it. And learn it, you have.

Your command of language is a great source of pride and pain for us. You debate, you debate with a stubborn precision. It would take a great orchestra of distraction and confusion to convince you to do things sometimes. With your tongue, you love to tease and be mischievous. You know exactly when you’re being bad, and you revel in it.

There are times when we speak all 3 languages with you. Mostly when we’re trying to get you to obey us. These moments leaves all of us tired and weary.

Our home life has changed a bit since last November; I now work at home, focusing on the business your mom and I started. I still drop you off and pick you up at your grandparents, but this has allowed us to spend more time together in the mornings. We have breakfast together. This makes my day. If I have a meeting or need to make a phone call, I always set it after our breakfasts. I feel very lucky to be able to do this.

One big life event happened recently. You have entered the world of underwear. Since your 6th month, your mom and I have been “potty training” you. At first it proved fruitful, we thought you’d be out of diapers by the end of your first year. You then proved that your will is great. A few “controlled” accidents later, your mom and I went back to being dependant on diapers. Then came three weeks ago. We decided it was due time. Within a few days, you used the toilet either with us or on your own. Just like most of your milestones, it seems that you were always ready…as long as we were serious about it. You seem to be always be waiting for your oddball folks to be disciplined enough to lead you across a certain threshold.

This is our 3rd year together and honestly, we still don’t know what we’re doing. There are times when you are guiding us with more resolve and insight. While lots have changed, this fact remains the same.

Some other things haven’t changed either, you still offer a hug and a kiss with ease. Even when you are being playful and hold off when asked; with authenticity and strength, you would suddenly squeeze us and plant a dozen wet kisses on our cheeks with your tiny sharp lips. As you continue to find your place in this world. As you seek out love and learn how to give love, I hope this wonderful trait of yours never, ever changes.

Our boy, our son, our Loïc Hiêu.

— Love Ba

Ebony & Ivory

1 part Buscemi + 1 part Gosling = 1 Caulkin.

About a year ago, I joined a new web service to collect visual inspiration for personal and professional use.

Simple premise. You created boards according to a certain subject matter, you ‘pinned’ web images with tags, sources, prices, witty comments, etc. You follow people, they may follow you back. Pinterest seemed like fun and I was pretty much hooked from the get-go.

I created various boards dedicated to design, typography, art, tattoos (I know—original!). Other users seem to like my visual content which is gauged by ‘repins’ or ‘followers’. Everything was hunkydory.

Then during a cool June evening, I received a seemingly innocuous email that changed things.

Hi Dominic Coballe,

This is Ben, the cofounder of Pinterest.com. We don’t allow some objectionable or risque content on Pinterest. The reason is that we’re still a young company and many of our users want to use Pinterest as a professional tool with clients. We don’t like the idea of censoring content, but until we have a better filtering system, we had to remove your pin, “Um, yeah.” from your board “Ink Well”.

So you have it, the original source of the image was: http://www.stevecarty.com/tattoo-pin-up-contact-08-exhibit/.

Could you please delete any additional pins containing this sort of content and refrain from pinning (or repinning) similar pins in the future?

Please feel free to get in touch should you have any questions. Thanks as always for supporting Pinterest.

Ben

First off, nothing screams out form email more than addressing people with their first and last name. But it was fitting because I was kind of being reprimanded. DON’T DO IT AGAIN…please. My wife uses my full name when I am in trouble, so did some teachers, but Ben, cofounder of Pinterest? But I get it. Their company, their rules.

Here is the image in question NSFWBOAESEN (Not safe for work because of an exposed slightly erect nipple):

I read it, then re-read it several times. It felt disingenuous and then it started to bother me. What are we talking about here? The nipple? If you spend a few minutes on Pinterest, you see nudity in various levels, you will also see blatant sexuality that would make truckers blush. Was this a totally random, yet random airport body search? I mean, this is a service that its entire reason for being is the repurposing of other people’s work (art, writings, photos, etc). Some prudes among us may even say it’s copyright infringement. Not me, but if we’re going to play this game of righteousness…

I wanted to learn more and I did have questions, so I replied to Ben, cofounder of Pinterest.

Hey Ben, cofounder of Pinterest,

I understand the points you made, but I have to scratch my head when I routinely see “objectionable” content on the Pinterest’s home page. Such this board: http://pinterest.com/brittalou/intimate/ just seconds ago. I personally don’t find the board offensive, they all have some photographic merit, the same as the pin I posted. The tattoo was the reason I added the image, it happened to be on the canvas of a naked woman. The image was taken by a renowned Toronto photographer. 

I like Pinterest for the fact that it seems that the members have an artful eye with their content, unlike other services like FFFFound, etc.  

I work as a Creative Director for an agency by day, and routinely show contact sheets to client using photo services. Getty.com and Veer.com has more risqué content by leaps and bounds. 

The removal of this pin does not bother me at all, but you can see that there’s some dissonance in the message I am receiving from Pinterest. 

Pinterest is a great source of inspiration for lovers of art, design and culture, I hope it remains so.

Regards,

Dom

I know the rule, it’s a free service and if you dont like it then leave it. My issue is the authenticity of the email or lack there of. Censorship floats in some murky waters, don’t dip your boat into it unless you are ready and willing to engage in an actual conversation about the matter.

I had thoughts of posting this way back when it occurred but decided against it. I tried to take Ben, cofounder of Pinterest’s point of view. I assumed that he didn’t enjoy writing that email.

But the recent media uproar about MIA’s Super Bowl bird reminded me of this incident. What is it about a finger or the female nipple that offends our society so much? Violence is served by the dump truck load on the daily, but a single sight of a tiny part of the human (female) anatomy whips people into action. 

If Pinterest had reached out to me asking me to be less clichéd with my boards or pins, I would have understood. But labeling this image ‘objectionable’ was just silly. I am still on Pinterest, but it just isn’t the same as before. The love isn’t there anymore. 

As of today, I have not heard back from Ben, cofounder of Pinterest.