Chinese cousin

Maybe a distant third or so, but a cousin nonetheless!

Ni Hao!

WOW! Yes! Arngee went to China with me in May, and here he is at, or rather, on the Great Wall!

It does seem to look a little Humpty Dumpty like!

KCAD Career Day '08

Here are just some of the students Arngee saw this year.

Top Row: Naomi Magallan, Rex Stillwell and Andrew Hardy
Second Row: Angela Crouse, Brandon Satterlee and jennifer Maine
Third Row: Nolan Abney, Erica O'Neil and Shauna Pierson
Bottom: Tian Tower

Strange how well known Arngee has become at KCAD!

Mr. Las Vegas?

Well, kind of?

While in Grand Rapids, Arngee had an encounter of a double kind!

He met Wayne Newton! Seriously! He teaches at Kendall College of Art and Design.

KATG

That stands for Keith And The Girl.

Keith And The Girl (KATG) seems to be quite the popular and growing in popularity podcast out of New York. Alison is quite the fan. She knows all the characters and stories and follows the show daily, although a day behind. While recently in New York, they, KATG, were having a DVD release party for their fourth DVD called "All Over The Place." We were told going to a New York Podcast DVD release party was a very New York thing to do. So we did!

It was in a very New York place too, the East Village! Of course Arngee was in tow. It was a great fun evening. Met many people and some even recognized and embraced Arngee being there too.

I wish I could tell you all the people in these photos. The best I can do is top row left to right: Keith and the Girl (Chemda); Spooky; Jameira and The Girl (perhaps a spin off?). Bottom row: Unknown, The Girl, Keith, Brother Love and an unknown female; Brother Love's gal (perhaps Sister Love) and Patrice; lastly Matthew Bray (an SU alum who knows Saxon!)

And we even won a free DVD of their show, for being the person that traveled the furthest to be at the party, and the Aquaman dvd! Suck on that!

Who dat be with Arngee now?

I know it has been a while, and Arngee has been lying low. But this past weekend he was out on the town in the Big Apple.

Phylicia Rashad, not Claire Huxtable or Mrs. Cosby, is currently starring on Broadway in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof with Terrence Howard, Annika Noni Rose and James Earl Jones and directed by her sister Debbie Allen. She graciously took a stage exit visit to stop by and see Arngee.

Where's Arngee?

Two Rivers, WI at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum

Happy Halloween!

A natural in pumpkin!

Grand Rapids, IL

Grand Rapids invaded Illinois when Kendall College of Art and Design came down Chicago way for some studio visits and rambling through downtown!

Highlights included tours of Grip Design, Perkins + Will and Eva Maddox, the MCA, and Columbia College Chicago. But there was no greater highlight than seeing the little orange intrepid one. . .Arngee!

TDA = Total Dedication to Arngee

TDA started from scratch 18 years ago as a design firm working with small companies they believed in. Their common-sense approach has allowed them to become a successful creative branding shop, which specializes in nothing and tries to be good at everything—from design to advertising and everything in between.

Tom Doyle, the "T" and "D" in TDA, noticed a rather close connection in the color of Arngee and the orange, or rather, coral of Crocs.

Vermilion

Vermilion is about as Boulder as it comes: they're big into natural products, nonprofits, educational and environmental projects. Clients include Twenty Ninth Street retail center, IZZE beverages, and the University of Colorado. Their work spans the gamut from identity to packaging to web design. The sixteen person firm occupies a striking two-story wide-open studio.

After meeting Arngee, Bob Morehouse, creative director/owner, considered changing the name of the firm to Orange!

Wells Fargo Theatre

The Wells Fargo Theatre at the Denver Conference Center was homebase for all the general sessions of the AIGA conference. As you can see, Arngee was all up in it, attentively watching speakers as diverse as Janine Benyus, Kurt Anderson, Denver Art Museum Architect Daniel Libeskind, Katherine and Michael mcCoy, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Paul Bunditz, Illustrator Christopher Niemann, Momus, Maira Kalman, Khoi Vin, Alex Steffan, and Blaise Aguire y Arcas. He also witnessed Debbie Millman hosting 20/20 and the crowning of the Command X winner, although they were all winners!

Denver - AIGA National Design Conference

WOW! So many people know Arngee. Little introduction has to be given these days.

Here Arngee is with Marian Bantjes, who was with someone who immediately recognized Arngee and explained, "That is the mascot form Syracuse!" I did not have to say anything more.

Marian Bantjes, a self-described graphic artist, was a book typesetter for 10 years and a designer for nine, but since 2003 she has pursued her artistic and typographic obsessions. Complex, structured, sometimes funny and always obsessive, her illustrations have appeared in magazines such as Eye, STEP, Wallpaper, WIRED, Print and Communication Arts. Although based on a small island near Vancouver, Canada, she stays connected with an impressive array of collaborators and clients, including Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Bierut, Saks Fifth Avenue and Young & Rubicam. Since 2004 Bantjes has also been a contributor to the design blog Speak Up, where her posts range from quirky musings to profane rants. She hopes to be living proof of what happens when you work for love, not money.

Birds of a feather #2

Is this Paris or Cleveland? I.M Pei designed both the Louvre and the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. I think you can see the similarities!

Chicago had their cows, and other states had their icons as public sculpture, Cleveland has larger than life guitars. And of course there was an orange Fender that Arngee just could not resist! The bus in the background was Johnny Cash's tour bus on view at the museum.

Fallingwater

Arngee loves nothing more than being alongside a legend. Here he is visiting Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural masterpiece, Fallingwater. Designed and built for Edgar Kaufmann and his family, of Kaufmann's Department stores in PA.

My Bolgna has a first name. . .

It's M-A-T-E-O!

Mateo Bologna, founder of the innovative type design and restaurant design studio Mucca Design in New York. He greeted Arngee as only a true Italian could.

But as quickly as he adored Arngee he quickly turned against the orange when he was getting too much attention!

Olympic Design

Elise Woodward, Designer at Iconologic in Atlanta where "Risk more. Presume intelligence. Inspire emotion. Sell the truth" is their mantra.

I am not quite sure who was more impressed with each other, Elise with Arngee or myself with Elise. Elise is the designer responsible for the amazing, AMAZING Torino Olympic design.

Elise had a stack of papers on a file cabinet, that ended up being some of the thumbnails for the Torino games. They were works of art. I would frame them if I could! Just check them out!

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

Arngee can!

At Metaleap in Atlanta, Arngee met with prinicpal and Jose Reyes. They are also partners and the designers of Paste Magazine, known for their free music cd's in every issue!

Atlanta Printmakers Studio

Stephanie Smith, President, of the Atlanta Printmakers Studio was all smiles when Arngee arrived for his visit!

Just imagine multiples of Arngee!

Arngee Unbound!

We can all see from the writing on the wall what the people at Undboundary are passionate about. And I guess it is obvious where my passion lies!

Courtney Frohne, Relationship Development Manager at Unboundary, could hardly believe who she had sitting right there in her hand while visiting Unboundary in Atlanta.

Chip off the old block?!

Arngee had quite the time at the HOW Conference in Georgia. After all, I would say the orange and peach are cousins.

Chip Kidd, book cover designer extraordinaire, had one of the best presentations, but why wouldn't he. There were many other highlights too. I was surprised when he knew exactly who Arngee was. When asked he said he went to Penn State and saw much of Arngee in his college days.

I handed him our little orange fellow and Chip popped him in his mouth! Shockingly, Arngee looks like a strange orange ball gag! Um. . .okay!

Kindred in Grand Rapids

Need I say more?

Accidental Tourist, meet Accidental President

Arngee made the rounds in Grand rapids, as he does when in a new city. Here he is on the big sign of the Gerald R Ford Museum on Pearl Street.

Kendall College of Art and Design

L to R: Richard Zeid, Craig Welsh, Angie Dow with Arngee, Dave Grager, and Mark Rosenthal

Career Day at Kendall in Grand Rapids, MI was more than a career day for the students! It was a mini reunion of the ISDP Class of '04. It would not have been a real reunion if Arngee wasn't there too.

Arngee…now in chocolate!

As if being citrusy good wasn't enough, now Arngee went to the sweet side! Check out the camera! Wouldn't want to miss a photo op!

You can be an M&M too!

Be an M&M!

Kalalau

While in Hawaii, Arngee visited the island of Kauai. Neither he nor I have even been to the Grand Canyon, but that is what they compare the Waimea Canyon to. It is on the west side of the island, the dry side (the east side is much more lush and tropical).

The Kalalau Lookout is the highest lookout at 4000' at the north end of the canyon as it opens up to the ocean.

This wasn't a grand canyon, but it was pretty great!

A moment of silence

Cold ruins nearly $1B of California citrus

That is "B" as in BILLIONS.

Shoppers soon will be feeling the sting of higher prices from a wave of icy weather that has hit California farms. As much as three-quarters of the state's citrus crop withered in the field during the cold snap, but nearly every winter crop, from avocados to fresh-cut flowers, has suffered severely.

California is the nation's No. 1 producer of fresh citrus, growing about 86 percent of lemons and 21 percent of oranges sold in the U.S., according to the California Farm Bureau. Florida produces more citrus overall, mostly for use in orange juice, according to the USDA.

Growers say more than 70 percent of this season's oranges, lemons and tangerines were still on the trees as nighttime temperatures in California's Central Valley dipped into the low 20s and teens beginning Friday. The fruit is threatened whenever the mercury falls below 28 degrees.

"Limited amounts were harvested before the freeze, so it's not like the markets are going to dry up suddenly," said Claire Smith, a spokeswoman for Sunkist Growers Inc., a Los Angeles-based cooperative owned by some 6,000 growers in California and Arizona.

Still, the diminished supply is bound to drive up prices, Smith said. Sunkist may import oranges and other fruit from South Africa and other countries.

"We may adjust the prices as we discover the full extent of the damage next week, but for now, if you bought an orange at the supermarket for 50 cents, expect to pay a dollar to $1.49 for it," said Todd Steel, owner of Royal Vista Marketing, which sells California citrus to markets throughout the country.

5 Stages of Grief - Fifth Stage: Acceptance

Arngee: Breathe in. . .Ooooooo.
Me: How ya doing today?
Arngee: Breathe out. . .Ahhhhhhhhh.
Me: Arngee? Y'all right?
Arngee: Breathe in. . .Ooooooo.
Me: You look better. Like your old self!
Arngee: Breathe out. . .Ahhhhhhhhh.
Me: I do not see all those pill bottles around from yesterday.
Arngee: It was a great run with great people, travels and memories. I'm good. And tomorrow I am going to Hawaii!

5 Stages of Grief - Fourth Stage: Depression

Arngee: Prozac! Where's my Prozac?
Me: What's going on here?
Arngee: Depressed. Morose. Cannot get out of bed.
Me: You?! Arngee?! All full of vitamin C not able to get out of bed?
Arngee: It's the whole ISDP thing.
Me: It sounded like you were coming around.
Arngee: It was the Paxil talking. Or maybe the Wellbutrin or Lexapro. It is hard to say anymore which one is helping. Maybe Celexa.
Me: You have to snap out of it. Think about the future! All the great people you met. The places you've seen. All you know now! Just look back at your blog!
Arngee: Zoloft! That is what helps me out of this funk! Where are my little orange friends?

5 Stages of Grief - Third Stage: Bargaining

Arngee: Listen, maybe there's something we can do. I mean...
Me: I know you want to help. I understand that need you're feeling.
Arngee: What if they pink-slipped the lush? And then...
Me: Look man, it's really over.
Arngee: We could get Lisa back!
Me: You can't fix everything. This is not your burden!
Arngee: We could even get Robert back!
Me: That's enough.

5 Stages of Grief - Second Stage: Anger

Me: How you doin' buddy?
Arngee: $%#@!
Me: WHOA, what's that about?
Arngee: %#@! I'm so angry I could SQUIRT.
Me: The ISDP thing?
Arngee: F*@% Yeah! They closed it! They really closed it!
Me: Yeah, they did.
Arngee: Stupid F*@%&#s!
Me: What are you gonna do?
Arngee: Who the F*@% knows! Maybe hold up a sale sign for Price Chopper on Erie Blvd!
Me: What do you think happened?
Arngee: Vodka and complacency, that's what happened. Vodka and complacency. A%%@*&s!