View from the Zoo

Audrey, my daughter who is still in Europe, sent me these lovely stamps as a birthday gift. Firstly, the very modern looking stamps from Luxembourg that celebrate their status as one of the European Capitals of Culture of 2007 and which displays the caribou or elk which was part of their logo. The other cheerful set hails from Ireland, illustrated by Steve Simpson, is a series of happy patchwork animals intended for greetings such as thank yous, love notes and congratulatory messages. Steve describes the very interesting design process on his website.

I put togther my birthday tea party invitation (it says «come and celebrate my
5(0) years with me») with animals that I had drawn recently. Except these guys thought they were posing for a five year old’s celebration - until my main monkey came in with the zeros that were missing. The design challenge : to find a look that was adult and masculine using funny animals. The party theme was inspired my my preschool mad hatter tea parties I had with my friends, complete with little dishes and tiny tea cups. However today, instead of water and crackers, there will be real cucumber sandwiches and homemade scones topped with whipped cream and jam. Yummy!

More great news! My designs are now available as greeting cards, business cards and stickers on moo.com, a dynamic young printing company based in London, England. You choose the designs you want, mine (preferably), someone else’s (I am in very good company) or even your own (your travel photos, for example), drop and crop them on the products you want and place your order.  I love the quality of their printing, their range of products and their choice of artists (besides me!). Even the packaging of the cards are neat.

And I am not talking about crawling ants or climbing cats! These animals actually help in the kitchen. Presenting Boston Warehouse’s Animalhouse collection of colorful and affordable kitchen tools, designed by Christopher Raia Studio near Boston. Available at Amazon, Target and, here at home, at Zone Maison (Quebec).

Following are a couple of questions answered by Chris Raia.

Q : How did the idea come about? 
A : We developed the Animalhouse range because we saw an opportunity to create well-designed, ergonomically advanced cooking tools that also made people laugh. Today, people cook to entertain, and invariably guests gravitate to the kitchen at dinner parties. Why not have fun with the gadgets they’re using?

Q : Can you give us an idea of the design process?
A : The Animalhouse design process was very complicated because we were essentially serving two masters. On the one hand, we intended from the start that these tools be ergonomically excellent; on the other, we knew that each item had to capture the spirit of the animal being portrayed. Often, these two goals would conflict so that we had to sometimes make hard choices about which to favor.

The Toucan Can Opener reflects the best of both worlds. While it is a cool looking Toucan head, it also has several ergonomic advantages for the user. In addition to precisely dimensioned grip sizes, we included an S-shaped crank with softgrip areas which is much more comfortable to use than the typical can opener crank. It was the first can opener on the market whose crank had these features.

Design director/developer: Christopher Raia Studio
Manufacturer: Boston Warehouse
Initial seed inspiration: The Beren Group
Photo of toucan opener by Christopher Raia Studio.