View from the Zoo

Good news! I have the pleasure of announcing that three of my illustrations have been given an award of excellence in the 2008 edition of the Lux illustration and photography competition organised by the AIIQ , CAPIC and Infopresse. Every year Lux chooses the best among projects submitted representing work produced by Quebec illustrators and photographers. Congratulations to my clients La Presse, laglisse.ca and Ritzenhoff! All the awards can be see in the Lux special issue of Grafika magazine on the stands now or on the Lux website soon.

According to Associated Press, Pierre, a 25 year old African penguin at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, was going bald on his back and was unwilling to get into the water. That is, until biologist Pam Schaller got the bright idea of designing a special wetsuit for him last March. Since wearing the suit, Pierre has gained confidence, put on weight and is back in the mating game. This is a great example of fashion and product design at the service of science! Photo by Eric Risberg, AP. Original story here

I am really proud of these new beer glasses that Ritzenhoff produced for their Spring 2008 offering.

The penguin series, comprised of the beer flute, schnapps glass and their respective coasters, came about as a desire to revisit the birds that I had previously drawn for a milk glass in 2004. For me penguins always wear those bow ties and, consequently, are always partying or at least trying to despite the cold. On both of these glasses one of the penguins is attempting to trade a fish for a glass of beer or schnapps. Or is the fish an hors d’oeuvre? On the flute the fish is transparent, taking on the color of the beer when the glass is full and losing it as the glass empties.