“An investigation of the meanings and iconography of the Stampede: an invented tradition that takes over the city of Calgary for 10 days every July”. Edited by Max Foran
An old Calgary Beer screen print I found inside the cover of a local book.
(Image above from a recent Canadian Design Resource contribution)
When interviewed by FASHION magazine they asked me: “you are a designer, and why do you choose to live in Calgary”?
Great question.
As described in my recent lecture at the University of Lethbridge: ”Alberta is my home and I am here to stay”. Born here in Calgary, I am a prairie boy by heart and my family roots run deeply here. As a designer and past social sciences student I continually study local art and design culture. I know that no one can truly understand their culture without living there. That said, I do try to travel often and will be in Toronto (my second favorite city) this coming February.
The second reason I live in Calgary is that I live one hour from the most beautiful part of the world: Alberta’s Rocky Mountains. Living here gives me the ability to escape urbanity and immerse myself in Nature anytime I want. I hike, camp, and fly-fish there. This is very important to me as it inspires my work, relaxes me, and fuels my mind.
Thirdly Calgary is one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, and our economy is booming. There are more construction projects happening here, than any other city in Canada. In particular, I am very excited about Encana’s recent decision to hire Norman Foster + Associates to design “the bow” (soon to be the western Canada’s tallest skyscraper to grace Calgary’s skyline). Decisions like this make me realize there is alot of vision in this city. I also love Inglewood. This is one of the richest, and most vibrant parts of our city. There is alot of style here and its the most ”Calgary” part of the city.
With all that said, I think its hugely important for an artist/ designer to live in the city inspires them most. Its important that a city fits one’s lifestyle best, and for me Calgary certainly is it.
Stampede starts today. I happened to be packing my camera as Canada’s snowbirds flew by me this morning…
Interesting that I had to travel all the way to Toronto, Ontario to find a shirt with this fantastic 1970s logo from my home city. My question is: why do I need to go to Saskatchewan to buy “calgary” beer?
More at:
There are a number of reasons I moved back home to Calgary. Fly fishing the highwood river is certainly one of them.
Fishing is not a matter of life or death, its much more than that- Anonymous
After selling our home in Edmonton, we managed to buy a house in Calgary’s booming real estate market in January of 2006. Its a 1958 house that had a great modernist feel to it, right beside the LRT station and in a mature neighbourhood. The house was a rental that obviously needed some serious love and attention. As a designer, I have a hard time dealing with images like the one above, (which, believe or not, is a photo of our kitchen when we bought it). I began thinking about possibilities of the space by sketching on paper and physically drawing on the walls. (Note the in grey paint on the wall we wanted to remove).
My wife Jenn and I went to work repainting and removing the parts of the house we disliked most. We put together some sketches and with my brother Grant, and we built what is shown in the images below. Our project took over two-straight months month of very late nights and long weekends, but we’re very happy with the result. We are indebted to our great family who all invested their time with our house, and look forward to future projects as we evolve and continue shaping this space to facilitate our new lives here in Calgary.
The newly installed martini bar complete (in place of existing wall) with glasses, liquor, and PURE design’s Karim Rashid “Arp” stools. Otto chair by Greg Ball on the right. Shown in the back, our custom designed shelf filled with our favorite Art, books, ceramic by Artist: Chuck Wissinger, and a few items from Geoff Lilge’s ceramic object collection.
Evening view of the hall. My favorite print called “Transgression/ Progression” by Eric Dyck.
Bar detail with arp stool.
Living room with “Longview 4” painting by: by designer: John Greg Ball
A ceiling fixture that reminded me of the Calgary tower that we saved and repainted. (removed from a historic home in the Inglewood district of Calgary).
Our custom designed- Zurich font house numbers, and PURE design’s No.10 Mailbox.
