Kickstart Tifamade
Don’t get me wrong, French boulangeries are amazing, but at some time you start to max out with how many baguette sandwiches with oozing mayonnaise you have for lunch. The crazy thing too is that it’s hard to get a custom sandwich in this country unless you go to Subway (yes, the American sandwich chain has made its way to France). Some of the best sandwiches I’ve had in this city are by Tifamade. Remember the Parisian Kinfolk picnic? Tiffany was behind the food part! And how much fun is it to have your lunch delivered to you on a pink bicycle?
Tiffany just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to help take her sandwiches to the next level. For anyone who runs their own business, you know how much behind the scenes work goes into making it happen. Definitely check out the video to get a sense of what it takes. You can donate here. Every little bit helps, and sharing the link is a great way to show your support.
The papercut stop motion animation is adorable too! Tiffany did all the art, and put it together with the help of talented friends Taryn Kapronica who photographed the animation, Bryant Walker helped with the musical stylings, and Will Heydt-Minor with the editing.
P.S. Don’t miss Tiffany’s guide to the best picnic spots in Paris on Fathom Away!
P.S.S. Stay tuned for a new BOARDING PASS with Tiffany on Monday!!
Boarding Pass – Lindsey Buck
Summer Camp Around the World
I’m not sure if anyone else watched “Salut Your Shorts” growing up, but I was always jealous of the kids on that show (even more so now thinking they didn’t have the stress of responding to emails). But summer camp isn’t just for kids anymore. Meet great people + have new experiences. I love seeing so many talented creatives giving back in different ways, and earning a living through these experiences as well. Here’s a list of awesome opportunities around the world:
- Learn photography in Florence, Italy with Italian Fix+ Leela Cyd. There are still spots available! May 19-25
- Study design + typography with SVA in Italy. May 26-June 9
- The Unique Camp is about “cultivating ambition and mapping possibilities” with a mission to help entrepreneurs succeed. June 6-9
- Camp Grounded is “summer camp for adults” in Anderson Valley, California. The idea here is to unplug. June 14-17
- Learn video through The Hill Workshops: Storytelling in Vermont Through Moving Pictures. Teachers include Tiger in a Jar, Michael Martinez and Ryan Marshall. Aug 18-22
- Angela Richie’s Ace Camps pull together some of the best names in creative talent, in fabulous destinations around the world from Morocco to India. ongoing
- Boisbuchet are creative workshops in the southwest of France in cooperation with Centre Georges Pompidou and Vitra Design Museum. This is the perfect excuse to try something you probably wouldn’t otherwise. ongoing
- Squam Art Workshops offers creative retreats in New Hampshire and beyond, as well as online workshops (I met Kerry in Paris this winter who is teaching one). ongoing
There are also conferences, that can be fun + a great way to meet people. Here are a few ideas:
- 99U in NYC (I’ll be there!) – May 2-3
- The Hive Bloggers Conference Berlin (I’ll be there!) – May 25-26
- Open Design Conference, Barcelona – July 6-7
And if you can’t travel this summer, I’ll also be teaching my 3-week online maps class starting May 28th!
Would love to know what other great camps, events and conferences you know of! Please share in the comments below!
Google Treasure Maps
I totally realize that Google Treasure Maps are not real, but I found this fun April Fool’s joke has me dreaming that it was real. The part with the flames + sky diving definitely made me chuckle too. Kudos for Google for knowing how to have some fun! Now, let’s all go treasure hunting…
p.s. Yes, it’s true! I’m re-teaching my 3-week online Map Making class on Skillshare again. Class starts May 28th, is open to all levels and no special software is required.
Image via Mashable
FRENCH LESSONS: Poisson d’Avril
Today’s French Lesson is technically a day late, as yesterday was officially le poisson d’avril [the fish of April], or April Fool’s Day. According to this article, the holiday of pranks may have even started in France. I saw some really clever internet jokes yesterday, but I have to say that commenters were a bit of the party-pooper variety. It’s far more fun falling for it, even if it’s short lived. Stay tuned tomorrow – I’ll share my favorite April Fish!
French Lessons is an ongoing series where I teach you French words and cultural lessons while beefing up my Illustrator skills.
BOARDING PASS – Nisa Maier
I first discovered the work of Nisa Maier aka Cookiesound through Let’s Travel Somewhere, her side project that calls on the help of photographers to help showcase the world because “a single traveler can’t live to see it all.” The photo journeys help capture the spirit of place, each telling a different story and inspiring wanderlust. The interface of the website makes you want to keep clicking (try “Destination” from the top menu). Meanwhile, Cookiesound is a collaboration between Nisa and her mother, Ulli, as they document their travels and share their tales. After all, Nisa was born in Austria, but she grew up in Africa, lived in Australia and Indonesia, and studied in California. Clearly travel is in her blood, and her photos have me itching for my next trip. Thanks, Nisa! –Anne
Nisa in Timor, Indonisia
home town:
Vienna, Austria
Burg Kreuzenstein, Austria
where you live now:
Vienna, Austria
Christkinderlmarkt Rathaus, Vienna, Austria Wien
Winter landscape: Alps, Austria
last trip taken:
China & Hong Kong in September 2012
Dragon’s backbone rice terraces, Dazhai Guangxi, China
next trip on deck:
Istanbul & Paris in April. Malaysia, Cambodia & Vietnam in May/June.
Fish at a market in Laos
one place you would go back to again and again:
A secret spot in Indonesia :)
Beach Paradise Island Sumatra, Indonesia
place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Indonesia. For me, Indo is the most wonderful country. The people, the culture, the landscape, the surf breaks, the underwater world, the food … I’m daydreaming right now!
Crowded train station, New Delhi, India
French Bureaucracy, Explained: Le Récepissé
There are certain situations in France that you have to live through to believe. While I can’t trump my friend’s recent trip to the Prefecture where she went in because after 2+ months she hadn’t heard any updates – only to find out that the person dealing with her account had died, and the boss had been on vacation for the past month and still didn’t know – my adventure this morning is mainly mind blowing for its lack of drama. There’s really nothing like it in America. And the really painful part is that this step can be completely avoided. What can I say? I’m striving to have every possible experience in Paris!
The Backstory
To legally live in France as a foreigner you have a visa in your passport and every year you get a new carte de séjour that validates it. There are different kinds depending if your a student, worker, etc, and jumping between them is another challenge. Alas, after changing my status a year ago, for me it was pretty simple – I just needed to make an appointment to renew my card. Alas, my actually planning ahead to make my appointment 4 months in advance was not adequate. I knew you couldn’t book too far in advance, and actually intentionally held off making my appointment, only to find our that the soonest appointments were a months after my card expired. Hence I needed to go to get a récepissé to temporarily hold me over until my official scheduled visit.
This Morning
I live in the 11th arrondissement, but for getting my récepissé I needed to head to the 14th arrondissement, or one of the least direct places from where I live. The irony of course is that it’s good that I spent an hour on hold trying to find out what to do + where to go when I couldn’t get a proper appointment, because the information on the website would have sent me to the wrong place. Yes, this is typical behavior.
Knowing they opened at 9am, I arrived at 8:15am. There was already a crowd – not a line yet – but figured it could have been worse. Thankfully an older gentlemen caught my attention to have me sign up on the very unofficial notebook piece of paper. I was #62.
I had my copy of Bossypants out, and ended up striking up a conversation with a Canadian because of it. He had arrived at 6am, put his name on a list and then had a coffee until closer to the time. He was already #30-something. Yes, seriously. (Stay tuned, there’s more later).
About a half hour before opening, there was a bit of commotion near the entrance. We were all there for paperwork – either renewals or first time cards. Every day it’s a new group of people who line up, yet it became a fascinating study on leadership. A couple guys grabbed the list and took charge. 30 minutes later we were all in line. Thankfully we had sun for the first time in days, so I got a bit of Vitamin D in my life, despite later losing feeling in my feet. (Above you can see the view from my spot, and the unofficial list to keep order. The guy with the list is just one of us. No authority is around.).
Spoiler Alert
From the point in this image it took me 4 hours and 30 minutes to get my récepissé – a transaction that was highly uneventful and took literally 5 minutes. Can you say “design flaw”?
FRENCH LESSONS: gueule de bois
One of my favorite French past times is the way they translate titles of American movies into “French.” For instance, The Hangover (U.S. version) came to France and was given the translation of Very Bad Trip. Yes, they translated the title into another English title. Not that every movie title needs a direct translation, but I thought “hangover” or [avoir la] gueule du bois would make a fun French Lesson. Literally mouth of wood, gueule is slang for “face” or the mouth of an animal, while bois translates to wood
Speaking of wood, toucher du bois is a good phrase to know!
French Lessons is an ongoing series where I teach you French words and cultural lessons while beefing up my Illustrator skills.
BOARDING PASS – Kerry Lemon
One of the best things about giving my Vayable tour of Paris is the people I meet. Earlier this winter Kerry Lemon was one of the talented people I was fortunate enough to show around the city. Kerry, who is a UK-based illustrator, decided to come to Paris for 2-weeks on her own to work on a solo show she’s having in Japan later this month. She booked my tour for her first day in town, and I helped show her the lay of the land and made sure she was comfortable using the metro. Turned out that the important meeting that she had “near Le Bon Marché” the following day actually ended up being FOR the Bon Marché windows in January (see below)! Such a delight meeting Kerry + today I’m happy that we all get a peek inside her travels inspire her work. –Anne
home town:
Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire – it’s a small town in the South West of England and was a great place to grow up as it afforded me lots of freedom.
where you live now:
Virginia Water, a small village in Surrey. It’s quiet, peaceful, full of birds and beautiful walks. It’s perfect for drawing in my studio (I work from home with my two cat colleagues) and convenient for meetings in London.
last trip taken:
In December I spent 16 days in Paris (where I met the lovely Anne through a Vayable tour of the city). I was in a self imposed exile, I had run away to Paris to finally finish all the paintings ready for my solo exhibition in Tokyo (coming up in March this year). It was such a luxury and indulgence to focus on painting, but I did undertake a few commissions whilst I was out there (for Holland & Barrett, The Wildlife Trusts and The Times). I also had lots of meetings with potential clients in Paris and was commission by Le Bon Marche department store to create their January window display.
next trip on deck:
Tokyo, I am VERY excited. I’ll be attending lots of meetings with new potential clients in Japan, and of course the solo exhibition. My partner Steve is coming with me for this trip which will be really fun as we tend to travel separately.
one place you would go back to again and again:
London, not very adventurous as it’s just up the road and I’m there 2-3 times a week for meetings/ exhibitions/ friends but I LOVE all that London has to offer. I really appreciate the access I have to stunning museums, gardens and galleries – many of them for free! and I know that this has a huge impact on my work.
place you’d most likely recommend a friend go visit:
Iceland. I am OBSESSED with Iceland and appear to be on a mission to try and make everyone I know go there! Each year I go on a few drawing trips, and in Oct 2012 I went to Reykjavik. It was ASTONISHING. The colours, the architecture, the glaciers, volcanoes – it was all amazing and I will definitely be going back. I filled an entire sketchbook incredibly quickly as it was such an inspiring place to go. You can find out more about my trip to Iceland here.
preferred method of transportation:
I really hate the travelling bit of travelling. I love being in new places but dislike the long boring methods of getting there. I think part of the problem is that I’m miniature (4 foot 10 inches) and so my feet dangle and don’t reach the floor. When I travel with Steve he is always really sweet and creates me little foot rests (in the summer these are often constructed from him removing his shoes and stacking them up for me). I guess my favourite is trains, especially if they have a buffet trolley as a nice cup of tea makes every situation happier!
place you’ve never been but dying to go:
Morocco, India, Mexico (during November to see the Day of the Dead celebrations).
FRENCH LESSONS: Le But
Every week on the way to my French accounting classes I pass a home goods store called “But City” [see photo below] and I chuckle each time I pass it (same is true for the café called Le But). Now this is just me being an immature American, but when naming any business in this global world you need to consider translations. It’s just unfortunate that le but in French (you don’t pronounce the “t”), translates to “goal,” something positive and a bit more serious than “but” which translates to mais, or the other “butt” (which is derrière, en français). For instance I can say, le but pour mon cours des cartes était 500 étudiants, mais j’ai 700+! (The goal was to have 500 students in my map class, but I have 700+!). It can also be used as a reference in sports. You can see my first le football experience here. Note too, that goal you see in my illustration is also referred to as le cage.
French Lessons is an ongoing series where I teach you French words and cultural lessons while beefing up my Illustrator skills.
