Monday, November 13, 2006

New York! New York!

We love the Fall here at SY Design. With the colder weather comes some of our favorite things... pumpkin pie, anticipation of getting up to the mountain for the first time, and our annual trip to New York for trend research! There is no place like the Big Apple to see what is the latest and greatest in fashion. We love to get out of the office and explore New York and be inspired for our upcoming projects. New momma Kim sadly had to skip this year to be with little Bella, so Meghan forged ahead solo to scope out what is new and hot in NYC.

We are still working on lots of dog products here at SY, so it was great to check out some cute dog and toy shops while in New York. Meghan got to visit Trixie and Peanut, an oh-so exclusive dog boutique just north of Union Square. This store has everything you don't need but still must have for your spoiled pooch. You can buy a leather jacket for Fido, as well as a dog bed shaped like a Ferrari.

Another must-see shop for toys is Kid Robot in Soho. They have the ultimate in collectible vinyl toys and other fun goodies.

A highlight of the trip was the grand opening on the 30,000 sq foot Uniqlo store in Soho. Meghan even witnessed mayor Bloomberg officially open the store. Uniqlo is like the Gap of Japan, there are over 700 of them in Tokyo alone! They had some nice items and offer well designed clothing at very low prices. Check out the view from the third floor, those are all cashmere sweaters on the wall.

And here is a glimpse of how many people were at the opening, this view shows about 1/2 of the first floor...and all three floors were packed!

The Burton store was great again this year. You can find everything Burton makes here, merchandised to perfection. Featured in the store this year was the iDiom line and some very swanky wool pieces made for the mountain. Their store windows rocked this year!


As you know, New York is the 'City That Never Sleeps' and there is never a shortage of things to do after the sun goes down...Meghan got to finally fulfill a personal goal, seeing a play on Broadway! Going to see Monty Python's Spamalot was a no-brainer choice, since Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of her favorite movies. Spamalot was great, they even managed to re-create the scene from the movie when the Black Night gets all of his limbs cut off and keeps fighting declaring 'tis but a scratch wound!' Here is Meghan doing her best french soldier impression while taunting the British pig-dogs.

Without question the weirdest moment of the trip was at a little bar in the West Village. There was a guy lying under the bar ASKING for people to step on him. He had a friend who was standing on top of him drinking a beer. According to the friend him name is Kevin Carpet and is just that, a human carpet. He apparently has a fetish for being stepped on by strangers. The friend also said he has a myspace page, but we are too scared to look...Meghan bravely does a 'Captain Morgan' pose and then runs away from this nut!

Apart from the great shopping and crazy nightlife, the weather in New York was truly amazing. Here is a parting shot from Central Park...

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

A Dog's Life

When we started SY Design close to year ago we never imagined that we'd be designing products to be sold on the shelves of Petco, Petsmart, and other dog boutiques! We're having so much fun now, in the first stages of our newest design project for "Outward Hound", that we thought you'd like to see some of our design process and "user based R & D" for a different type of "consumer", the friendly four legged kind.

Last week we began when a box of samples arrived in the office with all three of the dog's here to give them a good "looking over". It felt a little bit like romper room with squeaking toys everywhere, and dog's running back and forth like they were in heaven. Here's a shot of Iggy, the ball destroyer giving one of the toys a good testing.



One of the projects includes re-designing a rain coat for pooches, here are a couple shots of us "testing them out"


Another part of the project includes coming up with some new and improved ideas for dog life jacket's, which of course required some user testing out at Sauvie Island last week in order to better understand how to approach this "new subject".


We're feeling like we're off to a good start, and having a lot of fun with this new project, next...squeaky toys and treat bags!

We've also added some links to some of our favorite sites, check them out. Until next time, back to "work" for us.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Design Public

Some sites are so good that you want to make sure all your friends know about them too. Design Public is one of them. A great resource for FRESH, NEW, DESIGN, in furniture, bedding, accessories, pets, kids, etc.

Also noteworthy is the design public blog, "Hatch", so if you are looking for some new inspiration or...just some great shopping add this site to your list.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Check it out....APAK Artshow!

This past Friday, while we were out shopping the town for the latest and greatest, we found this fun artshow by APAK, at Grass Hut on 811 East Burnside, across the street from the nearly infamous Doug Fir. These pieces are fun, whimsical, and unique, definitely worth a peek. We were lucky enough to get there just before it officially opened so we were able to get the "picks of the litter" so to speak. Check out the rest of the exhibit here

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Dude, I don't think we're in Portland anymore...

What's the best part about working in a fun freelance design firm? Getting to spend a week "working" at a summer camp for 4-H kids for a week. We packed our bags and headed for Kim's hometown of Dayton, WA. Where is Dayton you ask? Well let's just say that it's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there. It's actually a beautiful part of Washington, lots of great hiking, camping and fly fishing.

We were charged with no small task during our foray as camp counselors...Teaching arts and crafts to 120 impatient kids on a week-long sugar high from the camp's endless supply of kool-aid and popsicles. They came in droves (okay, 35 at a time) to learn how to make hemp necklaces and bracelets, and to decorate picture frames to take home with a special camp photo inside. The kids were great, most loved arts and crafts and many stayed to make more crafty creations during free time.

Here are some kids working on their hemp string masterpieces


Some of the cute frames the kids made, the aftermath of glitter and glue at the craft area was insane!


Of course what camp would be complete without some fun and games around the campfire? This is a little taste of life at Camp Wooten...This night the kids played 'Wheel of Fortune', complete with homeade wheel and bedsheet-clad Meghan as the lovely Vanna White!