BOXING DAY

For all Christmas's stranglehold on the holiday economy, everyone knows the real deals come the day after, with all that overstock most American businesses prayed they wouldn't to shelve. In the States, we experience this as a sort of last-gasp shopping-spree. You know, if you have anything left in the tank. But as the pine scent gives way from excitement to nostalgia, a goodly number of other countries – including our neighbors to the North – are just gearing up.

Boxing Day's origins aren't clear, though it seems most agreed-upon that it has more to do with charity-collection boxes outside churches than the sport concerned with men punching each other's faces. One theory suggests it ties into an old English tradition of giving servants the day after Christmas to be with their families – and sending them with a box of gifts. (Including, perhaps, some leftovers they themselves may have prepared for the prior day's feasting. This was done to placate the servants, and provide everyone a smooth Christmas experience.) Another claims the practice dates back to Roman times, and the boxes placed around were in the service of the Feast of Saint Stephen.

Whatever, however, and whenever, we think it's a neat reversal for most Americans. We focus so intently on Christmas morning, it's easy to forget a whole week has to pass before the next major holiday, and Boxing Day makes a good-spirited kick in the shins to get up and get moving. You know, shake off the hot-buttered rum and third plate of biscochitos you may have consumed at your fiancé's grandma's insistance. Get ready for action.

It's in that spirit that TC decided to take next week off. What's that? We figure better to give ourselves a whole week to relax – because everyone knows you only truly start relaxing around Day 3 or 4 – and get back on the horse first thing Monday. We think of it like sealing Christmas 2011 behind a protective layer of work. Yes, we may be just as tired as you, but we'll draw inspiration our sisters and brothers under that great white Northern blanket. If they can pound the malls, streets and alleyways for great deals, so can we find our desks again, amid the fresh memories of butter, sugar and pine. We're even gonna do it on New Year's Monday. Fair's fair.

We'll be open tomorrow, December 23 and Monday, January 2. If you're up, give a call. We'd love yours to be the first voices of the new year.

Client: Tangerine Café Design Group (and recipients!)

Team: Rachel Baker

WINTER BOOK 2010

You'll have to forgive us that we've been posting a lot of It's that time again!'s lately. We do cherry-pick our posts, but we accept only limited responsibility for the onslaught of awesome that emerges in late Fall. How could we not point approvingly at all of it? It's for good reason that in the season of gratefulness and dashing, masked fundraisers we release our annual Winter Book.

The Winter Book is our rather flattering year-long mirror. Into it we place all the prior year's archives we'd like most to remember, and be remembered for. Brands, books, pamphlets, events, collateral, photographs, a whole lot of love, even last year's Winter Book and more all line up for the slow coffee table reveal. Each December we look up from whatever our current obsession and relax a little, knowing that we filled another book with work that was worthy of it.

As no café worth its organic, unrefined cane sugar shakers doesn't offer sizes, the Winter Book is offered conveniently in two dimensions. The minis pass from a slew of very large machines, but each of the big 'uns comes to you hand-bound. Mmmm, hand-binding.

Please join us in raising a glass of orange-colored citrus (or rum-nog – rum-nog is always acceptable) to conclude 2011 with a nod to 2010, and one eye pointed out the door, down the road, to the next.

Client: Tangerine Café Design Group (that's us)
Team: Everybody!

UNDERGROUND GUIDE BOOK RELEASE (TOMORROW NIGHT!)

We've brought Adam's An Underground Guide to Alburquerque project to you before. In March they launched a pretty new website, which made available, searchable, and cross-referencedevery review they'd ever published. Due we're sure in no small part to the readership of this blog, they've seen great success so far, hovering around 5000 hits monthly this fall, and growing. And now it's time for the big kahuna, the collector's item – the book itself, in the parlance.

The 6th Edition comes packed with reviews of restaurants (reorganized this year by food type), hardware stores, tattoo parlors, bars low-brow and high-, used bookstores, art galleries, video, and much much more. Following the word-of-mouth explosion that followed the last year's homage to an Albuquerque staple personality, they've peppered the book with treats, from illustrated how-to's to a special activity we're not permitted to disclose till tomorrow night. They're asking for a $10 donation, and are this year selling branded tote-bags (with the top image above), price TBD. Both will be available at tomorrow night's release party, with a special gift over which we've also been sworn to secrecy.

Adam and crew have been working their tails off all year on this beauty. At 92 pages, it's more refined than last year's offering, and he's certain their most attractive, useful and fun book yet. Adam reinvented the brand yet again this year, and TC's Daniel joined ranks as their house photographer. "An extraordinary dedication went into this book," Adam says. "Now it's your turn to take part in the love-fest."

If you're even only considering coming out, they insist you RSVP for the party on their website (and join their mailing list), or for the event alone on facebook. Refreshments from Marble Brewery will be served, beside tasteful selections from two of Albuquerque's premier DJs, and  party games, such as Twister: Local Business Edition, which will be played for prizes redeemable at local merchants.

So where can you get one, right? If you're in town, the party's an obvious answer. If you live far, or tomorrow's already irreversibly booked, you can donate for a book and/or a bag on their fancy website, beginning Monday, December 12.

We'll see you there!

BROOKLYN CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

As the cold deepens around half the world, we naturally become more interested in conservation. It makes good sense; with winter come fewer resources. It's been a good year for TC and green projects and we're excited to roll out another: teachers' and parents' guides to the Brooklyn Chidren's Museum's Green Threads exhibit.



The show is an inventive, fun, and personally relevant look at our daily lives, through several lenses of observation. The teachers' guide invitingly helps educators create interactive lesson plans from the exhibit. The focuses include birds, plants, water, food, energy, waste and more, each loaded with exercises and advice for listless students. Exercises correspond to the major points in the exhibit, and can easily be expanded to daily life beyond the museum.



The parents' guide takes a more intimate approach. The tasks of greening our lives are myriad, and without age limit. While kids can grasp early just how much water they use while the tap runs, or how much garbage they can generate in a day, parents can scan the full pull-out map of Brooklyn's green points of interest. These include bike paths, community gardens, and a host of other already-familiar sights, which taken together are beginning to form the foundation of a sustainable Brooklyn.



TC illustrated and designed the pamphlets, which include maps and and an activity chart to correlate exhibit lessons to NYC Public Schools curricula.

Client: Brooklyn Children's Museum
Team: Melinda Beavers, Britt Martinez, Daniel Hulsbos, CD Lynn Platow

SAYING GRACE

It's official now. We've entered the Holiday Season. Maybe, like us, you're reading the blogs in the early hours of Thanksgiving between clandestine spoonfuls of mashed yams and spiked Snog. (Studies conclude it improves writing quality.) Before the season spirals into the US's most dependable economic stimulus, we thought, perhaps like you, it's time to reflect on the myriad graces we've been dealt. For us, those are our projects. We get so many projects.

Who else gets to design both annual reports and toilet paper? Soft granola bags, glittering temp. tattoos and kids' bandage tins? Branding for pediatricians and green energy-obsessed Texans? Who else gets to photograph weddings, hip hop shows, fundraiser galas, dog collars, a sleep lab, and a statewide brewers' festival in the same stretch? We couldn't say. But we sure are grateful for the opportunity.

So this Thanksgiving, we want to thank each of you for each of your graces. We don't treat those lightly. Every project is an honor – we don't let just any mechanic throw a wrench at our cars, nor just any baker toss just any flour into a wedding cake. We get it, and thank you.

Today we point the spotlight at the projects themselves. Below's a selection of some(!) of our favorite projects of the year. We hope you enjoy the tour half as much as we've enjoyed the work. Each is linked to its particular entry. So have at it. And happy eating!

GREEN [ BOOT CAMP ]

The Greening Movement. If you're not itching to install a new sludge-feed direct in your local reservoir (or preternaturally obsessed with Blinky), it's not hard to get behind. Every business worth their salt is doing their part, from memo-heavy offices moving entirely to email to those who can't offering substantial recycling options, and it's a miracle. And those at the leading edge are building operators. Buildings both commercial and residential can draw a shocking amount of power and produce an extraordinary amount of waste for the trouble if their designers and managers aren't careful. We've made our stance known before, and we're always pleased when we get to shove our hat further into the ring.

This weekend in Richmond, TX, our beloved Mark Robinson, who, admittedly, we have to share with Green Power 4 Texas, will be teaching a FREE Greening workshop for Brazos Bend Villa Apartment residents. Learn about about new energy-conserving attic fans and generators on the grounds, how to Greenify your job, lifestyle, and budget. Then eat free local, organic food, help plant a tree which, in concert with several other, should provide more than $100,000 in fruit for residents of the next 20 years, and possibly get on TV. Sounds great, right? Our only complaint NYC and ABQ make this a painfully unGreen drive (let's not talk REG).

TC designed the promo for the event, which we hope will be the huge success Mark, GP4T, and the residents of Brazos Bend deserve.

Likewise, we have to offer huge thanks to the Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). It's their investment in these new fans, generators, trees, food, and Mark's time that's making this event possible. Any Saturday morning movement in support of the larger Movement is a big deal, and this is a big-big one. Even if you're not a Brazos Bend resident, the information is no less relevant, and you can take it back to the buildings in your own daily life.

Details:

When: Saturday, November 19, 10-11:30 CST
Where: Brazos Bend Villa Apartments, 2020 Rocky Falls Road, Richmond, TX.

Full details on the back of the flyer here:




Team: Britt Martinez, Lynn Platow
Client: Mark Robinson/Green Power 4 Texas

MASQUERADE

Ha! Thought just because you can't see through the gravy haze of Thanksgiving and early Holiday Advertising you were through the Halloween thicket, huh? Well, this week in TC news, we're going on a field trip back in time, to a more innocent, less alarming world. The year? 2011 (gasp). The date? October 29 (heavens!). The hour? 6:30. (Dinner & drinks time!)


Into this other world, we touch down at the Hotel ABQ. The scene: Masquerade, a gorgeous, high-end costume ball fundraiser decorated by Conventions Services of the Southwest. The funds raised were in the service of at-risk youth in the ABQ public school system, to curb bullying and provide "a more positive learning environment." Graciously, they opted for the Costume Ball theme over High School, and put a glamorous face on a good cause. We sent in Daniel to demonstrate for those not in attendance the creative expertise you get when you hire CSS.



Some of our own did make the guest list, including the likes of Max and Mandy Thrasher. Others, well… If you're familiar with the ABQ who's-who, you'd recognize a few faces. If you could see them.






CSS's attention to detail was outstanding. From the exceptional, floating masks to the half-past-twilight lighting, the streamers to the beads, the whole room took on an impossible, otherworldly quality. It may not have been quite the Witching Hour, but magic sure did seem possible.


And what fundraiser is complete without runway modeling?



Client: Conventions Services of the Southwest
Team: Daniel Hulsbos, Lynn Platow, Brittany Martinez