During my 5 years back in Canada, I have been faithful to one beer brand – King Pilsener. King was a microbrewery in Nobleton (next to King City, north of Toronto) that had a very simple idea: Buy the best equipment and ingredients from the Czech Republic, and make a pilsener as good as or better than Czechvar, Pilsner […]
Nearing the end of weekend trip to Montreal with some old friends, the three guys left were having a lazy Sunday at a pool (billiards) bar a few hours ahead of our 7:45pm flight. Just before 2pm we get simultaneous emails from Porter Airlines with this message: IMPORTANT – Flight Change Notification Porter Airlines […]
born in 1649, Fiskars Ruukki, Finland. On my frequent business trips to Helsinki, visits to the Stockmann department store would spruce up the occasional boring evening. I remember regularly browsing the hardware department, noticing some very impressive orange and black coloured tools, but always hesitating to purchase. They weren’t too expensive, just beautiful and sturdy […]
We’ve moved into our new home with 2 showers, and I did the thing everybody on HGTV gets excited about. Each shower area has a rain shower and a hand shower – 4 shower heads in total. I bought 3 shower heads in North America. I ordered the one below from Speakman. Speakman is an […]
Commissioning my own font for my logo was too expensive. So here’s what I did. Do you like it? It’s a good thing established brands don’t use Helvetica when they rework their logo, right? Otherwise everyone’s logo would look like American Apparel’s. Whoops.
My return to Ontario driving (especially busy Highway 401 driving) has been quite terrifying. In the Ontario Drivers Handbook, it looks like the approach is the same as European driving – slow traffic stays on the right, faster cars pass on the left. The reality on highway 401 is very different, annoying and scary. My […]
I don’t know if it’s because I’m 40 now, but I suddenly like Old Spice deodorant. In Costa Rica I don’t need deodorant, because I’m constantly in and out of the water; it’s nice to detox from all the aluminum zirconium trichlorohydrex. But when in North America, the smell of a deodorant-less man can be […]
I know I shouldn’t be making fun of other people’s website design, but there is something particularly jarring about this. Angostura Bitters is a world-renowned drink ingredient. The brand has been around since 1824 (no typo). It is an essential element of the world’s oldest cocktail recipes, like the Manhattan. 2 oz blended whiskey 1/2 oz sweet […]
The more things stay the same, the more my perception changes. When I was a kid, the Pop Shoppe was this weird place in town where they made the soft drinks right in the store and bottled it. It cost less than regular soft drinks and was in those inconvenient glass bottles. My dad was […]
More in the next couple of days about the meaning of this from a brand perspective… In the meantime, go make yourself a great drink.