cringe list Archives | Ouno Design

Murder Murder

LB — Tue, 28 Apr 2015 07:53:00 +0000

Apparently this is not a renegade settler war party, it’s a new “bloodgrass” band from Sudbury in Northern Ontario called Murder Murder. You can listen to their banjo-esque non-Northern-Ontario-ish neo-bluegrass murdery numbers at the link above.

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Vancouver Airport plans “luxury outlet” mall, bastard child of Disneyland and Bouncy Castle

LB — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:39:30 +0000

Trying to laugh instead of cry over the announcement by Vancouver airport of a kitsch faux-nineteenth century monstrosity of a "luxury outlet mall" next to our quite attractive, Pacific NW contemporary airport with its forest water features, stunning aquariums and significant First Nations art.

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“Contempo” – my term for the insincere faux-modern design style infecting our lives

LB — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 22:06:28 +0000

There is a particular type of contemporary design that I deeply despise but for which there is no terminology. About six years ago, out of frustration, I started calling it “contempo.” It is a deliberately cheesy term for a cheesy aesthetic, an aesthetic of dumbed-down, cutesy faux-modernism.

BC Hydro now and then – what happened between 1955 and 1991?

LB — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:22:53 +0000

“Compare and despair” is good advice, but I can’t help it. Here are two skyscrapers designed for the same public corporation, BC Hydro.

Dave Bidini eviscerates Bryan Adams in print for jamming with Canada’s über-right-wing prime minister

LB — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:06:00 +0000

The decor at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s residence in Ottawa is almost as bad as the very fact of this distasteful event, which – can this really have happened?

Canada’s Shanghai Expo 2010 architect is…Cirque du Soleil.

LB — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:57:19 +0000

Seemingly impossible, but true. Similar to the way the statement “Arnold Schwarzenegger is Governor of California” is true. The Canadian Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai is to be designed by Cirque du Soleil’s in-house designer.

It’s Not You, It’s Your Apartment

LB — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:03:10 +0000

When your decor is a romantic deal-breaker: a female visitor fled upon seeing this NYC lawyer’s sheets. My sister, by the way, had those exact sheets. When she was 12.

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This town isn’t big enough for the three of us.

LB — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:37:35 +0000

Seen in the lobby of the Hotel Monaco, Washington, DC. We gathered here for a drink, and I couldn’t get past this United Nations of design in the corner. Sorry about the photo, which exhibits that unique iPhone lack of any photographic excellence whatsoever.

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Montreal vs. Vancouver Olympics graphics – a little comparative photo essay

LB — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:00:36 +0000

Ignoring the problems of hosting the Olympics, which are serious and many (and as a Vancouverite I’m speaking from experience), let’s just compare the graphic design from two different Canadian Olympics.

No, you bite me, Karim Rashid.

LB — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:51:13 +0000

This is Karim Rashid’s new “Bite Me” Chair, a garish blobject in the shape of a bubblegum-pink molar. There was a pretty unanimous chorus of dislike and disapproval of this chair on the CDR (Canadian Design Resource) blog in May, and Rashid – the master of plasticky furniture that looks carelessly cheap when it’s made and then ages badly – totally deserved it.

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