Author: karan.bhanwra

My fireplace will work like a beast this winter.  We are a family that enjoys being cozy and getting warm from a great fire. Since we got the fireplace fixed over the summer, we are making up for the years that it was out of order. Each morning my hubby will light a fire before the kids get up so the kitchen and breakfast areas are toasty. Same thing at night.  I wanted to share some of the fireplace tools that we are using this season, and 3 affordable things your fireplace needs this winter. So your fire  can be warm and toasty too!

LOG CARRIER

To make it easy for hubby to bring the wood into the house, he uses this log carrier. This heavy duty carrier can handle 6-8 medium size logs and it oversized so that wood pieces won’t drop on the way to the fireplace.

METAL BUCKET

Because the fireplace is front and center in this room, I want something that looks decent to hold the wood on the hearth. My previous bucket was roomy but had holes in it, and wood pieces would always come out. That didn’t work for long. I found this black oval galvanized bucket. It is perfect. It’s roomy enough to hold 6-8 med pieces of wood. And it doesn’t look like an eye sore during the winter months.

FIREPLACE TOOLS

Maintaining a good fire requires a few tools. I wanted something that would work and look good, without breaking the bank. This 5 piece bronze set is such a great value for the quality and finish of the tools.  The set includes a poker, brush, log lifter and shovel. All the tools hang on a pedestal base and have a handle.

We’ve recently discovered (and are thoroughly obsessing over) CommonRoom – do y’all know this company yet?! Founded in 2014 by Kate Hawkins, CommonRoom is a designer wallpaper studio and shop brimming with inspiration from the vast world of art and interiors. In addition to their contemporary collection of commissioned designs, CommonRoom creates an annual archival line, giving nod to the great designs of the past. Since its start, CommonRoom has grown to house a great collection of wallpaper, cushions, and art—all boasting a rich complexity of history, symbolism, and creativity.

In 2016, CommonRoom launched its first archival design, inspired by a 1918 watercolor drawing by C.F.A. Voysey, an English architect, furniture, and textile designer. Entitled “Lioness & Palms,” this design comes in two colorways, “Midday” and “Midnight,” telling the story of time as it exists in nature. Voysey’s drawing was found in the archives of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and was quickly transformed into one of CommonRoom’s bestsellers. Pictured below is the original drawing from Voysey, alongside CommonRoom’s “Midday” colorway.

Another archival design, “Love Leaves,” was inspired by a small-scale 1800 watercolor found in a sketchbook of illustrator William Kilburn’s descendent, Gabriel Sempill. Kilburn was known for his lead botanical illustrations in Flora Londinensis, a book that describes the flora of 18th century London. Similar to “Lioness and Palms,” “Love Leaves” is yet another stunning reminder of nature’s beauty and its influence over the history of design. In the words of CommonRoom, “Love Leaves grounds us in the knowledge that the seasons will spring again, the sun will shine another day, the leaves will shoot once more.” Even the creation of this design gives ode to the original methods of its day—the technique of woodblock printing is used to give the wallpaper a lovely, handcrafted feel.

CommonRoom’s contemporary designs are filled with just as much substance as their archival pieces. Founding artist Kate Hawkin’s pattern, “Dressing and Undressing,” references the Bloomsbury group, a collection of 20th century intellectuals who were famously quoted to have “lived in squares, painted in circles, and loved in triangles.” These writers and philosophers, notably Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Clive Bell, Desmond MacCarthy, and E. M. Forster, greatly influenced present-day views on feminism, sexuality, aesthetics, and criticism. The nude portraits in this pattern simultaneously ‘dress’ and ‘undress’ each room that they enter.

Velinda back (so soon) because I couldn’t leave you wallowing in grief for too long. THIS IS A DESIGN blog. And despite it all, we’ve been designing! But not in a way we’re used to… well not EXACTLY. 

Before we lose those of you who read one paragraph and skip to the photos (yes, I see you), I want to give a big accolade to my E-Team, led by fellow EHD alumn, Grace De Asis. And we owe a GIANT thank you to our impressive, first E-clients who not only executed all of these designs themselves, but also filled in as photo-stylist AND photographer. There wasn’t a pro on-site… like, ever. We never made a site visit. Still, these ‘amateurs’ have made us so happily-impressed and today, they’re boldly sharing their reveals. We’ve met them via Zoom. They’ve uploaded questionnaires, ‘Pinned’ inspiration, communicated measurements, and hopped along for the ride as we discovered this whole E-Design thing. We’re forever grateful.

So about this unique (errr… crazy?) way of working. Covid has had us all adapting and we feel incredibly fortunate to be able to work from the safety of home. Still, I opted to start a business in January of 2020… Cool. As a ‘2020’ startup/first-time business venture, there’s nothing like adapting a process that doesn’t even exist yet to new, global pandemic restrictions. Goodbye, familiar design process.

But wait! As I started to break down a lot of our familiar, Emily-led processes, I realized the EHD design team was actually QUITE trained in working from afar. Afterall, for The Portland Project we spent a ton of time drawing up concepts for a project that was located in…. well, you guess. The Mountain House; we could check in more frequently, but it was still a couple of hours away, so a lot of those details were dreamed up remotely. When we did Target shoots, we worked with unreleased inventory that we couldn’t see, touch, or feel until the product was on-site, yet we successfully formed designs based on color, imagery, and dimensions. And for flash makeovers, in order to pull off the ‘surprise’, we could only sneak in to grab measurements ONCE. The rest of the design took place from afar.

So, while I don’t believe designers should think in terms of 2D and while so much can be said for ‘feeling’ a space IRL… Our training through Emily, serendipitously, prepared us to design our way through a pandemic. And magically, has led us to the coolest, down-to-earth clients all around the world. (Our first E-client was located in the Netherlands!) 

This is a reveal post, so I want to skip to the fun part! But so you aren’t totally lost on how we get to these end results, the basics of our process is set up to mimic our process of working with ‘Full Service’ clients; the cliff notes of which are:

• Intake: Questionnaire, Photos/Measurements, Client Inspiration Imagery
• Design Prep: Concepts & Moodboards, Internal Inspiration imagery, 3D Modeling/Drawing
• Presentations: Zoom-based check-ins on Concepts & Floor Plan Options
• Sourcing: The fun part. We shop. Clients hold the power to ‘approve’
• Final Design: We reign it all into a cohesive design and pull together renderings to assure a successful, client-led, design-execution. We also throw in tips, important dimensions, design alternatives, etc.

And if you’re one to need more than the cliff notes, you can find out all of the below here:

• Budget expectations
• How to know if E-Design is right for you
• What E-Design is & isn’t
• How we’ve made it ‘digestible’ (our Menu)

And now, onto the fun!

Design trends often respond to the current cultural trends.  It’s no surprise that given the upheavals of 2020, 2021’s predictions for design trends while calm and positive, also include a disruptive undertone.  Distance learning, remote offices, and digital communications impact these trends further.  Some notable 2021 trends in graphic and web design include:

Pantone’s color(s) of the year

Each year Pantone selects its color of the year.  This year it has selected two colors that represent, to me, where we’ve been and where we want to go:

PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray’ and ‘PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating.  The hopefulness to this duo is echoed in Pantone’s introduction of the colors: “A message of happiness supported by fortitude, the combination of PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating is aspirational and gives us hope. We need to feel that everything is going to get brighter – this is essential to the human spirit.”

Environment-first approach

2020 required many to stay indoors, so it’s only natural that desire for the outdoors has influenced packaging and graphic design. A focus on natural patterns with flora and fauna will have an impact on design.  A deeper connection with mother nature will continue in 2021 influencing improved trends in sustainability.  Be ready for softer hues, muted colors, and more organic fabrications will be everywhere from interior design to graphic design.

Playful

3D graphics, Shapes Textures, Patterns, and Illustrations will have a huge impact in 2021.

The continued rise in gaming, as well as AR & VR, also requires the use of 3D graphics and software to be realistic, engaging, and eye-catching.   Especially in the e-learning space, where keeping engagement and elongating the attention-span of kids is needed for hours at a time, the intelligent use of 3D graphics becomes critical.

Look for 3D emoji designs, cartoons, illustrations, textures, and patterns to have a big impact on graphic design and animation. These all evoke emotion, capture attention, bring about fun, optimism, and a playfulness that consumers crave.  Look for animated logos as a continued design trend in 2021.

What’s your Type?

Typography rules have been pushed and we’ll now see bold and disruptive usage in 2021.  Patterns, optical illusions, 3D, as well as Inkstyle drawings and word-only logos, will be popular this year.

We’ll see a fun use of geometric shapes, experimental typefaces, and a plethora of handwriting typefaces fonts that have been distorted, elongated, and condensed, giving recognition that our world has indeed changed.

What new design trends are you seeing in your business?

We Decided to Avoid “Natural” Flavours, and Ended Up with Better Taste

When we started Ace Hill four years ago, our team and customers were just starting to care about the nutritional profile of their alcoholic drinks.

Since then, “better-for-you” offerings like White Claw and Nutrl have gained tremendous popularity. Even our buddy’s police hockey league of tough guys has started alternating between beer and low-cal vodka sodas in the locker room.

I’m really proud of what our team has accomplished with our new low-cal, real-fruit vodka sodas and wanted to share some of the backstory.

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Over the past few years, we‘ve been searching for low-cal, low-sugar drinks that also tasted great, but we felt like all the options on the market tasted a little synthetic. Our challenge, led by our OG garage brewer Blake, was to develop something that could taste good and feel good.

Looking at this opportunity, we learned that all the other products (White Claw, Nutrl, etc.) are made with so-called “natural” flavours. And it turns out “natural” flavours are controversial and potentially misleading.

A 2019 New York Times article explains:

There is a “loophole” where the “[food] regulations do not restrict the dozens of other ingredients like preservatives and solvents that can go into a so-called natural flavor. Ultimately, because of the wide variety of ingredients that typically go into “natural” flavorings, “there does not seem to be much of a difference between natural and artificial flavors,” said David Andrews, a scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization.

We’re not experts on this topic, but here’s what we learned by going down a Google rabbit hole and consulting with beverage scientists:

1. It’s been widely reported that “natural” flavours are actually similar to artificial flavours. While “natural” flavours have to derive from natural materials, they are often highly processed and can include all kinds of preservatives and solvents (see reports here from New York Times, CNN, and Bon Appetit).
2. It’s unclear what exactly is in drinks that use natural flavours. The ingredients listed for these products will just say “natural flavours,” but it will not be disclosed what the underlying components are of the natural flavours. Apparently the beverage companies that produce and sell these products may not know either, as the “natural” flavours are sourced from flavour houses who often will not share a list of the underlying ingredients.
3. This one is admittedly subjective, but drinks that use “natural” flavours generally don’t taste real, authentic or great.
4. Drinks made with “natural” flavours don’t look right. Real fruit isn’t clear!

The education around “natural” flavours inspired us to use a different approach: by adding a splash of real fruit juice to just vodka and soda water, we’ve created vodka sodas that taste real and are just 90–100 calories and 1g of sugar per can. No preservatives, sweeteners, sugars or “natural” flavours added.

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At Ace Hill, we’re laser-focused on making drinks that we love and that we think you’ll love too. Product innovation is a corporate priority and, we hope, a hallmark of our brand.

Our new low-cal real-fruit Lemon and Raspberry Vodka Sodas will be available in April at the LCBO for $2.75/can, and will have some availability in other provinces. Both drinks contain just 1g of sugar and are gluten-free and preservative-free. The lemon is 90 calories per can and the raspberry is 100 calories per can.

Let us know what you think! We’re curious if you agree that Real Tastes Better : )

Cheers, 
Mike Wagman
CEO and co-founder of Ace Hill