I went to The Body Shop today with my sister and found these fun little hearts at the entrance of their store. Each heart contains a “Vote For Me” heading with the name of a product underneath. You take your favorite product and stick it into a box located in the center of all the hearts.

The campaign is for “I ♥ Body Shop,” which brings back classic products from the 80’s including banana conditioner, cucumber freshening water, and dewberry body lotion. These classic products have been reintroduced with much more natural ingredients, a signature of this store.

I actually didn’t use The Body Shop products until recently, so my only means of voting would be by the most attractive color. My favorite product is actually their Tea Tree Skin Clearing Lotion, which I swear by. After college, my skin was in such bad condition (I want to say it’s due to stress and the hard water in Davis, but who knows). Yet, using this lotion coupled with my Anthony Glycolic Facial Cleanser (which I’ll admit I bought because of the name), has made my skin pretty nice and smooth. I haven’t used any harsh acne medicine ever since!

To wrap it up, The Body Shop is a great store for anyone who is looking for good skin and hair products and is willing to spend (believe me, their stuff is not that cheap). But you can shop guilt-free as The Body Shop supports community trade, never performs animal testing, and uses plastic bags that break down in the landfill.

For one of my latest projects, I worked with Vent Magazine to create a viral video that could be used to gain more readers. Vent Magazine is a student-run Asian American politics and pop culture magazine at UC Davis.

I wanted to play up the idea of words (to reflect the idea of the printed type), so I took keywords that described the staff and magazine to form the greater picture.

This was also an opportunity to test out Trapcode Form, which works remarkably well.

Click here for YouTube / CREAM Issue Version, which is altered slightly to fit the latest issue’s theme.

This past weekend, Kien, Rosa, Alissa, and I had some lunch at Jupiter in Berkeley. Aside from the amazing pizzas, salad, and artichoke dip, our waters were given in these neat corn cups from Eco Products.

Who knew corn could look so much like plastic? It’s interesting to see how much things have progressed in terms of eco-friendly tableware. I remember first getting spoons and forks at a resident advisor luncheon in 2007 that were eco-friendly. Just seeing “biodegradable” on the back was enough to spark conversation about being able to litter without feeling guilty.

Anywho … if these cups weren’t enough, their fresh and flavorful food is noteworthy enough to get you into the doors at Jupiter. We had these pizzas:

• Xanthia: Thinly-sliced yukon gold potatoes, bacon, garlic, mozzarella and ricotta cheese, crushed red pepper, and fresh herbs on an olive oil crust.
• IO: Pesto sauce, roasted chicken breast, red onions, kalamata olives, mozzarella.

These pizzas are seriously some of the best I’ve ever had. In fact, I like it more on (dare I say it?) Cheeseboard! Just make sure to get a side of ranch dressing because that makes it all the better.

All in all, Jupiter is very Berkeley (in a good way). Nice atmosphere, amazing food, and, of course, always conscious about the environment.

As a person who hates driving into San Francisco, there’s no better way to come in than on the Transbay Express (to be blogged about later)! However, taking this means getting up earlier than necessary, which makes breakfast an afterthought. But if I’m feeling especially hungry, then there’s no better place than The Toaster Oven to get my fix!

With one location on 2nd between Minna and Natoma and others around the FiDi, this spot is the place  to go for a wonderful breakfast sandwich. For a mere $3.14 (this is after tax), you get your sandwich in three phases:

1. Bacon & egg, ham & egg, or sausage & egg
2. Provolone, cheddar, or swiss
3. Biscuit, bagel, or roll

The bolded choices are my usual choices. I get it every single time; so much in fact that I sometimes wanna just say “I’ll have the usual” but that might be a bit pretentious. However, it is the same woman every time I go there and she’s very kind.

The designs used for The Toaster Oven reflects an art deco theme common to the era of the toaster. The interior contains a wall filled with antique toasters giving the impression of that time period. Their logo, made to mimic a toaster, strangely reminds me of the the “Push Button, Receive Bacon” meme, but bacon is an item that you can get in your sandwiches so I guess it’s somewhat fitting.

My gripe is the poorly designed menu (which I didn’t photograph because I didn’t take it, but you can download it online) that is a bit underwhelming following their fun interior space. There is even a spelling error on coffee, which they accidently spell “Coffe.”

Aside from that, this place is spot on in terms of breakfast sandwiches (I beg to differ on their lunch menu). It’s the perfect way to start a long day at work!

I finally got around to hanging with my big sib last night. We had dinner at Osha Thai and had duck curry and volcanic beef, which were both delicious. And I finally gave him his birthday gift (his birthday is November 10)!

Within the Filipino American community at UC Davis, we have “big sibs” who act as mentors throughout your college career. For my big big big sib (my big sib’s big sib’s big sib … get it?) I made him a mini Munny that is covered in a decoupage of green scraps to represent the Bourgie line.

Our family has four lines (the original big sib had four lil sibs) and each of those lil sibs had lil sibs and those lil lil sibs had lil sibs and so on. Each line is represented by a color, and the Bourgie line is green and brown. Our name suggests that we’re uppity and elite, kind of like Slytherin at Hogwarts, so that’s why our colors are so. I also decided to make it royal-like (with the jewels and scepter) in order to play off of that notion, as well.

This was my first attempt at making an urban vinyl toy, and it probably won’t be my last. It was pretty fun making it, even though placing the decoupage on rounded surfaces was a bit hard.

Happy New Year everyone! Instead of hitting the city, I spent the night hanging with my relatives where there was a ton of food, mah jong playing, and Wii for us youngins.

At midnight, everyone in the house was jumping and screaming to welcome in the 2010 followed by some random traditions my cousins and I do. This includes:

• Putting a bunch of coins in our pocket for wealth in the upcoming year
• Dancing around a tree at midnight for love and prosperity
• Eating 12 pieces of fruit for good health

We were bored one year and looked up a bunch of traditions that we could do (we were tired of just wearing red and circles), so we took on a few more to keep things different. For a list, check out Snopes!

After all of that, we played the Wii with our favorite game Red Steel. I got second every time with only one kill behind the winner. Overall, I had a lot of fun. I’ve got a good feeling about this upcoming year and I’m excited!

I remember a time when American Apparel was one of those brands where I thought, “Why would I pay $20 for blank shirt?” The first time I saw it was at a Crossroads about six years ago, so that price tag seemed extra strange.

Today, the brand is so prominent that whenever I see a bold Helvetica logotype, I immediately think of American Apparel (see Art Director’s Club or The Container Store). Recently, a store opened up at Valley Fair in Santa Clara so I went and checked it out. I loved it, of course. A lot of their color swatches are ones you can’t necessarily find at Target or Walgreens. I decided to buy a graphic tee, and I’m pretty happy with it. I’m even happier about the bag it came in because it was super trendy, modern, and just my style.

The bag listed a bunch of cities where you can find an American Apparel store. I was thinking about and felt that it would be so much more fun if they chose random cities instead of the typical Paris, New York, San Francisco, etc. I’d be more interested to see something along the lines of Berkeley / Omaha / Bloomington / Antwerp / the likes.

Some interesting facts to note: American Apparel is the largest clothing manufacturer in the United States, and its founder is Canadian! Thank you, Wikipedia!

This is the shirt I got (Jonny Makeup Logo Tee). It fits really nicely, and the colored areas are raised like puff paint.

This is the back.

American Apparel is a brand that has defined itself to the Helvetica font. Everything from its hang tags, bags, and of course their Helvetica t-shirts incorporate the typeface and strengthen the identity. If you’re looking for a simple brand that has well-made products, then this is the store for you … as long as you’re willing to spend the necessary amount of money.

Okay. I admit. I only recently found out that there was a bear in the Toblerone logo. This was after I read Graphic Design Blog’s “25 Logos With Hidden Messages” post.

I also didn’t know that the triangular shape of the chocolate pieces represented the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. They should team up with Disney and sell a special version at Disneyland!

Anywho, I picked up this box at REI yesterday because it was a mere $3.53 (originally $12.95). If you haven’t had a Toblerone, you’re missing out! They’re extremely tasty! It’s one of those chocolates that is so unique to itself that nothing else comes close (this also applies to Ferrero Rocher, which is a whole different, yet delicious, experience).

Design-wise, the Toblerone logo is genius. The snow capped Matterhorn notifies you of its Swedish origins, while the hidden bear provides that fun double-take that gives people a “Eureka!” moment of their own. So if ever you pass one by at the grocery store or airport, mention it to your friends! You’d be surprised at how little people know about this logo!

Look what was underneath the Christmas tree for me this year!

Actually, not really. Jerome gave it to me and I opened it at his house. For Christmas this year, Apple packaged their products into a nice white box, sealed with an elastic red ribbon, and topped with a little gift tag with the Apple logo.

Upon opening, the gift was delicately wrapped in gray tissue paper, which matched the logo on the sticker.

After lifting the tissue, the actual gift box was finally revealed and cushioned by more of the gray tissue paper.

And this is what I got! The Apple Magic Mouse! The mouse came inside a clear case that was molded perfectly for the product, similar to how they package their iPod products. In short, the mouse is stunning and works really well.

I’m not sure if this was Apple’s Christmas packaging last year, but I liked it a lot! It was simple, elegant, and could not be mistaken for anything but Apple. I will note that I was surprised at how much bulk the gift contained (being that Apple is environmentally conscious), but almost everything is recyclable.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I hope your day is filled with family, friends, and that good ol’ Christmas joy!

I’ll share with you my farm from Farmville, which is a Facebook app that I finally got around to after my cousins convinced me to during Thanksgiving. It’s truly addicting and loads of fun (if you have the patience)! For the holiday season, Zynga introduced a free holiday tree that could be loaded with presents gifted to you by friends. Starting Christmas Eve, you could open them and reveal your surprises. Among them all, I received enough animals to fill Noah’s arc, a ton of Christmas decorations, and fuel refills to last me a while. The best surprise was a few mystery boxes, which gave me two of Santa’s Workshop (the green buildings above)!

Later, I’ll post more about my Christmas with the cousins. In short, it was a blast playing White Elephant, Apples to Apples, and eating enough food to put me in a major food coma!