Born in Moscow, Yana Gorbulsky relocated to New York as a child and after developing a love affair with sewing and design, started her signature clothing line Supayana. This year, after several successful seasons making adult apparel for a loyal international client base, she began adapting her collection for...

Known for their their eco-friendly ripstop nylon shopping bags, Eva Bauer and Hetal Jariwala—the industrious duo behind Flip & Tumble—keep themselves busy working on a multitude of projects. Two that caught our eye—the wall-mounted hooknook storage solution and the quirky but sleek salt and pepper shakers dubbed "squeezers." The...

Putting a modern twist on the childhood matching game of Memory, the newly launched iPhone app REcollection tasks users to uncover product pairs for real-life rewards in the form of discount codes. Created by Dave Brown of the daily lifestyle blog Holiday Matinee, the app is not only a...

Montreal-based woodworker Mitz Takahashi upcycles wooden offcuts into unique, modern designs. Working by hand with mostly reclaimed lumber like mahogany, walnut, oak and other found materials, Osaka-born Takahashi spends his days tooling around creating works based on his favorite elements of mid-century design. Working mainly on a commission basis,...

En Masse, a Montreal-based art collective, has penned signature works in association with the Osheaga Festival of Arts and Music, Piknic electronik, Festival International Montréal en Art, Under Pressure, Manifesto (Toronto), Cirque du Soleil and Sid Lee, to name a few. Now the band of artists brings their talent...

Oregon's own wooden eyewear makers Shwood today premiered a latest sunglass collaboration with San Francisco streetwear label Huf. Made of broken skateboard decks, you can see the production process of the resulting "Six-Ply Fade" in the first experimental video on Shwood's buzzy new site "Experiment with Nature." We recently...

Typically when sending a text, Tweet or Facebook post, correct grammar takes the backseat to witty punctuation or uber-abbreviation. We may be devolving into "chatspeak," but as the foundation of any language, grammar remains an essential tool even in the digital age. Bringing life to such a humdrum subject...

For summer bike rides, picnics and general fun in the sun, dreamy, burned-out music makes the perfect warm weather soundtrack. The electro-pop sounds of Swedish band "This is Head" have been making my ears happy as of late, so I asked band member Henric Claesson a few questions about...

In collaboration with Montreal's urban boutique Off The Hook, the first Vans partner store in Canada will open tomorrow at one of the busiest corners in the city. Not only will it offer the best selection of Vans in Canada with more than 1,500 shoes in 160 styles from...

Montreal's newest online hub connects the creative community with well-designed wares, from sneakers and wallets to speakers and pocketknives. Like so many digital shopping destinations, Thaylor's web-based shop doubles as an editorial platform, keeping inspiration fresh no matter the season. Updated regularly, "Life" showcases the thoughts of talented athletes,...

A follow-up to Björn Johansson's web-based "shout-out" generator, Big Ass Message, his latest work-distracting website, aptly titled Big Ass Picture, launched today. The Internet destination adds to the original text-customizer with the option to create a unique website using any image (with or without text), enabling you to then...

Inspired by a Guinness Book of World Records entry for the largest collection of cigarette rolling papers, Toronto-based artist Allister Lee of Studio B.I.B decided it was time to set a goal for himself and started collecting black markers. To "mark" the 500th acquisition in this graffiti-culture obsession, and...

Conceived, designed and manufactured in short runs all in Montreal, Daniel Julien and Mélanie Turcotte's aptly-titled label Self Made offers a line of unexpected fashion accoutrements. Exclusively available through their website, the duo's current lineup consists of "sleeve" scarfs made from sweatshirts, moustache bow ties fabricated from seal skin,...

Crispin Jones, London-based designer of conceptual watches, is known for his inventive ways of breaking down time into increments slightly more clever than minutes. Peddled under the label Mr Jones Watches, each timepiece asks its wearer to reconsider how we count time with such creative visualizations as 12 colored...

Just released by art director Justin Gignac, Security!™ is an 18k-gold-plated sterling silver version of plastic security tags stores put on clothes to prevent theft. The piece, meant to be worn as a pin, stems from the NYC-based artist's idea (he's also behind the popular campaign Needs for Sale)...

As if his ambitious ITSOK project—hand-cutting one million wooden ornaments with the slogan "It's OK"—wasn't enough, the aptly-named artist Sighn is putting the creativity in your hands with his new project What Wood You Say. For a limited time, Sighn will carve out your favorite saying or wisdom-nugget for...

From watches to sunglasses, fashion accessories crafted from wood are at an all-time high. Pioneers in the movement, Portland-based Shwood just introduced their latest edition, the Ashland, which improves on the durability of other models. Paying tribute to the classic utilitarian design of aviator glasses, the Ashland sets mirrored...

Just two short years ago Burlington, Vermont resident Jeff Sheldon founded Ugmonk with a straightforward mission to produce high-quality products with simple, fresh designs. What started as a small side project—a way to marry his passion for typography and t-shirt design—quickly grew to much more than that. Thousands of...

Montreal-based designer Sébastien Kauffmann recently introduced a small selection of handmade leather cases for your mobile audio protection needs. Designed to snugly fit a classic iPod, iPod Touch or iPhone, each 100% upcycled leather case protects gadgets with a vintage aesthetic. In addition to the laser-etched Phone (pictured top)...

Contributor has once again teamed up with Society6 and Club Mumble to curate their second art show in support of Contributor's charity. Building on the success of last year's group show, "One Way Or Another" plays on the personal nature of a skateboard. Things like how you grip your...

Injecting personality and random order into their latest collection, Montreal-based designers Thien and My Ta Trung's Pâté Chinois series is a concept centered around the beloved Quebec dish Shepherd's Pie. Presented at the brother-and-sister team's Domison boutique during the Montreal International Interior Design Show, Pâté Chinois is a creative...

Spearheaded by French eco-friendly fashion and shoe designer Pierre André Senizergues (of Etnies fame), along with eight internationally renowned designers, Greend shirts show the creative underbelly of helping the world. Available at Collette during and after the Greend exhibit at Galerie Wanted Paris, this eight-piece limited-edition t-shirt collection aims...

One Way or Another's Isaac McKay-Randozzi and Sandro Grison, along with their gang of creative collaborators, are touring North America in a grassroots campaign to show off the incredible artwork created by some of skateboarding's best while raising awareness for the 1 June 2010 launch the One Way or...

Consisting of Harris Shper (on vox and guitar), Christine Hale (vox and keys), Al Mal (bass) and Farid Rener (drums), The Hoof & the Heel make unforgettably beautiful music that fits easily on dreamy summer playlists. Based out of Montreal, the quartet's EP called "And All the Tigers" mixes...

For the month of May, Toronto's Studio Gallery presents the work of world-renowned artist Richard Kern with his first solo exhibition in Canada and his first full-career retrospective, "Kern: A Retrospective Exhibition Featuring the Photography and Films of Richard Kern." Kern, a photographer, occasional pornographer, former filmmaker and video...

Written and directed by filmmaking team Corey Adams and Alex Craig, the new adventure comedy "Machotaildrop" tells a story positioning skateboarding not just as merely a trivial pastime of the young, but rather as a noble pursuit worthy of the highest cultural recognition. Winners of Fuel TV's two-year competition...

As an inspiration to all creative types toiling in anonymity, Björn Johansson serves as a beacon of hope. Creator of Internet sensation Big-Ass Message, Johansson attributes his success as a graphic designer to this project and other impassioned (though seemingly dead-end) side projects. Now he freelances full-time for Ogilvy...

Transforming the Velvet Speakeasy in Montreal's Old Port into a candlelit temple of worship embellished with gold walls and paintings, Kevin Ledo's mash-ups of religious imagery and fashion photography (previously covered here when it premiered in 2008) launches the first in a series of events christened "Velvet Renaissance." Featuring...

Longtime CH fave, artist and designer Mike Perry’s new installation of prints, sculpture, and other objects opens at his Alma Mater, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, on 25 March 2010. Including over 30 prints, a log sculpture with a small galaxy spilling from it, a mobile hanging...

The Tiny Little Chairs pendant collection, a series of modern chairs cast in precious metals, has already garnered a quick spin around the blogosphere recently with little more than a leaked splash page. Handmade in Montreal by design brothers Bruxe, the five pendant collection celebrates icons of mid-century design...

Run by partners Ken and Jolene out of their East Vancouver studio, their brand Ken Diamond stays true to the roots of leather craft. Using extremely high-quality materials, minimal die-cutting and hand stitching, the duo create tailor-made leather moccasins, messenger bags and other limited run leather goods. Available online...

Published by Index Books and compiled by Danish graphic designer Emil Kozak, "'One Day' takes a comprehensive look at how graphics have entered our daily lives and adorn everything from alarm clocks to skateboards." The book was both conceived and orchestrated to illustate how these “beautified” objects give personality...

Once carried at high-end boutiques like Colette in Paris and respected skate shops around the States, controversial clothing label Crownfarmer disappeared for a bit but founder and designer Bob Kronbauer is resurrecting the label, one graphic tee at a time. Teaming up with Club Mumble, Kronbauer will produce one...

Creators of the facet-design Marks & Spencer cafe, London firm Kiwi & Pom recently teamed up with another British establishment, collaborating with London's renowned karaoke bar Lucky Voice to create the Party Pod. Tagged as the world's most sophisticated and portable karaoke experience, they designed the aptly named "Party...

Portland-based artist Michael Leon has been busy creating limited edition sculptures of his notorious Skull Behind Sunglasses image, a portrait he has brilliantly reworked since its conception in 2005. Selling out of the black and white versions minutes after opening the doors of the Michael Leon Studio, the skateboarding...

Signed to Swedish label Flora and Fauna, The Bethlehem Beard Corporation consists of a 15-year-old melancholic Swede. Here at CH we’ve been listening to his latest disc When the Beards Met in Bethlehem on a regular basis, enough so that we contacted our good buddy Jonas at the Swedish...

A dual exhibition, Life Size juxtaposes the work of artists Shawn Barber and Turf One for a show of portraits. The irreverent paintings depict fringe members of society in styles that have a religious, even Divine Comedy-like vibe. Barber—a San Francisco-based artist who feels "authenticity comes from fearlessness" and...

Born in Ireland, photographer Cormac Hanley grew up with an artistic mother who kept a paint brush permanently in his hand. Later years led him to develop a strong background in creative advertising, but Cormac always turned to photography as his ultimate form of expression. We at CH managed...

Designed by London-based firm Kiwi & Pom, Marks & Spencer Kitchen is a bespoke, stand alone cafè, located at the entrance to Marks & Spencer's new flagship store in Westfield London. The distinctive 3D form created from over 350 unique triangles of Corian serves as a meeting place and...

The second offering from the concept furniture line Skate Study House, made 100% of throwaway materials, including excess skateboard cutouts of laminated wood, is an homage to waste. Created by Pierre Andre Senizergues in collaboration with designer Gil Le Bon De LaPointe, the Skate Study House collection is a...

Produced deep in the forests of Sweden, "Cap" is the first piece of furniture from the Don't Feed The Swedes. The plastic stool is a tribute to prominent graffiti personalities and modeled after a standard spray can nozzle, but enlarged to a scale which also makes for a functional...

At Brakeless Bike shop in Montreal, the best way to build a bike is from the ground up. Sylvester, founder of Brakeless and all about taking chances, created his latest personal bike, "Tentar La Suerte." Loosely translated as "tempting fate," Sylvester's newest creation was born out of an urge...

Combining a colorful palette with smart design, Hetal Jariwala and Eva Bauer at Flip & Tumble are doing their part to solve the problem of what to do with bulky canvas totes by introducing a ripstop nylon shopper, similar to our beloved Baggu. Designed to roll up small enough...

Premium soft goods manufacturer Bruxe recently released their Spring '09 collection to select retailers across the globe and for those fortunate to have internet access but not a means to get to a local retailer, you can now get goods directly from their newly launched online shop. Oli, one...

Sharing a love for '80s grids and layouts as well as a penchant for cool toys and gadgets, I tracked down Ben Wise, one of the guys behind the site Antenna Trade Digest. Proclaiming to catalog all “publicly available goods of significant substance,” I asked him about the project....

Spring has sprung and summer is hot on its heels, and when I think summer I think t-shirts and when I think t-shirts nothing comes to mind quicker than those that are buttery soft and vintage-inspired, like those from our good buddies at Vintage Vantage. Choosing to do things...

After noticing a killer one-piece jumpsuit called the "Conchord" online we asked ourselves, “Who would make such a great piece?” Below are the answers we got back after exchanging a few emails full of intrigue and wit with one of the founders (Todd) of the clothing line Toddland. It's...

If you're not already familiar with his hand-drawn type from his awesome book "Hand Job," Mike Perry is a Brooklyn-based artist who makes drawings, paintings, illustrations, magazines, newspapers, and clothing, as well as teaches whenever possible. He has worked with clients such as the New York Times Magazine, Dwell,...

Nightlife visionary David Judaken teamed up with design guru Dodd Mitchell on his latest project to create My House, a world-class nightclub set against the stunning backdrop of a contemporary, luxury home. The collaboration seeks to revolutionize Hollywood nightlife by perfectly balancing the intimacy and comforts of a lounge...

After working in the fashion industry for over a decade, Mélanie Robillard and Amelie Thellen, joined forces to realize their childhood dream of opening a boutique. Unicorn is a cute shop for smart-looking women (and soon men) in Montreal's Plateau/Mile End district. Carrying a hand-picked selection of international, national...