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Wednesday
Jun162010

Turtle Recap...we're back!

Okay so we've taken a little hiatus from the blog lately...it was kind of a vacation. Our "excuse" (if permitted and it most definitely is not) has been all of the events lately. But we're back from the dark side and ready to pump life back into good ol' Violet Society.

Here's a mini recap of what's been going on (and keeping us from the blog) in the turtle world.

Turtle client, Jaazz Salons raised $2700 for Haiti with their Haircuts for Haiti event on May 10, 2010. They brought out the TIGI tour bus and revitalized the cycle of donations to Haiti. What an amazing team!

 

 

TASTE Cafe & Gourmet To Go (TPT client and favorite lunch spot) held a wildly successful customer appreciation event on June 3rd, 2010. Towers of cupcakes, sandwich galore, local wine and beer...delicious.

photo credit: Brad Greene's iPhone


The Flying Goat opened it's doors officially on June 14, 2010, but kicked off a fantastic soft launch for contractors and team members on June 12th. We just love this place...and we love their wood fire oven pizza and Horned Aviator brew!


photo credit: Brad Greene's iPhone

 

The 4th Big Table was hosted at The White Room on Monday, June 7th, 2010. Chef Nicholas St. Clair from Cafe Marron and Chef Alexa Wilson of Sysco served up a smokin' menu that began with Spinach and Feta Cigars and ended with Smoked Vanilla Ice Cream. YUM...

 

photo credit: Stillpoint Photography


The Purple Turtle and Santé Resturant & Charcuterie kicked off 15 on May 23, 2010 with 15 courses, 15 wines, opera and the amazing company. More about 15 in the Spokesman and the Inlander (twice).

photo credit: Summit Photography

photo credit: Todd Sackmann Photography


The May 15th Windermere Marathon brought over 1400 runners to beautiful downtown Spokane for one of the most beautiful 26.2 mile strips in Washington. Congratulations to the runners and the Boston Qualifiers!

 

photo credit: Erin Arai's camera

Wednesday
Apr282010

15

15

On May 23, 2010 at 6:00 pm the doors of The White Room will open for 15: a 15-course dinner experience conceived and produced by The Purple Turtle and Santé Restaurant & Charcuterie. It will be an event for the senses, fusing the art of culinary technique with the science of molecular gastronomy. Chef Jeremy Hansen of Santé has created an extraordinary menu (and put in the 100 hours of time to develop it) that competes with culinary progressives across the globe.

The menu, available on the website, boasts avante-garde items such as Cumquat Pearls and Lavender & Honeysuckle Pillows as well as the irresistabley savory Chocolate Braised Berkshire Belly and Prosciutto & Melon Ravioli. Nothing short of amazing!

WHY 15?

Aside from a love of food and a propensity to watch full seasons of Top Chef in a single sitting, the dream for 15 was born out of the shared desire of its creators to make Spokane a world class city and further propel it toward that status. There are plenty of people who aren't convinced that Spokane is ready to embrace the culinary movement, or global progression for that matter, but as you can tell, we feel otherwise. Spokane has already proven that it is more than willing to accept changes via the revitilization of the downtown scene, the success of new and unique businesses and the strides toward sustainability.

Join us for an unforgettable evening and a truly landmark event for Spokane!

See you at The White Room.

Details on the website:experience15.com.

Tickets are available by calling Santé at 509.315.4613.

PREVIEW

Culinary genius translated on paper.

Chef Hansen's sketch Course #1. Cucumber and Kawaire Salad. Coriander Caviar. Lavash Square. Segments of Orange in Cucumber Gelee.

Course #4:  Halibut. Squash Blossom Salad. Chervil Potato Window. Creamed Cumquat Pearls.



Course #9:  Berkshire Tenderloin. Onion & Garlic Glass Dome. Raspberry Dust. Rosemary Smoke. White Onion & Raspberry Coulis.

Thursday
Apr222010

Kendall Yards Urban By Nature/ Kendall Yards Urbano Por Naturaleza

Today marked the official launch of the Kendall Yards project and we couldn't be more thrilled to be a part of this exciting project!

Here at the turtle we developed the branding and identity for Kendall Yards that you may have seen on signs, at today's launch and on the nifty reusable bags they handed out.

So here's a peak at the Kendall Yards brand and a preview of what's to come.

THE LOGO:

 

Clean, bright and energetic, the new Kendall Yards logo was designed to create a strong and inviting identity for the mixed use community. The look is simple and modern with the custom typeface represented in a thin application for the "Urban By Nature" message and a bold application for "Kendall Yards." Sometime going simple is so much better!

THE COLOR PALETTE:

Here is the color palette for the Kendall Yards brand. You can expect to see these striking colors pop out around town in the coming months!

  • Yellow: joy, happiness, intellect and energy.
  • Red: energy, enhances human metabolism.
  • Blue: depth and stability, trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven.
  • Green: nature, growth, harmony and freshness.
  • Orange: enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, healthy food, fall and harvest.
  • Gray: neutral, balanced.
  • White: associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, safety and cleanliness.

The combination of these colors and their respective meanings defines the essence of Kendall Yards. In the initial discovery meetings we discussed the brand attributes: Kendall Yards will be walkable, dynamic, fresh, vibrant, authentic, eclectic and so on--these colors promote all of the emotions and charactertics that this project will radiate!

THE MESSAGE:

The message or tagline we developed for Kendall Yards is URBAN BY NATURE. This message has a few different meanings.

1. At the core of everything, Kendall Yards, because of its location and personality, is naturally urban.

2. Kendall Yards is a place where you can live and experience a constant connection with our beautiful and great earth. No other community in the region offers the authentic energy of an urban scene and the escape of nature so effortlessly.

Hopefully our post has you excited about Kendall Yards. We are! If Kendall Yards was a person, you know you'd want to hang out with him/her. Since Kendall Yards is a community, we all want to eat, sleep and play there. We'll keep you posted on the project!  

Expect big things, Spokane!

kendallyards.com

Friday
Apr022010

The Evolution of the Goat / La Evolución de la Cabra

There was buzz around The Flying Goat before it was even called The Flying Goat. When word got out that Jonathan Sweatt from Downriver Grill wanted to start a pizzeria/tap room, everyone started talking.

Now, I don't have any big announcement for you at the moment...I'll leave that for Jonathan, (though the ETA for The Flying Goat is currently in June!) instead I'm going to show you how The Flying Goat logo came to be.

This is the evolution of the goat.

Once we settled on the name, (brainstormed over beer and flatbread, polled our friends, etc.) it was time for us to do what we do best...develop an identity for the goat.

Creativity flows without constrictions, so we let our design team develop the first round of concepts based upon their interpretation of The Flying Goat (with some basic direction). We were looking to create a strong, fresh brand that would define that place where you go to gather with friends, fill up the old growler and eat gourmet, wood-fired pizza. It also needed to be a logo that would translate well onto beer mugs and paraphernalia. The Flying Goat will be more than a great place to eat and grab a beer...it will become a culture!

Now that I am done with that spiel, here is the first round of concepts:

From those concepts, we narrowed it down to three favorites. #1 The aviator #2 The wild and winged and #3 The magestic "goat" of arms (...I couldn't resist!).

 

The aviator was, hands down, our #1! Wings are an expected interpretation of The Flying Goat, but the goggles are just clever (Kudos Alonso!).  After making our decision, we began working on the little guy's face, playing around with the shape of his eyes and nose.

We joked around that Version B of the goat has that "deer in the headlights" look. Do you see it?

 

 

With the infinite wisdom of our creative directors we found a home for our goat admist a striking, bright cobalt background.See #2.

 Moving forward, we changed the font type and polished option #2. And of course...played around with a few small details of the poor goat's face (needless to say, I'm sure our designer is happy to be finished with the goat.)

 

And finally, after a few dozen goats, we have our final, beautifully designed (and hand drawn!) logo for The Flying Goat!


Disclaimer: No animals were hurt in the making of this logo.

 

VERSION EN ESPAÑOL

La Cabra Voladora, cuando se supo que Jonathan Sweatt (Chef del Restaurante Downriver Grill) quería empezar una pizzería-pub, muchos empezaron ha hablar del nuevo proyecto.

Por ahora, no tenemos ningún "gran anuncio" para ustedes ... eso lo dejamos para Jonathan. En lugar de eso les vamos a mostrar cómo se desarrollo el logo.

Esta es la evolución de La Cabra Voladora.

Una vez que nos decidimos por el nombre, empezamos a desarrollar una identidad para La Cabra Voladora. 

La creatividad fluye sin constricciones. Estábamos buscando para crear una marca fuerte, fresca, que definiría el lugar donde usted va a reunirse con los amigos y comer gourmet pizzas a la leña. También era necesario un logotipo que se vería bien en jarras de cerveza y otros productos de merchandising. La Cabra Voladora será más que un gran lugar para comer y tomar una cerveza ... se convertirá en una cultura!

A continuación vea la evolución del concepto.

Thursday
Apr012010

Geo-what? Geotagging

Thanks to our handy mobile phones and their built-in GPS capabilities we can share with the world our geographical location at anytime with the click of a button ... creepy? Try "the next generation of social networking" where different applications such as foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt mix social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people to explore the cities in which they live.

In a nutshell, it's a location-service-based-social-network-game. What it does in effect is tell you where your friends are and add a little fun to exploring your city. It's like GPS meets Facebook with a dash of Twitter.

How does it work?

    

The whole system is based around what is known as "checking-in". You check-in from your preferred establishments, perhaps with a short message about your recommendations or a maybe a tip. At this point you can choose to share your location with your Facebook and Twitter friends as well. 

The clever, part is that you get points (or stamps) for checking-in. The more points you get the more badges (or pins) you earn: from Newbie up to Superstar (or Wanderer to Epic Voyager), depending on the application you choose to use. Word has it that this is where the real addiction lies!

How can it benefit you as a user? 

One of the many benefits of geotagging is that businesses can offer incentives for specific badges (pins). Let's say I am about to check-in at ABC Cafe, but XYZ Cafe a few steps down the street is offering Free Cookies to "Adventurers." Most likely I will take a couple of extra steps to get that scrumptious free cookie and bring my business to XYZ rather than patronizing ABC.

You can also get recommendations on what to order (or not to order) from your friends. The very best part is that it promotes your community and the businesses in it. So get on it, check-in!

-Sara Balcazar Greene

@peruvianchick


VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL

Gracias a nuestros teléfonos móviles y sus útiles capacidades integradas de GPS, podemos compartir con el mundo de nuestra localización geográfica en cualquier momento con el clic de un botón ... espeluznante? Trate de "la próxima generación de redes sociales" donde diferentes aplicaciones tales como puesta en cuadro, y mezclar Gowalla Loopt social, locativo y elementos de juego para animar a la gente para explorar las ciudades en que viven. 


En pocas palabras, es una localización basada en servicios sociales-de la red del juego. Lo que hace en realidad es decirle donde están tus amigos y añadir un poco de diversión a la exploración de su ciudad. Es como el GPS cumple con Facebook con un toque de Twitter. 

¿Cómo funciona? 

Todo el sistema se basa en lo que se conoce como "check-in". El registro de entrada en los establecimientos de su preferido, tal vez con un mensaje corto acerca de sus recomendaciones o una sugerencia tal vez un. En este punto se puede optar por compartir tu ubicación con tus amigos de Facebook y Twitter también. 

El inteligente, de todo es que la obtención de puntos (o sellos) para el check-in. Los puntos que usted consigue las insignias más (o pines) que usted gana: desde Newbie hasta Superstar (o Nómada de Epic Voyager), dependiendo de la aplicación que utilizan. Palabra dice que aquí es donde la verdadera adicción mentiras! 

¿Cómo puede usted se beneficia como usuario? 

Uno de los muchos beneficios de geotagging es que las empresas pueden ofrecer incentivos para los pases específicos (alfileres). Digamos que estoy a punto de check-in ABC Cafe, pero XYZ Cafe unos pasos por la calle es libre para ofrecer Cookies "aventureros". Lo más probable es que tomará un par de pasos extra para conseguir la cookie libre delicioso y traer a mi negocio a XYZ y no condescendiente ABC. 

También puede obtener recomendaciones sobre qué pedir (o no a la orden) de tus amigos. La mejor parte es que promueve su comunidad y los negocios en ella. Así que manos a la obra, el check-in! 

-Sara Greene Balcazar 

@ Peruvianchick