Chic from Barcelona is now serving paella! I adore Spanish food, but for some reason, this wonderful little restaurant tucked in a shopping center at Forest and Preston always slips my mind. In fact, if it weren’t for the email I just got from them with the announcement of their new menu additions, it would’ve completely slipped from my radar. (Note to restaurateurs: send out regular emails to customers or you’re easily forgotten, especially in a restaurant-saturated city like Dallas!)

Barcelona Chic is best known for their secret rotisserie chicken recipe, served with wedges of apples. They have wonderful roasted asparagus and tapas, and they serve their gazpacho in tiny cups rather than bowls, which is a great idea for giving you a mouthful of fresh tomato goodness between courses. Check out this Dallas Observer review for more on the food.

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My 8-year-old friend Libby gave me this homemade birthday card yesterday. I guess she realized too late that coming up with 100 things she liked about me was a pretty ambitious undertaking.

I also love that "Loves salty snacks" starts off the list. The "perses" on the wall is a reference to my Indian purse that Libby thought would look cool on the wall of my Creativity Room as a decoration. Then, she said, any time I need a purse, I only need to pull one down from the wall, and voila! Problem solved!

Street "tagger" artist Aaron Gaglia, recently transplanted to Austin from Pittsburgh, just painted this great looking mural on the outside wall of South Austin’s Do512:

At a party hosted by Do512 on Friday, tons of people lined up to talk to Aaron, and he is already setting up jobs in his newly adopted city. He’s looking to create a "legit" art career down in Austin, after having experienced a little less appreciation from South Pittsburgh. Go Aaron!

Do512, "What to Do in Austin", is a popular Austin events site started by my brother Jimmy Stewart and marketing/developer whiz Scott Owens. You can use it to find out about thousands of cool things happening in Austin — art, music, theater, film, happy hours, special events, etc.— ranked in order of popularity. You can listen to bands, read reviews, watch videos, follow the recommendations of friends or other local media, and share your picks with others.

Walmart has a new logo, in an attempt to try to overhaul their image and seem a little more Supertargetish, and a little less Walmart People*. The typeface is nice and contemporary, and the new blue is definitely better than the dated navy all-caps version with the star, but I can’t help wondering how this logo made it all the way through the corporate channels without anyone pointing out its remarkable resemblance to a sphincter.

Check out the history of the Walmart logo here.

* Interestingly, when I tried to link to the free LHF Walmart People font, I can’t find it available for download except on Fontrader.com, which requires a registration. Most sites have removed it. I wonder if they got in legal trouble for their unflattering portrait of Walmart patrons and staff? Hmm….

Here is a great article written by Danny Rocks (thank you, Danny, for finding my blog and leading me to yours) which starts off with this quote:

“Don’t be irreplaceable.  If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.”  —Anonymous

The essence of it is that if you teach others to do what you know how do, then you’re able to move up to the next bigger thing. In other words, the more you coach,  mentor, and help others succeed, the more trust you will build in your bosses, in your peers, and in those who work for you.

I thought about this in relation to my career as a designer. My goal has always been to take the voodoo out of design and web, and make it understandable for my clients. Years ago when the web was in its infancy, and I was busy designing my first full-fledged website for a non-profit organization, I was criticized by a fellow web developer for "giving away too many trade secrets." He was annoyed I had told them about the InterNIC Whois database, where they could look up and register their own domain names without having to pay someone else to do it for them (at the time, it was common to charge someone well over $100 for that "service" which took only minutes and no skill to complete.) Needless to say, he was out of business within a couple of years, and I can only imagine how many former clients he must have pissed off when they found out they were being ripped off.

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An email with this curious subject line arrived in my inbox yesterday from one of my favorite new Thai restaurant discoveries here in Dallas, Asian Mint.

It turns out they were actually REVEALing their new logo for a second location that will be opening soon in Highland Park. (A corrected email arrived about an hour later.)

While I wouldn’t normally recommend sending an email that declares your logo to be despised before it’s even been seen, This wonderful misspelling had the effect of making me 1) laugh, 2) forward it to my friends, 3) want to write about it, and 4) love the Mint even more.

Here is the new reviled logo and their explanation about it:

For now, here’s a taste of our new logo for The Mint. We have spent much thought in coming up with a new look to keep things fresh and exciting and to fit in with the highland park motif. We will still look chic, comfortable, and cozy. Afterall, it’s all design and created by us. And more good news! We will give away two prizes of dinner for two at The Mint. Stay tuned! I will be sending you all the details in a special email this August.

I am not sure if I like the new reviled logo. I am wondering why they chose blue instead of green. I’m also wondering why it’s stacked and breaking up the word “mint.”

By the way, I get frequent emails from the Mint, and think that they do a good job of marketing themselves. They came to our table after we ate, asking if we wanted to be on their email list to win free drawings and get updates. After you’ve eaten is a great time to get people to sign up for your email list: you’re catching the customer at their most satisfied moment.

Okay, ready to have some fun, kids? Just download Artrage Starter Edition (free!), pick up your Wacom Bamboo (or a mouse), and let your inner child out to play in the street!

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