Artists, architects, tattoo parlours, jewellers, yoga studios, salons, coffee shops, chiropractors, florists, cupcakists, upbeat DJs and happy cooks — it’s difficult to try and encapsulate everything that’s great about Osborne Village in fewer than 500 words. Having been a hub of bohemian culture, eclectic boutiques, and brilliant cuisine for over fifty years, I think it’s safe to say almost everyone who’s lived in Winnipeg for any length of time has some fond memories of the neighbourhood.

VELOCITYWG #7 is “Osborne Village” by Creative Director, Karla Burr.

Osborne was named for the Irish soldier Lieutenant-Colonel William Osborne Smith, one of Manitoba’s early pioneers. A Crimean War veteran, Smith founded the Manitoba Club, and was one of the founders of the Manitoba Historical Society.

The area has evolved considerably since the suburb of Fort Rouge, population 150, was amalgamated into the City of Winnipeg in 1882. By 1910, the population had grown into the tens of thousands, and is now the city’s most densely populated area. The “Village” we know today began to take shape in the 60s, as artists, musicians, and restaurateurs began to call Osborne home.

Village landmarks like Dutch Maid Ice Cream (now Osborne Antiques Mart), Basil’s and the Fort Rouge Theatre have come and gone, but others, like the Augustine United Church and Carlos & Murphy’s, seem to treat the passage of time with casual disregard. Like so many wonderful neighbourhoods around the world, the area continues to grow and reinvent itself with the energy of its residents. New restaurants, galleries, boutiques, are always opening, with some becoming permanent fixtures of the local landscape — McNally Robinson, for example, got its start in the Village.

Karla’s comments:

Osborne Village serves up some of the best people watching this city has to offer. It’s always a varied collection of characters, just like the bright overlaying colours in this here logo. I took the opportunity to have a little fun and do something trendy with the typography, as Winnipeg trends are often set in Osborne Village. I’ve given up some of the legibility of “Osborne” but kept “Village” nice and simple, a nod to the fact that if you say “the Village” to any Winnipegger, they know what you mean.

Trying to plan a single day out in the Village is like trying to plan a single day out in New York; there’s simply too much to try and tackle. I recommend renting a little apartment on River or Stradbrook for a year or two and taking it in slowly. Get to know the churches on Nassau, try a different restaurant each week: sushi, tapas, spicy noodles, Thai, African, Australian, Unburgeran. Plan the occasional night of hard partying at the Toad, or Ozzy’s, and finish the night with a 3 a.m. pizza at Papa George’s. Shake off the hangover by getting Baked. Get some culture at the Gas Station. Hit a patio on Canada Day. Stay in with some French New Wave.

The best though, is after a day of Christmas shopping in the Village, bumping into an old friend and enjoying an impromptu coffee.  See you there.

VELOCITYWG is a weekly design project: simple exercises in unfettered creativity with a common theme that’s near and dear to our hearts: celebrating the streets, suburbs, and cityscape of Manitoba’s capital.

VELOCITYWG, Rebranding One Great City, continues next week.

Comments? jay@velocitybranding.com

The Manitoba Historical Society has been a great resource in finding information about many of the older neighbourhoods we’ve covered over the past few weeks. But you won’t find much about The Maples on mhs.mb.ca, unfortunately.  As Google can tell you, The Maples is both a large electoral district in North Winnipeg (which includes Amber Trails, Inkster Gardens, and others), and a much smaller neighbourhood bordered by Inkster in the south, Leila in the north, Pipeline Road to the east and Mandalay Drive to the west.

VELOCITYWG #6 is “The Maples” by Senior Designer, Colette Boisvert.

I grew up in Windsor Park, and like a lot of Winnipeg neighbourhoods, the area is not home to a lot of memorable landmarks, indispensible eateries, or breathtaking natural landscapes. I think many Winnipeggers will confidently live their entire lives without having set a foot on Autumnwood Drive or Cottonwood Road.

But Windsor Park is a nice little suburban neighbourhood, with cozy little coves and corner stores. A bowling alley. A burger joint. Its fair share of bad streets, but for the most part, good people.

I’ve lived my entire life in Winnipeg, and I’ve known a lot of great people who grew up in The Maples, but I just don’t know that much about the area. I do know that it’s home to one of the largest per capita immigrant populations in Manitoba (around 35 per cent), with vibrant Filipino, Ukrainian, South Asian, and Chinese communities.

You won’t find the charm of The Maples at the local A&W, the gas station, the IGA, or any of the other interchangeable basics of North American suburban living. You’ll find the real neighbourhood is in the community centres, the churches, the temples, the little parks and the backyard barbecues.

I know from experience (my wife is Polish), most immigrant communities know how to celebrate — so your best shot at getting the feel for The Maples is making friends with a local and getting invited to a good party, where food, friends and family are always the order of the day. Failing that, buy some social tickets — with any luck, there should be one in the area this weekend. Whether it’s lumpia or perogies on the midnight buffet (or both), you’re sure to walk away a happy camper with a little more appreciation for one of Winnipeg’s lesser known, and under-appreciated communities.

VELOCITYWG is a weekly design project: simple exercises in unfettered creativity with a common theme that’s near and dear to our hearts: celebrating the streets, suburbs, and cityscape of Manitoba’s capital.

VELOCITYWG, Rebranding One Great City, continues next week.

Comments? jay@velocitybranding.com

Silver Heights is the area north of Portage Avenue, south of Ness, and situated between Moray and Mt. Royal Road. It takes its name from what should have been the home of the first Lieutenant-Governor of Rupert’s Land, William McDougall, which in turn took its name from the silver poplars that once blanketed the area. McDougall never actually lived there, owing to one Louis Riel and the Red River Rebellion.

VELOCITYWG #5 is “Silver Heights” by Interactive Designer, Lee Froese

Adams George Archibald, Manitoba’s first Lieutenant-Governor, also refused to live there at first.

“The main and permanent objection to a residence at Silver Heights, (and this applies in a special manner to the Winter Season) is its distance from Winnipeg. I should have been obliged either to keep an office in Winnipeg, and make a daily trip to town, which with the temperature, as we have recently had it, at 40° below zero, would not have been a very pleasant thing to do, or else compel every person wishing to see me, to add to his journey to Winnipeg, a further distance of five miles to go to Silver Heights.”
-Lieutenant-Governor Archibald, February 1871

It’s heartwarming to know that Manitobans have been complaining about going about their business in the cold for at least 150 years now.

As Winnipeg expanded after WWII, suburban areas like Silver Heights slowly came into their prime, with the Greatest Generation settling down into modern bungalows and giving birth to the Boomers. Architect W.D. Lount and his father Frank, who played a role in building Tuxedo, were two of the area’s principle developers. In addition to houses, Lount built the retro-marvelous Silver Heights Apartments, Park Towers, and Park Terrace.

Stop in for a cold beer and some ribs (or a Hughie burger) at the iconic Silver Heights Restaurant and Lounge (ironically, a few blocks east of the official boundary) opened in 1957 by the Siwicki family. The neighbourhood gem opened the same year as Silver Heights Collegiate, which was unfortunately demolished in 2007. After supper, take a drive down Mt. Royal Road past Trail Avenue and the Silver Heights Gates (A City of Winnipeg Grade III heritage site), and look at the Christmas lights speckling the neighbourhood as jet planes carrying holiday travelers come in for a landing overhead.

For added affect, play Vince Guaraldi’s, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

You can almost imagine Winnipeg, 1965.

VELOCITYWG is a weekly design project: simple exercises in unfettered creativity with a common theme that’s near and dear to our hearts: celebrating the streets, suburbs, and cityscape of Manitoba’s capital.

VELOCITYWG, Rebranding One Great City, continues next week.

Comments? jay@velocitybranding.com

Most Winnipeggers know Armstrong’s Point as “East Gate” for one of the neighbourhood’s three primary streets running off of Cornish Avenue.

Armstrong’s Point has always been an exclusive community. Built along an oxbow in the Assiniboine River, the area is naturally secluded. Although its first houses were constructed in the 1880s, it wasn’t until 1910 when residents erected the characteristic gates which still stand today.

VELOCITYWG #4 is “Armstrong’s Point” by Velocity Creative Director, Karla Burr.

Armstrong’s Point is one of those neighbourhoods that you can’t help but admire. Similar to Crescentwood, the little enclave touts a gaggle of architectural marvels from Winnipeg’s late 19th and early 20th Centuries — beautifully complemented with handsome old trees, tangled bushes, and manicured lawns.

Karla’s comments:

I had no idea that East and West Gate were actually called Armstrong’s Point. I couldn’t ignore the fact that everyone knows the area as East and West Gate — so I created a logo type that has wrought-iron details and looks like the archway of a gate. That also explains the E and W at the top.

Although spring and summer are lovely in East Gate… er… I mean Armstrong’s Point, nothing comes close to the beauty of the neighbourhood in mid to late fall, or just after a fresh dusting of November snow. Walking a complete circuit around the area won’t take long, so be sure to stop in at the Cornish Library, built in 1914 with funds donated by U.S. industrialist Andrew Carnegie and named for Winnipeg’s first mayor, Francis Cornish. It’s just about the best place possible to while away an hour or two and get lost in a good mystery novel.

VELOCITYWG is a weekly (well, we aim for weekly) design project: simple exercises in unfettered creativity with a common theme that’s near and dear to our hearts: celebrating the streets, suburbs, and cityscape of Manitoba’s capital.

VELOCITYWG, Rebranding One Great City, continues next week.

Comments? jay@velocitybranding.com

It’s official! This year’s Safeway Boo at the Zoo has already set an attendance record, with over 44,000 visitors so far, and four nights to go! That’s a 400 % increase over 2010 attendance!

“The numbers we’re experiencing are unprecedented,” said Lorne Perrin, VP Marketing & Park Services with the Assiniboine Park Conservancy (APC) which organizes the event, now in its 16th year. “We’re absolutely thrilled with the enthusiasm for this year’s Safeway Boo at the Zoo and we love to hear that people are enjoying the new aspects of the event.”

Read the Winnipeg Free Press story here.

What the article doesn’t mention is the extensive use of troll magic, courtesy of Icky, Boo’s new mascot. Icky was discovered on a recent zoological expedition to Northern Manitoba by Velocity Designer  Colette Boisvert. The big purple troll was lured out of his cozy cave with the promise of all the free chocolate bars, cold pizza, and sweat socks he could eat.

Boo at the Zoo runs till Sunday!