
Today marks the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. Athletes representing countries around the world will compete in sporting events ranging from figure skating ice dance to men's and women's snowboard cross until the closing ceremony on February 28.
Vancouver geared up to host the event by improving their wayfinding signage on their SkyTrain transit network. From a design perspective, this is an important update to lessen confusion for the projected millions of first time users -attendees, volunteers, media members, athletes and officials.
Good luck to all athletes and participating countries!

Our office is on the 16th floor of the historic Suburban Station Building. When the station opened, it was a stub-end terminal for Pennsylvania Railroad trains serving Center City Philadelphia, replacing the above-ground Broad Street Station in this function. The station's full name was originally Broad Street Suburban Station. One Penn Center served as the headquarters of the PRR from 1930 to 1957.
Plans for a tunnel to link the Pennsylvania and Reading commuter lines were floated as early as the 1950s, but funding to seriously study the project did not start until the late 1960s. The project languished in the...

-The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) was announced last week. The city-wide celebration of local visual and performing arts will take place April 7- May 11, 2011. The festival’s theme will revolve around early 20th century Paris.
-Apple’s tablet computer, the iPad, was unveiled to much fanfare. Will the sleek new device achieve the same popularity as the iPhone, or go the way of its tablet PC predecessors?
-Yale’s Kroon Hall, the new home for the university’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, has officially gained LEED Platinum status.
-Last week was Social Media Week!...
What's better to watch: the Super Bowl or the commercials during the Super Bowl? Every February, businesses spend millions if not billions of marketing dollars on advertisements during this epic television spectacle. Not a sports fan? You can watch the commercials on Hulu.
Good thing for Google last night's game was a nail biter. Their inaugural commercial (my favorite) aired during the 3rd quarter and was designed to tell a story through google searches that followed someone from studying abroad in Paris, France to getting married to researching how to assemble a crib. It was heartwarming, simple and smart....

The survivors of Haiti’s devastating earthquake can only live in tents for so long. With hurricane season looming, and increased morale needed for the displaced residents, long-term shelter solutions are required.
One potential answer is architect Joseph Bellomo's modular mini-house. Originally designed as a studio for a client in Hawaii and inspired by a previous design for a bike shelter, the structure is comprised of lightweight steel tubes, and can be packaged IKEA-style for easy shipment and assembly. The 150 square foot space can be used as temporary shelter, but is sturdy enough as a long-term...

Two things I'm passionate about: music and environmentalism. Tonight at the Academy of Natural Science, these two worlds collide for a rockin' presentation sponsored by the Urban Sustainability Forum starting at 6:30pm. Talking Head's David Byrne will be speaking about his recent book, Bicycle Diaries, which chronicles his travels and bike adventures from city to city around the world. Now for the bad news. The event is sold out. BUT, hopefully, they will upload the video to their site...
Other speakers on tonight's lineup are: Katherine Gajewski, Director of Sustainability for the City of Philadelphia; Ignacio F....

Dear Readers,
We are BAJ Design- a team of designers, marketers and project managers -creating solutions that help businesses and nonprofits in Philadelphia and its surrounding area grow sustainably with their best foot forward. We just launched a redesign of our website (hence, this blog). Explore the site. Our work can be sorted by capability keywords: branding, website design, etc. Case studies are a new feature that we're excited to update as projects close.
On our blog, we'll be writing about the things we find interesting related to design, sustainability, philadelphia, food...
On January 25th, we hosted a kick-off meeting for TEDxPhilly, an independently organized TED event that is coming to Philadelphia in spring/summer 2010. The theme will be “Right Here, Right Now.” About 50 people from around our city came to our office space that we share with ex;it to volunteer in the planning process.
What’s TED? TED’s mission is simple: spreading ideas. “TED believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So they're building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most...

One of the most frequented tourist attractions in our city is going through some changes. And, we’re not too happy about them. Pink Rose, Pearl, TLA Video, Curiosity Shoppe and Mew all tangents off South Street will be closing today.
Farewell.
photo by teofilo via flickr creative commons.


















