A customizable note card from She She Impressions. Photo: Courtesy of She She Impressions

She She Impressions is a Toronto-based company that sells a variety of stamp designs, note cards, and a selection of coloured inks through its online store. The company, launched earlier this year by longtime friends Martha Digby Boyle and Leslie White, designs personalized name and address stamps and has just begun offering a new product called My Logo Stamp, which is suitable for corporate clients. With a black and white copy of a  logo—in either a jpeg or pdf format—the company can create a custom self-inking stamp to be used as a seal on envelopes or featured on one of its 15 note card designs. The front of each card has a circular cut-out to accommodate the stamped design. The stamps, which can be shipped throughout North America, retail for $49.99 and will last for as many as 10,000 impressions.

The Lou Lou Ghost Chair Photo: Courtesy of Resource One

To add some modern style to kiddie-centric events, there is now a child-size version of Philippe Starck's popular Louis Ghost chair. Like the original, the Lou Lou Ghost chair emulates the shape of a Louis XV armchair and is made of durable polycarbonate material, making it scratch- and weatherproof, as well as tough enough to withstand the rowdy antics of pint-size guests. Resource One currently rents transparent and pink chairs nationwide for $25 each. Other colors may become available for rent, depending on demand.

Reed Travel Exhibitions announced today that it is launching a new international trade show for the global meetings and incentive industry, dubbed the Americas Incentive Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition (AIBTM), to be held in Baltimore from June 29 to July 1, 2010.
 
Group Exhibition Director Paul Kennedy said in a press release that after working for two years on a research and business development plan for AIBTM, it was clear there was a demand for an Americas event that delivered domestic and international exhibitors and buyers. Kennedy added that Baltimore was chosen as the city to host the event because of its extensive air routes for international travelers.

Comix, a venue for the Kids Get Cooking events Photo: Saurabh Wahi

In two days the first New York City Wine & Food Festival will begin a four-day series of gastronomic events, demonstrations, and discussions. Lee Schrager, director of special events at Southern Wine & Spirits and founder of the festival in South Beach, considers the meatpacking district the nexus of this fair, and while some of the locations are fitting choices, others are a little more surprising.

Many events will be taking place inside the Chelsea Market a few blocks north of the meatpacking district, including Thursday's Chelsea Market After Dark, a food and wine sampling party hosted by chef Bobby Flay. Also nearby will be the Grand Tasting on Pier 54, the closing party on the rooftop of the Hotel Gansevoort, and various classes and seminars at restaurants in the area.

Willing to lend their names and talents not just to the official campaigns, but to grassroots events and concerts, musicians have helped the presidential candidates to draw in plenty of money and maybe even a few voters this election year. The latest event is tonight’s “Barack Rock” at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

With musical performances from Andrew Bird, the Fiery Furnaces, and Guster, as well as comedic sets by Eugene Mirman and John Roberts, the fund-raiser is charging $40 ticket. Similar initiatives are popping up across the country; “Change Rocks” in Chicago and the “Barack Obama-rama” in Los Angeles have also seen indie rock acts joining forces for the Democratic candidate.

Museum of Arts and Design Photo: Alison Whittington for BizBash

One of several arts institutions that has moved in the past year—the New Museum of Contemporary Art opened its home on the Bowery in December—the Museum of Arts and Design unveiled its Columbus Circle headquarters to the public on Saturday, September 27. A $90 million capital campaign launched in 2003 allowed the contemporary art institution to acquire the site of the former Edward Durrell Stone building—noted for its lollipop-like base—and build onto it with glass ribbons and terra-cotta tiles.

The new structure opposite Central Park was designed by Allied Works Architecture and has almost double the gallery space of the museum's previous West 53rd Street site. In addition to this, the 54,000-square-foot museum also houses a 155-seat auditorium, a larger store, and a 1,880-square-foot event space. Next year, the institution will add a 3,650-square-foot restaurant operated by Ark Restaurants Corporation to its ninth floor.

In a story published online Friday and in yesterday's Styles section, The New York Times went behind the scenes of last Thursday’s New York Women’s Foundation gala, exploring the obstacles the first-time benefit faced: The economy is in a state of disarray, the charity is not a household name, and the benefit competed with the highly anticipated vice presidential debate. Despite the challenges, the foundation managed to eke out a happy ending by drawing 280 guests, including Robert De Niro (thanks to his wife, event chairwoman Grace Hightower) and Mayor Bloomberg, and raising $675,000.

The article’s overarching focus, however, was on the economy's affect on benefit season. “I think it’s going to be overall disastrous for charities, with no end in sight,” Sanford J. Schlesinger, a New York trust and estates lawyer, told The Times. Some of his clients have put off creating foundations and are rethinking major gifts.

2009 Michelin Guide to New York City Photo: Courtesy of Michelin North America Inc.

At a press breakfast this morning, Michelin Guide global director Jean-Luc Naret unveiled the 2009 Michelin Guide to New York City and its selection of rated restaurants and hotels. To be released tomorrow, the book includes 563 eateries in all, and of the 42 that received stars from the inspectors, some newbies made the list and a couple others jumped up in the ratings.

Masa, the highly regarded Japanese restaurant from chef Masa Takayama that currently holds four stars from The New York Times, moved from its two-star ranking to the top tier, joining Jean Georges, Le Bernardin, and Per Se in the guide’s highest category. The Michelin inspectors also bumped up Gilt, the in-house restaurant of the New York Palace Hotel, from its one-star standing to a two-star one, and awarded new restaurants Adour, and Momofoku Ko the same grade.

The inside of Coty's Harajuku Lovers Fragrance Lounge Photo: Courtesy of Coty Prestige

The four Harajuku girls Gwen Stefani employed for her 2004 solo tour weren't around to promote the new Harajuku Lovers fragrances in Canada—but they were emulated by models dressed in short skirts and pigtails as part of manufacturer Coty Prestige's traveling Harajuku Lovers Fragrance Lounge, which visited several locations in Toronto and Montreal from Thursday to Saturday. They also inspired Stefani's new fragrances, with each of the four girls, plus Gwen, representing one of the five scents.

"The fragrances are really fun, and we wanted to get the girls involved in the event," said Kim Husted, director of marketing at Coty Canada. The lounge—held in the Jam Van, a 24-foot vehicle designed for experiential marketing events—promoted the new scents in high schools, malls, movie theatres, and nightclubs in Toronto and Montreal over the three-day period. The mini tour started October 2 with a media preview.

Knoll textiles at "Design Design" Photo: Jessica Torossian for BizBash

The 2008 International Art and Design Fair got underway at the Park Avenue Armory with a gala preview on Thursday night, and hundreds of enthusiasts and collectors showed up at for an advanced look at this year's selections. The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture celebrated the fair (and the school's continued involvement with the 108-year-old event) by hosting "Design Design," a post-preview dinner for 125 just three blocks south at 583 Park Avenue.

Honoring the design school and the work on display at the fair was a hefty order to fill when conceiving the evening's decor, so designer DeJuan Stroud turned to BGC's fair exhibition, "Knoll: Furnishing Textiles in the Clothing Context." Designed by Proenza Schouler, the display showcases the various designers making use of Knoll textiles and even incorporates them into a wall installation.