In 2007, current Aqua Books Designer-in-Residence Julia Michaud (of Instant Noodles) created some spoof logos for us. This was one of them. In November of that year, The Campbell Soup Company went after me. Around here we call it The Soup Incident.
McNally may suck, but you rock, Noodles. Thx you. (Yours is better than my feeble attempt.)
Happy Anniversary to my great friend – Kelly Hughes, on his monumental 10th year of working his dream gig as the always cheeky owner of Aqua Books.
Today in Canadian History - July 13, 1999
Aqua Books opens at 306 Notre Dame Avenue in Winnipeg, under the name Aslan and Frodo’s Used Books. (The name was changed two years later when bookstore owner Kelly Hughes realized that only geeks would go to a store with that name.) This is the original logo, created by artist-turned-blogger (and my brother-in-law-turned-not), Donn Coppens, which shows Frodo reading and smoking, while Aslan looks on.
The store opened in a space that was less than 10% the size of the new Aqua Books/EAT! bistro building, with about 25% of the current number of books. The store has gone from one of the city’s smallest, to being downtown Winnipeg’s biggest (and Winnipeg’s Cultural City Hall).
It was eight years before I was able to quit my other full-time job. The whole thing has almost wrecked my marriage, almost bankrupt me, and almost killed me. But I wouldn’t have done anything else.
Thanks to all who have supported us over the years, and Happy 10th to us.
Our (slightly) tongue-in-cheek ad that ran in the program for the 2009 Manitoba Book Awards. (Courtesy of Julia Michaud.)
