Australian Memorial, London

the names of Australian soldiers who fought in WWI and WWII are listed- by bolding seemingly random letters in the names, the towns and countries they came from are displayed at a larger scale. By Tonkin Greer

Fukutake House by Flame
MOCA exhibit by Lawrence Weiner
Eureka Carpark by emerystudio
LAX Gateway by Selbert Perkins Design
Nativity by emerystudio

enviro design links

eh, for those friends looking in here occasionally, I'm mostly posting updates through my blog on archinect now, and using this as a working site where I and various group members and maybe thesis advisor can post ideas, links, images, and critique. So yeah, maybe not so entertaining for the rest of you, but wanted to explain what's going on...

Gutenberg Bible exhibit | Pentagram

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...more to follow.

Arcosanti Sans

well, here is the typeface, Arcosanti Sans: someday there may be an Arcosanti Slab as well, but not anytime soon... to paraphrase the description on the specimen poster, basically the type usually paired with places like Arcosanti is geometric, very clean stuff. Usually Futura. And that does pair well with some of the form of the built environment, but I pictured this typeface as being something that didn't just describe the built environment, but also its interaction with the natural landscape. So almost every letter (cause come on, what can you really do with an uppercase I in a sans-serif?) has some sort of organic form to it, and while I hope that parts of it hint at strong confident forms, I thought it would be more fun to see how a geometric place could be described by modern proportions instead of being so literal about it.

update #3: what happened to typography?

Some who know me well may remember that I've been overloading myself with studios since I came to grad school, and may have consequently noticed something missing from my fall work.

I'm not posting anything from my typography class fall quarter. I essentially treated it as a skills class, and have nothing from it that I'd care to show to anyone. You'll just have to be content to see my typography get better and better as you see the rest of my projects, culminating in my own typeface, which should be finished sometime in June. No, it won't be called 'Erin,' but will be named after ArcoSanti, the community on which it is based. So I'll leave you with the knowledge that during a portfolio review the other day, I was finally declared to be "a competent typographer," and one of the more formally inspirational photos of ArcoSanti:

those curves! those notches! They'll be letterforms someday, I swear it! I'm still debating sans-serif vs. slab-serif vs. wedge-serif, but that will be decided this weekend. And, I can always do ArcoSanti Slab now, with the knowledge that I can add ArcoSanti Sans later on to make it a happy little family of kooky Soleri inspired goodness.

I originally wanted to base the typeface off of the drastic differences between what Soleri had planned and what had actually been built, but soon came to the realization that those differences are rather depressing. I mean, what was I thinking, that I could just design 3% of the typeface (to reflect that the community is only 3% complete)? So, while I hope to present a slightly more realistic vision of ArcoSanti than Futura (their current typeface of choice) does, it will in general still be an optimistic outlook.

update #2: political posters, sans politicians

I've gotten tired of the glossy image presented by politicians. I don't care if you sweat under the stage lights during a debate. I don't care if you're not very attractive. I don't care if you're black. All I care about are your views and your plans. So here's my attempt to get you to care about that too, or to at least cater to the priorities of people like myself. Each is based on the candidate's own words, and gives a brief summary checklist of their stances on other major issues at the bottom.

These were made for each of the (at the time) leading candidates on both the Republican and Democratic sides of the fence. I'm too lazy to post them all.... but these two got some of the best reactions, primarily because people in Seattle are very concerned about the environment, and it seems that most people don't realize quite how ridiculous Fred Thompson is.

updates on my work, part 1

sooooo, since it's been about forever since I've posted, I've decided to do a series of posts of my work, to document and explain, and well, just get it on out there! Comments, questions, and critiques are all appreciated. I'll start with myfall work in information design.

As a class, we were given the topic of energy to explain through information graphics. We started by researching everything we could about energy- facts about coal, nuclear energy, solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, and overall energy cons

umption were collected and poured over. Of course, the thing about energy that interested me the most was the part least talked about- the delivery of energy. Of course, I was in LA for rolling blackouts, so maybe that had something to do with it. Everyone was talking about how energy was produced, and how energy was used, and not thinking about what came in between. So the following was my attempt to explain that in-between stuff in the space of three magazine spreads...

So, there are some things about this that I'm happy with, and some that I'm not so happy with. And apparently, this is a consensus, as I was listed as a finalist in the Eyebeam Eco-Vis Challenge. 

Next up: political posters, without politicians.

Art Chantry @ the Henry

First of all, I must apologize for the lack of posting in the last month or so. I have been crazy busy settling into a new place, learning, working, and playing. I've had several things I wanted to blog about in this time, but it never seemed to happen. Tonight however, I went to a lecture that inspired me so much that I couldn't keep it to myself.

Tonight I stopped by the Henry Art Gallery to see local designer Art Chantry speak about his work. He hadn't really been on my radar before, and when I was deciding whether to attend or not I was frankly a little put off by the fact that most of his work is in advertisement. I admit to a bit of snobbery when it comes to slogging product, but this guy managed to rock my world anyway. What was so amazing? Authenticity. There is so little of it in the world, and Chantry has it in spades. Why shoot a TV and then take a picture of it, when you can take a picture of it and shoot the picture? Why put flames on a poster, when you can set the poster on fire? Why declare yourself to be Swiss when you're really a punk at heart? For the first time I see with 100% clarity that the abstract and undefined ideas that have been floating in my head do have a place in this industry, that I have a place in this industry. This man stepped up to the podium and he was tattooed, he was crass, he was unapologetic about his ugliest work, and I was amazed, because it's far too easy to become obsessed with making things look good at the expense of authenticity and experimentation and your own real self. Now, I'm not ready to run off and be a little disciple or anything, because that would only be imitation, and be as plastic and slick as the Swiss disciples, and I'm not particularly punk anyways.

But I guess what I'm trying to say is this: thank you Art, for a magical evening. You really opened my eyes.

Moving, TA Training, Orientation.... information overload!

So, I will be starting the MFA in Visual Communication Design at the University of Washington next wednesday. This past weekend, I packed most of my posessions in my Jetta and drove it 17 hours north to start a new life. I went from summer to fall in under a day, from warmth to rain and chill, from architecture to graphic design, from the working world back to school, and from the known into the unknown. More images of my neighborhood, my school, and my studio work, will come in time, but for now I thought I'd post some observations gleaned from the information overload that has been the past four days:

*Never ship anything you really care about, unless it is nigh indestructable.
*"Do not beat up your students"!!! (yes, this is an actual quote from my TA Training conference. I don't know how the seminar took this turn, but once it had it was hard to get back on track)
*Even grad students have a hard time with some very simple things, like course registration.
*The bus system here really IS better.
*A Volkswagen Jetta can fit approximately one room worth of posessions, plus up to three bicycles on the back when outfitted with the appropriate rack.
*I'm not the only one too poor to afford the MacBook Pro they really want...
*I need sweaters. LOTS of sweaters.
*Even when it's cold here, it's really, really beautiful.

Seattle Parks - Freeway Park

This is post #1 in the Seattle Parks series. Freeway Park is a hidden gem in the midst of downtown Seattle, designed by Angela Danadjieva. A concrete 'lid' has been constructed on top of a portion of I-5, and populated by walkways, plants, and fountains. This hidden gem is a great example of the character of Seattle itself, with the large expanses of concrete directly bordered by verdant landscape. It is full of interesting textures, beautiful dappled light, lunching workers from nearby corporate towers. I don't blame them --- if I worked downtown I would lunch here, too. Full photoset can be found on Flickr.

notes on biking in Seattle

So I was in Seattle a few weeks ago, and meant to do a series of Seattle posts right when I got back, but, well.... you know how it goes. Anyways, two great things about the above image: first, the bike parking was pretty nice. Apparently these used to be parking meters, but the metering on that street was replaced by a single electronic meter that serves the whole street. So instead of ripping out all the old parking meters entirely, they just chopped off the tops and added these cute bicycle symbols, that cyclists can lock to. Being convenient, good-looking, obvious, and based on the principle of re-purposing existing infrastructure gets this bike rack major props here. The only downside was that they were only good for one or two bikes.

Great thing #2 about the above picture: that's a rental bicycle! That's right, the great folks at Montlake Bicycle Shop hooked me up with a very nice rental bike for a few days. I got several compliments on it, everyone was suprised that it was a rental. I completely recommend renting a bike as a great way to see the city- you're not at the mercy of the bus schedule, and you get a better view of many of Seattle's natural wonders than either pedestrians or motorists do. Plus, all that exercise lets you try tasty treats from Pike Place market guilt-free! So all in all, it was a great trip and I logged in lots of miles. I hope to post more later, particularly about some of the parks I saw there.

toxic algae

A trip to the beach (on two wheels) yielded the a strange and unsightly water condition that seriously discouraged swimming. Each wave crest was green. Violent, acid green. Green ripples were left on the sand where the water had receded. Flotillas of the same green material abounded on the water, looking like rising yeast which had met an unpleasant food coloring. A lifeguard told us that this presence was an unusual amount of algae in the water due to warmer than average water temperature. A look at the Ocean Advisory and Beach Recreational Health page yields the information that Venice Beach's water quality grade for this month is indeed a C, with a symbol indicating that this does not meet acceptable standard.

Big suprise. While the lifeguard on duty was quick to assure that this was nothing to be worried about, my scalp and skin felt coated in slime after my hasty exit from the water, and I can't help but think that when someone has algae in their pool, they don't take a swim in it.

Expo Line Funding In Jeopardy

Shhhh, they're trying to keep it quiet, so quiet it was just a tiny nugget buried in today's LA Times, but the State of California may pull funding out from under Phase II of the light rail line intended to connect downtown Los Angeles and the University of Southern California to the ocean at Santa Monica.

"There is talk in Sacramento about major budget cuts in transportation spending — and that has implications for the Expo Line. Work is now beginning on a light-rail system from downtown L.A. to Culver City. But transportation officials said cutbacks could hurt the chances of building Phase 2, from Culver City to Santa Monica. That could be bad news for Santa Monica. The city has already purchased land for a possible rail station."

As this snippet mentions, Phase I Expo Line has already started construction. Phase I will begin at the 7th Street Metro Station in downtown LA, heading south parallel to the Blue Line before breaking away west to connect with USC, Exposition Park, the neighborhoods of Crenshaw, Baldwin Hills, and La Brea before ending (temporarily, we hope) at the northern edge of Culver City near the start of the Ballona Creek bike path. fortunately, this phase of the Expo Line has funding in place, community support, and is set to go.

Phase II of the Expo Line is apparently not so lucky. This phase intends to pick up where phase one leaves off, and continue west via one of two routes: either by integrating into Venice Blvd, then jogging north up Sepulveda Blvd and then returning to the westerly course; or by following the Exposition Right of Way all the way to Santa Monica. I happen to be partial to the Venice/Sepulveda detour, as it places a station right next to my apartment building, and through a couple of neighborhoods that I know could use the added transportation option, but either option is better than nothing.

I can only support a project with such laudable goals as enhancing the connectivity of Los Angeles, reducing traffic congestion along the always busy east/west parking lot known as the I-10, and providing viable transportation options for those who either cannot afford to or morally oppose owning a personal automobile. So it frankly confounds me why the bureaucrats in Sacramento would rather fund highway expansions that let more people sit alone in their cars on the freeway than fund a mass transit option that enhances one of the most crowded commuter routes probably in the nation. The Expo Line will have millions of riders either way, but letting it hang out there half-finished would be a guffaw to rival the move in which Metro allowed the Green Line to not quite make it to the airport.