SHO-GLOBE - Alaska Design Forum JUNEAU

WOW -- finally recovered after working on the SHO-GLOBE project. ReBar from San Francisco came up to Juneau and created the project. This was apart of Alaska Design Forum's project titled COMMON SPACE, which addresses communal spaces within communities that is is underutilized. This space should be a place of engage and interaction, but unfortunately for many communities it is not and is really dead space.

It was an epic week of work. From massive production of a 20' x 14' x 8' inflatable structure that was self sufficient and and could be set and packed into two "backpacks" and moved throughout a community. A place for interaction.

Lots of labor went into this piece. It was amazing to see how people engage with the piece after so many hours of work. SHO-GLOBE had a life of its own. From seeing it live next the State building in Juneau and seeing suits come in, to Friday night at Folk Fest and seeing every kid jumping into it.

WOW. Blaine and Adam of Rebar put so much into this project. It was really neat to see. And also all the volunteers that dedicated their time and to all the people that were so excited about the project. The best was as we were walking to Friday evenings launch, Blaine and Adam were walking with the monsterous backpacks and someone says .... what is that and what are you doing .... they reply .. it is SHO-GLOBE. His response was oh SHO-GLOBE right on. Everyone in the community talked about the project. It was really neat to have a store front to construct it to the Juneau Empire and local public radio station really promote it. And the amazing thing was all the papers that picked up the article on the AP Wire. We were even on the cover of a Boulder Paper .. and in papers across the country!

Okay ... back to routine ...

well ... not really.

JUGGERNAUNTS

JUGGERNAUTS is a solo show for Rachelle Dowdy at the Anchorage Museum. I worked on the catalog for the show. Because Rachelle uses pretty simple materials: nails, wood, concrete, rope, etc ... I decided to create the title of the show out of nails. It was pretty fun. I used this prototype for the catalog ... and we will create a larger one onto plywood for the entrance wall for the exhibition. Pretty fun. Lots of nailing to do next week.

PILOT PROJECT - POP 11

PILOT PROJECT is up.

Until Jan. 16th, 2011, the oversized pilot bread box will be up at west chester lagoon. The 4'x 14' piece is place around a great skating track. Last night was the opening, where pilot bread with salmon dip was served, amongst a nice fire. The install was on a perfect day of ice fog, with the sun breaking up the fog for a magical day.

This project is apart of POP 11, which is various art happenings community wide coinciding with the Warhol exhibit at the Anchorage Museum. These happening relate to POP art, POP culture and things relevant of our time, and Alaska.

I constructed this piece to engage the larger public about the exhibit. Bring art into everyday culture is important. Engaging people in settings other than a museum is important.

Pilot bread is an unique product/icon. 98% of all the production of the product is made for Alaskans, which is made in Virginia.

Hamilton Wood Type - WOW

Lucky me ... getting to visit the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Since 1880, they have been making wood type - and grew to the largest producer of type in the country. With over 10,000 type families - it is one incredible place. I even got to pull a few prints in their letterpress studio. Now that I am a member of the museum ... it comes with some great perks ... like the ability to use their sweet studio. I am already planning my next trip back ... and getting the time to really explore. The best part about my trip was my mom telling me my uncle earl worked there ... along with a cousin of mine. For all graphic designers this is a must see and all need to support a place like this.

un/common & common space

It is that time of the year, I am working on a crazy alaska design forum project.

This year's lecture series theme is un/common ... focusing on inspiration from things, common and uncommon. We have a shortened lecture series, but will be presenting a symposium and design challenge titled common space, happening in April of next year. It will focus on common spaces in communities rural and urban across the state. Right now, it is set for five communities.

I created these dimensional letters with the help of Michael Gerace doing some very nice drawings .. and Insofoam, a foam company right here in Anchorage. The idea was to use the common word of common, create it in a material (that is locally made), have it share the common space, and be able to use the sculpture to create excitement and awareness for the symposium and design challenge.

With the help of Larry Harris, a photographer here ... and back up help of Mike Hondell, we photographed one location of them .. today we will do another on water.

Now I just have to bring it all together for the season poster that must go to the print on Wednesday.

wow....

Palette House

how beautiful.

Go old school

I stumbled across this short film on the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Titled Typeface, it is an interesting film on the soon to be lost history of letterpress type creation. The crazy thing is this place is just an hour away from where I grew up. I am looking forward to my visit to the museum ... and maybe a workshop if it works out. Jim the director says they have some major leaks in the building, which is putting off some of their summer workshops. I am heading back in September, and hopefully I get to play with these -- and meet some of the neat people there!

Help support the museum.

Object Runway - another round ....

This weekend ampersand will have another round of wear down in Homer, Alaska. The Brunnell Street Arts Center is hosting the IGCA Object Runway show. Should be a fun time.

4 logos selected for next LogoLounge Volume 6 book!

Just received an email saying that four of my logos were selected for the next publication of logolounge! ----- Over 34,000 logos were entered for consideration. The book is published by Rockport Publishers and will be released in February of 2011. The logos that were selected were Rise & Shine Bakery, Motherhood Later, museummomentum, and FREEZE.

Ruby's delicatessen install almost done!

Ruby's ... just finished except for creating some sculptural type ....

It is fun to see it all come together. Here are some photos ... along with a little sketch of what the type will look like too.

PROJECT RUNWAY

Some great photos done by Clark Mishler of the event.

Cute photo of Sarah and Charlee - No. 6 and a nice one of the dress No. 69. Too bad Charlee got a bit tired ... will have to get some photos of her in her dress.

Alaska Design Forum AIA 2010 Collaborative Achievement Award

Just recently announced - Alaska Design Forum has received the 2010 AIA (American Institute of Architects) Collaborative Achievement Award. A very cool honor to be listed amongst previous winners such as Metroplois magazine, Chicago Architectural Foundation, etc. The ceremony and panel will take place at the national conference in Miami in June.

Ruby's delicatessen opening ...

The first part of February, a new delicatessen will be opening in mid-town. A extensive menu with all the things of a new york deli --- even matzo balls and loxs. I am working on environmental graphics right now ... those will be installed after the soft opening.

Object Runway

Putting final touches on my entry into object runway. It is definitely in the experimental category. & (ampersand) is playing with uniting forms, in a graphical, sculptural way. This event is definitely going to sell out -- buy some tickets now for the event on Sat, Feb. 6.

OBJECT/RUNWAY: FEBRUARY, 2010

OBJECT/RUNWAY: FEBRUARY, 2010

I am getting my sewing machine warmed up ... and working on some sketches for this very fun event happening in February. I guess the judge is from this season Project Runway - Christopher Straub. I don't have a tv ... so I have never seen the show.

I think type will definitely be involved in my little piece. I am looking for a model though ....

THE CHALLENGE IS TO MAKE WEARABLE WORKS OF ART. CLOTHING SHOULD FIT INTO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES/THEMES:


• IMPRINT (use magazines, newspapers, newspaper bags or other)

• GRAPHIC (graphic design-inspired, letters, drawing-inspired or other)

• SURVIVAL (& the Great Outdoors)

• EVENING

• MILITARY-INSPIRED

• BUTTONS

• FOOD

• REMADE OR RECYCLED

• BIG, WILD LIFE

• APPROPRIATION (open to interpretation)

• ENTWINED (rope, string, ribbon, or other)

• VALENTINE

• WEATHERED

• THEN & NOW / TRADITION & INNOVATION

• MUSIC

• ANYTHING GOES

Awards will be offered to winners. Open to 5 entries per artist.

All works will be on exhibit at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art from February 7 - 28.

typekit - WOW

I am happy to write about typekit - a new subscription-based service for using open type fonts for websites. It is really incredible. I know in some cases you can do this using flash --- but let's face it --- if you use your iphone like I do, this does not work.

Typekit can use any type from leading foundries. Look at this .. I am highlighting all these HTML based characters!!!!

I think I might just start enjoying designing web pages again....

IGCA berth exhibition

Up at the IGCA is an exhibit on the berth happenings back in September. The first Friday event had lots of performances. Michael Gerace did a good job of putting it all together! I did not put up the ladder again ---- the ladder looks much better at a distance than close up. There are a few photos of it in the exhibit. It will be up for the entire month.

Cluster mobile

I am working on a little mobile type sculpture to fill our ten foot wall space. The top will use an old bike rim and rotate. Letters will be clustered onto it --- and revolve. I am hoping to have it done in a week or so. Stay tuned.

Alta Bike

Okay we bought the bike. And it is one fast single speed.

Alaska Design Forum was selected (out of a hat) to be one of the four recipients of the profits from the Mayor's Charity Ball. Frost Produkt, from Norway generously donated the bike to ADF. Jan and Sondre Ustrad, the two brothers that started Frost lectured in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau. Great guys --- doing some really nice work.

Our's is green.

This is a funny promo photo.

anchorage yoga

ANCHORAGE yoga is a new studio opening up. Katey Inman is the amazing teacher behind it. The studio will focus on power, flow and bikram yoga. They are install a new heating system to make it one hot studio. I can't wait for it to open.