D E S I G N /// ck

This is an old favorite of mine from PBF, who unfortunately isn't drawing comics anymore. I love Bip's outraged expression in the final panel.

This is a project I designed for over five years and was built last year. I stopped by (using the term loosely, it's nowhere near anything) Cowen, WV and took some interior shots for my firm's marketing materials. Thought I'd share them here.



The following are exterior pictures we had made professionally earlier this year:

Maybe in the future they'll term this my "Axonometric Cylinder Phase". The Raw Knox graphic led me to try a similar thing for my brother and sister-in-law's coffee shop. I really like slate/sky blues with deep browns. Perhaps it will eventually end up as part of their limited edition t shirt series. See my previous attempt here.

This was an offhand shot I took at a party at our house, but has slowly become a favorite of mine. It encapsulates how our house has become a home, how we've learned to have fun again, how we're trying to share in the lives of old and new friends. Having a true home has really opened a new door for us. Take what you what from that statement, but know that this winter was very good.

A graphic I cooked up (or didn't cook, as the case may be) today for a feature next week at the Wigshop. Ink sketch scanned and colored with Photoshop.

Ain't it the truth.

I've been trying to take more pictures lately of the stuff that's happening in my life. A favorite of mine is the above one of Lila (my second cousin-in-law?) at her first birthday party in Franklin. I'm starting to learn that you just keep taking pictures until you get a good one. I won't explain the rest, but hopefully you can get a good feel for the last few weeks of my life.

A new interesting book is out, Library of Dust by Davis Maisel:

Esteemed photographer David Maisel has created a somber and beautiful series of images depicting canisters containing the cremated remains of the unclaimed dead from an Oregon psychiatric hospital. Dating back as far as the nineteenth century these canisters have undergone chemical reactions causing extravagant blooms of brilliant white green and blue corrosion revealing unexpected beauty in the most unlikely of places. This stately volume is both a quietly astonishing body of fine art from a preeminent contemporary photographer and an exceptionally poignant monument to the unknown deceased.

It reminds me of the words recited as ash was placed on my forehead a few weeks ago:

Remember that you are dust, and into dust you shall return.

We live in a decaying, broken world... yet unexpected beauty accosts me everyday. It's in this tension I find the most peace, why I find things like Library of Dust so fascinating.

Cameron and Sarah were down here all weekend, and the only photo I got of them was the above crappy one. I need to get better at recording what's happening. This was a good one, though:


It was a good weekend.

This is my submission for this week's Drawer Geeks Jr. The theme is NINJA.

A lot of people from my Community Group have found me on Facebook, so I thought I'd make a group there to provide an online forum for everyone. It's cool how FB has set up the software for groups- a wall, discussion boards, events... all very intuitive and concise. One thing I can say for FB is that their design gets better and better.

The best part for me, however, was coming up with a logo:


The "C" and "G" font is an old favorite of mine- The Maple Origins. The "mechanicsville" is a new one to me- H2D2 Alevita, a kind of distressed Helvetica typeface. Both are available for free at Dafont, a website I highly recommend.

...is not like the others.


click to see the larger image, it's worth it

I like how this illustration shows a monumental event without cramming HOPE and CHANGE down our throats. It merely uses contrast and juxtaposing to get its point across. I also like the dot eyes and Obama's sheepish grin at the end.

Also, you can clearly see a trend in the mid to late 1800s from clean shaven to funky facial hair and then back again. Here's hoping the cycle repeats soon. I could really get behind a president with a fu manchu or an Amish beard.

[source]

how to build a compost bin


Alice and I are way more excited about composting than we should be. Last night I built our first compost bin. I used some old pallets that had been used to deliver building materials for the house. I almost threw them away, but I know I could use them for something, if even just for firewood. We got a great book about compost gardening a few weeks ago, and inside was a way to build a bin out of pallets. Voila! It's easy- set them up vertically into a three-sided box and screw or nail together the corners. I even like the way it has a sort of modern a la Mockbee architectural look to it.

Composting is a great way to organically fertilize your garden and reduce the amount of waste you send to the landfill. Between recycling and composting, we've cut our weekly garbage in half. Pretty soon we'll have monthly batches of compost to recharge the soil in our garden.

Coming soon: Planting!

horse poop

The good weather this weekend really helped us get some work done on the garden. I'm going to start reporting here the progress of our first garden. Hopefully I can help pass along the tricks we learn and the warn against mistakes made.


Laurence and I went up to a horse farm for manure. Luckily, we got some of the old stuff that had already composted some. That will help speed up the process in the garden, and it smelled a little less (a MAJOR benefit).


Horse poop on site. There's nothing like standing ankle high in a pickup truck load of poop, shoveling it out. Nothing like it.


We got the base of our beds leveled out and tilled. Rather than try to grow stuff in the so-so dirt of our yard, we're building up terraces to hold 6" thick plant beds on top of the existing soil. The picture above shows it with most of the bed material in, a pungent mix of organic topsoil, horse poop, and bit of soil conditioner.


In the meantime, we've started getting some seedlings to grow in our peat moss tray. These are pea plants, which Mr. Davis says should always be planted by Valentine's Day. We'll transplant them in a few weeks and put some new seeds. The tray is a great way to start from seeds, as you can control what the growth conditions better. If it gets too cold, move 'em inside. You can get a tray like this and peat moss discs at any Home Depot.

Next up, I'm building a three zone composting bin out of old delivery pallets. Stay tuned!

Today I put a somewhat humorous, somewhat really-meaning-it "tweet":


A while later, the Weather Channel wrote back!


First of all, Weather Channel is a liar, but they like me so I'll let it slide this time. Second, holy crap! This is like the weatherman reaching out of the TV and grabbing you, whispering sweet sunny nothings in your ear. What the heck? Oh Twitter, maybe you make me TOO connected.

A film for people like me that are obsessed with the design of things. These guys did a good job with Helvetica, which Alice can tell you started a somewhat annoying (to her) habit of analyzing fonts everwhere.

I can't wait for this one!

New photos are up on Flickr. Just click the "photos" tab above.

I always wanted to walk around Japan, with Peter. Bjorn and John in my ipod, observing random subcultures. Now I can just log in to the youtube! Thanx internets!

Colleen, is this what it's like?

Bela Fleck is opening a screening of Throw Down Your Heart here in Knoxville tomorrow night, even before New York and San Francisco! This film highlights the intersection of two fascinations of mine: African Culture and old Appalachian Culture. Specifically, the African origins of the banjo how music bridges cultures. I'm pretty sure I'll be going.

It also has a cool website worth checking out: http://throwdownyourheart.com/

This is how railroads keep the tracks clear of snow, and is becoming a bit of a mini obsession of mine right now:






Awesome!

via D+R

Happy Casimir Pulaski Day... a holiday drenched with bittersweet associations since 2005 thanks to Sufjan Stevens. This song captures, among other things, the feeling of late winter- just what I felt this morning when the sunrise slanted in through my bedroom window, and the cold bright morning I walked into as I stepped onto the porch. I can feel Spring and life is not too far away but winter, like bittersweet pain, lingers just a bit longer- as if to let know it will be back soon enough.



Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day [mp3]

via slowcoustic