Items tagged with 'design'
Stuck on Albany
These Albany-themed stickers by local artist Cara Hanley are delightful and they're available via Etsy for $8. Blurbage:
Set of 4 Albany stickers made from my original watercolor paintings. These stickers are made from a durable vinyl with a laminate that protects your stickers from scratching, rain and sunlight.
We'd be happy to get them as a gift, and we bet other people would, too. You know, if you're looking for some fun, small gifts for the upcoming holiday season.
See also: The rest of her Etsy shop, which include a number of local-themed works.
Earlier: Senate House Marigolds
photo via Etsy
Screenprint Biennial 2018
The 2018 Screeprint Biennial will be at the Opalka Gallery on the Sage Albany campus November 1-December 14. Event blurbage:
The Screenprint Biennial 2018 seeks to showcase a range of screenprint-based art applications, from framed, editioned prints to installation, sculpture, video, ephemera, and posters. This exhibition isn't meant to act as a survey or "who's who" of screenprinting, but to assemble artists who utilize adventurous, relevant, and passionate takes on the screenprinted medium. The works chosen are part of screenprint's rich lineage, drawing on the history of this versatile medium, while at the same time pointing to a future where technology, politics, and expression are pushed through mesh by a squeegee onto the world of ideas.
"The work in this year's biennial exhibition continually exceed my expectations in the way so many elements come together to create compelling, important, and timely narratives," says founder and juror Nathan Meltz. "These art pieces also draw upon a depth of expression, and open windows into creative worlds."
From large-scale installations from artists Sheila Goloborotko, Tonja Torgerson, Tatiana Potts, to smaller-scale three-dimensional works by Olivia Fredericks and experimentation with augmented reality from Mark Hosford, the show will expand the definition of the word "screenprint."
In addition to the Opalka Gallery showing off the works of art and design, there will also be a handful of events to go along with the Screeprint Biennial.
And, yep, one of them involves making prints with a two-ton steamroller...
Animated glimpses of Albany
Check out these beautifully-animated, slice-of-life shorts set in Albany. They're by local artist/animator Jordan McClendon.
The first -- "The Plaza" -- is embedded above. The other -- "The Strip" -- is embedded below.
McClendon told us via email: "Inspiration for this work came from my appreciation for the diversity and architecture of this great city. I've walked and driven these streets for years and I thought what better way to show my appreciation of Albany than to use this city as a basis for some creative animated output."
You can head over to his website to see more of his work. And there's info there about how to contact him for freelance projects.
A bike ride and design tour around Albany's Corning Riverfront Park
The LocalxDesign series has a bike tour of the Corning Riverfront Park September 12. Blurbage:
We are embarking on a 3 mile bike ride as we explore the park and discuss how the experience of the landscape has changed overtime. From the times of the Albany Basin, through creation of the Preserve, to recent cycling infrastructure improvements and possible future enhancements of the park we hope to learn about history of the space. We are informally partnering with the CDPHP Cycle! and attendees can either bring their own bikes or use the bikeshare. As of now we are not offering any special discounts on the bike rental, but CDTA will assist with making sure we have adequate number of the rental bikes at the Broadway docking station.
The tour will start from in front of the Stacks Espresso Bar at 488 Broadway, loop through the preserve, go by the USS Slater, and return to the starting point.
The meet-up time for the tour is 5:30 pm. It's free to attend, but registration is requested.
LocalXDesign?
LocalXDesign is a monthly series of events focused on design projects in this area. Previous events this year have included tours of downtown Albany murals, the Empire State Plaza, and The Church artists/events space in Troy.
Its founders are Barbara Nazarewicz, a landscape architect, and Liz Podowski King, a landscape designer.
Earlier:
+ Walking the new (very, very, very green) multi-use path along Corning Riverfront Park
+ Connecting Albany's riverfront park
Here's the design of that Henry Johnson commemorative medallion
Here's that how that coin-shaped medallion to honor Henry Johnson turned out. It will debut at a free event at The Palace June 27 at 5:30 pm.
The silver medal was created by the local Ferris Coin Co. And the design -- a product of national contest -- is by Chris Costello, who's designed many coins and medals for the US Mint. A quarter he designed honoring the Block Island National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island will be released later this year. (Another bit about Costello: He's the creator of the Papyrus typeface.) Costello will be at the Palace event.
Ferris is making 500 of the coins/medals. Ten of those have been set aside for the winners of the city of Albany's Henry Johnson Award for Distinguished Community Service. This year's winner -- Jahkeen Hoke, the founder of the org 4th Family -- received one of the medals last month at the award ceremony.
The company is also selling the coins. They're $29.95 at the Palace event. Two dollars of that will benefit the 369th Veterans Association of Albany.
A medallion to commemorate Henry Johnson
The image above is the design for a new coin-shaped medallion the Ferris Coin Co. is producing to commemorate Henry Johnson. (You might remember the call for entries back in March.) The reverse side, which is still being finalized, will feature Albany City Hall.
The winning design is by Chris Costello, who's designed many coins and medals. A quarter he designed for the US Mint honoring the Block Island National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island will be released later this year.*
The Henry Johnson medals will be available in June. Ferris is making 500 of them, and the price will depend on the price of silver. A group of the coins will be set aside for winners of the Henry Johnson Award for Distinguished Community Service. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the coins will benefit the Albany Veterans of the 369th, which worked to get Henry Johnson recognized with the Medal of Honor.
The pedagogy penguin
A stray bit that of local history that made us smile this week...
UAlbany's current mascot is a dog, specifically a Great Dane named Damien. But for a few decades last century -- when UAlbany was called the New York State College for Teachers and the State University of New York College of Education at Albany -- the mascot was a penguin.
Or, rather, it was the "Pedguin." From a UAlbany News item:
Then came 1948-49, and someone realized that another name for "teachers" -- "pedagogues" -- could be shortened into a new and catchy sports nickname: "Peds." It was used first in a State College News basketball game write-up on Dec. 3, 1948, and became dominant. Again, however, it was a nickname without a mascot.
That inanimate situation ended on May 13, 1949, when it was announced that the student body had chosen "Pedguin," a penguin-like figure designed by Paul Kirsch '51, as school mascot. In both scholarly and cuddly manifestations -- drawn, sewn (on patches), stuffed and, in late '50s and early '60s basketball games, costumed -- the Pedguin remained the college's mascot until a new university identify cried out for something beyond the symbol of the teacher.
Yes, the pedagogy penguin. Prepare to be schooled!
The school switched over to the Great Dane in 1965 via a contest that asked students for submissions. Belated congrats to Kathy Earle '57 who suggested the Great Dane because of its "proud bearing and imposing stature."
UAlbany timeline
By the way: There's a good timeline of UAlbany history online that tracks the charts the various names of the school and other developments.
Flowers from the Netherlands, then
Decorative arts break: The earthenware tiles above are from the collection of the Albany Institute -- they date to around 1625 and they were made in the Netherlands. We love the illustrations of the flowers and the blue-patterned background. If you head over to the Albany Institute's online collections you can zoom in and see all the little details.
These pieces are tin-glazed, which gives them that characteristic shiny white background. The style was hugely popular in the Netherlands around this time -- the country made huge numbers of them. And a specific version of this technique, famously using blue patterns on white, became associated with the Dutch city of Delft. The style of the tiles above is called faience.
These tiles were a gift to the museum from Mabel Brady Garvan. She and her husband -- Francis Patrick Garvan, a prominent attorney and chemical industry official during the first quarter of the 20th century -- were collectors of all sorts of decorative objects. Many of those pieces are in the The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection at Yale.
The Albany Institute has all sorts of pottery and earthenware in its collection, many examples of which are posted in the museum's online collection if you'd like to gawk.
A look around the new Cafe Madison
The new Cafe Madison location on Northern Boulevard in Albany opened this week. It's now open 7 am to 3 pm, seven days a week.
It's the second location for the popular breakfast/lunch cafe, a follow-up to its longtime spot on Madison Ave in Pine Hills. The new restaurant occupies one end of the Loudon Plaza strip mall across from Albany Memorial Hospital. It has big windows, a long bar up front, and a brightly decorated interior designed by Jessica Evans. (She also designed Ama Cocina in downtown Albany.)
"This space allows us to do a little more behind the bar, including cold-pressed juices, but it's pretty much same [as the other Cafe Madison]," said Brian Viglucci, the managing partner of BMT Hospitality. The menu is, with the exception of a few additional items, roughly the same as the Madison Ave location. Viglucci said the both spots will eventually have the same menu.
This is the 10th restaurant for the Albany-based BMT, whose holdings also include Junior's (both Albany and North Greenbush), The Point, Madison Pour House, Ama Cocina, Albany Ale & Oyster, Spinner's Pizza, and The Pub.
Here's a look around the new Cafe Madison...
What's an apartment or condo building design you actually like?
Whenever the topic of new building projects comes up, people inevitably end up talking about the exterior design. And that's great. The question of how buildings look and relate to the surrounding context is worth paying attention to. Our environment -- including the built environment -- can affect the way a place works, and how we feel while we're there.
Somewhat less encouraging is that reactions to the designs are usually lukewarm to negative.* Recent example: the proposed residential redevelopment of the Playdium site in Albany's Pine Hills neighborhood.
So, in the spirit of "more like this" instead of "no, not that"...
What's an apartment building that you like the look of? Why?
It could be a local building, it could be one somewhere else. (Ideas from else could be a welcome addition.) It could be new, it could be old.
It'll be interesting to hear what you think.
And If we get enough answers we might be able to pull something together about why buildings are designed the way they are today, and what's possible and/or cost effective for new residential buildings.
____
* Some of the apparent level of dissatisfaction is no doubt due to the fact if people don't like something, they're probably more likely to speak up.
Earlier:
+ What's a recent building that you like? (2014)
+ Six not-boring parking garages (2013)
Ideas for interesting indoor spots for family photos?
Maclain asks:
Hi - I'm looking for suggestions on locations where I can have indoor family pictures taken in the Albany area. The weather is turning so I'm looking for a place to do a photo shoot for a family pic (not a studio). Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks!
There's something about those staged in-studio family photo sessions that makes everything look like it's from 1980something. So finding some sort of other setting is a fun idea.
It seems like there are probably too considerations here: 1) What's a good place, and 2) What's a place where that's allowed.
Go a suggestion for Maclain and family? Please share! A sentence or two about why you're suggesting a place can be helpful.
A shareable reminder of that shop in Troy
Memes, sponsored content, Facebook link bait -- all this stuff might seem very modern. But it's probably not a stretch to say that people have pretty much always been into shareable images like this, it's just that now we are all collectively able to manufacture and distribute it at saturation levels.
We were thinking about that while browsing through old trade cards for shops in Troy from the late 19th century. The cards were sort of like modern business cards, but were a form of content unto themselves that people traded and collected.
Some are beautiful. Some are kind of funny. Some are just plain weird. Here's a few of them from Troy...
Interior designer or decorator suggestions?
Christina emails:
Can you ask your readers to recommend any interior decorators or designers they have worked with? I am looking for some help for my living room, but don't want to commit to buying everything at once, so a focus on someone I can pay to help me with a plan that I can implement over time would be great.
A designer can be an added expense for a home project. But we're often pleasantly surprised by how a talented designer can look at a building/space/place and see solutions, angles, and ideas a non-designer might miss. And if you buy a home that needs a lot of updating, being able to talk over a plan with someone who does this often could be a help.
So, got suggestion for Christina -- whether it's a designer or some other sort of resource? Please share! And a sentence or two about why you're recommending a person/service can be a big help.
Earlier: Help with kitchen renovation design?
photo: Paul Gallo
Paper Is Part of the Picture at the Opalka Gallery
If you have any design nerd interests -- papers, vintage posters, typefaces, the business of design, and so on -- the current exhibit at the Opalka Gallery on the Sage Albany campus is worth a quick stop.
Paper Is Part of the Picture chronicles the evolution of the promotional materials for the 100+ years of the Strathmore Paper Company. Blurbage:
The company, founded in 1892 and now owned by Mohawk, pioneered the notion of paper as an essential visual and tactile aspect of a printed piece, rather than a simple commodity. It did so by embracing artists and designers as collaborators. Strathmore's paper promotions reflect the changing trends in American graphic design across the 20th century from Arts & Crafts to the digital era.
The headquarters of Mohawk Fine Papers is in Cohoes, as you know. The materials in the exhibit are from the Strathmore archive.
There's a curator's talk with Paul Shaw about the exhibit October 26 at 6:30 pm. And on November 3 at 6:30 pm there's a tour with Chris Harrold, VP and creative director at Mohawk. Both are free.
The exhibit is on display through December 15.
Luba Lukova
If you're interested in this exhibit, there's a good chance you'd also be interested in an AIGA Upstate New York event at the Opalka Gallery October 17 with Luba Lukova, creator of "arguably some of the most iconic and indelible imagery in the realm of contemporary poster design."
The talk is at 6:30 pm Tuesday. Tickets are $20 / free for students with ID.
New York State of Design show at the Troy Innovation Garage
The Troy Innovation Garage is hosting New York State of Design, a new show of work by upstate New York designers, this Friday, September 29. It's a curated show organized by the upstate New York chapter of the design professional association AIGA. Blurbage:
Entries for the show spanned a wide range of logos, branding, public awareness campaigns, posters, books, packaging, app design, motion graphics, and typefaces. Most works were created as part of a business strategy, but others were student work, personal, or from the pure joy of creation. ...
Three of the country's most respected designers, Justin Ahren, J. Dontrese Brown, and Debbie Millman, juried the show. Each has selected one piece for their Judge's Choice Award.
There will also be a panel discussion there Friday evening featuring some notable local design pros:
+ Melissa Mangini, managing editor of the Albany Business Review
+ Richard Lovrich, creative director for Proctors
+ Aray M. Till, managing editor of Beekman 1802 Almanac Magazine
+ Sara Tack, creative director of Smith and Jones
The opening night event is 5:30-9 pm during Troy Night Out. The panel discussion starts at 6:30 pm. Awards will be announced at 8 pm. Admission is free.
A way to say "more like this" when it comes to talking about how streets are designed
One of the difficult aspects of having public discussions about projects like the Madison Ave Road Diet is that it's hard for non planners/engineers to explicitly show what they'd like to see (it's true of building projects, too). And, maybe as a result, the discussion ends up being centered around what people don't want.
So this web app looks like it could be interesting and helpful: ReStreet allows anyone to plan the design of a street, laying out sidewalks, bike lanes, vehicle travel lanes, transit lanes, whatever. And then you can share the design with other people.
That image above is a screengrab of a sample design that we worked up this afternoon for upper Washington Ave in Albany.* The design includes wide sidewalks, protected bike lanes, a single travel lane in each direction, and middle turn lane.
What we like about this app is that it enables members of the public to essentially say "more like this," which seems like a path toward more productive discussion. So go give it a try.
[Via CityLab, which has backstory on the app.]
____
* Why upper Washington Ave? We've been thinking about it because the Capital District Transportation Committee, city of Albany, and UAlbany have been laying the groundwork to study the corridor in order to possibly change the design to better fit the recently lowered speed limit there.
Today's moment of architecture
Today's moment of architecture: One of our favorite walks in Albany is the segment of State Street from Western to Eagle. It's just one great building after another.
And it's not just how the buildings are at street level -- the tops of the buildings are also beautiful and compelling. Even the ones that don't immediately jump out yield interesting interest details when you take a minute to look.
An example is above: This string of five, similarly-styled buildings on State just east of Lark.
Signs of storefronts past
While talking with Schuyler Bull this week about his plans to re-open the Fort Orange General Store downtown, he mentioned hearing stories from his grandmother about how downtown Albany was at one time the place to shop.
And that's apparent when you flip through old photos of the area, like the "commercial streets" group of the Albany Public Library History Collection.
It's interesting to see how many shops were once packed into buildings around downtown Albany. But the thing we often end up gawking at is the old storefront signage. There's a certain style about it that makes today's signage just seem sort of... plain.
So we thought it'd be fun to go through the APL collection of photos and pull out a bunch of examples of downtown Albany storefront signs from the early 20th century...
Today's moment of ornamentation
Sure, the Smith Building looks all staid. But up close... lions! With lightning bolts!
The ceiling is moving
Here's a bonus track from yesterday's Albany Capital Center photo tour.
The second floor of the venue includes a huge ballroom/multi-purpose space -- 22,500 square feet with a 26-foot ceiling and no support columns. And it takes a second to process that you're in such an enormous, uninterrupted indoor space.
Anyway, the feel of the room further amplified by the LED lights that stud the ceiling. They can be programmable to change into millions of different colors while creating patterns that twinkle or move.
That's what the gif above is showing, a pattern from Wednesday that evokes a flapping American flag. It's kind of mesmerizing. (And it really weirds out the autofocus on a phone camera.)
Here's a longer (but still short) video clip if you'd like to zone out a bit more...
Wallpaper and power
The Schuyler Mansion recently completed the reproduction and reinstallation 18th century wallpaper -- "Ruins of Rome" -- and the historic site's blog shares the details about how exactly that all happened. The process involved digital image tech and, we suspect, a lot of patience.
But this part struck as particularly interesting. Writes Danielle Funiciello:
Rather than the sparse interior which has greeted visitors for 100 years, walking into the mansion is like now like stepping back in time. Philip Schuyler vision for his home was calculated. Each element was designed not only to impress guests once they arrived at the home, but to encourage wealthy and important guests to come in the first place; thereby creating networking opportunities for the Schuyler family. The size and grandeur of the home was successful - drawing visitors like the Washingtons, the Marquis de Lafayette, the Marquis de Chastellux, Benedict Arnold, and even Benjamin Franklin, who had a letter of introduction written so that he could stay at Schuyler's when travelling through Albany. The "Ruins of Rome" helps historians and museum visitors alike understand the first impression that accomplished this.
Hamilton
The Schuler Mansion is again offering its popular "When Hamilton Called Albany Home" tour in March. It's currently taking reservations for March 2 and March 4. And when March starts, it'll be begin taking reservations for other dates during the month.
And if you go, be sure to scope out all the wallpaper.
Earlier on AOA:
+ "You maintain your empire in spite of all my efforts..."
+ A timeline of Theodosia Burr Alston
photo via Schuyler Mansion Twitter
Talking with Albany artist Elizabeth Zunon about illustrating a legend, drawing on her family's history, and stoking her creativity
Check it out: A new children's book about Lena Horne -- The Legendary Miss Lena Horne -- was illustrated by Albany artist Elizabeth Zunon.
She's illustrated a handful of children's books. And like her other work, the images in The Legendary Miss Lena Horne are beautiful -- warm and textured, incorporating illustration and collage.
We bounced a few questions to Zunon this week about working on the book, an upcoming project based on her family's history, and local spots where she stokes her creativity.
Leads to fish
The little fish on this storm sewer grate in Albany caught our eye this week -- it's next to the note about the sewer draining to waterways. (At first we thought it might be a sturgeon, but the head and fin alignment look wrong.)
These little decorative touches on otherwise utilitarian stuff make us smile.
Also: Sturgeon on sewer grates would be pretty great.
Maybe judging a book by its cover isn't so bad...
Check it out: A cover by local designer Phil Pascuzzo -- for American Girls by Alison Umminger -- made Paste's list of the 30 best book covers of 2016.
American Girls is YA novel released this past summer. Blurbage:
Anna is a fifteen-year-old girl slouching toward adulthood, and she's had it with her life at home. So Anna "borrows" her stepmom's credit card and runs away to Los Angeles, where her half-sister takes her in. But LA isn't quite the glamorous escape Anna had imagined.
As Anna spends her days on TV and movie sets, she engrosses herself in a project researching the murderous Manson girls--and although the violence in her own life isn't the kind that leaves physical scars, she begins to notice the parallels between herself and the lost girls of LA, and of America, past and present.
Phil Pascuzzo has designed a bunch of book covers -- you've almost certainly seen at least a few of them, even if you didn't recognize them as a PepCo work at the time (his website includes a gallery). He sometimes posts new ones on his Instagram feed.
He's also done a ton of local design work -- band art, event posters, identity for orgs... including a bunch of the special AOA banners, such as the current holiday banner above.
[via @MsMansfield]
Earlier on AOA: The book on Phil Pascuzzo
Creative Every Day book launch
Earlier this year we mentioned Creative Every Day, a series of illustrated mini-biographies of local people created by artist Ira Marcks as a project aimed at inspiring kids to explore careers in the creative economy.
Well, the book of those tiny stories is now finished and it's great -- interesting, beautiful, and fun! You can check out a pdf of the book online at the first link above. We've also clipped a few pages after the jump in case you'd like to take a quick look. (But, really, go check out the whole thing.)
The book's creation was sponsored by the Work Force Development Institute. And Marcks says the institute and Proctors will be distributing the book for free to schools around the region as part of program to help kids learn about how artistic skills can be applied to a wide range of jobs.
There's a party to celebrate the release of Creative Every Day Thursday, October 27 at Troy Kitchen from 6-9 pm. There will be music from Jecco Trio, Sudharsana Srinivasan, Taina Asili, and Jamel Mosely. And everyone who attends will get a free copy of the book.
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?