D E S I G N /// ck

new site

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:04:00 +0000

I may resume posting personal thoughts here, but a lot of my focus will be over at the APPALACH Design Workshop site, so be sure to check it out.

haiti orphanage section

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 18:57:00 +0000

the future?

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:27:00 +0000

Daydreaming and messing around with with logo and name concepts for my possible future firm. "Appalach" is the fictional root word of the mountains I love. I've used it around the internets for a while a user name and it's become a familiar alias, so why not? The logo is supposed to be a folded plane (a design motif I love) and also an abstraction of the way our mountain ridges line up in ascending blues on a clear day. I like "workshop"- it has a hands-on connotation. And hopefully I would offer contracting and fabrication services as well as design, so I thought it'd be appropriate. I see a drafting table next to a table saw... my kind of firm.

cool student project video

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:20:00 +0000

Interesting integrated concept- I love the idea of intelligently recontextualizing a strip mall. Also, the best integration of computer modeling and sketch diagrams I've seen yet. Really gives you a good feel for the process they went through. And make sure watch the very end- I really hope they included that in the presentation to their professors. I would have loved to present a project this way in school.

knoxville's bowery

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 13 May 2010 20:48:00 +0000

originally posted a notawigshop.com

photo credit: blurbomat.com

I've been reading Metro Pulse's "Ask Doc Knox" blog and I've been fascinated by the arcane history of this town. And it's brought something to mind.

First off, I love downtown. I work on Market Square, I love my neighborhood Mechanicsville. But... if I have a free sunny afternoon you'll find me heading down to the Old City for a cigar and a pint. I think that sitting in the corner booth of Patrick Sullivan's is maybe as close to the spiritual center of "Knoxvilleness" as one can get. It is the oldest building in the city, after all. The Old City vies with some of the best urban neighborhoods I've been able to find in other cities.

photo credit: blurbomat.com

I could go on about the charm of the district, but let's get to the point- as I've grown to love the Old City, I've tried to learn more about it. Jack Neely and "Doc Knox" (if they aren't truly one and the same) have helped me get a feel for its rough and tumble history. And, it it's proper name: The Bowery.

Back in the small original urban renaissance of Knoxville in the 1980s, the Bowery needed sprucing up. Perhaps longer than anywhere else, the "Suttree version" of Knoxville survived at the intersection of Jackson and Central (rumor has it that this area is where you'll be most likely to run into Cormac McCarthy when he's in town). It was a somewhat dangerous place, like the New York neighborhood it was probably named after. I've heard stories of prostitutes keeping shop above the old saloon, dragging half drunk winos up the stairs for business. Most of the gunfights in our city's history happened down there.

You can see how the early urban revivalists wanted to distance themselves from the Bowery's reputation. What better than a new name for the district? So, as I understand it, "Old City" was born. Never mind that near the river is the oldest part of the city. Out with the old, in with the new jazz clubs and lofts.

I'm not knocking the Kendrick and the preservationists. They did what they had to. Under it's new moniker, the Old City has risen, fallen, risen, fallen, and risen again. It has become the neighborhood I love. But it's been twenty years and "Old City" seems to me a bit contrived like "Happy Meadows" is for a subdivision. We need to embrace our past, even the gritty parts, and celebrate it. It's time to have a Bowery again.

From now on I'm calling the district around Jackson and Central The Bowery. Maybe I'm pseudo-nostalgic for a time when I'd probably have been murdered down there. We'll see if it catches on.

cul-bama

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:07:00 +0000

I forgot about this one. A while back my friend Cullin ran as a write in candidate for Knox County Comissioner. I made this graphic for him, parodying that iconic Obama graphic, which in turn imitated this one.

the future is now

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:08:00 +0000

comrade CG

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 19:04:00 +0000

This is an old one, but I don't think I ever posted it here. I thought the "Mechanics" reference in our neighborhood's name was very Soviet, so a tongue-in-cheek graphic reference was in order. Eddie at our church seems to love it in particular. He's calls me "comrade" now.

where to bridge?

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 22:41:00 +0000

An article of mine originally posted at notawigshop.com:

It looks like Knoxville is getting a pedestrian bridge. For a river city, we have amazingly few ways to cross it. It seems that generations of Knoxvillians were content to stay on the north side of the river. That's changing with the South Waterfront Plan, which will essentially create a southern half to downtown. Part of that plan is a pedestrian bridge, a la the Walnut Street Bridge in Chattanooga.

I'm all for it. I think if the city does it right, a beautiful new bridge could become as iconic to the city as the Sunsphere is. So the concept is sound, but where to put it? Mr. Flory has (rightfully) questioned the usefulness of the proposed site by UT campus. Given our river bluff topography and a plethora of obstacles (City/County Building, Baptist Hospital, UT Stadium/Arena), placing a bridge that works with downtown is a difficult task. But let's try it!

Blue shows our existing bridges, orange shows the "passes" that allow approaches through the South Knoxville hills, and red (labeled 1) is the proposed site. There are advantages and disadvantages to T-B Arena site, which I encourage you to discuss in the comments. However I would like to focus on a few alternatives here.

#2 Make the downtown pedestrian bridge connect to, you know, downtown. We could put it in between our two major bridges. All we'd have to do is tear down the City/County Building and the Baptist Hospital Complex. Yeah! As awesome as that would be, it's pretty improbable. Moving on...

#3 The bluff to the east of First Creek offers an interesting possibility. The north approach would be by the touristy part of town with James White Fort and the Hall of Fame. On the south side it would more intimately interact with the South Waterfront (something you can't say about the Scottish Pike neighborhood), terminating either at the unoccupied mound that Sevier Ave splits around (which would make a nice park) or centrally where Davenport Road comes over the ridge. There'd be some tricky threading by Ruth's Chris and those condos, but I think that'll be true of the T-B arena site also.

#4 Maplehurst to Blount Ave. There's an old railroad bridge there currently, but in the South Waterfront meetings it was confirmed that only ONE train a day uses it. This is the same track that awkwardly bisects Worlds Fair Park. The approaches on both sides are worked out- so we could either rehab the old bridge (like Chattanooga's Walnut Street and much cheaper) or dismantle the bridge and build the new one in its place. We might even be able to reuse the concrete piers (keeping cost down), something like this:

It would connect to a vibrant downtown neighborhood, the railroad right of way would easily connect its path to Worlds Fair Park and the Greenway system, and its southern approach would be much more central to the South Waterfront.

You can probably tell where I'm leaning. What do you think? Where would our pedestrian bridge be best placed?

Update:

OK, one more map. But first, a caveat: This bridge will be wonderful and scenic no matter where it's placed. What it's like over the water doesn't bother me, it's what happens at the ends that needs more thought.

The issue is our unusual topography. We're a river bluff city, with the occasional creek gorge separating elements (most significantly campus and downtown). What if the northern approach of was extended and more integral?

The bridge could come in at bluff level (with a side connection to Maplehurst) and "T" into ANOTHER bridge that bridges the Second Creek gap between the Hill and Downtown! This second bridge would tie into the 11th Street Garage bridge on its western end and into the Convention Center on the other.

At a convention? Want to see the river? Just walk down the elegant bridge between the old bluff neighborhood and the stately University. Suddenly the bluff drops away and the hills across the river reflect in its glassy surface. I can see it in my mind's eye...

500 years of self portraits

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:40:00 +0000

So, apparently I'm in video posting mode these days. I found the above video remarkably relaxing and intriguing.

excuses

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders "Excuses" from Yours Truly on Vimeo.

It's hard to express how much this lifted my spirits this morning. This music is summertime.

More good stuff here.

nyc pixel attack

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 18:44:00 +0000

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Independent web videos.

nice video

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:19:00 +0000

...Nice song. Digging the wood planks around the bed visually and the cello musically.

a holistic approach

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:43:00 +0000

originally posted at wigsphere.com...

Furthering the discussion from yesterday's post, I thought I'd show here what I thought a comprehensive bicycle lane system in Knoxville would look like. The current piecemeal approach has left us with good bike lanes that go nowhere:

I know funding has been a limiting factor, and also that some roads don't have much room (see Kelley Segars's comments) but what should we be aiming for? As the city redevelops major streetscapes (like the upcoming Cumberland Ave. Strip makeover) bike lanes need to be included by default.

Hall of Fame Blvd. is good example- great bike lanes, but they don't push through and connect with downtown, Broadway, or the Magnolia Ave. bike lanes. Actually making a comprehensive system will mean threading sometimes difficult connectors between paths, at expense of (gasp!) automobile traffic. The new Henley Street Bridge bike lanes are great, but what happens when you reach the end of it and plunge into that snarling mass of automobiles? What if it was more like this:

1) Extend the Hall of Fame bike lanes to Broadway and to the new transit center.
2) Extend the current Magnolia bike lanes to Broadway
3) Extend the Central St. lanes to the Old City
4) Introduce new bike lanes on Western Ave./Summit Hill to make a main east-west route. (Jackson Ave. could be an alternate if Summit Hill is unfeasible.)
5) Introduce bike lanes starting on Chapman Hwy. from Disc Exchange to Henley St. and up Broadway to Hall of Fame, creating a main north-south route. (Gay St. could be an alternate, but it doesn't really need lanes since it's the most bike-friendly street in the city.)
6) Introduce bike lanes on Cumberland Ave extending all the way to downtown. Make a connector to Western Ave. via 17th St.
7) Make an east-west connector to the new transit center on Church St. through the middle of downtown.
8) Tie in Sevier Ave to Gay Street and the Henley St. Bridge lanes

One could bike into downtown from Parkridge, 4th & Gill, Old North, Mechanicsville, Fort Sanders, the UT campus, and the South Waterfront on a dedicated bicycle infrastructure. I know this won't happen immediately, but all these roads will need to be rebuilt at some point. We need a city policy that includes these lanes into street design by default, not just as an incidental extra if its convenient. If there's no more right of way, we need to consider putting our roads on a "diet" eliminating wasteful lanes. Central St. was trimmed down from a four lane highway to make room for parking and bike lanes and seems to be working beautifully. I think many routes through downtown are eligible for similar diets. What do you think?

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:39:00 +0000

"You can come out when you can properly explain the differences between Modernist architecture and postmodern ornamentation."

It's like looking into my future.

(via Unhappy Hipsters)

it's about time

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:56:00 +0000

High speed rail lines in America: read more here.

human powered vehicles...

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:02:00 +0000

...are awesome. I use one everyday. And they make even more sense in the third world as a sustainable solution to transport.

That's a nice lookin' cargo bike. Very cool!

World Bike is helping get intelligently designed solutions to people that need it. Check it out

in praise of sugo

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:04:00 +0000

Right now I'm helping the Friends of Fort Liberte, the non-profit I work with in Haiti, rebrand its identity. I started with an icon of the town, the entry arch, and abstracted it into a logo that hopefully will translate equally well into web, print, and apparel. Below is the second draft:

There's been positive feedback on Facebook, and lots of people seemed to like the font I used so I thought I'd put some info about it here. It's called "Sugo" and it's available for free at dafont.com. Dafont has been the best typeface resource I've been able to find on the interwebs. Most of the stuff uploaded there is terrible, but there are many diamonds in the rough. I'd recommend to anyone working on graphics to look through their catalog- and you can't beat the price!

Enjoy.

the golden ratio

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:53:00 +0000

...discovered at quantum level!

"Here the tension comes from the interaction between spins causing them to magnetically resonate. For these interactions we found a series (scale) of resonant notes: The first two notes show a perfect relationship with each other. Their frequencies (pitch) are in the ratio of 1.618…, which is the golden ratio famous from art and architecture." Radu Coldea is convinced that this is no coincidence. "It reflects a beautiful property of the quantum system -- a hidden symmetry."

Or not so hidden...

(via ISO50)

christmas truck

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:19:00 +0000

For some reason, this made me very happy last Saturday:

An old truck at the Farmer's Market selling Christmas wreaths, with bits of that morning's snow sticking to its hay bales. After that, I was officially ready for the holiday season.

hiking pics

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Alice, the dogs, and I went hiking on part of the Fiery Gizzard Trail near Monteagle, TN on Saturday. We didn't see any gizzards, but we saw some lovely waterfalls. You can see a gallery of pics here.

Bonus Question: Can anyone else see the creepy face in the rocks above?

new place for photos

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:48:00 +0000

So, I like Flickr... but Yahoo sucks. I don't want to have to remember another login name and password and I want unlimited uploading. And I want a generic place where anyone can go, not just my Facebook friends. Then I remembered that I'm paying for this fancy .mac subscription, which has a pretty nice pic gallery component. So from now on I'll be uploading most of our photos here. You can also always just hit the 'photos' tab at the top. Most of the photos are there are old but I've uploaded a few never before seen ones- like Alice vastly enjoying her bubble tea at a random Chinese place in Nashville. Enjoy!

logo evolution

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:01:00 +0000

I thought this was an interesting insight into the logo graphic process:

epic mobile homes

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:19:00 +0000

one of the best clips ever

noreply@blogger.com (ck) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:45:00 +0000

Below is one of the best episodes this season. Check out the wasp nest scene at 2:50. "There could be something delicious in here that wasps DO make, and I want that."