john t. unger studio

Container Studio design

2008-07-16T11:58:35-04:00


East Elevation of Container Studio	North Elevation of Container Studio

West Elevation of Container Studio	South Elevation of Container Studio
click thumbnail to view larger image.

Here's the basic layout of the new studio project. Doors, glazing and exterior insulation will be in the model soon and I'll update then. But you can see the basic structure of the building in these images.

The two lower floors will be the studio, with a 24 x 24 foot atrium in the center. The third floor will be residential with bedrooms, bath, closet, etc inside the containers and kitchen and living area in the center.

The advantage to this model over most of the other container projects I've seen is that the boxes will not require a great deal of modification… doors and windows, sure, but I won't have to weld multiple containers together to make larger rooms. Instead, I'll use the space between them for the areas where I want more space, and use the interiors of the containers for the rooms that don't need to be as large.

Shipping Container Studio Backstory

2008-07-13T18:12:40-04:00

I've been working with architect Greg La Vardera recently to design a new home and studio for my property, built from six 40 foot shipping containers. He's been blogging about it here and here and I've been meaning to start blogging it since before we started. But before I start detailing the plans for the new building, I want to take a moment to look back at where this project really began.

On February 11, 2004 the studio building where I worked was destroyed by snow. I was standing on the roof shoveling when the building collapsed and pretty much rode the thing to the ground. I've posted a bunch of photos to Flickr.com that show the building during clean-up and demolition.

It was a pretty awful situation. I couldn't afford to move, and even if I could, it was the middle of a very nasty winter. The gas line into the house was severed when the building collapsed, so there was no heat, hot water or cooking. The pipes froze, so there was no water. It took three months to restore the utilities because the natural gas company refused to run a new line until spring and all the appliances had to be replaced by propane or electric units.

I was pretty ready at this point to give up the idea of making a living as an artist, certainly closer to giving up than I had been at any other time. In a word, it sucked. But I have this weird brain condition that seems to thrive more the worse the odds get. After thinking through the other options I could follow if I gave up, I decied that my best course of action was to dig in my heels, not quite and pull some kind of frickin' miracle out of thin air. Sometimes doing the impossible is just the easiest way to go.

When the bank came out to assess the damage, they liked the art they saw and proposed a trade. I did a $10,000 commissioned sign as the down payment on the remaining two buildings and acreage. I spent the months without heat working on the beginnings of the blogs that later became my main source of sales for the art. By the time spring did come, I was finally making a decent living solely through sales of art and commissions, and it's gotten better and better every year.

Anyway, even though it worked out pretty well in the end, the new building is gonna be all steel, concrete and glass. I'm done with wood. I want something that only a meteor or a falling 747 can damage, and that's what we're going to build. I'm planning to have at least the exterior and structure of the building done before the snow falls this year, and then the current buildings will be razed to make room for a couple display courtyards that showcase the art.

I've been dreaming of a container house for about twelve years now actually, and a lot of the design elements have changed over that time but some of them have remained pretty consistent. I'm in a position now to make that dream happen here and I'm excited about it. Over the next bunch of posts, I'm going to detail quite a bit of the process… mostly quoting from emails between me and the architects (I started with a different firm who was great on green building but did not have much experience with steel).

Commissioned Bottle Cap Fish Mosaic

2008-06-17T11:39:15-04:00

This is a recent bottle cap fish I did as a commissioned housewarming gift. It's my favorite that I've ever done. I love the way that the mixed caps work to create a richer color tone. To see a larger, print quality image just click the picture below.

For this fish, I worked from a photo sent by the client. The goal was to match the brown trout caught by her husband as closely as possible. I haven't really tried being that representational with the bottle cap work before, but I'm really pleased with the results so I think I'll do more like this.

Great Bowl O Fire firepits at RumFire, Waikiki

2008-06-17T09:38:37-04:00

RumFire at the Sheraton Waikiki has been getting a lot of press…and almost all of it mentions the fire pits I made for them. They installed eight Great Bowls O Fire last year to create intimate settings for patrons to gather over drinks and food in the outdoor lounge area.

Here's a few photos they sent me. The top four are print quality, but the last three are smaller.




click thumbnail to view larger image.

Here's a couple nice quotes I found that mention the fire pits:

Private fire pits adorn the stylish outdoor lounge sections, perfect for cozying up with that special someone or socializing with colleagues and friends. The flame-carved fire pits are just one of the well-thought-out elements that create a relaxed,upscale and warm atmosphere, with a view that simply can’t be beat. — Moniz, Melissa. "Igniting Waikiki." Hawaii News

If you stick around till Dec. 29, you can check out the new RumFire Lounge at the Sheraton Waikiki, which gets its name from private fire pits and what's billed as the largest selection of vintage rum in the States. — Cooper, Jeanne. "Holiday Happenings and News of the Islands." San Francisco Chronicle

The video below has some great footage of the firebowls burning:

Custom Firebowl wins Award

2008-05-31T12:25:58-04:00

Mary Abe at Garden Gate Landscaping has won an award for her project "A Frame for Lush Scenery" which features a custom firebowl I collaborated on and built. Washington Spaces Magazine gave her first place in their Landscaping $100,000 and Under category for the 2008 Best of Outside Spaces Contest. Congrats, Mary! (I'm sure that Mary's totally fabulous gate was what really took the prize, but I always like to see my work featured in award winning designs).

The client wanted a fire pit with a modern, clean industrial look for their patio area. The cover of the pit is removable, and a remote control gas burner sends flames up through the stones inside the pit. More details about the project can be found here and here.

Below are some great photos of the project that were published on the Washing Spaces website. Click the smaller images to enlarge.

Featured in Etsy's Storque Newsletter

2008-05-31T12:09:06-04:00

I knew something was up when I had 6 convos from Etsy Users in 5 minutes! That doesn't happen every day.

Since I had recently done an interview with Artish about men on Etsy, I kinda figured the sudden increase in conversations was due to the article going live. I clicked on over and there it was, right on the front page of Etsy itself and in the Storque. I'm really happy with the way Artish worked the interview questions into an article. I also feel pretty awesome about having been asked to participate. Thanks Tish!

The article is here: A Dude's Perspective: Men Who Craft, The Storque 30 May 2008. There's a few photos of me and my work, and a couple nice quotes as well.

Here's some screenshots of Etsy and the Storque.

Sandblasted glass art by Zephyr

2008-04-10T01:23:51-04:00

Sweet! I just got a great big box of beautiful sandblasted art glass by Zephyr via UPS today. I am gonna have the Coolest Home Bar Evar!

I couldn't get very good pictures indoors today, so I decided to use some of Zephyr's pics below so that you can see how cool her work really is. And let me tell you, when you see it in person, it's actually so much better than you would think from the photos (mine or hers). For one thing, the glassware she designs onto is much thicker and more durable looking than the pint glasses I'm used to seeing in commercial settings or stores. Not sure where she gets those. And the sandblasted designs stand out more in person. And the glass itself is really nice and clear (well, except on the tinted glass of course).

I rarely visit Ebay, so I can't quite remember how I found Zephyr's art there. But I was immediately so totally taken with it that I had to track her down and talk about buying in quantity. I mean, yeah, I did send her a message through the system but I was so jazzed about her work that I really wanted one of everything (which would actually be hundreds of pieces not just the 18 designs you see below). So I did some clever googling and wound up at her website Zephyr's Art. She's very fun to talk to and we've had a few fun exchanges of email.

We ended up doing a trade, which is something I really enjoy when it works… I sent her a 30" Beach Burner Portable Bonfire and she sent me the best barware I could ever hope to hoist around a fire. I'd have been perfectly happy to spend cash money, by the way… (shipping and materials for the firepit wound up costing just as much as buying the glass) but trading is kind of fun for its own sake, because of the connection you wind up with. I know that while I'm having a little bourbon out of the fish skeleton Hi Ball glass Z made, she could well be sipping a beer by a fire held in the Beach burner I sent her. It's a cool thing.

Zephyr Rocks! Go buy a bunch of her art, right now. There are slightly different collections available on her Etsy store or her Ebay store so you should probably check them both out.

You know what, I wouldn't even mind if you bought so much of her work that I only had the second coolest home bar ever!

It's only life or death. It's always only life or death

2008-04-06T19:02:34-04:00

The best thing that ever happened to me was the night an angry, messed up cab driver pulled me into the back room of a 24 hour diner and held a huge handgun to my head for over ten minutes, all the while describing in intricately fetishistic detail exactly what would happen when he pulled the trigger.

Why? Because it changes you, staring down a nutjob holding a gun. After that, the small stuff just doesn't get sweated. You either break, or break through to a mandatory satori of keeping things in proportion that most people never get to walk away from. It's an ice calm I wouldn't trade for anything.

The second best thing that ever happened to me was when the dot com crash of 2000 wiped out most of the design industry at the peak of my career as a freelance print designer. I went from turning away work every week to working exactly 7 days of the next year. I lost my girl. I lost my loft. I lost part of my thumb in an accident moving out of the loft. I pretty much lost it all.

Of course, the only reason I was working in offices was to fund the art career I wanted… materials, space, tools, etc. I worked eight hours in the office and ten in the studio, sleeping when I passed out involuntarily. I decided that if my industry had tanked, I was damned if I was gonna retrain to do something else I didn't want to do. I chose to make the art be my sole means of support. I built some monumentally scaled commissions working out of borrowed shop space, with borrowed gear, sleeping on borrowed couches.

It worked. I've been making my living as an artist ever since, and these days I earn triple the income I ever did from the best corporate gigs.

The third best thing that ever happened was the day my studio building collapsed under a load of snow while I was standing on the roof shoveling. I rode that roof to the ground like a gut-shot rodeo pony. The building and some pricey tools were completely destroyed, but I was unharmed… until I spent the next three months (December, January and February) without heat, running water or a stove because the natural gas line into the house had been severed in the collapse. The gas company refused to fix the line until they could bury it in the spring. I lost a few brain cells, I'm sure, by running an unvented kerosene heater inside the house to stay alive.

How was that good? The bank came out to assess the damage, saw my work and suggested I do a $10,000 commissioned sign as the down payment on the remaining two buildings I'd been leasing with an unlikely option to buy. Getting this place had a lot to do with making the art career fly. I had affordable space to work and a place for customers to find me. I don't think the deal would have happened without the disaster… They didn't want to take a loss on the property (or hold it) and I was willing to take it on at the cost of the mortgage before the building fell.

Bottom line:

The only way you can tell the difference between disaster and opportunity is to decide to make an opportunity out of every event.

Postscript:

During the second and third disasters, my friends were pretty evenly divided in their response to my choice to make the world work on my terms.

One camp said, "Dude, you're so brave to just bail on the day job and do your own thing. You're my hero. I wish I could do that." The other camp said, "Look, don't be crazy. Just take whatever work you can get until you're on your feet, even if it's fast food or something. You're never gonna make it without some cash." Really, both camps were wrong (though I love them all dearly).

I wasn't brave. Not the least bit. I was frickin' desperate, is what I was, but not terrified. I was back to that ice calm… you learn that it just ain't over till it's over, and that giving up never got anyone out of a jam. I didn't want a life of stability if it meant I had to do digital layouts of junk mail for a living. I wanted to do what I was best at, what I loved, and get paid for that. It was worth the risk. It was the only real way I could see to better my situation.

I wasn't crazy either. By the time I figured out that the design work wasn't just in a slump, that it wasn't coming back any time soon, I had about $5 in cash and $20,000 in debt. There was no way that a subsistence level job was gonna fix that… I ran full tilt towards the art career because I knew if I did it right, and worked my ass off, I could probably make enough to get out of the hole

I had to think about it again when the building crashed. That time, I almost did pack it in. It felt like my dream was a stupid idea after all, that I had just run everything into the ground betting on a long shot. But in the rural economy here, few jobs pay well enough to escape the poverty line and there are fewer and fewer jobs available anyway every year. A job wasn't gonna save me. It would just suck all the time and energy I needed to realize my dreams, while keeping me alive enough to resent it.

I remembered other businesses I had started on a shoe string earlier in life… each of them ultimately failed the first time something major went wrong because I hadn't had enough cash to keep them going. Or had they? Had money really been the only way to get them back on track, or was it a failure of creativity and nerve? Had they really failed because when faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, I'd believed it to be what it seemed, bought into it, walked away because I didn't feel able to do the so-called impossible? I decided that what I really couldn't afford was to waste all the time and energy I had put into building an art career that was just on the edge of being sustainable. I'd come too far this time to back down.

Having weighed the pros and cons of sticking to my guns, I decided to force a positive change out of the crisis. Within a month, I unexpectedly sold a few major pieces, paying off the last of my old debts with the money and having cash left over. From that moment, the art has sold exponentially better each year. If I'd given up at the moment, none of the great things that have happened since would have come about.

Designers Who Blog

2008-03-25T22:55:26-04:00

Cat Morley just did a quick little post including me on her excellent blog, Designers Who Blog. Thanks, Cat! It puts me in some pretty excellent company… including:

Christopher Carfi with The Social Customer Manifesto: My partner on Emoodicon, a long-time friend and an intellectual and creative powerhouse.
Alyson B. Stanfield with Art Biz Blog: Alyson included an idea I had in her book I'd Rather Be in the Studio! If you're a career artist, or want to be, DO check out her blog.
Janine Vangool with UPPERCASE: UPPERCASE is one of the coolest online stores I've ever seen, but I hadn't checked out their blog until reading the piece on DWB.
ME Strauss with Successful Blog:Liz just gave me a big kiss in Austin (hi Liz!). She's the most selfless and tireless community-minded blogger I know.
Seth Godin: Seth writes the best advice out there on making your marketing work for you by being real, honest, kind and remarkable.
Veerle with Veerle’s blog 2.0: I wish I had a tenth the CSS chops that Veerle has. Genius.
Darryl Ohrt with brandflakesforbreakfast: I just met Darryl at SXSW over some killer food and drinks at Moonshine. He and his crew are fun, smart and well worth checking out.

So that's 6 out of something like 300 or so people featured on DWG over the last couple years… There's a bunch of people I haven't heard of yet but who I'll definitely check out. You should go check 'em out too!

Emoodicon Movie: Marcie's Grand Adventure

2008-03-22T15:42:34-04:00

Just before heading off to SXSW this year, Chris Carfi and I went live with a new site, emoodicon.com. I couldn't be more excited about it! Now I need some help spreading the word…

The animation above explains how the Emoodicon ring works. It was really a blast working with Sheharzad Arshad to create the animation. He did amazing work that far surpassed my expectations. In fact, it was kind of addictive… I really want to come up with more things that justify doing an animation!

If you can help get the word out about emoodicon, please do. Rate the video on YouTube, link to the new blog, or submit the site to digg, del.icio.us, etc. I'd sure appreciate it. There are little buttons in the footer of every ost at emoodicon.com that make it easy to submit the site to your social network of choice.

I'm pretty darn pleased with the design of the new site, but I'd welcome any suggestions for ways I could improve it. Oh, and if you'd like a chance to win one of the Emoodicon Rings for yourself, do enter one of the contests at the Emoodicon site!