It looks like Bangkok will be getting a new building added to its skyline in 2012. I thought this would be an interesting subject to post about for two reasons. One, I want to talk about architecture more often as I feel that I’ve neglected the topic. And two, I think this new skyscraper has some interesting visual correlations to graphic design and web design.
It seems that the ‘pixel’ has become an inspirational element in that it is used to symbolize the energy and intensity of the Thai capital. It reminds me of ‘the Matrix’ a bit, like the structure is half digital. I remember when I was in school, web design ideas were eeking their way into print media (as well as the other way around) as designers/viewers were becoming more and more accustomed to being online. I think that healthy combat is still occuring now, but it seems like it finally has started to spread to other art forms in a more literal fashion.
One could definitely argue that Gehry’s Guggenheim in Bilbao may have been one of the first large pieces of architecture to push these digital boundaries due to the fact that the engineering was so complex he needed a computer to help figure everything out. But I think this building aesthetically brings all of those ideas to the surface – People, computers, the internet, energy, how we live, etc.
Check out the link below for more information.
OMA unveils design for MahaNakhon, Bangkok’s tallest building

In mid December I drove out to St. Louis with Jess to visit her family. One of Jess’ uncles was turning 50, and we decided to make the 12 hour trip in order celebrate with everyone in a surprise party. While we were in the city, I was able to capture some great shots of the gateway arch, as well as visit the St. Louis museum an the Citygarden sculture park. It was all pretty cool. I can’t wait to go back and take some pics of the old warehouses and factories that are all over the place. Here are some of the images I shot… I’ll post them on Flickr as well they’re posted on Flickr as well.

First post! Happy New Year to all. It has been a while, I know, but I am forging ahead to make this blog a higher priority for me. Stay tuned in the coming months for more posts, more attention, and hopefully more interestingness (thanks Flickr). If anything there are some pretty cool projects involved in recently, so I will get to posting those soon. In the meantime, hold tight, I’ve got some cool shots I took in St. Louis appearing in a week or so. It’s a-coming… slowly but surely.

I saw the 1901 image of New York’s Flatiron building yesterday here. It reminded me how cool the structure is. Definitely one of my favorite buildings in the city. Here’s some more info…

In celebration of the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I wanted to talk about what I remember from the time. Honestly, I was pretty young (10 years old), but still have a very vivid image in my head of Leonard Bernstein conducting a multi-country orchestra in possibly one of the most moving performances of Beethoven’s 9th symphony… ever. I still remember Dad telling me that word “Joy” was modified to “Freedom” in honor of what was definitely one of the most important events of the 20th century. Enjoy the clip… not safe for work- may be too emotional

Typotheque Web Font Service demo from Typotheque on Vimeo.

Ok, fair warning here… this post is web-geekery at it’s best
Typotheque.com is now offering an incredibly easy to implement service that lets designers use custom fonts in their site designs totally legally. Watch the video above and you can see how simple the process is, so I won’t bore you with details on how it works. What I’m interested in is, with technology such as this, I have a feeling we’ll start seeing much more interesting web designs in the near future. Specifically typographically heavy designs, which I’m a big fan of. Sure, they exist now – but usually only in the form of images and flash. This service will enable these types of layouts to be much more dynamic, and changing content will be a breeze.
To be fair this isn’t the only service like this that’s available, but I was impressed with how easy this one is to use. Check it out here: http://www.typotheque.com/webfonts

Celebrate Anderson 2009 Time Lapse from Celebrate Anderson on Vimeo.

Celebrate Anderson Sidewalk Stencil from Celebrate Anderson on Vimeo.

Celebrate Anderson on the Day Before Labor Day from Celebrate Anderson on Vimeo.

Here is a sneak peek to a post I will put up this weekend. Last night I went out with a group of guys from work and planted a whole bunch (7) of chalk stencils on main street. Definitely a fun time… if you ever need advice on the intricacies of sprayable chalk – just ask one of us. Video after the jump…

Celebrate Anderson Sidewalk Stencil. The video was shot and edited by Chris Bradley.

I rarely post stuff about the corporate side of where I work. In fact, the only thing I’ve posted so far about anything Torque are the business card ideas from a while back. Anyway, I wanted to throw this one out there because I was pleased with it. Not only a decent design… but it was quick.
We (Torque) were asked to add an “Invention Submission” page to the ttigroupna.com website a little while back. It originally was intended to be just another page to an already existing site. Well, the old site was just that.. old. It served it’s purpose back in the day, but since I had no original layered files, and it was built with tables, I decided to scrap it and start over.

To sum it up, from sketch to launch, this site took four business days. That may not seem that impresseive, but with a corporation the size of TTI, this was a pretty incredible feat.
Thanks for listening… here’s the site.
TTI Group North America