Crunch Time

Here are some photos from recent trips into the city. The first two are from the inside of the elevator at the NYC Apple Store—such a cool place! There’s also a colorful shot of the inside of the Nokia Store (the walls are illuminated by lights that are programmed to change colors every few minutes). Both of those stores were visited as part of research with Sunmee. There is also a shot of the inside of Grand Central Station, taken on the same research outing. It is so cool to see the constellations painted on the ceiling (I tried to take some photos, but they didn’t turn out well at all). My restaurant project is going well so far. Zac, Jansen, and I also took some pictures in the Museum of Modern Art while they were here on the 4^th. In the gift shop, as a designer, I felt obligated to photograph some of the more famous (and unbelievably unaffordable) chairs—even though I was scolded by staff members for doing so. The first is a chair designed in the 60’s by Verner Panton, made out of one continuous piece of polypropylene—although it was originally fiberglass. An original fiberglass model goes for around $1250, but the polyprop versions are only a measly $245. Next we have a coffee table inspired by a design originally done by Isamu Noguchi in 1944. To finish out the ‘Designer Furniture Which I Can’t Afford’ category is the Eames lounge chair and ottoman designed by none other than, Charles and Ray Eames. This piece was released in 1956 by the Herman Miller furniture company and, to this day, remains in production. It is not only notable for it’s unique use of materials, but also for it’s remarkable comfort (something that is sometimes secondary in high-design furniture)—although I was not bold enough to actually test this for myself. Shortly after watching the city fireworks from Battery Park, we noticed a smaller version of Lady Liberty. All day throughout the city, we had seen the same statues painted vibrantly with the colors and logos of various professional sports teams, but this one was different—it bore the Atlanta Braves logo. We had to stop and take a photo, so Zac “stepped up”, and what you see is the result. Everything at work is still going well. I am starting to get to crunch-time, as I only have about three weeks left on the restaurant project. My concept sketches went over well (as far as I can tell) at my scheduled design review this week. Now I have moved into 3D CAD modeling, and will be able to explore more form there. Hopefully, I will be able to print out some test wax models this week! All is well at “home”, and I will keep the rest updated.