Maker Faire was a blast! Lots of amazing things to see and do. I saw some great presentations, inventions, projects and kits and even did some tinkering of my own. When I got back, I was inspired to do a DIY spot illustration series to capture the energy and creativity of everything I saw.
This weekend I’m headed to San Francisco for Maker Faire, the world’s largest DIY arts & technology festival. Looking forward to seeing Bre Pettis & MakerBot and Jared Boone & the Make:TV crew and their Episode Dispensor, both projects I helped out with some design & illustration work.
Hope to meet a lot of people, learn a thing or two, and get my hands dirty!
Poraver takes post-consumer glass that can’t be recycled, grinds it up, adds water and an expanding agent, and bakes it at 900°C. The resulting tiny lightweight beads can be added to just about any construction material to increase insulative properties, reduce weight, replace virgin resources, and contribute to LEED credits.
With such a broad range of applications, illustration is the ideal medium to bring them all together in one image. Interactivity allows the viewer to explore the different uses up close, creating an immersive environment for the communication of information.
See the finished interactive module I created for Poraver for use at their trade shows.
FILED UNDER ArchitectureCutawayEnergyGreen
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I put together this video showing my process for creating an illustration for Open Mind Magazine, reducing 15 hours of work to about two minutes. The illustration deals with Building Information Modeling (BIM), the new generation of CAD software that lets architects design the entirety of a building in one workflow.
See the final architectural illustration.
FILED UNDER ArchitectureProcess
Extruded 3D type for an Alberta Venture Magazine article speculating when oilsands investments will see a recovery. 3 out of 10 delegates polled predicted sector spending to return in 2015.
In the end, the background had to be flattened and subdued a bit to allow copy and other graphics to run overtop. See the final in print.
This was a quick turnaround project, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
I just wrapped up a personal project that’s been on my backburner for some time, an illustrated collection of my favourite iconic mid-century modern furniture. Included are designs by Eames, Jacobsen, van der Rohe, le Corbusier, and more, forty pieces in all.
It started as a project to develop my editorial illustration – to find a way of working with a certain character, tone & simplicity – for when things need to be communicated more abstractly than with the objectivity of technical illustration.
Prints are available via ImageKind.
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After seeing my Cult of Done Poster, compulsive Maker extraordinaire Bre Pettis asked me to collaborate on MakerBot, a low-cost, modular, open-source 3D rapid prototyping printer kit. The build-it-yourself robot prints physical objects designed in 3D software using extruded molten plastic. Builders are encouraged to share the objects they design via Thingiverse and even contribute to the development and improvement of MakerBot itself!
My contribution to the project was of course the visuals. Together we developed an identity and imagery for MakerBot – a bold, playful retro-futuristic reality where a lunar office worker can email his son at home on Earth a toy he designed, and his son can remix and share it with friends.
To learn more, check out MakerBot Industries.
The New York Times has a slideshow of the work of artist-turned-med-student Satre Stuelke, who takes CT scans of everyday things – from a toaster to an iPhone, to Barbie, to a Big Mac. His aim is to get people to “think about how things are constructed.”
Images like this are captivating, they satisfy some innate curiosity we have about the things around us. This is what I try to accomplish in my technical illustration – visually communicating information with a captivating image.
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Marketel has been recognized with an Applied Arts Interactive Media Award for Leaveless, Air Canada’s environmental responsibility site. I provided illustrations for the site, in the style of safety brochures found on planes, to explain Air Canada’s safety measures against climate change.
Well done Marketel and Air Canada!
FILED UNDER AerospaceRecognition
I’m a guy who likes to get things done. I enjoy the journey, sure, but when you’re done you can move on to something else. When I saw Bre Pettis‘ and Kio Stark’s Cult of Done Manifesto, it struck a chord with me, so I whipped up this poster to illustrate their 13 concepts.
FILED UNDER Site