Can an organization raise $735,000 in 40 days to buy an abandoned dude ranch in the southwestern Arizona desert? It just might be possible with Joseph Beyer—eternal optimist and Director of Digital Initiatives at the Sundance…
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Unique LA started in 2008 and quickly became the largest buy-local shopping event in the country. Attendees got the rare chance to meet and shop directly from hundreds of carefully selected designers and artists all in one space. Community leader and head…
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by Madison Kahn Last November, all that Tennessee-native Jacob Henley had was a tank of gas, some reclaimed wood and a big idea: to mentor inner-city Nashville youth by teaching them how to build one-of-a-kind skateboards. Now, six months later, recordOutboundLink(this,…
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L’artiste Mark Reigelman crée le Reading Nest au dehors de la Bibliothèque de Cleveland. Inspirée par des symboles et objets mystiques relatif à la connaissance, cette création fait le lien entre la communauté et ses racines. Un projet réalisé en une semaine à découvrir en images et en vidéo.
We’ve seen several creative applications for shipping containers in the past, and the fact remains that these steel structures are unparalleled in terms of durability and availability for a recycled building material. Friend of CH …
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Voici ce complexe réunissant un marché local ainsi qu’un hôtel de 15 chambres, les 2 parties étant reliées par un atrium dont une zone prévue pour la vente de produits locaux aux références à la tradition japonaise. Située dans la préfecture de Kochi, cette création de Kengo Kuma And Associates se dévoile dans la suite.
Bicycle skeletons evoke stories in a WNYC art display
If you live in a city you’ve likely seen one: a bicycle chained to a rack or sign post for weeks, months or years. Forsaken or simply forgotten, it rusts and decays in the elements and is pillaged for parts, losing a wheel, then the seat, the handlebars and…
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Handmade knives from Southwestern Tel Aviv
A brilliant series of utility knives from Israeli designer Tomer Botner brings together high-end craftsmanship with social advocacy. The blades have been created with the help of 17 local suppliers, craftsmen and professionals from Tel Aviv’s Florentine neighborhood, made from materials sourced from the area. The knives comprise Botner’s final project for the Shenkar School of Engineering and Design, imagined as a way to showcase Florentine’s place as a thriving hub of Israeli culture.
“I hope all the small businesses in my community will want to work with designers and open their minds to a new future for Florentine—a future of quality and community,” says Botner. “I believe that design is the most important capitalist tool. It can be used for good or evil. This is my way of doing good: making crafts and skills last, making it possible for small business to compete with big business, and branding my community as a place of high quality.”
For the design, a single forged handle and blade serve as the cornerstone of the knives. The handle features a single steel plate that joins the hilt and forms an extruded cross. Botner then stacks weighted disks along the length of the handle, using a range of weights from 3-9 grams to achieve a perfect balance for each blade.
Once the wedge is set in the hilt, the handle is then sealed and the knife given an individual number. Form follows function as the colored rings stripe the knife in a playful spectrum. The shape is a bit of a departure from the traditional Western chef’s knife, using a highly curved spine and blade for rocking-style chopping.
Currently producing 200mm and 120mm lengths, Botner is in the process of sourcing funding to produce the knives for consumers. Take a closer look at the production process on Botner’s blog.
Ben Blake’s growing collection of filter doodles celebrate the coffee community
Taking his belief that “coffee inspires creativity” to a literal level, Ben Blake documents his coffee journey in a series of doodles and sketches on filters, sharing his clever graphic narratives with a growing number of fans on his site, Draw Coffee. He considers all requests for java-related images, and his drawings span visual narratives about coffee companies, events, brewing methods and more. Blake even gamely incorporated CH dog-duo Otis and Logan into a recent set of filters.
Coffee drinkers are joined by the industry in taking notice of Blake’s art, with recent collaborations including a shell for a ZPM Espresso machine, and a line of mugs and apparel for Kuma Coffee in Seattle.
We asked Blake—who by day works in development for a liberal arts university—to share his thoughts about making, drawing and drinking joe.
I’ve been drawing ever since my Mom and Grandma told me to use my imagination. I started drawing famous cartoon characters from books such as Where’s Waldo, Dr. Seuss, and Calvin and Hobbes—over the years, drawing has really followed me. I remember all throughout high school and college using drawing as a way to pay attention in class. I don’t know that there is any particular moment where I realized I loved drawing—I think at some point I realized that I could sit down and draw for hours, wake up the next day, and still have an urge to put something on paper. There aren’t many things that drive me like drawing does.
At some point in college, I started to love coffee—not because it helped me stay awake, but because I recognized there was something special about it. As I started to learn more about coffee, I started to think about it a lot more. That’s when it started making its way into my doodles. I don’t always do coffee-themed doodles, but nearly 100% of the time, a coffee cup makes its way into the doodle somewhere. It’s kind of my not-so-sneaky tribute to coffee.
I think it was a natural extension of what I wanted to do with Draw Coffee. I wanted to present something unique that wasn’t being done— actually, the more I think about it, its kind of a stereotypical and cheesy thing for me to have done. I think the Hario filters have a nice, symmetrical shape, and the borders give the drawing some sort of finality.
Back in November, I discovered the website Dear Coffee, I Love You. I think the thing that brought me there was the “Coffee Lover Gift Guide” post—it made me realize how many coffee gadgets I wanted. After browsing the site a bit, I was inspired to learn even more about coffee. Two things happened right after that—first, I won a high-quality grinder from Baratza, which helped kickstart my journey to learn about coffee and how to make wonderful coffee at home. Second, La Marzocco USA started a Facebook challenge where they asked fans to post a picture of their brew method and brewing recipe each day. I participated, but I started to realize that my pictures looked the same as everyone else’s pictures. I didn’t like that, so I started to doodle mine instead. I wanted to keep track and share what I was learning, so I decided to start a year-long project where I would learn as much about coffee as I could, and doodle about it.
I have experienced a community full of passionate and creative individuals who love coffee. I’ve been welcomed with open arms by so many people—the drawing thing helped, obviously, but people are so willing to teach and share about coffee. It’s exciting, and I think it’s contagious.
One thing that seems to set the coffee industry apart from other industries is its collaborative nature. I think most wise, knowledgeable people in the specialty coffee industry recognize that there is no current definition of “best”. That’s important, I think, because rather than investing time into battering the competition and living on an island, folks are investing time in bettering the industry—working together on maintaining best and sustainable practices.
Well, I’m fresh off trips to Portland, Seattle, and Chicago, but my cousin and I have a coffee-touring trip planned for either Chicago or New York in the near future. Beyond that, I know I’ll be in Kansas City, up and down the East Coast, and possibly down to Atlanta to see Jason Dominy of Batdorf & Bronson before my wife and I move to Bologna, Italy.
The more I learn about coffee, the better the coffee I make at home tastes, and the more I realize how complex and intricate coffee can be. What used to be a dull, bitter, muddy liquid has now become this bright, sweet, fruity, and complex drink that I look forward to hand-brewing a few times a day. It’s pretty common for people—mostly me— to describe coffee as “the nectar of the gods”.
I think as long as I keep learning and experiencing new things related to coffee, I’m going to keep drawing on my filters, but I’ve been also been doing a lot of projects with roasters, companies, and other websites. Through those commissioned projects, I’ve started to weigh taking design classes to learn typography, graphic design, etc. I would love to continue evolving my drawing styles, and hopefully expand them into other industries and ride that into even more collaborations. It’s been a fun ride the last six months, and I’m trying to let this grow organically to see where it takes me. Hopefully people will continue to find value or inspiration in my doodles, and hopefully they’ll want to learn more about coffee, too.
Sled Island 2012 Promotional Illustration, Heather Kai SmithThere’s an odd little space in Calgary’s EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts. It over looks one of the main meeting points in this complex of performance spaces and the administrative offices for many of Calgary’s performing arts organizations. It is oddly like a crow’s-nest on a tall ship and is called the Ledge Gallery.
This summer, Heather Kai Smith has transformed the space into a working independent zine and print shop. Stop by and request a design, sit for a portrait or help with the zine process.
Heather at work on the Ledge
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
