Biodiversity Wall ANHM

Sorry for the blurry video, but I was really excited about how many details and examples were shown - yet all incorporated into

Ralph Applebaum & Associates

RAA - The Foundling Museum London, UK

RAA - US Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington DC

RAA - Vietnam Veteran Memorial Center Washington DC

RAA - American National History Museum New York City

Febuary 2007, I go to Parsons Career Day with my resume because we were promised there were Interior Designer Scouts (usually it's mostly fashion). I was feeling a little disheveled from the chaotic semester. I was squeezing in the Career Day to scope it out, no big plan.

As always at these things - there were big names: Marc Jacobs, Target, MTV, Martha Stewart. Obviously a wide variety. I lined up for the names that had Interior Design next to their name on our list and luckily came upon the Ralph Applebaum and Associates table. I sat down, told them my name, and a brief description of my "story" and in my oh so graceful way admitted - "so . . . to be honest I know nothing about your company". The two sitting on the other side of the table were a little stiff and a little surprised (as a lot of these big companies are - "what, you don't know who WE are".

"No, I'm jest a keid from Utahhr)"

No, they weren't that bad, just a bit surprised I think.

Jennie (head of Human Resources as it would happen) went on to explain how the company had offices in New York, London, and Hong Kong. They were best known for their Museum and Monument work. As she was talking she handed me a small magazine to flip through. I scanned the book and (once again gracefully) dropped my jaw at the images I saw. This is the company that designed the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, wings of the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City, Utah, that's right.

As she described a new language museum they just finished in Sau Paulo, Brazil I was gone - dreaming about traveling the world, working with such a wide variety of people and ideas. I hadn't come up with this idea yet and I was captivated.

Sadly, since then, I haven't heard from RAA NY. I emailed Jennie right away to tell her how much I appreciated her talking to me, and how I would love the opportunity to intern if the opportunity was available. I emailed once again in May with a new resume, then again to the company instead of to Jennie. No luck.

I'm not all that worried about it. I mean, what can you do? I talked about it with one of my teachers and she mentioned some things I hadn't thought about - Since it is such a specialized type of work if I don't plan on doing it for the rest of my life it isn't the biggest resume booster. The work doesn't seem as relevant as people who have working in broader firms. Also, since they have sooo many employees, they often "bulk up" their employee force when they get big jobs, then go through extreme "de bulking" periods too. That all made me feel a little better about not being begged to be a part of it.

We'll see what happens. This was all good for me either way. I've known from the start that I wanted to be open to "different" options than the standard design job and this was the first "different" option that really got me excited. It helps that so many of RAA's work is so beautiful. They use high end "cutting edge" ideas and techniques, yet do such a beautiful job of mixing the history and content of their projects.

Brandon Lattu at Leo Koenig's

A few days ago Caroline and I went to Chelsea to see Leo Koening's Gallery. He was the gallery owner we met in Greenpoint. There was a real interesting show going on. The artists name is Brandon Lattu. I'm unsure of the process he used, but it looked like a scanner, photoshop, and some kind of beautiful photographic printing process going on. It was like a lacquer painting that had a photographic images. Plus I like books.

Cooper Union

I went with Caroline and her sister Katie to Cooper Unions Final Show for the 2006-07 school year. I haven't been to Cooper all semester since Caitlin and Caroline weren't in school this semester - so it was exciting for me. Cooper is a unique place. It's a school that has a reputation for being liberal and avant garde in approach. Everyone who attends is on a full ride scholarship. There is a Fine Art Program (that Caroline and Caitlin are in), Architecture, and Engineering. All three programs had things on display and it was a lot of fun to look it over. I love student art. It's so unpretentious and exciting.

Not this though. This was a mistake. I got all stoked on it, then realized in fact it's just a few cup cake wrappers.

Screen Print

Screen Print

Some kind of printing process, I think. This artist was one of my favorites.

I love this study.

This was a cool way to take it from singular more simple idea - to a more complex one.

All of these above are that same artist. Her name is Kimberly Mullis.

Color and texture

Material on this was really nice. The iridescent shape was a metallic luster type medium. I like the composition as well.

Pretty stones.

This was a cool little thing. It was like a roll of film, but it wasn't negatives. They were colored positives with text on them too.

This photographer seemed to have taken shots of photos or collages. Made for interesting layers and shadows.

I was stoked on the Architecture Program floor (for obvious reasons) and because of the beautiful hand drawings and interesting models. Everything was really well crafted.

My feet waiting for Caroline.

I love this geometric one for the color and forms, but most of all the layering. The top is flat, then there's some moving back in space, then behind that even there is a plaid. It's like a painted math problem.
student - Thompson

This one was a little odd (that's a boot and puzzle pieces with paint poured on it), but I liked the composition and color of it.
student - Jacob Kline

Some where between abstract and figurative. Interesting colors. Mix of different line weights.

student - Bryan Rountree

All in all it was a treat to be able to go, and know some of the students so I could talk to them about their work. Poor Caroline, this stuff is the opposite to her. She's been around the work and the students so much it makes her a little crazy. To me it's the most foreign place in the world. Cooper kids are one of a kind. Dig it.

Tony Matelli

Caroline is working with a local artist, Tony Matelli, who lives and works in Greenpoint. We met him at the Mark Bar near our house one night that we ended up staying out way late with him and some of his friends. They were interesting guys - we found out one of them was a gallery owner in Chelsea and that Tony had a show there. This gave them a little credit and when Caroline was looking for a summer internship she looked Tony up.


Turns out he's a rad guy. He has a studio just across McGuiness on Dupoint so it's quick to get over there. He's chill about me coming over too. He has a very interesting studio. It's the second and top floor of a ware house. It's one large room (about a three car garage) all sprayed out white. Right now he's working on a piece of a guy that is all mangled and bruised. His stuff is very life like and grotesque. Not horribly shocking, but not the average Joes cup of tea I'm sure.

So I Tried

About the time Amanda's offset insight started to sink in, our color of space class started in on a project that I needed to come up with a "color system" for.


I ended up focusing mainly on Polaroid type photos - in that they have a generally muted pallet, yet can have unexpected highlights.

Sooo... I was thinking with this project Annie had gotten us started on [which was to pick colors for an existing apartment recently finished by our professor her firm] that the photos I had been noticing with their multiple colors, yet similarly muted, would work well for a space with multiple rooms and coves. Then the brighter smaller role colors could work in as small, unexpected moments. Forcing the color system to not be taken too seriously, just like the armature photos.




I used the eye dropper tool in Indesign to distill the colors. I know that colors on the computer are way different than the ones they print, so I wouldn't completely trust it, but it's been a good tool for me to "see" colors.



I used a drawing of the space in photoshop to place colors out of one of my pallets. The guy who is living here is single, young, and hopefully doesn't mind pink in his closet.


This is the building that Annie's firm built that we used for our project.