It’s taken a while, but here are a few pieces of the Paramount for my Dad’s 90th birthday. That’s my mom and dad’s wedding picture in the first poster. Me and my dad in the second. And one for the Coast Guard because my dad’s an old “Coasty”. It’s taken so long because my poor little computer keeps gaking on the rendering. I’ll just have to talk nice, pat it’s head and beg. Then maybe it’ll let me build the building.
I’ve done work for a while now for Pauline Baker of JBM Miniatures (one of the leaders in collector quality dollhouse miniatures). She asked me if I wanted to try creating custom miniature doors. Since I had created architectural models back in the 70’s, I figured I would give it a shot. This was something I never thought I would be doing, but why not. And it shows my creativity and architectural knowledge. I treat them as if they are real full-size doors and make sure they express their “life”, the wear and tear of being used over the years and the many people who have gone through them. And just for fun, all the doors have keys. The images of them below show both sides of the door and the last one shows one of the styles in it’s “raw” form. I also created art for a new website of Pauline’s, CustomDollhouse.com. And a newsletter. And a pull-up tradeshow booth banner. I’ve also re-designed the masthead for the JBM website, JBMMiniatures.com.
My father was born February 15, 1923. He’ll be 90 next year. So, I’ve been working on a graphic to use for the invitation. One of his favorite memories was going to the Paramount Theater in Toledo, Ohio and opened in 1929. It was a fabulous picture palace in every sense of the word. He speaks fondly of the “moving clouds” and the beauty that was the Paramount. Unfortunately, it was torn down in 1965 (I was 6). So, I decided to merge a few pieces of his life into one thing. You won’t see it this time, but what you will see is a re-creation of the marquee (the early work, I’ll add the lights later and change it in celebration of him). Also, I’ve included a photo of the actual marquee in it’s heyday. and what I worked from.
As you can see not much obvious in the way of changes. I created a ladder system to get to the catwalks (with guard lights so you don’t get lost in an emergency in the dark). The catwalks (my attention to detail) have pyramid prisms in the walkway to allow light through and cast iron handrails with copper posts. And, of course, how can a grand space like I envision be without a grand chandelier. Crystal, of course.
We’re now up to 84,995,181 polygons. If I do say so myself, I think it’s a pretty nice start. What do you think?
A clock tower interior. I saw an episode of Selling New York on HGTV and was inspired to create my own apartment. This is the early work. It’s Penn Station meets Art Nouveau with a dash of Art Deco. As you can see I still have a habit of putting in ALL the detail. 45,276,536 polygons. All the rivets are there. The lightbulbs have glassblower points. I still need to put the catwalks in. And of course the walls and clocks.
Art Deco. Not it’s original name. At the time it was called Art Moderne, from the French. It embodied the ultimate expression of industrial design. Cars, homes, paintings, posters, toasters all aquired it. It was and is, in my opinion, the best of modern design. All styles that follow owe themselves to it. Mid-century modern, sixties mod and even the seventies drew upon it. Obviously, as time went on it became more and more “cartoonish”. The seventies were the biggest abuser of the style, but they tried, so maybe they can be forgiven (a little bit). The style was really all about speed, manufacturability, and materials. The best was always used in materials when possible as well as the most new and up-to-date technologies (sound familiar, eh?). But today the materials seem to be less important. Elegance and sophistication were the thing. It’s still here, sometimes, and should be used and appreciated more but without cartooning it or what I would rather say “Disney-fying” it. It’s based on classisim and now seems to be released from that and made overblown and out of proportion. It should be fun and elegantly welcoming. I’ve posted here a lounge I designed. Tell me your comments….
Recent Comments