Starting this fall we will have a series of artists and partners write for our blog about their experience and practices. We have loved collaborating with Chace + Smith for photography (they helped us with Pratt Street Ale House and Mercersburg Summer) and we are loving their amazing creative writing!
What does Americana mean for each of us? Where is that sacred space of nostalgic national identity we each hold in our hearts? Ryan and Larissa Smith of Chace + Smith Photography decided to try and find the answers to these questions on a month-long tour of the American Northwest. Here is an account of what they discovered along the way:
When we wrote a summary of our Creative Highways Project on our website prior to our trip, we described our purpose as “searching for the last bastions of Americana.” What does this mean, and is Americana really disappearing? I believe our search uncovered more than a yes or no answer to this question.
Our client and friend, Geoff Stack from Stack Coordination, had a wonderful opening last night. It was a fantastic mix of people from Baltimore’s own green family: architects, landscapers, builders, artists, designers, photographers, family, friends, writers, entrepreneurs and certainly a wide variety of green folks.
Check out the video recap from the event. And GO GEOFF!
Photograph taken in Cape Cod, MA by Arthur Gonoretzky
Often times, Tilt discusses the fact that visuals have the only true opportunity to create change. As the world’s most global communication method, visuals represent the wave of the future. We are often surrounded by mixed-media with large advertisements, graphics and signage (wayfinding, mostly) providing us with direction on what we should be doing, how we should be doing something and offering us additional suggestions if we don’t want to listen to the first two options provided. Visuals provide a quicker reaction than the written word. Often times people can reference colors, shapes and emotions featured in a visual, so the meaning becomes stronger and longer lasting as a memory.
This month, Cafe Karuba from Kwik Trip Stores was featured as the Top Banana Award in the CSP (Convenience Stores/Petroleum) Magazine. This honor is particularly special since Tilt is responsible for the overhaul of Kwik Trip’s Cafe Karuba Brand earlier this year. Take a look at the before and after photos below and click here to read the entire article from the most recent issue.
This past month, Tilt’s E. Rachael Baird was featured in Mercersburg Quarterly Magazine in the “Sustainability: Growing Green” issue. Along side friends Matt Roberts (a Tilt Foundation Board member) and Sarah Reed (a good friend and LEED certified designer), this issue reached the wide variety of Mercersburg Academy students and Alums, spreading the message of creating change using intellect.
Why not make the earth apart of the decor? Often coined “Breathing Walls,” Living Walls increase circulation, cool the air and provide a wonderful art piece. Typically found in cities, high-end architectural buildings are particularly trending towards Living Walls as well as areas that are looking to retain some sense of nature. CONTINUE READING
As we all know, I am an avid Sigg user. I have converted my whole family, too. Our new hybrid designer, Chris Willet, found this article on Sigg which had me running for the store! Take a look and be sure to check out your bottle if you use the new or the old Sigg. Personally I just think that this was strategic marketing; get everyone to buy our product, then tell consumers that last years model gives you diseases, but the new one won’t and then the company sells more product.
Swiss designers at SPRANQ creative communications recently introduced a new typeface called Ecofont. Like Swiss cheese, these letterforms have been designed with holes in them to reduce ink usage and in turn printing costs. According to Ecofont.eu, SPRANQ experimented with thick and thin weights as well as removing different shapes from the letters, before deciding upon circular shapes. But does this new typeface really deserve to be dubbed the Ecofont?
I am skeptical that this new font lives up to the standards that its name implies. It is viewed best at point sizes of 10-12, and is only really effective when printed using laser printers. Obviously, its characters should not be blown up much larger than 10-12 pt as the holes will become larger and more apparent, the bigger the point size becomes. This font may save ink, but the main reason we are in this environmental pickle in the first place is because we print and consume entirely too much. Though SPRANQ’s intentions are noble, I feel it is much more eco-logical to scrutinize how much we need to print as opposed to how “eco-friendly” we can be while still printing millions of unnecessary items.
From a designers’ standpoint, this font is designed with the large corporate office in mind rather than the graphic professional. Ecofont is meant to be printed at small point sizes, which, eliminates versatility. Typically office buildings print large quantities of un-designed e-mails and body copy at these point sizes. According to Ecofont.eu the letters are based off of the office font Verdana. Co-owner of SPRANQ, Alexander Kraaij claims that a company with 5000 workers could trim up to $125,000 a year from its printing costs. If large companies were to replace the common font Verdana with Ecofont, then one may begin to see the benefit. However, the probability and practicality of that happening seems very slim.
All in all, Ecofont is a positive idea, but when it comes down to it, we simply need to analyze what and how much we print/consume to truly create a more sustainable society.
A few weeks ago Tilt decided to take over our neighbor’s lawn of weeds and transform it into an urban garden (with the property owners’ permission of course). After laboring many hours under the summer sun, pulling up roots, turning over dirt and nurturing the soil, we planted an assortment of fruits and veggies that are growing fast. The plants were purchased from local farmers at the market that takes place on Sunday mornings under the route 83 overpass.
Personal and urban farms have become increasingly popular during recent years. The “going green” phenomenon has caused Americans to begin questioning where their food comes from, whether or not it is organic, and how many miles it travels before it reaches the supermarket. In this era of global mass production and factory farming, food has become super efficient to produce in massive quantities, and plants have been engineered to yield the biggest and brightest fruits and vegetables. Not only this, but much of our food in America is imported from countries throughout the world. Have you ever wondered how you could possibly eat a pineapple in December?
Last night was the debut of the Tilt Gallery and we couldn’t have asked for a better turn out! Thank you so much to everyone that came to support us and our artists. We are looking forward to many more amazing art events to come, so keep in touch!
The ONE show will remain up until July 2nd. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 11am-5pm and Saturday by appointment only. For more information, please visit our website.
For more pictures from ONE, check out our flickr site.
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