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Category Archives: design

Seattle Needs a Considerable Cultural Center

May 13, 2022
https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter.html

 

Seattle needs a Cultural Center like the one in Chicago. I have been saying this to anyone who will listen. Almost shouting it, really.

In the midwestern windy city, the Cultural Center is built in the old library that resides on Michigan Avenue in the heart of downtown. The building takes up half of a Chicago block with entrances on north and south. In a city known for its grand and historic architecture, the Cultural Center has multiple impressive Tiffany glass domes, lobbies lined with mosaics, and staircases that are somehow both intimate and grand. The building itself, set in a highly visited and visible location and with some historic significance as a designed structure, would be a draw in itself.

But, what is most impressive is what has been done to program the interior. With a momentum appropriate for a public library’s past, the Center is primed to display and encourage culture and discourse, is accessible from multiple directions, and is free and open to the public (with an information/security desk at each end). It houses ever-changing, and always compelling arrangements full of inhabitable inspiration. With a multitude of temporary exhibitions of various scales and attitudes, the spaces are always transforming, each seemingly organized within a particular cultural theme. Not only does the building have exhibits, but it also houses assembly places; a senior center; a concert/event area (with soaring ceilings, a glorious stained- glass dome, flexible seating, and a window that frames Gehry’s Millennium Park concert hall — i.e., Jay Pritzker Pavilion across the road); a large central lobby for sanctuary where anyone can rest among an array of changing art installments; a public lecture hall; etc. The rooms and hallways are varied and dynamic. It is a sensual treat to walk among them when they are empty, and it is exponentially uplifting when they are filled with art and displays.

It seems that almost any area of the building can be, and is used for exhibits. One exhibit area on the main floor is devoted to city planning. Two small galleries adjacent to this space sometimes expand the civic theme or show the work of individual, contemporary artists (usually activists with strong civic intentions and a high level of aesthetic ability). There is another changing exhibit space where there are often experimental interior and/or industrial designs as well as books and pamphlets for the taking. There might be a small exhibit about Chicago’s design history under the stairs. There is also a space lent to “Story Corps” (https://storycorps.org) where, with an appointment, people can open their hearts and minds to each other. There is a senior center near the north entrance that has its own exhibition space. The staircases are an experience unto themselves and, as you proceed along one you can view the interior courtyard where, for a time, there was a clever, contemporary, sculptural piece inspired by Piranesi.

Upstairs, galleries with tall ceilings and more expansive footprints have changing exhibits of the work of individual artists who are well-known or obscure, or of artist collectives, or exhibits on a theme. These larger galleries might, for a time, be filled with innovation from the city’s Architecture Biennial or about science and art.  I have seen shows that interpret and exhibit the work of internationally known artists such as the innovative and riveting walking wind-powered sculptures of Theo Jansen (https://www.strandbeest.com), or the provocative local and highly acclaimed contemporary Theaster Gates (https://www.theastergates.com), or a collection of lesser-known Chicago painters and sculptors from the recent past (at least one of whom I have since seen exhibited in major museums), or an exhibit on the visible history of immigrants in Chicago… A hallway in this old building has a new ramp and a permanent artistic structure of brushed metal that, I think, may also function as a structural reinforcing. Nearby, connecting the north and south, there is another hallway where photographs are on display, often about the history of the city. The exterior wall facing an alleyway is also a canvas for art.

A stimulating lecture series is part of the program. We visit Chicago often and we almost always make a pilgrimage to the Cultural Center. One day, we wandered in and there was a poster announcing a talk by Hannah Beecher. In the intimate lecture hall, Ms. Beecher sat for an interview and candidly talked to the forty or so of us who had arrived. Ms. Beecher was the Production Designer for the movie “Black Panther” and Beyonce’s video “Lemonade”, among other extraordinary artistic endeavors. I was feet away from the stage, riveted to my seat by her astonishing personal, generous, and inspirational tale of creativity and redemption. This year, I saw her work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York where she collaborated on an installation about what Seneca Village — a thriving African American settlement that had been displaced to build the MET and Central Park – might have been in an imagined future. On that day in Chicago, one of the most compelling speakers I have ever heard, Ms. Beecher, welcomed us in and made anything seem possible.

while in Seattle potential stands by

So I am inspired by this. Seattle needs a Cultural Center like the one in Chicago. I am proposing that the Macy’s Building is poised to be that place. The location and the scale of the building are the ideal setting. En route from downtown to the popular Pike’s Market, this structure is of a rare Art Deco style in a town not necessarily known for architectural history. The building is central and accessible from multiple sides. It is near transit and shopping, restaurants, and waterfront views. It denotes solidity and openness. And our city needs a cultural anchor, both for tourists/visitors and for those of us who reside longer. We need a conduit to fill and describe the important art, architecture, design, and cultural stories we must share to keep ourselves vibrant and alive. I propose that we study the great potential of a centralized civic space that celebrates our rich, diverse, impressive culture and that we put this plan into action right away as the city core needs us to do. We are a city, at long last, and not a provincial afterthought. We can act like it. Proud and expressive. Showing our smarts. Large and impressive. Open to the public. We all need it. Now.

Necessary Rules and the Necessity of Good Design

October 10, 2018

This is something I wrote as a response on Facebook a few weeks ago when someone posted an article about the sameness of Seattle’s multifamily housing project designs.

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Oh boy does this need discourse. I am not sure that I agree with the reason that these building look uniform and I am also not sure that a certain degree of uniformity is bad (unless it is mindless, lazy, and without design sensitivity). In my opinion, a design review board is a good thing in general, provided that they are comprised of intelligent people with insight. There is great freedom within restrictions and lots of spontaneity within control. I would even argue that freedom and spontaneity without restrictions and control generally winds up in chaotic, ugly stupidity. And, I would definitely NOT advocate for Seattle to lose it’s “modulation” on facades, for instance. (Think of the “refrigerator box buildings” of the 70s in many American cities.) It is not the rules per se, but how the designs themselves are executed in the big moments and in the fine details and choices. And it is a lack of design education, I believe. Too many people (designers, owners, developers…) defer to what HAS been instead of innovating for what could be. Again, I like rules – it just depends upon whether they are smart rules, intelligently interpreted, or not. You can see the results of a lack of design rules in places like Aurora Blvd and Route 22 in NJ, or Admiral Wilson Blvd in Phili, or… well, the list goes on an on; there is probably an example of this in every town in the USA and maybe over the world. Alternatively, you can point to the plague of too many rules in places like the historic nazi Germany, I suppose, or, arguably some contemporary suburban housing projects in the USA. But, some of the blandness of materials and facades is the result of the development of the industrial revolution and how it evolved into the 20th and 21st Century, hand in hand with economic pressures, all pushing handicraft away and relying upon machined materials and construction and how these have been administered in design decisions. But, mostly, it is a lack of design intelligence. Seattle sameness points to a lack of understanding about design and a lack of imagination on everyone’s part. Seattle design is like a learned helplessness. Designers and architects should take a greater role in decisions about places, and, in my opinion, ALL people should be educated about design since it affects all of us 24/7. (I do see how this might lead to more arguments, but bring it on! Let’s argue about design for a change!) Architects should not be afraid of working with developers, nor should architects underestimate the perceptions of developers, and visa versa. There is an animosity that has led the two — those people with the money to build, and those people trained to design the buildings — to undervalue each other. Many of the building design problems in Seattle, from my point of view, include the fact that the developers and the economy demand maximizing the space and building to the edge of the code, volume-wise; too many people have absolutely NO design training or appreciation; and even those who have design training defer to a dulled down context instead of being innovative. Whether you are going to be an architect or not, all of us should learn about design.

Plastics

September 20, 2018

PLASTICS

I usually sleep reasonably well. But I didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up various times. Probably, this because I got into bed too early as I tend to do these days. I get into bed and I binge watch something on Netflix or Amazon or HBO. Sometimes that is fun. Sometimes though, it makes me feel guilty. I do read books, but I would probably be reading more if it weren’t for the guilty pleasure of binge watching streamed shows. I almost entirely assuage my conscience by reasoning that the shows are clever and well produced. There are a lot of good shows available now. And I do need a break from politics and responsibilities. But the guilt mostly comes from the fact that I long to PRODUCE more than consume. I know that the clock is ticking.

But that isn’t what I mean to talk about.

I did not sleep well last night because I am concerned about our planet. At one point, I woke up and thought about how I use plastics in my life. And I thought about how I might improve myself. I want to “check myself before I wreck myself” (paraphrasing a Zach Galifianakis character in a boy flick). I am taking stock again. I wonder if it would help the planet if each of us took a moment to reflect upon this.

Although I have almost entirely stopped using plastic bags from stores, and my dry cleaner has been handing out re-useable covers to protect the clothing in transit (I purchase fewer and fewer clothes that need dry cleaning anyway), and I no longer buy facial products with microbeads, and although stores no longer automatically put things in plastic bags, etc… there is still a lot of plastic in my life, much of which has added up over the years, and much of which still winds up in landfills, waste-to-energy plants, or even possibly in oceans and in the air.

Plastics can be helpful as it lightweights products in transit which means that there is less fossil fuel used to transport products, and it also helps protect certain products from damage or destruction, before or after purchase, so that there is less overall waste. It has made great medical and technological advancements possible. But, I would like to use less plastic because I like the earth and the animals on it and I would like to be part of a solution, not a problem. Yet, even as a relatively conscientious consumer (who tries to consume less and better), I find that I cannot yet avoid using plastics as they show up without my control in products I consume.

What really bothers me is when wilderness-product companies have the smallest of plastic hooks holding their tags to their clothing, since these are companies that build their identity on promoting that they are ecologically minded. And it does erode confidence when a cosmetic company professes to care about your skin or health but then uses one-use plastic as the container for their products, and worse, use multiple polymers of plastic with plungers, for instance, that cannot be recycled. It undermines their message, at the least.

So, as I said, I am taking stock. I wonder if we all take stock and then maybe communicate with companies, could we produce and use less plastic, keeping it out of our water and air and the animals who need both? Here is a list of plastics I use.

Toothpaste tubes
Moisturizer tubes
Toothbrushes
Makeup holders/containers and brushes
Toilet seat and lid
Parts of this laptop
Coffee maker parts
Food containers (the containers I use and reuse to store food, like Tupperware)
Materials in certain clothing (makes them more stretchy)
Telephones
Remote controls
Occasional ziplock bags
Newspaper bags
The little parts for your nose on eyeglasses
Food containers (the containers they came in, like cottage cheese or yogurt)
Milk containers (or even the little spouts of the non-plastic cartons)
Bandaids
The patch inside me for the hernia from years ago
Hairbrush, comb, shampoo and other hair product bottles
Credit cards
phone case (and parts?)
Plastic bags to cover clothing in storage or from the cleaners
Packaging wrapped around certain foods at the store
Plastic bags and containers that I am given with take-out food
Containers/Packaging that come with products (molded plastic that is only for display and pre-purchase use)
Pieces and pieces of hardware used for furniture, pens, key holders…
Parts of my house: radiant flooring tubes, PVC pipes, parts of lighting, wiring, etc.
Fitbit parts
Clock parts
Connectors on clothing tags (hold tags to garments until purchase)
Technology wire covers
Fiber optics
Car parts

What about you?

In this regard, there is little we have control over other than not accepting a bag at the store, or by buying in bulk, or trying to avoid buying anything plastic, and certainly avoiding anything obviously overpackaged. Perhaps the next step is to pressure stores by leaving packaging at the store for them to deal with (and then they can pressure the manufacturer)? Any other ideas?

FAIA submittal

March 26, 2018

People have been interested in the submittal I made for the award of Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. I am attaching it here. Please excuse what probably appears as boastful and lacking in humility. Also, please know that I know that many many people helped me in so many ways, and I am deeply grateful, despite the fact that they (or you) are not individually named in this report. The task required that I put aside hesitations and make bold claims. I hope that seeing this report helps you in some way. MLC-FAIA Application

Design Education, Facts Versus Interpretation, The FAIA, and an Apology for a Lack of Humility

March 26, 2018

In an astonishing turn of events — with impact or interest that is probably insignificant to anyone but myself — I have been elevated to be a national Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. I am now FAIA, or as some architects like to say “I am an F”. It might sound disingenuous of me to sound humble or doubting. After all, I started on this track when I was twenty-one. I studied architecture and interned in the field for about ten years, and I have had my own business as an architect for nearly thirty years. Also, this year, it took months of complicated, full-time work to even prepare the complicated 40-page submittal for the FAIA award. Only 3% of all the 91,000 AIA architect members receive this honor. According to an article in “Architect: The Journal of The American Institute of Architects” (May 18,2015), females comprise only 28% of architectural staff in AIA member–owned firms, 26% of licensed architects (who are not principals or partners), and 17% of principals and partners. I am proud that I have overcome norms and expectations, and that I may be a good role model. And perhaps I should not be surprised for my work to be recognized? Still, I keep thinking that there will be a letter soon, advising me that they meant to send the congratulations and award to another person and that it mistakenly came my way. I seem to be addicted to my Imposter Syndrome, despite this high recognition that should have convinced me otherwise. Yes, I am a registered architect. Yes, I have worked hard, I have loved my work, and I consider it worthy. But I have had an unorthodox approach to the field of Architecture which has led me into the strange and eccentric realm of Interpretive Design. And I have done my share of bitching about the AIA. So, this win on a first try is a shock.

I am honored. I am humbled. I am happy. I am grateful. Now, what should I do about this? What are my responsibilities?

I think that one way to pay it forward is to describe Interpretive Design, or even the value of interpretation at all. In this world there is now a background din of “fake news!”, and you would think that I, a rather extreme liberal, would prefer to stick with the facts. I do. I recognize facts and try to stick with them. For instance, I have honed my Facebook sharing so that I post only those items that show original sources of consensual integrity. But to find any facts that are “indisputable”; well that is proving to be harder and harder. You might say (as did e.e. cummings) that “death is no parenthesis”. Death is fact. But I have a life-long practice of skepticism, and I would probably even argue about that.

This is not a small or even simply a philosophical issue for me. I have had arguments about this (arguments with serious personal consequences) with a good friend who is a lawyer. She would say “there are facts”. I would agree. But then, I am an architect working in the field of interpretation, and I would counter that in the world of human experience, in the practical world, interpretation is often more important than facts. I would press that this is true almost all of the time. Obviously, she thinks that what she is doing as a lawyer arguing the “facts” is essential and honest work. I was not contradicting that, but I was arguing that even her argument is really an interpretation of the facts; that an argument by definition is an interpretation. What we communicate and how we communicate it are, at least, equivalent in value. In human experience, most of all content that happens at least one split moment after “fact”, is not devoid of, nor divorce-able from form. I am not saying that we should present lies. I do believe that we need to attempt to convey truth (and fact) as well and as honestly as we can. To do that, you need integrity, you need to be listening well, and you need to have a mastery of your manipulation of form.

In our human efforts to get closer and closer to truth and beauty, we now are deeply into data mining. Currencies that move nations are based upon speculative interpretation. We support (though, arguably do not base) our political inclinations upon accumulated “data”. Statistics and algorithms abound. Still, I would say, that what you cull from these seemingly impersonal facts are based upon the questions you ask and the plateaus of decisions or inclinations you already hold. In the long distant past, Geomancers gave rich people the greatest promises of good karmic flow. Now, the more expensive lawyers do that.

In the world of exhibits, which is the world I have inhabited and helped to furnish for the past thirty years, I have seen that a pure reflection of facts is impossible. Interpretation is able to be manipulated. And it is a great responsibility. So, I have accepted projects in which I believe, and clients who seem to share my point of view, and then I have tried to honestly reflect ideas in the Big Picture and specific details of my designs (and the designs of my teams). I know that a worthy conveyance of fact is at the mercy of one’s ability as a designer. You have to have a concept and you have to have the ability to state it well. I am arguing that if you want to be a designer, become a good and capable designer, the best you can be.

In the field I have chosen, it is imperative to know how people learn. I am fascinated with this. And so, I have studied education. For decades, education in the USA has focused upon linguistics and math. Whenever I think that anyone might listen, I have insisted that we need to learn design literacy more than math. Oh yes, we all need a foundation of mathematics. But most of us need math only to a point. We need to know addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, percentages, and fractions. Beyond that, I would argue that math education could be optional. Instead, I have maintained that design education should be mandatory. It is my assertion that design education should start in elementary school and continue from there. Not that all of us should be designers, but that we should all be cognizant and literate about design. Design surrounds us 24/7. It affects us every day and night, awake or asleep. Without good and proper education, many people do not understand how much design abounds and affects them. But design is in the technologies, the places, the tools, the furniture, clothing, devices, and buildings in which we live or with which we have a connection, ALL of the time. An understanding of design would, I believe, help us all to make deliberate and intelligent choices that would better our lives through an understanding of how form is an interpretation of content and intent.

My point, my admonishment, my plea, is that you (we, each of us) start out from a point of compassion, care, and love, and then that we learn our craft well so that we can carefully, with technical prowess, and with positive intention, manipulate form and interpretive conveyance to reflect and embody those deep and serious intentions. I would argue that we need to better educate people about design. We need really good education for everyone.

So, I am now an F. And I will wear it as proudly as a progressive politician wearing a “F” rating from the NRA. I know that this is great. I am honored. And now that I have achieved this high rating and recognition, I cannot just be content.

Essays on Art, Culture, and Design #1- Exhibition Design

December 14, 2016

aww-w-mindy-by-beverly-denenberg-cropped

Well, it is almost my birthday — an inconvenient two days after Christmas — and I did promise myself that I would post in my new blog. I also promised that I would write about art, design, and culture.

Still, all I have written about lately is politics. I am a Facebook addict and I yell into that wind constantly, preaching to the small circle that some distant algorithm determined would be my closest friends. These friends do already agree with me for the most part. On the rare occasion that I “speak” with someone who doesn’t, I get both thrilled and somewhat scared and I tend to write so copiously in response that they are either put off or do not know where to begin to reference my tangents. I think that I come off as though I were heeding advice I read when I was in my teens about how to act crazy if you think that some guy is following you.

I do not mean for these Facebook people to steer clear and walk to the other side of the road. I mean to meet them in the middle …and then grab their arm and pull them to my side. Ok. It is true. I think that I am correct on many issues and points. Yet, I do think that we probably share values (about compassion and caring, and so on) and that there is a place in the middle and that, being convincing and charming, and with well cited sources of information, I will ease them into a semblance of, or at least momentary self-knowledge and sense that will change their ways and their voting inclinations. Admittedly (and I like admitting this), I too can be given new information that might change my mind. I realize that, if I expect someone else to shake off their own mental shackles, I must be ready to do some shaking myself. I try to remain open to this. And I know that there are things I do not know. So, at least I am not victimized by the Dunning-Kruger effect …though, how would I know? (That makes me laugh.)

Back to the point. I launched my website weeks ago with a section for news and blog, and a new post is getting to the point of overdue. Even though all I can think about is that the soon-to-be-loser-in-chief might slip us into a military winter or a climate catastrophe from which we will never emerge… I will focus. I will exercise my disciplined mind. And, here at least, I will get back to Culture. It is possible anyway that art will save the world. Let’s be reasonable. No. No. No. Let’s NOT be reasonable. But, let’s focus.

These days, at least once a week, I see a live performance. I read novels. I watch, and even binge watch clever shows on non-broadcast non-stations. I meet friends to discuss art. I visit museums. I come up long lists of art pieces and projects that I would like to propose to people with money and influence. When old friends ask what I am doing, I say that I am turning down the volume on my design business and its work and turning up the volume on the solo studio stuff. People ask what intention I have for the new website and I am not sure, though I know that it is more to get a new level of recognition and a footing of authority than it is to get new work. I have no end of work. I work all of the time. I have a non-ending list of projects I do and am doing. I am lucky. And life is good. Therefore, the website is more portfolio and retrospective than it is application or supplication for a new job. As always, I wake up with a vague sense of guilt that I am not doing enough. But I do agree with Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s work in that I think that one must understand one’s past in order to go healthfully into the future.

And, so I will begin with a reflection on the business of exhibition design. Here is the first installment of reflections and essays on art, design, culture, and the work about it. Hope you enjoy.

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Exhibition Design 101

I have worked as an Exhibition Designer for about thirty years. Do you want to know everything I know as an exhibition designer? Here is what I have learned, along with some of the instructions I have given myself and the LCS staff about this type of work.

On an interpretive sign, in order to be legible and make the most impact, the main area of text (the body text) will mostly want to be between two feet and five feet above the finished floor. Titles can be above that. Odd miscellaneous text, such as captions, copyrights, and other acknowledgements, can be below. Use hierarchy in font size. Probably, you do not want text to be less than 14 points, unless it is for captions and other, rare miscellany. The area above five feet can be used for titles, but in larger font, or else it will not be readable enough, especially from afar. Pay attention to the contrast, spacing, and font style choices for legibility. You probably want about 75 words per sign but you can go to as many as 150. Over that quantity, it may as well be a newspaper or magazine – and you might as well just forget making an exhibit. However, it is generally a great challenge to get a client to agree to fewer words. To make the process most efficient and least frustrating, ask the client to have only one representative combine all of their review comments (and still you will be lucky if the client gives you reviews of your text with no contradictory remarks). The writing aspect of exhibit design takes much longer than you might expect. Everyone who writes thinks that they can write exhibit text, but there are rules about characters per line, lines per paragraph, paragraph per sign, and how all of this relates to the designs; how big, how far, who is reading… After initial writing, there are always words that may be edited out without losing meaning. Now you know this too.

Exhibition design is like architecture and takes all of the abilities of an architectural endeavor. It also goes through the same processes: Programming, Schematics, Design Development, Contract Documents, Construction Administration. It also has a parallel track of literal design aspects that result in Graphic Design, aspects that are essential to the work. While you are putting the three-dimensional process through its hoops, you are simultaneously working on two-dimension aspects including Research, Writing, Photos and Illustrations, and then the same process of Schematics, Design Development, Contract Documents, and Construction Administration (or Fabrication Administration, if you prefer) for this aspect of the work too. Contract Documents include Working Drawings and also gruelingly time-consuming, eye-crossingly complicated, and often boring-to-write, though necessary Specifications (which are the detailed written instructions that accompany the Drawings).

Exhibition design is a Renaissance Man’s endeavor (or, if the term “Man” offends you, a polymath’s endeavor). Depending upon the project, you may work with structural engineers, landscape designers, architects, lighting designers, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, AV and multi-media experts, civil engineers, illustrators, photographers, writers, researchers, scientists, artists, teachers, administrators, politicians, metal workers, glass workers, woodworkers, animators, sign makers, and others. And you will have to know more than a little about each and all of their fields to work intelligently with them. You will be responsible to oversee Shop Drawings, Samples, and Prototypes. You will have to know where the materials and items you plan to use in your designs come from, how they age, what they cost, if and/or how they can be replaced over time. You will want to know everything you can about sustainability and environmentally-conscientious design — otherwise, why design at all? You will have to understand materials, lighting, composition, color, and have an impeccable business acumen. In Exhibition Design you really have to understand how people/visitors experience space, and exhibits in particular, which is also about the psychology of learning. The visitor experience is the point. You will have to be cognizant of curricula and the most current thinking in the field of Education. You will work, on average, one and a half to two years on any particular project, although often longer.

If you run your own business, the work of everyone who works for you — a staff of people you manage and for whose happiness you feel partially responsible — will ultimately be your responsibility and, at the same time, you will try to give them the recognition that they deserve, sometimes going overboard in this empathetic compensation and relinquishing your own reward. And you will be a therapist to your clients who are frequently comprised of multiple people who do not necessarily agree and sometimes would like to kill each other.

You will have to compete for almost every job you get. Clients will say that they want you to go all out and as far out as possible, and when you do, they will forcibly snap you back to their comfort zone. No one, not even your loving family, will understand what you do. Journalists will not mention you and might, in canonizing the hero architect, even give that architect credit for your work. It is likely that you will not have time to engage much in marketing efforts, unless you are willing to relinquish being involved in the work for which you have a passion and which brought you to where you are in the first place. You will spend hours upon hours managing your business and understanding the tax structure. You may try to raise your fees but project proposals will almost always be for fixed fees so that, once you get a project, you will work three to five hours for every one hour you are paid. Sometimes, you may have to buttress your firm and keep it afloat with your own savings. There will be no job security. Insurance costs are yours to pay, for you and your staff, and they will continue to precipitously rise. You will sometimes blurt out how you feel about all of this, with the risk that some people might think you are egoistical, obsessive, bitter (and, in my case, maybe a little neurotic)… and they may be right. Even in today’s world of rampant Hero Worshipping, it is hard to worship, or even recognize an Exhibition Designer, especially if she’s female and not very tall. And yet, you will often get into the Flow of it and feel a surge of happiness as good as life gets. You will often go home and feel as though you have done something worthwhile and you will have the satisfaction of often using so many of your talents. You will be one of the lucky few who enjoy their work more often than they dread it. You will feel satisfied and proud.

The point of Exhibition Design is, as far as I am concerned, to inspire positive change and action. The field of Exhibition Design is as complicated, important, and challenging as Architecture. And, even if I can tell you everything I know and you can follow every step, you still may not become a great designer. Because, beyond it all, there is that magical element. Intuition and character and persistence and wit, and maybe luck… whatever the brew is that, in your personal way, brings it all together.

What ya don’t know. Now you know.