KLAD – Set Design for the Entertainment Industry

The Blog and the Facebook Page

Sometimes we find interesting things that are really well presented on other blogs. Somethings we find interesting things that don’t quite require an in-depth look. Sometimes we blog about something and then others also blog about the same or a similar idea.

We needed a place post a fair number (hopefully not too many) links to interesting information.

So we have the Kevin Lee Allen Design Facebook Page. Yesterday we added a bit of code to the right sidebar here that makes it easy to ‘like’ Kevin Lee Allen Design on Facebook. You have to scroll down past the links, the blog roll and various search functions to find the Facebook box, but it is there. You can ‘like’ us from here or click the link above to go to the Facebook page.

Check it out! look forward to ‘seeing’ you on Facebook.

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The Brothers Hildebrandt

I am sure I was aware of the Brothers Hildebrandt before I BECAME aware of the Brothers Hildebrandt. I can recall the moment when I became aware. I was in undergraduate school and a lounge area had been turned into an art gallery. There was a Brothers Hildebrandt landscape hanging in the gallery. Those that know me know that landscapes don’t really move me. I was stopped dead in my tracks. It wasn’t the landscape; it was the use of color and the rendering of the light. Read More »

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Trendy, almost tragically, by Design

This little bit of kitschy, trendy, one might say tragic,  bit of Tiki talk landed in my email box today – a tad late or early for our usual Happy Hour postings. Then again, there’s only one rule I follow while wearing my mixologist’s hat – NO gooey, cloying, crap laden bottled mixes. NO No NO. Bartenders have been mixing up true classics for decades, and drinks become icons or cliches because first they are amazing, the sensations stay with you long after you’ve finished the cocktail. Then, they’re on the menu at Applebees. I blog about my favorite tropical cocktails regularly in the summer, and if you’ve  blended a Painkiller orMai Tai or a Pina Colada you know why these drinks are classics, and you know that premixed mixy muck is not allowed.

So, once again fellow gastronauters, we blew by this re Tiki cycle trend. – and the next KLAD trend train will leave the station soon.

Enjoy these warm late summer days – if you can’t get away for the week-end,

stick an umbrella in a drink – ALOHA to my howlies!

Bonus Bloggy thing: The Tikis above are doing yoga – Its all about balance my friends.

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UltraModern Roadside Architecture

In the 1950’s, the future was as bright as the SoCal sun. We were living in a post war prosperity, the dawn of the space age and tremendous advances in technology fueled our imaginations of what tomorrow would bring. Designers, architects and engineers boldly explored new materials and processes and were released from the constraints of many traditional practices. The long promised future had arrived, and was about to deliver the good life to all.

Steel, glass, plastic and plywood were some of the new materials that shot columns into the sky, jutting out of car washes like huge ocean sprays. Roofs and canopies began to twist and cantilever in forward motion. Sleek bright reverse parabolic triangles wooed drivers with their energy and dimension. Neon sings blinked and whirred appearing to float over neon laced soffits and cantilevered roofs.

The control and absolute purpose of high art met the savvy and flash of the carnival barker and glorious monuments to our prosperity and fortune were born.

I hope someday we can recapture that hope for the future and better living through technology. I’d love to see what’s in the minds of our future designers, waiting to be unleashed by an optimistic, engaged and open minded society.

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Cake or Set Design Model?

Actually, this one, on the left, is a cake set design model. Pastry Chef Anne Heap of Pink Cake Box in Denville NJ made this cake for the birthday celebration of a television celebrity chef. I just read about Anne on a News 12 NJ blog. They have many images, and certainly Pink Cake Box has lots of pictures. Visit them as well.

We did a set for News 12 The Bronx, but I digress.

We were blown away by the work of this classically trained Chef/Artist. We like to bake and I have had some fun with a bit of cake decorating, but I have yet to enter the world of fondant. I hope to have a bit of time for that once the weather cools.

I expect that my skills for building theatrical models will be put to some new tests. Kathleen is also very talented with an X-Acto Knife, so we should be whipping up stuff like this after only a few hundred attempts. I imagine that we will start with simple shapes.

I have added Chef Heap’s blog, linked above to my feed. Her work is inspiring and I am very much looking forward to attempting fondant. Fear not, we’ll blog about fondant, you will see growth. Go to Pink Cake Box for perfection.

The next time we’re in Denville for a shot of Wheat Grass Juice and a visit to The Viking Bakery, we’ll be adding Pink Cake Box to our itinerary.

–Kevin Lee Allen

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We want this job, it is not set design, but…

Of course, we also want the future we were promised. That would now be the today we were promised. The future is now. Of course, my father-in-law also wants his trip to Mars. That’s probably not going to happen.

Deep Glamour, a blog about the intersection of Imagination and Desire (gotta love that; a little bit sexy and a little bit sinister) posted an interview with Paleofuturist Matt Novak today. Matt studies predictions of the future from the past and blogs about those visions at Paleo-Future; A Look into the Future that Never Was.

The cool thing about set design and exhibit design is that we can create our own versions of the cool, sleek and optimistic future. The cool thing about Paleo-Future is that it is a great place to find inspiring ideas or to focus ideas and concepts. We’re not terribly interested in nostalgia and certainly see the argument that Matt makes about nostalgia being about fear. Nostalgia paints the past through rose colored glasses. We would like to see a positive vision of the future today. A future where we solve societal and scientific problems and great ideas and brilliant design flourish.

We both do disagree with Matt about Glamour being a Luxury not a Necessity. In the meantime, Kathleen wants her flying car. Can someone get on that?

–Kevin Lee Allen

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A Set Design for What?

Art installations are something of a conundrum to me. Sometimes they make sense, other times they fall into the category I call designer masturbation. The same if often true of couture and some furniture design that isn’t about comfort and style.

In my opinion, the image at left of ights and umbrellas is amusing. It is an art pieces that I found in a post on Surprising Art Installations by DesignCrave. Oddly, the images and all of the art are uncredited.

What I like about these umbrellas in that while they can, and apparently do, exist as art for art’s sake, they could also create an interesting space for an outdoor café or a covering over an open-air passageway. On the same page there is a ball of umbrellas which I find less amusing and far less useful. Much like the installations made out of tape or paper. The water bottles in lieu of water in the fountain is funny.

I like couture, but I find some of the same masturbatory choices.

Not that any artist shouldn’t be able to work in any way they like in any medium they like. Just as I can and do choose what I like and what moves me. More questions here than answers today. If you have answers, please leave them in the comments.

–Kevin Lee Allen

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Happy Hour Friday: Italian Soda Pop

“It’s Italian soda pop!”  our friend Joseph DeLucia said as he handed Kevin and I each a glass of Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco.

I noticed pear, apple, maybe a bit of white peach as the crisp, citrus delightfully pleasing bubbles skipped over my tongue and then vanished – a perfect pool side sip on a still very warm late summer afternoon.

That first sip sent me down the prosecco path I’m on today. An avid champagne drinker, I was willingly, happily seduced by Nino’s charms.

Prosecco is the name of an Italian grape and the wine made from it. It’s a favorite in Venice and vicinity – especially here in our little corner of Clifton, NJ, and is the proper wine to use in a Bellini.
Prosecco does not have a high alcohol content, it’s light bodied, fresh, and this particular prosecco is crisp and dry, some versions are a bit sweeter and more full bodied. It’s an affordable luxe, so please try a few different varieties, sometimes a little extra sweetness is a good thing, although I prefer dry and crisp, a taste that vanishes after it hits my tongue.

Pick up a bottle and raise a glass to treasured friends. Life’s abundance is always something to celebrate.

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Dream Design -Glitz, Glamour, Gangsters

The Marx Brothers - A Day at the Races

The Golden Age of Hollywood gave us a fantasy world that was carefully created by the big studios.  Set Design, Costume Design, Lighting Design and cinematography were  artfully used to create a living dream. People with talent and ability were made into stars, their names, look, speech and lifestyle were developed by the studios to create larger than life personas, allowing us to live a fantasy beyond the two hours we would spend in the movie theater.

Sure, there were many unhealthy, unnatural, some

Casablanca

may say ugly things about the system. And I’d be happy to discuss all that in the comments. Here, though, I’m indulging in the fantasy. Just as that Hollywood took us away, if even just for a moment, from our everyday trials and tribulations, looking at these delightfully contrived and controlled studio images can serve to give us a little break from our everyday and allow for a bit of dreaming by design.

I hope you enjoy this glimpse of vintage Hollywood, where even the gangsters are gloriously

Newman & Sinatra

glamourous.

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By choice or by chance, Design is everywhere…

The City Daily Photo Blogs generally bring a smile to my face in the morning. No, I don’t read all of them, but they are a welcome relief from the news.

These blogs are excellent inspiration, small cultural windows and great set design research. They often include little ideas to tuck away for future reference.

Today, The One A Day – Mostly Seattle blog was a clear winner. Perhaps just simply because photographer Chuck Pefley touched on our weakness for ladies heels. Usually I prefer them to have ladies feet installed, but this seems a novel and practical use.

One Christmas we do plan on vajazzling some multi-hued heels to make a wreath. We’ll post pictures.

–Kevin Lee Allen

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