KLAD is proving scenic design and props and collaborating with an extraordinary group of people, including Director Dennis Courtney on a new play, Civil War Voices, opening on Saturday July 24 as part of the Midtown International Theatre Festival (MITF). I was so moved by this work, it is not about specific battles or the [...]
Set Design is an assemblage of many different talents and skills. One of those required is the use of typography and calligraphy. Hats off to set and lighting designer Cris Dopher for calling attention to this blog post about type designer and calligrapher Richard Lipton. I had not heard of the publicity shy Richard Lipton, [...]
Although I saw a great many terrific things at the ETC; portfolios, Shadyside, the space and projects, I was there to lecture. If I have the schedule correctly, the ETC invites a prominent speaker to visit each week and address the students on Wednesday afternoons. The sessions are scheduled for two hours including Q&A. In [...]
The good kind, as seen here. Not the crappy kind. I think that this loves comes from our roots in set design for theatre, although we have also done a few interesting things with maps and paint for television. Most notably at the CNN UN bureau. Wherever the appreciation comes from, we hope that you [...]
I often talk about tents. Tents and teepees and other ‘soft’ structures can and do make for amazing performance spaces. Tent design is set design that creates venue. We’ve worked on interesting projects across the country that use tent structures to create performance space. In the illustration at left, Baytex of New Zealand uses a [...]
At the root of what we do is storytelling. Whether we are working on a dramatic film or theatrical piece or a trade show booth, museum exhibit, themed interior, news set or architainment, our set design must be part of advancing a story. Based on a script, story, program or creative brief, we conceive and [...]
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s post about Vectorworks Layers. Now as then, I’ll put most of the nitty gritty after a break. If you’re interested in Vectorworks and speak the lingo, click through. If not, scroll down, there are (we like to think) lots of other interesting things to read and comment on, especially [...]
This post is based on a currently ongoing discussion on the Vectorworks Theatre Discussion e-Mailing List. I’m going to put most everything ‘below the fold’ here as if you’re not a Vectorworks user, the rest of the post might as well be written in an Alien language. Tweet
As Set Designers, we do a lot of research. It is and has to be something that we love. Learning is good. We do research for specific projects and we do general research everyday. It makes the morning reading more interesting and positive. We look for trends and ideas. We look for the next big [...]
Wow, this book is an incredible resource. OK, full disclosure; I know Steve Shelley and we have been internet friends for some time. We have in fact met in real life and, as we do in the business, consumed adult beverages and traded stories. We have not spoken on the phone. OK, back to the [...]