Steel & Wood : : WOOD + Steel

Often, "Studio Furniture" is produced in either Wood,
or in Steel. 

By Woodworkers...or Metalworkers.

Rarely do Makers have the ability or skill(s) to effectively combine both of these materials in one elegantly integrated design.
I believe that I have achieved this and wish to promote, that aspect of what I do.

Which led to the layout of these 2 postcard designs- not fully detailed- but effectively layed out to incorporate some of the image that I shot (and a few that David Ditzler shot for me!- Thanks DAVID!) 

Often, when designing a piece like this- it's best to consider the "Less-Is-More" philosophy. 

On the other hand, leaving out other examples of my being capable of integrating Wood & Steel in my Stair Railing Designs and in my Custom Lighting Design as well as other home furnishing would take away from knowing about the full-range of what I can offer to an Interior Designer, Architect or Home Owner.

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) and by inserting smaller shots of my Lighting and Furniture, I have been able to display the range of skills and services I can bring to the "table".

So, having comped this card up- I feel that by showing my 2 new pieces (top and bottom of the card) , I have been able to display the integration of different skills and services I can bring to the "table".

Designing an effective Mailer has to meet one main requirement : using a phrase that my friend Tom Job once coined...... "Cubicle Worthy"! 

That is, is the design and visual impact of the piece strong enough to not only be posted on the walls of a persons cubicle - but is that card also going to create a buzz, cause attention to be be drawn to it by various co-workers and colleagues stopping by the "intended target audiences" cubicle?

So, I ask you my lovely readers of this blog- which of these two different 5" by 7" postcard Mailers do you feel is "Cubicle Worthy" in their intended representation of my Wood and Steel abilities?

Polisher's in & around Chicago

Polishing Steel is a lost art.

Many, many moons ago- Chicago once had more Metal Fabrication business' than any other US city. (This statistic came from my former Abrasive Salesman, so he may have been slightly biased....)
Much of the Metal Fabricated was at one time polished - either prior to plating or as a stand alone final finish.
Metal Polishing is a skill, that sadly has been "lost", being replaced by other cheaper, faster means of making a piece looks attractive. (Unless you're Apple, and can hire forced, cheap Chinese labor to polish those iPad/iPhone cases for pennies!!)
In the course of Fine Furniture Design & Fabrication (which is what I do) it's often necessary to polish the metal. AND- certain metals like Stainless Steel are "begging" to be polished-
that's how they are engineered.

Finding Custom Polishers has been a challenge for me.
All of them either want to charge an "Arm-&-a-Leg" to do what they do....
or "only" do production runs of 100's of parts at at a time.. .
or - have simply moved, died off (not a good job for respiratory health, and all polishers seem to smoke as well ??) -
or gotten away w/ poor customer (Joe @ A & B Polishing??!) service/ bad Attitudes (Tony @ Millennium Polishing - you know what I'm talking about???!) for too long....and I refuse to support/ do business w/them.

Until-I-met-Henry!!

What-a-breath-of-fresh-air, this guy is.
Nice to do business with. Takes great pride in his work. Fairly priced. Delivers on Time.
No attitude. Hablemos Espanol. Excellent work. Knows Metal. Knows Polishing.
A True Professional (Polisher).

When I brought Henry the base to this Stainless and Live Edge Wood Table- he needed to rePolish the Stainless that had been carefully pre-polished by another Chicago Resource/gem- Tom @ Griffin Plating. No questions. He totally "got" what needed to be done. And- when I returned to pick up my parts- my jaw dropped.

Premier Metal Finishing
6115 W. Belmont Avenue
Chicago,Ill 60641
773.427.6650

NEW Postcard for Kramer Design Studio > Best of 2010

Designing anything for one's self is always a challenge.

WHY ?

Any idea, how "easy" it is to "please yourself" ? -

Noooo......?!?!

Not that way...... I mean to actually create a thing that you'll

be certain will satisfy all of your conditions/constraints!

Designing a new Postcard- for use in Promoting & Marketing my services is an excellent way to summarize the year - in the same fashion that magazines and other media will cull a listing

of the "Best Of_____".

So after a review of all of the items that I produced this past year (and documented properly!)

I came up with these 5 items (actually, 5 images, with 2 photos showing a Light AND a piece of Furniture, so actually 7 items! ).

Do the images properly reflect my full range of skills /abilities?

Do the images impart as much attention to detail as I give to my work?

To me, there's nothing worse, than an artist/designer presenting themselves to the world in an unprofessional manner.

I mean- what good is showing a dark photo, or an image of ones installation that was taken with a camera phone? What's the point?

So, what I'm trying to say- is that after many layouts and iterations of this card were created I settled on this layout.

I hope that it proves to be an effective NEW tool in my Marketing Arsenal.

"1000 Ideas For Creative Reuse"

Quarry Books recently published a softcover book on rePurposed Furniture and Furnishings called- "1000 Ideas for Creative Reuse"- featuring my work (5 images) and the work of my brother

(6 images).

This book is written by an artist from Eureka ,California named Garth (can't help but think of Waynes World when I hear that name- sorry dude!) Johnson who found my work thru flickr (ahhh- the wonders of Social Networking/ aka Web 2.0 !)

Garth chose to break his book into chapters that group the work into what I feel are slightly confusing categories.

For example, his first chapter is titled "Paper,Collage, + Assemblage"- which implies a material based taxonomy - but then other chapters are arranged by function (for example the chapter titled "Housewares + Furnishings" ),

but, then there's a chaptered titled "Geek Craft + Man Craft" (which sounds waaaaay to much like a term HGTV uses called a Man Cave- which I cant stand!) -

so - I'm a little confused by his method of taxonomy.

Also - for visual purposes - they chose to display the books photographs with out any text to explain/support what the image is.

The only text is a credit for who made the piece and who photographed the object.

All of the explanation of materials used- what the object was reclaimed, upcycled from, exists as an "Image Directory", which I found very clunky to use when reading this book.

What I'm pleased about is how diverse the range of creativity is that Garth has assembled in this book- it's truly wonderful to see how vastly skilled and talented artist and designers can be.

And- it's the very first book that has published my work- and the work of my brother Aaron Kramer. (.......who's counting, that there's 6 images of his work- and only 5 images of my work- really- who's counting!?!?)

This book has spawned some ideas for me personally, to publish a book- that showed more examples of this vernacular-

but shown in situ.

How many times do most folks need to see how a piece of Furniture or a Lamp will "look" in their home- or a home "like" their home......so simply showing an object without seeing it in it's context...anyway- I don't want to give away too many ideas for my book.

Here's the ISBN to order the book:: 978-1-59253-540-8

Knock-Offs

If there's one thing that really gets me going -
It's the subject of KNOCK-OFFS.

Why?
Because to me- it's the lowest form of "flattery".
It becomes an excuse for lack of Creativity.
There's  thousands of brilliant ideas floating around in our brains- 

waiting to be developed- so why steal someone elses?

Plus- I've been knocked-off- by none other than Crate & Barrel- who had not only signed a Non-Disclosure form ( me and a Senior Buyer) but then, chose to do a poor job in executing my design- and lowering its originality.

But today - I was shocked and amazed to discover- an email inquiry- 

asking ME, to Knock-off - 

............ME!!!

Apparently an Architectural Firm in Winston-Salem North Carolina, that dates back to 1906 (according to their website) is designing a new Hotel called the Hotel Indigo (do ya think its BLUE?) in Ashville NC.. In the hotels interior lobby is a staircase that was designed by someone from this Architectural Firm- who instead of creating an original design-
& had called out a spec - of- get this-a StairRailing like mine.
Meaning- they wanted a copy made of my design.
So- the Metal/Steel Subcontractor emailed me- and later spoke to with me- asking ME- to quote on a Railing Design- that was mine- to Copy That- for his company to quote to the Architect.

First off- anyone who has ever done a Railing before knows- they are VERY site specific.
Meaning that a Fabricator in Chicago- can't very accurately- or easily, make- and expect an exact fit- of a thing made in one Geographic Location- and have it install properly elsewhere.
Just not doable- especially with a Complex Curved Staircase.
The fella at the Steel Fabricator- who asked to me Quote on Knocking MySelf Off- made it sound like it was an off the shelf product- like- here's how many feet we'll need- and then- you can quote it. Plus- he voted for McCain (OK- I'm an Obama supporter!).

What's really amazing- is when he sent me a PDF to review to submit a Quote- The name of The Architects Firm was quite legible- so I called and chatted with them- telling them- I was flattered that they liked MY design enough to use for their new Hotel Project- AND- I would really appreciate them NOT using Google as a design tool.
That's the worst part of having a Website- especially one that consistently ranks high in Searches for key-phrases like Stair Railings

Well- the young designer at The Architecture firm now has a better understanding of Knock-Offs.
I may not have a job in Ashville NC- nor a job with the Winston Salem Architecture firm- but I do have a great story to tell about KNOCK -OFFS

Recycled Wood

Did you ever notice the trees blown down from one of those violents,sudden microbursts- and wonder- gosh, wouldn't THAT make a wonderful something?

Well, so did Bruce Horigan, owner of Urban Forest Products, Inc.
They take the Chicago areas urban trees to their highest re-use possible,using this sustainable resource to create hardwood lumber for Furniture and Flooring.
Pretty cool, huh?
They carry all types of wood
from Ash,Adler, and Birch
all the way thru the alphabet to
Sycamore and Walnut.
Bruce is a certified Arborist- and is really passionate about wood.

Plus- he delivers (in the Chicagoland area)
So next time your neighbor decides its time to "whack" that gorgeous old tree in their backyard- call Bruce- 847.729.1023- and he'll make sure, either YOU or someone else will make something pretty out of it.
(Other than woodchips!)


OH YEAH- if you want to have a piece made using this wood, and don't have the resources to Build your own furniture- Bruce is happy to provide the contact info for woodworkers,cabinetmakers or Furniture Designers that support his business.

Horigan UFP,Inc.
36 Park Drive
Glenview,IL.60025
847.729.1023
bahorigan@sbcglobal (dot) net

http://www.horiganufp.com