Lighting prototype

http://www.uni.illinois.edu/og/opinions/2012/02/restaurant-review-meatheads

Installed!

A prototype of a light fixture for a burger concept headquartered here in Chicago looking for a reliable source and to save somemoney.
UPDATE 11-16-11:  Prototype approved!  Just got my first order for eight to go into a store in Champaign. IL.

Toppers

Interior logo for Toppers Pizza.  First Chicago area location.  Word is, 20 more to follow shortly.
                                                http://www.toppers.com/#/intro/

Rookwood Pottery and My Finishes at Heritage Tile!

http://www.oakparktile.com
If you are at all familiar with art pottery or have ever watched the "Antiques Roadshow",  you no doubt have heard of Rookwood.  The Rookwood Pottery Company, http://www.rookwood.com/index.php, prospered for years, yet fell victim to dramatic changes in the U.S. economy and the public’s ability to sustain artistic brands during such downturns. Yet the company never truly went away.  Today, Rookwood Pottery provides artisan quality products - art tile, art pottery, corporate gifts and special commissions - for designers, architects, homeowners and businesses.  

The Heritage Tile of Oak Park studio, http://www.oakparktile.com/,  is a local design resource to homeowners in historic Oak Park and surrounding neighborhoods, and a destination for architects, designers and preservation specialists throughout the Chicago Metro area.  They are in the process of opening their new Oak Park showroom and I have teamed up with them to provide wall finishes to complement their incredibly beautiful tiles.  

http://www.subwaytile.com/

The showroom is still a work in progress but here are a couple of the finishes already completed.  

Nando's Gaithersburg, MD - 400 Balls

The second trip I took to Gaithersburg was to hang 400+ glass globes at various heights from the front of the space to the back.

 Four days later......

And in the finished store.

                                                                           The end......  I hope.

Nando's Peri-Peri, Gaithersburg, MD

http://www.nandosperiperi.com/

I just returned from working on my third Nando's in the DC area.  I had dinner at one of their other locations that I worked on last summer to see what it looked like finished.  Have to say, I was impressed.  I went back a second time before I came back just because of the food!  What a great concept. 

At this store I installed some cut wine bottle bottoms into two large windows with lights behind and installed bottles into a large curved wall inside the space.  The background of the windows and the wall were all textured with a rough plaster.  A large curved wall in the dining room and some areas not covered by tile in the restrooms were also textured with the same plaster. 



The bottle windows.

The bottle wall under construction.

Finished!

 

The walls.

 

Potbelly pictures, Part 2

As Creative Director at Potbelly Sandwich Works (as it was called then), I was entrusted with the awesome job of organizing the interiors of the stores starting at #2 in 1997 to just over the #200 mark in 2008.  I chose the wall colors, the finishes, the vintage wallpaper and which went where.  I chose what tables we used.  Many we made ourselves for specific locations and situations.  I created or purchased the artwork, purchased the artifacts, the inc-nacs,  location specific lighting and even the vintage wallpaper for each of the locations. 

As I was organizing pictures on my laptop today I found a few great little vignette shots that I took over the almost fifteen years I was involved with the stores.  I got a little nostalgic and sentimental I guess.  I see a chandelier I found at a 70's era -restaurant-gone-antique-mall in downstate IL. (A popular spot for Homecomings and proms when I was in high school, I might add.)  There's a latch-hook rug made by woman in Atlanta that I met through E bay.  She would only make rugs in the winter!  A great table from my alley and on and on.......

There is a previous post of my work at Potbelly posted in September '09.  Check those out too.  

                                                      Highland Village, TX

                                                     Highland Village, TX

                                                            Southfield, MI

                                                    17th and Pennsylvania, Washington, DC

                                                             ATT Building, Chicago. IL

 

Bollingbrook, IL 

 

                              NY Ave and 14th St, Washington, DC

                                       

                                                           NIU, DeKalb, IL
 

                                                 Midway Airport, Chicago, IL

                                              Highland, IN

                                            College Park, MD
 

                                               Houston,TX

                                                     Novi, MI

                                 DuPont Circle, Washington, DC

                                          Bollingbrook, IL

                           Warner Theater Building, Washington, DC

                                            Waukegan, IL 


                  And to close this July 4th post....... 

US States First Day Cover stamp flag.

                       Washington Design Center, Washington, DC