Nature Inc. is an investigation of the boundaries between industry standard design practices and controlled non-objective exploration. It is cross-training that takes the designer out of the office to find and make meaning with new tools in a new environment. This investigation takes place at Echo Lake in the Catskill Mountain Range.
Featuring:
Nature Inc Typography
Wetland Textures
Fire Ring Snake - Collaboration w/ visual artist Amelia Calsi
Inc. Typography:
The letterforms were inspired by the rock. I did not start with the intention to create "Inc." Rather, individual letters arose from available stone. In fact, the arrangement of "Inc." seemed to be completely at odds with the objective of the project. Yet the beauty of the letterforms could not be denied. I left Echo Lake not knowing what to make of the mark. Over time, I realized "Inc." incorporated nature in a space usually reserved for synthetic representations. I found it established a premiss of legal jargon and simultaneously broke it with the overwhelming juxtaposition of natural form. What initially seemed to be a counterintuitive tangent ended up being the perfect mark for the entire project--process and all.
Wetland Textures:
The Echo Lake ecosystem revolves around the beavers that make their home in the lake. The beavers' endeavors add a significant layer of textures to the visual code present in this mountain environment. The organic creative process employed by the beavers, which has both positive and negative effects on the larger ecosystem, calls to mind the designers interaction with our landscapes.
Wetland Textures observes and translates the textures found in the Echo Lake ecosystem. The results attempt to represent the lake through a mashup of the systems that interact within this space, including: the beavers, foliage, water, and the human.
Fire Ring Snake
The fire ring snake was initially sculpted to protect our fire from the north wind of the previous evening. During the night, Calsi decided to make charcoal pencils in the fire. When the morning came, we noticed the fire ring shared a likeness to the Ouroboros, though leaning towards a spiral rather than a circle. We used some large charcoal pencils to draw the snake onto this form. We followed the contours and natural movement of the Bluestone fragments when creating the gridded scales.
The fire ring snake was initially sculpted to protect our fire from the north wind of the previous evening. During the night, Calsi decided to make charcoal pencils in the fire. When the morning came, we noticed the fire ring shared a likeness to the Ouroboros, though leaning towards a spiral rather than a circle. We used some large charcoal pencils to draw the snake onto this form. We followed the contours and natural movement of the Bluestone fragments when creating the gridded scales.
Like all the projects featured in Nature Inc., Fire Ring Snake departs from any notion of linear objectives. The process organically arose from continuous observation. This process requires curiosity. By harnessing this endlessly valuable tool the designer can find original solutions to uncover meaning.
