Collide would like to take time to congratulate John Rich on his big win on Celebrity Apprentice. John raised over 1 million dollars for his charity, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, in Memphis!
If you happened to see the show, you may have noticed the first Big and Rich album (designed by Collide) in the opening credits! If you missed it, check it out here. For other Big and Rich album design, check out our portfolio.
If you were to take a time machine back to 1984, when you were but a wee lad or lass, walked into your room and opened your closet… what treasures would crash down on your toes? Collide has been granted access to the use of a secret experimental prototype of an invention… so secret, that not even we have been able to use it. Through the secret non-use of this secret invention, we have brought to you Collide’s Retro Closet! When we didn’t enter our closet in 1984, giant sticker books fell out and this is what we found….
I’m still a little bit in the dark as to the “why” of this particular item, but it is certainly an interesting find:
While sorting through some old family papers, I happened upon this lovely old check from Bing Crosby. The front of the check is printed with Bing’s signature and the back is stamped with Kellogg’s. Upon typing the words “Bing Crosby Kellogg’s Check” into Google, I received a lovely edition of the April 6, 1976 paper including the ad offering this promotional item. (That totally never happens, how often do you find not only what you want on Google, but a picture of the exact thing from 30 years ago, I was so excited!) Apparently when you bought Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies and Minute Maid concentrated orange juice, you got this Bing Crosby refund check. No cross promotion with Bing’s face plastered on the box, no “Synergy” just buy breakfast and receive Bing. Things were so different then. Even with all this information, I still have no idea why Bing was on this check. The world will never know.
Hope you all enjoy this curious blast from the past,
Until next time,
-Becky Tucker
This morning Kevin and I were having brunch at Fido before the 11:30 service and while enjoying our fabulously yummy food (plug for Fido) we were reflecting on Easters passed. The following memory always stands out and gives us a great blessing and chuckle every year. So without further ado…
Several years ago while in Chattanooga on Easter Sunday we attended one of the local Baptist churches. We usually go to church with his family or mine, but for some reason that I can’t quite remember we chose to attend Bayside which is where I went to vacation Bible school every year as a child. This is quite a large church and we are usually pretty late, so we ended up sitting in the balcony at the very back just in time for the children’s sermon. As we sat down, the pastor gathered all of the children to the front on the stairs in typical fashion and then pulled out… an egg. He began to speak about the egg, describing what an egg consists of: shell, yolk, white etc… and then in front of the whole church proceeded to smash the egg! (Unknown to everyone, he had drained it presumably through a small hole before the service) Then with an amazed reaction he said, “It was empty”! At this point the audience began to understand where he was going with this as he continued to speak about Jesus and how they took Him from the cross and put Him in the tomb rolling the stone across the front. The children listened quietly and intently as the story continued to unfold. When the pastor had finished laying the ground work for the revelation of the empty tomb, he looked at the children and said, “And they rolled away the stone and guess what the found in the tomb?” And the children, in unison yelled with exuberance and understanding, “AN EGG!”
I’m sure there are many great lessons we can learn from this experience, but really it was just a charming story that we wanted to share on this most wonderful of all days! We hope you all had a happy and blessed Easter!
Christ is Risen Indeed!
-Becky Tucker
As promised, this week’s entry into the Collide blog will feature Frank Lloyd Wright’s Rosenbaum house in Florence, AL. While this entry does not contain as many anecdotes and brushes with “destiny” as last week’s, it is full of respect and awe for one of the most talented and well known architects in history.
Frank Lloyd Wright, of course, is best known for his design of the Guggenheim Museum as well as the beautiful house at Fallingwater. Fallingwater is probably the most remarkable testament to Wright’s dedication to the art of organic architecture or promoting the harmony between human habitation and the landscape on which it resides. Wright paid such attention to detail that every aspect of each home or building was carefully planned to become a part of the surrounding landscape. From the furniture to the windows, the doors to the lighting each piece reflects its relationship to the natural world. Wright was also fond of using local materials as often as possible to add to the illusion that each home or building may have just sprung up right out of the hillside.
The home that we visited and will be talking about today is The Rosenbaum House. The Rosenbaum House is the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the state of Alabama, and the only one in the Southeast open to the public (On a side note, there is a Frank Lloyd Wright house, the Seamour Shavin House, in Chattanooga, TN on Missionary Ridge. A little difficult to see from the road, but beautiful nonetheless). This house is a perfect example of Wright’s Usonian (Named for the United States of America) style of architecture which was Wright’s solution to affordable housing for middle income families.
The Rosenbaum house was built for Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum in 1939. The Rosenbaums were the only owners and occupants of this house until 1999 when it was sold to the City of Florence who spent years and close to $700,000 to repair this house. The house is now open as a museum. One of the most interesting things about the Rosenbaum house, is that it originated as a 1,540 square foot home, but when the occupants began to out grow the space, an addition was built. It took several letters to Mr. Wright to convince him to build this addition, but he finally agreed and added another 1,084 square feet to the home realized as a larger kitchen area and a dormitory for the children. The transformation is seamless and what you see today appears as though it was always meant to be. Yet another testament to the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright.
This home is definitely worth the 3 hour trip from Nashville to visit although this isn’t the only beautiful thing in Florence. If you’re taking a day trip, make sure to go on a sunny day and drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway. Stop to eat at the Loveless Cafe’ for some great food, hospitality and artisan shopping. It’s absolutely worth the extra 30 minutes to drive this historic trail. When you arrive in Florence, there are many river parks, local restaurants and even a small historic theater to occupy your time. If you’re looking for shopping, this probably isn’t the place for you (although there is a small mall and a few shops downtown), but if you’re looking for small town charm, a laid back atmosphere and friendly faces, this is a great place to spend a weekend.
Until next time,
-Becky Tucker
Recently, Collide took a road trip to Florence, AL. Why Florence, you ask?
Well, allow me to elaborate… 2010 marks the 25th anniversary of the 1985 hit film “Back to the Future”, and the reunion was held at the George Lindsey Film Festival on the campus of the University of North Alabama which is in Florence. Kevin, being the #1 fan of this time traveling flick, decided that we must attend .
There was a great lineup of talent for the discussion panel including, Bob Gale (screenwriter/producer), James Tolkan (Principal Strickland) and Claudia Wells (The original Jennifer). Originally, Leah Thompson was scheduled to be there, but at the last minute had an offer to film a TV pilot. We’re very happy for her but disheartened that “Lorraine Baines-McFly” would not be attending for our gawking pleasure.
Through a strange paradox of happenstance, we sadly missed several of the additional autograph sessions and other panels but it was indeed, our “density” (I mean… “destiny”) so it seemed, to encounter the entire lot of stars at some point. We began by having dinner in the same restaurant as the whole bunch who were apparently staying at our hotel. We took an elevator ride with Claudia Wells, and Kevin ran into Bob Gale (or so he claims : ), I was in the restroom) at the campus library while visiting the display of movie props the university had acquired for the event. If this wasn’t enough stargazing, we then took off to visit the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in Alabama (more on this in next week’s entry). As our friend “destiny” would have it, up pulled another car and out walked Claudia Wells, with Bob Gale and James Tolkan to follow. We were all in the quite small house at the same time, although with different tour guides. For the icing on the cake, when we went outside, Mr. Tolkan was there enjoying the lovely day. We had a very nice conversation with one of the friendliest men I’ve ever met (He didn’t call us “slackers” or anything) and went on our way. We thought “destiny” was finished with us at this point because who else could we meet, right? We decided on dinner at a restaurant we had been eyeing all weekend and thought for sure that anywhere we were our cast of friends would follow. When we entered the restaurant, the hostess seated us, handed us our menus and proceeded to say, I kid you not, “Destiny will be right with you”. I couldn’t help but chuckle. God has such a great sense of humor!
Obviously the prior two paragraphs really have nothing to do with design, we just wanted to share our fun weekend with you all. So to keep this on a “working” level, we have done some interesting research on a great illustrator and probably the most well known poster designer in the history of Hollywood, Drew Struzan. Drew did the illustrations for all three Back to the Future films as well as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, the list is endless. And if you don’t know the name, you’ll immediately recognize the phenomenal poster art. We are attaching a couple of links to some interesting articles (although several years old) and sites from and about Drew. He talks about the lack of illustration, human elements, and daring in poster design these days, and how something has been lost with all of the shiny images and computer based art. Agree with him or not, this is a very interesting perspective and nostalgic look at Hollywood design from years gone by. On the flip side, we have included a link to some great minimalist revamp posters by Jamie Bolton. If you’re familiar with the films they represent, these posters are a great exercise in conceptual thinking and do an incredible job conveying their message with very few visual elements.
We hope you all enjoyed this brush with Hollywood,
Until next time,
-Becky Tucker
Director of Trajectory
At last week’s Think Tank conference in Nashville, the keynote speaker was Paula Scher from Pentagram. She gave an amazing presentation – definitely worth hearing her speak if you’re in the design profession. And if you are, you know that she’s one of the most famous of people in the profession – one of our own “rock stars” (along with her husband Seymour Chwast who spoke at the conference last year, and who I had the pleasure of showing around town).
It was a conference I very much enjoyed. Most of the content was very informative and challenging, and because I had spent 3 years on the board for the local AIGA chapter, this was the first time I got to attend this event simply as an attendee (in fact, I co-created Think Tank while on the board, but that’s another story).
So, as a general rule, I don’t ask people for autographs – even from people I admire – but I decided to make an exception in this case. And because she spent a large part of her early career in the music business (as have I), I thought it would be appropriate to have her autograph an album cover that she worked on.
Paula Scher signed my Boston album!
So, of course I was a little nervous about doing this, but, after a short conversation about her presentation, I said “So… I have an odd request.” By this point, I had been carrying around this huge album in my messenger bag, and I had a little bit of trouble getting it out, and almost lost her attention as she started to talk to somebody else while I was struggling with this. But once I made my request, she chuckled and searched for a place to sign it. She seemed honored and amused at the same time, which was pretty much what I intended.
I had meant for her to sign the front – for display purposes – but of course the front is composed of an illustration which she didn’t personally do, so she seemed compelled to sign the back, by her name. I thought for a second about asking her to sign the front too, but by this point, kind of figured I’d let it go.
So, that’s my little design rock star moment. I just wish I had thought to do something like that with Seymour the year before (such a print issue of The Nose), because that would make a nice set 