Month: August 2007

new websites launched!

interaction design

I’m pleased to announce the launch of two new websites that I’ve developed.

The first is www.jeffvivrette.com, the professional site of Jeff Vivrette. Jeff is an extremely talented guitarist, teacher, and producer/engineer. He’s working on his debut CD right now, as well as teaching and getting ready to start offering some unique music, audio and video production services.

As a guitar student of Jeff’s, I can tell you that he’s a passionate, intelligent teacher who really seeks to make sure his students understand the material, and it’s been a pleasure working with him so far on both my guitar instruction and his new site.

Jeff Vivrette_ Welcome!

The second is www.sarahvanloo.com, the site of Sarah VanLoo. Sarah is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in the State of Michigan. In addition, she’s also an artist, working in pencil drawing, polymer clay, and paper arts. Did I mention she’s also my wife?

Sarah and I had a great time brainstorming what to do with her site and working on it together. Its design and color palette conveys a combination of elegance and sophistication with a personal, warm touch. Her site is still in the early stages, but our hope is to build it into something truly unique.


sarahvanloo.com

The Copper Country

personal, reading

I started reading the New York Times a couple of years back when I was taking classes full-time at Eastern Michigan University. They had a program where they supplied free copies of the paper to their students, so I eagerly picked up my copy every day I was in the Porter building (the primary area for School of Education classes, and the site of the free papers).

Over the last while, I’ve also started reading their online version, and today I noticed a great article entitled “Industrial Echoes in Michigan’s Copper Country“. It’s a nice travelogue, describing the author’s trip through the Keeweenaw Peninsula, also known as Copper County. I have a special place in my heart for that area of the country, since it’s where Michigan Technological University, my alma mater, is located. The article is definitely consistent with many of my memories, though my favorite restaurants were always Marie’s Deli and the Suomi Cafe (though the Kaleva Cafe, which the article mentions, was great too).

The photo that accompanies the article shows the Quincy Smelter, which I explored a number of times during my college years. My good friend Harrison Withers first showed me the smelter, and we used it as the location for a photoshoot we did, producing material for a class CD-ROM project. Later, I introduced my friend Josh to the smelter, and he took some amazing photos of his own.

smelter: looking up
Interior of the Quincy Smelter. Photo by J. Schnable

It was during this time, along with the summer internship in downtown Detroit in 1996, that I discovered my love for rusted, decaying textures. Inspired in large part by the small artists’ community in Houghton (which was centered around the Suburban Exchange coffee house, performance space, and recording studio), I started producing my own music, photos, and visual art, and it is those experiences that have largely shaped the art I continue to produce to this day.

Seeing this all in the New York Times this morning brought back a powerful flood of memories. There’s no place more beautiful in the fall than the Copper Country, as the colors turn and the whole area becomes a sea of orange, gold, rust and brown, and I think I might finally try to get back up there this year. We’ll see. For now, enjoy the article.