the jarques invasion: April 2009

Business Card 2009

In preparation for Milan I’ve been working on my Business card. I know it doesn’t have that much, but I don’t know where I’ll be in the next couple of months and figure this is the best way to go about it.

I may link to my Blog, and or I may create a new blog solely for projects, if I really had some time on my hands I would make a personal website, but I don’t sooo yah.

Check out the rest of the designs for this year’s card by clicking on the picture. While you’re there tell me what you think by commenting on the ones you like. As of right now I like Card number 8 which is the one you see here!

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Intensions Behind Milan

In one week I will be flying down and going to the Milan Furniture Fair. With over 400 designers and firms attending, I’m a bit overwhelmed but extremely excited. The truth is I don’t study designers, only their creations, and if asked who made what, I would not be able to tell you… This soon will change!

Preparing for this fair has not been easy, since the entire fair is not held solely in one location but scattered over some 475 different buildings, galleries, backyards, not to mention one really enormous convention center. Next week Milan will be taken over by designer and their designs.

Aside from the light project we did the summer of our pre junior year, I have never done anything furniture. Since I’m going to miss out on the chair project that we do the summer of our junior year, I see landing a job in the furniture field as a good opportunity to get my feet wet. If all goes well, I will meet some designers showcasing their stuff, and set up a job for the fall. If all really goes well this could be my opportunity to actually create a chair/furniture, versus, spend a lot at school for a one off design.

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German Dance Parties

It is now my third week of being in Germany, and thus far I've gone to two German dance parties. And well Ive got to say they are not what you might expect. The first place we went to was a club in down town Wuppertal. We were told it was the place to go on thursday nights, so we went. Though the bier was cheap around a euro until midnight the dancing was sub par. In Germany people dance by themselves with about 2 feet in all directions. It was as if i had gone to a grade school dance, where all the boys and girls stand arms lenght away from eachother swaying back and forth.

It was so comical to us, that we were tempted to just start grinding on people, to see if we could get them to liven up. Before we could do so, our German buddy, Martin warned us Kristen and I that it was not such a good idea. If a guy were to approach a girl and start getting close, she would mostlikely slap you. But if a girl does that to a guy, she is saying hey i like you lets take this further, RIGHT NOW!

I thought it might be a fluke but just two days ago i went to a birthday party being held here at the dorms (apparently the dorms are where alot of good parties happen) No different, in fact worse! When Kristen, myself and our English friend Berry tried to get the party started by requesting music like MGMT and MIA we actually did quite the opposite. We honestly cleared the dance floor twice, it was quite hillarious. Im sure everyone at that party thought we were so strange! HAHAHA MERICA F@#% YAH! HAHA

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Fresh Air

Today, Martin picked me up and took me to the first day of a drawing seminar, held for the Industrial Design students! Unlike typical ID drawing which comes from our heads, the students were asked to draw from real life. On this day we produced architectural drawings of the University using compressed charcoal nubs. As a designer, I never get the opportunity to use charcoal, but I really enjoy it for its looseness and gestural quality. The juxtaposition between the medium and the subject matter was simply a breath of fresh air.

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The Schwebebahn!!!

The Schwebebahn, is Wuppertal’s gem. This suspended rail transit may seem like something out of a city of the future, but its actually over 100 years old, dating back to 1902. This engineering marvel remains in operation, traveling up and down the Wupper (the river the runs below it) all day long. Achieving speeds of around 60km/hr and banking around turns, the Schwebebahn is a pretty fun way to ride around town.

I have been told that a few years back, whether or not to keep the Schwebebahn running or shut it down, came into discussion. It was old and parts of it were becoming more and more unsafe. There were also parts that obstructed the traffic flow in the city with its bulbous support struts. Luckily though the city decided to keep the famous transit, and fix all the parts that were breaking. As for the the obstruction, the city decided to replace that part of the track, and instead suspend the entire track itself.

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In Retrospect

Thomas Kelley, author of "the art of innovation", IDEO employee, wise man, brother of IDEO founder David Kelley, discusses the value of failure.

1. Fail often to succeed sooner
2. Noble failures
_Keep companies on cutting edge
_Keep you pushing the barriers
_Believe that a mistake may not be a mistake
_Teach risk takers which rules can be broken and which are there to teach you a hard lesson

With this in mind I will document my failures, as 23 year old American male out of his element, running amuck in Europe, in a part of my blog I am going to call "In Retrospect". You will be able to find all the posts which fall into this category by searching the tag "In Retrospect" in the search box on my blog. All things considered it should be pretty funny but hopefully at the same time informative and insightful.

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My First European Flat

The first thing we did when we arrived at the university was go find my room. The rooms here are amazing! They are big, come with nice wood floors, each has a radiator (if not more then one, my mini flat has 3). A kitchen with a small fridge, two burners for the stove, a sink, and storage. Since I was fortunate enough to get an end room, I lucked out with what equals a small apartment. My room is separete from the kitchen and little two person kitchen table area, and bathroom. The end room also comes with a roommate, who room is also off of the kitchen.

Martin told me that the dorms are coed and there is a chance that H. Feuvrier maybe a girl. But for now I think I’m safe to assume their French.

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My First Day

I arrived at 7:19 am in Dusseldorf Germany, exactly 23 hours and 59 minutes late. Ooops! But its cool, i dont foresee the conquering of Germany taking that long anyways. That day was just extra.

All things considered the flight was not so bad. I knew that we were arriving around 7:20am so sleep would probably be the most wise thing to do. Lucky for me, DAAP has trained me well in the art of sleeping when i need to, lights on or off, sun up or down, music on or off, if i need to sleep i just do, and if i unable to i wont.

Kristen Beck, had arrived the day before me and wrote me an email which i read before i left telling me she would be there with our German Buddies Maike and Martin.

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