Designers Archive

A recent move has prompted me to go through the five large storage boxes I have been keeping in a closet the past 15 years.

In it I found a treasure trove of old design work, printed documentation that I always meant to get shredded or recycled but did not ever get to it.

These are very old and the companies and products are long defunct or dramatically different.

It struck me as being interesting to see how the process of designing has evolved with the tools and technology that are available.

Here is a random collection of work that I have done over the years, mostly hardware/software design and in no particular order.

See even more older work on my Coroflot page.

Llama Foods

Llama Foods brings affordable, quality food to food deserts and employ people from these communities with fair wages. 

The 2020 pandemic amplified the inequity that has always been present in our country.

“Members of minority racial and ethnic groups are disproportionately represented among COVID-19–associated deaths.” *

The virus propagated in low-income communities of color—individuals who do not have the luxury of working remotely. Nutritious food is critical for breaking the cycle of chronic disease (poor food → poor health → more bills → less money →  poor food). More access to more nutritious food gives these communities a fighting chance against future pandemics. 

Communities where access to preventative health care and even access to food exacerbates the prevalence of pre-existing conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, which also made these communities particularly vulnerable.

The problem is staggering. 38 Million Americans live in poverty, and many live where easy access to nutritious food is impossible.

A food desert is where people have low incomes and low access to quality food. The Bay area is home to 9 of America's worst food deserts, and right here in San Francisco, we have a large part of the city that is considered a Food Desert.

Llama Foods
Bringing quality foods to food deserts sustainably and equitably.

Aynne Valencia, Amy Cheng, Audrey Graves

Happiness Project SF

The Happiness Project is a crowd-sourced, interactive installation that takes place in different locations throughout the Bay Area.

Through a series of posters, flyers, online ads, and social media the public is asked to contribute works of art, words of encouragement and positive affirmations to make others happy. You can submit via an online form at the thehappinessprojectsf.com or by using the hashtag #thehappinessprojectsf on Instagram or twitter.

Upon submission of photos or written short messages, those who chose to give their email address will be invited to the next impromptu site-specific projection for a gathering.  They will see their words or art projected on a massive screen. Submissions are screened to ensure the content fits with the mission of the project.

The Happiness project will be launching Summer of 2019 and run in select locations.

In a world filled with division, the happiness project seeks to bring others together to share simple, everyday joy and if only for a moment, make the day a little brighter and spark unexpected magic.#happinessprojectSF

Awake from a dream of utopia

What is a space that endures?

Plovdiv, Bulgaria has retained the same footprint since the Greeks knew it as Philippopolis, if a time-traveller from today traveled back in time to Paris, France in the early 1800s they would still recognize the city’s famous architectural landmarks and city streets, and Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh India has been inhabited consistently for 3,000 years. While these are extreme examples, spaces that endure have similarities that transcend nation, culture and time.

Park Merced is not a space designed to endure. By 2030 the entire landscape of Park Merced will be completely transformed as it awakes from the dream of the utopia conceived by its makers.

utopia

Park Merced was designed in the early 1940s by Landscape Architect Thomas Dolliver Church and Architect Leonard Schultze of Schultze & Weaver Architects in New York City for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. These early suburbs were following the tradition that began in the USA with spaces like Llewellyn Park in New York, These spaces were designed as a respite from city life and an contrivance of rural life. A utopia. Schultze & Weaver were known for their hospitality and entertainment related work and the design of Park Merced shows the spirit of that aesthetic. Park Merced was created as inexpensive housing for the post World War 2 generation. These densely built apartments and townhouses were designed to celebrate the nature that surrounded it. And, contributing to it’s future demise, this housing complex was also designed to accommodate a lifestyle centered around automobiles.

Some of the qualities of urban planning that create spaces that endure are 1).  Spaces that are human scale (accessible by the street or ground level), 2). Mixed use (Business and residences close enough to access by foot), 3). Their spaces informs the intended use . By design or by modification of use by the inhabitants over time.

Park Merced had all the elements to succeed but fails as a design that endured because the city has grown around it. Tall towers started to replace the human scaled Townhouses and mixed use was not considered so services were clustered into one small area of the neighborhood, making it so that residents had to rely on driving to other neighborhoods or traveling by the muni train that was not well connected to the neighborhood.

The space was designed to have portals to nature in each structure, these open spaces invite the passerby to walk into them, but they are private space so the visual language and the emotional and cultural norms do not flow together.

Nature surrounds the park-like landscape of Park Merced. This commune with nature is reinforced and amplified by the artifacts residents collect and display in their homes.

Visual evidence of creeping dereliction and decline of the neighborhood in anticipation of its demise is at odds with the desire of residents trying to save their homes.

Park Merced awakes from it’s dream of Utopia to a San Francisco that has become a city of skyscrapers, and dense micro apartments. This newer generation that has no use or appreciation for the quiet placid green lawns and graceful trees. The rejection of the well intended contrivance that was the suburbs. One cannot help but wonder if we will live to regret the destruction of this dreamscape?