Internal NightShade Media Projects
Why be in the digital design field without some pet projects? It is always great when things you are passionate about can make money too but the operative work is “too”, not to the exclusion of doing what you are interested in.
NewRuins?
I grew up enamored with old structures and places, factories and homes of the industrial revolution era, often abandoned and wasting away hiding stories of their former workers and owners dream and daily lives. A visit to Rome impressed me with the way Italians live among their culture’s ruins with a sense that leaving such relics and ruins intact and protected, often on potentially valuable real estate, is natural and appropriate.
Yet, in the United States we dispose of our young culture’s ruins as soon as something better comes along, better being most typically something that makes money like a fast food box building or a shopping mall. The ruins of Rome are old in comparison but our new ruins are no less important to our culture. The NewRuins project is an ode to such places for their beauty and their hidden stories.
A new version is nearing completion and just waiting for a bit of free time!
Capture the Past
In a similar vein to NewRuins, I became interested in researching and maintaining the family archives. Capture the Past is a website dedicated to that pursuit. In many ways this combines the professional techniques of the contemporary designer where imagery and media are handled digitally on a regular basis. However, there are many pitfalls and complexities as well as misleading or misunderstood technologies facing the non-professional who wants to preserve family history.
The Opinionated Traveler
Travel has never been easy. For many of our grandparents to visit Europe it meant a long ocean voyage and for their parents it was a risky adventure. It has always been costly, uncomfortable and somewhat unsettling to travel, especially when language and customs are radically different than one’s own. But it is tremendously rewarding. Understanding is widened and viewpoints are enhanced … if you pay attention.
This site is being developed as a spinoff of content developed originally for our former NotAMall project (the NotAMall store is currently closed in lieu of the focus on EcoChic Boutique). It may take a while to get things sorted out again!
