drawing

Building a Shoe Inventor Tinker Hatfield is responsible for the original design concepts of Air Jordan sneakers, one of the most widely recognized and highly coveted products from the 1990s. The jagged line of color on the edge of the sole that became a trademark; the revolutionary “Air” bubble design, a small plastic window in the sole of the shoe which allowed you to see the cushioning system inside, are all ideas that came from one man who seems to know a little more about building than just shoe design. Shoe, sneaker, Tinker Hatfield, nike, Architecture, drawing
A House of Unique Character Anna Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Townsend House, St. Regent’s Park, drawing, Sir Frederick Leighton, William Burgess, Frederic Edwin Church, Olana, Albert Bierstadt, Royal Academy of Arts, Architecture, interiors
Iris and the Rainbow From high up in the heavens, the Greek goddess Iris strides forward, extending her arms in both directions. The drapery of her garments, caught by a forceful wind, clings to her legs and billows behind her. Although she seems embattled by the wind, with her head titled back and her body contorted, she remains a graceful figure in the midst of a chaotic scene. Three winged putti surround her, two fending off the storm clouds with guests of divine breath, the third flying triumphantly upward. Iris’s attention, however, is not on the storm or the putti. Felice Giani, Italy, mythology, Iris, rainbow, drawing, watercolor
Mod Metropolis “There are perfectly sober people who will tell you they have seen high buildings shimmy.”  “(Modern buildings) show their best to their devotees… (who) will point out to you a score of fleeting expressions in a façade.” Orrick Johns. “What the Modish Building Will Wear.”New York Times, Oct. 4, 1925. Hugh Ferriss, Architecture, New York City, drawing, conté, Pamela Lawton
Radio City Music Hall: A Celebration of American Modern Design Donald Deskey, Radio City Music Hall, Industrial Design, Bauhaus, Samuel Rothafel, rococo, carpet design, entertainment, drawing, Great Depression, New York City
The Dome and Cupola that Were Not There This perspective tour de force dazzles the eye with the complexities of its illusionistic architecture. The story behind the work is equally compelling. Andrea Pozzo, Architecture, Italian architecture, Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Jesuit Order, Counter Reformation, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Baciccio, fresco, foreshortening, dome, perspective, drawing, illusionism, Japanese, painting, cupola, Rome
High Fashion Train Interior Of all of the pioneering industrial designers, including Norman Bel Geddes, Walter Dorwin Teague, and Henry Dreyfuss, Raymond Loewy is by far most well-known to the American public. His designs for the original Coca-Cola contour bottle and logo, the Exxon logo, and the Avanti car are icons of 1950s and 1960s design. Raymong Loewy, Henry Dreyfuss, Industrial Design, Pennsylvania Railroad, trains, illustration, concept drawings, drawing
The Queen of Roses Above all flowers, Queen Marie Antoinette prized roses. She was often painted with roses in hand or displayed in her hair. Certain portraits—as well as this mirror design from 1781–90—featured rose garlands as decorative motifs. Though roses were her favorite, all flowers were of great importance to the Queen, both wild and cultivated. Marie-Antoinette, Richard de Lalande, mirror, rose, flowers, garland, Léon Decloux, monogram, drawing, graphite, France, royalty, Versailles
Searching for Perfection Richard Meier’s Getty Center, which sits atop a hill in Santa Monica, is, arguably, the last great building of the 20th century. While some liken the complex to a fortified Tuscan hill town, and Meier himself says that he was thinking of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli or the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, it reminds me of another ancient hilltop complex, the Parthenon. Richard Meier, J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hadrian, Tivoli, Villa Farnese, Caprarola, Parthenon, Athens, Le Corbusier, Architecture, San Diego Freeway, stone, GRiD, Getty Research Institute, construction, drawing
Behind Closed Doors: How Royalty Lived in Nineteenth-Century Paris Hilaire Thierry’s exquisite drawing, Salon in the Restoration Taste, from the early 1820s, is one of more than 70 19th-century European interiors from Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum that are on view at the Musée de la Vie Romantique through January 15, 2013. The exhibition, Intérieurs Romantiques, highlig Hilaire Thierry, 19th century, interiors, France, drawing, Musée de la Vie Romantique, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Château de Saint-Cloud, Louis XVIII, Duc and Duchesse de Berry

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