The Words and Not Words of Chris Erickson » Parliament

Wacom Cintiq 21UX Maiden Voyage

Chris Erickson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:45:00 +0000

We just received our newborn Wacom Cintiq 21UX at the office today and I am very, very impressed. It is buttery smooth and as wispy as you could ever ask a machine to be. Mort took it for a spin today and it was fireworks. Some of us cried.

Firewood WallsStudio Progression: Part I

Chris Erickson — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:43:33 +0000

Over the course of our renovation, we tackled quite a few projects without having a clear idea of how we were going to accomplish them, but none more so than our firewood walls. They turned out to be far more time consuming than we anticipated, and they took three times more wood than we estimated, but no other part of the office gets as much attention. We regularly get uninvited visitors who get a peak of the walls through our entryway and decide to pop on in for a tour and a 30-minute Q & A.

Take my word for it, watching this time-lapse video will leave your computer far cleaner than witnessing the actual build. (Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about sawdust, you creep.)

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The Guts

We are stoked that the finished walls look just like, well…big stacks of firewood. But underneath it all lies a simple frame of steel studs and sheetrock. No frills, no gimmicks.

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The Firewood

When it was all said and done, we used about twelve cords of locally purchased firewood for the two walls.

At one point half our office was buried in under firewood, giant fans...

...and saw dust. Piles and piles of sawdust.

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Construction

Each log was cut down to a length of about four inches and then adhered to a plywood substrate (for strength). Kyle and Will spent weeks upon weeks fitting the firewood into place, and though I’m certain they would accept death to avoid doing it again, it was a great experiment and it couldn’t have turned out better. Like almost everything in the office, it was finished with linseed oil.

We notched select logs and wrapped them around the wall at the doorways. Several of them still sport green moss and the bark adds a great textural touch.

Simple KitchenetteStudio Progression: Part IV

Chris Erickson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:45:42 +0000

Of all the woodwork that was carried out for our office renovation, none was as detailed as our little kitchenette. We did some rough math and figure that the entire kitchenette is made of more than 600 individual pieces of wood, each of which had to be planed, joined, sanded, assembled and finished. It was worth it though — it’s a real workhorse and it turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the renovation.

Photo: Lincoln Barbour

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The Wood

Apart from the doors, which are made from old crates, the entire kitchenette is made of fir that we got from a 1904 barn from Wenatchee, via the ReBuilding Center. No plywood. Nothing from Home Depot. Just 103-year-old fir.

The dark wood on the left is what the fir looked like when we picked it up. The pile on the right has been milled down. We did this for every piece of wood used in the office — it was extremely time consuming.

I'm sure Kyle wishes he could reclaim the weeks of his life that was spent gluing, clamping, gluing, clamping...

Even the shelves were milled from solid barn rafters

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The Countertop

At 14′, the most challenging aspect of the countertop was balancing the size with our desire for a really tight fit. When it was all said and done Kyle was able to finish it at under 1/16″ total tolerance, quite a feat considering the wonky nature of the 80-year-old mill it was fitted to.

The countertop was painstakingly patchworked together, which in the end proved to be worth the time invested.

I'm quite certain that Kyle's lungs are wallpapered with counterdust

A perfect fit

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The Doors

Each door is a patchwork of panels that we reclaimed from ancient whiskey, fruit, soda and medicine crates. Thanks eBay, we couldn’t have done it without you.

Hours of mix-and-match...

...slowly started to come together to make...

...seven finished compositions

A barn-style "X" ties the doors together

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The Backsplash

Once the base and countertop was finished, Greg Forcum created a massive steel backsplash that ties to the metalwork used throughout the office. He did an amazing job and the final product fit perfectly into place.

To ensure a snuggly fit, the backsplash was tacked together in place and then hauled off to Greg's shop to be fully welded and assembled

The finished backsplash weighed a bit more than a pregnant Rosanne and was carried in by giant men in kilts. I kid you not.

Collaboration TableStudio Progression: Part VI

Chris Erickson — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:39:20 +0000

To facilitate impromptu discussions between designers and programmers, we designed a sitting-height work table to tag team with the taller Brooklyn Streets Work Table and placed it right in the middle of our production area. Like its big brother the Brooklyn Streets Work Table, this table originally lived as a pizza oven, but now a quick push off your desk sends your chair gliding into a magical collaborative wonderland.

Photo: Lincoln Barbour

The rough sawn fir came from a barn built in the 40s in Sherwood, Oregon.

Greg Forcum used his magic missile to add some reinforcement.

We didn't want to use brand new hardware on our ancient pizza base so we jogged across the street to Winks Hardware and asked them if they had any ideas. The salesman descended into the basement and came back with an unopened box of giant machine screws that had been sitting on the shelf for sixty, yes sixty, years.

A vintage Junior Pencil Sharpener circa 1921 provided the finishing touch

A Brand New Day

Chris Erickson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:51:03 +0000

Perhaps I’m alone on this one, but I don’t think there is a project out there that is more difficult than designing and defining your own brand. Playing the role of client and designer, simultaneously, is a real trick. There’s no budget or deadline, nothing is ever good enough, and it is impossible to come up with a solution that feels finished…there is always something else to play with or explore.

As a result, we’ve been in brand limbo for quite some time. But, after what feels like 50-years in the making, we’ve finally finished up the core pieces of Parliament’s branding overhaul. If years of experience has shown us anything one thing it’s that nothing says, “We’re professional,” like atoms and robots, so we’ve got them and we’ve got them hard. And, I think we’ve found the perfect balance between we are finished and we will never be finished, which couldn’t make me happier. Let me explain.

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STEP ONE: Start with the badge. Every Parliament badge has a few core elements that never change. They consist of a scalloped base, a few rings, and a proudly centered PARLIAMENT set in Knockout.

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STEP TWO: Add a mark and a bit of copy. Our primary mark reads, A Creative Services Company. It is honest and straightforward and I’m looking forward to not hearing folks ask, “Now, what do you do?,” quite as often, which will save me — literally — hours each and every day. Or, perhaps, more literally, minutes of every week. Regardless, I’m looking forward to transferring that burden to this unassuming mark, which calmly announces, “Sir, we are a creative services company.”

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STEP THREE: Repeat step two. At this time, we’ve developed a bit more than a dozen really solid badges, some of which contain our primary message, but most of them refer to one of our internal departments. Most of them map directly to the different phases of a project, for example, the badge used for our Working Prototypes Division is typically displayed in conjunction with Production, and our Hazardous Idea Division is linked to Strategy.

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All in all I’m really happy with how everything came together visually. The real success of this approach, however, lies in its flexibility. It allows us to continuously change and play with our ID, without ever altering its foundation, and it also lets each everyone contribute to the collection and take some ownership. Our membership cards are a great example our visual brand latitude — each member was able to choose whichever badge that they wanted for their membership cards, making each card reflect the owner’s taste.

Ultimately, I’m happy to get this wrapped up, but also looking forward to seeing where Parliament continues to push it. I think we’ve found a good balance of finished and unfinishable.

www.typography.comKnockout by Hoefler & Frere-Jones

Membership Cards: Behind the Scenes

Chris Erickson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:05:17 +0000

Many thanks go out to everybody who put forth the blood, sweat and tears necessary to finish up our membership cards. Here are just a few of our favorite moments.

Carlos in our production facility tediously adhered the ID photos to each of the cards. Our prayers are with him as he recovers.

Many thanks to Clarence for carving out some time in his busy schedule to make sure we had a signature that adhered to his strict standards.

Dane had an old roommate that left this Underwood typewriter in his basement, which worked out to our favor. We used it to type out all of our information, giving it all a really authentically imperfect feel.

It took about eight pages before we finally created the perfect pair of thumb prints.

Membership Cards: Hot Off the Press

Chris Erickson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:25:05 +0000

Parliament’s membership cards are fresh and they are hot! Now better than ever, each member’s card sports one of six different ID photos (real photographic prints), different departmental seals, and Clarence Witherspoon’s official signature. Thanks to Pinball Publishing for all their production guidance and attention to detail with the printing.

Mort is one hot agent. He'll be making design groupies hot and sweaty for sure.

For all you designerds, there are the specs. Each card is printed 5/5 with a base of PMS 7457 and has a herringbone pattern overprint of PMS 628. Each side was then printed with PMS 328 (dark blue) and Black. An overprint of Magenta on the front and Reflex Blue for the signature on the back rounded out the press time, and then they were diecut.

The back comes complete with our studio's contact information, a set of thumb prints, and our Director Clarence Witherspoon's official signature.

Parliament Executive Portraits

Chris Erickson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:41:50 +0000

Parliament’s membership cards are hot off the press and they wouldn’t be complete with identification photos, so we threw together a classy shoot for our executive team Monday afternoon. Everyone wore their finest and I have to say we are a good looking bunch, myself excluded. My skimpy stache is depressing, clearly.

Top row: Dane, Jono, Mort / Bottom row: Chris, Aaron, John

Black-and-whites for the membership cards

Things They Are a Changin’

Chris Erickson — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:24:02 +0000

Parliament is getting ready to roll out a new ID, here is a quick sneak peak at things to come…

We went to a press check this morning to see how the herringbone overprint on our membership cards is coming along.

Brooklyn Streets Work TableStudio Progression: Part V

Chris Erickson — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:18:54 +0000

I read once that no office could ever enjoy success without a work table constructed from a pizza oven and street signs, so I felt obligated to buy one. I turns out that they are very difficult to find. Luckily, I know a guy who knows this other guy who said that he could make one. This is how it went down…

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STEP ONE: Find a pizza oven and take the base. We found ours in the basement of Rose’s Equipment and Supply down on SE Clay. If you haven’t had a scary-back-alley-illegal-bloodsport-tournament type of experience then head down to Rose’s basement. Keep your eyes peeled, bring a friend, and expect to find some crazy stuff.

Though it may have seen better years, this pizza oven base will soon be back in biz.

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STEP TWO: Buy some overpriced street signs and chop them up. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on eBay. Get that eBay iPhone app. Watch your bids like a Spanish soap opera. And then be prepared to spend a lot more then you ever, ever imagined paying for shipping.

Ours all came from Brooklyn, NY: Shore Parkway, 17th Avenue, and Bay Ridge Avenue.

Lay 'em out...

...and mill 'em down.

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STEP THREE: Destroy a barn and put it back together in the shape of a table. Our trusty tradesmen Kyle Sharp found the leftovers from a 1920’s barn and used it to build the guts of the table out and Greg Forcum did a bit of custom metal work to frame the table top. And there you have it, as simple as 1-2-3.

Getting dressed up

Drawers getting glued up

Getting framed up

Complete