At the website of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, their blog included a post by Peter Lyden which features member-architects of the institute talking about the film designs which have influenced them and their careers.

credit: Institute Of Classical Architecture & Art

The website is also a source of great information on classical architecture in both the historic sense and information on modern practitioners of these architectural traditions as well. The Institute also hosts various programs on architectural design and classes  throughout the country on topics such as traditional rendering techniques.

Click here for a list of upcoming classes and programs.

When I created a post several years ago on doing metric to imperial conversions, and vice – versa, I added a PDF of a set of scales I made for converting 1/4″ to metric 1:50 thinking someone might find it useful. Well, it’s now been downloaded over 9,000 times so I’m glad I included it.

Some people have had trouble finding a particular link to a book or diagram I’ve included in a past post so I’ve included two new pages in the header above with lists of the digital books I’ve mentioned and links to the various tools I’ve created to make it easier to find them.

And in case you want that set of conversion scales, here’s the link again below:

Metric_Imperial_ConversionScales

My Dilemma, Your Gain

Yes, I admit it, I have a book problem. But my wife and I can’t agree on exactly what that problem is. For me it’s the continual challenge of finding places to put more of them, and for her it’s the unending flow of them through the front door.

The only time I ever had all my books where I could easily put my hands on them was when we lived at the beach. The bungalow we rented was just too small for everything so we ended up renting the one across the drive from us. Besides a 6 foot drawing table the only thing in the rooms was books. Every room was floor-to-ceiling bookcases.

My wife said recently, “You have to get rid of some of these books.” I said, ‘O.K., I’ll give some books away.” Notice I didn’t say I’d give any of my books away.

Lost Art Press

Lost Art Press was started in 2008 by Lucy May, Christopher Schwarz and John Hoffman to publish books which would help woodworkers rediscover the lost art of traditional hand tools and building techniques. Schwarz was the former editor at Popular Woodworking magazine as well as Woodworking Magazine and has been one of a small group of key individuals who have brought about a hand tool renaissance. Traditional tools and methods  which were thought to be inferior to modern methods are reshaping both the woodworking and the tool making communities.

The company has released 11 books so far and has six more scheduled for release in 2014. Their first effort was an excellent annotated version of the 17th century book The Art Of Joinery by Joseph Moxon, the first English language book on the topic. The book soon sold out and copies fetched over $100 on Ebay. They have recently rereleased a newly edited and updated version.

The Kind Of Books They Don’t Print

What Lost Art Press doesn’t publish are junk books. What’s a junk book? Here’s an example; about ten years ago a builder on the East coast “published” a series of design books which were basically just bad scans out of period design books and pasted them up into thin, jumbled perfect-bound pamphlets which were selling for over $30. Junk. That’s not what Lost Art Press puts out.

Besides the fact that their books are traditionally bound sewn-signature volumes on quality paper, the editions, some reprints of classic books and some original, are written by authors who clearly know what they are talking about. And most of these books, while written with woodworkers in mind are incredibly valuable and informative even if you never plan on picking up a saw.

Selfish Motives

So, to keep my promise I’m giving three digital versions of their books away for purely selfish reasons. I want companies like Lost Art Press to be around a long time and the more people that know about them the more likely they’re going to keep pumping out great books. Chris, John, keep them coming, please.

The Loot

If you’re a winner you get to pick one of the following books:

By Hand & Eye (digital version)

I reviewed this book in an earlier post and think it’s an important book for designers. The should be part of your main reference library along with a fifth edition of Architectural Graphic Standards and a copy of McKay’s Building Construction.

With The Grain (pdf version)

If wood is a complete mystery to you then you should get this book. It simply and clearly explains the basics of wood and its use in furniture making. There are chapters on wood movement and how to calculate it in furniture construction and the characteristics of different species of trees.

To Make As Perfectly As Possible – Roubo On Marquetry (pdf version)

This book is the result of over six years of work and is the first english language translation of the classic book by Andre Roubo, originally publish in the 18th century. Lead by Donald Williams, a former head conservator for the Smithsonian Institute, the book is far more than a reprint. Williams spent years recreating the techniques described by Roubo as well as reconstructing most of the tools he describes as typical of the Menusier in France. An absolute must-have if your interests include period furniture. A second volume on furniture construction is due out next year.

Door Making And Window Making (hardcover)

Here’s another must have for your reference library. Since most everything we draw is custom, it helps to understand door and window construction when you’re creating those full-size details. This book is a reprint of two English joiners manuals which explain the process.

How To Enter

There will be three winners. Basically all you have to do is take a guess at the number of books in my personal library, kind of like guessing the number of gum balls in the jar. As a hint, it was over fifteen years ago when they could fill a 550 square foot bungalow.

You can either post a reply with your guess (and your book choice if you’re a winner) to this post or send your guess to:

designbookcontest@gmail.com

Deadline is midnight on Friday, December 6. Please, only one entry per person. Ties will be decided by picking a name from a hat by Coco the Psychic Bunny.

Winners will be notified on December 7 and sent a link where they can download their book. If you want the Windows And Doors book, it is only available in hardcover and will ship in late December.

I hope that if you win you’ll buy a hardcopy version as well and a digital copy for a friend. And if you don’t win I hope I’ve enticed you to spend your own cash on what are truly terrific books.

You were always told to listen to your mother, and once you became an adult you realized that it was pretty good advice.

Now that you’re a grown-up film industry professional, the best advice I can give you is to listen to your Construction Coordinator. They’re the one person that can either make or break you and you should ignore them at your peril.

It seems today that you’re going to find few people who are willing to offer free advice that’s actually helpful and useful, but that’s not the case with Michael Mulligan, the Construction Manager at the Set Supermarket in the UK.

With experience in design, set construction, special effects and art direction, Michael has some sage advice for the new and experienced Art Director in avoiding the big pitfalls of a build as well as having some great ammunition to throw at a producer when they try to convince you that a stage build is too much trouble or expensive.

Michael points out that the CM ( the equivalent of our Construction Coordinator here in the states ) can save you big headaches and prevent you from making costly budget errors.

Here is a sample of some of his advice he offers on his company blog:

“Listen to the advice of the CM, you may think your set is unique but often, he or she will have done one similar and learned valuable lessons from it. The look may be unique but the principles involved will have been used before somewhere.

Remember that the finishes are as expensive as the build and much much less predictable as far as costing is concerned, if you want to try something new or something daring, don’t be surprised if a large sum is added, just in case it does not go well the first time. Tried and tested methods give the best value.

Make sure the space you are building in does not hamstring you. Restricted hours, restricted access, no parking, restriction on use of tools, danger of damaging the location, long distances and fundamentally inadequate space can knock the wind out of the scope of your build.

Make sure production know the fundamentals of set construction. Often producers will have been working a while without doing a proper build and are unaware of the simple rules for working hours, health and safety, overtime and so on. Its best to avoid nasty surprises and ill feeling by checking they’re level of knowledge in advance and filling in any blanks.”

You’ll find that there’s not much difference in the scope of work other than maybe a reference to “tea and biscuits” which is the equivalent to our “diet Coke and a donut” (I’ll take the tea and biscuits, thank you very much).

You can check out his blog and find other good advice at:

http://setsupermarket.co.uk/

photo – Set Supermarket

On the ENDANGERED SPECIES list – the Quick View II

If you ever wanted a Quick View, time is running out. I have 15 of the lens angle finders left and plan on selling them out by the end of the week.

I’m selling the remaining few at just $25 plus $5 postage. I’ll even pay the sales tax. That’s over 60% off the original price. I can’t guarantee you’ll get the full manual but they will come with full instructions.

Despite many fantastic claims about this tool, it will not make delicious julienned fries or improve your love-life. But, you will have over 80 combinations of digital and film formats and prime lens focal lengths that will allow you to figure out any lens angle you could imagine in either plan or elevation views in seconds, without the use of a computer or any electricity at all!!

Amaze your friends! Be an Art Department “greenie”!

To make it fair, the tools will go to the first 15 people who send me an email at: randallwilkins@insidetheframe.biz and let me know they want one, or two. Heck, it’s the perfect gift for that annoying cousin who keeps asking you, “now what exactly is it that you do??”, insinuating you sit around and hob nob with stars all day long.  Wait until you see the look on his face when he opens this up. That’ll shut him up fast.

Once I get an email I’ll send you the site where you can go to use a credit card or Paypal to make the payment.

Any Quick Views that are left will be sent to the Home For Unwanted Film Design Tools. Please don’t let this happen to these innocent and incredibly useful devices!

You’ve experienced it. That punch in the gut when you realized the file you spent days on is gone, just gone. You have copies, great. Um, they’re corrupted. You panic.

Welcome to the wonders of the digital world. The first time it happened to me I couldn’t believe it. It just seemed impossible files could disappear and backups be corrupted or unopenable. Now I back up to two different drives at work and another at home, and I’m still paranoid.

The “experts” now say you should do several things to protect your digital media:

1. Be sure your files are backed up in multiple places, at least three.
2. If you buy the same brand of hard drive don’t buy them all from the same retailers: manufacturing glitches can show up over all units from the same batch.
3. Rotate your drives and upgrade to new media regularly. Those CD-R’s from 12 years ago may have data problems from information loss.
4. Have a sense of humor. You’ve traded speed for longevity. That’s the way it is. Example: the average Daguerrotype will last about 10,000 years, meaning there will still be plenty of 1850’s portraits around thousands of years after every photo from this century, and most likely the next, are toast.

Share your horror stories here. You’re among sympathetic listeners. Thing is, I just can’t ever remember the graphite mysteriously disappearing from a vellum drawing. Just saying.

And lest you think it just us, watch this little film about how Toy Story II almost disappeared into the digital ether along with your files.