emily conrad

After a meeting today, I walked over to the M15 bus and noticed a new kiosk by the bus stop. I had heard about this new plan to implement curbside fare payments, dedicated bus lanes and extra doors to facilitate getting on and off. It cost $60 million to deploy, and will most likely succeed in increasing efficiency. From personal experience, what holds up buses most often is a long line of people having to dip their card at the front of the bus.

As a frequent bus rider, I am so glad the MTA is going this route instead of relying on Paypass (RFID embedded in some debit/credit cards that you can swipe to pay your fare). Not once have I witnesses anyone using the Paypass method since it was implemented. I think Pay-Before-Ride is great news for avid bus riders and a new model for urban transportation. And the kiosks were recognizable, clean, and very easy to use.

Sometimes I get so used to the day-to-day living in my neighborhood that I forget to just walk about and enjoy what the streets have to offer. Today was the perfect fall day on the Lower East Side, so we decided to take a stroll. Our goal was to visit the New Museum, which we did, but we decided to keep moving afterwards. And I’m glad we did.

Somewhere around Orchard and Rivington we happened on a small storefront gallery. This is where I was introduced to the aerial photography of Stephan Zirwes. The color and compositions of his work is absolutely striking, but what draws me in the most is the straight down perspective. There are no angles added from the camera’s perspective that don’t exist already. The photos are dead on, and it makes you feel more a part of it. The gallerist explained to us that the artist hangs down from a helicopter in flight. Strapped in a harness, Zirwes takes the photos from directly above. There’s no Photoshopping involved. Loved it. I took the first photo (of his photo) because it reminded me of one of my first professional patina jobs. But it’s not patined bronze, or a painting, but instead an aerial photograph of a stripmine in Germany. I would love to own this photo someday. The others images of Zirwes’ work I found on various photography sites.

I’ve been lucky enough to help with redesigning the new Ice Cream Social website. Ice Cream Social, run by my friends Mary and Jenn, is one of the freshest design shops I’ve seen in a long time. They create all sorts of gorgeously clean letterpress designs, including invitations, logos, and accessories. It’s great to collaborate with creatives who have a strong design sense and unique aesthetic. In turn, I’ve been doing tons of research on custom made stationary and invitations. It’s interesting to me that an art form as old as letterpress still reigns as the true queen. And while embellishments have been popular for a while now, they look so rich impressed on cardstock. This definitely leaves those of us digitally inclined with something to consider.

Stay tuned for the new design of icecreamsocial.com in the coming months, but for now here’s some sampling of their work:

It’s finally here! A few months back I had an idea that might get my three year old to stay in bed in the morning, and to go to bed consistently at night. This idea was prototyped out by myself and the talented Jeff Gray using an Arduino Teensy, RGB LED, an Ikea Fado light, and a prototype desktop application to customize settings. I tried out the light on my own “Early Bird”, and it worked with great success. My family watches the light transition from pink to blue at 8pm every night. So we decided to make the light real and have it prototyped by a factory that specializes in LED lighting. We’ve decided to produce a very limited run of the Early Bird Light, and will be announcing the product very soon. It’s made of solid aluminum and an etched glass globe. The software allows you to customize night time, morning time, and nap time, and your little one can help select the color for each time period. A full RGB spectrum is available to choose from. And the software is super easy to use and very cute. Here’s a sneak peek!

Education Nation went up a few weeks ago, but I was too busy wrapping up other projects to post about it! Education projects are always fun to work not just because I support the cause, but because the goal is to open up the visitor’s natural curiosity to explore. That’s just what these books did; allowed visitor’s to Rockefeller Center to explore the seven different types of learning. As a designer, this was a great project because the start and end time was a matter of weeks, and I was able to then go onsite and observe how people interacted with the books. So much fun.

Here’s a video of Bloomberg talking about the larger mission of Education Nation, which is to reform the education system.

The Energy Lab is up and running! It was great to be part of this project.
Here’s a blurb directly from the National Guard site, where you can also find more information about this very cool initiative.
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Learning is best when it’s a hands-on experience. With this idea in mind, we’ve created The Energy Lab to bring the world of math and science to life for 11th- and 12th-grade students. The Energy Lab will house a 24-seat on-board theater and four cutting-edge experiences—representing the elements of Earth, Water, Wind and Fire—designed to expose students to math and science concepts, using the platform of energy and the environment, and fuel their curiosity through hi-tech, competitive interactions.

Along with using captivating experiences to teach students about math and science, The Energy Lab also reinforces the importance of staying in school and earning a diploma, while demonstrating new career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) related fields. The Energy Lab will act as an innovative resource to schools and teachers nationwide through direct contact with students, an online web portal, and a national math and science contest.

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