Andrew Thomson

Bar

Sat, 12 May 2012 17:18:11 -0400

Urban Cookhouse commissioned a bar to be installed at their Summit restaurant. Jared welded up some braces that allowed the bar surface to be cantilevered out without showing supports. The whole thing was pretty long- about 12 feet….which got stuck in the planer a few times…

Goldsprints

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:18:00 -0400

Bici got some goldsprints going for Bike!Bike! weekend. By this time I already had a theme going- xacto blades…paint….free chip board from UPS store…. So here is the first Bici poster I’ve ever done WITHOUT someone raising one hand in the air.

Bike!Bike!

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:08:00 -0400

Bici asked me to create a logo for Bike!Bike! Southeast which is a conference all about non-profit bike shops!!!! (is there any other kind??….yes, there is…)

I’ve been wanting to do a poster/design with only stencils and spray paint- so I justified it by saying non-profit bike people are so urban that they live in a world of stencils and spray paint, who knows if that’s true or not… Vulcan is the mascot- is there any other choice? And this makes 4 Bici posters now with a person raising one hand in the air…

The Bed

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:28:00 -0400

This project started with a commission: build a bed pretty similar to this one but use local reclaimed wood for the headboard. It sounded like a good time.

I knew someone in town who has a yard full of old wood he gets from disassembling barns. We picked out an old section of barn flooring that was probably used as an old threshing floor.

We matched the old stuff with walnut from Maplesville, AL. We had to get a router template to do the box joining- a new thing for me. The finished piece looked good when the mattress and everything was finally placed inside…and when the client’s kids immediately started jumping on it…

Peanut Depot

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:35:42 -0500

Show me someone who doesn’t like peanuts…and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The Peanut Depot is a Birmingham staple…serving up origional and cajun recipe for as long as I’ve been here. I’m trying to do a print of every building in Birmingham- so far I’ve done two. This one is screen printed on oak- which gives a grainy scratchy look.

Table for Eating

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:21:00 -0500

Urban Cookhouse has opened a new store in the Summit! Jared and I were asked to design and build a table and two benches for the eating area. We were inspired by a design from Pielab but wanted to use one consistant wood type to fit the interior of the restaurant. We got a truck full of oak and started working. The finished piece surprisingly fit in my car. Visit the Cookhouse, order an El Cubano and sit on some Alabama oak benches for the complete experience.

Booth Table Top (the making of...)

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 16:50:00 -0500

Urban Cookhouse commissioned Jared (an architect friend) and I to design and build a table top for a booth in their new restaurant. The top is laminated oak and is supported by two “L” shaped struts coming out from the wall. You don’t want your knees bumping into table legs when eating cheesy pasta.

Coffee AND Books!

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:10:00 -0400

It’s cool when people you are friends with start businesses. It’s even cooler when you can help. And coolest of all is when you can help and get free coffee in return.

Working on Church Street Coffee and Books hit the third tier of coolness.

The logo came from the idea of combining coffee and books…hah…but seriously…it did. We wanted it to look English-y and not overly modern or “new” since it would be in Mountain Brook. Carrie Rolwagon had a good idea of the look she needed- so that made everything easier.

Bici turns 2

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:40:00 -0400

photo credit- cary norton

I was happy to design a poster for Bici Coop’s 2nd anniversary race and party. I got really inspired by communist propaganda that glorifies the working man. I’ve noticed that that will now be the second Bici poster I’ve done where someone is raising their fist in the air…hmm…maybe I need a new look. I did the screen printing in my own house for this one. Cheep acrylic paint from Walmart was all it took (only Walmart because it was the only place open). They dried pretty fast, but I did mess up about 7%.

Collision sculpture

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:46:00 -0500

Sometimes it’s good to step back from functional and verbal mediums and just make a sculpture. This is a piece for a show the Birmingham Art Collective put on a few years ago. The inspiration came from the collision of ideas/emotions/people into something more interesting than before. The piece is designed from perfect cubes of different sizes intersecting each other.

Plywood prints

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:05:00 -0500

This was a Christmas present to a certain someone, but now I’m thinking of doing a series on Birmingham buildings. Screen printing on plywood has a nice feel and I hope to do more in the future.

tweet wall

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 15:51:00 -0500

I like what twitter does. You can keep track of people, places, businesses, tagged words, events and on and on. I also like the idea of bringing tweets into a more public setting. This idea is an LED light matrix that broadcasts tweets as they appear on an iPhone. The user would download a special twitter app just for this device, hook up their iPhone or iPod touch, and watch each tweet appear on the big screen. A restaurant could have a screen mounted in their eating space that shows all tweets @mentioning their name.

Local handouts!

Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:55:00 -0500

Local bike racks got some handouts printed! I think the coolest thing on them is the great photos by Caleb Chancey of bikes and racks locked happily together. I got to do the logo and branding for Local, which was a lot of fun and a little challenging. I wanted a grass roots kind of look and took inspiration from hand painted signs in downtown Birmingham. A special website dedicated to selling these guys will be up soon!

The elf who stole Christmas...or the iMac...

Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:53:00 -0500

I was happy to design and print some Christmas postcards for the very creative architecture firm Standard Creative. We talked about a Christmasy-architecturalish-friendly card, and that’s where front design came from (with their logo on the mantle). But to give a subtle hint to the story of this year (the firm had experienced several break-ins at their new address, including all the computers being stolen…twice) a sneaky elf is running out with an iMac on the back of the card. Originally, I had the reverse of the window from the front broken with glass shards….but that was not very merry.

The project was screen printed on chip board using plastisol ink.

Peace...dog...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:04:00 -0500

There’s this guy that sells hotdogs near Lynn Park. The hotdog stand is called Peace Dog. I’m not sure why it is called Peace Dog, but it is. I immediately wanted to make a logo for the stand once I saw this work for Good Dog, which are actually the hotdogs he is using. So I made a logo. I’m just not sure if he’ll use it or not.

bent ply chair finished

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 20:54:00 -0500

Sit forward or lean back. The mullet hair-do is often described as “business in the front, party in the back.” Using that analogy, this is may qualify as the mullet of bent ply wood chairs, except more stylish…

Don’t ask how the welded steel frame is attached to the back of the wooden shell- it’s a secret.

Girl's Race...

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 17:21:00 -0500

Anything I get to design for Bici is always a lot of fun. They recently had their annual girl’s alley cat race called the Kitty Cat. I only have one really bad photo to prove it existed…

I was inspired by Bicycled playing cards and….yes…Mary Popins..

installed

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:30:00 -0500

Local bike racks

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 14:21:00 -0500

My co-worker friend has designed a bike rack. He is selling them to businesses and schools in this area. We called the company (I use the term “company” very loosely) Local to signify products that are made here in Birmingham. Here are some shots from the tube bender we used. He runs a shop with his son that was actually his father’s originally. That’s three generations of tube bending.

Bici shirts

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:34:00 -0500

Why do I like Bici? Because they let me make stuff for them. These are some shirts to promote the coop! (and yes a bottle opener is an important bike tool) (and yes we did print some hot pink ones)