My love for mid-century architecture really came to fruition in my 20s when I began photographing the still-standing 50s and 60s structures in Western Washington, but the root of my affection goes back even further. My grandfather's career as a photographer, editor and Vice President of an architecture magazine eventually had an undeniable influence on my own path in design and photography and I thought I'd share a small piece of that here.

Pacific Architect & Builder was a monthly publication that ran from the 1950s through the 1970s discussing modern architecture, building materials, architects and statistics throughout the western United States. As modern architecture in the US was gaining notoriety in Southern California and the East Coast, the Pacific Northwest was often overlooked—and as a result was less-frequently documented. The publication remains an extremely significant piece of history due to it being quite possibly the only monthly publication dedicated to Modernism in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1960, construction began on a brand new building in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood that would house both the Pacific Architect & Builder offices and their printing plant. Consulting editor and architect A.O. Bumgardner would take charge of the building design while partnering with prolific structural engineer Jack Christiansen to help create the folded-plate concrete roof. Christiansen's thin-shell concrete structures have dotted the Pacific Northwest for decades: the pedestrian bridge over Montlake at UW, the short-lived Kingdome, the Exhibition Hall at Seattle Center, the Pacific Science Center and countless others.

At the time, my grandfather, Roscoe Laing was the Vice President and deeply involved in the design and construction process—his Volkswagen Beetle can even be seen out front of the office in almost every photo taken of the building in the 1960s.

As Vice President Roscoe often still had his camera at work—for jobs and for fun, documenting office parties and occasionally acting as an uncredited staff photographer. His daughter, my mom, also worked at the office as a teenager in the late-1960s.

Aside from the familial connection, it remains one of my favorite structures in the city. Now an official Seattle Landmark, recognized for its architectural significance, it is a comfort knowing that it will stay standing for years to come. You can drive right up to the building to admire it in person at 1945 Yale Pl E, just a couple blocks off of Lake Union.

Below are interior photos taken by my grandfather in the 1960s as well as the cover of the January '61 issue with a photo by Art Hupy.

For a long time I tried to keep up with monthly updates here, but it's become a bit too time consuming with my work load. You'll still find sections of the website updated regularly and you can follow along on Instagram as well!

Early this fall I had the privilege of branding Atomic Bagels in Port Angeles. To lean into the atomic age and mid-century America was right up my alley. If you find yourself in Port Angeles, be sure to visit Atomic Bagels!

. Next, another branding project for a Houston-based wine consultant, dubbed the Wine Witch. This was an extremely fun one turning a witch's wand into a corkscrew.

The fine folks at the Vera Project asked me to create a series of posters based around their newly created "Ratsquatch", a punk rat costume used to promote an upcoming concert series with Algernon Cadwallader and more. Up the rat punx!

My ongoing work with Puffin Pediatrics is a constant good time. Dr. Fradkin and I had the idea to put the puffin into old photos from Washington State. I pulled from my collection of 1950s and 60s Kodachrome slides, converted them to black and white and snuck in my puffin illustrations as a bit of a Where's Waldo.

For the last few years I've had the privilege of designing posters for Seattle Theatre Group's "Silent Movie Mondays". The film series takes place in the massive historic theatre, the Paramount and is accompanied by a live Wurlitzer performance and an occasional full orchestra!

I was asked to create some colorful advertising material for The Residency, an organization helping to equip young hip-hop artists with artistic, leadership and business skills to further their careers.

Lastly, some of my favorite photos I took during September and October:

In July, I introduced a very fun point-and-shoot camera--the Porchlight Design Co. 35mm Film Camera. The main design aspect of the project was designing the box and the instructions inside. Here's a look at the camera!

Next, a poster design for the Red Clay Strays' sold out show at the Showbox here in Seattle. Using the band's old bus and trailer as inspiration, I put them on a desert road towards Seattle for this three-color print. The masterful poster printing was done here in Seattle by Broken Press. Like the show, the poster is also sold out. 

My friends at Westland Distillery came up with a great idea for a collaboration between Porchlight Design Co. and Westland. We've worked together in the past and I've designed a number of things for them, so I was immediately on board. They even liked my barrel-thief-as-an-actual-thief idea!

The capsule collection included the "Westland Whiskey Mug", a Barrel Thief tee, a baseball-inspired tee (due to the distillery's close proximity to the Mariners' stadium) and a Barrel Thief ballcap. I then went down to the distillery to photograph it. 

The ballcap and mug were manufactured with Porchlight Supply, the offshoot that helps create merch for other small (and big) businesses. The tees were printed by Ink Knife Press here in Seattle.

My screen printed poster design for the wonderful Lake Street Dive. This poster was for their outdoor show in Woodinville, Washington at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. While this poster is now long gone, you can still buy a different shirt design I created for them right here. ​The masterful poster printing was done here in Seattle by Broken Press.

I also got to design a collaboration between the Epilepsy Foundation and the Seattle Mariners. This tee was sold to raise money for the foundation. The design is a play on teamwork and the M's signature home-run-celebration-trident.

July was a big month in general, as I got married. To celebrate, my wife and I spent a week in the South of France. We visited some of my family in Aix-en-Provence, went to Arles and Marseille and plenty of places in between. I brought my 35mm and digital camera and completed an entry in the Porchlight Photo Journal entitled "South of France on 35mm Film". You can see the entire entry and all the photos here, but a few favorites are below.

Using the branding I created for Puffin Pediatrics, I designed a run of adult and kid tees, printed ​by Ink Knife Press here in Seattle. I even took some photos of a happy patient wearing one.

Lastly some of my favorite photos taken during those summer months—both on film and digital.

Branding a new business is something I love doing. Through the experience of opening my own shop in 2009, growing it and continuing to refine and expand the branding over the years, I've learned a lot about what a small business needs–and this project was two small businesses in one. 

​Chris Tanghe, a master sommelier, and Rose Zhu, an acclaimed chef set out to open two businesses in West Seattle. Walter's is a bottle shop where you can find an incredible range of wine with an approachable, knowledgable staff. Upwell is a cafe during the day and a wine bar at night. You can fine finely crafted espresso drinks along with pastries baked in-house, as well as beautiful plates for lunch and dinner. Below you'll find all of the branding I created for both businesses as well as photos I've taken.

The guys in Botch asked me to create a design to commemorate their final run of Seattle shows at the Showbox in a two-color print that could be applied to both apparel and a Miir travel mug. I decided on a truly Northwest moss-covered design. The Showbox designs are sold out, but you can still grab a couple other designs I made for 'em in their online store.

As a big fan of neon signs, it was a treat to design this enamel pin based on the Roxy Theatre marquee blade sign. It's a lovely historic theatre and you should really go catch a movie there!

I've been lucky enough to have a wonderful, ongoing relationship designing pins for the Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way, WA. Below is my pin design for the Gravenstein Apple bonsai. See the tree and snag a pin when you visit the museum!

My ongoing designs for Puffin Pediatrics are truly fun. One of the most fun projects is a run of band posters for the office. I've been periodically creating "band posters" that feature the Puffin from my original branding made to look like posters from Death Cab, Jawbreaker, and Descendents with more coming.

Over the years, i've designed a lot of mugs for Porchlight. This one, is a play on lake-swimming here in Seattle. The mugs sold out fairly quickly, so there may be more coming in the future.

Lastly, some of my favorite photos I took during those two months. Some digital and some on film.

A super fun branding project was the major highlight of March and April. I was tasked with rebranding a farmer's market favorite, Aarons Bagels, into the brand spankin' new Backyard Bagels. Despite trying a few different approaches, I couldn't help but fixate on the bagel as a tire swing for Backyard. Luckily, owner Aaron agreed and loved it. So we went from there. Be sure to visit Backyard Bagel in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle! In the next few months you'll see plenty of signage and merch rolling out as well!

I was incredibly happy when Ben Schwartz got in touch asking me to design a poster for his hometown New York show. You may recognize Ben from Parks and Recreation, Renfield and the Sonic the Hedgehog films. He's also an wonderfully talented improvisor, hosting an improv tour, Ben Schwartz and Friends. The poster was a great opportunity to incorporate a lot of fun stuff like 1990s basketball, music, snacks, coffee and architecture.

For the second year in a row I was tasked with creating the festival poster for the Bothell Block Party and BrewFest, hosted by University of Washington Bothell. The design was used to create t-shirts, giant banners, merch and more.

Another poster I designed in the early spring was this one for the town of Seabrook, Washington and their intimate Town Hall show featuring the wonderful Sera Cahoone.

I've always enjoyed designing for Death Cab For Cutie and Ben Gibbard over the years. For a long time, Ben's website had just been a bit of a landing page, so it was in need of a spruce up. I loosely used the color scheme of the Home EP, which was recently re-released and I tied in some imagery from the fall leaves and some of Ben's songs. See the website in all of it's glory right here: ​benjamingibbard.com

And back to more posters! This one is a tour poster for the soulful dudes of The Dip. Their new album Love Direction is out now and it is a great soul/R&B/pop album that I can't recommend enough. Snag one of these posters when the band is on tour!

The Fillmore has a rich history of poster art for their shows, so it's always an absolute honor to be asked to create posters for them. This was for Niko Moon, a pop/country artist playing a sold out show at the historic San Francisco Venue.

To continue the poster path, this was another one for the town of Seabrook, Washington. They hosted a coursed seafood dinner with some fine chefs from the area. I was inspired by a couple 1960s costal European travel posters in my flat file and after a little bit of thought, I decided I really liked the idea of the sea serving a fish on a platter with the sun. 

The final poster of March and April was for Tomo Nakayama's anniversary show for his album Fog on the Lens, which was recorded during a residency at Seattle's Town Hall. This poster was created to celebrate the ten-year anniversary and his return to the venue while he performed the album in its entirety.

This April, I also published the second printing of my book Art Hupy: Architecture and Life in the Pacific Northwest and this time...in hardcover. You can find it online at Porchlight Design Co. as well as a selection of retailers in the area: Porchlight Coffee & Records, Third Place Books, Flora and Henri, Seattle Art Museum and Glazer's Camera.

Lastly, I always like to share some of my favorite photos from the two months! Some digital, some film.

One of my favorite branding projects to date--Imaginary Friends. Dave Holloway is at the helm, but with many collaborators. IF helps other companies bring their ideas and products to life with messaging that makes sense to everyone. Having worked with Microsoft, Brooks Running, and countless others across tech, food and travel, you'll be in good hands with Imaginary Friends.

Dave and I both share a love of mid-century design and this project was heavily influenced by the Eameses, Alexander Girard and various packaging from the 1950s and 1960s. I set out to create branding that was just the right amount of playful and colorful with a bit of seriousness mixed in.

In addition to branding and helping design the IF website, I took some portraits of founder Dave Holloway for website, LinkedIn and marketing use.

I've been designing slipmats for years. Occasionally for clients, but mostly just for Porchlight. My slipmats have been sold in record shops in the Philippines, Texas, Toronto, Florida, Seattle and elsewhere. The last few years I haven't been designing many, but got the urge again. This Flower slipmat is a simple design, inspired by late 1960s/1970s dishware. It'll really spruce up your turntable too. Available at Porchlight Design Co.

 I love collaborating with Good Luck Bread. I've not only branded the company, but designed all their packaging as well. Back in February, I updated their frozen cookie packaging. I can't recommend them enough! Order a few and keep 'em in your freezer, but they probably won't stay in their too long (they will clearly wind up in your belly ASAP). Get pizza and cookies over at Good Luck Bread.

After years as a doctor at Swedish in Seattle, Dr. Matt Fradkin decided he wanted to open his own practice. Not only is he a medical professional that loves playing music and going to shows, he wanted to combine the fun stuff (light-hearted design, nods to great bands, cartoons) with the great stuff (more time with patients, same-day and next-day visits).

In addition the branding (shared on the blog earlier), there is plenty more that's always ongoing.

A short list of what I've designed for the practice so far: branding, headshots, band posters in which the puffin was swapped in as the star (Death Cab, The Clash, Descendents), waiting room posters with different styles of puffin (baseball, rockstar, and more), a ten-foot painted logo behind the reception desk, puffin feet painted as a marker for the eye chart, a coloring page for the waiting room and there is plenty more still coming to Puffin Pediatrics. If you've got kids and live in Seattle, Puffin Pediatrics is for you!

I've always loved old Pyrex and Fireking mugs I've come across in antique shops and occasionally at my grandmother's house growing up. I've always wanted to make some Porchlight mugs in that style, but couldn't find a way to manufacture them. Finally it happened! We've started offering this style of mug at Porchlight Supply where you can have them made for your own businesses as well. 

This design was the first offering in the style and very quickly sold out. But don't worry, there will be more designs coming soon!

This design is also featured on a tote bag available in person at Porchlight or online right here.

To finish off the recap, here are some of my favorite photos taken on Kodak Tri-X back in January.

I've been falling behind a bit on the recaps, but it's better late than never.

I'm very excited to share my branding for Puffin Pediatrics. The practice was started by Dr. Matt Fradkin with a fun and unique approach to kids' medical care. Focusing on giving more time to patients, same and next-day-visits and providing a fun space for kids, Puffin Pediatrics is an absolute gem. See photos of the space right here.

I love designing for Good Luck Bread Pizza almost as much as I love eating Good Luck Bread Pizza. This entirely custom packaging was very fun to design. If you haven't tried it yet, just know that it truly lives up to its name!

Another big project that was released at the end of the year was my book on mid-century photographer Art Hupy. As an architectural photographer, Art Hupy not only documented the rise of mid-century modernism in the Pacific Northwest but unintentionally and beautifully captured the growth of the region as a whole.

This new book is the first to display a curated collection from Art Hupy's vast career. Until now, the majority of his work has only been seen in newspapers and other editorial publications—most of which are long out of print. As a tireless freelancer, Hupy never considered his editorial photography as art—he considered it his work. But luckily for us, he took great pride in doing great work. 

This book required hours upon hours of digital retouching to make sure Hupy's photos were up to par how he himself would have expected. I took care of the entire book design, layout and research. Eugenia Woo of Historic Seattle generously wrote a foreword as well. The first printing of this book was an 8" x 10" softcover with silver foil lettering on the cover, and 162 black and white pages.

As a special bonus for those purchasing the first edition, I recorded a short instrumental song that was pressed on a postcard record that plays on a turntable. The first printing is down to its last few copies. Look for the second printing coming soon.

I designed a few different prints during November and December, including a show poster for the very heavy, very good Botch and their show in New York.

A turntable slipmat is a great way to spruce up your record set up. I designed this shaky coffee hand just for that purpose. Get one here.

Affiche Studio & Gallery does wonderful work restoring posters in Portland. I created some updated branding for 'em to spruce things up. See photos of the restoration process here as well.

To finish things off, my favorite photos from the end of the year!

It was a busy summer...and a busy fall....

A big one throughout the year was branding Down in the Valley, a brand new two-day festival hosted by the Head and the Heart. I provided the branding, digital marketing materials and some photography at the festival. The main requests for the branding were that the lettering evoked their classic lettering used on the band's first album and singles and that it focused on the beauty of the Napa region where the festival was held.

In addition, I designed a souvenir poster and shirt for the fest as well.

My approach to festival photos was to capture the mood of the weekend, photos from backstage and more traditional photos of the acts as well. Here are a few of my favorites:

Next, a t-shirt design for Washington Brewshed Alliance, an conservation organization that partners with breweries across the state. It was a fun one, showing the outdoors and a very cheery cheers.

Growing up as a Seattle Mariners fan, I feel super lucky to have gotten the opportunity to create a goofy design for a Mariners/ Death Cab For Cutie collaboration. Using the likeness of Mariners utility player Jose "Cabby" Caballero and Death Cab's "We Have the Facts" cover art, "Death Cabby For Cutie" was born. The shirts were part of a fundraiser on Jose Caballero's actual birthday and all shirts were quickly snagged and sold out.

In a region surrounded by water, with a decent amount of extra water added through rainfall, Seattle is always finding new ways to keep residents safe from flooding—especially in South Seattle. This poster was designed to celebrate the opening of the new South Park Pump Station and bring awareness to flood preparation.

Having grown up in King County, I was closely familiar with hardcore/metal/mathcore locals Botch. Once I started listening to more than just pop punk bands, Botch had seeped into my playlists via a couple close friends. I later became familiar with the offshoots of Botch: Russian Circles, Minus the Bear and These Arms Are Snakes and when bassist Brian asked me to design a couple shirts, I jumped on the idea. Knowing my style of design isn't exactly in line with most hardcore and metal bands, Brian reassured me that I was the man for the job—creating some vintage national park-inspired designs. 

One of the biggest tours of the year was clearly the Death Cab For Cutie / Postal Service co-headlining run of shows. Each show on the tour had its own screen printed show poster that was available in a standard edition as well as a limited-edition  foil version. Posters sold out QUICKLY. I designed two posters for the tour, both of which combined Death Cab's "Transatlanticism" album art and The Postal Service's iconic "Give Up" art. Below is the Minneapolis design and in the  next recap I'll show you the Phoenix design.

This poster I designed was inspired by a recent drive through the Redwoods where we encountered dozens of Volkswagen enthusiasts parading under the tall trees. I decided to focus on one single VW bus driving just out of the frame. Both shows were sold out before the poster was even designed!

Lastly, some of my favorite photos, taken in the early fall.

Here's a little recap of the Spring/Summer crossover period. First, a design I created for The Dip.

They wanted a fun Space Needle-focused design for their Miir travel mugs that integrated their song title "Slow Sipper" and this is what I came up with for 'em.

Next, a poster for the band Babe Corner, as they toured on their album "Cry Baby". I integrated the lavender colors of their tour poster along with some tissues as a play on their album.

I was asked to create a diptych style poster for Thrice's shows at the Showbox here in Seattle. I wanted to come up with a design that looked good and made sense on its own while looking even better with it's other half. 

I was asked by Good and Well Supply Co. to create a series of candle labels that would be named the "Destination" series, paying homage to different cities in the style of mid-century travel posters. See 'em and grab 'em here.

I don't consider myself a videographer, but I do occasionally make videos. I filmed and edited this video for Tomo Nakayama and his new song "Contigo". Take a look!

It's no secret that I love working with The Head and the Heart. I've created a lot of merch designs for the band and this summer I designed their Fall tour poster.

These two months brought on a lot of photos! A couple road trips and then some. See even more at the Porchlight Photo Journal.