Archinect - News

An engineer's comic addresses social equity in transportation planning and design

2018-07-23T15:40:00-04:00

Engineer Ryan Martinson uses his cartooning skills to explore why and how to better incorporate social equity goals into transportation planning Equity & Mobility, a 12-page comic article published in the Summer issue of Transportation Talk," the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineer's quarterly newsletter.

The Canadian Institute for Transportation Engineers newsletter showcases a comic strip addressing social equity in transportation design. The article looks at how planning decisions can be affected by a biased user experience design process affecting who is included in our transportation systems.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

Martinson's comic describes how faster transportation modes like automotive travel are often favored over more inclusive ones such as walking, biking, and public transportation.

Summer issue of Transportation Talk comic by Ryan Martinson. Image: Equity & Mobility.

While pointing out these design issues, he also offers specific solutions on how to design more inclusively and better impact people's economic and social opportunities. You can flip through the full article here.

Comic-strip ads created as marketing to entice millennials to move to a Chicago suburb

2018-04-10T13:51:00-04:00

Welcome to Homewood, Illinois, a suburb of 20,000 that is marketing itself to urbanites as a hidden hipster gem. The town, which is about 25 miles south of downtown Chicago, just launched a new advertising campaign called “Think Homewood.” Ads posted inside trains on the L’s Blue Line and elsewhere in Chicago contrast the laid-back vibe of Homewood to the stress of city living. The ads are comic strips drawn by illustrator and Homewood resident Marc Alan Fishman.

The Chicago suburb Homewood harnessed the graphic skills of a local artist to launch their comic-strip ad campaign, Think Homewood, in order to attract millennials. Joining the list of suburban towns that must now work to attract the demographic they were originally intended for, Homewood strives to market itself as a diverse neighborhood for young families.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Think Homewood addresses the inconveniences of city life, especially for those with kids, and promises a stress free alternative. The campaign plays off millennial tropes including love of avocados, children named "zen", and brunching at farm-to-table cafes.

Homewood ad campaign by artist Marc Alan Fishman.

Demolished Tokyo apartment building, the "holy land of manga," to be rebuilt as a museum

2016-07-08T13:26:00-04:00

An apartment building known as the “holy land of manga” due to its famous former tenants is to be rebuilt and opened as a museum of manga and anime in Tokyo’s Toshima Ward. Tokiwaso, which was demolished more than 30 years ago, will be reconstructed in a park [...] Past occupants included “God of manga” Osamu Tezuka, the author of “Astro Boy,” who lived there in the 1950s; Fujiko Fujio of “Doraemon” fame; “Cyborg 009” creator Shotaro Ishinomori; and “Osomatsukun” artist Fujio Akatsuka.

Two days left to kickstart the full-length comic zine of Fairy Tales 2nd-prize winner "Beautifully Banal"

2015-07-13T19:07:00-04:00

After winning second place in Blank Space's 2015 Fairy Tales Architecture Competition, University of Illinois at Chicago graduate students Alexander Culler and Danny Travis took things one step further to publish their submission, "Beautifully Banal", into a full-length architectural comic zine. The duo initiated a Kickstarter campaign earlier this month that received speedy support, reaching their $1,000 goal in just two days. Now with 52 hours to go, the campaign has garnered $3,578.

Culler and Travis set up the campaign in an effort to bring a light-hearted story that readers both within and outside of the architectural community can appreciate. Derived from the universal notion of finding one's place in the world, the three-part narrative follows Phineas the fly's journey through three major architectural programs: Residential, Commercial, and Industrial.

Readers encounter various architectural drawing conventions at different scales like plans, sections, axonometrics, elevations,...

Francis Tsai, previously featured on Archinect's Working Out of the Box, passes away

2015-07-07T13:28:00-04:00

“Ever since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to draw,” he said in late March, just before his death. “Architecture was the foundation that I ended up using in design work. I had to fill in the gaps.”

At the time he was diagnosed with ALS, Francis Tsai had reached a highpoint in his career. Trained as an architect at the University of Texas at Austin, Tsai had established a successful freelancing career creating the fantasy and sci-fi worlds he loved, pivoting his architectural skills into contributing artwork to the likes of Marvel Comics, Dungeons & Dragons, the film Sucker Punch, and games like Myst and Tomb Raider. The ALS diagnosis, when Tsai was only 42, was devastating – patients on average live for only two to five more years, and the disease's encroaching whole-body paralysis threatened to take away what Tsai loved most: drawing.

By 2012, a couple years after his diagnosis, ALS had left Tsai completely paralyzed, save for the ability to smile. Determined not to stop making his art, Tsai began drawing using the "Eye Gaze" system, that uses infrared cameras to track eye movements and translate them into commands on his computer. He pioneered the technology's application for...