Beneath the Surface Blog

“In today’s western society, digital communication, networking and the web 2.0 are parts of our daily life. The constant ‘real time’ connection is changing us, our environment and the perception of it. On the threshold of the post-digital society, the limits of space and time are abolished. Physical dematerialization is a true consequence."    - Victor Matic

Viktor Matic, an Italy-based Yugoslavian designer, has readapted notions of traditional furniture design to suit an ever-changing society that has lost value in “one-size fits all” products. Recognizing that personal modification is no longer a wish, but an expectation, Matic has a launched “www” bookshelves, a bold furniture line that keeps the end-user at the forefront. With surfaces of strings that connect and transform into other new surfaces, he believes the product is truly “a shelf with a digital angle".

Though “www” may be considered a modern interpretation of the traditional shelf archetype, Matic describes the line as a reaction to the digitization of the world, representing a dematerialized Bauhaus product; the bookshelf has gained fame simply because it lacks a definite state. Users have the opportunity to adjust the size, angle, and placement of strings to create shelfs suited for a specific object or appearance. It's complex arrangement of parts not only make it a modular system, but also a type of installation in an ever changing space, giving users personal control over their furniture.

One of the most unique qualities of “www" is the layering involved in the success of the design. Wood and string loop into and around one another, which create different opacities and patterns as a person's viewpoint changes. The tension in the bright blue strings allow the shelves to carry the heavy weight of books more effectively than typical counterparts, such as wood or plastic.

Carefully balancing form with function, beauty with strength, and tradition with whimsy, Matic is shaping the future for furniture design within the digital age.  His “www” creations will continue to inspire other designers to create adaptable furniture capable of suiting the ever-changing needs of society.  We salute his work for the simple notion that providing user flexibility completely transforms the interpretation of a piece.

Credits: Architizer, Viktor Matic

Happy Flag Day! Established in 1916, Flag Day commemorates the original adoption of the United States flag back in 1777. Nestled halfway between America's two largest patriotic holidays, this June 14th celebration tends to get overshadowed by Memorial Day and the Fourth of July; we look at it as an opportunity to celebrate the history of America all month long! From the stars and stripes that symbolize hope and opportunity, to the red, white, and blue that exhibit strength, unity, and justice, our flag has become an iconic symbol of freedom around the world. While the meaning behind the flag remains the same, the construction processes used throughout the last 235 years have changed quite a bit.

Hand Sewing

<

Dating back to the original flag sewn by Betsy Ross, hand-sewing methods of craft seem to transcend the centuries of American flag production. The two most predominant methods of sewing are single-appliqué and double-appliqué. In single-appliqué the seamstress carefully cuts a star-shaped hole in the blue canvas, and applies a single piece of white fabric from behind to cover the hole. Double-appliqué designs involve no holes, but 2 white stars sewn back to back. As designers, we know that objects must look good from all angles, and modern flag-makers seem to agree! Most of the flags you'll see displayed around town have 2 sides, which means it uses the double-appliqué process.

Embroidering

This method of star application has come a long way since debuting during the Civil War. Embroidered stars are created using individual stitches of thread to form the star itself. While this method involved hand stitching and an abundance of patience in the 19th century, developments in the manufacturing industry now make it easy to produce stars that are just as perfect as the principles that America was founded on!

Clamp Dyeing

Making a beautiful American flag does not always involve sewing! Dating back to the mid-19th century, clamp dyeing was an experimental method of construction that involved clamping the fabric of the flag so that the stars and white stripes would not take on dye applied to the blank canvas. While we admire the creativity behind this approach, clamp dyeing never caught on because the minor bleeding of the dye was perceived as manufacturing defects.

Painting

Another no-sew form of star application was painting, which allowed the maker to have more control over the aesthetic quality of the final product. Though painted flags are somewhat rare because seamstresses have a natural predilection to sew, they became popular during times of war. When resources were scarce, and cotton flags were not suited for harsh battlefield conditions, painting silk canvases was a quick, lightweight solution that allowed soldiers to create flags while traveling.

In any field of design, the methods of construction must follow the form and function of the product, and we certainly appreciate how the flag manufacturing process has evolved over the past 235 years!

In what way have you witnesses design and construction processes change through the course of your career and education? How do technology, place, and culture affect those changes?

Image Credits: Rare Flags

Eggshell carving is an incredible craft technique that involves extreme attention to detail and patience. Eggshell carving artists usually devote hundreds of hours of practice and work into perfecting carving skills and creating intricate eggshell sculptures. Brian Baity is one of them and today, we are looking at some of his custom works.

Brian’s carved eggshell portfolio includes ostrich egg, rhea egg, emu egg, and goose egg. He knows the characteristics of each kind of eggshell very well and is able to bring out their beauty with his artistic vision; his "imagination provides unlimited opportunities to influence and transform an accidental broken egg into a graceful, exquisite finished art piece.”

By altering carving techniques, Brian creates different textures on eggshells. The polished and smooth surface of this calla lily set it apart from the rest of the porous eggshell.

Pin It

Rhea eggs (rheas are flightless birds native to South America) are on average less than half the size of ostrich eggs. This particular work is inspired by pathways in Chinese and Japanese gardens. The voids resemble large rocks while small perforations are stone pathways. Through the marriage of the egg shape and the circular form for the path, Brian is expressing that “all things come back to their point of origin; sooner or later.”

Pin It

Emu Eggs

Pin It

Like we’ve all experienced, behind each successful piece of work is devotion and a process of trial and errors. No matter if it’s as small as an eggshell or big as a 15 foot long backlit table (watch our build process here), the creation process can be painstaking but the result will make all the hard work worth it.

Does this remind you of any challenging project you have successfully accomplished? Was the devil in the details? We’d like to hear about it!

Image Credits: Brian Baity

If you missed our first blog post about GPI technicians arriving on-site for this long awaited backlighting installation at the Grand Hyatt San Francisco, check it out here (and take a peek at the project rendering).

After a labor-intensive weekend, the bottom and center rows of the custom-built 3Form Varia Ecoresin and wood slatted surface panels are now illuminated.

To ensure that the intense patterning of wood and light was not further disrupted by structural shadows and inconsistent lighting, the fastening system has been considered hand-in-hand with the backlighting system design from the earliest concept stage.

Blocking on the back of the 3Form/wood surface panels not only reinforces the eight foot panels, but also provides a channel to hold the Flat-Lite™ at the correct distance from the lens.  The combination of burying powered LED edges into the blocking and employing diffusing tapes ensures that hot spots are not visible from any viewing angle of the feature walls.

Notice the trapezoidal panel shapes along the bottom course of panels? With special attention to light collection in the acute corners,the LED light panels were custom designed with controls and filters to provide even illumination.

More photographs of the entire completed feature wall coming soon as this installation wraps up!

Natural sunlight is a seamless light that provides enveloping spatial qualities, free from interruption. With designers increasingly turning to nature for design inspiration, recreating this smooth quality can be tricky with artificial lighting technology. How do you avoid choppy, spotty, discontinuous appearance within your artificial lighting sources?

When translating your design from small samples to fully cladding an entire wall, don’t forget that the every material has its scalar limits. (Yes, even LED light panels are limited to 4’ x 9’ sheets!) This means that for a cladding a 10’ x 40’ backlit glass wall, you could have anywhere from 11 to 100 individual LED light panels, and probably only 8 glass panels. How do we make those seams in the lighting disappear? It depends on the specific condition and how the Flat-Lite™ LED panels are designed.  At GPI, we use these terms to qualify what type of light seam we are designing around:

1. Non-powered field seam

Non-powered field seam condition without diffusing methods or correct cavity

This type of edge does not have LEDs located on it, but when light bounces off the edge of the panel, a slight bright spot still occurs. When non-powered field seams are located in the center (or “field”) of the surface panel, it can become apparent. Calculating the correct lighting cavity (situating the surface the correct distance away from the light source) typically mitigates the evidence of a non-powered field seam.

2. Powered field seam

Powered field seam condition without diffusing methods or correct cavity

Powered field seams are the illuminated edge along which the LED light sources are located. These are the brightest and most susceptible of seams. When butted together and placed behind the center of a continuous surface panel (glass/resin/stone/fabric), powered field seams can create a very evident bright line. Without finish trims and edge treatments to disguise the bright line, their location within the center continuous surface makes them even more apparent. Diffusing panels and optic films are often applied to the Flat-Lite™ LED panels to disguise the evidence of a powered field seam.

3. Powered perimeter

In gray circle: powered perimeter without any diffusing methods

A powered perimeter is an edge with LED light sources located around the perimeter of your feature (where it meets the wall, ceiling, or finish trim). The powered edge seam doesn’t fall in the middle of a glass or onyx panel, so it doesn’t appear as disruptive as #2, but can provide evidence of bright spots.

4. Non-powered perimeter

The non-powered perimeter is our best friend. This condition does not contain LED light sources and is usually tucked away.  When all of the other conditions are diffused, it typically fades away quietly into the background, with little attention needed.

--> Don’t think that testing with one small lighting sample that appears continuous in a small square means your design work is done.  Pay careful attention when translating the lighting design to full scale panels, with particular attention to how the lighting panels meet at seams and match up with your surface module sizes.

Our typical backlit project involves bold and intricate moves of concealment (hiding evidence of light, structure, seams, external supports… the list goes on), and leads to a natural curiosity for designers to learn how we assemble those walls/ceiling/floors. So I was understandably refreshed to see the architectural topic of “Truth Windows” pop up on my Google Reader this morning.

These small niche-like elements allow a deeper and more analytic view into construction methods. False windows are punched through the inside walls of straw and timber homes to allow a glimpse of the materials and layers used in the wall construction. Maybe it’s their petite size and battered wooden framing that makes them so quaint, but there’s something charming and imaginative about discovering one of these in a standard home setting.

Hmmm, how would our next backlit onyx wall look with a small “truth window” right at eye level, for building users to see the innards of our creations?

How could this idea translate to commercial and public space?

Image credit: Dornob

In studying our website metrics that indicate which keywords our visitors are searching for, it’s mind-boggling how many designers are searching for answers to detailing backlit panels. And while we love to stock our website full of useful information that makes it easy for busy designers to quickly understand and specify our backlit onyx systems, typical details can sometimes actually hurt the process.

When backlighting architectural panels, there are many considerations that affect the arrival at a detail.   It’s a process that we forge through per job.  As an architect or designer, can you imagine if your potential clients (developers or building owners) called you up and asked to see a typical floor plan from your firm? Sure, there is a general aesthetic and personality to your design process, but each solution is generated by working through several design phases/iterations, and that’s what makes the finished project unique. A single floor plan doesn’t fully do justice to all of the variables that affected that final solution. That’s how much attention and iteration goes into one of our details; they’re like our blueprints.  

Here is a wall section detail we generated for a specific project that incorporated backlit onyx panels. The variables:

• Surface type and translucency levels
• Surface thickness
• Light source (method, panel sizes, color temperature, brightness)
• Necessary diffusers
• Structure and fastening method
• Ideal spacing between elements (this can only be derived from physical testing)
• Future maintenance access
• Installation methods

As you can see,we develop our details based on the above considerations, and they must be considered holistically to achieve high-quality finished works.

The honest truth? For backlighting architectural panels, you don’t need typicals. Rely on a company's portfolio and expertise to trust that they will arrive at an equally thoughtful solution for your backlighting project.

Learn more about our custom detailing solution for the backlit onyx lobby features at the Wells Fargo Center:

For this recently completed commercial courthouse project in Denver, GPI's involvement ranged from stone selection, detailed shop tickets, quality control in production, and shipping coordination.  Our skilled installation partners at Cleveland Marble Mosaic took the reins on-site to complete the installation with skilled craftsmanship. These stone panels and cladding fit seamlessly into existing site conditions for a classic design statement in natural stone - fitting for a government courthouse.

With attention to detail from design to shop tickets to production to installation, over 230 tons of exterior stone panels were delivered cut-to-size for a smooth installation.

Stone Tickets

• Over 230 tons of natural stone material
• Thousands of stone panels in various shapes/sizes/thicknesses
• Angular, curved, thermal, miters, saw cuts, kerfs, pin holes, varying thicknesses
• Highly customized stone tickets
• Under 1% of pieces were incorrect or didn’t fit on-site

Shipping and Coordination

• Sequenced in 16 containers in conjunction with layout on site and installation schedule
• Packed and shipped with 0% breakage

Architect: Studio Insite

General Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction Company

Stone Contractor: Cleveland Marble Mosaic Company

Photos courtesy: denverjusticecenter.com and denvergov.org

Bringing together fine art photographs of natural grasses, custom bent glass, and LED backlighting can be difficult – throw in a curved shape with a narrow lighting cavity and the stage was set for this example of custom integration at the lobby of Lancaster General Health Women and Babies Hospital.

Architects Noelker and Hull wanted to bring soothing natural elements to the entrance lobby of this hospital in Lancaster, PA. Artist Henry Domke’s fine art images were commissioned, and Skyline Design fabricated the prints onto bent glass panels. The designers knew they wanted to showcase these artistic glass panels with seamless backlighting.  

1. Design Intent

Rendering of initial design concept for the space

2. Surface

Skyline Design printed Henry Domke's specified image onto optically clear film, which was then applied to the back side of Skyline's bent glass panels.

3. Lighting

GPI analyzed the printed glass surface to calibrate the ideal diffusing method and lighting cavity.

Below left: glass in direct contact with LED panel, without diffusers

Below right: specialty diffuser between glass and LED panel plus small air cavity to increase light diffusion

4. Structure

Section detail showing the overall assembly - glass was run in channels on the floor and ceiling

5. Detailing

All wire exits were detailed in a staggered arrangement to avoid extensive gaps between panels.

6. The Result

Seamlessly illuminated dramatic glass feature wall

---> Here’s what we learned from working through this project. Keep these tips in mind when designing illuminated glass feature walls:

• Make sure that your glass supplier and lighting supplier maintain direct communication so that each company can calibrate their product based on the given set of parameters.
• Don’t skimp on physical mock-ups. Because flat LED panels emit varying brightness based on the panel sizes, each job must be analyzed individually in order to determine the ideal LED panel size, lighting cavity and proper diffusers.
• Seams between flat LED panels are the most susceptible area.  Hot spots can occur when two LED strings are placed back-to-back. Seams can also create shadows if wire exits create large gaps that push the panels apart.
• Printed glass can be highly translucent, with great risk of hot and cold spots appearing on the surface (regardless of what type of lighting you use). Check with your glass manufacturer to see if they can treat the back surface of the glass with texture or diffusion layers – or make sure your lighting manufacturer can provide the appropriate diffusing panels.

See the final project images >

Considering highlighting a countertop or reception desk with an illuminated white surface? At a recent project for a custom reception desk, smooth white Corian® surfaces were illuminated by GPI’s custom LED backlighting system. Providing an intriguing focal point, the luminous desk has clean lines and a sleek white appearance that was fitting for the space – a high-end architecture firm.

Here’s what we learned through the process of creating this LED backlit Corian reception desk:

1. Corian® Illumination Series Glacier Ice looks best in commercial spaces when illuminated with lighting temperatures in the cool range. (Pictured below with both our Cool White 5300K and Warm White 3500K LED panels.)

2. The Corian® Illumination Series surfaces have excellent light diffusion characteristics, making them ideal for backlighting applications when the appearance of bulb lines is not desired.

3. Given the thickness and light transmission characteristics of the Corian® surface, there is a delicate balance in the calibration of the lighting cavity to both maintain LED panel brightness and eliminate the appearance of hot spots. To maintain brightness by keeping the LED panels close to the illuminated Corian®, LED strings were buried in the casework to disguise bright lines.

4. Based on many factors, including size of LED panels and desk construction, we calibrated that our Infuse™ LED panels should be situated 1 ¼” away from the back of the Corian® panels.

5. Treatment of corners is especially important in maintaining even illumination – we coordinated closely with the millworkers to ensure that the panels were accurately sized to fit into the desk casework. Even a few millimeters of incorrect sizing and the desk would have gaps between the LED panels – resulting in distracting shadow lines.