Firm Faces #13

Architizer, as many readers here know, is a website that "empowers architecture" and architects by connecting them with each other and a broader audience. At its root is a Facebook/LinkedIn-esque system where individuals are given a face alongside the usual projects found on the site and elsewhere. But do the firms have faces, beyond the individuals? Well, ass a way to kick start my "firm faces" feature in gear again, I browsed the site's Firms tab to see how many firms actually put faces on their logo. Below is a sampling from a quick perusal of the first 50 or so pages.



Needless to say, most firms choose to represent themselves through typography, custom illustrations and the occasional building photograph. "Identity" these days is associated with things (custom logos) that are more stable than the people (architects) that actually do the work. No surprise that logos are more common, or that faces occur in smaller firms, but I like the range of those brave enough to give faces to the firms.

Firm Faces #12: Jones Studio

The last firm faces looked at hands as an expression of personality, so here we're taking the other extreme and looking right into the eyes of the individuals at Jone Studio. This is one of the freakier presentations of staff that I've come across, the eyes staring right at me...following my every move!



The people page of the firm's site is interactive, not animated like the image above. But the interactivity is limited to seeing each person's eyes and sometimes glasses; no further information is given. The names are already evident at left, so it's just a glimpse that we receive. This is unfortunate, though most likely the office wants to keep things a bit vague, letting the eyes speak. It would probably be fun (or weird) to click on a person's name when speaking to them on the phone, like an old-fashioned video call.

Firm Faces Hands #11: Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects

As a means of presenting the people in its office, Marcy Wong Donn Logan Architects favor showing the owners' and various employees' hands instead of faces. While this might seem to deny the strength of the face in expressing personality, for an architect the hand says, and does, a lot. Traditionally the hand is the most important piece between the mind and the drawing, the skillful means of creating a design from ideas. But as can be seen by the 13 hands of 10 people below, the architect's job these days is as much -- or more -- about computers than the physical act of putting pen to paper. Only four of the ten "profiles" do not have a keyboard or mouse in the frame.



Setting aside the effects of technology on the day-to-day activities of architectural production, do these snapshots accurately portray the individuals and what they do? Hard for me to say, but I would wager that (from top to bottom, left to right) Marcy juggles proposals, clients, and lots of other important matters, Donn is the lead designer, Kent pumps CAD, Tai-Ran is a designer, Ketki is a technical architect, Mark drinks a lot of coffee, Justin is the intern, Cari red-lines drawings, Romelo picks up Cari's red lines, and Brandon handles the accounting. Needless to say, since using a keyboard is so common in any profession and architect's roles often overlap, I'll be lucky if I bat 500 on the above guesses.

(via Eye Candy)

Firm Faces #10: in situ DESIGN

Denver, Colorado's in situ DESIGN, featured on my weekly page back in 2006, use their studio space as the means for presenting each aspect of the firm, its projects, its awards, its press, and its people. All but the last are shown in windows overlaying the studio background, but the profiles of the individuals are revealed via a cartoonish interaction with each person at their desk.



Unlike many "firm faces" which break people out of their space and routine for a group shot, in situ DESIGN's technique melds the studio and its individuals. It's an appealing way (minus the somewhat annoying but necessary scroll) of giving outsiders a view of where the work unfolds and who contributes to it.