From the MARS Ascension Vehicle at the Johnson Space Center to the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, the products of Parker Nussbaum's sketches continue to reach new heights and audiences. The Houston-based industrial designer is well-versed in rapid prototyping and creating objects that marry both beauty and function. In June, Parker helped launch Rottet Collection during NeoCon 2017, and he's been on a roll ever since. In this Sketch Series installment, we delve into the organized chaos behind Parker's work.How did you first get into sketching/drawing?I have always liked drawing and actively sketched throughout most of my youth. I was lucky in that my parents took me to a lot of art museums growing up, so I learned to love the visual arts and explore them in my free time.It was not until college, however, that I really hit my stride and started to gain knowledge of form, composition, and technique. The transformation did not come easily. Having your drawings and ideas slammed during critiques pushes you to try to be more clear and fluid in form and style, not to mention learning the technique for industrial design drawing of Vizcomm (visual communication), which took a while to grasp.Today I still keep sketchbooks around and continue to further my skills in drawing and idea generation. Right now I have three in rotation: one for work and notes, another for product design ideas, and a personal one where I draw the most freely.Tell us about your drawings.Most of these drawings are some of my favorites from past projects. The bicycle-related drawings explore the functionality of bicycles and bicycle accessories for a startup project I worked on in conjunction with the [Gerald D. Hines] College of Architecture and the [C.T. Bauer] College of Business at the University of Houston, my alma mater. The living chandelier and oxygen-generating devices are studies from my thesis exploring different implementations of living media to combat indoor air pollution. The space craft design drawings are some human factor studies I did on the Mars Ascension Vehicle at NASA in conjunction with Lockheed Martin, studying flight seats and sleep hardware.They are quite different in their scope of product, but I wanted to show more fleshed-out drawings rather than the visual madness which constitutes most of my sketches.What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Nine times out of ten, it’s something from work that I just didn’t feel I got right. Usually through this sketch exercise, my perfectionism begins to lose its edge and the drawings descend into chaos. It’s in the chaos that I either find clarity or just begin to draw forms.Occasionally I’ll practice drawing people or landscapes, but usually they are very abstracted or quick expressions of a moment.What was the last thing that inspired you?Recently, I had the chance to see the David Hockney retrospective at The Centre Pompidou in Paris, and was truly inspired by the breadth and quality of his work. Not only was his style fluid and emotional, it also managed to retain a quality of simplicity and optimism.  I read a quote by him on one of the signs that described how he wanted to master as many painting techniques/styles as he could, so that his work would not be typecast by art critics but instead retain a timeless quality. I think that is an admirable goal.What are your favorite tools?I actually really prefer to draw on loose leaf paper. 80-lb Hammermill paper is my standard. It handles Copic markers really well and does not wear out fine-tipped pens nearly as quickly as other types of paper. If I am going to use a sketch book, I have come to prefer the MUJI Size A6 Notebook, since it fits in my back pocket but still has enough structure.For drawing utensils, I love Marvy LePens, the MUJI 0.5mm black ballpoint, Pilot Fineliners, and Faber-Castell pencils. When do you find the time?I do some sketching at work on a daily basis, but it’s rough - almost like a data dump, spilling out shapes, notes, and thumbnail ideas. I suppose the really tight and clean drawings I do are at home on the weekends when everything is a bit quieter and I can focus on the minutiae. I like when the drawing experience transcends into being a meditative experience.

California Dreamin'

West Side Blues

Red White Blue and Black

Bridging the Gap

Behind Bars

Chasing Pipe Dreams

Watching from the Sidelines

Balancing Act

With a background in architecture, it is easy to understand Associate Principal Harout Dedeyan's fascination with the built environment. Even when he is not working, the Los Angeles-based employee enjoys mixing business with pleasure - that is, incorporating architecture into his illuminating photography. For this Sketch Series we asked Harout to show us what life looks like through a short-shift lens.Tell us about your photographs.The photos you see here are part of a series called Art on Architecture, something I started two years ago.  I shoot buildings that are used as canvasses, or I use them as backdrops to public art. Sometimes the architecture gets left out and I just shoot the art, other times the reverse.  I then print them on archival paper, create handmade postcards and send them to people dear to me, with whom I want to stay in touch.I love this old fashioned exercise in an age of electrons traveling at the speed of light. I don’t want anyone to ‘follow’ me or ‘like’ my pictures.  Sometimes it’s very soothing to slow down and go back in time.I also enlarge and frame the pictures, hoping one day to have the opportunity to show them.How did you first get into photography?On my 12th birthday, my aunt Elizabeth gave me a Kodak Instamatic.  After the first roll of black and white film I was hooked.  Throughout the years the Instamatic morphed into an SLR, medium format, 4x5…  What followed were classes in architectural and product photography and a small side business shooting architectural models. My trick was getting very close and using a short shift-lens giving the model a very realistic look at eye level instead of the bird’s eye views prevalent at the time.  Eventually architecture became a career, photography turning into a hobby.What are some of the subjects that you’re interested in photographing?I’m mostly interested in photographing the built environment.  I like responding to places, looking at marks and traces, making the over-looked noticed, acknowledged through my photographs.What was the last thing that inspired you?I once saw an exhibition by Robert Holgren called Toy Camera Works.  A successful commercial photographer puts his expensive gear and gizmos aside and uses a toy camera for his personal work.  It was inspiring, and very appealing.

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Left Brain

Right Brain

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Logo brainstorm for a friend's medical company - Communiclear was a working name

"The Kiss" (1880-1881), Auguste Rodin at the Baltimore Museum of Art

"Bather Fixing Her Hair" (1930), Aristide Maillol at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Street Art in Melbourne, Australia

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Ruthie Chen has a notebook for each side of her brain - one for meticulous note-taking and list-making, and one for more free-form journaling and sketching. "I go back and forth between using design as a mode of expression and communication, which are two different things," Ruthie says. "All design, art, and writing contains aspects of both, but you should always ask who your audience is - the answer should rarely be 'myself.'" In this Sketch Series installment, we asked the Houston-based Marketing Assistant how she strikes a balance between the two. How did you first get into sketching/drawing?I used to hoard notebooks, scribbling or writing in the first few pages before tossing one aside for another – my childhood room is still littered with them. I started journaling regularly right before middle school, but I didn’t start keeping a sketchbook until my high school art classes required one.These days, I have two notebooks – a daily planner for work that I use to keep track of to-do lists, appointments, and meetings, and a personal sketchbook. I find that I go through spurts with my sketchbooks. I’m so used to recording visual information with my phone first that capturing a moment on paper seems almost counter intuitive at times, even if the process of doing so is ultimately the most authentic way to commit something to memory. To be honest, sketchbooks feel intimidating to me; I’m precious to a fault about what goes on the page and tend to overthink things. As a result, my sketches often lack a certain spontaneity and freshness, something I am slowly trying to overcome.Tell us about your drawings.Many of the pages in my sketchbook are a combination of words and visuals, which I think reflects how my brain works. Mostly, they’re a reflection of what’s around or in front of me at the time. I’m still in the imitative stages of capturing things visually – meaning, I can copy from a photograph or draw from life, but I can’t conjure images from my mind without a concrete visual reference. For instance, I tend to record my dreams verbally because I find that, vivid as they are, visuals don’t quite do them justice.What do you sketch when you’re not at work?Scenes from travel or day to day life, hand-lettering and typography, and figure drawings. I like to take a sketchbook with me when I travel – it forces me to take the time to document new sights and sounds that I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.In terms of hand-lettering, I follow a lot of typography and design accounts on Instagram which are endless sources of inspiration. I’ve recently been interested in monogram logos – in the way the same letterforms can be manipulated over and over again to create vastly different effects, almost like a mini optical illusion. There’s so much you can do with the negative space between forms or the perspective to make something clever and visually arresting.I’ve always loved drawing the human figure – during my first figure-drawing exercise in high school, my teacher instructed us not to take our eyes off of the model or our pens off of the paper. It was a true lesson in abstracting forms and learning to draw what you really see, not what you think you see. The female form, in particular, is interesting to capture because it carries so much historical and cultural weight - the body is both personal and political.What was the last thing that inspired you?A close friend lent me a copy of Private Citizens by Tony Tulathimutte. The novel follows four twentysomethings in millennial San Francisco as they navigate their careers and relationships. The writer's observations are so sharp and darkly witty - one in particular stood out to me: "Cities that tolerate everything tolerate mediocrity."What are your favorite tools?For taking notes and drawing, I love MUJI Gel-Ink Ballpoint Pens in 0.38mm or 0.5mm. I have them in every color. I am a meticulous note-taker, probably some sort of deeply ingrained habit from school, and the MUJI pens allow me to write quickly with minimal resistance. When I need to use pencil, I’ve actually grown really fond of the Paper Mate Sharpwriter Mechanical Pencils that we stock in the office. My current sketchbook is a classic hard cover Moleskine with blank pages, but I prefer the soft cover with dotted grid pages. Once in a blue moon, when I’m feeling ambitious, I like drawing with charcoal and conte crayon. When do you find the time?Ha - I don't. I try to wake up a few hours early at least once a week to sketch or write - my ideas are the most fresh in the morning. 

The Art of the Langham Chicago from Karen Carter on Vimeo.Lauren Rottet was interviewed for "The Art of Langham Chicago", which you can view above! See what Lauren has to say about curating art for the five star hotel.

The Langham, Chicago's artwork display, curated by Lauren Rottet, was featured in a recent New York Times article concerning the role of art in hotels."One major supporter of local artists is the Langham, Chicago, which opened in September and uses its unusual architectural heritage to promote itself in the crowded Chicago hotel market...Art for the hotel’s upper floors was selected by Katherine Lo, executive director of the Langham Hospitality Group, and Lauren Rottet, an interior designer based in Houston."Read the rest of the article here.

Hotel Business covers the recent opening of the Langham, Chicago, with mention of Rottet Studio's curatorial work.

"Lauren Rottet, principal, Rottet Studio, selected the majority of the hotel's art. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe, Rottet selected American artists of Bauhaus descent. More than 140 artists are showcased including Judy Ledgerwood, Anish Kapoor, Monique Prieto and emerging artists Michele Grabner, Jan Ticy and Molly Zuckeran-Hartung."

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Rottet Studio's art selection for the Langham Chicago was covered in the September 2013 issue of Hospitality Design magazine."Throughout the hotel -- from the guestrooms fashioned by London-based Richmond International to the Pavilion lounge, where a painting from Los Angeles-based Monique Prieto hangs as an homage to Van Der Rohe's Pavilion in Spain -- the artwork Houston-based Rottet Studio curated weaves a vibrant narrative."Pick up a copy or browse through the digital publication to read more of Lauren Rottet's curatorial statement.