🎇 kinko’s + fireworks + antispeed
Three things I am making, loving + thinking about this week
01 | making
WE MADE A KINKO’S IN OUR BASEMENT
In 2005, we built out our basement and for 15 years it was Kitemath HQ. There’s a conference room/library space, small kitchenette, bathroom, and two offices. Over time, our business changed and we needed less and less space. Last year we both moved our workstations to the attic and combined them with the art studio. Since then the basement has been kind of a hodgepodge of storage, music making, and office leftovers. This week we finished organizing + purging the basement to transform it into its next iteration, which includes a Kinko’s in my old office.
Kinko’s holds a special place in my heart. Chris and I met in 1997 when we were both working at the Bloomington-Normal Kinko’s while in college (he was at Illinois State and I was enrolled at Illinois Wesleyan). This was a dream job for two graphic design majors, a playground for print, paper, and any design project you could think of.
We corralled all of the office equipment into one room to create a printing and project hub, complete with our Xerox color printer, spiral binder, 3D printer, paper cutter, and various other tools and supplies. For the finishing touch, I cut out the old Kinko’s logo from dark blue and red cardstock and installed the makeshift signage on the office door.
I feel a kinship with the last Blockbuster. I like to think this is last Kinko’s standing after FedEx officially retired the name in 2008. This location is open 24 hours, very conveniently located, and it’s staffed by the two people I trust to get a job done right.
02 | loving
Like Kinko’s, I have a long history and love of fireworks. Growing up, we would pile into my Mom’s 1976 blue Chevy Impala station wagon and head to the local school to watch the fireworks display on Fourth of July. When I was older, my high school friends and I would take the Metra train downtown for the Taste of Chicago. We would stake out a spot in Grant Park, buy way too much overpriced food, and watch the fireworks display from Navy Pier. At midnight on January 1, 2000, I celebrated the beginning of a new millenium and a new relationship with Chris under an enormous fireworks display on the rooftop of Marina City in Chicago.
A FEW FUN FACTS ABOUT FIREWORKS
Disney is the largest consumer of fireworks in the world.
Metallic compounds give fireworks their different colors and blue fireworks are the hardest to make.
The word for firework in Japanese, hanabi, actually means “fire-flower.”
03 | thinking
Art is the intensification of slowness. There is rich poetry in antispeed. I love bad Internet connections, tollbooths, and long lines because they are forced interruptions in the blur of getting from one obligation to another.