The FJ60 Landcruiser Project

For any cruiser-heads out there, check out my FJ60 restoration project going on over at the Chemistry Lounge. It is kind of car-geeky but I try to keep it entertaining. I now know how fast money can be spent when you get obsessed...

Again with the Lumasite...

Everyone who knows me knows my feelings and thoughts about the overuse of American Acrylic's Lumasite in design and architecture projects. The fad has passed, and those designers and architects just now getting on the Lumasite bandwagon after all these years really show their ignorance in modern design materials. Oh well.

Anyways, because I have made my feelings public by writing about them here, I seem to be one of the only resources on the web that actually talks about the constraints and downside of using this material - to the point where most of the search engine inquiries
lead right to these posts - instead of to anything remotely useful in terms of sourcing this stuff. At any rate, the people over at American Acrylic finally sent me an email addressing this fact:

We thank you for the numerous inquiries (and orders) we have received as a direct result of your rantings. We wish all of our sales reps were as effective. Keep up the good work!

Regards,

AMERICAN ACRYLIC CORP



with my reply simply being:

That's the problem: your company has terrible sales reps. Glad I can help.

Pat Ryan


I had complained in an earlier post about the lack of customer service at American Acrylic and this email from them explains why. It specifically points out that my complaining is better marketing than AA's own reps. I said it before and I'll say it again: American Acrylic's marketing, customer service and general business acumen is weak. But who cares? My biggest complaint is not with the company per se because you don't have to deal with them directly if you don't want to. There are other ways to get Lumasite. Just see my other post on that. My issue is not with any one person at American Acrylic at all. My personal feeling is that the material is a has-been design concept. Kind of like plopping big ferns in a bar - the trend is over. Or could the use of Lumasite be likened to the underlit Plexiglases disco floors of the 70's? Great the first time, sad and pathetic after awhile. Most of those floors now simply exist in photographs and movies like Saturday Night Fever (now re-branded as a Comedy instead of the super-cool Drama it was originally released as). Lumasite is similar in its design solution. A rather cheap fix for visual problems that a designer can't quite figure out what to do with. Instead of using a more creative approach, designers find paneling a difficult surface with cheap plastic and backlighting it (usually with Color Kinetics LED lighting) is the easiest way to address the situation. Then, sit back and let the cheese-show begin. I particularly like when owners get really excited about this effect and go ballistic programming their lighting system to cycle through "millions" of colors, creating an all-out assault on their customer's retinas.

The worst abuser of that here in Denver was the ill-fated Luna Hotel's Flow Lounge in LoDo. It was simply too much to sit in that bar and enjoy a drink...

But I digress. You see, I have only addressed using white LUMAsite® for stupid lighting effects. Request a sample book from American Acrylic (good luck...) and witness the overwhelmingly difficult-to-use color selection. Any designer slapping this stuff up in different colors better have a good reason. Yikes!

I'm not a big Green designer - you know the type: environmentally superior to all the rest of the construction and manufacturing industries - but I'll bet working in that factory producing this resin-based chemical is fun. I know from experience that working with it is miserable. Cutting it is a drag. It makes you itch like fiberglass if you don't cover up any exposed skin. The airborne dust is completely poisonous. And, best of all, if this substance ever caught fire in a bar or restaurant, the toxic fumes produced would make it like a plane crash! Now that is cool.

Anyways, if you are a young, inexperienced designer or architect who is just now researching this material for the first time or have been told to use it by someone else, I know you will probably end up attempting to cram this product into your project somehow and there is not much any one can do about that, but be forewarned: This material will be on everyone's demo plans soon. Your precious, unique design will be the first thing the new owners will trash.

Oh, and by the way, once again, you're welcome American Acrylic!

XAN Rocks!

My favorite design crew right now is XAN CREATIVE. A nice liitle design firm that consists of two beautiful women and a whole bunch of creativity...

Shut Up. These two chicks are the best!

click the XAN link up on top!