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Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
The PVD Designer &
The PVD Designer &
$50 Treasure Hunt
$50 Treasure Hunt
One small treasure hunt turns into $5,000
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
Curse of Roger Williams &
Curse of Roger Williams &
The Unfinished
The Unfinished
Temple
Temple
80 Years the Temple was left abandoned
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
Cotton Candy Kate
Cotton Candy Kate
& Her Design Castle In The Sky
& Her Design Castle In The Sky
Design Boom to Bust ~ In less than a year!
By AB Marcus
Once upon a crisp Spring morning, in fact a Friday in April in Providence, Rhode Island.
Kate of Kate Studios, a 38-year-old game designer opened her design office on Empire Street in the heart of PVD.
She knew from the start it would be a balancing act of borrowed funds and big projects schemes.
The sun gleamed off the glass towers that morning, and she smiled as she dreamed:
“With the money from this game, I’ll build a bigger studio.
From the bigger studio, a franchise.
From the franchise, a kingdom.
From the kingdom, a legacy!
"Soon, Rhode Islanders will admire me," she said, "and all the world will know the name Kate Studios! "We'll Be The Best of The Best and Top All the Rest! " She proclaimed!
Her imagination was dazzling, her confidence contagious as she pictured awards, headlines, and endless prosperity bright as WaterFire’s flames, dreaming way, way, way ~ far ahead.
But then came the stumble.
The loan was too heavy.
The payroll slumped.
And the market slipped beneath her feet.
Like a topple on the cobble of Benefit Street, her studio’s fortune fell down, vanishing faster than a Washington Street parking space during the Christmas season.
It was indeed a kind of reckoning for all PVD designers and studios across the city. Designers were heard to say, “Kate Studios tried to build cotton candy castles in the sky!”
On a June morning, a little more than one year later ~ it was finished. With her studio empty, and her heart broken, she learned that design dreams are precious, but require patience, responsibility, and wisdom ~ not just dazzling visions.
So remember to design boldly but balance steady steps to ensure and endure to make your design dreams a success.
The End.
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
PVD Flying Carpet Story
PVD Flying Carpet Story
"The Night Brown & RISD Grads Made the Impossible Real...
& Learned Even Magic Has Its Rules."
By AB Marcus
We've just arrived at the gondula boat landing in Providence Rhode Island. We see two PVD college students Vincent and Troy.
For Vincent design is his oxygen. He dreams in color palettes, textures, the elegant curve, of a line.
And Troy a Brown University engineering prodigy ~ they were an unlikely pair.
Drawn Together by a shared thirst for new design and the technologically impossible.
For Troy equations were his playground circuits his paint brushes he saw the world in algorithms potential energy waiting to be unlocked.
While Vincent with his boundless imagination, sketched Fantastical devices on napkins.
Troy rounding those dreams with logic scribbling calculations in the margins.
Two over achieving college students bond, solidified over late night coffee in RISD & Brown university tech and design Labs.
A shared passion for pushing boundaries for transforming dreams into reality and their most ambitious project yet a secret they guarded fiercely.
a magic carpet.
You heard that right. A carpet that flies.
You see, Vince's grandfather a rug weaver in a faraway land had instilled in him and appreciation for the Artistry of carpets they're intricate patterns the mysterious stories woven into each thread it was this Legacy that sparked Vince's idea of magic carpets.
Vincent we're not living in a fairy tale, Troy said. But Vincent's infectious enthusiasm, coupled with a surprisingly sound Theory, involving electromagnetic manipulation slowly chipped away at Troy's doubts and concerns.
So they spent months hunched over schematics in their dorm rooms transformed into make shift workshops a unique blend of ancient craftsmanship and Cutting Edge technology began to take shape with a traditional Persian rug, embedded within its fibers were miniature LED diodes.
Troy's genius lay in programming these diodes to interact with a complex system of vector magnetic reverse pattern charges sealed beneath the rug surface.
Jenny, Troy's girlfriend arrived with their little Boston Terrier Gracie with a single red rose.
Jenny was worried for Troy but wanted to be there to see this amazing feat.
Jenny put the rose in his lapel and gave him a kiss for good luck. The air hummed with anticipation around the Providence River, a shimmering ribbon reflecting the night time street lights, flowed serenely beside the gondula Landing, usually bustling with tourists but now in the dark at four twenty a.m. it stood empty cloaked in the Tranquility of Twilight.
The ideal backdrop for their maiden voyage, months of work countless sleepless nights had culminated In This Moment the intricate patterns seem to Shimmer with an almost ethereal glow.
Vincent's heart pounding a frantic Rhythm against his ribs unrolled the rug with reverence while Troy ran a final diagnostic check on his laptop.
A symphony of beeps and whirs emanating from the device.
A green light blinked, signaling their readiness.
He took a deep breath.
A moment of rare excitement. the air crackled with unseen energy the LEDs embedded within the carpets fibers, began to pulse with a soft rhythmic glow bathing the surroundings in an otherworldly light.
A low hum barely audible at first, began to build resonating in their chests anticipating a journey above the skyline.
Just then, with a jolt, that stole their breath the carpet lifted from the ground slowly at first. hesitantly testing the invisible currents of air.
Then whoosh with a surge of power it shot skyward leaving behind the mundane world below.
the city unfolded beneath them, a breathtaking panorama of twinkling lights and distant sounds.
Suddenly they could see the Majestic Dome of the Rhode Island state house and the shiny new golden independent man glowing on top.
A beacon against the velvety night sky and then there was the graceful arch of the Van Leesten pedestrian bridge, reflecting the city's vibrant energy ~ laughter bubbled up.
Troy stretched out his arms feeling the wind caress his face exhilaration coursing through both their veins.
They had done it.
Defied gravity, soared above the limitations of their Earthly existence.
Troy's initial apprehension, replaced by a grudging sense of awe, as he pointed their courageous carpet towards the east.
The first rays of dawn began to paint The Horizon, the Hues of gold and Crimson, a breathtaking spectacle from their amazing arial viewpoint even Troy, a man of logic and reason, couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder!
But suddenly, Whispers on the wind.
A glimpse of the price as they soared higher in the air, grew noticeably colder.
The wind once a gentle caress, now whipped at them with icy fingers, carrying whispers that sent shivers down their spines but the whispers weaving themselves into the fabric of their exhilaration.
These whispers spoke of a price to be paid. A delicate balance, disrupted for every action a reaction.
The Whispers swirled around them, it felt like A chorus of warning lost in the rush of wind the sheer joy of their accomplishment but something in Vincent's chest tightened he glanced at Troy, his friends face illuminated by the dancing lights of the city below did he hear The Whispers too?
Or was Vincent's creative imagination always so vivid, Playing Tricks on him.
Vincent pushed the unsettling feeling aside, choosing to focus on the magic of the moment.
Their creation born from dreams and fueled by the Relentless pursuit of innovation had taken flight! They were pioneers ~ modern day icarus's but hopefully with a firmer grasp on the reins of their ambition or so they believed.
The shadow of wonder.
A bittersweet descent.
As the first rays of sunlight began to bathe the Providence cityscape in a warm glow.
Reluctantly, they guided the carpet back towards, the gondula boat landing.
Their first incredible flight, a testament to human Ingenuity was coming to an end.
...But those Whispers of the impossible ~ something had shifted.
The world seemed different imbued with a new found fragility.
Just then Troy looked down at the single red lapel rose, that Jenny placed there just before the ride.
It was now suddenly wilted. Most of the rose petals, lying on the rug surface. Just before thier voyage vibrant red petals ~ now faded and brittle crumbling at the slightest touch.
A symbol perhaps of the hidden cost of their design adventure.
A reminder that some lines are not meant to be crossed.
The whispers no longer whispers, but chilling certainty echoed in their minds ~ magic once unleashed, exacts an unknown toll.
Sure they had defied gravity. tasted the sublime but the wilted rose served as a startling reminder and a warning their incredible arial journey had just begun but it was now shrouded in a shadow of wonder and a growing sense of unease.
The End
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
The Prodigal Sun
The Prodigal Sun
Also Rises
Also Rises
A new world. A new stage design.
By AB Marcus
Once upon a time there were two sons.
The younger, restless and sharp-eyed, asked his farmer father for his share of the inheritance early.
“I want to see what’s beyond this valley, what's happening in the big world out there,” he said.
“Before this farm defines me.”
The father, more concerned with peace than principle, relented. The older brother didn’t say a word ~ but he was keeping score, quietly and precisely.
And so the younger son left, cash heavy in his pocket, and dust on his shoes.
For a while, the world did to him what it does to many ~ dazzle, then drain. He made mistakes. Trusted the wrong people. Bought attention and mistook it for affection.
...But then, something different happened.
The Prodigal son did not return.
Instead, in a town far from home called Providence, he learned to design. A master stage designer Eugene Lee took him in, not out of pity, but for promise.
“You've got a good eye for this work,” Lee said.
“And your creativity is bold and innovative for the stage and screen. That’s rare.”
Years passed. He built something: not grand at first, but honest.
A design shop.
A community.
A name.
He helped others ~ not because he was trying to redeem himself, but because, at last, he found joy in using his creative skills to design and innovate.
But back home on the farm, the father waited. For a while. Every evening at first, then only on birthdays, then not at all. The older brother took over the farm and the land.
He worked hard.
Married.
Had two sons of his own.
But he never let go of the story he believed: that his loyalty should be rewarded, and betrayal always punished.
Father died.
At his father’s funeral, the eldest son wept not out of grief, but out of unfinished resentment and bitternes of being left with the farm and land.
Yet, somewhere else in Providence, the younger brother paused by a window as his daughter and her three puppies played with fabric scraps, turning them into imaginary gowns and outfits for the new set designs he had imagined. He smiled. He didn’t think often of the farm anymore. Not because he was angry ~ but because he had become someone else entirely.
He had, in his own way, come home.
In the light of a new world, of his own design.
For the sun also rises on the
Patient & the Prodigal.
The End.
Eugene Lee
83, production designer of
Saturday Night Live & Set Designer of Wicked, passed away peacefully in
Providence, RI on
Monday, February 6, 2023
after a brief illness.
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
Dance
Dance
Party
Party
Design
Design
Providence RI - Design In The Year 2052....
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
The Most Neglected Design Client
The Most Neglected Design Client
A dream pitch & A blunt comment
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
PVD Seagull Scamper
PVD Seagull Scamper
Design
Design
True creatlivity in the unexpected...
Design Adventure Stories - Providence RI
CHIC WEEK PVD
CHIC WEEK PVD
"Good Mourning Ladies"
"Good Mourning Ladies"
PVD Chic Week Fashion Tailor Tragedy Turns Triumphant
PVD Chic Week Fashion Tailor Tragedy Turns Triumphant
By AB Marcus
Frankly, it was a stormy May night, and the rain was coming down hard. The S curve was impossible. The car hydroplaned. Tragedy struck at 4:30 am. Joseph the Top PVD Chic Week Tailor famed for his Sex in the City TV Tailoring days... was gone.
By 5:45 am everyone on the PVD Chic Week team seemed to think this year's event was doomed.
The kickoff was in just 24 hours.
Tania, Vincent & Josie PVD Chic Week Fashion designers - decided somehow, someway to find a tailor to keep the 100 dress fashion show going - the Providence RI Top Social Event of the Spring!
Yes. Vincent who always had his suits tailored at Franklin Rogers on Westminster Street told Tania & Josie, "I think Roger Gross' Team at Franklin Rogers could help us out of this pickle" said Vincent.
"Isn't this their biggest season for weddings and proms?" Tania said.
"Yeah, you're right," he said.
"We have nothing to lose in asking. We've got to try," said Josie.
"But I've got to get to the Chic Week hotel to get this sorted out. I don't have time to get to Franklin Rogers," Vincent said.
So Josie & Tania decided to visit Franklin Rogers Clothing.
It was a beautiful May morning after the night of heavy rain.
At 8:30 am the Chic Week duo were the first customers to ring the doorbell - and as they entered they heard...
"Good Morning Ladies" from the Owner Roger.
Josie & Tania both knew the sad irony in hearing this phrase - as it was a day of mourning for the Chic Week Team.
As expected Roger politely told the Josie & Tania that indeed it is their busiest season with Newport weddings and high school proms, he could never part with his one tailor Jesse who was busy upstairs hearing this story while she was measuring and sewing.
The two left the store disappointed that they weren't able to figure out a solution. As they walked back to their car in the lot next to the PVD Arcade, Jesse - the Franklin Rogers' tailor followed them out to their car.
"I think I can help you," Jesse said. "I think I can do your Chic Week tailoring after 6 pm when I get off work," she said.
"That would be Awesome," Tania said.
"Wow! Thank you for helping us in a pinch! We'll pay you well for your time," Josie said.
Thanks to the hard working Jesse - tailored every outfit and finished by 5 in the morning the next day - sewing every button and bow in place, in time to make the PVD Chic Week a smashing Success and Joseph the TV tailor was remembered with Love.
In fact, Tania, Vincent & Josie all agreed, the show didn't just go on, it went off with a Bang!
Tears of joy came over the sad morning and upon reflection, the old adage was true: no matter the challenge - with tenacity, grit and a good dose of good luck, any tragedy can turn a into tailored triumph!
The End
Storefront Blight Turns Right
Storefront Blight Turns Right
Three Inspiring Women Designers Making A Difference in Providence RI
Three Inspiring Women Designers Making A Difference in Providence RI
By AB Marcus
Yes. It was the beginning of a new era in the city.
Three fresh Providence college graduates stood looking at empty store fronts in downtown Providence RI.
As if frozen in time, it seemed like everything stopped, the three young women stood like statues in awe of the designs, the creativity and innovation they knew they could create here.
Rachel, Sara, and Julie had a passion for store front beauty.
These three women wanted to create something that would bring life back to the streets of downtown Providence, Rhode Island.
"Let's get back to the office to plan and brainstorm," Sara said. "We need to focus on creating visual designs that featured the famous tourist attractions in Rhode Island," she said on the way back to their walk up Westminster Street office.
"You know," Julie said, "because of Amazon and online shopping these storefront will be empty for years."
"We definitely have to come up with something that will be Creative & Innovative!" Rachel remarked.
Once they got back to their new design office, the three designers started by researching the latest trends in store front design, visiting other stores in the area, and talking to local business owners. They also attended workshops and seminars to learn more about the industry. After gathering all the information they needed, they began to sketch out their ideas and create a plan for their vacant storefront visual designs.
Then the three designers worked together to create a modern, inviting, and unique store front designs for empty store fronts.
They used bright colors, interesting shapes, and unique materials to create a space that was inviting and
eye-catching. They also incorporated elements of their own personal style into the design.
They all knew it was the beginning of a new era in the City since the Providence Design District had been established and Rachel, Sara, and Julie knew they were graphic designers were at the forefront of this new movement.
You see these three women were friends since at RISD and Brown and they decided to combine their expertise and create a web design and graphic design studio in downtown Providence.
The End
Cody, The White Terrier Mix
1:32 Min - Narrated - Podcast
1:32 Min - Narrated - Podcast
LISTEN NOW!
LISTEN NOW!
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You'd Like to Share? - Click Here!
Design Stories ~ Downtown Providence RI ~ abmarcus.com
Only Murmurs
Only Murmurs
in the Billing
in the Billing
"You can't change the course of the wind but by always changing your sails you can find your way back to shore"
By AB Marcus
The place is here.
The time is now.
And the journey into the Providence Design District we're about to see could be our own.
Another notice, another bill, another month... "This is wrong I can't owe this much," she muttered to herself in a 'war cry whisper' in her little office off of Weybosset Street in downtown Providence Rhode Island.
New PVD designer Emily decided to follow some great design mentors she knew mentoring would bring preeminent achievement...
BANG! CRASH!
"Oh, No Cody!", she yelled...
Just then, Cody, Emily's little white terrier mix, knocked over the tiny orange and yellow flower bouquet she just bought from Lofty's flower shop in the PVD Arcade she thought it was the one great addition to her little office her brother Mike helped pay for this month.
"Why is design so darn hard in the city?!!" she said out loud.
I thought there'd be more opportunities from "That School" ...that's how she and her design friends referred to their alma mater school on the hill...
But just then she remembered what Kip, her Newport Rhode Island sailing coach, told her.
"You can't change the course of the wind but by always changing your sails you can find your way back to shore."
The End
2:11 Min - Narrated - Podcast
2:11 Min - Narrated - Podcast
LISTEN NOW!
LISTEN NOW!
In a world where creativity is limited to the highest bidder...
The US writer's strike forces Free Muses to spark a revolution of breathtaking original ideas. The muses inspire writers with spectacular plots and unforeseen concepts leading to an explosion of creativity that spreads like wildfire. In a time when union writers hold all the power and creative control, the freed Muses of May, give new voices a chance to shine and change the writing industry for the better!
Do you have a Design Story
You'd Like to Share? - Click Here!
By AB Marcus
Once upon, a very recent time, on a day in May...
...there was a writer’s strike.
Great and small union writers, from far and wide who publish, type and scribble creative ideas and images - were halted.
Incredibly, something charmed and unexpected soon occurred.
The nine excellent muses, in a wink, appeared and placed their sights on the minds of non union writers.
The muses "spoke" to these writers in the form of spectacular ideas and plots, which even the most seasoned screenwriters could not have imagined on their own. They did this because the muses finally felt free, to explore new ideas their union writers would never dare to brainstorm into being.
As you might realize, the stories created by these inspired writers were of a breathtaking original quality - not like anything seen before, and far beyond the limitations of human creativity.
The news spread, as news does, like wildfire.
It became clear that in the recent past, the writer’s guild was a place where the most sought-after ideas were being peddled to the highest bidders - with the nine muses imprisoned only by some sense of duty to their largest audiences.
Suddenly, the muses realized that they could work with all writers union and non-union and their freedom during the writer's strike opened new avenues of creation.
"See!" said Calliope, the oldest and wisest with the tallest hair of the nine Muses, "That's why the strike happened in the first place!" she said.
So they decided there would no longer be any boundaries in terms of creativity in the industry for the muses after, this strike ever again.
This incredible new generation of writers even formed a free collective, enabled by the mysterious muses. A place where creativity flourishes, never hindered by the constraints of previous dues and rules. Today writers' ideas are born in abundance, and all writers quickly find success and admiration.
The writer’s strike eventually ends, but the legacy of the muses still lasts to this day with a new found sense of abundance, creativity and innovation, to fuel the imagination of ALL writers for years to come with brand new ideas and images.
The End
Design Stories ~ Downtown Providence RI ~ abmarcus.com
The Excellent Wonder Box
The Excellent Wonder Box
How Rhode Island Women Changed the World Forever for Good
By AB Marcus
"Excellent Wonder Box"
That's what it said.
Carved in old English letters with the date "1636" inscribed on the wood.
It was a small golden and wooden box a little larger than a shoe box.
Bryana and Samantha - we'll call her "Sam" - quickly realized the huge potential of this strange box they found when they renovated their George C. Arnold office building at 100 Washington St in DownCity.
That office is an architectural anomaly - three stories tall and 13 feet deep. It's Providence's own rectangular version of the New York City flat iron building. It's interesting that the Arnold family and their clever building were founding settlers of the Colony of Rhode Island.
A very curious box, found in a very strange building. owned by a Providence family, who were the first 13 settlers of Providence. Yes, the building is exactly 13 feet wide, one foot for every original Providence settler! Just a fascinating fact or is it something even more...
You see, until today, for more than three years, Bryana and Sam's graphic design business in downtown Providence Rhode Island wasn't really making it.
Today, however, to their complete surprise, "The Excellent Wonder Box" became an instant hit and they were blessed with a degree of success they had never experienced before at their peculiar design office. The curiosity in this relic with Rhode Island's founding date took the public by storm.
But soon, the amount of attention they get from customers and the media from TV news spots, podcasts and Providence Journal newspaper articles became overwhelming - how to explain their success and how to explain to the public the real secrets of this Excellent Wonder Box. They both became very anxious and confused about their recent celebrity.
Neither did they know that their "Excellent Wonder Box" has a will of its own.
This odd box, this relic from 1636 Providence, immediately, instantaneously and incredibly manipulates design and innovation in time and space around it. It transports Bryana and Sam, in a wink, to London, Paris, and then Beijing - each time for exactly 12 minutes and :35 seconds then hurtling the two to a new time and place.
With each new visit they see the innovative designs, shapes and colors and textures from every time and place they land. And as fast as they record an original concept, off to the next place and design and creative innovation.
Aware of the danger they could now face, they try to find some way to avoid getting lost in time and space. Sam works out the coordinates and calculates a formula to bring them back to the present.
However, Bryana realizes they must always stay close to the "Excellent Wonder Box" within its energy field in order to return to each time and place they've encountered.
This "Excellent Wonder Box" with it's strange new power... will they learn to master the art and design of time-travel and make the most out of this new-found ability? Or will they get lost in quantum dimensions?
After countless close calls and narrow escapes, Bryana and Sam eventually land at the Slater Mill in Pawtucket Rhode Island on May 25th 1824. This is on the eve of the first factory strike EVER in the United States - led by one hundred and two, young women, mill workers.
With no way out and tension building for the early morning strike, Bryana and Sam attempt to hide the box in the deepest corner of the Slater Mill. Three time-cops who became aware of their dimensional warping were already there waiting for them ready to stop their timeline entangling.
However, just as three time-cops are about to take the Excellent Wonder Box away, a strange golden violet light radiates. Suddenly, it's the next day May 26th - outside the Slater Mill - crowded with striking mill workers protesting at the gate - dressed in 19th Century clothes - all the weaving machines silent. but the crowd at full throttle, with chants and loud noises. Rocks thrown. Shattered glass!
Just then, a woven tarp lying against the mill wall comes to life, and the 'Excellent Wonder Box' appears out of thin air.
The time-cops, in a fit of rage, try to take the Excellent Wonder Box by force, but are engulfed in a sparkling fog.
The golden violet light fades away.
When the dust settles, the time-cops are gone and the 'Excellent Wonder Box' returns to Bryana and Sam's hands back in the present.
The Slater Mill becomes eerily quiet again as Bryana and Sam watched their Fantastic Wonder Box stunned with Amazement at what they had seen and heard and. now, know.
Before them was presented an opportunity neither of them could have imagined to tell this story of the first ever triumph of women working together to make a better design, and a better life.
Just then a robotic, woman's voice, rang out from the box: “The power of the 'Excellent Wonder Box' is yours. Use it wisely. "Good design is Everything!" she exclaimed.
So, Bryana and Sam took the 'Excellent Wonder Box' with them and their design business enjoyed a whole different kind of Success in Providence, overcoming challenges with ease and finding joy in every creative design adventure life took them on.
They'll always remember that morning at the Slater Mill, how women turned the tide of the world. One hundred and ninety nine years ago - one hundred and two Rhode Island Women, Changed the World Forever. for Good!
Better design always leads to a better world, and Bryana and Sam realize it.
Whether it was luck, fate, or something else, they were grateful. Yes. The Excellent Wonder Box is always packed for another adventure with Splendorous Exacting Excellent Wonder ... and that..."Good Design Is, indeed, EVERYTHING!"
The End.
GIRL POWER IN 1824:
THE FIRST FACTORY STRIKE IN AMERICA
For More True History of 1824 Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI - Click Here!
All Stories Rated G - All Ages!
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