Bullet This Is No School

Learning is working best when kids are into subjects of study that match their interests. It also works well when projects are realistic.

Also there has to be place for the making. It should be possible to make prototypes, do experiments, program shows and produce goods to express yourself.

This Is No School is the world on a stamp. A meeting square, workshops, labs, a theater, a fram, sporting facilities, restaurants, shops and a hotel.

Bullet 80's T's

For my Youtube channel 2kB of Fun, I made several T-shirts based on logo graphics from 80's video games and electronic gadgets.

Bullet Retro Space 4.0

Fourth incarnation of the Retro Space arcade cabinet in aluminium
2017


Retro Space 4.0 thumbnail image

Bullet Pixel Art

Pixel art illustration for the book 2kB of Fun
2017


Pixel Art thumbnail image

Bullet 2kB of Fun

Never has a consumer electronic product seen such an extravagant variety in case design as early handheld games from 1976-1985. Never have computer games been so beautifully reduced to their essence as these handhelds offered. Never did 2Kb of memory offer so much fun.

1983 was the best year with top titles like Amidar, Astro Thunder 7, Burger Time, Dig Dug, Ms. Pac-Man, Q*bert, Super-Cobra and Zaxxon.

Martijn Koch, architect from the Netherlands bought 180 of the best handheld games, photographed them, took them apart, analysed their tech, and put all the material together in this stunning book, a catalog like you never saw before.

Bullet DIY Arcade Cabinet

By the end of January 2013, Dutch Dame Garden asked me for a new series of arcade cabinets. They had to be finished within 1.5 month, to have it shipped to the Game Developer Conference in San Francisco from March 25th-29th. They wanted a new design with their beloved silhouette. The new version should be easier to carry, transportable as flat pack and when possible a lot cheaper.

The new cabinet can be assembled DIY with a standard 4mm hex wrench, just like IKEA furniture. De parts are made from white laminated poplar plywood for light weight and nice finish. At the top the cabinet holds 2 smoked plexi sheets to protect both screens at the front and the back. The Dutch Game Garden wants games to be visible on two sides for their Indigo shows. It allows a more passive group of visitors to just look at the games being played. The bottom part is filled with 2 matte white sheets of plexi. If you put multi-colour LED lights inside the bottom part, you can illuminate these sheets with any colour you like. The version that is showed here does not have any controls on the control panel. This is because companies that show games at Indigo bring their own controls. They make games for all platforms like Playstation, Xbox, iPad, PC etc, so there is no standard set of controls.

At the moment we are finding out the best way to sell this version to those who are interested in a DIY arcade cabinet.


Bullet STRP Festival 2011

Photo report of the STRP Festival 2011 by Mick Visser
2011


STRP Festival 2011 thumbnail image

Bullet STRP Festival 2010

Photo report of the STRP Festival 2010 by Mick Visser
2010


STRP Festival 2010 thumbnail image

Bullet British Landlord

Colaboration with bureau ZZEF

For more information check out:

Bullet M+ M- ???

Redesignme.com is a website where designers are challenged to create new designs for certain products.

Garton Jones used redesignme.com to search for a redesign of the Ativa 10 Digit Desk Calculator.

I'm always puzzled by the fact most calculators still function like the early 1970 designs. A time when chip logic was very expensive, and the amount of components was kept to a minimum. Today's standard micro controller is way more powerful. So my primary goal was to create a new set of basic functionality.

Which means I had to redesign the layout of the buttons first. The design itself continues proved ingredients like injection mould plastic, the perfect shape of PTT's Zurich telephone and modern white OLED matrix displays.

My own challenge was to make the design in one hour on a Friday afternoon.

The result: a top 3 note among 109 redesigns. "Your redesign was part of my top 3. Very well done! Yours sincerely, Charlie Garton-Jones"

Bullet Creative Factory

Interior photographs of creative companies in a former Philips factory
2010


Creative Factory thumbnail image

Bullet Future Space

26 arcade cabinets for Dutch Game Garden
2010


Future Space thumbnail image

Bullet Lost in Navigation

Tokyo is a breathtaking city. Most metropolises have 1 urban railway network. Easy. Tokyo, the biggest metropolis on Earth, is a lot more complex.
The city has 2 official subway companies, the national railway operates several lines that can be considered metro lines as well, and there are tens of private operated railways that serve may areas just outside the central part of the city. Another problem is that many transfer stations use different station names on each line connected.

Creating a understandable subway map for this city is extremely complex. Should it be schematic, or geographic realistic? When is it easier to have a short walk than to switch lines?

This metro map for Tokyo only shows the most important lines for visitors of the city. That is already 25 lines! All distances are realistic, and the connections to Airports and Shinkansen trains are clearly visible. The parks that give a good orientation in the grey urban mass of Tokyo are visible. Icons show the most important landmarks. Matching the million neon lights the map is drawn in a night situation with the lines as glowing neon tubes.

The map is printed on 100x75 cm photo paper in a limited run, an can be ordered. Send an e-mail or call if you are interested to order.

Bullet XXL

A new factory for Kingspan insulation panels at Medel near Tiel
2009


XXL thumbnail image

Bullet Trophy for Men

Result from a weekend workshop at WiSPER in Leuven: A trophy for real men, made from construction beams. The trophy is welded using MIG and metal arc welding (MAW) techniques.

Bullet Burgstede

A new catholic community centre for Heteren
2009


Burgstede thumbnail image

Bullet Pac Man LACK Hack

Hacking Ikea table with Sega Megadrive or Pac Man inside
2009


Pac Man LACK Hack thumbnail image

Bullet Want some Beers?

ZZEF asked me to photograph 2 projects designed by Johan van den Berkmortel for the architecture portfolio of ZZEF.

One project is a beer cafe at the monk brewery Koningshoeve and the other is the Bavaria House in Helmond.

Bullet Monk Bond

When I started working at "bouwkundig ontwerp- en adviesburo Van Zeist" the preliminary design for these 8 apartments had been made already. I drew up the technical detailing.

One of the challenges was to draw the brickwork in monk bond, just like the classic houses in the same street.

To show the appartments are built in 2008, many details are modernized. The balconies for example look like old wooden porches, but in fact they are made of brown concrete and steel.

Bullet Black Box

A new business building for 2 entrepreneurs in Kesteren
2008


Black Box thumbnail image

Bullet Low Bandwith

When the design of Retro Space was finished, we needed a matching website.
Because of the presumption that Retro Space could become a hit on the internet, we tried to make the website as small as possible. We did not want the website to crash on bandwidth problems.

Matching the style of the retro games, the website is designed in pixel art. All elements except some product shots are GIF images in 4 colours. It's just like the early years of internet when bandwidth was scarce.


Bullet Retro Space

Modern arcade cabinet for home use
2008


Retro Space thumbnail image

Bullet Welcome to Andenne

Andenne is a small town on the bank of the Meuse between Namur and Liège. When entering Andenne the city does not impress. The abandoned factory area on the north bank of the Meuse makes a chaotic impression and the river is ignored. In collaboration with Wendy van Rosmalen I designed a new plan for this Europan 9 location.

With out plan we want to give Andenne a face. Between famous cities like Namur, Huy and Liège, Andenne is missing an inherent identity. We chose to multiply the nonchalant character of Belgian building and turn it into a specific typology. Our plan is a framework for development of the area in its own pace. A subtle guidance in building alignment and building heights delivers a varied public space that opens up towards the river Meuse.

A specific part of the assignment was the redesign of Andenne station. Bad attainableness of the platforms, a weird logistic and the uncomfortable public space underneath the viaduct are creating a moody atmosphere. The size of Andenne does not allow a large scale intervention. We choose a very modest solution. We created a square below the tracks to connect al transportation streams. The viaduct is decorated to resemble a living room and is transformed into a roof covering the bus platforms. New buildings surrounding the square size the public space.

Every Belgian wants its own house. Ignoring this feat makes a plan implausible. We go one step further through making the buying of a house resemble the buying of a car. By using a smart basic layout for the houses, every house can suit the needs of very different groups of people. Future change is very easy too. The architecture is a caricature of traditional Belgian building methods, its execution is contemporary and flexible.

Bullet I never promised you a rosegarden

11 Apartments for senior citizens at the Rozenpad in Heteren
2007


I never promised you a rosegarden thumbnail image

Bullet Little Mermaid

When we visited Copenhagen, I was surprised by the complex metro map for the very small network. It should be possible to draw a map easier to understand and graphically more appealing to visitors.

I designed a new metro map that shows the relation with the city. It combines all trains with different schedules on similar routes to bring back overview.

Autonomous work

Bullet BBQ XL

Veranda extension to house in Beek en Donk
2006


BBQ XL thumbnail image

Bullet Cinderella

Concept for a modern picture story based on Cinderella
2005


Cinderella thumbnail image

Bullet Wanda Wanders

The avatar Wanda Wanders was born in a chatconversation with Margot Scheltens. Wanda wanders around the World and shares her sharp opinion on various topics.

I created the website both technically and graphically. Many of the articles are written by me too.

Wanda Wanders is a registered Benelux trademark.

http://

Bullet Unknown Modernism

For most tourists the city of Faro in southern Portugal is nothing more than an entrance by plane to the Algarve. Which is a pity. The biggest city of southern Portugal is probably the only one giving room to creativity. You will not see kitsch appartment blocks for Dutch and Germans, but subtile shaped private houses for the Portugese themselves. You will see images that remind of modernists like Gerrit Rietveld, Adolf Loos and Le Corbusier. You will wonder wheter MVRDV got inspiration here, or if Portugese architects checked out work of the Durch architecture firm.

Bullet Ghost World

Photographs of Detroit
2005


Ghost World thumbnail image

Bullet Fake Wanders

Mixture of the Big Shadow and the Fake Lamp
2004


Fake Wanders thumbnail image

Bullet Ants Nest

Tower blocks in Hong Kong
2004


Ants Nest thumbnail image

Bullet Miniature City

Portrait of the Brandevoort city extension of Helmond
2004


Miniature City thumbnail image

Bullet Blue Envelope

The Dutch Tax Administration feels like a family business. The atmosphere is open and relaxed. The organization is responsible for the total financial administration of The Netherlands Ltd. Dutch citizens expect professional civil servants. The office at the Quintax location in Apeldoorn expresses the two faces of the Dutch Tax Administration. The building looks severe and mimics the impregnability of Fort Knox. But internal, the building is totally transparent. Walls are exceptions, and voids open the floors to improve contact between employees.

At JHK Architects, I was responsible for the concept of the building. I also worked out most of the technical details.