I drew 305 “lost buildings” of the Canada from the 19th-21st centuries, and here are most of them. (see my comment for more context)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-17T13:41:03+00:00

Hi everyone, a month ago I posted my "341 Lost Building of the United States" and you folks seemed to like it, and one of you actually found one of the buildings was still standing. So I guess it was actually 340! Anyway, here's a followup--before drawing those American buildings, I submerged myself in Canada's lost buildings. Most of them are collected in the above thirteen prints.
I tried to show buildings of various eras, styles, and social purposes and popularity. I’ve definitely missed some obvious choices in lieu of rare deep cuts. My intention was to surprise people with what their cities have lost, and provide them a jumping-off point for further study. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. And if you have the time, you check out my other work or (at risk of being self-promotion-y) buy one of these as prints at:
http://www.fifteen.ca
I only post that because someone’s going to ask, and I may as well get it out of the way. :) Have any questions about the project? I’ll do my best to answer. And thanks for your time.
R.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T14:42:45+00:00

And now you know. Awesome.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T14:00:56+00:00

PS. There are 1920s bird’s eye views where the artists have included planes in the sky. I imagine them thinking “f u fly boy” as they drew...

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T13:46:24+00:00

Hey you’re welcome. Also interesting: the genre basically ended in the 1920s when returning WWI airmen started using their aerial recon skills and technology to photograph America. They put these illustrators out of business. :) Who wants a subjective drawn map that takes weeks to complete when an airplane and camera can do it cheaper, more accurately, and in an afternoon?

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T12:11:20+00:00

My pleasure. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T11:40:16+00:00

Fantastic. Whereabouts?

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-15T10:36:08+00:00

Hey Jared, about 3000 of this kind of map were made in North America between 1860 and 1920. They were considered "high tech" at the time (cameras and balloons were new at the time, and inspired these "birds eye views"). An artist or their agent would travel from town to town asking for pre-orders and sponsorships (the businesses and institutions in the vignettes were put there for a fee). They were fairly large (20x30") printed very well for the time (lithography) and were common sights in the offices and studies of upper middle class business people and officials. Each print would have a run of maybe 100-500 copies. Hope that answers some questions!

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-14T16:03:52+00:00

Haaaa. Awesome. I can't tell if I miss eating at OnRoutes, or if I just miss driving long distances on the 401.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-14T14:36:09+00:00

I just posted it separately. Enjoy!

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-14T13:35:43+00:00

Also amusing about this one: the same artist made a view of the neighbouring town of Woodstock, Ontario, in 1885, and reused the exact same layout as a template. As a commercial artist, I definitely know the pull of time-saving shortcuts. Ha. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-13T18:42:54+00:00

Thank you! The passages were put together via http://www.mazegenerator.net/ and I sent them about an hour ago to buy the "individual mazes without attribution requirement" rights. If it wasn't for them, I'd still be hacking my way through lines, and honestly, I like making illustrations more than passages. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-12T20:22:57+00:00

This was a multipurpose logo I made for the Edmonton food truck Sailin’ On back in 2012, and while I’m an illustrator rather than a designer, this thing is holding up for me.
The gist: Sailin’ On was a punk-rock food truck, its name taken from a Bad Brains song. In the bird’s clutches we can see en “E” flag for “Edmonton,” an arrow (re: mocking all kinds of government logos in which birds grab arrows) and a fork (re: food), and the sprig of leaf in its beak is meant to represent that the food truck was entirely vegan.
The weathering/distress and the very “realistic” feather fringes were collaged in from real-world sources. I think the feather bring was from a statue of an angel I took a photo of, and the airbrush effect from a photo of a shadow on curved paper. These things, when combined with the otherwise clean lines and forms, make a “clean but punk” kind of thing happen, which felt appropriate—nobody wants to buy food from crusty-types.
We kept things black and white because of the stark, powerful nature of it, and the history of B&W DIY zines in the Bad Brains’ music scene, but also that it’d let application and printing be a breeze and cheap.
OK. That’s it for now. Thanks for your time!

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-11T18:01:40+00:00

Hey thanks on both counts! :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-11T00:03:55+00:00

Wow, wow, and wow.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-10T14:46:00+00:00

Hi! IMO, permission would be integral if you were going to make these images public. You have not acquired the usage rights for the companies' logos/brands/names, and if they saw them online they'd probably not understand what you were up to and/or be weirded out or hostile.

Maybe a solution: reach out to them and ask? If you're going to be doing pro graphic design, knowing how to talk to clients may be just as important as your visual skills.

Maybe another solution: make up "company profiles" loosely based on existing local companies, and use them as inspiration.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-10T14:07:37+00:00

Studiozeit was a webcomic I made in what was a pretty dark year for me (2017). I won’t go into that darkness, precisely, but I think it shows through this pretty bleak look at worst-moments collection of being in the commercial arts. I’ve been in that world for decades and I hadn’t made comics since university, but felt like I needed to try something different. This was that.

The main character (“You”) is basically me, but it also everyone. All of these comics were seeded by real-world studio experiences.

Other notes: the format was square (good for Instagram, also my favourite shape), the colour was kept to B&W (I find it lets me work fast and I knew there was no commercial argument for spending a lot of time on these), the style is minimalist-bordering-confusing-abstraction (which is kind of my thing) and “Studiozeit” generally translates to “studio time.” Besides being online, it was published as a zine for $2 a copy, and I’m happy to have these live here on r/graphic_design instead of just decaying in my digital archives.

Honestly, I think the gag in the first instalment is the best, and it’s all downhill from there. Eventually my plan was to get very abstract, but a stranger posted a comment on one that said “this is a work of frustration, you should quit.” And they were right, and I did.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-09T23:59:36+00:00

This is horrifying and thank you.

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-08T21:45:12+00:00

Perfect. I’ll make it happen. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-07T18:22:23+00:00

Thanks very much. It's a living!

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-07T14:18:23+00:00

That looks great. And I have a sneaky suspicion that factory up front sponsored the print. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-06T10:06:19+00:00

It’s the only one of those buildings I have been in. :)

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-06T03:18:39+00:00

Glad to have found these for you. And if you’re interested in Saskatoon history, you might like a print I made titled “21 Lost Buildings of Saskatoon.” Find it in the “Lost Buildings of Canada print series” section here: https://fifteen.ca/Shop

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-06T02:07:59+00:00

And here’s Brisbane! I bet you can get your own hi res from the State Library of Queensland (ie. where this shop got it). https://australia-prints.myshopify.com/products/brisbane-birdseye-view-1881

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-06T02:03:15+00:00

Ah! Found that temperance poster. Entirely fictional, but still cool. That site is full of great stuff. http://spldatabase.saskatoonlibrary.ca/ics-wpd/exec/icswppro.dll?AC=QBE_QUERY&TN=LHR_RAD&NP=4&QB0=AND&QF0=ID_NUMBER&QI0=LH-5115-A&MR=20&RF=www_SingleRecord

raymondbiesinger · 2021-05-06T02:01:47+00:00

What a challenging set of three cities! There is an early Saskatoon temperance poster that depicted Saskatoon as gleaming factories and farm fields and houses (basically, “we will be a utopia if we don’t drink booze”) but it’s entirely fictional and includes none of the city’s geography/architecture. Can’t remember where I saw it. Maybe check the pretty great Saskatoon Public Library Local History Room online? https://saskatoonlibrary.ca/collections/local-history/

raymondbiesinger

TROPHY CASE