61º North: Design Issue | March 2017

MARCH 2017

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Alice Rogoff / Publisher Joshua Genuino / Creative Director Jamie Gonzales / Editor Catalina Dengel / Assistant Editor Viki Spiroska / Production Manager Rejoy Armamento / Art Director Kelly Day-Lewis / Layout

ALASKANA 6 Q+A with Alex France

by Rejoy Armamento

WRITERS J. Besl, Jamey Bradbury, Catalina Dengel, Jody Ellis, Sara Loewen, Kirsten Swann, Nina Wladkowski PHOTOGRAPHY Rejoy Armamento, Nick Gutierrez, Philip Hall, Meghan Mackey, Kling Stubbins, Kerry Tasker, Bob Toy, Municipality of Anchorage, K&W Interiors

8 An Afterlife for the Church of Love?

by J. Besl

by Jamie Gonzales

SAVOR 24 Designing a Perfect Plate

by Nina Wladkowski & Meghan Mackey

PUDDLE JUMPER 11 Reclaimed

by Sara Loewen

SALES Stephen Acher, Madison Law, Victoria Hansen, Lisa Hartlieb, Rebecca Koonce, Dennis Mack, Meghan Mackey, Brandi Nelson, Kelsey Newman, Whitney Robins, Emily Rohrabaugh, Erika Watsjold

15 Alaska 2117

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CENTER SPREAD:

by Kirsten Swann

Connecting Kwethluk

by Kerry Tasker

Copyright © 2017 Alaska Dispatch News P.O. Box 149001 Anchorage, Alaska 99514 Please send letters to the editor to jgonzales@alaskadispatch.com, and include your name, city of residence and phone number.

We cannot guarantee publication of letters, and we reserve the right to edit letters for length.

22 Making Your Mark

LOOK

BODY, MIND & SPIRIT 28 Thinking Small

by Jody Ellis

31 Sustainability Versus Fast Fashion

by Catalina Dengel

WHAT WE LOVE 35 Beer Label Designs

compiled by Rejoy Armamento

19 Not Your Grandma's Kitchen

by Jamey Bradbury

ON THE FRONT COVER:

Graphic designer, Alex France, created this issue's exclusive art.

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PHOTO BY REJOY ARMAMENTO

6

Alex in front of her "Razzle Dazzle" camo graphics she designed for the Camouflage exhibit at the Anchorage Museum.

Q+A WITH ALEX FRANCE SIMPLICITY IS KEY

by Rejoy Armamento

FROM WEB DESIGNER TO CODER TO EXHIBITION DESIGNER, ALEX FRANCE IS A SHAPESHIFTER. Texas-born and raised, she moves between digital and physical realities as the graphic and digital media designer for the Anchorage Museum. An average day can consist of hovering 12 feet above the ground to install her latest graphic to sitting in the dark corner of her office creating in-house publications. Alex, who also created the cover illustration for this issue of 61°North, talked with us about her design style.

ow did you know you wanted to be a graphic designer?

I sort of fell into it. I went to a high school that specialized in communications. They taught us Photoshop and building websites. For our last year, we had to pick a topic we wanted to study for the entire year and it was between design or mortuary science—because people never stop dying—and I ended up going into design because that was way less weird.

A lot of graphic designers start out as fine artists– drawing, painting, etc. Was this the same for you?

I’m terrible at art! I’m a terrible drawer and I’m a terrible painter. But, I like problem solving, so that’s where it does it for me.

How would you describe your design style?

The way I like to design is based off of this quote by Einstein, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” For example, if I can’t

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEX FRANCE

PHOTO BY REJOY ARMAMENTO

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALEX FRANCE

Design Weekend: Promotional materials for Design Weekend Anchorage organized by the Anchorage Museum

describe what this project is with simple, graphic vocabulary then maybe I don’t understand it well enough. And that’s why I tend to go minimalist. But then, I also I tend to go for the warmth of texture.

There’s a sort of balance.

What are the biggest influencers on your design style?

I’m from Texas–from San Antonio, just south of Austin. There’s such a huge design hub there. So many independent, smaller designers are doing super incredible work that’s very contemporary. There’s this flat, minimalistic look that’s been going on now with a kind of roughness and its own twang to it.

Brad Woodard from Austin does the same rough, illustrative, minimalistic style. Lauren Dickens is another local amazing designer who used to work for the Helms workshop. Everybody in that shop is super talented. I follow all of them on Dribbble like a crazy little stalker. I draw a lot from these artists because I like to be on trend. These are the people who are masters of it.

You said you have an exhibition going on. Where can we see your work?

It’s not my work, but I designed the exhibition at the Anchorage Museum. For the Camouflage exhibition, I did all the graphics for that–the projections, the signage, labels, prints on benches and interactives as well as the large text panels. There’s a gallery that was wall-to-wall with huge 12-foot camouflaged panels filled with illustrations of different kinds of camo.

We have a huge team that curates these exhibitions.

They decide what goes into each gallery down to how

high the painting has to be. When they finally decide on those parameters, we get this spatial budget and that’s when I come in and start designing. I worked with the exhibition designer at the time. He would go, “Okay. Let’s do illustrations x-big.” And then I go in and fill in those voids. It’s a back and forth between me and him. There’s a lot on our end because we take it through to the final production.

When you’re in a rut and can’t think of any ideas, what do you do to get out of it?

I just try to get out of myself. One of my go-to steps is research. I’ll do a little sketching. And then I reach this point where I think maybe this isn’t the path I should take for this project because there’s no clear plan of attack. A lot of the times, by necessity, we’re always in front of our computers. I kind of get stuck in that and just need to get away from the computer.

That’s why I came to Alaska because I kind of saw that in my work. Not that I’ve been producing some bad work, but they all looked very similar. I thought maybe I needed a change in environment–something fresh, something different, some different design I’ve never done before. I was primarily a web designer. All I did was web design and front-end coding.

If you can carry on any graphic design project in Alaska what would it be?

I would love to do a humorous visitors’ guide to Alaska. We talked about it in one of our AIGA meetings. It’d be a pro-bono kind of joke, filled with funny cartoons and illustrations. There would be a whole section on “Stop going into the mud flats!” and another section called “Quit feeding moose!”

"IF YOU CAN'T EXPLAIN IT SIMPLY, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND IT WELL ENOUGH."

8

AN AFTERLIFE FOR THE CHURCH OF LOVE? In Middle Spenard, the Pavement’s Full of Possibilities

PHOTOS BY PHILIP HALL

by J. Besl

PENARD ROAD HAS ALWAYS ATTRACTED an off-kilter attitude to match its meandering path. In the city grid, Spenard stands out.

Now, thanks to a $3 million grant from ArtPlace America, the area has grown even more colorful. Just check out the Church of Love marquee for proof; stitched in strips of neon polar fleece, it’s an unavoidable exclamation point on a street in transition.

In October 2015, Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA)—an affordable housing agency in Anchorage—was among six recipients of a Community Development Investments grant from ArtPlace America. The three-year grant challenges non-governmental organizations to incorporate art and design into their community efforts, combining the edgy instinct of the arts scene with well-meaning bureaucrats on the civic side. All six recipients— including a health agency in Mississippi and a park board in Philadelphia—must address the same question: How can arts solve complex municipal problems?

“There are a lot of unknowns,” Sezy GerowHanson, spokesperson for CIHA, said of ArtPlace’s directives. “It’s a great experiment.”

In Anchorage, that experiment will largely play out on a crumbling stretch of Spenard Road between 34th and 36th (Middle Spenard, as CIHA calls it). The setting is not an ideal canvas, with narrow sidewalks, collapsing curbs and patches of concrete fronting nearly every building. Even the mismatched streetlights are scattershot, like the city just installed whatever was left in lamppost storage. “Middle Spenard needs a little love,” Gerow-Hanson noted.

How convenient, then, that the street’s most

9

recognizable building is the sunny spacious Church of Love, recently used for artist studios and dance company performances. This CIHA-owned building inherited its name from a former congregation, but the moniker still fits. Effectively, the space fell asleep as a church and woke up as an arts hub radiating neighborhood love. The site, for now, anchors the housing authority’s revitalization efforts on a stretch of overlooked pavement.

Take a look. The formerly boring front yard now boasts a free give-and-take library, plant beds repurposed from oil drums and a “horizontal mural” reclaiming the parking lot that’s, fittingly, best viewed on foot. The mural, by artist Kerby McGee, accelerates the development conversation by depicting future possibilities (essentially, it’s the ArtPlace idea in action). Rather than wait for construction clearance from the city, McGee used spray paint instead of jackhammers to reimagine the space. Stripes depict potential widths of a future sidewalk. Radiating blue dots indicate movement and energy toward neighboring businesses.

It’s fanciful. It’s functional. And it’s temporary.

Gerow-Hanson called the Church’s front apron “a

sandbox” where artists can envision solutions. The only message that remains, she said: “This doesn’t belong to cars anymore.”

Thanks to the grant, Spenard Road’s future is—for now—painted on the pavement, not locked up in a City Hall conference room. That urgency is important in moving conversations into action.

Spenard isn’t stagnant, though. CIHA has already demolished several buildings along the corridor. The former PJs strip club site at 36th and Spenard will become a retail/residential development with 33 onebedroom units. Across the street, the contaminated site of a former auto garage is due for redevelopment as well.

Amid all the destruction, where does that leave the Church of Love? Already eye-catching (thanks to that Rubik’s Cube stained glass window), the infusion of art has only made the building more recognizable.

“Our model has been, buy something that’s kind of beat up and past its prime, take it down, and build something new,” Gerow-Hanson explained. “With ArtPlace and the state of the economy, this gives us an opportunity to look at the space differently.”

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"WHETHER THE CHURCH OF LOVE STAYS OR GOES, CIHA PLANS TO DEVELOP THE ROAD WITH A REFLECTION OF ITS PAST STORIES AND FUTURE POTENTIAL. " Is there an afterlife for the Church of Love?

“This space, in a weird way, would be one of [our] first preservation projects,” Tyler Robinson, CIHA’s director of development planning, said of the church’s tenuous future. The building, he said, will have to change regardless. As an affordable housing authority, CIHA can’t afford to waste money, and the church is a drafty energy sink. It’s one of many products of the boom days, when Alaskans just needed roofs, regardless of efficiency, attractiveness or even winter standards. “People don’t really mind when those things go away and you end up with a more efficient building in its place,” Gerow-Hanson added.

But have faith in Spenard. Whether the Church of Love stays or goes, CIHA plans to develop the road with a reflection of its past stories and future potential.

Place-making projects in the works include sitespecific bike racks for Spenard Road businesses, an artful central plaza at that 33-unit housing development, and even innovative mobile benches that can be relocated throughout the city.

In other words, enjoy it while it lasts, as artists and developers work in tandem to improve the evolving canvas of Middle Spenard. “If you can preserve elements of what has been important in the neighborhood and build new at the same time, you strengthen that fabric and that identity,” Robinson noted. “That’s our hope.”

Janet and Bob Johnson's living room atop a remodeled fuel bunker.

PHOTOS BY SARA LOEWEN

11

RECLAIMED Kodiak’s hidden treasures include a remade WWII bunker and a liberty ship-turned-cannery

by Sara Loewen

ODIAK ISLAND IS HARD on buildings. Wood rots.

Metal rusts. Rain finds the leaks.

Freight is expensive.

People here reuse for economy and practicality, like the shipping containers repurposed as storage sheds and offices around town.

Sometimes the act of adapting what’s available leads to interesting spaces and design.

For the few months it was open in 2014, everyone was talking about the repurposed Bering Sea crabber being used as a floating bar and strip club in the channel.

Over time, Kodiak’s rainforest swallows structures. The moss and trees growing over old WWII bunkers around town only added to their appeal when we were kids daring each other to run through the cool, dark spaces.

THE RENOVATED BUNKER At the base of Old Women’s Mountain, a row of nine fuel bunkers seemed to be fading into the hillside, most people didn’t even notice them driving by.

Janet and Bob Johnson purchased one from Lash Corporation about 10 years ago, on an acre and a half of industrial property. It came with a waterfall. They’re currently the only residents in their unusual neighborhood, but several others are under construction.

Now it’s easy to spot the Johnson’s building from the road. They’ve sided it in green and topped it with a custom-made finial with three metallic balls like an enormous Christmas ornament.

Renovating the bunker wasn’t simple, or cheap. The concrete walls are 12 inches thick and reinforced with rebar.

“It took two guys a full day just to cut out one window,” Janet said.

They only cut two, but the third floor addition has 6 floor-to-ceiling arched windows and brings the total space to 3,000 square feet.

A large goat head sits on the kitchen table, where Janet has been puzzling out how to turn it into a hat for a client. She runs her taxidermy business from the garage. The kitchen and a single bedroom and bath make up the caretaker’s apartment on the second floor.

It’s the top floor that makes the place.

This room showcases the octagonal interior, the ocean just 50 yards away, and expansive views of Women’s Bay and the mountains around it. On stormy days, helicopters hover over the bay during Coast Guard rescue drills.

This floor used to be office space, before the Johnsons sold their plumbing company.

“I kept saying, one day this is going to be the most fantastic living room,” Janet said.

12 Enormous plants thrive in the sunny windows, including a fig tree that Bob points out because it took him two years to get the seed to grow. That seed came from a Florida cab driver eating figs while he drove Bob around 15 years ago.

Cased beams to fortify the building against strong winds display taxidermy mounts from hunting trips around the world and a collection of walrus art (the mascot of their plumbing company).

This is where the Johnsons entertain and relax, with their cat, a pit bull and two Rottweilers that wrestle between mounted animals—a wolverine, a New Zealand possum, a turkey—and furniture draped with furs.

A mirrored bar made in South Africa fills the back of the room. It’s so large they needed a boom truck to lift it into the bunker. The story goes that it’s made of ironwood from an African railway line plagued by killer lions, according to the book, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, displayed on the counter.

It’s hard to imagine this was once a windowless concrete storage shed.

“It’s probably the most unique house in all of Kodiak. I mean, it’s a WWII bunker,” Janet said, “There are beautiful, beautiful homes here, but this one is not only unique, it’s historical.”

THE REPURPOSED LIBERTY SHIP The Star of Kodiak is another WWII relic that most locals think of as just another seafood processor in a waterfront crowded with canneries.

The ship was brought as an emergency shrimp and crab processor in the wake of the 1964 tsunami, when a 30-foot wave destroyed Kodiak’s canneries in the midst of a phenomenal king crab boom. In the rush to restart the industry, people looked for anything that floated and could be refitted into a processing plant. It’s the only remaining ship-processor in Kodiak from the era.

The Star of Kodiak is also one of the very last of 2,700 WWII Liberty ships built between 1941 and 1945.

Some were lost during the war to torpedoes, kamikazes and mines, several broke in half because the steel turned brittle

in cold ocean waters, but most were scrapped in the decades following WWII. There are only two operational Liberty ships left.

The Star was once the Albert M. Boe—part of a fleet of massproduced cargo ships that revolutionized ship building. The vessels could be made in 40 days or less, by using prefabricated, standardized parts and welding innovations. About 592,000 man hours went into this ship. Man and woman hours— women made up almost half of the shipbuilding workforce.

The goal was “to build ships faster than the enemy could sink them.”

Of the 200 Liberty ships in the D-Day armada, several were deliberately sunk off Normandy beachheads to create a manmade harbor.

These ships were slow at an average 11 knots. But they could carry the load of 300 railroad boxcars, or 440 tanks, 2,840 Jeeps or 230 million rounds of rifle ammunition. Their propellers alone weighed 21,000 pounds. Troops traveling to the front on Liberty ships slept in bunks stacked five tiers high.

Today, Trident Seafood’s logo is painted on the stack. Even infilled and missing its 18-foot propeller, even with holes cut in the side for forklifts and a warehouse addition, the 441-footlong Star of Kodiak still looks enough like a ship ran aground that Kodiak visitors mistakenly believe it was washed into place during the tsunami.

Staterooms on the top deck have been empty since a 1997 fire, the narrow hallways lit only by portholes.

Over time the three floors inside have been refitted with a maze of processing equipment to handle dozens of species: crab, scallops, halibut, rock fish, sole, cod and salmon.

These gleaming processing belts contrast with the ship’s outer decks, exposed to the elements and used mainly for storing fish totes and ammonia tanks.

In spite of an annual paint bill of approximately $25,000, the Star of Kodiak shows her age in places. “There’s not enough paint in the world,” said plant manager, Paul Lumsden.

Still, the Star of Kodiak endures, while the half dozen other ships hauled north as processors in 1964 are gone.

A WWII liberty ship turned fish processing facility.

13

PHOTO CAPTION GOES HERE

"THE KALAKALA WAS ALTERNATELY REFERRED TO AS THE FLYING BIRD, THE FLOATING TOASTER OR THE SILVER SLUG. "

THE RECLAIMED FERRY The most famous of these processor ships, the Kalakala, would eventually be reclaimed from Kodiak because of her iconic form.

The Art Deco design resembled a giant airstream trailer, and this rounded motif was used throughout the ferry’s interior. The Kalakala was alternately referred to as the flying bird, the floating toaster or the silver slug.

For a time, the Kalakala was Puget Sound’s best-known ferry—the symbol of Seattle and most popular attraction at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair after the Space Needle. Her futuristic design was intended to boost morale during the depressed 1930s; for one dollar people could take “Moonlight Cruises” with live music and dancing on board. She even had her own swing band.

Over the next few decades, the Kalakala gained

a reputation along Puget Sound ferry routes for a tendency to crash into docks and other boats. The engine is said to have been misaligned, causing a teeth-rattling vibration so that they only filled coffee cups half full in the galley.

The ferry was refitted as a seafood processor and brought to Kodiak in 1968. By the 1980s, the king crab and shrimp fisheries had crashed and its cannery operators went out of business. The ship was abandoned.

The Kalakala’s story might have ended there, but a visiting Seattle sculptor saw her and began an epic restoration effort to repair, excavate and tow the ship back to Puget Sound.

She was met with fanfare when she reached Elliot Bay in 1998, 30 years after leaving. But fundraising efforts failed and the Kalakala was scrapped in Washington in 2015.

14

THE RELOCATED STEAMSHIP The 1964 tsunami also inspired Kodiak’s legendary bar, the Beachcomber. Henry “Legs” LeGrue survived the tsunami by running shoeless up the hill as his home and bar, a log cabin, were swept up in the series of waves. Later, as he sat looking at his empty land, he thought, “Wouldn’t a boat look pretty there.”

He towed the S.S. Princess Norah, a 250foot steamship launched in Scotland in 1929, to Kodiak and on the year’s highest tide used tugboats and bulldozers to prod the ship through a man-made drainage channel and onto a gravel pad next to Potato Patch Lake.

LeGrue added exterior stairs and opened The Beachcomber—with a nightclub on the top deck, a dining room on the bottom deck, a wine cellar below and 50 staterooms for rent.

My father-in-law broke his ankle on one of the ship’s stairways during a brawl. Ask around and most longtime Kodiak residents can share a Beachcomber story or two, which is all that you’ll find of the ship now, except for the odd porthole or brass fitting in a home or banya around town.

It’s these maritime mementos that inspire Terri Springer, a Kodiak setnetter whose fence in Bells Flats merges creativity and practicality in a very Kodiak way.

Terri originally put up the fence to hide her

husband’s construction materials and to use up old roofing. Cannery-salvaged lightbulb covers led to Terri’s first panel of art.

Now the patchwork of art panels made from miscellaneous found objects—rusted tools, a truck flap, melted glass, spent bullets collected at the shooting range—has become a neighborhood favorite.

Among the 76 panels are mosaic mermaids, jellyfish made from old telephone bells, shoes, self-portraits on driftwood, flowers and pinwheels cut from cans, a salmon made from oil spill pompoms.

“It became a challenge to see how many I could do just with things from my house and yard,” said Terri.

In October, the Springers added a giant mermaid reading a book. She perches above an octopus with Keurig tops for suction cups. Her tail is made of old CDs that flash iridescent as you drive by.

The Springer’s fence fits art and history into its functional form, which is what we value in repurposed bunkers or the Star of Kodiak, and why, after nature takes back ships like the Kalakala and Beachcomber, they remain a part of Kodiak’s landscape—in stories and photos and pieces salvaged for the memories they evoke.

Terri Springer's fence made from repurposed materials.

"LATER, AS HE SAT LOOKING AT HIS EMPTY LAND, HE THOUGHT, 'WOULDN’T A BOAT LOOK PRETTY THERE.'"

The S.S. Princess Norah

15

ALASKA 2117

Imagining a future shaped by wildfire, climate change, innovation and industry

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX FRANCE

by Kirsten Swann

UMMER 2015. SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA. The road north passes through familiar scenery: hay flats near Palmer, lakes by Wasilla, scattered homes and businesses and forest in between. Then somewhere around Willow, the landscape changed. Greenery gave way to black.

We were driving to Denali State Park for a family camping trip alongside Byers Lake; a route we’d traveled many times before. This time, though, something was drastically different. This time, we passed miles of charred woodland and empty driveways. Earlier that summer, the Sockeye Fire charred thousands of acres of trees and dozens of houses and other structures. In just a few weeks, the blaze had reshaped the face of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

In Alaska, that happens all the time.

This is a place of perpetual transformation, both natural and manmade. Landscapes burn and bloom.

People come and go. Coastlines erode. Waterways freeze with the seasons. Glaciers thaw. Industries boom, then bust. Shaped by environmental forces and rocked by economic and political storms, the landscape of the Last Frontier undergoes near-constant change.

One hundred years ago, Anchorage was a tent city on the shores of Ship Creek. Today, its downtown skyline is dotted with towering office buildings and hotels. The city itself reaches from Turnagain Arm to the Chugach Mountains and beyond, a patchwork of motley neighborhoods and shiny commercial development and parkland.

What will it look it all look like 100 years from now?

Spoiler alert: There’s really no way to know for sure. Outside forces make the future unpredictable.

But science, public policy and history can combine to form some kind of picture. Neighborhoods and cities pen land use plans for future development.

Scientific models use current trends to forecast distant happenings. Community and business leaders predict and prepare.

Together, they hint at what our future might hold.

CLIMATE CHANGE Alaska is so hot right now. When it comes to our state’s future, climate change dominates much of the conversation, whether you speak with state economists or community organizers.

According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, Alaska temperatures are rising twice as quickly as in other parts of the country, triggering widespread environmental effects. Like fire.

Alaska’s wildfires are predicted to increase in both size and frequency. The state has already experienced more large fires over the last decade than any decade since the 1940s, according to a recent National Climate Assessment.

By the end of the century, annual wildfires are projected to scorch three times as much land as they do now.

The flames are already at our doorsteps. In July, the McHugh Creek fire burned hundreds of acres of parkland just south of Anchorage. Last year, it was the Sockeye Fire in the Mat-Su Borough. In 2014, the Funny River Fire burned more than 100 square miles of the Kenai Peninsula, sparking evacuations and destroying structures in its path.

When the land’s not on fire, it faces other perils, like increased erosion and flooding.

Communities along Alaska’s west coast and Yukon River— think Kivalina, Shaktoolik or Eagle—have already been grappling with these issues for years. Now the Cook Inlet region faces increased risk, too, according to research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Cooperative Extension Service.

What does this all mean for Alaska’s future? Get used to the smell of wood smoke. Prepare for burn bans. Maybe consider an alternative to that riverfront property you’ve been eyeing.

Conceptual designs, part of Anchorage's Ship Creek Framework Plan, illustrate one vision for the future development of Ship Creek. Courtesy of Kling Stubbins.

POPULATION The future population of Alaska will be both older and more ethnically diverse— that’s if current trends continue, according to Eddie Hunsinger, a demographer with the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

One major factor drives that shift: Migration. While approximately 40,000 people enter the state every year, the same number leave it—triggering a subtle, steady metamorphosis.

“Even when there’s no total population change, the face of the population is a lot different,” Hunsinger said.

Alaska’s youngest generations are more ethnically diverse than ever. Anchorage’s public schools are currently among the most diverse in

the country, according to research by University of Alaska Anchorage sociology professor Chad Farrell, and Anchorage is also home to some of the most diverse neighborhoods in America. The trend goes beyond Alaska’s largest city: In Dutch Harbor, you can find fishermen with roots in Africa or Samoa.

In hub communities across Western Alaska and the North Slope, you can meet cab drivers from Laos or restaurateurs from Korea or pilots from Texas or California. Communities across Alaska are filled with people from other places. It wasn’t always like that.

Barring any changes, these diverse young Alaskans will eventually have children of their own.

Some will move away. But many will stay, making the state’s population even more diverse than it already is, Hunsinger said.

Alaskans of the future are expected to be older, too, because the Baby Boomers who moved to Alaska in the ’70s and ’80s are now reaching the age of seniority.

A decade ago, the state was home to about 40,000 senior citizens, Hunsinger said. Today, there are about 70,000. The number is projected to hit 140,000 over the next 20 years, according to the state.

The population shift should be especially apparent in Southeast Alaska, where residents are older and the birth rate is lower.

17

PHOTO COURTESY OF MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGE

REGIONS

Ship Creek, waterfront

When it comes to the fastestgrowing regions in Alaska, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is the long-running titleholder.

But state social scientists says it’s also important to remember the past. Historically, Alaska’s major population booms have been triggered by unpredictable, relatively sudden events, like the threat of war, or the discovery of gold or oil. It’s difficult to predict what could happen next.

In 2016, the luxury cruise ship Crystal Serenity became the largest passenger vessel to traverse the Northwest Passage, carrying more than 1,500 people from Alaska to New York. Could warming Arctic temperatures bring more business to Alaska’s coastal communities? Could Nome blossom into a bustling Bering Sea port city, bolstered by cruise traffic and cargo shipping?

The military presents another unknown. During the height of World War II, some 6,000 people lived on the remote Aleutian

Island of Adak, and Whittier was a busy entrypoint for soldiers coming to Alaska. Today, both places are dotted with abandoned military buildings, and the populations are just a fraction of what they once were.

Still, the military holds a prodigious place in Alaska life.

It’s one of the state’s largest employers. It molded Anchorage into the frontier metropolis it is today, “A war boom town which never seemed to stop booming,” according to Alaska historian Terrence Cole.

A future Alaska military buildup could mean new life for communities like Adak or Whittier. On the other hand, future force reductions could have major repercussions for cities like Anchorage or Fairbanks, where the military still plays a central role.

Economists and demographers say there’s no crystal ball—just a lot of uncertainty.

18

Ship Creek, town square

For all the growth in the Mat-Su, Anchorage is still poised to remain the largest city in Alaska—at least into the foreseeable future. What will it look like 50 years from now?

“I’ve always said this—I want to see Cole Haan next to the Kobuk,” said Andrew Halcro, the former state legislator and current executive director of the Anchorage Community Development Authority.

Sipping coffee in a Downtown Anchorage cafe, Halcro talks about the Anchorage of tomorrow: hopes for long term growth and the many hurdles to development. Alaska’s future is inextricably tied to the Lower 48, he said. Big changes are sweeping the country. Alaska has to be prepared.

“The economy’s gonna have to shift,” Halcro said. “We see what doors are closing; it remains to be seen what doors will open.”

Across the Anchorage bowl, affordable undeveloped land is in increasingly short supply. The way Halcro sees it, the future of Anchorage is built around redevelopment and reinvestment. He has his eyes on three places in particular—downtown and the

ANCHORAGE

surrounding neighborhoods of Fairview and Mountain View. He calls these the “Renaissance area;” neighborhoods in the process of reinventing themselves.

“Downtown, Fairview and Mountain View, in the next 50 years, are going to be, like, the place,” he predicts.

The change has already begun. Mountain View’s new neighborhood development plan, approved by the Anchorage Assembly earlier this year, lays out a vision for a vibrant commercial corridor, real estate development and amplified public art and green spaces. Fairview is the target of a recent tax abatement effort and various other revitalization efforts. Downtown, organizations like ACDA and the Anchorage Downtown Partnership are leading the charge toward revival.

“Our polling shows that downtown has incredible potential,” Halcro said. “Our polling on downtown shows that we have a very specific target of people who come downtown, those are the markets that are growing.”

To fully realize its potential, Halcro

PHOTO COURTESY OF KLING STUBBINS

said, Downtown Anchorage needs to reinvent itself—one part Alaskana, one part cosmopolitan urban hub. There are already plans in place.

The Anchorage Downtown Comprehensive Plan calls for more housing, diverse amenities and a developmental jump-start sparked by leveraging public and private investment. The Ship Creek Framework Plan paints a futuristic picture that includes everything from a new waterfront park to hotels and cruise ship berths. Conceptual design calls for a new harbor and floating stage. Another includes a zipline running from a Hillside Village to a waterfront sports and recreation complex.

The plans are exhilarating to look at. Are they realistic?

Maybe not, depending on whom you ask.

Alaska is facing a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall. The next 100 years could be just as tempestuous as the first. But hope springs eternal, from rural Alaska to our urban core.

“There’s no question,” Halcro said. “The future is incredibly bright.”

19

NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S KITCHEN Anchorage kitchen trends and challenges

by Jamey Bradbury

LIGHTER AND BRIGHTER “The vast majority of people don’t have the luxury of taking out a wall to open things up,” explained Conrad.

“So if we can achieve what a client wants within the space and the budget they have, then we’re doing our job.”

In the case of the Corrigan family, that meant using color and lighting to transform a cramped, dark space into a bright and inviting kitchen. With only one small window and a set of French doors to let in natural light, Conrad emphasized quality lighting by getting rid of the existing fluorescents and installing recessed can lighting, which also provide directed “task” lighting on key work areas, like the refrigerator and the range. She also added reflective surfaces, like a quartz countertop and glass tile backsplash.

“The Corrigan kitchen actually had white cabinets to begin with, yet it looks significantly lighter even with new, darker cabinets,” Conrad said. “The point is, you don’t have to have a huge kitchen with awesome natural light in order for it to look awesome and be functional.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF K&W INTERIORS

HE ALASKA KITCHEN IS A PROBLEMATIC space. Kitchens tend to be the room where families, friends and guests gather to share food and conversation—but many Anchorage kitchens are too dark, too cramped and often oddly shaped.

These are the most common complaints K&W Interiors designer Fernanda Conrad hears from her clients. But achieving the kitchen of your dreams doesn’t have to mean knocking down walls and gutting entire rooms. With a few simple changes, Alaskans can create bright, functional spaces in their homes that are enjoyable and easy to use.

BEFORE

AFTER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF K&W INTERIORS

20

A WASTE OF SPACE? Homeowners who want to brighten their kitchens may also consider getting rid of cabinets altogether, as Conrad did for portions of the Lunoe family’s kitchen.

Open shelving shows off the family’s fun dishes and, paired with white cabinets and sleek countertops, gives the kitchen a modern feel.

This kitchen also faced another problem common to Alaskan kitchens: space.

“A lot of baby boomers are downgrading from their big houses and getting small condos, so maximizing space and not wasting inches are a big deal,” Conrad said.

She advises homeowners to look at vertical space. The majority of kitchens have upper cabinets that don’t go all the way to the ceiling; these can be replaced with taller cabinets for additional shelving. Look at opportunities to reclaim wasted spaces, as well: The three inches between a cabinet and an oven could be filled with a pull-out spice rack or upright storage for cookie sheets. Roll-out trays and drawer dividers can also help make existing spaces more organized and usable.

ALASKAN ODDITIES Alaskans can be a quirky bunch, and so can their living spaces; their kitchens are no exception. Both the Lunoe and Corrigan kitchens were home to layout inefficiencies that needed solving.

While an island is typically a major benefit in most kitchens, the one in the Corrigan’s kitchen was more obstacle than benefit. It was situated too close to the perimeter cabinets, and the range was located on the island itself, using up valuable space.

“We moved the range to the perimeter, then gave the family an entertaining island where guests can actually sit,” Conrad said. “Now the island is actually usable as a prep space, and it’s situated conveniently so that turning from the oven or the fridge, you can immediately put something down, instead of having to walk across the room.”

In the Lunoe kitchen, a pipe running through the middle of the pantry made the area virtually unusable. In this case, Conrad’s team relocated the pipe and replaced the sheetrock pantry with a more functional set of shelves with roll-out trays.

BEFORE

AFTER

NEXT STEPS Whether you’re hiring a designer to help or remodeling a kitchen yourself, there are additional projects you can tackle to both improve the room and save a little money, said Conrad.

“Paint is a big deal—it makes a huge difference and it’s the least expensive change you can make,” she said.

Picking a bold color and pairing it with white or gray cabinets creates a sleek and modern look. Even a subtle new paint job can refresh an older kitchen.

Next, the space between the tops of your counters and the bottoms of the cabinets are hugely underused—so spice them up with a splash. Backsplash tiles now come in huge variety of shapes, sizes and colors, and are easy for the average homeowner to install. “Anytime someone is selling their home but don’t want to upgrade too much,” said Conrad, “the first thing I suggest is a splash to make the kitchen really come together.”

find

For those who are willing to spend a little more, countertops are the next thing to look at. Replacing existing countertops with anything from velour to natural stone can completely transform a space, particularly if you opt to keep your cabinets but still want to shake things up.

And Alaskans, according to Conrad, aren’t afraid of shaking things up. Among K&W Interiors’ customers, she’s noticed a trend toward sleeker, more modern kitchens, with bold accent colors and family-friendly spaces.

“As Generation X is taking over, we’re definitely seeing more straight lines and geometric patterns and funky floors,” she said. “They don’t want to baby their kitchens; they want their kids to be in there and really using the space. The modern Alaska kitchen really isn’t your grandma’s kitchen anymore.”

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PHOTO BY REJOY ARMAMENTO

MAKING YOUR MARK

An award-winning Alaska graphic designer talks logo development

by Jamie Gonzales Logo Concept Drafts

Logo Concept Drafts

Logo Concept Drafts

Logo Logo Concept Concept Drafts Drafts

LOGO CONCEPT DRAFTS

RAPHIC DESIGNER INGER DEEDE HAS SOLDOTNA ROOTS. So there was a nice bit of symmetry in having her on the design team tasked with creating a logo for the City of Soldotna this year. Deede splits her time between Soldotna, where she grew up and remains involved with family and church, and Anchorage, where she works for Agnew::Beck Consulting.

The work she did for the City of Soldotna just earned an honorable mention from the American Institute of Graphic Arts - Alaska Chapter.

City of Soldotna Logo Development

Final Logo

TALK TO EVERYONE A well-designed logo is deceptively simple. It’s a memorable mark that can convey a promise, a philosophy, a place.

So, how do you achieve that?

For graphic designers like Deede, it means bringing everyone to the drafting table early.

“I start every design process by connecting directly with the client,” she said. “We start with a little background education about what a logo can do for the organization, and we ask the client a bunch of questions to learn about what they do, what they

want to do in the future and what kind of look and feel they want.”

Early conversations with the City of Soldotna included lots of folks with a vested interest in their city’s image, including City employees and City Council members. One City employee even helped Deede and Agnew::Beck develop a new way of talking about logos with clients: The Ballcap Test.

The employee printed off several of the designs under consideration and tried each of them on a ballcap.

He’d been pushing for one of the more detailed designs, but the ballcap test changed his mind; he could see the importance of scalability and simplicity once he put the final designs to the test.

FINAL LOGO

City City of Soldotna of Sold

Logo in Use

LOGO IN USE

Logo in Use

City of Soldotna Logo Development

LOGOS COURTESY OF INGER DEEDE

STEP 1

City of Soldotna Logo Development

"I START EVERY DESIGN PROCESS

BY CONNECTING DIRECTLY WITH THE CLIENT."

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STEP 2 LISTEN TO YOUR DESIGNER “Designers are really good at distilling complex concepts into streamlined visuals,” Deede said.

Soldotna, said Deede, is known for outdoor recreation on the Kenai River, for tourism and for year-round opportunities for the residents who call the city home.

“With the new logo, we really wanted to emphasize the history of the City and represent a forward-looking approach,” she said. “The end result captures the river in an S-shaped logo. The colors reflected in the logo are from the local landscape. The simplicity of the form and the fonts allow the logo to be easily translatable in a variety of contexts.”

During the process, designers like Deede encourage feedback, but it’s important for clients to stay focused on the big picture. “For example, if you are working with a designer to create a logo for a healthcare organization, try to say things like, ‘this logo successfully conveys our goal of making all of our patients feel included’ or ‘this concept isn’t capturing enough of a feeling of inclusion,’” Deede advised. Big picture critiques can help a designer dial in the fine details.

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STEP 3 USE LOGO BEST PRACTICES “When you go through a logo design process with a graphic designer, you will walk away with more than just a logo.

You will also be given some guidelines for how to consistently use the logo in various forms of media, from branding a baseball cap to using the logo on social media,” said Deede.

The City of Soldotna has been consistent in following the guidelines Deede provided. She sees the brand everywhere now.

“They even put the logo on a cake for a retirement party. Awesome!”

providers.

We are many things, but drugs do not define us.

It’s a fact. 85% of Alaska Native and American Indian people don’t use illegal drugs.

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SAVO R

Plan a feast for the senses

by Nina Wladkowski & Meghan Mackey

HETHER IT’S A ROMANTIC dinner for two or a winter soiree among friends, a delicious meal in a beautiful atmosphere can warm up a cold, dark Alaska night. Hosting a meal complete with multiple courses and a beautiful centerpiece may sound daunting, but with a little planning and creativity you’ll easily create a feast for the eyes and for the palate. Here is some inspiration for designing your own tablescape and menu to treat your friends to a delightful night in.

WITH THE SOUP

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

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Play around with final touches. Even something as simple as a soup can be exciting with a last minute flourish.

An olive oil spiral or some fresh herbs can brighten any bowl. Treating a sweetheart to a home-cooked meal?

Show them how much you care by adding dots of cream to the soup’s surface and use a toothpick to draw a line down the middle of the circles, creating hearts.

WITH THE SALAD Golden Beet Salad with Gorgonzola and Hazelnuts, with a Simple Balsamic Vinaigarette It’s okay to let nature do most of the work, especially with salads. Pick produce that is not only pleasing to the palate, but also to the eye, such as these brilliant golden beets and purplish radicchio. Contrast the natural shapes the lettuce provides with a mix of geometric cuts from the beets, such as circles, half-circles, rectangles and squares. Sprinkle hazelnuts and Gorgonzola overhead, letting the pieces fall where they may, for a natural final look.

WITH THE MAIN COURSE Frenched Rack of Lamb with Herbs & Root Vegetable Puree, Blanched Broccolini and Simple Red Wine Sauce Just because a plate is flat doesn’t mean your plating needs to be lackluster. Experiment with depth and patterns across the entire surface. To achieve this look: Use a spoon to dollop the root vegetable puree and, with the back of the spoon, swipe the edge of puree in one direction; curve the broccolini around the other side of the plate to compliment or contrast the swoosh of the puree; cut the lamb into one- or two-rib sections and balance them against the puree so the Frenched bone is at an upward angle; spoon a ribbon of red wine sauce in the empty space to bring the dish together.

WITH THE DESSERT

Cranberry Curd Tart with Hazelnut Crust Use the plate as a canvas! Pastry brushes aren’t just for egg washes—dip the brush in melted chocolate, raspberry coulis or other tasty spreads and paint the plate.

A touch of whipped cream and some fresh fruit can elevate any dessert and chocolate is always a welcome addition.

Here, an off-center X of chocolate is brushed across the plate and a rectangle of tart is topped with a hint of lightly sweetened whipped cream while chocolate shavings, made from taking a vegetable peeler to a chocolate bar, are sprinkled across everything. The finishing touch is a fresh gooseberry.

PH OTOS BY

MEGHAN MA CK EY FOO D STY LIN G

BY NINA WL ADK OWSKI

26

SAVO R

CENTERPIECES A centerpiece can reflect the theme of your meal or perhaps provide a conversation piece. It need not be complicated, and you can dress up your table with items you probably already have.

PHOTOS BY MEGHAN MACKE Y

Candles and battery operated twinkle lights—Invite your guests to the table with the warm glow from a small light source.

Wax-dipped flameless candles look realistic and prevent accidents should a guest have an extra glass of wine.

Wine glasses—Mix up traditional stems with stemless to create dimension. Or, sub in a variety of mason jars and arrange on an extra charger, cutting board or mirror.

STYLIN G BY NINA WLADKOWSKI

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Pine cones or holiday ornaments—the holidays may be over, but repurpose some less obvious holiday décor to add cheer to your table all winter long. Arrange them in and around glassware and consider your light sources for diffusion and reflection.

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28

thinking

small Tiny homes are finding a place in Alaska’s vast landscape

by Jody Ellis

E’VE ALL HAD MOMENTS in our lives when we think about shedding those bourgeois material things and living a life of simplicity and freedom. Footloose and fancy free, being able to pack up and leave at a moment’s notice without a care in the world. Better yet, what if you could pick up your house and take it with you, saving space and money while always having a place to call your own?

Known nationwide as the tiny house movement, the desire to go small and portable has recently made its way to Alaska. More than just an economical way to live while still owning a home, tiny homeowners see it as a responsible, ethical way to reduce their footprint on the earth, using fewer resources without compromising quality of life.

Coley Foster of Tundra Tiny Homes builds custom tiny houses in Alaska. Formerly from Iowa, Foster came to Alaska with the military and decided to stay. Foster said he saw a need for tiny homes, especially for people living off the grid.

“I have a degree in renewable energy and have installed a lot of off-grid power systems for people, as well as living off the grid myself,” he said.

With no background in construction, Foster’s first project was his own home, which he built on property he purchased.

“It was kind of a trial by fire, since I’d never really built anything like it,” he said.

Foster’s home, which is about 12x20 feet with a half loft, meets the size requirements of a tiny home but is too tall to be a true tiny house. “A tiny home has to be 13-and-a-half feet from the ground in order to be road legal,” he said.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF COREY FOSTER

29

“And they have to be road legal in order to be towed safely from place to place.”

Foster said he gets a lot of “tire kickers,” dreaming of tiny home ownership but not quite ready to take the plunge. He sees a lot of retirees looking to downsize, as well as military families, which, as a former military member, makes sense to him.

“When you get transferred every few years, you have to rent or buy a house, then deal with the hassle of packing up and moving,” he said. “A couple or small family could hook a tiny house up to their truck and take it from one duty station to the next.”

Of course, the biggest concern with a tiny house is space.

“Everything you put in these homes has to do two or three

things,” said Foster. “One of my design plans includes a sofa that hinges up with storage underneath, and can also turn into a bed. It all has to work and flow together. If you have one room or area that isn’t cohesive with the rest of the space, it becomes a problem.”

Compared to a full-size house, the homes have an attractive price tag, with Tundra Tiny Home floor plans starting at around $45,000.

“A lot of the cost is in the trailer itself,” said Foster. “And we do spray foam insulation in the homes as it can be difficult to heat them while still remaining fully mobile.”

Foster said the average size is 8.5 feet by 24 feet, which is small enough to keep the mobility factor so the homes can be hooked up to a full-size truck for transport.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARK WIPFLI

For those who choose to join the tiny home movement, however, the freedom and independence is only part of the allure.

Mark Wipfli, who has lived in a tiny house he built himself for just over a year, said that he not only wanted to simplify his life, he wanted to live in a way that went beyond typical American homes.

“I’m not impressed with the standard American home,” he said. “It feels so big and boring to me, a big box. I’d been looking for an alternative, something with a smaller footprint on the environment.”

Wipfli, who came to Alaska from Wisconsin, lived in Southeast and eventually ended up in Fairbanks, where he is a scientist and faculty member at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Like Foster, Wipfli’s own home was the first he’d ever built.

“I’ve built boats in the past, and I lived on a boat when I was in Southeast Alaska,” he said. “I was impressed by the way boat builders utilized space so efficiently. I decided to build a tiny house on a trailer I

could take with me, modeling it after the space on a boat.”

Wipfli’s house, which he parks on his property in Fairbanks, is a petite 200 square feet, including the loft area. By building it himself, he was able to save money on labor and truly customize the house the way he wanted. “I put in a lot of windows, all triplepaned so they are still very efficient,” he said. “I wanted to maximize the open floor concept, so it’s just one big room with a small bathroom and the loft.”

Wipfli recommends that people who want to make the move to a tiny house try it on for size first.

“There are several places in the states where you can rent a tiny home,” he said.

“Portland has a tiny home village with four or five homes on a lot that you can rent. I tried living in one for a few days so I could get a feel for it and be sure it would work for me.”

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house conference, which alternates between the east and west coasts. “It’s a huge boost to go to the conference and meet people who have built homes, attend the talks and learn about the process,” said Wipfli. “It’s nice to have that support.”

Foster encourages people to seek out a floor plan that suits their personal taste and lifestyle.

“There are a lot of free floor plans online,” he said. “Find one you really like and any tiny house builder should be able to accommodate you. Make sure it’s exactly what you want; you’re already giving up a lot space-wise.”

The loss of space appears to be an okay trade for tiny home residents. “I have financial freedom now and don’t have to worry about money,” said Wipfli. “We build these big houses and cram them full of stuff, stuff we don’t even need most of the time.

Now I can travel, invest, enjoy life.”

CREATING

UP AND COMING DESIGNER BEN ELLIS GETS REAL ABOUT SUSTAINABLE FASHION

by Catalina Dengel

ILLUSTRATION BY REJOY ARMAMENTO

PHOTO BY BOB TOY

REALITY

32 "I GREW UP IN A FAMILY OF BUSH PILOTS AND FIREMEN— SO FASHION, FASHION DESIGN, WAS THOUGHT OF AS KIND OF FRIVOLOUS...

BUT I’VE JUST ALWAYS DONE IT."

PH OTO

EN ELLIS HAS ALWAYS loved to design clothes. He’s been designing them all his life—he just didn’t know it. His earliest recollections involve fashion. He remembers pulling out a fresh sheet of paper and crayons, drawing his favorite superheros and adorning their suits and capes with pops of color. The Alaska fashion designer recently showed an eight-piece collection at New York Fashion Week this September. Only a handful of students were selected from his school, San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, to show. For Ellis, the road from Alaska to the tents of Bryant Park has been a journey he didn’t always realize he was on.

“I grew up in a family of bush pilots and firemen—so fashion, fashion design, was thought of as kind of frivolous,” said Ellis. “But I’ve just always done it.”

Ellis grew up in Anchorage, but spent many summers with family up north in Nabesna, living, working and exploring the glacial landscapes in the shadows of the Wrangell Mountains—something that would later influence his art and his worldview—and eventually play

a role in his collection at New York Fashion Week.

After high school, Ellis left Alaska.

He became more interested and active in art—design, sculpture, visual art— but he kept circling back to fashion.

“Fashion is one of the instruments for creating reality,” said Ellis. “Depending on what you wear that day, it can affect your mood, it can affect how people interact with you, it affects how you interact with the world.”

Ellis believes in the transformative power of fashion—how one piece of clothing can make a person feel. He loves how interactive the art form is and how fast it moves and weaves itself in and out of every industry, group or culture.

“It’s so interactive on so many levels— from the visual to the tactile, to wearing it, to viewing it in a museum, to making—it’s, it’s just my favorite,” Ellis said. “I never felt that way as a painter or a muralist or a graphic designer. I feel like as a fashion designer I can play more with the world around me and have a voice.”

Over the course of his career as an artist he’d designed a few clothing collections—mostly T-shirts with graphic designs on them—some of which were sold in Anchorage. But as his visual art career was waning and he was looking to the horizon for the next move in life, he kept circling back to fashion. So he decided to switch it up.

Really switch it up.

BY N IC K G UTI ER R EZ

33

GETTY IMAGES

He moved to South America. And he got himself an apprenticeship with a seamstress in Colombia who barely spoke English. He struggled with Spanish, but the two of them made it work. And he learned the basics, learned how to sew, to feel the textile in his hand, work with a needle and thread.

“I was just really cutting my teeth, learning how to sew,” said Ellis. “As frustrating as that could be, I still loved it—and kept pushing myself to do more.”

After four years of living there and apprenticing, he had a “now or never” moment and applied to fashion school. Initially he started online, but quickly realized the only way to really learn the craft was to be handson. So he moved back to the states to attend AAU. When he arrived, he heard about the school’s selection of a handful of students to show a collection at New York Fashion Week—and Ellis set his sights on being one of those students. In the months before New York Fashion Week he was still unsure he would be picked, but eventually the call came.

“Having a goal like that, met and realized—it’s one of the coolest experiences of my life,” Ellis said.

Ellis said he drew inspiration for his collection at New York Fashion Week from all aspects of his

life. From his days as an athlete and instructing yoga to artists like Matisse and Kandinsky, but none influenced him as much as the changing environment of the rugged landscapes from his northern childhood summers.

“One of my initial inspirations was sustainability, being a responsible designer, being from Alaska,” said Elis. “I personally can see how things are changing. I can see how our landscape is changing and talking to my family and their experiences how it’s changing.”

Currently, nationwide and globally the fashion industry is having a moment, much like the food industry experienced about 10 years ago when the pendulum swung from fast food and big box grocers back to a farm-to-table model and people really started considering where their food came from and how it was grown. The fashion world is starting to have that conversation—how to create a sustainable and socially responsible industry. Backlash from “fast fashion” brands like Forever 21, H&M and Zara that constantly churn out new product every few months have inspired smaller, local brands and designers to create higher quality products at fewer intervals, hoping to slow the frenzied churn of the fast fashion brands.

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"FASHION IS THE SECOND OR THE THIRD...MOST POLLUTED INDUSTRY IN THE WORLD...AND I DON’T WANT TO CONTRIBUTE TO THAT."

But fashion is big business. According to the video The Problem with Fast Fashion by The Huffington Post, the fashion industry rakes in 1.2 trillion dollars each year, with $250 billion from the U.S. market alone. The average American, according to the video, generates 82 pounds of textile waste each year. Fast fashion items are worn an average of five times and often thrown out 35 days after purchase. The video also explains that besides the consumer waste, the environmental impacts are huge. The clothing industry is the second highest pollutant of clean water worldwide and the cotton industry uses more pesticides than any other crop. All of this has weighed heavily on Ellis and his desire to incite change within the industry.

“Fashion is the second or the third—depending on where you read—most polluted industry in the world,” Ellis said. “And I don’t want to contribute to that. It’s irresponsible.” Ellis is passionate on the subject of sustainability and marrying the industry with environmentally friendly and socially responsible practices.

“I think it’s kind of like the tobacco industry or the sugar industry—we’re just waking up to how bad it really is,” Ellis said.

Ellis graduated last year with a bachelor of fine arts in Menswear Design and recently moved to New York City to intern with NICOPANDA, a fashion label headed by Nicola Formichetti, known for being the creative director of brands like Diesel and MUGLER and who worked as Lady Gaga’s stylist during her Bad Romance era of provocative fashion. He thinks he would like to have his own fashion label at some point, but right now he’s just enjoying his experience and hoping that he can be part of a conversation in an industry that is slowly starting to change.

“I want to be part of the solution,” Ellis said. “I believe success is 'more are you satisfied'? Are you satisfied with your life—with what you’ve done and who you have in it—versus a label. And I’m in the business of labels.”

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compiled by Rejoy Armamento

e buy beers for their labels–don't you? Here are some of our favorite Alaska beers with some of our favorite beer labels.

Three local designers shared with us what's behind their designs.

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Email us with ideas for a future What We Love at special@alaskadispatch.com, subject: What We Love.

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