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Midwest Man-Venture: Frank Lloyd Wright, Photography and Business

Admin
May 16, 2017
3 min read

In August of 2016 I had the opportunity to turn a pleasure trip with a dear friend into a business trip, photographic expedition and pilgrimage to the architectural sites of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. Praises to our kind and wonderful wives for letting us have time to explore some natural and architectural sites without them, while they kept the home fires burning. It was an honor to travel with one of my Brand Ambassadors for Locke Design, Bart Krulic, who is the Nylon Industrial Fiber Sales Rep for Ascend Performance Materials. He and his wife are great champions and supporters of my business.

The trip started in my mind as a weekend visit to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Dana Thomas House in Springfield, Illinois and then evolved to become a 10 day expedition to North Dakota. As luck would have it, a new client from Bloomington, Illinois came to Locke Design when we were in the planning stages of the trip. Our client, Graham Newlin, is a tax consultancy firm whose president is a Frank Lloyd Wright aficionado. This lead them to find me as a Wright scholar and lead to a commission of a new logo and identity for Graham Newlin that was Wright inspired.

Our business trip began with an 11 hour drive from Anderson, South Carolina to Springfield, Illinois. The next day we toured the 12,000 plus square foot Dana Thomas House, a Prairie-style masterwork of Frank Lloyd Wright and made a visit to the grave of President Lincoln. Then, came an excellent meeting with my client in Bloomington, Illinois followed by a drive to Chicago.

In Chicago, I was afforded the opportunity to photograph the stunning Buckingham Fountain and Bean Sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Grant Park at night. The next morning we drove to Plano, Illinois to visit the Farnsworth House, considered the greatest residential work by architecture Mies van der Rohe. Mies coined the great design quote, “Less is More”.

The next day included a visit to my associate’s customer in the nylon industry. A quick stop by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio in Oak Park and a long drive through Wisconsin to visit Wright’s farm, school and home, Taliesin, in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Touring Taliesin was a dream fulfilled for me! From Wisconsin, we travel on to Minneapolis to visit Minnesota Knitting Mills, a client of my traveling associate, and then it was a long drive through the fields of North Dakota to Dickson, North Dakota.

In North Dakota we hiked and drove through Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and then drove to Rapid City to use as a base. From Rapid City we toured Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave and Badlands National Park. Then it was a three day drive back home to South Carolina through beautiful farmland with short visits to Wall Drug and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. I returned recharged and inspired to create new designs for our clients.