Alan Clifford Kettler
Ecological Graphic Designer, Illustrator, Photographer, Writer,
Publisher, Architect, Interior Designer, Garden and Landscape Designer,
Organic Chef
6928 Meade St
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
Telephone 412-877-3546
email: akett8040@gmail.com
Ecological Design Website www.kettlerecological.com
ONLINE DESIGN PORTFOLIO of Media
and Publishing
CAREER SUMMARY:
• Current Position - President, Kettler Ecological Design.
Alan Kettler is an eclectic visionary ecologist who brings the power
of design to environmental causes. All of his work expresses his deep
commitment to helping build a more ecologically sustainable world. His
work focuses on communication, education and marketing of environmental
information and concepts in the form of books, maps, posters, websites,
writings, lectures, and more.
As president of Kettler Ecological Design, Mr. Kettler has spent over
30 years specializing in the creation of publications and electronic
media for and about nature and the environment. Most of his work was
done for clients on a commission basis, and he has also published his
own brochures, posters, maps, and 13 websites about the environment.
• Vice President, Hidden Valley Four Seasons Resort, PA.
My family owned the resort for about 25 years until my brother sold
it a few years ago. My brother was President and I worked off and on
for him for about 10 years doing multitasking. I started and developed
the website for the resort, created point of purchase posters for the
resort, and created an ecotourism advertising campaign for the resort.
I also spent several years designing and installing perennial flower
gardens that made a lovely setting for the outdoor weddings we had at
our 3 wedding gazebos. The wedding photographers would use them as backdrops
for photographs of the wedding parties and family members, and of course,
the bride and groom. Gardening is an art - I call it living sculpture
that is 5-dimensional. 3-D plus time = change through the seasons, plus
the effects of light that changes throughout the day and throughout
the seasons.
• Writer. When I lived in Rhode Island I wrote, photographed,
and designed about 20 magazine articles about gardening that were published
in a high-end four color magazine called "Home Gallery." It
was all about decorating, cooking, art, food, restaurants, etc.
• Teacher and Lecturer. When I lived in Rhode Island I
presented and taught about 20 classes and workshops on topics related
to gardening, such as shade gardening, fern gardening, ecological landscaping,
and building with stone without cement or mortar, such as drystack stone
walls. My favorite class I gave twice was at my island home near Newport
- people paid me $35 apiece for a two hour tour of my ecologically designed
flower garden and my yard was only 1/13th of an acre! People were so
enthralled at my presentation and the wealth of information that could
be gleaned from that tiny piece of land, they did not want to leave
after 2 hours. If I had known ahead of time that my garden tour would
be so well received, we could have had planned a garden party on the
back deck when the tour was over!
• Professional Gardener. I have been designing and installing
organic gardens, using mostly native plants, for about 20 years. I designed
and installed perennial gardens at Hidden Valley Resort for about 8
years, and I have been the Curator of the Plant Collection at a nearby
Frank Lloyd Wright house. It is one of only six Frank Lloyd Wright houses
in the United States where you can spend the night. Meanwhile, I get
small commissions from homeowners in Pittsburgh to clean up their yards,
and then design and install organic perennial gardens. I have a no compromise
attitiude about pesticides in order to protect the health of people,
pets, wildlife, air, and water. This a serious matter for the environment
- organic gardening, vs chemically based gardening.
• Former Owner and Director, Naturally Narragansett, New
England's only ecological arts showroom, Newport, Rhode Island, 2007-2008.
• Illustration Teacher, Northern Virginia Community College
Art Department, Alexandria Campus, 1988 - 1991.
ACADEMIC PREPARATION:
B.A. in Geography and Cultural Anthropology, University of Michigan
- Emphasis on the study of food anthropology, agricultural ecology,
plant and food ecology, ethnobotany, economic botany, natural history,
natural resources, etc.
Self-taught in the visual and communication arts
Self-taught in cooking and culinary art
CLIENT HISTORY:
ONLINE DESIGN PORTFOLIO of Media
and Publishing
Over the last 30 years, Mr. Kettler has received print and electronic
publication commissions for environmental education and advocacy from
prominent government agencies, media companies, nonprofit advocacy groups,
US government contractors, and academic institutions, including:
Hidden Valley Resort
Polymath Park Resort
Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society) New York City
The Global Environment Facility (GEF)(World Bank)
Potomac Conservancy
Sea Turtle Rescue League
Center for Marine Conservation
Water Environment Federation
National Geographic Society
Smithsonian Magazine
Discovery Communications
NASA
CIA
MOBIL Oil
Geothermal Education Office
Nature Conservancy
Peace Corps
Greenpeace
Humane Society of the US
US Environmental Protection Agency
NOAA
Solar Lobby
US Dept of Agriculture
Maryland Sea Grant College
World Wildlife Fund
US Committee for Refugees
Appropriate Technology International
United Nations Development Programme Office of Forestry
Time Life Books
Coca Cola Global Water Initiative
NBC Advertising
ABC News
ECOLOGICAL WEBSITES I HAVE CREATED:
THESE ARE MY OWN WEBSITES I CONCEIVED, DESIGNED, PROGRAMMED, WRITTEN,
PHOTOGRAPHED and PUBLISHED ONLINE ON MY OWN INITIATIVE
1) http://www.kettlergardens.com - My organic gardening website
2) http://www.healingartsphotography.com - My stock photography website
with over 600 calm, healing images mostly of nature - To be used in
sterile office environnments, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and any
place where where such images would be appropriate to make people feel
good. These image are just the tip of the iceberg - I have thousands
more such images stored on my computers.
3) http://www.kettlerexhibition.com - My website I use to promote my
artworks to galleries and other exhibition spaces like cafes and coffee
shops for sale as prints
4) http://www.ecoallegheny.com - Your Ultimate Information Resource
About and Happenings Affecting the Ecology of the Allegheny Mountians
- A website I created with links to organizations in the Allegheny Mountains
that are involved in making these mountains more environmentally sustainable
and also working to create a culture of environmental stewardship
5) http://www.ketthaus.com - A very brief but precise website with
a rendering of just one of my many ecologically designed houses, including
a verbal description of the ecological features of such a house
6) http://www.ketthouse.com - A very brief but precise website with
a rendering of a passive solar heated room in one of my ecological houses.
The typical passive solar house gains heat on a sunny day but loses
heat at night through the large pieces of glass that let sunlight in
during the day, but because glass has no insulating value, such houses
can lose a great deal of heat during the night. My solution is a room
that is designed to receive and store daytime solar radiant heat, while
letting it pass into rooms behind that passive solar room, and to shut
that room off at night to help keep the rest of the house warm inside.
7) http://www.ecopittsburgh.com - Your Ultimate Information Source
About People and Happenings Affecting the Ecology of Pittsburgh and
Its Countryside
8) http://www.kettlerecological.com - This is my primary ecological
design website, which includes 4 major categories -
a. Ecological media design
b. Ecological photography
c. Ecological landscape and garden design
d. Ecotourism consulting and design (many places, companies, resorts,
and entire countries that are in dire need of what I can offer as an
ecotourism designer and consultant). I see it over and over again, and
it is pathetic."Adventure tourism" is the #1 type of tourism
across the globe and entire countries are losing out because they have
no idea how to capitalize on their potential sources of ecotourism revenues.
I have been there, experienced it, and left frustrated. With money in
my pocket that I would have been happy to spend if I had only known
how and where to spend it...
9) http://www.cubcreekpreserve.com - This is a website I created to
sell my 20 acres just up the road from Fallingwater, the world's most
famous house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1936 when he was 65
years old. Originally I wanted to build and create the most advanced
ecological subdivision in western Pennsylvania. I spent 6 months during
2 winters writing restrictive covenants on the use of the properties
and the types of buildings that could be constructed, but I did not
have enough money to make it happen, sadly. I spent years researching
restrictive covenants and other such "conservation subdivisions"
around the country and I do believe that I have the best book of such
covenants that anyone has every researched and written in the United
States.
10) http://www.maplesummit.net - This is a website I created to sell
my 20 acres just up the road from Fallingwater, the world's most famous
house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1936 when he was 65 years old.
It is a real estate website designed to sell the entire 20 acres to
just one person who could build their own private mountain retreat home,
surrounded on 3 sides by the 5,000 acre Bear Run Nature Reserve. A really
fine person recently purchased it in early February 2014. He is an ecologist
like me so we have plenty to talk about...