Lloyd Alter continues his great Herman Miller coverage over on Treehugger. Check out his post and slideshow on the making of our Eames Lounge Chair. Lloyd went behind the scenes at the factory where the iconic chair is made.
Multi-talented Kiino Villand, a photographer, a director, and co-founder/editorial director of WSTRNCV Magazine, uses his house as a case study for integrating photography and editorial work with family, living in a setting that looks different all the time.
About 3 years ago, my wife, our daughter and I moved to Silver Lake, CA. As the second owners of a house built in 1937, we’re getting towards the tail end of a fairly substantial renovation. By far, the best feature of our place is the concrete regulation badminton court in the backyard. On first sight, it was obvious that this fairly unique feature would not only be ideal for hosting badminton tournaments (natch), but would be a fantastic outdoor studio for photography, film & video productions. On days when I’m not shooting, the court additionally works great as a roller-skating rink for our daughter. The goal is ease of use for shoot days and play dates alike.
As we get closer to finishing the overhaul, we’re still weighing the best direction to go in terms of setting up office space. Our project manager is my wife Andraleia, an interior and exterior designer who’s hands-on construction experience and amazing taste have made this a family effort. Andraleia would like nothing less than to get my butt out of the breakfast nook, where my temporary office is.
So we have our sights on one end of the badminton court as a place to build a small office plus multi-purpose makeup/wardrobe/equipment/guest room. Those are a lot of purposes. We’ll have to be efficient if we want to allow enough room to keep the court functional for the Silver Lake Badminton Club.
I often daydream about this perfectly organized space with its array of shelving, storage space and open desk area. Also of key importance will be the ability to allow for complete range in light levels. I prefer ample daylight when I’m writing or editing the magazine. But when working on photo editing and video editing, it needs to be very dim. This should be easily accomplished with a good set of blackout drapes or sliding panels.
The entire house serves also as a case study for Andraleia. Her clients see what the rooms actually look like and she can figure out first hand what certain materials work for what particular purpose (fixtures, patio pavers, etc.). It’s a tactile proof of concept.
Because of all this multi-functionality we regularly move furniture all over the place. I consider this a good thing.
Friends are always saying the place looks different when they come over. They’re always right, and always welcomed.
• $Free
• MetaQuark
Are you good at keeping all your apps and your operating system up to date? If you’re like the majority of people we know, probably not. Applicatiib and system updates are usually right up there with “reorganizing the closet” and “properly tagging all my music files”: ideal ventures better held off till tomorrow. Procrastinate no longer (OS X users), the free AppFresh will keep tabs on Apple Software Update, Sparkle, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Adobe Updater, osx.iusethis.com and other apps, preferences and widgets, providing a centralized way to make sure you’re running on the latest and greatest. AppFresh is still in beta, but the free price tag might warrant a download.
By Gregory Han
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
We can almost guarantee that this week’s Playlist-er has heard a lot of “No, not that Dustin Hoffman” in his lifetime. We’re also pretty sure that this Dustin Hoffman—a web designer and developer who just moved to NYC—has just delivered a song list of which his name twin would be proud.
What do you listen to while you work? As a stereotypical 15-year-old girl’s Tumblr might read, I have a very “eclectic taste” in music. I’m constantly being turned on to new artists, and as of late, I’ve been completely ignoring the tunes I used to be able to listen to on repeat for hours. While I’ve had the propensity to turn into a pretentious, spends-10-hours-on-Friday-night-organizing-his-iTunes audiophile, I’ve also managed to skirt the edge of hipster obscurity by reciting “have you heard of…” one too many times to my friends. While they still may have no idea who Arcade Fire is, I’ve found my own happy medium somewhere between Gaga and PWIN ▲▲ TEAKS. All to say—there’s a variety to the artists I could be submersing myself in while I work, and generally it’s entirely dependent on the mood I’m in and the work that needs doing. If I’m between curly braces as it were (programming something), I try and shy away from folk music and opt for something with a thick beat I can get into a groove with, or something fast and relentless. But when doing interface design work, or something more free-form I opt for something less electronic. When I really need to put my head down and get work done, I’ll often opt for a old favorite like Throw Me The Statue, The Killers, or Death Cab for Cutie.
How do you listen? When I’m at home, I’ll usually listen on my Logitech speakers, using 3.1 of 5.1 (that’s left, right, mid, and a subwoofer, nix the rear speakers). However, occasionally my under-neighbor will broom his ceiling in the wee hours of the night and I’ll turn to my trusty Klipsh S4 in-ear headphones, which I also use whenever I’m on the subway.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I use The Hype Machine to find awesome up-and-coming artists and to find out about new songs from artists I already love. I also happen to work for The Hype Machine, but I’d be using the service regardless. It’s really awesome and you should check it out if you’re unfamiliar.
I also follow a few Tumblr music blogs, one notable favorite being Justwatchthesky.com. I’ve also been watching Bandcamp.com lately for awesome new indie albums. I’m really excited to see the site grow—it hopefully will even replace Myspace one day as a place to go any listen to a fresh band’s work.
Does music influence your work? Sometimes I find myself typing to a particular beat, and one song comes to mind:.”Carneval” by Looptroop, which a fast-paced, smooth beat I can really write code to. But on a more visual note, my work does sometimes reflect patterns found in a song. The animation on my homepage (breefield.com) was inspired by Animal Collective’s “Peacebone.” Everything starts out completely crazy and random—just complete absurdity—but then as you let time pass, things start to sync up, patterns form, and the song falls into place. I wanted my new portfolio to feel the same way—technically chaotic but with a planned pattern. I think it does that nicely.
Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I have a few good friends who know I’m always on the lookout for great new albums or artists. One friend in particular watches my Last.fm scrobbles and makes amazing recommendations based on a combination of influences, as opposed to “A and B are similar.” I’m always super impressed with her uncanny ability to know what I’m going to like even before I listen to it.
If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? I wish I’d answered this question every six months for the last five years; it would better represent how I feel about my own work over time, and where it’s headed. I think that, at the beginning of 2010, I would have replied “The Shins,” and come June it would have changed to “Passion Pit.” But now I’m feeling pretty solid about “Lovesick Teenagers” by Bear in Heaven. I’m realizing how my personal projects can be a lot like a relationship based on infatuation. For the first few days, it’s all I can think about; I can’t sleep and I have trouble concentrating on the things I should be doing because my brain wants nothing more than to explore the inner workings of whatever vexes me at the time. But let a few weeks (sometimes months) pass by and I’ll find something more attractive to invest myself in. It’s all about taking a project to a place where you’re happy with it, and can let it rest on a plateau without driving it into the ground. Or as the song would say “land on the earth before we crash into the ground.”
I’m really enjoying sfgirlbybay’s Pinterest page devoted to work spaces. Beautiful ideas here.
Okay, we’ll admit doing our yearly taxes may not be the most exciting thing out there, but it has to be done and if we can help it, the more painless the process, the better. What’s nice is these days you can do it yourself online without ever having to face a real person. The question that remains is, “What’s the best online tax tool out there today?”
This year I went ahead and tried TurboTax online. Since my parents have been using it for several years now, I figured if they could do it, so could I.
Of course, if you’ve filed in the past, it’s not surprising to find yourself painfully bored out of your mind, face in palm, and filled with yawns of utter annoyance. With TurboTax online, which costs $30-180 depending on the businesses you run, the problem is only slightly alleviated. In the end, it’s just another series of yes/no prompts, filled with words that you’ll never see in everyday conversation, utilizing a dated structure that’ll probably never change for decades to come.
Lifehacker has also done a comparison between the TurboTax online product and H&R Block’s equivalent that’s worth a read if you’re interested in seeing how two of the most popular services out there do in a direct faceoff.
What about you, readers? Find a sweet online tax tool that doesn’t feel like you’re doing taxes? Let us know in the comments!
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
A year ago Suzanne Rico lost her job as morning co-anchor on KCBS-TV (Channel 2). The reason? She was a victim of a major restructuring. “I went from news anchor to news nobody in the three minutes it took for new News Director Scott Diener to fire me.” Suzanne has been reinventing herself ever since that fateful day. She and her husband jettisoned their comfortable life in Los Angeles and began a long, worldwide journey in search of a slower, simpler life. Where will it end? ”With two little kids and a 15 year old Labrador in tow, I’m either headed for enlightenment or an expedited check-in to the looney bin,” Suzanne says. She is documenting their travels on a blog aptly titled Walking Papers. Here she talks about her new mobile office.
You recently went through a big change in your work life. Can you tell us about that? I went from working on deadline ALL the time to working on no deadline at all. This, I would say, is the best thing that came with getting fired. The worst is having no paycheck. The second best thing about getting fired is not having to put on make-up, fancy clothes and heels in the pre-dawn hours–especially if I had been up with a sick kid all night and felt like the living dead. The best lighting a major news network can provide will not make you look or feel good in these circumstances–not to mention allow you to form a cohesive sentence. Now if I have a bad night, I can work in my pajamas and eat grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (did I mention I no longer have a paycheck?). The journey from well-paid anchor to un-paid blogger feels like a re-birth. I am in the process of discovering who I am when I no longer have to squeeze myself into the confines dictated by a news job. I have total choice. I am my own boss. When my children need me, I can put the computer to sleep. This is liberating, fulfilling, exhilarating and scary as hell to a lifelong workaholic career woman.
With all the travel you are doing right now how do you keep yourself organized? When do you find time to write? And where do you do it? I write in the car, train or airplane as much as possible, but I take my computer anywhere that I think I will have five minutes to write. I work between stints as referee, waitress, circus clown, Lego-builder, teacher, healer, and story-teller because my husband and I are all things to our children right now. All the help I had back when I had a paying job is gone–and I don’t miss it. I work late after the kids are asleep in whatever random room we are staying in, comforted that my family is there but relieved that, for the moment, I have the night to myself. These stolen moments are enough.
Chaos has always made me jumpy. This is likely because I lived such a structured life for so long (be one minute late to the set, and you miss a live broadcast). I stay organized by being a minimalist. I clean as I go, throw away everything that isn’t crucial to my work (and often find that I need that “trash” later), and every few days I empty the contents of my black back pack onto the floor and repack it, organizing snacks and sunscreen, power cords and Tylenol, home school supplies and vitamins. Being on the road has its advantages, as you are limited in what you can bring by space. I am forced to travel lean and when my work area gets messy (as it often did in the “micro-car” we rented for a three week road trip down Argentina’s rough Ruta 40) I stop down and clean up. With my computer, camera, power cord, adapter and a good power source (sometimes difficult to find!), I have all I need.
What piece of technology besides your laptop are you most attached to? My husband is my second favorite technological tool. He’s like Rain-Man in that he can learn anything and has this vast ability to retain information. I am technologically challenged, so he is my go-to guy when something goes haywire with my computer or iPhone. He says he has to stop enabling me so that I learn for myself, but I figure it’s easier just to make sure we never get divorced. If I had to pick a real thing, I would say my iPhone. I haven’t made one call on it in months, but I use it to jot down thoughts and often take it with me on my runs, so that when an idea hits, I can record it in a voice memo. Plus, it holds my favorite photos. Do I sound like a commercial for Apple?
What inspires you? My children make me laugh and cry–two emotions that always provide inspiration. When my three year old looks at the vast African sky and sighs, “Look at all the colors!”, I see the world through his eyes and my problems seem small and solvable. When that same exhausted kid has a melt down as we are being questioned by a stern customs agent (a long line of annoyed travelers staring as I wrestle him off the ground) I try to breathe and know that parents everywhere have walked in my shoes. Bad or good, my children provide my best material.
Lately, a beautifully constructed sentence also inspires me. A well-written sentence is like a house design that blows you away with its perfection, functionality and originality. Ever since I changed my life a year ago, I have been learning the art of writing. I now read much more slowly, inspired by each lovely line. It is also inspiring to have something suddenly click in my own writing–the invigorating moment that my thoughts take form and the story comes together. I don’t know where this new love of travel and writing will take me, but the ride has been awesome so far. I know I am incredibly lucky to have this opportunity to walk new paths and try not to take it for granted.
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Mike Perry Studio for his sense of humor. He is also donating 100% of his online sales to help Japan.
2. GOOD’s design and architecture stories always hit the mark. I also love the Infographic coverage.
3. BOOOOOOM! Not sure if I got all the ‘o’s in there but forget the title of this blog and go straight to their design posts. Lots of great finds.
4. Notcot which has been redesigned and now boasts even more great design, architecture, homewares, fashion and food.
5. Materialicious for their round-up of office spaces.
6. Lovely Clusters for a good dose of pretty interiors.
7. Picked by Six reminds me that simplicity is often the key to a well-designed blog!
8. Pilar Viladas on The New York Times site for her strong design coverage.
9. Zeospot for their home office round ups.
10. Aterlier A+D for architect Michelle Linden’s take on modern architecture and design.
Canadian artist and art director, Chris von Szombathy, splits his work day between two desks – one dry and one wet. Take a look.
Tell us about the kind of work you do. How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I work as both a visual/graphic and audio artist/art director. Because most of my work is quite small or digitally based I am able to do 90% of it out of a very small space and have done so for about a decade. Since I have had struggles with agoraphobia working out of the home was a necessity for me in the past, a comfort for me now as I work towards a more stable existence. I live in Vancouver, Canada.
Describe your style and how it relates to the space you work in and also the work you produce. Stylistically my work deals with what I see as a broad visual language; incorporating illustrative and advertising styles (my interests and preferences) as a container for the emotional content that is around that day (my experiences and questions). Really though it’s just whatever pops into my head that I like and has what it takes to go beyond the drawing board. My sensibility, at least what I try to achieve in the editing process, really is just a bold, clear something with attention to details. For me it’s about filling a space with an object that seems to have clear intentions but leaving enough room for interpretations to feel unhampered. It’s also how I try to work within physical spaces as well. However, wet paints and computers don’t mix so I do have to keep some separation!
How do you keep your work space organized? I like to keep things always in the same place so that when I need something I can reach for it with my eyes closed. It’s the same way that I also organize files in my computer. Everything should end up in places that will be the first place you’ll look. Organization, though, only creates flexibility if you create a flexible structure. Creating the space and freedom to be messy isn’t the same as being messy. It’s only messy if it’s an oversight.
When you set up your home office what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? I dislike working on carpet. I also believe in smells being really crucial. It’s definitely one of those things that, although it doesn’t end up in the final product per se, can affect your pace and awareness. Everyone complains that I work in the dark too much so having good lighting was also, apparently, something to be aware of. I find I focus better in dimmer lighting however.
Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet right now? No. I covet kitchen hardware way more. I treat my entire living area as a work(ing) space, barring the fact that the computer stays stationary. If I’m comfortable with where my pillow is then I’m comfortable where I’m working.
What desk accessory can’t you do without? A pencil. It’s the one thing I end up looking for more than anything else.
What would you change about your work space? I would probably be living in a more open floor plan and everything would have cupboards and wheels and clean linens. That’s where I’m going. Most of your workspace is really between your ears so being able to change your space to suit your daily needs quickly is something that I am still trying to construct.
What inspires you? The most inspiring thing is a deep breath; if you can still do that then things are going forward. Lacking ideas is never the problem. It’s judging the arriving idea that causes problems. On a personal level though, my family always inspires me. Their support is endless and their curiosity is deep. What more to ask for?
Trendsetter Clare Crespo takes the cake…the cupcake. A legend in cupcake circles, her book Hey There, Cupcake! 35 Yummy Fun Cupcake Recipes for All Occasions is a bestseller amongst cupcakistas, and foodies generally. Here she describes how she first defined her work, then her space, then took it from fantasy to reality via her two-car garage in Silverlake, CA.
I started playing with my food when most people do, in childhood. After a windy path through Louisiana and Texas and Italy, I ended up in Los Angeles at Cal Arts getting a Masters in experimental animation.
After having some jobs in some pretty nice offices (including producing piles of music videos), I realized that while I had a good job that was fun and challenging and lucrative, none of it was really mine. I was doing this funny sculptural cooking at home that was important in my everyday life and it felt good; maybe I could make other people feel good too. I wanted to inspire and encourage folks to be creative and express themselves in their everyday ordinary actions. Soon I found myself with the kitchen as my studio figuring out how to make a new career. I made a website with animated cartoons of my recipes called www.yummyfun.com. Make a sandwich and tell the world who you are. A book deal showed up and The Secret Life of Food was born.
And I guess to prove that I practice what I preach I decided to produce the photos in my home. I didn’t want the pictures taken in a studio. I wanted them to be in my life. With the food stylist Lisa Barnett, I made all of the food in my house. Eric Staudenmaier shot all the little tableaus. The house was completely transformed into some kind of mad scientist’s photo studio. Then came Hey There, Cupcake!
From my home office I continued to toy with business ideas that would make my dream grow more branches.
I designed food for a Spongebob Squarepants episode. I cooked my wackiest creations on the Today show, Good Morning America, CBS Sunday Morning, and many, many Food Network shows. I wrote recipes for magazines and books. I considered a brick and mortar bakery but thought it might squash my spirit, so I started the renegade pop-up bakery Treat Street with Crystal Meers and Mary Wigmore.
But I had always wanted to do a show. The Food Network asked me to do a traditional cook-in-the-kitchen cooking show. But I had a new daughter at the time and I wasn’t so interested in leaving her every day to go to some soundstage; and honestly, I wanted to do a really crazy fantasy kids show with puppets and a band and animation. So I gathered friends from the music video days (including my nice talented production designer husband, James Chinlund) and made it happen. Choosing NOT to follow anyone’s advice, we built a set in my two-car garage and created The Yummyfun Kooking Series. The DVDs have sold well in places like The New Museum, The Whitney, and Amazon.
And now, low and behold, the production company Fremantle Media has decided that they like Yummyfun too and will produce an episode. I am now working on Yummyfun with a writer and producers and all sorts of nice talented people. This time we won’t be in my garage and it has been a little struggle for me to figure out how that’s going to work, but I am ultimately excited to have a little more space. I still have my home office filled with petrified Jaws cookies, glitter, leopard cupcake liners, three million cake sprinkles and other assorted art supplies. And I have my kitchen where I can do my work and play with my food.
