Tour: Graphic Designer Linda Gavin

Berlin-based graphic designer Linda Gavin takes us on a tour of her home work space. And yes, those are Mirra chairs!

How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I have worked from home since I started on my path as a designer in 2003. I moved to Berlin with my husband in 2005 and we started working from home together.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? I like my rooms to be like a white canvas. One can quickly spot items and easily change the look of the room. So I guess my style is minimal, but with cables and stuff cluttered over it.

How do you keep your work space organized? It’s a big challenge for me to keep my work station tidy, but it helps to have more storage than items. I think about how I can improve the space all the time. We rethink and rearrange our things when there’s a bunch of new items in the office that can’t be categorized. We put everything back at its place every morning before we start working.

When you set up your home office what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? We work a lot, and spend most of our time in the office, so we picked the largest and brightest room in the apartment to work. We wanted to be able to do more than just work on the computers. I’m drawing and sewing at times. My husband plays around with electronics and makes music. We got a big apartment so we would have separate rooms for work and hobbies, but we ended up moving everything into the office. We also needed space for more people to sit and work here, since some of our friends who come to visit are like us, and have to work even when they’re on vacation. We’re currently three working people, a baby and two cats sharing this space. We had to make it comfortable for everyone. There are plenty of sleeping spots for the cats, and the baby has the whole floor as a playground. We can fit up to 10 people around the table.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet right now? I’d like to have a Kast shelf, a small couch and a new cat tree.

What desk accessory can’t you do without? My Acrylic Partition Desk Tidy from Muji.

What would you change about your work space? We’re planning to move to another apartment about this time next year. We’ll get an open space plan and integrate the office with the living area. We can’t do that here without tearing down walls. I’d like to have a couch, more storage, a bigger plotter, swap the IKEA furniture for bigger and sturdier stuff.

What inspires you? Architecture, photography, adds, tv-shows, movies, blogs and magazines. I love reading about people and their love affairs with their homes.

Top 10

Where we’ve been this week…

1. Digital Trends for their post on cool laptop stands.

2. PopSugar for their shopper’s guide on buying mid-century furniture and design in San Francisco.

3. GizmoCrunch for its excellent piece on Mac Apps that work.

4. Inhabitat’s Milan design week coverage.

5. Swissmiss for finding the cool US tax receipt link. Nice one.

6. Emmas Design Blogg because it always has great interior images.

7. Martha Stewart Living‘s Organizing tips…because Martha still has it when it comes to keeping your office neat.

8. Dwell Bookshelf for its excellent (and short) reviews of design and architecture books.

9. Design Notes is the blog from retailer Design Within Reach. Great coverage of architecture, furniture and home design in general.

10. Core 77‘s photo galleries for gorgeous images and lots of interiors inspiration.

Unplggd: Free Up Space on Your Computer

If you’re good to your tech, it will last a long time. Of course, that’s a double-edged sword. If you’re lucky enough to have a computer that lasts six or seven years, you’re also going to have six or seven years’ worth of junk on that machine slowing it down. Luckily, there’s plenty you can wipe off your hard drive. Start with these four folders and collections to get the most space back.

Apps & Widgets
Haven’t used AIM since Facebook and Skype came into your life? Drop it. Don’t need that desktop widget telling you the temperature outside? Get rid of it for good. Do it yourself or use software like AppCleaner (for Mac) or Revo Uninstaller (for PC).

Fonts
You don’t want to delete any of the fonts that came pre-installed with your machine (they’re probably used by your system in some fashion). But if you’ve added any addition fonts over the years, purge the unused ones. Believe it or not, fonts can eat up valuable hard drive space.

Pictures
By thinning out the pictures you have stored on your hard drive, you’ll free up tons of space. Back up the ones you want to keep, then dump everything else. Do it manually by sifting through your library, or use software designed for your machine. A Mac friend of ours swears by Duplicate Annihilator, a program that automatically thins out your iPhoto library by hunting and killing duplicate photos.

Languages
Do you speak English? Type in English? Read in English? Then there’s really no need to keep a bevy of foreign languages installed for your system. Do it manually (here’s a guide for Windows PC users), or find a program to do it for you (Like freeware Monolingual for Mac).

By Taryn Fiol.

The Playlist: Composer, Conductor, and Violinist Todd Reynolds

Armed with a 17th-century violin and 21st-century Macbook Pro, Todd Reynolds creates mind-blowing acoustic-electronica as only a true hybrid musician can (making him perfect Playlister to feature right around Earth Day). Take a listen at his thoughtful song list, then check out his new double CD set, Outerborough.

What do you listen to while you work? Well, I tend to be listening to my own music while I work, mainly because most of my work is composing and producing and recording.  However, when I’m doing paperwork, answering email, doing research, I’ll often have some ambient electronica going on in the background, or some very contemporary “classical’”music (though I really don’t know what that means anymore).

How do you listen? Mostly I’m in front of my studio monitors, which sound killer; but whenever I’m away from them, you’ll find me with some nice Grado headphones attached to my iPhone, or some high-quality in-ear monitors (Etymotic being my favorites).

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I really love Pandora, and a little while ago Tubeify came to be.  Imagine if Last.fm and YouTube were to have a baby—it’s a really useful interface.  For buying music, I’m an iTunes guy, but occasionally will buy directly off the Warp website, or wherever I find myself (Bandcamp, etc.).

Does music influence your work? Absolutely.  I’m a real fan of The Books, for example, and though I don’t make music in the same way, their use of organic, found material inspires me to use as much organic sound from my own fiddle as possible. They make percussion sounds from bouncing balls, for instance, and though I haven’t brought that particular rigor to my own work yet, it inspires me to go deeper.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I find recommendations from my colleagues, mostly, who range from performers and composers to music supervisors and venue curators.  I also keep my eyes on certain record labels and websites like Pitchfork as well, but I find my brightest “finds” to be connected to one personal relationship or another.

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Unplggd: Turn Websites into Desktop Apps

As more of our digital lives move towards the cloud, our reliance on native desktop applications has begun to diminish. Where once we depended on native apps like Outlook, today many of us use websites like Gmail. Even games and music have begun to migrate from the desktop to the cloud. What is great about web apps is the ability to access your information from anywhere. However, with desktop apps you have the convenience of quickly launching programs from the dock or through shortcuts. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have both? Well, with Fluid you can!

Fluid is a free application that aims to address the biggest downside to web apps: multiple steps to launch just one web program. With Fluid, you can create a site-specific browser for any website. What this does is take any URL and converts it into a native Mac application. This application then resides in your Dock and Applications folder for easy use. It is really that simple.

While there are other similar programs out there (such as Mozilla Prism), one of the best aspects of Fluid is its deep integration with Max OS X. For more advanced users, Fluid supports client-side scripts for manually tweaking features and formatting. Additionally, quite a few plug-ins exist that add more functionality for advanced users, and enhance the experience of the newly created native apps.

To add to the fun, there is an entire Flickr group dedicated to creating icons for use with Fluid. If you find yourself going to the same sites all of the time (say, Unplggd) then be sure to give Fluid a try and let us know what you think.

By Jesse Leikin.

Ray and Charles

I love this shot of Ray and Charles Eames. It was taken at their home in Los Angeles. Via The Impossible Cool.

Tour: Jennifer Kennard of Letterology

Teacher, graphic designer and blogger Jennifer Kennard gives us a tour of her home workspace.

Tell us about the kind of work you do. How long have you worked from home? And where is home? Currently, I am a collector of stories, ideas, books and typography materials and I write about each for my online design blog, Letterology. I also teach part-time for one of the most rigorous and impressive graphic design programs in the Northwest, at Seattle Central Community College. A great deal of my time is spent working at my home in Seattle, Washington—where I can carve out various spaces for my different disciplines—preparing lesson plans, writing, researching and photographing materials for class and Letterology. With the exception of 4 years working in the design industry in Los Angeles in the 80s, I have spent much of my career as a graphic designer and illustrator in Seattle. Before LA, I shared office space in downtown Seattle with fellow designers, and then returned to Seattle and have continually worked from home since 1988 which must make me about 110 years old now.

Describe your style and how it relates to the space you work in and also the work you produce. I work in so many mediums, it is hard to describe a style. My fine art, might involve printmaking, photography, colored pencil work, paper sculpture, book arts, digital or a combination of any of these. My design work may begin with research, thumbnails drawings and hours at the computer, so I tend to run all over the house. I would say the single-most important element in all of my design work is the typography. This ingredient has to fit with the era I am trying to evoke so I research extensively and fiddle with the typography until I’m satisfied, just like most designers. I have a fairly good resource library of design materials and books I’ve been collecting for years and it is nice to have them in one place where they are accessible for the most part. I wish they were all in one room, but that isn’t going to happen. At least they are under the same roof and I’m not running between office and home.

I find the most difficult thing about working from home is balancing the work part from the living part. I love what I do, but it consumes much of my life right now. I try to take breaks to either go for a daily walk or a run or meet up with friends when I can. Some of my work is self-imposed, but the teaching consumes a tremendous amount of time. When I’m not teaching there is new software to learn, and maintenance to be performed. It’s a constant task having to be your own IT person too—or MT—a misinformation technologist in my case.

With exception of an occasional logo assignment and personal work, I have essentially chosen to take a reprieve from my artwork this past year. I’m not happy about it, but I will return to it eventually. As an experiment last October I decided to try and add at least one post a day to Letterology, and with a few exceptions, I have kept to this schedule. I can’t say how long it will continue at this pace, but I have been enjoying the process and have learned a tremendous amount about the work of so many other great designers and artists. It has been a real education on many levels.

How do you keep your work space organized? I keep a small studio office in one room for performing actual artwork; my dining room has been transformed into my production room with two printers, a scanner, copier, an iMac server, bookcases and a make-shift photo studio. These days I do all of my writing on my laptop at the kitchen table as it has the best sound system and lighting in the house. Essentially, most of my house has been transformed into an office. Organization is a continual struggle because of lack of space. I keep nicely labeled binders of ephemera and an endless file system so I can retrieve information easily and I was very fortunate to acquire a ridiculous abundance of nice wooden flat files many years ago which has been a tremendous asset for storing art papers and materials. Some people have good shoe karma. I seem to have good flat file karma.

When you set up your home office what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? Since 1988, my husband and I have been living in a nice old 1913 two-and-a-half-story house overlooking a wooded ravine. It is a very rustic setting, but consequently it is dark and the electrics are not entirely upgraded yet. I can never get enough good lighting. With the exception of the living room, all the rooms are rather small, so this is why I’ve had to migrate into other parts of the house. My husband Paul, has been very gracious about my large footprint, but I am seriously considering moving my entire office into the living room now so we can reclaim the other rooms as living space again. It think it could be a fun alternative.

What desk accessory can’t you do without? I’d have to say my pink celluloid Apsco “Midget” pencil sharpener. It’s useful and the pink plastic just makes me smile.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet right now? Two beautiful custom fir bookcases with glass doors—long and low, to fit on either side of my desk where I can put my old typewriters on top of each. A better work stool would be nice too. I have a nice old wooden one from the early 1900s which a neighbor of mine restored, but it is not that durable. Built for looks, but not for function.

What would you change about your work space? Certainly the lighting, but I am in great need of more storage as well. Because I work in so many disciplines, I have acquired a lot of tools, equipment and materials. I need most of these items accessible, but I’d like more shelving and cabinets to store them. It is my biggest organizational quandary right now.

What inspires you? Skilled craftsmanship for one. No matter what it may be—if it is well-made, well-drawn, well-printed, well-written, or well-designed from the heart—it shows. I’m inspired by so many things, but foremost, by nicely designed and printed books—old and new; well-crafted typography; mid-century pattern design; the artwork of British artists Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden; the photography of Karl Blossfeldt; snow and ice formations; decorative hand-lettering; the packaging of dimestore toys made in Japan from the 50s and 60s; so many book designers and illustrators; my students; visual information display; animation; old office supplies; the colors of moss after a fresh rain (a Northwest thing); an alpine hike; and music. I cannot imagine working without good music.

Top 10

Where we’ve been this week…

1. No Pattern Required because I appreciate anyone who is as obsessed with all things mid-century as I am.

2. The Designer Insider blog is great for decorating tips. If you are thinking about reworking your office stop here first for some solid decorating advice.

3. Kanga Room Systems for their cool outdoor rooms gallery. Prefab office anyone?

4. Adore magazine is a new online venture loaded with pretty homes. Lots of interior ideas here if you’re into color and pattern.

5. Richard Powers to be reminded how interiors should be photographed and to be inspired to get rid fo your clutter!

6. Tim Walker because if you visit Richard Powers site you really should check out my second favorite photographer too. Walker does amazing, grand whimsical shoots and will make you wish you lived  and worked in a grand English manor covered in balloons.

7. Pinterest’s Someday I Will Have a Shed…great place to work.

8. Nerd Business Blog for its round-up fo high tech offices.

9. Designer Daily for its beautiful home office space.

10. Inc. has covered some very cool home work spaces.

Ideal Live/Work Space: Carola Zwick of Studio 7.5

Carola Zwick is one quarter of Studio 7.5. They designed Setu for Herman Miller and also the Mirra chair.  Today Carola shares her ideal live/work space.

The laptop is my swiss army knife, it turned me into a total nomad. It’s reflecting and displaying all the different threads of action on a vertical surface in front of me. We call this “Auftischraum” (this would be translated as “creating an instant space on the table”). This is true for the studio, where we don’t have dedicated desks, but settle in a spot that fits the task, e.g. if you need absolute silence you pick the big table in our new “Einstein room” (that’s the name of the coffee brand neigboring that room, but fits pretty nicely to the purpose of the space as well).

If you want to exchange your ideas with your collegues or at least don’t want to miss what’s going on, you rather pick a spot on the big dining table in the modelshop/kitchen of our studio.

The same is true for my work style at home. I am wandering around, picking a spot on the couch or on the balcony, depending on the lighting conditions, the temperature and the mood. Only if I need to focus for a longer period of time for something urgent or serious, I pick a table and a serious task chair. The only odd habit: at home I need to put my feet up to think: so even when sitting on a Mirra chair, there is another chair on the opposite side of the table to put my feet up.

A new habit I now develop: I try to “suck” every artifact into the computer, because otherwise it tends to get lost due to my habit of deserting every work place after a while

Unplggd: Notebook and USB

The Pinetti Quattrogiga Leather Journal looks like an unassuming modern notebook from the outside. But upon closer inspect, one will note the detachable silicone strap closure hides a technophile’s secret: a 4GB USB flash drive! It’s a beautiful duet of analog and digital storage in a single form factor. Available in two sizes.

Details: $85.00, Jenni Bick Bookbinding, small journal measures 5 1/2″ x 7″ and large journal measures 6″ x 9″, refillable blank pages, detachable silicone strap holds the book closed and features a 4GB USB storage drive, pocket flaps inside hold the insert in place, and can also be used to store notes & receipts, can be personalized with embossing

By Gregory Han.