We’re passionate about design. We’re also pretty passionate about cycling. So, in 1999, when a group of avid cyclists, including Herman Miller’s current CEO Brain Walker, began discussing the idea of creating special Herman Miller bike jerseys, design quickly entered the discussion. To find out what happened next – and see more beautifully designed jerseys – head over to our sister blog, Discover.
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Japanese Design for its coverage of architecture, furniture and object design. The fish-inspired mobile by Riki Watanabe is beautiful (below). The landing page isn’t all that inspiring – but you’ll be rewarded with minimal text and luscious photography if you click through to the stories.
2. NYC Guide by Australian interiors stylist Glen Proebstel. This guy has an eye for all things cool and now puts together a covetable newsletter – the latest issue was devoted to NYC. His blog is also worth checking out. Lots of great interior inspiration there.
3. Yatzer for the amazing workspace and home of Ricardo Bofill (below).
4. Arch Daily is always a great place to visit for new work. The Standless Steel house/shed/art work by FAS(t) architects caught my eye. The walls look like they are made of water but they are actually hung with hundreds of chains.
5. Automatism for the tour of Stefan (below) and Nicole Andrén’s Portland, Oregon home.
6.Grain Edit for the post on Brooklyn-based enourmouschampion’s workspace (below).
7. Architizer for the Hill House. An amazing white cube set on a hill overlooking Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles (below).
8. Design Notes by Michael Surtees. Surtees is the principal of Gesture Theory and this blog covers his musings on technology, design and living in NYC. I love his post on the Picasso poster made up of scan code (pic below).
9. @issue for its coverage of the cool U-Socket (below), which is a duplex AC receptacle that includes a built-in USB port. It can power any device that is capable of being charged via a 5V power adapter.
10. Print for their ‘Designing Couples’ series. I like the post on Seoul-based designers Min and Sulki Choi pictured below.
Sometimes we all wish we could magically raise our own debt ceiling just like Congress did for our nation, but we can’t. So here are 10 apps for Android users looking to save a few pennies online and while you are out and about…
1 Mint: This personal money monitoring app that is coupled with its popular web app. You get all the great features such as aggregated bank account information, the ability to set up a budget, you also get instant alert for low balance and budget limit. With this app you’ll be able to monitor your spending on the go.
2 Groupon: The official app from the online coupon giant not only shows you the daily deals, with the new Groupon Now feature, you can find deals that are close to you. Especially useful when eating out on the weekend!
3 The Coupons: If Groupon’s one-deal-a-day is not enough for you, use this app to find coupons for your favorite stores, restaurants, or just whatever is nearby. With its coupon to calendar feature, you could see when the your favorite coupons will expire.
4 Key Ring Reward Cards: Reward cards are great for getting freebies from all your favorite stores. But no one likes to have a giant keychain or a bulging wallet (not filled with cash but reward cards). Keep all your reward cards at the touch of your finger tip with this app. With built in coupon, you can discover even more savings!
5 GasBuddy: Fluctuating gas prices is always a pain in budgeting. Make sure you get the cheapest gas in your area with the mobile app from our favorite gas saving website.
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We first worked with Aeolab when Broodwork presented a short film of theirs at the Trajector Art Fair in conjunction with Art Brussels last April. We also love the OUIP! and Sony ODO - both designed with children in mind, plus their many other technology-based solutions for modern problems. Aeolab is a partnership between husband and wife Nikita Pashenkov and Elise Co. Their consultancy integrates technology and design to work on many types of projects from hardware and software to graphics and research. Their multi-pronged approach, in which they tackle a wide variety of problems and work with different groups depending on the scope of the project, is reflective of what we see in similar partnerships that cross boundaries to visualize new ways of working. Here they reflect on their ideal live/work studio, which needs to include both their son Felix and space for inspiration.
Some notes for the fairy-godmother who is planning to conjure up our dream studio* for us. We like a clean, minimal and zen space with lots of natural light but we are pack rats who like to leave things out (e.g. we don’t put things away), and we have many things in progress in parallel which need space for the following:
- A place for our son Felix (2.5 years old) to start apprenticeship via crayon and cars
- Place for innumerable gadgets, pieces of gadgets, materials and objects
- A past-projects archive and storage for lots of books
- 4 permanently-allocated computers, with another 3 in various rotation with no glare on computer screens
- Space for 1 etching press, 1 small cnc mill, 2 sewing machines, dedicated space for thousands of tiny electronic components and, lastly, a dedicated space to use a blowtorch.
*Please fit this into 450 square feet.
Some places that inspire us:
Above: Brancusi’s studio, tool area. A dedicated place for every tool. If only cables could make such a composition.
Above: Eames House. Our current fabrication lair has a buckled floor, sloped roof, and crooked walls, so rectilinearity is a dream.
Above: Brodsky and Utkin Turtle House etching. An encapsulated jumble of assorted spaces, with the bonus of being portable.
Above: STORA+NYGATAN: Eclectic, tidy, and we have a lot of paper prototypes to turn into lamps.
Above: Library in the Ryotaro Shiba Museum, Tadao Ando. This is the kind of storage we need.
We first spied the work of designer, illustrator, and art director Timothy Goodman when Ace Hotel asked him to create a hand-drawn mural in one of the rooms of its New York outpost (below).
Since then, the Cleveland-native has moved to San Francisco to set up shop with Apple Inc. Check out a few of the tunes he’s blasting through his earbuds in this week’s Playlist.
What do you listen to while you work? I love listening to TED talks and raunchy stand-up comedy while I work (I always need the ying and yang!). During basketball season, I like to have an NBA game on the background while I work at night. As for music, I listen to an array of stuff like indie rock, oldies, hip-hop, jazz, blues, classic rock, chillwave, and Latin—it just depends if it’s 2 AM or 2 PM!
Above: Goodman’s illustration for the May 11 Time cover.
How do you listen? When I’m working, I usually listen to my computer speakers or my iPhone with headphones. But my favorite time to listen to music is when I’m walking down the street, or while in a car on a road trip.
Those back to school ads on TV keep reminding us that summer is well and truly winding down…not to mention the fact that it is getting dark earlier. While the warm days are still with us it feels good to take that laptop outdoors – even if it’s only for a short break. I came across this outdoor workspace roundup on Apartment Therapy back in June. What’s your ideal outdoor work space?
After killing your landline, you may experience a little bit of nostalgia for the good old fashion telephone handset. But ditching the landline doesn’t mean you have to go without the comfort (and oftentimes the clarity) of a handset, with several plug-in and cordless add-ons to mimic your dearly missed wired line technology.
Kee Desk Phone Dock The Kee Desk Phone Dock is beautifully designed, with brushed aluminum and glossy plastic surface detailing, it will charge your iphone while looking pretty at the same time. It has the ability to play audio via its two stereo speakers. Comes with a microphone, volume control and instant mute selection, and now available for $150. (Top right)
Moshi Moshi iphone Docking Station The Native Union Moshi Moshi (Japanese for “hello”) is a Bluetooth iPhone docking station with both modernist and retro character. Now you can pickup phone calls while your mobile charges up (they offer another model which allows for charging/docking vertically while also accepting calls). It has something called “MultiPoint” support, which enables your connection to your iPhone and Skype on your computer simultaneously. You can use the built-in audio out to connect external speakers. Batteries will provide you up to 6 hours of talk time and 120 hours of stand by. (Bottom right)
iRetrofone Compatible with all iPhone models, the iRetrofone turns your smartphone into a traditional corded phone like the one in your grandma’s kitchen. In addition to being a functioning phone in its own right, the iRetrofone also syncs and charges your iPhone. Available in a variety of different styles and colors, such as pink, red, green, purple, and clear. We don’t know if we want to go that retro, but it’s good to have some options! (Bottom left)
iFusion SmartStation For those looking to integrate their iPhone with an office phone, this maybe the best option. The dock comes in white or black and instantly converts your iPhone into a standard desk phone. With a built-in USB cable the iPhone can be charged and synced while docked. Bluetooth connects the iPhone, and with A2DP streaming, music can be played using the SmartStation speaker. (Top left)
By Joel Pirela
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
Where we’ve been this week…
1. CondeElevator on Twitter. I know it’s shallow but these tweets makes me laugh. This person publishes comments they overhear in the Conde Nast elevator – mostly snippets from Vogue employees.
2. App.Itize.Us is a great spot to find new apps.I love the Crouwelclock by Dutch designer Wim Crouwel (below). Thanks to Lifework reader Marc for the tip.
3. Kitka for their post on designer David Ericcson. Great workspace.
4. Design Skool for their coverage of Estudio Manus (office below).
5. Better Living Through Design because they’ve got a great eye for interiors and homewares. I really like the desk set by Mateo Ilasco.
6. BKids for their tour of Nerissa Coco’s home and office (below).
7. It’s Nice That is a beautifully designed blog and curated on art and design (check out the cat scan!)
8. Found By James is a site that offers up objects discovered by global traveller “James”. These pocket pencils, which he found in London, are wonderful.
9. red.house for their interiors coverage including this Swedish apartment in Malmo (below).
10. Design Observer for their poetry posts. It’s so nice to come across contemporary poems in this context. Thoughtful addition to a great site.
There’s one thing that almost everyone needs to do, it’s getting more organized. Many people, including ourselves, are messy by nature, and getting organized isn’t a simple task, which is why for years we’ve been using an easy way of managing most of the important things that we need to get done with a simple open text file. Here’s how you can do it too.
There are many different ways of managing your tasks and lists, but somehow nothing beats the overall simplicity of using a simple text file to get this done. On a Mac, you can use TextEdit. On Windows, there’s Notepad. We’ve been using this type of format for years, and it works well. Naturally, it’s non-specific, but the fact that you can easily store information, paste it in, write quick lists, etc, makes it good for our own use.
1. MUJI Tape Dispenser, $4.00 Is it just us, or does this simple design feel a bit mischievous? Get it: MoMA Store
2. Tetu Cast Iron Tape Dispenser, $150.00 Japanese product designer Makoto Koizumi formed this office staple from cast iron and walnut. Get it: Emmo Home
3. Stikit Tape Dispenser, $18.50 The “Stikpad” on the bottom of this dispenser grips any surface so it won’t budge when you go to grab the sticky stuff. Get it: Uma
4. Claustrum Tape Dispenser, $100.00 The futuristic-meets-retro combo shape of this heavy-gauge stainless-steel dispenser lets you pull tape with just one hand. Get it: Canoe
5. Wave Tape Dispenser, $125.00 Watch out: this hand-made walnut creation by Brooklyn designer Todd St. John might inspire you to ditch work for a quick beach day. Get it: Igloo Store