2011 brought a full year of great music mixes to inspire us while we work—and while we play. Our thanks to those creative folks who gave us a look at the song picks that kept their workday (and ours) humming along throughout the year. Be sure to keep an eye out for more interviews and playlists from some of our favorite workspaces in 2012.
In the meantime, take a look back at some of tunes we featured in this first part of our “Best of” list. There were so many to choose from that we decided to sneak in part two on Monday. Read more
We’ve been running our Ideal Live/Work Space for almost a year and it’s been fascinating to see what sort of spaces people wished they worked in. Now it’s your turn. Tell us about your ideal space. Is it in a cabin in the woods? A room in your home dedicated just to work? Or are you inspired by Tadao Ando’s library, pictured above, like Nikita Pashenkov and Elise Co?
Charlie Lazor has been designing some of the loveliest modern prefab houses in the country since the beginning of the start of the prefab meme. But there is something really special about his latest, the Week’nder, on Madeline Island in Lake Superior. I have been staring at it for hours. First of all, it is not really a flatpack like Charlie Lazor is known for, but it appears to be made of two prefabricated modules with a site built roof installed between them.
I have always thought that this was perhaps the most efficient way to build modular; one is not shipping a lot of air in empty boxes. Instead, one is putting the complicated stuff in the boxes and just adding a roof over. Michelle Kaufmann did this in the Breezehouse and it was done in the early sixties as well.
Aristotle said “No great genius was without a mixture of insanity.” Marcel Proust wrote “Everything great in the world is created by neurotics. They have composed our masterpieces, but we don’t consider what they have cost their creators in sleepless nights, and worst of all, fear of death.”
Perhaps that’s why Jakub Szczęsny designed this hermitage, this “studio for invited guests – young creators and intellectualists from all over the world.”- it will drive them completely crazy.
Pantone, the company that brought the Pantone Matching System to designers, has become something of a cultural icon, and they have released a series of wallpapers to match their Pantone Plus line. There are a total of 8 wallpapers over at Pantone’s site, though only six are actual swatches, ranging from the 2010 color of the year Turquoise to a series of bright hues perfect for summer. Grab them for iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC here in resolutions 320 x 480 to 1920 x 1200.
We’ve had a busy year here at Lifework – many posts, a growing comment section, ICFF in New York, Art Basel in Miami and lots of home office stories to keep you inspired. It was a very good year. This week we will look back at the most popular posts – those that garnered the most attention. I’d love to hear from you if you think there’s something missing. Let me know and I can include it in the roundup. Have a wonderful last week of 2011.
3. Interiors magazine nicely designed digital version has a cool all-white office here.
4. Design*Sponge for a great sneak peek into Steve Soria’s home and home office.
5. A Touch of Happiness for their home posts – including this one showcasing a Tasmanian house by Bicker Design Co – yes, that is an Eames Lounge Chair in the living room.
6. Inside Out magazine’s home office storage and decorating tips.
7. Bolig – a Danish magazine – has a nice web presence and a great white Christmas story (complete with Eames chairs around the dining table).
Daniel Ostroff, the editor of EamesDesigns.com, emailed me this week. They’ve now got their Youtube channel up and running. I’ve posted the clip below of Ostroff talking about the Pavilion Ray and Charles did for the New York World Fair. The whole channel is a great resource.
Multi-taskers make our heart weak at Lifework—and this week’s Playlist from Kristin Appenbrink is no exception. By day, she’s the associate editor for RealSimple.com. By night, she’s the whiz behind Belinder Ice Cream, a side project she started to sell small-batch ice creams and sorbets after a popular run in last summer’s Ice Cream Social blog from Real Simple (ask her about her mind-blowing mint-chocolate-chip concoction). Turn up your speakers and hit play for her delicious work mix, which is thoughtfully organized into four themes (like we said, we love a multi-tasker!)
What do you listen to while you work? For my day job, where I need to be able to concentrate on words, there are three types of music moods you’ll usually find me in. Most of the time I’ll be listening to some kind of indie-mellow band—songs that blend into the background without fading away completely. Bon Iver, Feist, and Fleet Foxes are a few staples.
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