Janine Vangool publishes, edits, and designs UPPERCASE, a quarterly magazine “for the creative and curious,” from her studio in Calgary. Learn how music—and William Shatner—played a part in inspiring her career in this week’s Playlist. Read more
Use these picks in Valentine’s Day’s signature color to inspire your space all year long. Read more
Your home office may be comfortable, customized to your specifications, and as hard-working as you are—but sometimes everyone needs an escape from the everyday work routine. One way to shake things up? Coworking, or sharing an office environment with others working on their own projects.
Communities like LooseCubes.com that let you find temporary space to rent by the day or the month (like Hoboken, NJ’s MissionFifty, above) are a smart place to start. Look for workspaces that inspire, teach you something, or that simply give you a fresh perspective. Here are a few spots available across the country that recently caught our eye. Read more
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Treehugger for their “Most Beautiful Street in the World” post.
2. Apartment Therapy for this home office tour.
3. Design*Sponge’s wonderful wrap up of home office spaces.
4. Design Milk for their Designer DeskTop Wallpaper series.
5. MujiUSA has some very sleek minimal designs for the home office including these acrylic organizers.
6. Luludi for their cool way of incorporating plants into the home office – hang them on the wall.
7. Cleverhands shop on Etsy has a interesting alternative to the pencil case – check it out here. Good for home office workers on the go.
8. Vienna-based designers Less & More create beautiful wooden desk organizers. You can see them here on the US-Supermarket site.
9. Design Notes funny post on a new game – “Six Degrees of Cranbrook”.
10. Desire to Inspire‘s post on a cool Toronto office.
Felicia Filer has been the director of the Pubic Art Division for the Department of Cultural Affairs in City of Los Angeles for more that 15 years. In this post she shares the music she loves to listen to at work.
What do you listen to while you work? I mostly listen to Jazz during the day when I work, either instrumental or with words. I will pepper in some Soul or World Music if I need a boost! Erica Badu, Adele, Aretha Franklin, Corinne Bailey Ray, Angelique Kidjo or Toots Thielmans will always makes me happy! As the evening nears, I tend to play something a little more moody, like Gretchen Parlato, Jeff Buckley or Esperanza Spalding.
How do you listen? Since I have my own office I don’t have to wear head phones when I listen to music. I generally listen through the speakers on my computer. I try to keep the volume at a respectable level, yet still serve my need for the music to change my atmosphere.
Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I listen to Pandora on occasion.
Does music influence your work? Listening to music while I work helps me to stay calm. My job can be tremendously stressful. Mostly I am responding to people streaming into my office all day long with problems. I try to use a creative approach to solve the complex and challenging issues surrounding art and politics, such as how to continually provide cultural and artistic services throughout the City of Los Angeles with diminishing human and financial resources. Music helps me to think outside of the box when searching for innovative solutions to these concerns.
Who influences your musical taste? My daughter Brynne. She is part of an acoustic/indie duet called Le-Ti. She gives me a new mixed-cd about once a quarter with some amazing music on it. That really pushes me to keep expanding my musical taste. I find that the time of day or the beautiful California light and sunsets will also influence what I listen to!
What song or artist best represents the work you create/ If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? Well, it’s the end of the year and everybody wants everything completed right now, so I would have to say today my work feels like the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch.
Felicia Filer’s Playlist
Esperanza Spalding, Fall In
Bobby McFarren, Invocation
Adele, Rolling In the Deep
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme
Wayne Shorter, Dance Cadavarous
The Beatles, Blackbird
Emanative & Ahu, Turn Your Lights On
Erykah Badu, Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long
Gretchen Parlato, Winter Wind
Azymuth, Free As A Bird
Jeff Buckley, Grace
One strategy for preventing the loss of portable devices like the iPad or smartphones around the house is designating a “landing station“. Most people just drop their phones and tablets on their desk or kitchen counter, but setting up a specific spot with a holder is a better idea if you’ve got a habit of always misplacing your device even though you swear, “I put it right here”…
Constructed of oiled oak harvested from German forests, both the Objekten DOCK Box and Dock Tray are available in light and dark oak versions, and each providing a handsome way to not only display/view your favorite screened device, but also offering the “landing station” to keep clutter at bay and decrease the chances of “now where did I put that _____?!”
By Gregory Han
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
At a Pecha Kucha event for the American Institute of Graphic Artists last year, graphic designer Andrew Byrom presented a series of takes on what a business card should – and shoudn’t – be. His son passed out a wooden card made literally from “The Desk of Andrew Byrom.” Andrew’s witty presentation softened his rigorous rethinking of the function of graphic design, and the involvement of his 9-year-old son made it a family event. Currently, the Eames exhibition that Andrew curated and designed with Deborah Sussman for Pacific Standard Time is at the A+D Museum. Here Byrom speaks about his work, how he works, and Ray and Charles Eames.
You established your firm in 1997. What led to that point? After graduating from The University of East London in 1996, I worked briefly in the design department of Routledge, a leading academic book publisher. In 1997, I opened my own design studio in London and worked for various clients including Penguin Books, The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, The Industrial Design Centre, Time-Out Online, and The Guardian newspaper. Around this time I also began teaching graphic design at The University of Luton and Central St. Martins.
I moved to the States in 2000 to teach at Northern Illinois University. In 2006, I moved to Long Beach, where I am a Professor at California State University. I divide my time between teaching, designing for various clients, and playing with my sons Auden, Louis, and Julian.
I have recently been commissioned to design typefaces and type treatments for The New York Times Magazine, UCLA Extension, and Sagmeister Inc.
Above: A quote from the Eames’ on Byrom’s dining room wall.
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Inhabitat ran a post on a beautifully designed little prefab cabin inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
2. Interior Design magazine “10 Questions with Konstantin Grcic“ - who designed, among other pieces, Chair_One.
3. Huffington Post for their piece on the Eames’ film “Powers of 10″.
4. Co.Design on how plywood change the world…look out for pieces by Ray and Charles Eames.
5. Architizer for Drew House - an amazing building that includes a tubular section for the living area.
6. The Office Stylist for her post on 22squared’s cool office space.
7. Cubicle Refugee for her lovely, color-driven tumblr blog. Lots of eye candy during your coffee break.
8. Pinterest has so many good boards loaded with home office ideas but make sure you check out Design Studio for really eclectic mix of images.
9. Poppytalk for her home work space post.
10. Habitus for their interview with BassamFellows.
Hot cups of tea and mugs full of coffee not cutting it on chilly mornings? Warm up your workspace with these easy picks.
1. Under Desk Heater, $89.00 Created to fit right under your desk, this soft plug-in floor mat provides extra warmth to legs and feet looking for relief from a winter-y workday. Get it: warmlyyours.com
2. Plus-Minus-Zero Heater, $389.00 Infuse your workspace with a little extra color using this lively compact design. Get it: Generate
3. Crane Space Heater, $34.99 Retro cool (in a way only a space heater can be). Get it: Amazon
4. Bionaire Ceramic Mini Tower Heater, $53.45 With a digital thermostat controls, LCD display, and remote control, you might feel like it’s your own robot of warmth. Get it: Amazon
5. Anna Little Ceramic Heater Stadler Form, $79.99 Add this streamlined design to your desktop and turn up the heat. Get it: Horne
After you make a memorable, handpicked music mix for a friend or loved one, there are a few things you might feel. Glad. Sort of satisfied. Clever for the interesting playlist you thoughtfully compiled. Slightly cool for hipping someone to artists and songs they might not have already known. Happiness in sharing a little part of yourself.
But let’s face it: there’s always that “gah!” feeling—a moment when you realize that there was one more perfect song that you wish you had included. In that spirit, we gave a few past Playlisters the chance to add that one extra tune to the mixes they previously created for our column. Here’s what a few of them are choosing to include. (We think it makes a pretty great mix just in itself!) Read more