Balance, Design, Trends
March 30, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Friday already? Here’s are some smart posts (and a few videos) that kept us zooming through the week.
1. This video by artist Grant Taylor and Daniel Ostroff, editor of the design scholarship resource eamesdesigns.com, documenting their time together photographing 6,000 images for the site.
2. The shipping-container-turned-treehouse at Inhabit.
3. A stunning office space in Rio de Janeiro spotted by Contemporist.
4. Dreaming of stopping by for an afternoon snack in this innovative pastry boutique in San Pedro, Mexico (via Yatzer).
5. A helpful roundup of must-have tools for your home office from Entrepreneur.com.
6. The urban cabin for a writer spotted on officesnapshots.com.
7. A look at how the digital age is influencing furniture design at NYTimes.com.
8. Co.Design’s “An American-Made Miracle: How An Aeron Chair Gets Built Every 17 Seconds“ video.
9. Dwell.com’s tour of the E+ Green Home concept house outside of Seoul — possibly the country’s most sustainable house.
10. The new Design Museum Collection App for iPad featuring 59 “remarkable objects” from London’s Design Museum. (We’re especially fond of #38, #39, and #58.)
Design
March 29, 2012
By Amy Feezor
You dig your Nelson Swag Leg desk. You rave about your SAYL chair. But when was the last time you bragged about your stapler? Spread the love to the desktop tools you use on an everyday basis by exploring these go-sites for well-designed office supplies. Read more
Balance
March 28, 2012
By Jamie Latendresse
Artist, photographer, designer, and DJ Bethany Shorb has a lot going on. She’s been working full-time in her bisected Detroit studio for almost seven years. In one half she runs Cyberoptix Tie Lab, where she’s hand-screenprinted over 80,000 neckties, and in the other, she’s been exploring a series of screenprinted works on metal, paired with reclaimed automotive emblem text, and a series of sculptural pieces made from deployed airbag fabric. Cyberoptix is located on the fabled “Techno Boulevard” at the edge of Detroit’s historic Eastern Market District; so, despite the fact that Bethany is an avowed workaholic, it should come as no surprise that she enjoys staying up all night and deejaying under the monikers Dethlab or Toybreaker. She has been published and exhibited throughout the U.S. and her musical alter-ego has performed in venues throughout North America, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival. Take a listen to the music turned up in her studio right now in this week’s Playlist. Read more
Balance, Products
March 27, 2012
By Jamie Latendresse
Are you prepared yet for Tuesday, April 17? Get everything ship-shape (or at least looking sharp) with ideas like these. Read more
Technology
March 26, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Smartphones are many things: useful, intuitive, flexible, fun, and, sometimes, a deterrent for work. It’s easier to check up on your Twitter feed than clean out your inbox, or play another round of Angry Birds than organize next week’s calendar. Luckily, there are plenty of effective apps to help bring order to chaos. Here are some smart solutions at even smarter prices. Read more
Balance, Technology
March 23, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Check out this rundown of where we’ve been spending our time.
1. “The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time” from Harvard Business Review.
2. In related news: CBS News offered up these 8 ways to focus when working from home.
3. This iPhone case with a built-in charger found by Design You Trust could be a lifesaver.
4. Spotted by California Home Design: Birds and Eames stationery printed on post-consumer recycled paper by Screech Owl Design.
5. Inspiring green roof design on the 10 sustainable works of architecture at The Coolist.
6. Great to see Jamie Derriger’s home office (and her Aeron) over at Design Milk.
7. Casually browsing the Herman Miller Flickr pool.
8. The Things Organized Neatly Tumblr (mentioned by Poppin).
9. A nice reminder that the glass of water on your desk should probably be from the tap, not a bottle (via Co.Design, in celebration of World Water Day).
10. Looking forward to Mad Men‘s debut on Sunday? We can’t wait to spy a few Herman Miller set pieces. And in the meantime, we’re flipping through this week’s nostalgic issue of Newsweek (so smart).
Balance, Design, Technology
March 22, 2012
By Amy Feezor
With all this extra daylight and our now-official “spring season” status, we are admittedly spending more of our time in the office wishing we were outside instead of in. So we had an idea: this year, let’s really make it happen and brave a few workdays in the Great Outdoors.
We started, therefore, where we always do: with a checklist. The goal was to create a comprehensive listing of everything needed to make an outside “office” as suitable as an indoor one. It began, of course, with the obvious (mobile or home Wi-Fi, laptop, notebook/pen combo). But a few hours and a hundred Google searches later, the list got long—and out of control (noise-reducing headphones! Anti-glare filters! Laptop cooling pads! Paperweights!). Overwhelmed and suddenly intimidated by the idea of our laptop being subjected for even a mere moment to the springtime sunshine, we turned to Joey Roth for a reality check. The industrial designer knows a thing or two about taking work outside, spending a lot of his time designing projects in the bamboo-lined backyard of his Los Angeles home. Read more
Balance
March 21, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Spring is the season known for new beginnings — which is why we’re offering this fresh compilation made from selections from some our latest Playlisters. Load up your favorite music gadget, place your headphones on, and take a listen as an excuse to take a break from the workday. (After all, doesn’t someone have to go outside to make sure that warmer weather is on its way?)
2012 SPRING PLAYLIST
The Seed (2.0) by The Roots from Playlist: WORKtoDATE Design Director Greg Bennett
Colours by Grouplove from Playlist: Resource Specialist and Musician Royce Epstein
Welcome to the Working Week by Elvis Costello from Playlist: Architect & Designer Emily Fischer of Haptic Lab
Everything Is Moving So Fast by Great Lake Swimmers from Playlist: Janine Vangool of UPPERCASE
My Oldest Memory by Bowerbirds from Playlist: Erin Jang of The Indigo Bunting
Gold Dust by DJ Fresh from Playlist: Stanley Wilson & Sophie Gollop of Urban Cottage Industries
Moonshake by CAN from Playlist: Leonardo Bravo
Seed by Afro Celt Sound System from Playlist: BeBop Garden’s Ricki Grady
Photos: Janine Vangool, Leonardo Bravo, Greg Bennett, and Erin Jang
Balance, Products
March 20, 2012
By Jamie Latendresse
The first day of the spring season is here. Get a jump start with these happy hues. Read more
Balance, Design
March 19, 2012
By Iris Anna Regn
Leigh Jerrard is a Los Angeles-based architect and sustainability consultant. After six years in Frank Gehry’s office and five years in the residential architecture firm Yeh + Jerrard, he founded Greywater Corps, a business where he designs and installs recycled water systems from the home he shares with artist Olga Koumoundouros and their six-year-old son Niko. Here he describes his ideal live/work space: one inspired by eco-friendly practices and ancient architectural solutions found in western India. Read more