Balance, Design
March 21, 2013
By Iris Anna Regn
Kati Rubinyi is a former architect who, upon completing graduate studies in studio art, shifted to policy planning. “I see great potential for art and design to play a role in other endeavors, like planning,” she explains. Kati now focuses on R&D and strategic planning, and is the editor of the new book The Car in 2035: Mobility Planning for the Near Future. She lives with her three kids, husband, and dog near Pasadena, California. Here’s a look at what inspires her work. Read more
Design
March 19, 2013
By Iris Anna Regn
Architect Yi-Hsiu Yeh founded Yeh Design Lab to create a link between architecture and fashion. She explores the role of wearable objects — bags, jewelry, hats, and footwear — as message carrying media and investigates their relationship with the human form. The Lab is also interested in combining advanced technology with traditional fabrication. Here, Yi-Hsiu discusses working from home, being a working parent, and what drives and inspires her designs. Read more
Design
February 14, 2013
By Iris Anna Regn
Designer Gregory Roth approaches his work from a multidisciplinary perspective, having studied visual arts as well as graphic and architectural design. His work reflects this background, demonstrating his abiding interest in the interplays of colors, shapes, spatial layerings, and textures. He has designed commercial, restaurant, and residential projects for two decades, and most recently, has applied his creative focus to the delectably delicious as VP of Design for LA-based bakery Modern Bite. Here, he shares a tour of his home office — as well as some insight into the things that keep him motivated and inspired. Read more
Design
June 19, 2012
By Iris Anna Regn
Auckland, New Zealand-born Marcia Mihotich is a designer and illustrator based in London. Attracted by the big city and the promise of an exciting job in graphic design, she moved to the UK in the late 1980s, where she eventually opened her own practice. At her live/work studio, she combines clear thinking with a quirky individual aesthetic and collaborates with companies such as Industrial Facility as well as variety of arts-related organizations and people. She is also creative director of the new tea company Rosy Lee Tea London. Other recent projects include the design of a new series of books for The School of Life and Pan Macmillan publishing as well as illustrating Philippa Perry’s book from the series called “How to Stay Sane.” Mihotich is currently working on a large comic story for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Find out what inspires her in this tour of her space (starting with that cushy Eames Soft Pad Management Chair).
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Design
June 4, 2012
By Iris Anna Regn
After working for Gaetano Pesce and Frank Gehry, Matt Gagnon established his studio in 2002 to pursue a broad-based design practice. Whether in the realm of product, architecture, or installation, his work combines an obsession with material and process, old craft and new technology with a desire to question and improve the built environment. His work has been published internationally and clients have included W Resorts, Four Seasons Hotel, Ogilvy, and the Los Angeles Fire Department. Here the LA-based architect discusses the importance of boundaries in his ideal live/work space. 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
Balance, Technology
February 29, 2012
By Iris Anna Regn
Artist, educator, and curator Leonardo Bravo is Director of School Programs at the Music Center: Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County. He also organizes and produces Big City Forum, an interdisciplinary project designed to bring together creative practitioners over issues related the social dimensions of art, design, and public space. As an artist and curator, he’s had a long history exhibiting at spaces such as the Santa Monica Museum of Art, the Whittier College Arts Gallery, Deep River Gallery, Barbara Davis Gallery (Houston, TX), POST LA, Michael’s Restaurant (Santa Monica, CA), and Fifth Floor Gallery. Here he talks about how music seeps into all his activities. Read more
Balance, Design, Products
February 6, 2012
By Iris Anna Regn
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.
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