Max Gunawan is an architect and industrial designer with an inspired light above his head. After leaving the corporate work world, he grabbed that light and created Lumio – a multi-purpose, portable lamp that looks like a book. After a wildly successful run on Kickstarter, Max is off to manufacture his first production run. But first, we asked Max to shed some light on his musical inspirations in this week’s Playlist. Take a look and listen.
Take a look at what we’ve loved on the web this week.
1. “How ‘Playboy’ Magazine Helped Make Eames and Mies Famous” at Co.Design.
2. Architzer’s roundup of homes inspired by Southern California modernism.
3. A look at the latest crop of designer hostels at Wallpaper*.
4. This article on “container urbanism” at Design Observer.
5. “Homemade,” a clean-cut, single-family residence by London-based design studio Bureau de Change at designboom.
6. Alan Friedman’s astonishing HD photos of the sun shot from his own backyard, via Colossal.
7. Design*Sponge’s tour of the Brooklyn home of graphic designer Jason Santa Maria and landscape and architectural designer Megan Born.
8. The latest free desktop wallpaper from The Fox Is Black, this time designed by Eight Hour Day.
9. The Windows of New York illustration project spotted by swissmiss.
10. Caught on to the “Harlem Shake” meme that’s sweeping the Internet? If anything, it’s giving us an interesting and unexpected look into a few workspaces across the globe, like this one from College Humor (check out all those Aerons), this studio in London with a pair of Mirra Chairs, and this one of AOL/HuffPost and its Eames Molded Plywood Coffee Table.
Featured in photo: Chair_One Stacking; Eames Table Contract Base Round Outdoor
If designer Colleen Hill isn’t art directing for Goodby Silverstein & Partners, you might find her teaching interaction design and visual communications at her alma mater, the College for Creative Studies. Of course, if she’s not there, she might be leading the Detroit chapter of the AIGA as its president. Yep, Colleen is pretty busy. So if she hasn’t turned up in one of those locales, try turning up her atmospheric audio selections in this week’s Playlist.
Here’s a look at what we’ve been bookmarking this week.
1. “The Untold Story of How the Aeron Chair Was Born” at Co.Design.
2. 12 backyard office pods from Inthralld.
3. Designs by Charles and Ray Eames (molded plastic chairs, an Eames Aluminum Group Side Chair) found by Automatism.
4. Jauntsetter’s tour of Zubehaus, the upstate New York home owned by Fab.com founder Bradford Shellhammer.
5. This clip from 1967 featuring Walter Cronkite previewing 21st-century technology — and his foreshadowing of how it could change the way we work at home — via FORA.tv.
6. Six things to know when setting up a home office from Kiplinger.
7. The light and airy home of Jesper and Majbritt in Copenhagen, Denmark, spotted by Lovenordic Design Blog.
8. ArchDaily’s look at Interstice, a settlement house from the 1930s rehabilitated by Fabi Architekten BDA in Regensburg, Germany.
9. The just-opened AETHER shop in San Francisco made entirely of shipping containers (and decorated with a pair of Eames Lounge Chairs) via The Fox Is Black.
10. Normann Szkop’s inspiring aerial photos of tulip fields in the Netherlands at Colossal.
Featured in photo: Eames Sofa; Eames Wire Base Elliptical Table; Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair with upholstered seat and back
Artist Thedor Erkamps has a lot of colorful expressions – namely his beguiling, mid-century and contemporary design-themed prints. Benefiting from his affinity for patterns and vibrant color, his works can be seen in restaurants, schools, and homes around the world, as well as on his Etsy store. In today’s Playlist, Thedor shares the eclectic patterns of his listening habits.
Is it your New Year’s resolution to organize your living and working spaces? Does a well-designed storage solution improve your sanity? This week’s Roundup has your spatial needs – and mental wellness – in mind with these six ways to storage and organization.
A look at what’s been on our radar this week.
1. The tour of Hodgson House, the 1950′s home of Herman Miller consulting creative directors Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows, at Mr. Porter.
2. “Where I Work,” a new LinkedIn photo series featuring the workspaces of various thought leaders.
3. New York City’s first prefab apartment tower, scheduled to rise in 2015, featured at Co.Design.
4. “30 Cozy Attic Home Office Design Ideas” at Homedit.
5. A step inside the Nervous System design firm in Boston via Design Milk.
6. “Insanely Simple Work-Life Balance Shortcuts From People Who ‘Have It All’” at Fast Company.
7. Automatism’s post on the house that recently won the “Danish Fairest Home” contest. (We particularly like the Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair in the den.)
8. DesignTAXI’s coverage of a new app that “gives your photos a ‘mid-century modern’ twist.”
9. This review of the upcoming book Irving Harper: Works in Paper at Collectors Weekly.
10. The quietly dramatic L House by Florian Busch Architects in Japan, found by ArchDaily.
Featured in photo: Scissor Chairs; Tuxedo Corner Sofa with Attached Sofa; Noguchi Table; Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, White Ash; Eames Walnut Stools
Last October, Herman Miller sponsored Fortune’s “The Most Powerful Women” conference in California. Herman Miller asked the attendees of the conference about the books that inspire them. The result was an eclectic, wide-ranging list of fiction and non-fiction.
To keep the inspiration going, Herman Miller has donated these books to the teen girls of Step Up. Here are six examples to help you share in the flow of inspiration.
Architect Karen O’Leary creates fully realized cities every day without a single brick or beam. Her cities can be seen in hotels, retail stores, restaurants, and books — and on her online store, StudioKMO, naturally. How? Karen’s cities and towns are actually mind-blowing, meticulous, hand-cut paper maps and ink drawings. In her own words, a map is “more than just a navigational tool, it also tells a story.” In this week’s Playlist, Karen provides a little bit of her story. Take a listen.
Here’s a rundown of where we’ve been this week.
1. Pop Photo’s look at this intriguing Polaroid SX-70 camera promotional video created by Charles and Ray Eames in 1972.
2. The spacious Casa Fray León by 57STUDIO in Chile (via Plastolux).
3. This thoughtfully designed apartment interior by Egue & Seta in Santa Caterina, Spain, found at Contemporist.
4. This glittering installation in Oslo featuring 8,064 floating LED lights (via Inhabitat).
5. Could this prefab sleeping cabin at Design Milk make an interesting home office?
6. Inspired by the imagination behind this “giant” concept for electrical towers in Iceland (via Inthralld).
7. All of the home-office eye candy at minimaldesks.com.
8. The tour of this beachy home belonging to Kirsty Davey and Simon Taylor at the Design Files. (Their home office — and Eames Molded Plastic Armchair — is in the photo above by Brooke Holm).
9. “Living Small in an Architectural Landmark, Brooklyn Edition” at Remodelista.
10. We’re saying goodbye and thank you to our sister blog Discover this week. Its influence will still be a felt here at Lifework, however: its popular “Eye Delight” and “Sighted” posts will become some of our regular features — so stay tuned for more inspiration to come.
Photo: Brooke Holm / The Design Files