Balance
January 19, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
The New Economics Foundation – a “think-and-do tank that inspires and demonstrates real economic well being” just released a report on our work habits lamenting the 40 hour work week as not only antiquated but untenable and perhaps detrimental to a growing economy. A 21 hour work week is more to their liking. As we move forward into this next decade it’s interesting to revisit the work-week debate.
Michael Coren over at Fast Company makes the case for a 21 hour work week. I certainly work far more hours than my part-time job demands. But for me there’s a real blur between work – creating this blog – and writing or reading about things that interest me. And for many of us isn’t that the perfect job: one that mirrors your personal interests? When I’m reading Dezeen online or flicking through the pages of Wallpaper or Elle Decor or reading the newspaper in the morning over breakfast – I’m learning and absorbing and everything I’ve taken in feeds my work. If I included all those hours how long would my work week be? How many hours do you work each work?
Balance, Design, Products
January 18, 2012
By Amy Feezor
What sounds fill the workspace shared by Stanley Wilson and Sophie Gollop of Urban Cottage Industries? Find out what these designers, manufacturers, and suppliers of vintage industrial lighting have playing on repeat in their headquarters in Mytholmroyd, England.
What do you listen to while you work? We fight between Radio 4 (Stan) and music (Sophie). Sophie is proletarian. It’s class war—all day, every day.
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Design, Technology
January 17, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
Over on Treehugger Lloyd Alter weighs in on this inventive new workspace from Zurich-based architecture firm NAU. The “Immersive Cocoon” is just an idea at this point but it’s a good one. A pod that stands alone within a room and does away with our dependency on the computer and mouse. You’ve got to wonder what kind of a chair we’d design for this sort of space!
Balance, Technology
January 17, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
What kind of technology will grace your home office desk five years from now? According to Kit Eaton over at Fast Company it wont be a laptop. While Intel is hard at work pushing the Ultrabook, Eaton argues that – the sleek MacBook Air is the peak of design in the laptop field. Intel are simply chasing the tail of John Ive’s Air. According to Eaton “the Utrabook isn’t the silver bullet to securing their future–they’re instead almost like a well-polished, perfectly refined full stop at the end of the design description of the device.”
It’s interesting to think of this technology at the end of its natural life. We are on the brink of the next wave and in my mind it has to be some kind of tablet type device. Although having spent the weekend without my laptop trying to work from our iPad I am much relieved to get back to this MacBook Pro. The tablets need to resolve their cumbersome typing problems. If they could fix that I’d blog from the iPad in a heartbeat!
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
January 13, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
Where we were this week…
1. Eric Fischer’s amazing Flickr site. Fischer captures people’s photo-taking habits (locals and tourists) on maps and publishes them to Flickr. The images are really beautiful. Below is a snapshot of Chicago – the blue denotes locals taking photographs, the red is tourists.
2. Core 77’s store for their Hand-Eye Supply spiral bound notebooks that are wrapped shut with a strip of elastic that doubles as a pen holder. Clever.
3. PSFK for their piece on Mercedes mobile workplaces…more on this next week!
4. SFMoma’s artist’s series lets you buy prints from young contemporary artists. The latest contributor is Jason Munn and his clean-lined graphic work would make a great addition to your home office.
5. Danish architects MLRP for their amazing mirror house. Part fun house, part sleek contemporary design.
6. Designer Seung Yong Song’s wonderful Object-O. A paper lantern perches on top of a chair – it’s the ultimate tiny home office.
7. Wallpaper for their W* House. Check out the study for some incredible home office accessories (yes, they have included our Airia desk)
8. W magazine wonderfully over the top House Tours series. Love this dark-walled library. I imagine you’d cosy up and get a lot of work done here!
9. Apartment Therapy – which has undergone a major redesign – for their coverage of digital decals for the home office.
10. Designboom for their online store selling original designs. Have a look at the 24k pencil. Nice accompaniment to the gold typewriter I covered yesterday.
Balance, Design, Products
January 13, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Warm up your morning (and your workspace) with a fresh mug for your daily cuppa joe.
1. Kami Wood Mug, $78.00 Handcrafted in Japan from castor aralia wood, the thickness of this simple mug is only 2mm—thin enough to allow light to glow through, yet thick enough for durable insulation. Get it: muhshome.com
2. Small Diamond Knit Cozy Mug, $22.00 The hand-knit cozy surrounding this porcelain mug makes taking on a winter day a bit easier. Get it: leifshop.com
3. Ripple Mugs, $28.00 Water inspired each piece in this dishwasher-safe collection, which merges the durability of porcelain with a handmade, minimalist look. Get it: tasknewyork.com
4. Striped Mugs, $40.00 Artist Heather Dahl hand-paints these bright mugs in orange, navy, or celery (and we especially like their light gray interiors). Get it: curiosityshoppeonline.com
5. Color Dipped Mug, $28.00 Another great pick made in Japan: straightforward white porcelain mugs dipped in hues of charcoal, red, yellow, or blue. Get it: poketo.com
Images linked to their sources within the numbered text
Design, Products
January 12, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
The world’s first 24kt gold-plated typewriter has hit the stores. I came across Kasbah Mod’s golden gem on Fab.com. “I love typewriters. I love the tactile experience of writing with truly in-obsolete technology,” says Chase S. Gilbert, Co-Owner at Kasbah Mod. ”In these days of scatter-brain thinking and an obsession with Control V and Control C, the typewriter gives me equal parts freedom AND discipline.” How much is this golden beauty? $896 on Fab.
Design
January 12, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
Late last year the Herman Miller team attended Art Basel in Miami. We were the furniture sponsor for the event which meant all the restaurants and bar areas were awash in our designs. We also had a booth devoted entirely to Eames pieces that was graced with a drawing by Ray Eames.
The drawing was of the room that she and Charles designed for Alexander Girard’s “An Exhibition of Modern Living” (catalog below). The show was commissioned by the Detroit Institute of Arts in late 1949 and Ray’s drawing for their “room” depicts a wonderfully colorful space complete with totem-like sculpture, an Eames table and molded plywood chairs. It was also the first public glimpse of the Eames Storage Units which today find their way into many a home office.
Our booth for Art Basel was designed by Herman Miller Creative Directors Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows. “We wanted an artful graphic for our space and we loved the idea that Ray Eames created it as a collage to illustrate a display space,” says Bassam. “Our display booth was also done to show an important point of history for Herman Miller. It’s important to remember where these pieces we’ve used throughout Art Basel’s publics spaces came from.”
Bassam also stressed the importance of showing art. ” We were part of Art Basel so we also thought it important to show art which we feel is an important link to the artful background of Herman Miller. Showrooms and displays were well known for their use of art and combinations of objects. So, we just couldn’t have a dry corporate graphic!”
Above: Ray Eames at her Case Study home with models of the sculpture similar to the ones in her drawing for the “Modern Living” exhibition.
But there’s more to this image that initially meets the eye. “Note it was the first time the public would see the model of the Eames La Chaise, which Charles and Ray designed for MOMA’s Low Cost Furniture Competition,” says Daniel Ostroff, editor of EamesDesigns.com. ”If you look closely at the drawing the faintest outline of it is shown in the foreground, which is where it was actually placed in the exhibition room.” You can hear Ostroff talk about the La Chaise here.
Balance, Design, Products
January 11, 2012
By Amy Feezor
During work hours, Royce Epstein focuses on materials and finishes at the architecture and interior design firm Kling Stubbins. After hours, she’s the lead singer and rhythm guitar player in not one, but two bands in the Philadelphia area. (How does she do it?) Turn up your speakers for a listen to her (not one, but two) music mixes in this week’s Playlist.
What do you listen to while you work? I started listening to Spotify after I got bored with Pandora. I am always genre-jumping depending on my mood and work load. I am a huge music junkie, always listening, collecting, reading, and writing about music. I have a somewhat specialized knowledge of certain periods in music, my favorite being British Post-Punk. I am also a huge ska fan, and I always listen to 60’s-era ska. So those are my go-to genres but I listen to lots of current indie rock, lots of classic rock, lots of garage, you name it. When I am doing research, I prefer more mellow music, but when I am writing specs I prefer tunes with more energy to keep me going, like The Ramones.
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Balance, Design, Products
January 10, 2012
By Cerentha Harris
Eric Nakamura wears many hats: publisher and co-founder of Giant Robot, longtime arbiter of art and culture, gallery/store/restaurant owner, and popular blogger reporting about the unique and unusual from Asia and America. Regularly on the forefront of art, design and pop culture, Eric’s Tech Top 10 may surprise you with its mix of new and old…and nary a mention of any robotic companions.
Canon T2i DSLR: It changed the way I do things. I always thought that the great point and shoots were good enough, but they really weren’t. The photography with this camera is solid and the video is sharp. This Canon opened a lot of doors and that’s what you hope technology will do for you. The lens is a Tamron 2.8 17-50. I used to think a lens like this would suck, but no, it’s solid and great. I used to worry about it’s non compactness, but you get used to it and it’s no big deal to have a camera on you these days. You never know when the alien ship will land and having a camera might be a good idea.
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