What do you listen to while you work?
It really depends on what I’m doing. If it doesn’t require heavy thinking, I usually like to catch up on podcasts, mostly from NPR. If it is somewhat design oriented, I tend to prefer down-tempo electronica or classical music.

How do you listen?
Depends on where I’m at. If it is in the office, I usually listen with headphones either plugged into my computer or iPod. I use a Bluetooth wireless headset so I don’t worry about accidentally yanking out my earbuds when I get up or move around.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
I have several Pandora stations and I’ve been meaning to check out Grooveshark.

Does music influence your work?
Not at this point in my design career, but it does help me slow down and pay attention. For songs that I’ve listened to over and over, there have been several occasions where I’ve noticed a particular sound, beat, or rhythm that I didn’t notice before and I try to carry over that awareness to my design process.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
Pandora or the iOS App Shazam if I’m out in public and hear something I really like.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
I am just beginning my career in design, so I don’t have a body of work to represent. But I wouldn’t be able to narrow it down to one song or artist, it would depend on the type of space. For example, if it were personal space, like a home or private office, I’d like it to be calming, minimalistic, and relaxed, something like “In the Waiting Line” by Zero 7. If it were a public or social space, it would be something much faster and more upbeat.

The ideal place to sit and listen to this playlist is the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman if you’re relaxing at home or the Aeron Chair if you’re listening at work. I’ve had an Aeron in my home office for almost a decade now. I got it because it was the perfect balance between form and function.

Ray’s Playlist:
1. Viejo Abasto, G-Spliff
2. Gotta Be Love, Joey Youngman
3. Arrabal, Gotan Project
4. Dunk, Noiseshaper
5. Mi Swing Es Tropical, Quantic & Nickodemus
6. Reality Check, Stigmato Inc.
7. Get Enough, Telemark
8. Transcendence, Thievery Corporation
9. Intro, The XX
10. A Little Soul, Pete Rock
11. Yachts, A Man Called Adam

Photos and renderings: Ray Tam

What do you listen to while you work?
Radio.

How do you listen?
Speakers.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
YouTube.

Does music influence your work?
I like live music in local bars and I enjoy going to singer/songwriter nights. Their creativity sometimes inspires me to do more creative design in architecture.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
Radio. One of my friends, who plays in a band, influences my tastes.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
Johnny Cash.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist:
The ideal place (for others) to sit and listen to my playiist is the Eames Molded Plastic Rocker, preferably with a white seat.

Chongzi’s Playlist:
1. Price Tag, Jessie J
2. In the Air Tonight, Phil Collins
3. No Woman No Cry, Bob Marley
4. Tears in Heaven, Eric Clapton
5. All I Want for Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey, Love Actually Soundtrack
6. Take Me Home, Country Roads, John Denver
7. Hey Jude, The Beatles
8. Let It Be, The Beatles
9. Empire State of Mind, Jay Z  & Alicia Keys
10. Ain’t No Sunshine, Bill Withers

Photos: Chongzi Chen

What do you listen to while you work?
Typically it’s something fairly mellow and very eclectic, but always something that I can also sing along with — for example, “Best of” albums from Sade, Steely Dan, the Eagles, and Queen.

How do you listen?
I’m usually at my desktop, so I’m using my computer speaker system. It’s a nice DELL setup with a large sub-woofer.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
I will go to Amazon.com and search their music section for singles. I haven’t been buying many albums lately.

Does music influence your work?
To quote Goethe, “Architecture is frozen music.”  Good architecture is about rhythm, scale, proportion, and composition — and so is good music.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
Much of what I listen to is music from my youth or from a past era. I am also a fan of jazz, smooth jazz, and big band music. If I’m out and about today and hear something that peaks my interest, I’ll look it up online and listen to it.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
I really enjoy enjoy Paul Hardcastle. His music is smooth and free-flowing and you can listen to it all day long. It’s comforting in a sense. Imagine being immersed in a building/space the same way.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist:
A white leather Eames Soft Pad Lounge Chair with Ottoman – classic and timeless like my playlist.

Kathy Dixon’s Playlist:
1. Someone to Love, Queen
2. Smooth Operator, Sade
3. Never as Good as the First Time, Sade
4. Hotel California, Eagles
5. Desperado, Eagles
6. At Last, Etta James
7. Let’s Make Tonight the Night, Luter Vandross
8. Do It Again, Steely Dan
9. Somewhere in the World, Swing Out Sister
10. Lost Summer, Paul Hardcastle
11. Faithfully, Journey

Photos: Kathy Dixon

What do you listen to while you work? Depends on the task and the time of day. If I must really concentrate, or even study, then I need classical or jazz music, like Coltrane, Monk, or Miles. If it’s my regular day-to-day work routine, then anything goes. I will dance in my seat to Parliament Funkadelic, Queen, The Stuyvesant’s, and Bob Marley. If it’s been a really pleasant day and I‘ve received good news, or if a client gives me high praise, then I get up and take five-minute dance breaks.

How do you listen? If I’m in the kitchen, I usually hook my computer up to my stereo and listen through the house speakers; but, if it’s just regular work, I usually listen through the speakers on my computer. Sometimes I want to feel the music and hear every nuance, and that’s when I use my ear buds. I am dying to get the Beats by Dre or Bose headphones, but I fear I will never be able to go back to anything else after using them.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I have 23 stations on Pandora.  I used to really love Live365.com, but I haven’t been on in a while. I’ve got to check out Spotify and see what all the fuss is about.

Does music influence your work? Music is one of the best modes of creativity, and it always informs my work.  I need music just to get work done. If I sit in silence and try to work, my mind will wander. With some songs, especially if I hear it for the first time, I can almost visualize them with colors, textures, and scenes. I create a lot by feeling and emotion. Music is a big part of that equation. I would love to design a hotel room based on Tom Brock’s “I Love You More and More” or a restaurant inspired by Shona Mbira Music.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? Everywhere and everyone! I hardly listen to the radio anymore so I depend on my best friends, NPR, people I know on Facebook, movie and television scores, Pandora suggestions, and Apple genius results to keep me in the loop. The Shazam app is one of the best creations on the planet, just grab and go. I also pay attention to my favorite music artists and find out what they listen to. I once heard Maxwell (whom I adore) talk about Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.” I play “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” every day now. Fantastic.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? I can only hope to one day be like Sade. Her work is just as ethereal as it was almost 30 years ago. Somehow she knows how to be timeless and fiercely contemporary. I saw her in concert last year. Man — I would love to do set design like that. I believe she works with Sophie Muller, whom I believe is a genius. The best artists create work that endures, and that is a principle I am willing to devote my energy to.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist: The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman with the Black Leather and Santos Palisander Veneer, while someone else is sitting next to them on the Ottoman. The craftsmanship of the lounge chair is amazing with materials that are great to the touch. I would hope my playlist is good enough to go from the office on Friday afternoon, to being played at a hot house party toward the end of the night.

AISHA’S PLAYLIST:

1. Exactly Like You, Nina Simone
2. Jigsaw Falling Into Place, Radiohead
3. Flying Overseas, Theophilus London
4. Never Stop, The Brand New Heavies
5. Time’s a Wastin’, Erykah Badu
6. Limit to Your Love, James Blake
7. Come Undone, Duran Duran
8. Space Rider, Shaun Escoffery
9. Phoenix Rise, Maxwell
10. Didjital Vibrations, Jamiroquai
11. You Will Rise, Sweetback
12. Aisha, John Coltrane

Photos: Aisha Densmore-Bey except top, Ben Gebo Photography.

What do you listen to while you work? I listen to a wide range of music — anything from Sigur Rós to Rammstein to Lana Del Rey. I guess what really matters is what I am working on or if I am “working” at all. I usually just leave it on shuffle, it is a good way to weed out the “how did that get there?” songs. Lately I have been on a remix kick; there is a lot to sift through to find the good remixes, but they are out there.

How do you listen? When I’m at home, I use headphones plugged into my Mac to block out all of the distractions and so that I don’t become a distraction to the rest of my family. (I still need to put a door on my den). At my daytime gig, I listen through a set of old Labtec speakers that still sound pretty good. There are four of us in our office and we all share the “DJ” responsibilities.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? My favorite places to find music are blogs and Tumblr sites. (Recently, I have been finding some really nice remixes by just searching the keyword “remix” from my Tumblr dashboard.) SoundCloud also has some pretty nice tracks. Friends and coworkers are always sharing their music finds as well.

Does music influence your work? I don’t think music directly influences my work, but I am willing to bet that subliminally it plays some role. I really can’t dive into a project without it. When I am working on something that is repetitive or doesn’t require a whole lot of thought — populating a website, for example — I like to listen to something that has a pretty good repetitive beat and seems to keep me on task. On the other hand, if I am creating something new (branding, for example), I like to listen to music that has more of an epic or dramatic feel.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I usually find recommendations through friends’ blogs or Facebook pages. I really don’t find myself actively seeking new music; it just happens to be wherever I am looking for inspiration in one form or another. It is hard to say who influences my musical tastes; as of late, it has been my kids. I have a 10-year-old, a 7-year-old, and one coming in June. They are really starting to get into music and I often find myself asking, “Would my kids listen to that or is that suitable for my kids to listen to?” I also think that what influences me changes — it comes and goes with what is happening in my life.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? That is tough question. I think that could change from time to time as well. It would need to be a creator, someone who can take ideas and thoughts and make a great piece with them. Lately I have really liked the work of Pogo. He takes bits and pieces and assembles them to make a great song — complex yet simple.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist: I have always loved the Eames Soft Pad Lounge Chair and Ottoman (tilt swivel, four cushions, arms, white base and frame with black leather). It has a tech feel while being a comfortable lounge chair — epic.

TYLER’S PLAYLIST:

1. Dead Hearts, Stars
2. Juke Joint Jezebel, KMFDM
3. Fostercare, Burial
4. Glosoli, Sigur Rós (Tyler says, “this video is epic.”)
5. Expialidocious, Pogo
6. My People, The Presets
7. Young Blood, The Naked and Famous
8. Kings and Queens, 30 Seconds to Mars
9. Waiting for the End, Linkin Park
10. Comeback Kid, Sleigh Bells

Photos: Johnny Trevino, except first and last, Kim Fetrow

P.S. Check out Tyler’s post on restoring these vintage Herman Miller Eames Shell Chairs.

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.

1. Metropolis magazine for their multimedia section. Check out the photo essay by Michael Wolf titled Transparent City - makes me glad to work from home!

2. Domus for their amazing website – go straight to the architecture section for some wonderful residential and commercial projects.

3. New York Times for their interview with the authors of the new Unhappy Hipsters book It’s Lonely in the Modern World.

4. Cool Hunter for their piece on an annual clock designed by Scott Thrift. Very nice video (below) explaining this cool new design. It’s a Kickstarter project so if you like the idea you can help bring it into production.

5. Klat for their piece on Korean designer Giha Woo’s pencil holder.

6. Architectural Digest for their library slideshow. The Eames Lounge and Ottoman certainly looks at home amongst all those books.

7. Media Bistro’s Unbeige blog for reminding me that it is National Design Week next week.

8. Lifehacker for this backyard shed turned home office piece.

9. Photographer Byron Edwards‘ home office via flickr. It’s his most stolen image. And yes that’s a kitty on his Mirra chair (pic above).

10. Emmas Designblog because it’s a constant source of inspiration (below).

Above: Mark Jensesn at work. Photo: Jensen Architects

You are the principal architect of an 18-person firm that was established in 1990. Can you tell us about what drew you to architecture? Two things: first, my German grandfather hand-crafted a collection of solid maple building blocks for his grandson (thankfully, he didn’t have the tools in his garage-shop to make “blobs”). Second, my high school geometry teacher (a “recovering” architect himself) took one look at my hyper-organized class binder and said to me: “Mark, you are going to be an architect.”

Above: The Kokoris residence. Photos: Cesar Rubio.

Your residential work is strongly contemporary and very finely detailed. The Kokoris Residence, for example, features almost hidden tile work near the entrance and the Twin Peaks Residence in San Francisco has a system of rounds built into the concrete at the front door that let light into the floor below. Are you inspired in these details by the site? What drives you in your design decisions? In music, there are some songs that grab you the first time you hear them… but you may quickly tire of them. Other songs only bring you in after multiple listenings. In my architecture, I aspire to the latter. Standing up to multiple listenings means getting the details right.

Above: Twin Peaks residence. Photos: Jensen Architects

Tell us about some of the work spaces you’ve designed in client’s homes. Do you find people are asking for more flexible work spaces? Is a dedicated home office a think of the past as more and more we find ourselves liberated by wireless internet to roam the house? There is an ongoing discussion about the “third place”: neither home nor office but rather a coffee house or a train station. This is an interesting conversation but I think we are quickly moving past it where we can be connected anywhere at any time. The new home office is the sofa or the pool.

Herman Miller is committed to sustainable practice in everything we do. In 2005 you collaborated with a number of design firms to create the Scrap House – can you tell us about that project? The Scrap House was an interesting experiment in how one could build a single family home with found objects and reclaimed materials. What is more pressing now is to consider how we could shift the construction culture of single family homes toward a variety of alternatives: smaller floor plans, built closer together, pre-manufactured, and requiring no energy input.

Above: The Scrap House. Photos: Cesar Rubio

It seems so often these days that work spills out of the office and into the home. How do you strike a balance between your work and the rest of your life? Since I love what I do, I am not so troubled by striking this balance. But to answer your question: “Less Internet, More Cabernet.” (It sounds better in Italian.)

Above: Interior of the three-wing conference room for advertising agency Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners West. Photo: Richard Barnes.

1. CondeElevator on Twitter. I know it’s shallow but these tweets makes me laugh. This person publishes comments they overhear in the Conde Nast elevator – mostly snippets from Vogue employees.

2. App.Itize.Us is a great spot to find new apps.I love the Crouwelclock by Dutch designer Wim Crouwel (below). Thanks to Lifework reader Marc for the tip.

3. Kitka for their post on designer David Ericcson. Great workspace.

4. Design Skool for their coverage of Estudio Manus (office below).

5. Better Living Through Design because they’ve got a great eye for interiors and homewares. I really like the desk set by Mateo Ilasco.

6.  BKids for their tour of Nerissa Coco’s home and office (below).

7. It’s Nice That is a beautifully designed blog and curated on art and design (check out the cat scan!)

8. Found By James is a site that offers up objects discovered by global traveller “James”. These pocket pencils, which he found in London, are wonderful.

9. red.house for their interiors coverage including this Swedish apartment in Malmo (below).

10. Design Observer for their poetry posts. It’s so nice to come across contemporary poems in this context. Thoughtful addition to a great site.

2. The Design Files for Lisa Madigan’s home and home office (below).

3. Houzz for it’s collection of home offices. Can you tell I’m looking for new spaces.

4. Wanken for the post on an incredible holiday house in Argentina – it would make the perfect backyard office.

5. Kinfolk is a gorgeously designed new online food magazine. Now I  know what to have for lunch.

6. Design Sponge’s Sneak Peek because it’s nice to see the Eames Molded Plastic chair with dowel legs mixed with other pieces so beautifully.

7. De Vetpan Studio’s blog for its luscious photography and their review of a Wacom Bamboo iPad Stylus.

8. Fast Company’s story on a bamboo bike where the frame is grown in shape.

9. Brain Pickings for the Power of 10 Flipbook post.

Powers of Ten, Flipbook from Joe Marianek on Vimeo.

10. NPR’s 3-Minute Fiction for the perfect work break. Great stories that take 3 minutes to read.

1. Mike Perry Studio for his sense of humor. He is also donating 100% of his online sales to help Japan.

2. GOOD’s design and architecture stories always hit the mark. I also love the Infographic coverage.

3. BOOOOOOM! Not sure if I got all the ‘o’s in there but forget the title of this blog and go straight to their design posts. Lots of great finds.

4. Notcot which has been redesigned and now boasts even more great design, architecture, homewares, fashion and food.

5. Materialicious for their round-up of office spaces.

6. Lovely Clusters for a good dose of pretty interiors.

7. Picked by Six reminds me that simplicity is often the key to a well-designed blog!

8. Pilar Viladas on The New York Times site for her strong design coverage.

9. Zeospot for their home office round ups.

10. Aterlier A+D for architect Michelle Linden’s take on modern architecture and design.

How would you describe your workspace? What is the design aesthetic? I love my desk (pictured above) which is a wooden top that I had for years when I lived in Japan placed atop some recently acquired French metal industrial trestles.  As much as I consider myself a minimalist and have a house that is fairly clutter free and simple, my desk is usually piled high with magazines and papers. My first job was in a production company in Japan where the way to demonstrate creativity was to have a desk with piles of interesting stuff and images and I don’t think I have ever stopped working that way. Once a week, I go through everything and clear it up then the piles begin again.

Does anyone else use your office? I’m afraid I am quite territorial. My husband works from home a lot and we each have our separate offices and respect each other’s space and it seems to work well.

How do you organize the space? My office is basically my desk and some shelves where I file papers in simple wooden file holders from Ikea. I also use large, natural grass baskets for storing magazines; they look good and can be easily moved around.

What impact do you think color has on a workspace? I spend my day looking at so many images daily, that great light is essential.  I love an all-white space mixed with natural tones, grey stone colors and textures such as rough beige linen. That said, I would like to paint one wall of an otherwise white space this Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe grey (pictured above).

What desk accessory can’t you do without? My original 1227 Anglepoise “salvaged” from my father’s office. I also love Muji gel ink pen (pictured below) which I stock up on whenever I am in New York or London.

Is there a piece of furniture you’d love to replace? There is nothing I would like to replace however I love coming across a great find whether it be a chair in a garage sale or a piece of vintage furniture in a shop (which is how I found my current desk chair and the trestles). Those are the times I find myself adding pieces to the home.

What inspires you? We moved from the city to the Napa Valley over three years ago and being surrounded by such great natural beauty is pretty compelling. Being able to get on my bike and cycle on a country lane and see the seasons change is very poetic. I am a forager and invariably haul a branch or some fallen lemons ( or whatever is in season) back home to display. It’s a creative outlet in a way.

You see so many great workspaces. Is there one that really stands out for you? I have been thinking about this Japanese house recently by architects, Takaharu and Yui Tezuka and how for me an office really only needs a desk, some bookshelves and good natural light. An office along the lines of this bedroom (with shelving instead of bunks and a window to the ground) would work perfectly for me.

How do you manage a balance between work and the rest of your life? Since I work at home on the computer all day it is very tempting to be online the whole time. Multi-tasking is great but I am making an effort to close my computer when my children return from school even if it is only for 30 minutes so I can give them my undivided attention. The nature of this work is endless so being able to close the computer and do others things is really healthy.