Balance, Design
October 13, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Stonorov Workshop is a design and building collaborative between husband and wife team Tolya and Otto Stonorov. I first came across their work on the pages of Dwell magazine. They had renovated a 100-year old, 400 square foot shack in Oakland, California (above). It was 2006 and they had both just left their jobs at small architectural firms to go out on their own. When I contacted them to see if I could revisit the house for Lifework I found they had moved to Alaska and embarked on a whole new building project. Here they discuss the move, designing a live/work space and how they established their studio.
You established the Stonorov Workshop in 2006. What led you and your husband Otto to that point? Going back a long ways, we both grew up around the same, Philadeplphia-based, family architectural heritage: our respective grandfathers worked on large social planning and design issues together; and our parents, independently, work(ed) in the fields of development and building. We met when we were 3 and 4, narrowly missed each other for a little over 20 years, and re-met again a year prior to attending graduate school together.
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Balance
July 12, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
Seven men. That’s who began this design collective. They are based in Chicago and are all artists of one kind or another. I was really impressed with the Post Family story (check out Family Values). There’s something compelling about a group of creative people figuring out a way to work together. It was their design blog that caught my eye and drove me to contact them to see how we could fold the Post Family into Lifework. The idea is simple, really. I asked them to imagine your ideal home workspace and express it in some kind of visual way. A nice broad brief that has thrown up some truly inspiring work. Over the next week I will post work from Alex Fuller, Davey Sommers, David Sieren, Rod Hunting and Sam Rosen. Look out for Alex’s piece later today.
Design, Products
January 15, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
Designer Nate Duval’s take on a 2010 calendar.
If you are still wondering which calendar is just right for your office let me confuse you with a few more choices! So many of us rely on our electronic calendars – and they are truly great tools (those reminders that spring up on my screen are brilliant). But there’s nothing quite like a beautifully designed calendar that you can hang on the wall. It acts as a piece of art as well as a functional office tool. I went to Etsy and found a slew of handmade calendars to suit all tastes.
A new addition to the ‘Keep Calm’ series – a single page calendar to pin on your bulletin board. It is printed on a Crane & Co. 100% cotton card and you can choose from a range of colors.
A lovely letterpress page-per-month calendar. Holes drilled in the top of each page let you hang it easily.
Another month-per-page calendar with handy notes section and a clean simple design.
This is a perpetual calendar and it arrives via email as a PDF. Designed by Patricia Zapata of A Little Hut.
Editor’s note: I owe a huge debt to Christine at Etsy. She did the Look on the Bright Side story for the Etsy Finds section that I culled for this post. Thanks Christine! Nice work.