What do you listen to while you work?
In the morning we usually listen to something mellow and ambient since that’s when we do a lot of our emailing. In the afternoon, we usually put on something with a little more kick, and if it’s going to be an all-nighter then 80′s music is the go to.

How do you listen?
We usually listen to music throughout the day on our Sonos and we each take turns putting on different music. If one of us really needs to focus or our cat won’t stop nagging for food, we throw on some Bose noise-cancelling headphones.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
iTunes and KEXP.

Does music influence your work?
We recently illustrated some idyllic forest scenes for a children’s hospital and we listened a lot to Beethoven’s Symphony No.6 while creating them. That music really invoked the feeling that we wanted to portray and helped us get into the right mental space while we were creating the various scenes.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
KEXP in Seattle is probably our favorite source for new music.

If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be?
Ha! This is a tricky one. We honestly have no idea, but it’d be pretty sweet if it could be “Linus and Lucy” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist is the Eames Molded Plywood Chair in walnut.

Do you have Herman Miller pieces in your studio, home office (or anywhere else in your home)?
We have several Herman Miller pieces in both our home and office, and while they’re all fantastic, we’d say our favorite is the Eames Aluminum Management Chair. When you’re sitting all day long, it’s really important to have a chair that’s comfortable and supports your back for long hours. And it doesn’t look too shabby either.

Sarah & Ryan’s Playlist:
1. You Send Me, Sam Cooke
2. Heaven or Las Vegas, Cocteau Twins
3. Rebel Girl, Bikini Kill
4. When Doves Cry, Prince
5. Gimme Little Sign, Brenton Wood
6. When Harpo Played His Harp, Modern Lovers
7. Fire Alarm, The Fresh and Onlys
8. Hey, Pixies
9. Daylight Sky, Frankie Rose
10. Vapour Trail, Ride
11. My Prayer, Roy Orbison
12.  My Favorite Things, Tony Bennett

Photos: Lab Partners

1. The Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair in action at the studio of letterer Erik Marinovich via Warby Parker Class Trip.

2. Inthralld’s tour of visual artist and designer Michelle de la Vega’s garage-to-home conversation (it’s an astounding 250 square feet).

3. This duplex apartment by Paris’s Place de la Madeleine designed and owned by architect Michael Herrmanon (via materialicious).

4. The family home of designer Alice Flynn — a mix of masculine and feminine style — in Avalon NSW Australia, featured on Design*Sponge.

5. More from Down Under: this beautiful home blending indoor and outdoor spaces at Homedit.com.

6. The roundup of smart concrete interiors at Design Milk.

7. This project by MASS Design Group to develop housing for doctors at the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda (via Architizer).

8. The installation created by E/B Office at the Teton County Library in Wyoming that physically responds to the Internet (via The Fox Is Black).

9. Dwell’s look at a modern tree house in Belgium by design firm Baumraum.

10. Did you catch this recent post by Ryan Anderson, Herman Miller Director of Future Technology, at the Drucker Institute’s blog, Drucker Exchange?

Featured in photo: Branca Chair by San Hecht and Kim Colin

How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I have been working from home since 2007 when I started teaching. At that time, my husband and I owned a live-work loft in downtown LA, which we built out ourselves. Then came the birth of my son and we moved to a more wooded community in Los Angeles to give my son greater exposure to the outdoor environment. I started designing the current line for Yeh Design Lab at home in 2010, just before my son turned two.

When you set up your home/work space what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? When a former-student started working for me, I became aware of a psychological barrier — the notion that “working from home” made me feel a little “unofficial.” I was embarrassed about the fact there is a domestic presence to the studio even though my intern and I utilized the domestic area such as the kitchen and the books in the living room during our work hours.

A project I worked on with my husband’s architecture firm Lookinglass A+D changed my view of working from home. For more than a year, a filmmaker client would come to our place for a meeting once a week. The meetings were very long, but because they were supported by an endless supply of tea, seasonal fruit, and good snacks, they were also good. I started to embrace not only the efficiency but also the idea of a live-work home.

What drives your creative decisions? While working on my architecture school graduate thesis, a friend introduced me to a book called Flatland.  Written by Sir Edwin A. Abbott and published in 1884, Flatland invites its readers to consider the outrageous possibilities of space beyond three-dimensions. The novel accomplishes this by portraying the perceptual limitations of the inhabitants of a two-dimensional world who are unable to imagine, and do not want to imagine, the third dimension. To me, the importance of this fable lies not in its literal explication of geometrical and dimensional issues, but as a cautionary tale about a collective complacency in culture, and by extension, all of life. Ever since then, in my work I have been interested in devising ways of challenging common sense, collective intuition, and perception.

What about your work has changed since becoming a parent? I try to spend at least five waking hours a day with my son during work days. It is important to shift gears and focus my attention on my family in the evening, although I must admit I have not fully mastered the skill yet. 9pm is usually the start of the “night shift” of my “work day.” I think the working life of creative parents is inevitably chopped up into chunks of shorter hours.

Aside from the work hours, being a parent made me become more thoughtful with my designs. I can now easily imagine people who are parents wearing my designs and I am aware of their greater need to feel unburdened by what they wear.

How does working from home impact your work? Work becomes part of the cycle of my life rather than independent from it. Although work has a different rhythm, that rhythm has many layers/scales. One of those layers has to fit into the cycle of the home routine, constant cleanup, and constant “mode switching.”

What would you change about your workspace? How do you keep it organized? The “official” home office, where the desks for Yeh Design Lab reside, is located on the mezzanine floor with only 145 square feet of space. When there were two interns here, we were all tripping over each other to work. We turned the dining table and kitchen counters into work surfaces on a daily basis. However, sometimes I would need the largest surface I can find. That is when I turned to the floor — especially for the layout and cutting of cow hides. I always fantasize having a 4’ by 10’ long table that is multi-functional.

Currently, stackable storage that I can grow and easily move is one of the things that is keeping me “sane.” In addition to raw materials and products, my studio produces many studies, one after another. New fully-baked designs don’t come out that often, but studies and prototype pile up quickly. Stackable storage keeps things, I would not say “organized” but “under control.”

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet right now? We have a few Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs and Stool_One by Konstantin Grcic in the home office. I would love to own another piece of Grcic’s work such as the Medici Chair Outdoor. It will not only encourage us to take breaks during the work day, but might feed our souls a bit in the process. We have a lot of mid-century modern furniture here, but in the last five years or so, every other piece of furniture that caught my eyes turned out to be Grcic’s.

Who inspires you? So many people and their work inspire me, past and present. However, I find myself repeatedly going back to the works of Yaacov Agam, Gordon Matta-Clark, Naum Gabo, Erwi Hauer, and Pierre Charreau. I am also in awe of Eero Saarinen and would like to understand and connect to his work in a deeper way.

Photos: Yi-Hsiu Yeh

1. A quick tour inside the Ray Eames exhibit at the California Museum in Sacramento via Esoteric Survey.

2. Le Prado, a warm, welcoming home near the beaches of Marseilles, France, spotted by Design Milk.

3. More from Marseilles, this time from Contemporist: the simple and elegant Vieux Port Pavilion by Foster + Partners.

4. Co.Design’s peek inside a new book on Irving Harper, who designed Herman Miller’s logo and contributed to the design of George Nelson’s Marshmallow Sofa.

5. A surprising house design by Aires Mateus in Leiria, Portugal, found at I Need a Guide.

6. The Makoko Floating School project by NLÉ architects at designboom.

7. Remodelista’s roundup of “smart and skinny” houses in Japan.

8. Great shots by photographer Alan Wanzenberg at Plastolux. (We’re fans of the nicely lit image of a pair of Eames Walnut Stools.)

9. This chat with David Calvin Laufer, who presents interviews with George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames, and Buckminster Fuller, among others, in his book Dialogues with Creative Legends and Aha Moments in a Designer’s Career (via Peachpit).

10. The renovated LeRoy Neiman Center at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Be sure to check out its interesting combo of Eames designs and colorful Caper chairs. (Via Retail Design Blog.)

Featured in photo: Eames Molded Plastic Chair; Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair; Nelson X-Leg Table

Each hybrid synthesizes essential traits from two “parents” of differing typologies; for example, a set of bookshelves combined with the stepped form of an arena results in the book-arena, which doubly functions as storage and seating for office-wide meetings. Other hybrids include the tree-chair, mountain-offices, house-table, and sky-cave …. This conceptual intertwining of interior office and exterior world expands the experiential possibilities of inhabitation. To sit in a chair as if inside a tree, or occupy a table as one would a house, is to prompt a rethinking of how we exist with objects and environments. One’s fundamental notions of dwelling and working are consequently upended, yet simultaneously clarified.

This larger idea of merging solutions within the office space has already won Ogosta the AIA Los Angeles Next LA Honor Award 2012 as well as recognition in several publications. But the details also got our attention: the project’s light, airy setting incorporates several designs by Charles and Ray Eames, such as Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs, Eames Molded Plastic Chairs, and Eames Molded Plastic Armchairs with Rocker Bases — all in white. We asked Ogosta why he selected these styles and color. “It was important that the seating be compatible with the limited palette of wood and white materials for the project,” he stated. “The various Eames chairs seemed to complement the project’s furniture hybrid-objects, as they have a simplicity which does not distract from the overall space.”

Also considered? Charles and Ray’s California connection. Explained Ogosta, “The project also aims to internalize and clarify the surrounding areas of Los Angeles — its natural forms, its urban character, and its cultural openness — so including Eames chairs seemed appropriate given that they are indigenous creations of Southern California.”

See more of Hybrid Office here and at edwardogosta.com.

Images: edwardogosta.com

Designer Jonathan Lo’s weekend workspace in the San Diego area finds order not only in its cleanliness, but also its color scheme. “I like to keep my workspace pretty neutral,” he explains. “It helps avoid too much visual distraction. At the same time, I can’t be in a space completely devoid of color….The house this place resides in is pretty close to the beach, so hits of blue seemed appropriate.”

The home office of Los Angeles-based mobile app developer Garrett Murray includes an especially tidy Airia desk and Mirra Chair combo.

The work of interior designer Jayne Michaels of 2Michaels (a firm she runs with twin sister Joan) is known for its spare, undecorated style — and it shows in her personal desk space in Manhattan.

Streamlined bookcases and neatly organized office accessories surround this desk and Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair pairing at Treehouse Design Partnership in Los Angeles.

The lack of extra “stuff” in graphic designer David Airey’s workspace in Northern Ireland can be explained by a lifetime of moving houses. “Since first leaving my parents’ home when I was 19, I’ve lived at about 15 different addresses,” he says. “That’ll be why there’s not a lot in my office — you tend to shed the junk each time you move.”

Designer Matt Singer’s laptop shares a few trinkets and a set of speakers with an otherwise clean-topped desk space.

Three white Eames Molded Plastic Armchairs line up all in a row at one long wood desktop at the creative agency Juliet Zulu in Portland, OR.

Photos linked to their sources. Top photo: Nick Keppols

1. The New York Times‘ interview with Hilda Longinotti, George Nelson’s former secretary and oftentimes furniture model (check her out alongside the Nelson Marshmallow Sofa in the article’s featured photo).

2. “A Rare Look at the Eames Office’s Graphic Design” from Co.Design.

3. Wowed by the Thesayboat houseboat designed and owned by Marek Ridky in the Czech Republic, spotted at Design Milk.

4. Could you spend time working in the Cocoon 1 by Micasa Lab? (Via Inhabitat.)

5. The Pandora office in Chicago (full of Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs, Eames Soft Pad Management Chairs, Mirra Chairs, and more) designed by Eastlake Studio, featured at Inthralld (photo above).

6. Last summer’s LIGHTlab 5.1 installation designed by VAV Architects in Helsinki, Finland, as detailed at CollabCubed.

7. The Best Business Hotels of 2012, according to Wallpaper*.

8. This serene collection of contemporary design photos shot by architectural photographer Hélène Binet featured at NOWNESS.

9. The SAYL Chairs gracefully supporting the Skullcandy office in Zurich, Switzerland, at ArchDaily.

10. This inspiring townhouse in Lisbon, Portugal, with vertical gardens and a rooftop pool — a “unique link with nature” in the middle of a busy city — found at Dezeen.

Photo: Eastlake Studio via Inthralld

By Lydia Brotherton. Used in partnership with Apartment Therapy Tech.

What year was TP1 established? What led to that point? TP1 was founded in 2005. Up until then — and for most of his career — our founding partner Jan-Nicolas Vanderveken had been a freelancer. It has been suggested that he launched TP1 because he was tired of working alone in his basement.

Along with fellow founding partner Joseph Blauer, he assembled a team of 35 strategists, designers, and techies who combine their strengths to communicate in new ways — and inspire others to do the same. TP1 stands for “Tous pour un,” which is French for the Musketeers’ motto, “All for one!”

Tell us about TP1: what you’re passionate about, what inspires you, and where you’re going. We love great design, new ideas, and cowboys. We like vintage posters, architecture, retro video games, playing Rock Band, Lego, karaoke, drinking beer, and jamming with the TP1 band (we’re music lovers, as you probably guessed). We also really like fearless clients.

Last year, we organized the agency into teams. Instead of being grouped by specialty (strategy, user experience, design, project management, and technology), TP1 is now organized into five small, multi-disciplinary teams comprising a variety of talents to deliver great products. The teams even have names: Shaolin Racoons, Apaches, Right Clique, Magic, and The Jedis. This structure greatly influenced the way we designed the space.

Tell us about that space. What do you like or dislike? What would you change? We wanted a space as creative as we are. That is, a space that could feed — and accommodate — the creativity that fuels everything we do.

First, we selected the building. We wanted an older, but well-maintained location with a lot of natural light. We found everything we wanted in the Castle Building, located in the heart of downtown Montreal. The owner is great to work with, and we even got a rooftop patio.

Despite the very tight turnaround time, the design team at Moureau Hauspy (MHAD) proved up to the challenge. The proposed design concept was resolutely transparent, with well-lit open spaces. Apart from a few closed, but glassed-in offices, the rest of the workspace is entirely open, with five distinct areas for each of our five teams.

The walls are mainly white, although a few are black slate for functional reasons (to display various projects and activities, and for brainstorming). The concrete floor has been left untouched, other than a simple tarnish. This gives the space an urban, industrial look, which is complemented by touches of wood for a warmer atmosphere.

Most of the furniture was custom designed by the MHAD team. A few of the wooden tables, including one in the conference room, were made ​​from recycled bowling alley wood. A “pixelier” — or a three-dimensional flipboard with multi-coloured sides — was installed in the entrance to the agency. It establishes a connection between the visitors’ waiting area and the rest of the workspace. Employees create original images by spinning the small cubes according to colour, making the “pixelier” a unique way to showcase our potential for innovation.

Special attention was given to lighting, both natural and artificial. Workstation lighting is avant-garde and flexible. We installed a system of pulleys, coloured cables, and sockets above each workstation, enabling each employee to adjust their own desired level of lighting.

The layout also includes a large lounge and dining room with kitchenette. Comfort was one of our priorities. And although TP1’s DNA is firmly digital, ideas are still born from old-fashioned words and images. To help keep the creativity flowing, MHAD created an “atelier” room with walls you can write on. Blackboards and white boards cover three of the walls, while the fourth is partially converted into a floor-to-ceiling cork board. The conference room is also primed for productivity with just-right ergonomics and a style that retains the building’s original cachet.

We wanted to create an open, uncluttered, minimalist, functional workspace capable of expressing our collective identity and supporting the team’s vast creative potential.

What we like the most about it? The rooftop terrasse, windows that actually open, the natural light, the “pixelier,” the fact that it can be turned into a great party space (awesome speakers and central sound system) and our amazing Simonelli Appia espresso machine.

There’s not much to dislike. After using the space for a few months, there were a few adjustments that needed to be made, such as the acoustics in one of the conference rooms and a lack of storage space for coats and boots during our Canadian winter.

You have SAYL Chairs in your space. Why did you choose them? The SAYL Chairs are probably the first thing we selected for the new office. There was a demo at MHAD, given to them by Herman Miller’s Montreal branch, and we found the chair to be extremely comfortable and surprisingly well priced. We were also impressed by the fact that the SAYL won a Core77 design award. The Google Montreal office might have even copied us — we spotted a few SAYLs in their new space!

We like that they’re very comfortable and firm, perfect as a work chair, and offer good value, an amazing warranty, and original design. We’ve recommended it to others, and even loaned a few to one of our clients while they waited for delivery of their own.

Do you have other Herman Miller pieces in the office? Eames Aluminum Group Management Chairs (mesh model for the boardroom and leather model for Jan-Nicolas’ office). Great, timeless design. There’s nothing not to like about them. We also have a couple Nelson Platform Benches and some Eames Molded Plastic Chairs.

Lastly, are there any gadgets, desk accessories, or apps that TP1 can’t do without? An orange Link task lamp by Pablo, a Tivoli Model One radio, TODO Blackboards by Erratum Design, the beer fridge (always stocked with McAuslan’s beer, a local brewery). As for apps, we’re avid Foursquare users (don’t forget to check in when you visit). And post-its!

Click here to see a video on TP1’s move into this relatively new space in October 2011.

Photos: Cindy Boyce

Ample desk space and a flexible Mirra Chair help a busy business traveler stay on task at the Hilton Garden Inn Frankfurt Airport. Photo: hiltongardeninn3.hilton.com

Designed by Terence Conran, the Charles and Ray Eames Room in London’s Boundary hotel lives up to its name: an Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, Aluminum Group Management Chair, Wire Base Low Table, and Hang-It-All all call the space home. Photo: Paul Raeside and Lisa Linder / theboundary.co.uk

Once home to 19th-century tobacco and Bourbon warehouses, the very artsy 21c Museum Hotel now keeps Aeron Chairs in its spacious guest rooms and suites in Louisville, KY. Photo: 21cmuseumhotels.com

A collection of Aeron Chairs keep meetings comfortable in the business center of downtown Chicago’s Sofitel Chicago Water Tower. Photo: sofitel.com

A compact (yet efficient) guest-room workspace offers the use of a Mirra Chair in New York’s Wyndham Garden Chelsea Hotel. Photo: wyndham.com

The luxe Gene Autry Residence (yes, that Gene Autry) at the Parker Palm Springs contains an Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman to keep guests, ahem, humming right along. Photo: theparkerpalmsprings.com

Have you spotted any Herman Miller furnishings during your business travels? Let us know about it in the Comments section now.

What do you listen to while you work?
Leslie Roeder: The Byrds, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Calexico, Serge Gainsbourg, Wilco, Beastie Boys…

John Eric Byers (JEB):  Cat Power, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Black Angels, Black Mountain Grinderman, My Morning Jacket, Bob Dylan, Black Keys, Wooden Ships, Walkmen, and, of course, Leslie’s playlist.

How do you listen?
Leslie: I use Urbanears Headphones or listen to iTunes directly from my laptop.

JEB: An Apple iPod Shuffle.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers?
Leslie: No, I don’t have any favorites. I count on my friends for music recommendations. And we sometimes share our music through Dropbox.

JEB: Friends and Pitchfork to discover and Dropbox and Amazon together.

Does music influence your work?
Leslie: I think music influences my work indirectly. It helps me take my mind off the news, day-to-day issues, and politics etc. I turn on my music to focus on my work. Otherwise, my head spins all day long. So, in that way, it influences how I work. I am more productive when I listen to music.

JEB: It doesn’t directly influence my work, but it sets the pace and groove of the process and the process sets the pace and groove of the playlist.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste?
Leslie:  My music recommendations come from my friends. For instance, one of my closest friends brought Harry Nilsson to my attention. My musical taste is really influenced by my boyfriends. (That is very embarrassing to admit, but it is true.) Before that, my brother, who is a country music and folk music musician, influenced my musical taste, so I guess there’s a pattern there. As a youth, I listened to Emmy Lou Harris, Dolly Parton, Graham Parsons, and all the musicians in the genre. My friend and Goodjoy partner John Eric Byers listens to The Byrds, Nick Cave, The Black Keys, Cat Power, and a whole lot more. Those musicians definitely grew on me.

What song or artist best represents the work you create?
Leslie: Hmm, a bit of Serge Gainsbourg, a bit of Leonard Cohen, a bit of Frank Zappa — and maybe some Marianne Faithful mixed in.

JEB: It’s all a mixed bag.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist:
Leslie:  The Nelson Platform Bench. A bench is a community space. It represents a space for several people — a shared space, a public space. Many people can occupy a bench. Music should be shared, and a bench is perfect for creating the opportunity. And I totally see Neil Young sitting on a bench. It’s austere and represents equality.

JEB: An Eames Molded Plastic Armchair with 4-leg Base in wafer and an Eames Molded Plastic Armchair with Wire Base in orange. My 4-legged wafer shell chair because, while it is hard, I find it to be very relaxing to sit in. I cannot imagine listening to my playlist while relaxing in an upholstered chair.

GOODJOY DESIGN’S PLAYLIST

Leslie:

1. Dear Heather, Leonard Cohen
2. On That Day, Leonard Cohen
3. Every Day I Write the Book, Elvis Costello
4. Yégellé Tezeta, Ethiopiques
5. Cinnamon Girl, Neil Young
6. The Losing End, Neil Young
7. Ascension to Virginity, Dave Grusin
8. Faust 72, Dynastie Crisis
9. Bonnie and Clyde, Brigitte Bardot with Serge Gainsbourg
10. Mr. Tambourine Man (Live), The Byrds
11. Southern Accents, Johnny Cash

John Eric Byers:

1. Moan, The Black Keys
2. Rockets, Cat Power
3. Palaces of Montezuma, Grinderman
4. Honest Man, My Morning Jacket
5. Cannibal’s Hymn, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
6. Good Fortune, PJ Harvey
7. In the New Year, The Walkmen
8. Son of Mustang Ford, Swervedriver
9. Mexicola, Queens of the Stone Age
10. Hey, Pixies
11. Bring It On, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
12. Love Burns, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Photos: Goodjoy Design

1. “How a home work space works best” at The Globe and Mail (featuring a pair of our Setu Chairs, above, in a photo by Barry Calhoun Photography).

2. Chairsmith’s electrifying photos of their recent Eames acquisition.

3. Fashion designer Leyla Piedayesh’s studio, which includes a Magis Chair_One by Konstantin Gricic (via Monoqi)

4. Daniel Kanter’s thoughtful post on his visit to Case Study House No. 8 in L.A. (via Manhattan Nest).

5. On a related note, these watercolor paintings based on the architectural photographs of Julius Shulman in the Los Angeles Times.

6. Could this save the iPad’s “lousy typing”? (via Co.Design).

7. “Kindergarten Design Grows Up: Contemporary Nursery-School Projects” at Architonic.

8. “How to Thank Your Employees in Only 8 Words” from Inc.

9. Apartment Therapy’s roundup of 10 office chairs from their Tech Tours (we spy the best of the best: Mirra, Embody, Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair, Aeron, Eames Soft-Pad Management Chair…)

10. This impressive mid-century-modern collection in the Michigan home of architect Robert C. Metcalf (via AnnArbor.com).

Photo: Barry Calhoun Photography / The Globe and Mail

What do you listen to while you work? It depends on what I am doing at the moment. If I am in the studio, I usually start with R&B or bossa nova. Bossa nova seems like the perfect sound to ease into the day. And for practical purposes, it is just there and enjoyable without having to hit you over the head with its presence. But usually I end up back at the R&B vault. Lately, toward the end of the day, I have found myself tuning into jazz-inspired electronica artists like Shigeto and Shlohmo.

If I am in the workshop using sanders and saws, I put on reggae or jazz vocalists from the 50s and 60s. Especially Lambert, Hendricks and Ross. Even when what I am doing is super noisy, I can still hear the music.

How do you listen? I should be a sales rep for the Bose Companion system. We have four of these. They are great for hooking up to your iPod or iPhone and also streaming Pandora or Last.fm. We use these while shooting or making surfaces.

At my desk I use Sony headphones (that I had bought to use for recording sound for video, but ended up mostly using to listen to music) and my iMac or just the iMac.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? We jump back and forth from Pandora and Last.fm. Maybe a bit more lately with Pandora.

Where do you find music recommendations? Mostly online. I’ll spend time going through the iTunes store and one thing leads to another. I also tune into NPR and Soundcheck. And of course there’s nothing like having an assistant or client plug in their iPhone or iPod to get a whole new outlook on music.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? I would say it is a toss up between Sergio Mendes and Stevie Wonder. The song “So Nice” from Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’65 is fantastic as it straddles jazz and pop and has an amazing vocalist in Lani Hall — not from Rio, but from Chicago! And “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” from Innervisions by Stevie Wonder is an all-time favorite and Latin-soul inflected. Upbeat and beautiful.

Ideal place to sit and listen to your playlist: The Eames Aluminum Group Management Chair in black. I’m all about fun and function, plus beauty ranks pretty high on my list of things to have.

JIM’S PLAYLIST

1. Mais Que Nada, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
2. He’s Misstra Know-It-All, Stevie Wonder
3. Got to Give It Up, Marvin Gaye
4. Love T.K.O., Teddy Pendergrass
5. Soaring, Shigeto
6. The Look of Love, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66
7. Let’s Stay Together, Al Green
8. Didn’t Cha Know, Erykah Badu
9. Sumthin’ Sumthin’, Maxwell
10. Places, Shlomo

cred

Photos: Jim Franco