Products
December 4, 2012
By Amy Feezor
You may have grown up with Charles and Ray Eameses’ rocker in your nursery — or you may have one in your child’s room now. But this classic piece is also a versatile one that can easily live outside the walls of the playroom. Take a look at a few examples of where the Eames Molded Plastic Armchair with Rocker Base can help you unwind around the home or the office. And when you’re ready to get your own, stop by the Herman Miller store, where they’re on sale through December 10 for 15% off. Read more
Design, Products
November 27, 2012
By Amy Feezor
We recently discovered architect Edward Ogosta‘s rendering of “Hybrid Office,” a yet-to-be-built project he conceived for a creative media agency of 30 workers. The workspace, which would fill an existing 6,000-square-foot concrete warehouse in Los Angeles, would employ a series of “hybrid-objects,” which exist “somewhere between furniture and architecture.” Ogasta explains: Read more
Balance, Design
July 6, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Between the cookouts and the fireworks, here’s what we’ve been reading up on this week.
1. Core 77′s coverage of the finale party at the Herman Miller Pop Up Shop.
2. Architect David Closes’ modern renovation of this crumbling convent church in Spain (via Inhabitat).
3. And over in Portugal, this reorganization of Pombal Castle’s Hill by COMOCO Architects (via Yatzer).
4. “Shocking Color in a Swedish Summer House” on Remodelista (check out that Magis Chair_One).
5. The gallery-like A+P House by Bauart Architects featured on Freshome.
6. The WTHR weather app inspired by the “10 Principles Of Design” by industrial designer Dieter Rams (via Co.Design).
7. The design of the Karaköy Rooms boutique hotel in Istanbul by RunArchitects via MoCo Loco.
8. These posters of chairs like our Eames molded plastic armchair with rocker base at Monoqui.
9. The “Lost” Steve Jobs interview that debuted this week on iTunes.
10. This must-see short video by NYC-based production company Variable celebrating the Hindu festival of colors (via The Fox Is Black).
Design
May 15, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Candy Black’s statement-making, black-walled meeting room matched with bold black Eames molded plastic armchairs got our attention — so we contacted the design boutique’s co-founder Jason Rubino for a tour of its Poole, UK headquarters. Here’s what we found. Read more
Balance, Design, Technology
May 1, 2012
By Amy Feezor
Inspired (always) by the wit and the clean, graphic lines of the vintage Herman Miller ads featured in yesterday’s post from our sister blog Discover, we set out to find desktop wallpapers to that were created in the same spirit. Here are a few standouts.
Read more
Design, Products
March 22, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Loving this poster over on Yumalum’s Etsy store.
Design, Products
October 26, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
Today is the last day to enter your email address and go into a draw for the Embody chair. This chair began its life in the design studio of Jeff Weber and the late Bill Stumpf. They wanted to solve a problem – the lack of harmony between us and the computer we find ourselves seated at for most of our working day. Their idea? To design a chair that could do more actually have positive effects on the body. You can read the full design story here but Weber said “You can’t design without empathy. Since design has become more technology based, we’ve had to sit in our chairs in front of computers for longer periods, just like everyone else. We identify with the problems people have as a result of sitting.” Their solution to this 21st century problem was the Embody chair and you can read all about the design process here.
Our Design for You competition is winding down. Next week, next Tuesday to be exact, will be the final day you will be able to enter to win one of the five painted Eames rockers. Plus the person with the most friends and family who have signed up will win an Aeron chair. But now time is really of the essence. You’ve got until November 2 – next Tuesday. Get onto it!
Balance, Design, Products
October 11, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
As promised here is the interview with Andrew Holder – the final artist behind the painted Eames rockers. The Design for You competition continues with three more weeks until entries are closed. You can read more about the prizes here.
How long have you worked in your current studio? And where is it? I moved from Pasadena to Eagle Rock about five months ago. It is only about six miles away from my the old place but somehow it feels more “LA” to me. I work from home so my studio consists of a spare bedroom and a garage which I have yet to take advantage of. Eventually (hopefully soon) I plan on doing all of my printing and painting out of the garage but since moving here I have mostly been doing work for clients so there hasn’t really been a need to set it up.
Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? My style tends to be very graphic. Geometric and organic shapes combined with a lot of different textures. Partly due to the fact that a lot of my work is screen-printed. Aesthetically, it’s kind of hard to say since I jump around a lot but it definitely has a nostalgic or retro quality to it. I have heard my work be described as future folk before but I am not entirely sure what that means.
As an artist how do you keep your space organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? Shelves, lots of shelves and drawers. Basically anywhere I can hide things. Having a garage is great, I no longer have printers and power tools looming over my head waiting to attack with the next earthquake.
What would you change about your workspace if you could? The windows, though they are great and provide good lighting, swing inward and make it difficult to put furniture anywhere. My desk and shelving are where they are because they have to be. The mid wall light fixtures don’t help the situation either.
What do you most love about your space? The old beat up wood floors and, contrary to my previous response, the lighting.
Tell me about the experience of painting the Eames chair? How much prep did you have to do? What inspired the final design? Well, since I had to finish the piece within a short amount of time I arrived knowing what I was going to do with a mock up in hand. Admittedly, I was a little freaked out about being filmed but it turned out to be a great experience and I really enjoyed it. It was good to put faces to names of people whose work I knew and admired. The design I came up with based on the tag line of “for a better world around you”. I knew I wanted it to be simple and have something to do with nature so I came up with the bird/peacock design. It seemed to work well with the form of the chair.
What inspires you? Everything. People, places, events etc. I try to get out of the studio, experience new things and break routine as much as possible. Sitting within four walls all day can be quite mind numbing.
Design, Products
October 4, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
The Design for You competition has captured the imagination of over 10,000 of you. And there is still 3 weeks to go before we get to the final prizes. Good luck all who have entered!
Here’s the fourth in our interviews with the artists who painted the Eames’ rockers for the competition. Dave Cuzner interviewed the Oakland-based artist Mark Giglio for us back in January. We revisit his studio to hear about the experience of working on a classic piece of furniture.
How long have you worked in your current studio? My studio is in Oakland California and I’ve been here for almost 9 years. Soon I’ll split my time between here and my new home studio. I’m mostly doing graphic design work out of my studio because it’s a small space in an apartment. Then at my home studio I’ll have a wood shop and printing area. I’m really excited to be able to do a lot more with the two spaces.
What would you change about your workspace if you could? Before I would have said limited space. But now I tend to only think about making a new desk for my home studio and what materials I’ll make it out of. And how I can build out my home work space to be modular so I can easily go from wood shop to print shop to painting studio.
What do you most love about your space? That it’s my personal space with all the things I like being around. My projects, my books and things I’ve collected on my travels. They are all there. I often spend a good amount of my time freelancing in other people’s offices so I really appreciate coming back to my own space. It’s really nice having a personal space to experiment and work in.
Describe your style? Graphic and simple.
As an artist how do you keep your space organized? Bookshelves and organized piles. I like things to be organized or categorized in a certain way and found piles and bookshelves work best for me. That way things are out in sight and I know right where everything is. Clutter distracts me so my space is usually very organized. My laptop is pretty much like my surroundings, over organized. Everything is hidden in a folder in a folder in a folder.
Tell me about the experience of painting the Eames chair? How much prep did you have to do? What inspired the final design? Being apart of the ‘Design for You’ project was really awesome. I’ve been an Eames fan for a long time so getting to work on a rocker was really cool. My final design was inspired by the rocker itself and from the creative brief which was to design something around Herman Miller’s motto “For a better world around you”. I sat and thought a lot about how a rocker might be used before I started sketching. The thing that stuck with me the most was story telling, how a mother might be rocking her child and talking to it. Which then lead to how important it is for us to all talk and share things. To pass on environmental wisdom to one another so we can build a better world around us. Once I had my concept I sketched things out and finalized my design about two days before painting the chair. Then the last thing I did the day before the shoot was make my cushion. Cut the pattern from my scrap fabrics and sew them together.
What inspires you? Learning about new processes to make something with, exposing myself to new things through travel, going to museums and libraries, meeting new people and friends. Trying to learn and expose myself to new things, I think that is what keeps me inspired the most. And also always wanting to make something new. I really love making things and that ultimately is what keeps me going.
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
September 22, 2010
By Cerentha Harris
All the prizes have been unlocked in our Design for You competition. Which means those Eames rockers will be won by a lucky five. You just have to enter your email to be eligible for the draw. Today we’re talking to artist and illustrator Josh Cochran about his finely detailed designs and what it was like flying out to Los Angeles to paint a chair.
How long have you worked in your current studio? And where is it? I have worked at my studio for almost 3 years. It’s an old pencil factory buildling in Brooklyn that has been divided up into smaller studios. I work as an illustrator for a pretty wide range of clients in advertising, editorial and television.
Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? My work is linnear, graphic and obsessive. My drawings are influenced by comics, vintage children’s books, woodblock prints and contemporary graphic design. I work primarily with a pencil on paper, sometimes I paint, sometimes I silkscreen but overall, I try to keep my process pretty simple.
As an artist how do you keep your space organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? My space is not huge so I have to be good about how I organize things. I’ve had a couple of desks built with custom shelving around it which has helped with storage. It also helps me have different work stations for when I work on digital things versus analog messy work. At times the computer can be a real distraction so having it on a different surface from my drawings helps a lot. I have a dry rack for prints and flat files to store larger work. On the computer I love using programs like iCal and Excell for managing clients and deadlines and Dropbox for file organization.
What would you change about your workspace if you could? I would probably add another table and more shelving. Right now I have these book shelves built into my drawing desk and it would be nice to have more room for my growing piles of books.
What do you most love about your space? I love the large custom tables I helped build. They were originally meant to be used for silkscreen but I just spread everything out on it.
Tell me about the experience of painting the Eames chair? How much prep did you have to do? What inspired the final design? Painting the Eames chair was an incredible experience! I didn’t have a whole lot of time to paint something super intricate so I decided to limit my colors to black and a bright magenta. I prepped a bit for the chair here in my studio by working out sketches of each of the little vignettes. The final design was really inspired by the shape of the chair, I wanted it to be organic to mirror the form. We were also by the theme we were given “Making the world a better place” which inspired me to come up with something fun.
What inspires you? Living here in Brooklyn, surrounded by a ton of talented and ambitious people really inspires me on a daily basis.