Playlist: Mark Hansen of Topo Designs

Unless you’ve been living under a Rocky Mountain, you’ve probably seen a lot of Topo Designs over the last year or two. Mark Hansen, along with fellow adventurer Jedd Rose, created the backpack and apparel company to satisfy their obsession for the perfect gear. Together they produce beguiling products, made in the United States, that hit the sweet spot between great aesthetics and smart functionality. Here’s the music Playlist that fills Mark’s workplace. Lend an ear.

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Top Ten: Best of the Web This Week

Take a look at what we’ve been reading this week.

1. “Cut and Paste: Paper Became a Passion for Designer Irving Harper” from Interior Design magazine.

2. Hipstamatic’s office, as reimagined by design firm Envelope A+D, at California Home + Design.

3. The Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Toyo Ito, winner of this year’s Pritzker Prize, the most prestigious award in architecture.

4. Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s temporary pavilion made from cardboard tubes at the IE School of Architecture and Design in Madrid (via Dezeen).

5. 10 inspiring quotes from the Eames family at Dwell.

6. News from PSFK that Amsterdam’s DUS Public Architecture is set to develop and create a house using a giant 3D printer.

7. The New York Times‘ feature on the 14-year renovation of the home of Scott Omelianuk, editor of This Old House.

8. “Don’t Write off the Poster,” Eye Magazine‘s look at the collaboration between the UK’s V&A Museum and the Royal College of Art seeking to prove that the poster has not been killed off by digital media.

9. “Steve Jobs: Architect” at Design Observer.

10. The opening of artist Christo’s “Big Air Package” in Germany, reported to be the most expansive indoor sculpture ever created (via designboom).

Featured in photo: Eames Molded Plywood Chair, SAYL Chair, Nelson Platform Bench

Organizing Ideas from George Nelson

Our evolving, increasingly more-digital lives allow for a home office that’s a bit less reliant on paper — but that doesn’t mean that there’s not still stuff to organize and store in your workspace. For the everyday items you rely on to get work done, consider a timeless solution that George Nelson introduced back in 1946: the Nelson Basic Cabinet Series.

Created to fill the basic need for storage and display with beautiful, simple details, these cabinets and cases are a refinement of Nelson’s ongoing research into storage furniture that started with his pioneering “Storagewall” modular concept featured in 1945 in Life magazine. A practical, standardized system of casegoods that can combine and adapt to a variety of uses, the series’ versatile combination of drawers, shelves, and cabinets may stand alone or be securely stacked atop another landmark design: the Platform Bench. One of the most flexible and useful units in the series, the multipurpose piece may function as a high base for deep and shallow cases, as a low table, or as extra seating (always a plus).

To see various configurations of the Nelson Basic Cabinet Series in action, check out the photos below. And for more organizing and storage ideas, visit store.hermanmiller.com.

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Six Ways to Explore New Haven

Through January 26, the Yale School of Architecture is featuring “George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher,” an exhibition taking a look at the pioneering designer’s work, including iconic furniture pieces like the Marshmallow Sofa and Platform Bench, his innovative workspace designs, and much more. Take a long weekend and catch the exhibit along with these six ways to explore the surroundings in New Haven, CT.

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Studio Tour: TP1

What do Shaolin racoons, Apaches, magic, Jedis, and our SAYL Chair have to do with TP1, the digital agency recently named “Montreal’s Coolest Office Space“? Read on to find out and to take a look inside the award-winning walls of this creative company specializing in online, print, and media campaigns for private and institutional organizations, as well as artistic associations like the Montreal FRINGE Festival. Read more