Top 10

Where we’ve been this week…

1. Poketo for their new porcelain color-drenched mugs (below). Perfect for that mid-morning coffee break.

2. Life magazine has made their photo archives available online via Google and there’s a treasure trove of images including the shot above of Ray and Charles Eames at and the wall storage unit below by George Nelson that caught DJ De Pree’s eye in 1945.

3. Selectism for the piece on the Ro briefcase (below) designed by New Yorker Yvonne Roe who now lives and designs in Italy.

4. Saatchi Online for some affordable art for your home office. M10 by Thomas Hammer (below) is $54.

5. Architectural Record for their great collection of residential work.

6. SoFiliumm for their story on Ilse Crawford’s Precious Collection for Georg Jensen (bowl pictured above). Via Remodelista.

7. Contemporist for their coverage of modern homes including this one by MOS Architects (below).

8. Danish magazine RUM is a great spot for design hunting.

9. Gizmodo for their office on wheels story. Designer Alexander Zhukovsky has created a blueprint for a car that houses a ‘home’ office. Gives mobile worker a whole new meaning.

10. The Design Traveller on tumblr for the brilliant use of color and images. This is a real visual treat.

Tour: Poketo

This month’s CreativeMornings breakfast lecture lands at Herman Miller’s Los Angeles showroom with Poketo founders, husband-and-wife team, Ted Vadakan and Angie Myung. Poketo began in 2003 with a line of limited-edition vinyl wallets and has expanded into a product range that includes office accessories and fashion items. Last week they visited the Herman Miller showroom (below) to get ready for their talk – see their shots of the showroom here. I asked the duo to share their studio space and answer a few questions about their work life.

How long have you worked in your current studio? And where is it? We’ve been in our studio for over 4 years now. It’s in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. A really growing part of downtown… cool restaurants, bars, cafes and still a very pedestrian part of downtown LA. It’s not far from the hustle and bustle and still maintains a cool neighborhood feel and a strong sense of community among the residents here.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? It’s hard to define our style. Both Angie and I design and curate all of the artists and the products on Poketo. We’ve collaborated with other 200 international artists for Poketo. We both have eclectic and different tastes, but, when we both like something, we know it right away. We like to think of our aesthetic as happy, modern, colorful, bright, full of personality, and accessible.

How do you keep your work space organized? Our space is a small 1200 square foot open floor plan. We have no dividers to separate work spaces. The way we work is pretty democratic, everyone chimes in at any given time on different topics in the office. Organization is maintained within each of our desks and small shelves above them. Because we house most of our products here at the studio, light industrial shelves are important for storing all of the thousands of goods we carry.

When you set up your office what did you have to keep in mind? Were there any particular obstacles to overcome? We set up the office as open, flexible, and modular as possible. Because we do everything here from design, outreach, packing/shipping, meetings and events, we wanted a space that flowed freely and furniture that could be moved around easily. For example, on any given day, it could be a normal day of designing at our desks, doing a photoshoot and the next day could be an artshow with tons of work on the walls and hundreds of people in our space. We needed a studio that could function as both office and event space, one that could change at whim with a fair amount of ease.

What do you like about the office space? I do like the shelf above my desk as it holds art, personal gifts from artists, and other knick knacks from our travels. The office turntable is also highly coveted, everyone here brings their records in for a spin.

What desk accessory can’t you do without? I can’t live without my Poketo Desk-It and Bookmark Tabs. The Desk-It keeps my week straight and the tabs I use to mark inspirations in magazines and books.

What would you change about your work space? As we are growing, more and more people are in the office. As much as I love an open floor plan, having a separate area for meetings and brainstorm sessions would be amazing. I would love a giant room with huge dry-erase walls, a long table, and comfy chairs- a room solely for ideas and play.

What inspires you? We recently renovated the kitchen in our home. Cooking has now become a huge inspiration… and then, eating.

High Five

Around the web this week…

1. Poketo Blog These designers just released a covetable range of office accessories at Target. Get the inside scoop on their cool studio. Where to start: The post on putting the Target look book together.

2. PC World Get everything you need to know about your PC in one well-designed info-saturated spot. Where to start: A great post on cleaning dirty keyboards.

3. Selectism I am a huge fan of magazines like GQ and Details. I like the attitude. I like the writing. This is the online version of one of those mags. I wont be buying any of the stuff (men’s suits don’t look good on me). But I really like the writing. Where to start: Check out their Around the Web round-up.

4. Hello Blog OK, full disclosure – Herman Miller works with Hello, an interactive design agency, on our online presence. Hello also happen to have offices close to my house. Win, win. Their blog is full of cool stuff, design news and interesting behind-the-scenes stories. Where to start: Our obsession with “becoming mayor” of everything, including a restroom.

5. DWR Blog They happen to sell some very fine furniture – including Herman Miller – but Design Within Reach also produces an excellent blog. Where to start: A cool use of Cubitec shelving in an architect’s office.