Olga Massov, food writer, recipe developer, and co-author of the soon-to-be-released The Kimchi Cookbook, may have a cheerful compact nook neatly tucked into the corner of the Brooklyn apartment she shares with her husband, but her kitchen is just as much her office, too. Find out how she manages to balance it all in this tour and interview with the Russian expat (by way of New England). Read more
San Antonio, Texas, is home to organizer Vanessa Hayes — as well as the newly-built backyard office shed she now shares with her husband Dan, a technology/marketing/media consultant. See the space they customized for their work lives and get some tips on how to make working from home with your spouse easier in this interview and tour of their office, which nicely features a pair of our SAYL chairs in black and white. Read more
Yves Béhar has thoughtfully envisioned and realized the future of design through countless products, from shoes to mobile apps to task seating. Celebrating the first featured designer in Herman Miller’s new “Why Design” series (launching today), Lifework presents six items that represent Béhar’s innovative portfolio of design solutions.
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
Toronto is the home base for the lively workspace of Bento Box, a boutique Web and business development studio that stopped us in our tracks when we saw how many of our SAYL Chairs filled its offices (very impressive). Take a look at their space — also home to coworking artists, designers, and developers — in this latest tour. Read more
With its Golden Gate Bridge-inspired shape and bold color options, our SAYL chair is beautiful enough to share the spotlight with star-packed movies like the Hunger Games and buzzy TV shows such as True Blood. But how does the Yves Béhar-designed seating stack up in the every day? Take a look at how this affordable, ergonomically supportive, and ecologically responsible chair performs in a few real-world home offices. Read more
Take a look at what we’ve bookmarked this week.
1. Mashable’s 10 Tips for a More Beautiful and Functional Home Office.
2. The surprising predictions from the 1985 AP article “The Office of the Future” at Office Snapshots.
3. This insightful interview at Mr. Porter with Jason Cohn, writer and co-director of Eames: The Architect and the Painter.
4. “The home office that changed our lives” at Homes & Property.
5. House R by architect Sharon Neuaman on Architzer. (We like its Eames Lounge and Eames Molded Plastic Armchair with Rocker Base combo.)
6. Yves Béhar’s keynote speech on why designers should love the design process via Trendhunter.
7. This peek at graphic designer Codi Goodis’ SAYL Chair (designed by Yves Béhar himself) at Design Milk.
8. These magical desk objects by Max Phillips at MoCo Loco.
9. Intralld’s feature on a colorful, smile-inducing public art exhibition in Portugal.
10. “The Joy of the Home Office” at The Telegraph.
Interiors stylist, writer, and publicist Kate Baxter charms us regularly with her musings over at her popular Fabric of My Life blog. Get a look at the flexible new SAYL chair now taking up residence in the flat she rents in London (and hear her thoughts on what it’s like to live in the middle of a city prepping for the world stage) in this easygoing office tour.
Tell us about yourself: What you’re passionate about, what you’re proud of, and where you’re going. Fabric of My Life is my own little corner of cyberspace where I document my favourite inspirational finds, be it interiors, homewares, fashion, or well-designed products that make me go “ooooh!” I started my blog when I was freelancing as an interiors stylist as a way of cataloguing all the things I liked in one place — but it has grown into so much more than that now. I’ve made so many great friends and connections through my blog and have had several fantastic experiences as a result of it — the best being selected this spring to take part in BlogTour NYC, a week-long design tour of Manhattan with 14 other interiors bloggers.
What inspires you in your work? Everything inspires me! Although I write mainly about interior design and homeware products, I draw inspiration from all areas of my life — friends, film and TV, magazines, being out and about in my beloved London…. The whole city is abuzz with energy just now, as we surge forward from the excitement of the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations to the imminent Olympics; the whole atmosphere is simply electric. Hearing the athletes talk about their preparations for the games, their dedication, and their ambitions is so inspiring and the increasing sense that we can actually do this — put on the greatest spectacle in the world — is truly, truly exhilarating.
Tell us about your home workspace. Were there any special considerations that influenced its setup? I live in a rented flat, so my main consideration is how to fit a dedicated “workspace” into my bedroom. Luckily, I have the largest room in the house and have been able to zone off a corner to set up a mini office. This is probably where I spend most of my time, catching up on emails, blogging, scouring the Internet for inspiration. I love that I have a window next to my desk – it’s great to have natural light to work by and a little bit of greenery outside to offer a moment of quiet contemplation while waiting for the next wave of inspiration to hit. I like how long my desk is — it’s great for laying out press pack materials and samples to order my ideas for posts. I keep things (somewhat) organised with desk accessories from Ording and Reda and Muji, and surround myself with photos of my friends, mementos from trips, and images ripped from magazines to keep me inspired. I would love to have an Anglepoise work lamp, but for now, my white lamp from IKEA does the trick.
You have a new SAYL chair. How do you like it? I am incredibly lucky to have had my SAYL chair gifted to me by WellWorking, a West London-based company that provides office furniture and ergonomic solutions for the workplace and home. I was introduced to them through my blog.
The chair was chosen for me based on my answers to questions regarding my height and build and how I use my work area. Before I got my SAYL, I had an industrial-style brown leather chair that I had bought at a car-boot fair. I loved it despite it being very impractical, so I had actually been very hesitant to change chairs. But as soon as I sat in the new SAYL I was a convert. WellWorking came to my home to “install” the chair and it was adjusted to my height and my desk, meaning that from the very first time I sat down to work in it, I was the most comfortable I’ve ever been sitting at my desk. I use my chair not just for work, but for leisure, as I often sit up at my desk watching TV on my laptop. The webbed back supports me perfectly and the recline (which I’ve always hated in other chairs) is an absolute dream.
Do you have other Herman Miller pieces in your space? This is my first Herman Miller piece, and I would most certainly have more if I could. In an ideal world, I would love to have a Nelson Swag Leg Desk and an Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair. I saw the fascinating Eames: the Architect and the Painter documentary recently and would very happily have anything by Charles and Ray Eames in my home. Their design aesthetic was simply stunning.
Photos: Kate Baxter
1. “Herman Miller meets Wonder Woman” on the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Tumblr.
2. A bookcase that magically stores chairs and tables at PSFK.
3. ”Are You Spending 1,000 Hours Preparing for Your Next Job?” at the Harvard Business Review.
4. LA Observed’s short chat with Allon Schoener, author and periodic guest at the Eames House in the 1950s.
5. It comes equipped with Wi-Fi … could you use this as an occasional outdoor office? (Via Design Milk)
6. These home-office solutions for cords, cables, and devices at Apartment Therapy.
7. The Selby’s tour of jewelry designer Philip Crangi’s NYC home and studio.
8. Did you see our SAYL Chair on True Blood? (Via latimes.com)
9. This discussion about design knockoffs at last weekend’s Dwell on Design home show. (Via Dwell)
10. Hither and Thither’s coverage of our Pop-Up Shop in Soho, NYC. There’s still time to stop by — it’s open through this Sunday, July 1.
We know So for the graphic design and photography work it’s created for Herman Miller in the UK (see an example here). And now we know it for its inspiring surroundings: a converted barn in Bristol in the southwest of England. In his own words, Creative Director Steve Haskins gives us a personal tour. Read more