Balance, Design, Products, Technology
September 23, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Dezeen for their London Design Festival coverage. Above is British designer Sebastian Bergne with the greenhouse he designed made from of Lego in London’s Covent Garden.
2. Room 100 is Thompsons Hotels’ blog and they often have good design stories. Check out David Byrne’s artwork under the Highline in NYC.
3. Culture Monster for Christopher Hawthorne’s post on the legacy of the Case Study program . The living room in Charles and Ray Eames’ Case Study house below.
4. Cool Hunting for their review of Thames and Hudson’s new book Total Office Design.
5. Inhabitat for their piece on Yves Behar’s new bike.
6, Inspire Me Now for doing just that. Lots of great design eye candy here.
7. Swissmiss’ clever Tuex Deux. It’s always helpful to be more organized!
8. Houzz for their cable management page. I just got bluelounge’s CableBox (below) and its great.
9. Desire to Inspire for their post on a clean-lined modern renovation of a backyard shed (below).
10. Designboom’s news section is a great place to keep up to date with what is happening in the world of design and architecture.
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
September 17, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Where we’ve been this week… 
1. Fast Company for their United States of Design stories. Nice to see that we made the “30 Companies That Get It” List.
2. LA Curbed for their great news gathering. They were the first to show LACMA’s California Design, 1930-1965: “Living in a Modern Way” exhibition actually getting installed in the Resnick Pavilion (they grabbed the shots from the LACMA blog). The show includes the real Eames living room taken from their Case Study house in the Palisades. When we were at the house in June Eames Demetrios talked about the careful dismantling of the living space and how it would give them the opportunity to do much needed repairs to the building. The show is part of a larger designe event called Pacific Standard Time.
3. Chair*Stalker is a simple image-driven tumblr blog about…chairs. Well worth a look if you are interested in design.
4. Crane.tv’s coverage of Milan’s Salone del Mobile – you almost feel like you’ve been there.
5. ReCraft for their take on Eames wire chairs (below).
6. Eichler Network for their piece on mid-century modern architect Edward H. Fickett.
7. Los Angeles Times Home blog’s Landmark Houses series. The 2005 photograph below is of publisher Benedikt Taschen at work in his home – John Lautner’s iconic Chemosphere.
8. Fuel Your Writing for their Writing Spaces tours. Sneak a peak inside the shed where Roald Dahl wrote his novels.
9. Online interiors Lonny magazine turns two. See the latest issue here.
10. Architectural Digest for their homes gallery. So much eye candy! For some vintage Herman Miller check out this New York dealer’s home.
Balance, Design, Products, Technology
July 22, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Where we’ve been this week…
1. AIA’s Architect Barbie’s House Competition. Yes, that is a home office complete with an Eames Lounge Chair (above).
2. Rupert Murdoch and the “pie” incident. I was amazed by two things here – how quickly Murdoch’s wife Wendy Deng literally jumped to her husband’s defense and how good the Eames Aluminum Group Chairs look in that deep green!
3. Beyond the Cubicle by Allison Arieff. Arieff’s article includes an interview with our very own Lifework contributors – artist Rebecca Niederlander and architect Iris Anna Regn.
4. Web Design Ledger for their post on excellent iPad Apps. Check out the Awesome Note HD as a good organizing tool (below).
5. Seed Walker for Parneet Gosal’s piece tracking 5 emerging trends on Google+ – which has acquired more than 10 million users.
6. Coudal Partners for their link to these amazing 1960s Japanese office spaces (above). Herman Miller abounds!
7. The Journal of Dustin Heerkens for its beautifully-presented content covering design, art, hotels and food in East Asia (below). My next vacation spot may just have to be the Waterhouse.
8. Grain & Gram for raising up our work lives to an elegant art. I love the piece on butcher Ben Runkle.
9. Fox Johnston Architecture. These two Australian architects do amazing work and this website is a testament to their careful eye. I can see working away on my laptop from this sofa.
10. DWR’s Design Notes for their post on a cool little Vipp Bin trashcan icon to replace the wire basket that now sits on your desktop.
Technology
February 17, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
One of the best — and worst — parts of spending a lot of time online is finding lots of new and interesting feeds to follow. But after multiple sessions of purging our mailboxes, RSS and Twitter feeds, we’ve resolved to seek out quality over quantity. These five tools can help you find sites similar to ones you already love, so you can add to your reader without increasing bulk.
1. Sign up for StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon lets users rate sites with a thumbs up or down as they browse around the web, forming a massive database of recommended sites, and clicking “Stumble” on the site’s plugin bar takes you to a random one of these sites.
2.Type related:url into Google
Google may not yet be sentient but it certainly has a handle on peoples’ search behaviors. Just type related:theurlofyourfavoritesite to see what other people are looking at.
Check out the related:hermanmiller.com/lifework/results.
3. Test your Hunch
Hunch is a user-powered recommendation engine. Users rank stuff they like, Hunch spits out results based on collective user knowledge. Lots of community action and listmaking here, if that’s your kind of thing. Try out the Blogs or Websites when Bored categories.
4. Play Around with SimiliarSites
SimilarSites bills itself as an alternative to fruitless Googling. Users start with the familiar and refine their results as they learn more about what they like. Sites are categorized and rank, making it easier to explore with just a few clicks.
See the SimilarSites results for Herman Miller.
5. Install a Plugin
SimilarWeb is the plugin version of SimilarSites, with the added benefit of working automatically as you browse around the web.
Grab the plugin for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer here.
By Laura E. Hall
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
Design, Products
February 4, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Where we’ve been this week…
1. Chairs and Buildings because you may have missed our interview with Annie Coggan, the author of this design blog, yesterday. Take a look. It’s well worth your time.
2. The Jealous Curator for its humor and dose of stunning visuals.
3. A Cup of Joe for writer Joanna Goddard’s coverage of fashion and design.
4. Rue magazine for its round up of inspiring work spaces.
5. Andrew Long for an intriguing view into the life of a professor at the University of Otago in the South Pacific.
6. The Off Switch for its tips on taming technology.
7. Desire to Inspire for the work they’ve done trawling through Flickr for cool work spaces. Thank you!
8. Emma’s Design Blog for Emma Fexeus’ excellent take on the beautiful city of Stockholm. Great interiors.
9. Etsy Stalkers for a hilarious, obsessive take on everyone’s favorite online design market from copy writer Julie Spano.
10. The Beholder for anyone looking for art to brighten up their home office.
Balance
January 14, 2011
By Cerentha Harris
Ten spots around the web that caught our attention this week:
1. DWR’s blog Design Notes for Joel Pirela’s awesome eye chart.
2. Mocolo (even with that annoying horizontal design) for the cool-looking Charcoal House by Atelier RZLB.
3. Pinterest for some incredible home work spaces.
4. M-Dashing by our very own Amy Feezor for the blog’s new design.
5. Australian Vogue Living for its excellent archiving of back issues.
6. Little Scraps of Paper for the interviews with creative people on how they develop ideas.
7. Time magazine for a well-written piece by John Cloud on how exercise won’t make you thin.
8. Core77 for the Powers of 10 video competition. Deadline extended to 2/2/11.
9. The 3six5 project for its brilliant daily reporting by 365 different writers.
10. UK’s LivingEtc for the color-packed home office gallery.