April is Earth Month and National Stress Awareness Month. And in that spirit, here’s a special edition of our weekly Top Ten featuring posts that will help you take on both. (Now, relax a bit and enjoy Earth Day on Sunday, won’t you?)
Here are some ideas to get you started with your holiday shopping. They are design-driven, connected to the home office and range from affordable to extravagant – and all can be ordered online so there’s no need to leave the comfort of your home office. Also we’d love to hear from you about your gift ideas. Just leave your suggestions in the comment sectio below… Read more
Designer Yves Behar spoke at last month’s CUSP conference. The talk was a long one so I’ve just pulled out the 3 minutes he spent on the SAYL chair. Especially pertinent to this “green” week are his comments on “eco-dematerialization” (try saying that fast three times!) Behar coined that term to describe the process of paring back a design to its most essential elements – stripping it back so it used as little material as possible. The result for SAYL is an elegant, affordable home office chair that is lightweight (it only weighs 37 pounds) and 93 percent recyclable. We think Gabe Wing would approve.
For more from Yves on SAYL check out this week’s post over on Discover.
The SAYL chair and its designer, Yves Behar, continue to attract a lot of attention in the design world. SAYL recently received the Good Design Award in the Australian International Design Awards and went on to be named Best in Category, beating heavy weights including Dyson’s Airblade. That follows on the heels of Treehugger’s “Best of Green Readers’ Choice” award in the Design and Architecture category, and 2010 Product Design of the Year in the International Design Awards (IDA). Oh, and then there’s the silver IDEA award in the cateogory of “Office and Productivity”! What is so exciting about this chair? The frameless back – inspired by the spans of the Golden Gate bridge in Behar’s hometown of San Francisco – is the first of its kind. It’s an intelligent suspension system that adapts to a person’s movements while providing proper support. It successfully treads that fine line between ergonomics and beautiful design. And it’s affordable. A winning combination.
But let’s listen to the designer himself. Below is the interview Behar did in Milan this year with Dezeen magazine for their Dezeenscreen designer series.
Congratulations is in order – again – to Yves Behar who designed our SAYL chair and the Leaf light. Behar was just named Designer of the Year in Conde Nast Traveller‘s Innovation and Design awards. Above is Behar at the Los Angeles launch of the SAYL chair last December. Head over to Discover for a slideshow we put together that gives you insight into the design process.
Trust prolific industrial designer extraordinaire, Yves Behar, to think of a novel form factor for the mundane task of searching TV listings. His Peel Fruit ($99.95 from the Apple store) looks to tasty product for hardware inspiration for searching television content.
Available in pear, orange and apple, the Peel Fruit works together with a iOS app (with an Android version on its way).
By Gregory Han.
This story appears in partnership with Unplggd, a site for people who embrace technology and design in their home.
We asked our Twitter followers to send in pics that depicted a life ‘unframed’ in honor of Yves Behar’s new SAYL chair. We got some incredible images including the winner’s skate boarding shot above. But I thought the Lifework readers would enjoy Andrea Aznar’s shot (below). She’s hula hooping while taking a break from her work. And it turns out Andrea is working from home in the throes of a move and running a business.
“I was born and raised in México city. I studied Psychology and had my private practice for a while. Since 2008 I have owned a small independent publisher for children’s books, the books are written by specialists and I put much effort in finding great illustrators so the illustrations look artistic and creative that way not only the kids can enjoy the books but the adults too. The publisher´s name is Sana Colita de Rana.
I recently moved to Dallas, TX with my husband. I continue with the publisher work but since I don´t have an office I use the kitchen/dining room which works out just fine…so far.
I am huge fan of desing objetcs and furniture. I spend my weekends looking for vintage or designs stores and reading desing magazines or looking at architectural books. Everytime I buy something, anything like a vintage radio, a high-end lamp, or a great sidetable or chair I feel it´s just for my collection, the same way when little girl I used to collect stickers or cool pencils.”
We’ve been hinting for a while now about a new design for Herman Miller by Yves Behar. It has finally arrived. Yves’ SAYL chair. Dexigner has jumped up and got the first interview – check it out here. Julia Bauer, who writes for The Grand Rapids Press also gave it a shout out. I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot of interest in this rather beautiful piece of design.
It’s amazing what a good desk lamp can do nowadays. The Leaf Light works hard on a number of levels. It’s an elegant design that uses as little material as possible with 96% of the finished object being recyclable. Its LED system allows you, with the slide of a finger, to change the light from warm to cool. And, as with all Behar’s work, it looks good. To enter to win simply leave your email address here and we will place you in the draw for the light and all the upcoming prizes.
This story appears in partnership with 
