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poster for Skin that I Inhabit, seen here on nymag.com
great essay by Tim Culvahouse on the New Orleans corner store, a culturally significant cornerstone which has some tyological characteristics but takes different forms throughout the city of new orleans. Culvahouse outlines some of the attributes of these unique buildings that maintain the block form and pattern, create community gathering space,and encourage localized economies. He also interviews architect Wayne Troyer; read more here
painting by Timothy Cavnar. Stopped by Fair Folks and a Goat last night, Cavnar’s ephemeral paintings wash soft light over floral landscapes and fragile animals…. I love them. out back in the courtyard we were treated to a great show by Luke Wilson King and Esther Rose. looking forward to visiting the New York location next weekend.
looking forward to a weekend to catch my breath and catch up on the lovely things people are doing all around us in the world. more patterns and other pretty things to come, soon.
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lines and stripes
just saw this in drafts- apparently i never published it last week! oh well, lines and stripes never go out of style. i guess there were things i wanted to add to this, but can’t remember what… enjoy your double dose, today! xo
Image of Lebbeus Woods’s drawing room, courtesy of Lebbeus Woods
“The impulse,” he explains, “to make these large drawings—they are, with one exception, 74 inches high by 120 inches wide (188 by 305 centimeters)—came first from my desire to make drawings at the scale of a room, that is, at an architectural scale. The reason for this is rather simple: to see if one could physically and not only mentally inhabit the space of a drawing. The second driving force was to see if drawing at that scale would produce something different than I’d imagined or drawn before.” -Lebbeus Woods, read the whole post on bldblog.blogspot.com
Gisele in Prada on Vogue China’s February cover, seen here. Hate the slouch, love the outfit.
Beautiful mobile of a Moravian starcut, seen on designsponge. Download and make your own here
Industrial Architecture on archdaily. Skin on a electrical generator of a cement factor, designed by Felipe Gonzalez-Pacheco in Columbia- here’s a detail shot
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fragments from the week.
in bed with a wicked cold, and catching up on things i’ve missed this week:
beautiful essay by Alejandro Cartagena on the design observer. Images of urbanizarion in Monteray, Mexico and the uncomfortable disparity between the landscape and indigenous housing and recent sprawl and settlement. see full text and images at link above.
I just finished reading this article in Interview between Sofia Coppola and Steven Dorff. I am waiting for Somewhere to come out here in New Orleans, whenever that might be.
Model Herieth Paul, Tanzania-born and Canadian raised, is so elegant at the age of 16. ridiculous skin, which she credits to drinking lots of water and staying away from mcdonalds. very poised and confident in her interivew, along with incredible shots, here on the cut.
lovely pictures on valentino.com
more patterns and other pretty things to come, later this weekend!
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mix and match
here are a few images of interiors by stylist joe maer. (i came across his work on seesaw, and love the palette of his eclectic but polished interiors. the past few days my eyes have been on stylists since finding Mikael and browsing through the work of his colleagues. plus, joe maer’s website is beautiful, even if it’s flash- browse his portfolio for more high-quality images)
here are a few more pretty things for a wednesday afternoon:
the holiday illustration on this diptyque box, from barneys
marni resort
image via seesaw
A.P.C. spring 11 resort
image via A.P.C.
lanvin resort 2010
images via style.com
street looks de la semaine on french vogue
viv, milano posted by the satrorialist (this post is old but i’ve been saving this image for a while, i love the combination of the delicate print and cut of the dress with the chunky cuffs)
more patterns and other pretty things to come
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catbird rings. i love these- when we were in williamsburg before the waterfront show in june, we stopped in the store and fell in love with many of their paper items and accessories, but i can’t stop thinking about these darling tiny rings. kind of a cheap thrill. also, i would love these ant stud earings (#3) from an inspiration board on their site a few months ago:
and speaking of beautiful inspiration boards, here are a few images from rosaline’s inspiration board on this is glamourous- please go to the site to see the entire spread, i find myself visiting frequently because the variety of images, with a range of color palettes and soft lighting are quite lovely- which is, of course, what they’re known for!
much of her posts are lifestyle/wishful thinking lifestyle, with country-landscape-y florals, french-inspired decor and table settings, and lovely patterns and textures, but i also love the images posted of beautiful, glamorous women with classic styling and timeless aesthetic. the curating of posted material is pretty much spot-on. (the images shown above also make me never want to cut my hair short again, but that’s a whole other story)
on this is glamorous, i read this week that club monaco is starting a new blog, culture club. its basically an active matrix inspiration board, with lifestyle posts digesting posts on other blogs. a few of their highlights:
this bookstore in singapore, which makes its own stationary
this image from Mikael- his website features his work and profiles him as a creative director, style coordinator, and visual consultant.
i find his work is really striking and precise without seeming excessively meticulous, and really appreciated his print series, with studies such as this:
also, the swedish stylist has a blog, which features images of spaces he’s styled such as these:
and, these spreads from a magazine shoot-delicious. great palette and layout
stunning. design and food together. yum. also featured recently on his blog, the illustrator ingela p arrhenius, who’s child-like block illustrations are so darling. here’s her profile on their agency’s website. i love this pattern for apoteket:
and this card from a postcard series!
can’t get enough of the world wide web- holiday image collecting (“research”) is so much better than lunch-break browsing.
more patterns and other pretty things to come.
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dear loyal readers….. yeah, its been a bit sleepy over here, but not to worry- i’ve been keeping tracks of many things to share with all my friends.
starting with the holiday season- most of the traditions in my family revolve around food. this year, my sisters made this beet and fennel soup. it was delicious, served warm and thought we were very forward-thinking to make a dish from the 2011 bon appetit magazine. (in case you’re wondering, we did not use kefir, and KP added citrus zest and juice.) other highlights from our meals were lindsay’s gingerbread and the caramelized brussel sprout slaw.
KP gave me a fun experiential gift for christmas- we went to see the salvador dali exhibit, “dali- the late works” at the high museum and had lunch at the righteous room. the exhibit was crazy, it included “the persistence of memory” and other greatest hits, but mostly showcased the later, post-surrealist paintings. most of his work deconstructs classical imagery as it related to the subconscious, or more specifically his subconscious. the subjects of his later paintings range from surreal and religious, deemed “nuclear mysticism” to scientific logic and existential investigations related to energy, light, and matter- in effort to understand the pysche.
dali on other artists: for us, one of the highlights of the exhibit is a page in his sketchbook which ranks other major artists of the time, such as manet, mondrian, and picasso, as well as other masters, such as michaelangelo and vermeer, in terms of criteria such as technique, originality, and content. he rated on a scale of 1-20, and wrote descriptions for his choices- for example, michaelangelo received a 16 for craftsmanship by a 20 for originality.
on picasso: he famously clashed with picasso, as dali created visionary art to unify science and mysticism through the lens of his subconscious, “the discontinuity of matter,” and thought picasso killed modern art by producing so much ugly and destructive work.
on mondrian and the de stijl movement: dali publicly denounced the works of mondrian, for their abstraction which dali felt was not true to the pysche or the ambitions for modern artistic and scientific investigations. in fact, he went so far as to make a artist’s video of what he called a “happening,” with philippe halsman, which recreates a mondrian painting. in the video, he creates a set which emulates the layout of a mondrian geometric painting, populated with pigs and a nude model, at which he blasts popping popcorn. this chaos that ensues is deemed “much better art” than any contribution of mondrian.
the list of dali’s public commentary went on and on, much to our amusement as we wandered the exhibit. i also did not know that dali was such an influential mentor to andy warhol or jeff koons, being one of the first artists to use publicity and media to gain patrons and commissions.
i’ll leave you all with that. i have a whole collection of other articles to post on, but my sister and i have to go do watercolors. speaking of- rodarte’s watercolors of costumes from black swan, featured on itlooksgoodtome.com (who found them on Tavi’s blog)
these illustrations are quite lovely, i love the proportion of the ballerinas and the extreme contrast of shapes and colors. also,i thought the movie was amazing, but am open to other’s criticisms.
with that, i’m off to paint. more patterns and other pretty things to come, probably tomorrow since i’m still on holiday!
ALSO i just remembered that last night i had a dream that sofia coppola and i spent the day together by the pool at the chateau marmont doing watercolors, eating popsicles and talking about her new movie, somewhere. LOVE. love. i wish i remembered more of it.
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pretty, pretty prints
a few pretty things to look at on this rainy day, with a title inspired by this post on nymag
dresses at yoana baraschi
i’ve been admiring the lovely pictures on the blue hour from the photographer brian ferry’s trip to portland, maine. a friend recently introduced me to his blog… his images of the boats in boston are great.
heidi at 101cookbooks posted beautiful pictures of pickles, accompanied of course by a recipe which seems super easy.
yesterday, i was lucky enough to have two different meals with pickles- lunch at american sector and dinner and drinks at cochon butcher. my lunch was nothing to write about, but the introductory pickles were delish. salty and crunchy, not as sweet as i like… i guess i’ve been spoiled by the yellow pickles at cochon’s butcher. call me a creature of habit, but my favorite friday night meal has to be their charcuterie plate and panchetta mac and cheese, along with one of their delicious cava, cucumber, citrus-y vodka cocktails called the afternoon dee-lite. YUM… and the fudge popsicles, amazing. speaking of popsicles, my food memories lately all tend toward desserts. creole creamery once again has salted caramel ice cream, i recommend topping it with hot fudge. baci gelato at angelo bruccatos, milk chocolate gelato at la divina, cucumber sorbet at creole, the chocolate-frosted yellow saints layer cake we made thursday. that’s all just from this week, good thing i’ve been maintaining my yoga practice- all about balance, right?
lately i haven’t been writing on patterns and but i can’t think of a single good excuse… so, here’s a promise that i’ll return to my weekly schedule. but i promised you pictures at the beginning of this post, right? well, enjoy:
beautiful wedding pictures on design*sponge along with this colorful flower arrangement of strawflowers
which brought to mind a spring martha stewart living cover
at this size you can barely tell but that collage is paint chips- love this! so warm and summery.
favorite pattern of the day: this “a stone’s throw away” wallpaper from hygge&west
love these. reminds me of this dress from the reiss autumn/winter look book:
i love the cowl neck dress with those boots, and that pattern is so sweet.
what about these spreads from the october issue of vogue nippon, by solve sundsbo (found here). so glamorous.
stunning.
again, STUNNING. always glad to end on a high note.
oh! almost forgot to post about this book, i am so excited to order it: the exposed city, a book on mapping and infographics by maria ambroso. i read a book review this afternoon here on the pop-up city, and think it sounds pretty interesting.
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i spent much of the day immersed in the new york times, in between phone calls and catching up on some illustration work. there’s a good article about houseboat travel, but overall not the most interesting week for editorials or columns, either. even the magazine was… oh wait! that faithful magazine. with clean layout, simple graphics, and consistently interesting content, i try to save this for last but rarely make it through all sections before settling in. the cover article about e-permanence, and the existential crisis of erasing the past and moving on, brings up interesting topics on reputation modification and control. i thought about this while reading quote in another section, where a harvard fellow’s blog-prose style seemed hardly intellectual and, while potentially taken out of context, the writing style definitely detracted from the comment….( at least she correctly employs capitalization, i suppose she might retort. additionally, i can’t recall the location of said quoted comment) in any event, there’s no way to erase the past- the cast of the real world can probably tell us as much.
before i go on about the nyt magazine, i can’t forget that there was also a nice write-up of a dinner interview with dr. zeke emanual, brother of rahm and ari. he’s an oncologist who heads the bioethics department at the national institutes of health, an adviser to the white house on health policy, and, suprisingly, a guest food critic for the atlantic. this last fact definitely caught my attention- his commentary (as written by ashley parker) on their meal was really introspective, but their conversation seemed balanced and without focused “foodie” pretention of the “at dinner with” series… i’ve been thinking a lot lately about the way that people with career demands and professional commitments still find time to socialize and enjoy meals (probably because i’m feeling these kind of demands myself, although not in the pressure zone of zeke, rahm, or ari). i have also been thinking of starting a food blog- we’ve been talking about a few different premises, whether i would write magazine reviews weekly, write about food i have prepared with friends, or write about meals and eating more generally… any thoughts? i’d love feedback or ideas before i start to test it out.
anyway, back to the magazine. there was a long article on sissy bounce rap, coordinated in part with the traveling exhibition “where they at”. there’s also an entire “good” magazine devoted to new orleans this summer, i just picked it up at borders yesterday. the issue dissects the make it right project, the recovery school district initiatives, and has a series of brief, lightweight profiles of some do-gooders and entrepreneurs in the city, pulled from the usual suspects. i found much of the information to be a bit dumbed down, and was hoping for a more critical or analytical sense of things which are going on… perhaps this is because as a resident i’m all too familiar with many of these topics.
which brings me to a next point. i’m working on an illustration for the idea village, taking a social graph diagram and making it a bit more legible as an information graphic. here’s a snip of before and after:
and here’s a close-up:
it still needs a bit of work to bring out hierarchy within the network, and i think i need to bring up contrast in the linework, so i’ll be working on iterations for print and hopefully will be finished with it this week.
i found this article on bookshelving and organizational patterns, “shelved by color” on dwell’s blog. the author writes about the beauty of organizing books by colors for visual appeal, and the difficulty it may present when searching a specific title. here’s a quote from rob giampietro: “Certainly I understand the DDC’s [Dewey Decimal System] advantages when when it comes to large-scale collections,” he writes, “but if how we choose to organize our personal effects says something about who we are, then an arbitrary numeric system says very little about me.” he suggests that how we organize and present our personal affects may say as much about us as what those items are, and that logic can by systematic without following rules which are arbitrary to the user.
this picture shows the scene where the author, aaron britt, searched for koolhaas’s mutations, a squatbook with a bright yellow cover, to no avail:
back to work. more rambling, barely edited posts on the new york times to come… just kiding! i think it was only a weekend hiatus from visual patterns into lifestyle patterns, and then news and journalism patterns, and then back to graphics… i probably spent a bit too much time reading a home alone, which is a great way to catch up on sleep after a long work week and also a great way to find conversation topics but perhaps i need to branch out with sources if i’m going to keep my captive audience…. i’m sure i’ll write about floral patterns again soon.
actually, speaking of both the nyt and florals: this article in the nyt a few weeks ago, on shops with pretty but expensive non-necessity design objects, featured a flower shop in berlin that i unfortunately have not visited- yet another item on my list of reasons i am dying to get back to berlin.
their website needs a bit of work, as this was the only image i was able to pull:
i’m sure the shop is lovely though, if it was featured in new york times top 6 design shops list- also includes moss and vitrahaus… time for a few field trips!
more patterns and other pretty things to come!
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just a quick link to an article i enjoyed today- “when less was more,” part of the opinionator series of the new york times. its a few weeks old, but i really enjoy the way jayne merkel writes about mid-century modern designers and links it to our contemporary lifestyles. reflecting on mies van der rohe and other bauhaus designers, she writes, “As we find ourselves in an era of diminishing resources, could “less” become “more” again? If so, the mid-20th-century building boom might provide some inspiration.”
the article focuses on the efficiency of modern design, noting that elegance was achieved through the deliverate use of a restrained material pallete. this shift in design was intrinsically linked to a shift in the way we lived- the way that shifting gender roles required an updated floorplan to accommodate new lifestyles and schedules, or the design of a home around useful spaces rather than space solely for show or entertainment, or the relationship between interior and exterior space mitigated by openings which provide cross ventilation.
one of my favorite lines in the article, reacting to the above rendering of ralph rapson’s case study house: “In his Case Study House, Ralph Rapson may have mispredicted just how the mechanical revolution would impact everyday life — few American families acquired helicopters, though most eventually got clothes dryers — but his belief that self-sufficiency was both desirable and inevitable was widely shared.”
i found this article through another article, “easier living, by design,” written by alexandra lange. she writes about the wrights, a pair of industrial designers who published their book, “Guide to Easier Living,” in 1950, promoting modern lifestyle through design, from floor plans to salt shakers to meal preparation tips. the detail to which they ascribe tools for contemporary life created a platform for the middle class of america to live more conveniently. this convenience took shape in many ways- not only in methods and materials, such as easy to clean melamine place settings and the washer/dryer set, but also in design, rethinking the necessity of a formal parlor or servant’s kitchen.
lange observes, “Even if modernist domestic architecture never achieved wide popularity, modernist ideas about the layout of those homes, and what to put in them, did.” the wrights were revolutionaries in that they were the first commercialized designers marketing not only products for living but a lifestyle. ideas they pioneered have become commonplace, almost mundane- serve it yourself entertaining, open plan kitchens, ideas matched to the casual lifestyle or leisure time that middle-class america sought despite, or perhaps in spite of, changes in family structure.
as with mies, the wrights promoted simplicity and elegance as a means through which one might find satisfaction within a modern lifestyle. mies did so through a mostly architectural agenda, and the wrights did so through their new tools for living. in both cases, their ideas changed the way we lived 60 years ago, and the impacts are still felt. with new means of production, marketing, and consumption availed by changing technology and global standards of lifestyle, these ideas seem to be a component of contemporary lifestyle and home design but far from the reality of the way people actually live. lange ends her article with these thoughts: “They told us how to simplify our lives, but we complicated them again. It is the paradox of the designer-as-revolutionary. He can give us the tools for easier living, but if we buy too many, or the wrong ones, it is still just stuff.”
patterns of lifestyle and design, and the relationship between the two, are of exceeding interest to me. the discussions of housing and neighborhood development in new orleans keeps these issues current within my local network. i wrote about the eames a few weeks ago ( by now you all know how i covet eames furniture) and reading about designers like the wrights or mies in just as inspiring. how, as a designer, can i put my skills towards useful outlets, to help influence the efficiency and pleasure people can find in their lives? how can contemporary designers innovate in a lasting way? print magazine ran an article in the most recent issue (i think its august 2010) of its standard rants and raves on design. it begins by citing the national medal of arts given to milton glaser, the first time the award has gone to a graphic designer. upon receipt of the award, glaser remarked that the linking of graphic design with painting and other fine arts positions it as not just a subset, but acknowledges that design affect culture. editor-in-cheir aaron kenedi writes, “a quick look around makes it clear that design, in all its many forms and complexities, doesn’t just “affect the culture.” it is arguable the very fabric of our culture, weaving all books, buildings, cars, clothes, furniture, environments (indoor and out), systems, and processes together into accessible and digestible experiences. in a world like ours, where more and more things are produced and consumed every day, it’s design’s- and the designer’s- responsibility to make sense of it all and make life easier to navigate.”
he goes on to cite, within his rants and raves, the afghanistan stability chart powerpoint slide as a frightening example of how bad design can be dangerous, and exhibits the feltron report as a great example of lovely information graphics and data illustration…
i’ll come back and edit this later, probably adding to it, but thats all for now! more ideas on patterns and other pretty things to come.
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