Designage
the age of designArchive for reading list
required reading
the johnson banks website is pure joy to peruse. (it’s much better as a whole than dissected, so we will refrain from parsing and let your mouse do the work.)
etsy, take two
shana tabor of in god we trust selects her best etsy picks for new york magazine this week. let’s be honest: we’ve never delved too deeply into the etsy universe, because it’s overwhelmingly large and cutesy-crafty. however. one can find some superior goods with a little digging. here are a few of shana’s faves that we’ve taken a fancy to:
custom cufflinks by eternallylinked
wood candlesticks with gold leaf by jeanpelle
nyc souvenirs by brooklynrehab
teacup and saucer by bailey doesn’t bark (okay, we were hip to that one)
ps. regular buyers and sellers on the site call themselves “etsians.” heh.
pre-fabulous
take five minutes to read the great discussion about the future of the pre-fab building industry on the new york times freakonomics blog. james trulove and alison arieff tackle the issue and point out some misconceptions about the movement. just the thing to have on the brain when catching the last month of the MoMA show…
the end of the designer?
read: interesting item on philippe starck’s public persona and quotable sound bites on the new york times blog.
discuss: associating his new credo with hints of “sustainability” is a notion easily dismissed. though starck did good work with the virtually indestructible emeco line, he also designed this, this, and this - mostly plastic pieces we pray do not get passed along to future generations. ahem.
mama-mia
benjamin schwarz analyzes the role that middle-class mothers played in mid-century architecture in a recent atlantic monthly article, “where mother saw best.”
for example, writer alice t. friedman uses six houses – with primary owners being females – as case examples, using letters, diaries, and first person narrative to illustrate how the houses were used. main point being a sea change from victorian domestic architecture (kitchen hidden away at back, children’s rooms out of sight upstairs) to flexible, family-centric floorplans (kitchen at center of household, built in desks in family spaces, mother at the hub of action).
check it out:
alice friedman at amazon, $19.77.
visionary
visionaire: limited-edition art and fashion tome published 3x per year, featuring original content from contemporary creative auteurs (stefane sednaoui, cindy sherman, david bowie, nick knight, kara walker, philippe starck, etc, ad infinitum).
issue prices vary anywhere from $175 to almost $1000… but ogling is free!
design primer, part one
currently reading:
time magazine’s ‘the design 100′
departures may/june issue
new book on infamous textile designer/stage actress/couturier florence broadhurst.
(well, looking at the pictures…)
oh dear tord
tord boontje has been quite the toast of the town recently! we approve.
cool hunting has this video, shot at ICFF last week.
and amazon has this (amazing) book, on sale for $47.25:
everything a design book should be: oversized, packed with images, comprehensive exploration of the designer’s process/inspiration, and tactile nature (especially the perforated front pages!).
and we wouldn’t object to owning this light, either:
