elements in sitting

These two super direct stools can be found on the on line shop Souk Shop. proprietor Danielle de Lange also is host of Style-Files Blog. I just love the "is what it is" quality.

building elements

So in preparation for the furniture class's next assignment I will gather some stool projects that have caught my fancy. These beautifully crafted pieces are from the much discussed Pinch Design out of London.
Spend some time on their web site-their sensibility is awesome and there is much to learn from these folding perches.

Building beautiful function

I rarely have the "Iwants" but this is very lovely. A very beautiful ceramic water filter....it feels Roman in character. I spotted it on the way hip site Core 77. In honor of our elemental week, aquatic libraries, sound tabernacles,roman water vessels, shining cities made by children.......I could go on.

Gift Building 12

So this is how bad a shopper I am. I would have one more gift to buy and I would buy this because its red and I was obviously only meant to but red and orange things.....see you probably should have waited for your present in July. But truthfully if someone gave me this I would be really happy.....Happy holidays and back to the world of design ideas tomorrow.

Gift Building 7

I spied these at my FAVORITE store in New York, Pearl River on Broadway. The colorful version of the Japanese lunch box-time to start taking lunch.....

Building warp

One of the many fascinating things at the MOMA Bauhaus show are the fabric/weaving samples from the textile workshop lead by Gunta Stolzl and work done by Anni Albers its a wonderful insight into the structure of fabric and the ideas behind the product. My favorite Bauhaus text on this particular workshop is Woman's Work by Sigrid Wortman

Building Color

I talk about the Joseph Albers Nesting Tables quite a bit when I get to the Bauhaus in History lectures-but I was thrilled to see and learn that the tops are actually back painted glass and not a hyper gloss finish. For me this really points to the fact that Albers used the Nesting Table project as a model for his paintings. great!

Product building

Our dear friend Mark Naden has just sent word that his London studio is up and running. Mark set out in the product design world in the late nineties and has brought the world some of its most intriguing objects-the Oxo uplift kettle being our favorite-except we really would like an orange one......

Building the page

The work of Bruno Munari is the result of 100 years of educational insight. As a designer he made his work the work of play, designing children's books, toys and educational workshops that established children as the purest designers. It was said of him,"He was one big living toy". Look for his work.

Building Pink

The iteration of building toys derived from the work of Maria Montessori in Italy at the turn of the century. The toys are designed to enhance the "release of human potentialities". The Pink Tower is a favorite of designers. Designed to help the child visually understand the structural idea of "stacking" it is the toy that makes architects.......

The first building toy

The first designed building toys were a series devised by German educator Friedrich Froebel in the 1840's. The series of twelve "gifts" were to be presented to the child during the kindergarten years and the lessons were built on as they developed. The intention was that the open ended objects would promote "free play" by the children.

Building cities-very little cities

Of course we have indulged in the Muji City in a Bag as well as the Country in a Bag. They are in Caleb's desk and he arranges them at will. Such an architect.....

The building blocks

Sometimes I surprise myself that I have not written about something. Especially my deep love for building toys. One of my first jobs in design was making prototypes for toys. These are the best made now and before- the swiss company Naef. Their line has expanded but quality and pure beauty abound.

Building Black coal.....

The true father of material as idea is the New York designer Jim Zivic. Even in his Burning Relic days -the forging of steel and the crafting of leather were his muse. These table/stools out of Anthracite Coal very clearly get to this "black as an idea".......beautiful simple ideas.

Building humor that works......

I came upon this work by the studio electricwig from Northern Ireland. Partners Johanna Van Daalen and Tim Denton do wonderful work with and for community workshops, children and exhibitions as well as commissions for Muji and the like. I really enjoy their hyper-function approach.

Elemental elements

The work of Isamu Noguchi is quite a favorite of mine. I tell students that his work is an example of the power of one idea and its built manifestation. Take this late furniture piece the Prismatic Table. You can almost hear him say to himself...origami = table -and this is what that looks like.

Elemental Building

Of course the roots of design education still lay in the work at the Bauhaus. In my mind the work of metal smith Marianne Brandt illustrates the visual rules of the school and design fundamentals. This teapot-MT49 tea infuser, was designed by using the shape of a globe, a circle and a square to form the function. The story of Brandt's life is very interesting and sad. She worked a series of collages that seem to be a diary of her life-a visual thinker always.

building shape

When I think of the most basic tenants of design I always come back to the work of Charles and Ray Eames. Now these pieces have always confused me - they look not so much designed but sculpted-maybe willful? Upon researching them I found out that Ray designed them specifically for the waiting rooms at Time Life Inc. They were to serve as side tables as well as stools. They actually are made out of three separate pieces of turned wood but the upper and lower are the same and the middle is a variant. So while looking a little "un-eamesy", the fabrication process has all the ear marks of a rigorous Eames project.

Building readings

A very beautiful elemental body of work are the fabric books of Louise Bourgeois. A simple theme of landscape goes through the fabric collages. A book where abstraction has many readings.

Building fundamentals.....

I am starting a new project and getting my thoughts together for teaching this month and I have promised myself only to think about the fundamentals of design....This brings me to a design hero of mine. When I was a student in Italy I came around a catalog of Bruno Munari's work. A futurist artist turned industrial designer, I was very attracted to the simple ideas that propelled his work. Just the act of seeing more in a fork ...well that's an imagination.