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COLOR • COLOR • COLOR

Friday, August 28th, 2009

My good friend Drake just sent me this… and since I trust her judgment and her ability to spot things that she knows I will love implicitly, I had to post it immediately. [Forewarning style sidenote on Drake: She is a West coast East Coaster. She pops the collar of her polos, loves Ralph Lauren more than she loves her own family, and would sell her soul to the devil himself for a palatial spread in the Hamptons, New England, or anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard. So keep that in mind whenever I show you her picks.]

The summer sand is quickly draining from all of our hourglasses. Summer is full of life and freshness, bright vibrant colors, crisp clean lines, and airy light fabrics and feels. But that’s just it… as summer winds down in the coming weeks, don’t let go of it! If you play your cards right, you can keep a summer feel year-round in your home.

image - remodelista.com

Ok ok ok… I know that yellow might not be for everyone, and maybe this is a little TOO much of a statement for some of you, but I think you get the point. DON’T BE AFRAID OF COLOR!!! If I walk into one more of my friends igloos to see beige walls with darker floors, maybe a gray accent wall, and all dark wood furniture… I am just going to snap. Color is our friend. It makes things more interesting, more eye catching, and most importantly… more fun! Don’t be stupid with it though. When my parents next door neighbors moved in to their house, the wife had the interior of the house painted top to bottom. She did every room in a different color – and there are probably 10 rooms!!! Walking through their home feels like you’re on a guided tour of the Crayola factory. You want to do accent colors that catch the eye and change the whole tone of the house, like the yellow doors seen above which were done throughout the entire craftsman style home. Maybe you can start slow with pillows, rugs, or drapery?

Posted in Art & Design, Interior Design, Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: color, Interior Design

Office Pod

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Office Pod

This is The Office Pod – - The Next Generation of Workplace. An eco-friendly working environment for one that is built in the UK and being peddled to individuals and companies around the world as the next step in workstations. Here’s their pitch:

To Businesses - The nature of the workplace is changing as the majority of office roles no longer require dedicated space in a central office 5 days a week. OfficePOD enables a company to provide a more efficient working environment with significant cost, employee, environmental and productivity benefits. For home use – A chance to cut down on commuting, to be more productive, to spend more time at home but at the same time keep your work separate. A major way to getting a better balance into your life

One thing is for sure, the Office Pod wipes the floor with any cubical I’ve ever seen. I love the mid-century modern design aesthetic, though I’m sure it will be a bit of an elephant in the backyard/boardroom if trying to match the home or office decor of today’s American worker. For office use, I think the Pod just kind of “eehhh” but for anyone who works from home, especially with a family in the house, I think this is a Godsend.

Can you see this Office Pod in your backyard?

The company has put a ton of effort into the “greening” of the Office Pod, making the entire thing from recycled and recyclable products wherever possible. Furthermore, the pod can obviously make it possible for more people to work from home as opposed to commuting to an office. An independent study showed that moving the average commuting worker from an office to a pod would reduce CO2 emmisons by between 46% & 67%.

It’s this kind of simple creation that will continually take small steps for us on the way to living like The Jetsons.

Posted in Architecture, Art & Design, Uncategorized | 1 Response »
Tags: home office, work

SchubLaden Recycled Storage

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Recycled Dresser Drawers

Towards the end of last week, I showed you a creative option for recycled shelving from old tables and desks… and here is something along the same lines that I love. This piece is the work of furniture design company SchubLaden, from the Berlin-Kreuzberg´s Graefedistrict of Germany. The word schubLaden translates to mean ‘drawers’ in German, as the company is entirely devoted to the reuse of old, unmated drawers. This is new furniture with old drawers, ready-to-buy or custom-made for you. It’s recycling just the same, but in a more creative and useful way.

Posted in Art & Design, Interior Design, Things, things, things..., Uncategorized | No Responses »
Tags: custom made, furniture

A Recycled Bookcase?

Friday, August 14th, 2009

I always try to be environmentally conscious where I can – but normally this just means recycling plastic and aluminum cans, opting for online vs. print when possible, and carpooling on occasion. To interior design specialist Isabel Quiroga, apparently recycling means something totally different.

Recycled Bookcase of Tables

Look closely at that picture – the floor to ceiling bookcase is made entirely out of used and antique tables. Before you get huffy about the cost, notice that the wall fixture is made from no more than three tables, which were probably bought from a flea market or garage sale for a total of $60. The tables are sawed down the middle and both sides can be used for the bookcase. This is genius… it may get a ton of stares in your home (especially in purple), but that may be just what you’re going for. Also, from where I’m standing, the easiest and most environmentally responsible thing we can do in these times is not add more ’stuff’ to the overpopulated planet we live on. This concept accomplishes just that.

I’m going to the swap meet for some tables, you?

Posted in Art & Design, Interior Design, Uncategorized | 4 Responses »
Tags: furniture, recycled

Follow Up: Richard Haines

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

On Monday I wrote about fashion designer and illustrator Richard Haines, and then this morning I stumbled upon this video which was strangely posted the same day I wrote my entry. In it, he is sketching the FW09 line for a brand called 3Sixteen.

It’s an awesome video exemplifying the greatness of freehand fashion illustration amidst a sea of digital renderings. There’s something tangible about putting pencil to paper that I connect with in apparel design, and I loved hearing Haines’ perspective about sketching today. He explains – “an illustrator is able to kind of exaggerate a shape in a way that a photographer can’t… I can kind of elongate. I can stretch. I can kind of manipulate things, very quickly, that I think photography can’t… I think illustrating it brings a different thing to the table, partially because I understand the details. I understand how a garment’s made. I understand, you know, kind of how the fabric drapes and what’s important in the garment… so all of that goes into the sketch.”

Posted in Art & Design, Film & Video, Mens Style, Uncategorized | 1 Response »
Tags: fashion illustration, Richard Haines

What I Saw Today…

Monday, August 10th, 2009

So I may be late to the party on this guy, but I’m just glad I was invited! A good friend recently turned me on to artist Richard Haines’ blog - ‘What I Saw Today’. Haines tags the blog as “A visual record of cool stuff guys wear…and other things that inspire me.”, and it is exactly that.

What I Saw Today - Richard Haines

The man has an awesome sketch style – one I’m partial too because it reminds me of a much, much, much better version of my own fashion sketchings. Haines lives in New York and makes it his business to roam the city with his eyes open, recording what he sees today, or what he sees every day, on a sketchpad and then on his blog. Over the year, he has worked with some of the top designers in the business – most recently doing ads and inserts for J.Crew.

J Crew Announcement

Haines does sit-ins at retail stores and fashion heavy locations on a regular basis… sketching what he sees in the store, and what he sees on the people who enter while he’s there. His style is just so much fun – an impressionist approach to fashion illustration that is considerably less abstract than your standard designer’s sketch.

I love it – it’s already inspired me to go back to sketching more for the development of my upcoming line.

Posted in Art & Design, Mens Style, Style on the Street, Uncategorized | 1 Response »
Tags: artists, J.Crew, Richard Haines