2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Design Democracy!

Design Democracy ’08 – Power to the People, is a grass roots event aimed to raise awareness about mass customization. This website offers curriculum for DD08 citizens to learn about mass customization processes, philosophies, materials, design elements and software/hardware applications. To prove that mass customization is a viable alternative to mass manufacturing Context Furniture will produce and display designs chosen from this website at the 2008 International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York.

http://www.designdemocracy08.com/

http://www.madeforone.com/Articles/index.php/mass-customization/design-democracy-08-power-to-the-people/

Design Publishers of Note

Recently, I've been contacted by a number of design publishers to review their books. This has really exposed my naive take on design books. Two weeks ago, if you asked me to name a design publisher I would have said something like Phaidon, Rizzoli, or even Chronicle Books. But today, I'm excited to add to the list three publishers of note: Birkhauser, Lars Muller, and Mark Batty Publishers.

Let's Start with the smallest of these publishers first, Mark Batty. Mark Batty Publisher (MBP) is the sort of publishing house that scares me because it promotes everything I strive to be and am not. First, MBP is obsessed about type. In a world where digital technology has made us forget about the craft of type, Mark Batty continues to care in such a way as to give graphic designers real hope for the future of typography. Unfortunately, I have never been a craftsman of type, but I hope to be after discovering the world that Mark Batty has opened for me. Second, Mark Batty covers the world of subversive art including graffiti and sticker art. Again, I've aspired leave my mark with subversive stickers, but have only understood the true essence of the medium through the Mark Batty books.

Below, I've included one of the more mainstream titles published by MBP, but of course, the publisher's author leaves a fresh and extremely adept graphic sensibility on the topic of green design. Definitely have a look.

Lars Muller is another publisher that has caught my attention with books that are vital to my architectural practice but lay unseen while browsing the Barnes and Noble. The architectural Collection of Lars Muller include fantastic monographs by contemporary greats, Zaha Hadid and Steven Holl (pictured below), but also include obscure architectural works from the likes of Morger, Degelo, Kerez Architects.

Birkhauser is yet another masterful design publisher who is shrouded in a much larger entity of engineering and textbook publishing. One of their recently published books that I'm working through currently is Designing Design by Kenya Hara, world famous creative director of the retailer MUJI. Hara's work is sort of exemplary of a majority of the books published by Birkhauser in that the titles exude a clear simplicity about them that gives them a referential approachability combined with a museum like reverence for the material quality of a book. This book is, as well, a Lars Muller book in conjunction with Birkhauser.

Luzifer

Check out the new lamps for '08 from Luzifer! The I-Club collection is now complete, with the I-Club Wall, I-Club Floor, and I-Club Table Lamps. The Icon collection has grown as well with new Icon Wall and Icon Pendant Lamps. All new Guijarro Wall Sconces are a fun and different take on the classic Gea Wall Sconces. And the new Link Pendant Lamp comes in 3 beautiful sizes to fit any need.

 

Know of a good Charity Organization?

                               

"You will find, as you look back on your life, that the moments that stand out are the moments when you have done things for others." - Henry Drummond

2Modern has given to several charities (small and large) over the years and are constantly searching to donate auction items to good causes.

If you know of a charity that has events or auctions to raise money, please have them visit:
http://www.2modern.com/site/form-charity.html

Some of the charities that 2Modern has supported include:

Garden Variety

As you prepare to wow your sweetheart on Valentine's Day, you may think there's no need to tinker with your traditional presentation of a dozen roses and a box of chocolates. But think again. More specifically, think outside the box. You're smart to pile on the chocolate, but please be creative with your bouquet. If you look beyond the rose, you'll see these glistening FoFlowers from Umbra. Purchase one immediately. Fill the five receptive metallic paper frames with meaningful photos of you, her, past, present or even future events. You'll melt her heart, they'll last forever, and your romantic quotient will rise about a thousand percent. Die-hard traditionalists, by all means, mix a few red roses among your loving sentiments and let the romance begin.

Advice to sink in slow...

You ever say to yourself, "Self, I wish somebody had told me that when I started college." No? Alright maybe that was just me.

Anyway, the good people at the University College of Falmouth have come up with "Advice to Sink in Slowly," a great way for design graduates to share their pearls of wisdom and for freshies to appreciate that wisdom.  How inspirational is that? All incoming first year design students are given one of these posters at orientation.

What a great concept. I can actually use some of this advice at this point of my design career as well.

The best part is you don't have to re-enroll into design school to have these amazingly genuine posters. You can purchase them from the site. All posters are A3 in size and are printed on 300 gsm paper.

via core77

--sdotg-- 

Don't Blow Off Steam

Rikke Hagen's Steam Table Lamp melds a funky retro-style with a bold turquoise cord, turning the traditional lamp on its head.  As Hagen states, ”The keywords with this new lamp have been to capture power and energy in their basic forms. Because the very essence of light is energy. I drew lots of lines, which I ended up by simplifying - until only simplicity is left."

Kathleen Hills

As a Dutch person living abroad it was much fun to see and read all the recent posts about Dutch architecture in our cities on 2Modern lately, but I thought I should show you some work by a very talented English designer. Her name is Kathleen Hills and she graduated from The Royal College of Art in 2002, her  work has acquired quite a following...and not surprisingly!  Her ceramic lighting's and tableware are stunning. Kathleen is  interested in the whole tradition of the English home and of English dining.The inspiration behind her work is quite personal, to do with the things that were around her as she was growing up.  The disc light in the images above has a large china ceiling rose with thirty-six bone china discs suspended.

Kathleen's Cluster lights are to hang as clusters. They are supplied with a china ceiling rose, but they are also available very beautiful to hang as a single pendant.

The creamer and sugar dish are decorated in a mix of vintage and contemporary prints which she has cut and arranged. On Kathleen Hill's website there are many more beautiful products to see and  if you are looking for a stockists just click here. 

Nest

New vendor Nest brings colorful and eco-friendly kids furniture to 2Modern! Jax Toy Box, Toy Cube, Storage Tower, and Hamper are all made with recycled wood and 100% organic cotton. Cozy Nest Seat is all organic cotton as well, stuffed with recycled upholstery remnants. And the Pebbles Crib Bedding is made with recycled, post-consumer recycled soda bottles! Now that's closing the loop!

Shimmering Sculpture

Kenneth Wingard's Op Art collection will help lend an air of understated glamour to your home.  Constructed of dozens of mirrors on movable wire, these pieces of wall art can be adjusted to capture the light as it moves through the room.