2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

A Glimmer of Hope

Most likely...if you are reading, this you are a designer of one sort or another...if not, you are at least design-minded. I can not tell you how many conversations I have had with designers who are frustrated, burnt out, weary, tired, uninspired and otherwise on the verge of giving up in this economy. Resources are limited, clients are overly conscious of budgets, jobs are scarce and... 

"It's tough out there. So many huge problems in the world, so much noise, so hard to know what to do and where to begin. All of which means—it's a great time to be a designer."

In comes the Glimmer Manifesto. Think of it as your first sip from the fountain of designer-immortality. The fire under your feet. As designers (and, honestly, just as contributing members of society...) it is our job to create transformation within the world, to improve it...for everyone. This holds true in the toughest conditions even more so. I stumbled across Creativity's write up on the book earlier this morning and I am definitely adding this to my next Amazon shipment! Click here to read the write up.

 

Warren Berger is the author of Glimmer and the editor of the blog GlimmerSite.com

Its another awesome source of inspiration and I highly recommend checking it out!

Book Tree

Check out this awesome tree bookshelf by Shawn Sho. I would totally put this in my office!

--sdotg--

Are you a BookMarker

I'm quite guilty of "occasionally" writing, tagging, folding and popping in any random object laying around into my reading materials. As of today, I am going to turn things up a notch... with the BookMarker™!

This is a pen/flag dispenser/bookmark/book strap all in one easy to carry object.

Never lose your place again, and never lose your bookmark! BookMarker™ is super thin, so it fits easily in your book to mark your page WITHOUT breaking your book binding. The design includes a nifty strap that wraps around your book to keep the BookMarker™ in place and keep your book closed... how cool is that?!

You can grab them here.

via

One Sweet Jacket.

Book jacket that is...or Book City Jackets to be more exact! Looking for an update to the classic "brown bag bookcover"? Look no further. This Brooklyn based beauty (started in 2008) has created several styles for those that wish to keep their publication of choice from prying eyes. They "fold-to-fit" standard book sizes and are printed on recycled Kraft paper.

Check out their new "Artist Editions" as well as their original "Bookshelf" set. At just $9.00 for a set of three, you might be tempted to purchase both! (I know I am! Jealous would be the only word to describe my fellow students if I showed up this fall with these lovelies!)

Installations by Architects

A quick head's up. I received a very cool book: Installations by Architects. It profiles artistic projects from renowned architects around the world.

Here is the official rundown: Over the last few decades, a rich and increasingly diverse practice has emerged in the art world that invites the public to touch, enter, and experience the work, whether it is in a gallery, on city streets, or in the landscape. Like architecture, many of these temporary artworks aspire to alter viewers' experience of the environment. An installation is usually the end product for an artist, but for architects it can also be a preliminary step in an ongoing design process. Like paper projects designed in the absence of "real" architecture, installations offer architects another way to engage in issues critical to their practice. Direct experimentation with architecture's material and social dimensions engages the public around issues in the built environment that concern them and expands the ways that architecture can participate in and impact people's everyday lives.

The first survey of its kind,Installations by Architects features fifty of the most significant projects from the last twenty-five years by today's most exciting architects, including Anderson Anderson, Philip Beesley , Diller + Scofidio, John Hejduk, Dan Hoffman, and Kuth/Ranieri Architects. Projects are grouped in critical areas of discussion under the themes of tectonics, body, nature, memory, and public space. Each project is supplemented by interviews with the project architects and the discussions of critics and theorists situated within a larger intellectual context. There is no doubt that installations will continue to play a critical role in the practice of architecture. Installations by Architects aims to contribute to the role of installations in sharpening our understanding of the built environment.

It can be bought here (no affiliation).

american hotel stories.

If you enjoy consuming Hollywood history, secrets, and insider details, then you'll love American Hotel Stories published by Assouline. The book trails some very famous and often elusive legends (Marilyn Monroe, Al Capone, Jack Kerouac) across the country during their stays in various American hotels -- that are legendary in their own right -- along the way disclosing some very titillating tales. Additionally, author Francisca Matteoli compiled an appendix of the country's most novel hotels so that you can live adventurously, too.

Ladder by Casimir Meubelen

Belgian designer Casimir recently presented the new series of storage furniture Ladder N1. Designer Casimir’s starting point for this series was yet another familiar object and archetypal design.

 

 

The ladder’s original form and function – a movable stairway – and an immovable shelving unit have now been merged into one piece by extending the ladder’s rungs into shelves and cases of different sizes. Ladder n°1 upgrades the stairway – still needed to reach the highest shelves – into a piece of solid oak storage furniture.

Visit Casimir Meubelen for more info

Ring Ring

Love this minimal magazine rack made from nickel plated steel rings by Black + Blum. Thoughtful Father's Day gift perhaps?

Also see wall mounted magazine rack here.

Pentagram Marks

Marks is a new book that brings us 400+ symbols that the awesome folks at Pentagram have given to the world since the 1960's. Up until now, this book was only gifted by Pentagram to its friends and clients, but now will be available for purchase in the US.

The limited edition of 1000 copies is printed on French-folded bible paper, bound in a red, cloth-covered softback cover and includes five ribbons for bookmarking.

--sdotg--

2009 Movie Extravaganza Post!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a blast ringing in the new year... if not then this post will definitely fix that.

FIRST- The rumors on the interwebs have proven true. Thet are filming a real life version of "Where the Wild Things Are." Three cool facts that make this a little bit more exciting are:
1. They aren't using CGI but actual puppets and "wild thing" suits.
2. Driected by Spike Jonze
3. Screenplay written by Dave Eggers.

I know... you guys are probably muttering under your breath that I am a quack and this is all Grade A Bologna.
Exhibit A-C

(pics via imdb.com)

SECOND - Gary Hustwit, the guy who brought us the awesome documentaries on Wilco & Helvetica, has made another bad ass doco on object design called Objectified. So, for this 2009 Movie Extravaganza post I present to you the newly released trailer for the film.

--sdotg--