2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Cross-Dressing in the Park

I can't get enough of the Public's Shakespeare in the Park print campaign in all its 90 degree typography glory! This print campaign is all over NYC for the annual free performances presented by The Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

This year’s plays include a raucous production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night starring Anne Hathaway, opening tonight, and Euripides’s tragedy The Bacchae, with a score by Philip Glass, coming in August.

As usual the two plays are largely unrelated, but one thing they have in common this year is transvestism: lead characters in both plays don drag, hence the campaign tagline “Cross-Dressing in the Park.” The posters feature a Greek sculpture accessorized with a Shakespearean rose and mustachioed with a fine calligraphic line. Designed by Paula Scher and Lisa Kitschenberg, the campaign uses elements of the Public’s refreshed identity and complements our campaign for last summer’s productions of Hamlet and Hair.

This years campaign for Twelfth Night and The Bacchae:

Last years campaign for Hamlet and Hair:

I'm not promoting theft or vandalism in anyway... BUT if someone could get me one of these original posters there would be a nice reward for them!

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Modern Outdoor Seating by Usona Home

   Usona Home's handwoven beds and outdoor chairs are sure to appeal to the natural modernist. Visit Usona Home to for more info.

 

Bathtub IV

I've just spent 4 days in NYC to get a little relaxation and inspiration time... and it worked! I was introduced to the AMAZING  and SUPER inspirational work of Keith Loutit.

Keith is a Sydney based photographer that creates short films using stop-motion and time-lapse footage. The coolest part about the imagery is that he uses a tilt-shift lens that makes everything seem like its a miniature model...but it's not! These images are of life size thing at real places with real people. Such an amazing idea and executed so well.. I can't stop watching his videos!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Make sure to check out the HD version of this here.

Learn more about Keith and see his other videos here.
Also, thanks to JVH from WhichDateWorks on showing me this and for facilitating my NYC inspiration search!

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If Signage Could Play Lawn Bowls...

When old signage and logos have passed their Use By date, the poor little guys don't have many options. They can either go into storage to gather dust eternally, never to be glanced at again, or more likely, they face immediate destruction. That's not how you treat an object that has worked hard for years, possibly decades on end!

So instead of sending them to the proverbial glue factory, Character have concocted a third option. Lead by Aleksi Hautamäki, Character are salvaging retired signage and giving them a new lease on life, one letter at a time.

The Character team dismantle the letters, then give them a good clean and a brand new outfit - new transformers, LED lights and power cords. It's the Extreme Makeover of the signage world.

Not only are the results a feast for the eyes (especially for typophiles like myself!), but the environment benefits from a little less landfill too.

“Sustainability of this product is not superimposed, but in the very essence of it. The second life cycle creates new value for everybody involved, the sign maker, the producer, the retailer and the customer.”

- Aleksi Hautamäki

What better way to thank these hard working little letters than taking them away from the hustle bustle of the roadside and welcoming them into your quiet, toasty warm house?! And better yet, they come complete with their diligent work ethic - the reinstalled LEDs have a life span of 30,000 hours, which means that if you leave them on for 8 hours a day, they'll keep working away for at least another 10 years. Everyone wins!

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The Secret Life of Chairs

I'm convinced that when us mere humans turn our back or give in to sleep, furniture does indeed have a life of its own. (Please refer to Exhibit A and Exhibit B.) Further compelling evidence of this theory comes to us from Istanbul,  Turkey, where chairs have been seen frolicking by the seaside and loitering in alleys. Some chairs even posed for the camera, obviously enjoying the spotlight and unafraid of human contact.

These tame creatures have been identified as 'Face' chairs by Bora Çakılkaya, an expert in this particular chair species, and some would say its mastermind. Bora is a designer and partner of Istanbul-based design firm p-arch, where it is believed that the Face chairs were first created in scenes reminiscent of Frankenstein.*

The Face chairs seem to be perfectly at ease around humans, however potential owners should be aware that the chairs may be prone to midnight shenanigans, and have been known to stumble back into their houses in the early hours of the morning, wearing oversized sunglasses and clutching desperately to a very large coffee. Aside from these occasional indiscretions, Face chairs are generally jovial creatures who can adapt to most living environments.


*No chairs were harmed in the production of this article.

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I put the P in pool.

It has been a rough ride for me to transition from the lovely weather of Sydney to the bitter cold of D.C.... but spring has finally sprung here in the east coast - and this sign makes me eager for the season ahead.

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Sierra Club launches Green Home website

Outdoor enthusiasts hang on to your gear, our beloved Sierra Club has just gone domestic!  And that's a good thing because there's quite a bit of greenwashing going around, so when something comes out via a reputable source I take notice. Green Home is the Sierra Club's newly launched website, created to help take the mystery out of residential greening. Log-on for a personalized CO2 calculator, a healthy home quiz, a guide to going solar and lots of great ideas for saving dollars and the environment at the same time.

lance likes street art.

I don't follow cycling and to be honest I don't know much about Lance Armstrong. But this past Winter (I can finally say past because it's Spring!) when I attended the press opening for the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the ICA Boston, something caught my eye. There in a book that detailed each work of art was Lance Armstrong's name. Indeed one of the largest pieces in the entire show belonged to the cycling legend. It peaked my interest -- Lance supports street art? Yes, indeed he does.

Trek art bike designed by KAWS.

Leading up to his eighth Tour de France, Lance will be riding "art bikes" designed by prolific artists who are heavily influenced by street culture -- KAWS, Barry McGee, Marc Newson, Damien Hirst -- and manufactured by TREK. The art bikes will then be auctioned to benefit Livestrong. Additionally, his Livestrong organization is holding a benefit art show that coincides with the art bikes. Entitled "Stages," the show/auction will be held at the Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery in Paris on July 16, 2009 and features the artwork of Shepard Fairey, Raymond Pettibon, Ed Ruscha, KAWS, Barry McGee, Kenny Scharf, Os Gemeos, and Marc Newson to name a few.

Lance's camp says it'll take a month for him to recover from his recent collarbone injury. And once he's back, he'll once again be riding pretty atop the hottest bikes on the road.

Let There Be Light

It's been a busy year already with some big (huge!) events and plenty of inspiration, so it takes something special to jump out at you from an inbox full of goodness. If it hadn't been for a tiny but intriguing thumbnail image, I would have skipped straight past any mention of tensile structures, because those two words don't really instill any great level of excitement for me. Now to be fair, there's an entire body of work dedicated to tensile structures, and much of the work is quite beautiful, but when the only example you see in your everyday life is a series of torn, tattered vinyl sails, it's easy to forget how amazing these structures can be.

New York-based Fabric Images has provided a welcome reminder. With a portfolio of corporate imaging, exhibition fit outs, installations and lighting, it's exciting to see how versatile tensile structures can be when they're not merely an afterthought.

From soft and fluffy lights that just beg to be poked, to sleek modern lines that are both lightweight and solid...and that's just the lighting.

 

I'm especially intrigued by the notion of lightweight, luminous walls, with endless choice for transparency, opacity, pattern and texture. The images below are geared towards a more sustainable exhibition industry, and frankly it's a welcome change given the amount of trade exhibitions full of companies that preach "sustainability" with one-off displays full of new and non-recyclable components (or "recyclable" components that will never actually be recycled!)

 

But forget the exhibition industry, what about the rest of us? Imagine open-plan work spaces being humanised with some cosy little corners and lush yellow chairs! No wait, forget work, what about in our homes?! Perhaps as a way to make a study nook more cosy and private, or a dining room more lavish. Or even outdoors, with luminous walls to create your own little back yard labyrinth (or just hide an aesthetically-challenged water tank or garden shed!)

And perhaps I'm already missing the hot weather now that Sydney is finally starting to cool off, but I can't help but imagine these mesh shells creating an amazing setting for an informal beach party or perhaps even a casual beach wedding. After all, why should offices and temporary exhibitions have all the fun?

Contemporary Crochet

Just when I was beginning to get over my phobia of display plates, it appears that all things knitted, weaved and crocheted are making a resurgence too. Not that it hasn't been a long time coming, celebrities have been flashing around their knitting needles for quite a while, and even your grandma was in on the craze before you were.

So it's no surprise that earlier this month at the Stockholm Furniture Fair, it was the unlikely union of tubular steel and weaved textiles (clothed polyurethane foam to be precise) that grabbed the attention of many. The design of new architecture/design trio Imaginary Office, the Pleats-Pleats Sofa is an unexpected combination of precision steel and squishy handicrafts.

Outdoor furniture is in on the craze too. These crocheted poufs from Ineke Visser are made from UV resistant polyester yarn that is reportedly as soft as cotton. Perhaps even less expected than weaves and tubular steel however, these pouf covers are designed to be pulled over rubber tyres. In the event that this isn't an ingenious means of reusing car tyres, Ineke has also designed crocheted pot plant covers to even out the green scorecard.

This latest trend for handicraft/homeware hybrids wouldn't come as any surprise to Rotterdam-based Christien Meindertsma, who has been creating hand knitted poufs under the banner of FLOCKS for the last few years. Christien collaborates with knitters, spinners, farmers and felters from around the world to create her bespoke range of knitwear, and although she focuses primarily on fashion, her hand felted, hand knitted poufs are practically a classic. Yes, a classic pouf. You heard it here first.

I know what you're thinking. Hand knitted? Those must be some BIG knitting needles she's got there.

And you're absolutely right. Grandmas and A-Grade knitting celebrities alike would be hard pressed to fight back feelings of severe knitting needle envy. 

So get your hands on a weaved sofa, a knitted pouf and a crocheted pot plant, and while you're at it, hang your favourite plates on your walls too! Everything old is new again, and Grandma would be proud.