Stickers

The wall stickers trend is in full swing. As a design idea, they are a great way to add visual interest to what would normally be a blank space. There were a few showing at the ICFF but there were two that I liked.

The first was from a Danish firm called Ferm-Living, their website linked here. The other was a British firm called Miss Print. Miss Print's offering called 'Muscat' is shown above. Miss Print focuses on Eames-like abstract patterns that are perfect for a mid-century modern style home. Ferm-Living has a more organic/natural eye with patterns of various flowers and trees. They even have birds, some of which are a bit too Hitchcock for me.

Both firms make many other things and for Miss Print, it wasn't their vinyl coverings that attracted me but rather a three-legged lamp shown above. Having the pattern offers visual interest without making a room too busy.

ICFF - overall thoughts

The next few posts will deal with the ICFF I mentioned earlier. It was a really cool experience, right off the bat. I've been excited by furniture design for a long time so it was great to immerse myself in a show on the topic, much like the NY Auto Show I attended a few weeks ago. For those who are well versed in this exhibition, pardon my layman's analysis.

All things considered, it was a pretty sedate show. In fact, it was much more sedate than expected. I thought I would see lavish displays – and there were a few – and lots of incredibly unique pieces that were more design statement than a piece of usable furniture. While there were a few of those, it wasn't the predominant theme of the show. By far, 'green' designs were the most prevalent. Green can sometimes mean bland but designers rose to the challenge and focused on simple forms and texture. Mid-century modern hasn't released its grip on design minds and it was great to see it hasn't, since it's a favorite of mine.

It is reflective of our economic times that the focus of the show was on sales. I disappointed many by saying that I wasn't an interior designer or a retail shop. On the plus side, so many vendors sold direct on their website.

I wish I had gone to the big Milan show this year. I may put it on my list of places to go next year. That and the Frankfurt Auto Show. More from the ICFF to follow soon.

Returning to normal

I'm 50% finished with my move and 100% finished the NY part of my move. The other 50% – the move of stuff long languishing in storage in San Francisco – will take a few weeks to complete but will happen sooner than later. It's amazing what a difference a new space can make in one's life. I've gone from dark and small to light and large. It's awesome.

I'll kick off the 'summer' season shortly with posts from the public day at the ICFF – International Contemporary Furniture Fair – at the Jacob Javitz Center here in NY. I've avoided my design blogs so that I can approach the show with my own lens without outside influence. It's my first ICFF show so I'm excited to see what I usually see second or third hand.

T Minus two days

As I mentioned, posts will remain sporadic as I prepare for my move. The movers arrive on Saturday. Huzzah!

I will get the keys today. I'm beyond excited. Now I have to figure out how to smooth the transition for the doggie.

red head, bad temper

red head, bad temper
Originally uploaded by pvb2009

Great facial expression

iP painting 28.

iP painting 28.
Originally uploaded by SteveJohn

Love this.

The Future is Fabric

Yesterday's WSJ [paid link] had an article about changes in men's fashion, namely the increased emphasis on new fabrics/materials and forms. One of the items discussed I have blogged about before – Calvin Klein's foam coat that's due out in July.

This is a topic that is close to my heart due to a recent purchase of a jacket from the NY/Soho label – DDC Labs. NY's weather has a habit of exposing gaps in one's wardrobe and this year is no exception. I have lacked a mid to lightweight coat. Now given my austerity this year, it's not a gap I've been rushing to fill but it is something I've needed to get.

I picked up this really cool hoodie made from Polyester, Polyethylene, Lycra and Nylon. DDC calls it climate control as the jacket breathes and regulates the body temperature. They say it has a 20 degree effective range and it does in my opinion. It's incredibly comfortable and hugs the body.

DDC specializes in interesting materials such as bamboo and aluminum. They are worth a look for interesting and functional pieces.

iPhone as canvas

I think I've written about Brushes, one of the amazing 'paint' applications available for the iPhone. The Flickr feed is outstanding if you haven't seen it.

The UK's Daily Mail did an article on David Hockney, one of the UK's outstanding artist. Now in his 70s, he has taken to the iPhone like a duck to water. He's given it a little easel and 'paints.'

Core to Apple's success has been the artist. It's great to see that enthusiasm channeled to the iPhone.

Hat tip [Towleroad]

information overload

I'm using the iPhone for this entry. A program called iBlogger, I think.

Ironic to be using tech to talk about tech overload. I am delisting today. Well not in general.

I took to RSS feeds like a duck to water. I have hundreds of feeds that I follow. Of at least have in the past. Today I am going to get rid of a lot of them. I just don't have the time to spend plowing through them. I'm looking forward to the winnowing process.

Ah the smell of feedom.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Flexi lamp

Filed under 'when and how much' a flexible lamp designed by a Spanish design studio. Love. Check out the link for more details.

Hat tip [Design Spotter]

Sunrise sunset

I wonder if there's a term for this. In winter, there's SAD, that sunlight deficiency depression thingie that makes Nordics drink too much and off themselves.

For me, summertime brings extreme light sensitivity. For the last few weeks, I've been waking up with the sunrise. Almost on the dot. It's eery and really frustrating because I'm not getting enough sleep. And I don't even have direct sunlight in my apartment!

I'll be moving at the end of the week to a new place and the first thing I'm going to invest in is sun-blocking drapes. Until then, grrrr.

Stunning chandelier

Launched at the Milan Design Week a few weeks ago, Hope by Francisco Gomez Paz and Paolo Rizzatto.

Hope is a pendant light that could be defined as an innovative interpretation of traditional chandeliers. Both use hundreds of crystal pieces that multiply and diffuse the light.

It's light and easy to assemble. I think I see 'Hope' in my future.

Hat tip [Moco Loco]

Bento for iPhone

Bento is Apple's consumer database application. It's one of those applications that I purchased some time ago but just hadn't used much to date. It resides on my desktop, limiting its' utility in places I need it the most – everywhere else. I've tried other applications as semi-databases – namely Evernote. Evernote is a great app but it's PIM functionality is limited, making it difficult to process stuff that I have captured.

Then earlier this week, the pieces came together in the form of an iPhone app – Bento for iPhone. Designed to be used as both a stand-alone and in conjunction with Bento for Mac, the application is the epitome of simplicity and utility that one expects with Apple. It's loaded with pre-designed templates for a range of uses, including project management, list management, a recipe database, media database and more. Syncing is effortless. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it will improve my life in the months ahead. I do know I feel more organized already.

My only frustration – and it is a big one – is the inexcusable inability to sync iCal Tasks, one of the best parts about Bento. This feeds into a much larger irritation – the horrendous approach to task management on the iPhone. Simply put, you can sync iCal reminders but that's it. You can't manipulate those tasks on the phone. This is even more frustrating because Apple made a big deal about tasks when they released Leopard – specifically the ability to pull to-dos and notes from Mail messages quickly and easily. The iPhone OS 3.0 finally syncs notes but tasks are still MIA. WHY?! Having to use a third-party application to manage my task list is incredibly frustrating because it exists outside of my dominant workflow.

I'm off my soapbox. I'm probably going to continue grumbling about it until it appears. Hopefully soon.

Moving House

Day 12 - Moving House
Originally uploaded by kaz2803

Postings will be sporadic over the next two to three weeks. I'm moving into a much larger space and will be pretty consumed with sorting out my apartment. There will be a lot of picture postings ahead as I explore the new area. Very exciting!

Ten Degrees

IMG_0463
Originally uploaded by mitchsfo

Next in the "restaurants and bars I've been spending too much time in" series.

A stylistic representation of 'Ten Degrees' on St. Marks and Ave A in the East Village. Great place run by a guy name Moti from Puerto Rico. I've never been to PR but if this bar is anything like the island, I need to go.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing
Originally uploaded by Silvia de Luque

I am like this man at the moment. I'm in a state of paralysis in many ways.

I'm waiting on three different things – the chance of a new apartment and a completely new way to interact with the city, a project that has been in the decision making process for ages and payment from a client. There are other things I'm waiting for but those are the big three.

It's really scary to be hanging by a thread, as it were.

But it's better than no momentum at all.

Time measure clock

This is a very cool clock concept called the 'Measure Wall Clock' by Burak Kaynak. I love the wall reference to Tadeo Ando, one of my favorite Japanese architects. I also love the description by the designer most of all. I hope this gets produced.

"Time is linear, so can you measure it ?

It's a wall clock / inspired by the measuring tape rotation / a winding device for winding a measuring tape into its housing by the action of a winding spring.

It shows the time just like a measuring tape, has a central red line is fixed in position whilst the numbers move from right to left and left to right that indicates the time on a scale of 0 to 23. Additional part moves in and out automatically from the housing.

The minutes are shown in a line group / 10 minutes...

Web apps

I'm not the best at admin stuff so I reach out to technology whenever possible to lighten the load.

I've been using a service called Shoeboxed.com. Why? I had a stack of receipts two feet deep that I needed to process for my taxes.

It's a pretty straight forward service. You sign up. They send you special envelopes. You stuff them – well neatly – into the envelope and mail it off. When they receive it, they scan them and use OCR to read the amount and the vendor. They put all of that information online for you to categorize, export etc.

The service itself is great. The website is the weakest link. The site is very slow sometimes, which if frustrating if you are trying to categorize a lot of receipts. If you click on a link accidentally, you are sent to a new page. If you are trying to process a batch of receipts and have gotten the information presented in a useful way, this new page behavior slows everything down.

This is the problem I have had with Jott, the transcriber service I mentioned some time ago. I got into the habit of telling it everything that I wanted to do. Trouble is, putting this data dump into a logical structure was incredibly difficult. It improved with their new iPhone application but by that time, the list was going to take me a long time to categorize well. Their local client – using Adobe Air – actually performed worse than the web app, in my opinion.

For all of the hoopla about web applications – and I do like them – sometimes a local client makes a task so much faster to execute.

Moving?

I've been angst ridden while I search for a new apartment. As much as I love my neighborhood, it's a bit difficult to live in a tourist paradise. At some point in time you just want to say – get off my lawn!

Mockup of Apple Tablet

As Apple's WWDC conference in June approaches, the rumor and mockup mill is in full force. I like this artist idea of what one would look like. I doubt Apple would come up with anything like this but it's still a great idea that I would run out and get.

Update: This is so unlikely from an industrial design standpoint. I doubt Apple would stay with the iPhone design given the role of a tablet is so different than the role of a phone.

Hat tip [What's on iPhone]