ID: Dansk

I’m BACK IN THE HABIT! – Sister Act 2 reference!

According to wikipedia, dansk is “…a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark.” BUT, it also is the amazing style of rounded wooden housewares and furniture, typical of the danish aesthetic of the 1960’s (mid-century modern). It is very famous and beloved, but also, now that there is this 60’s-‘modern’-revival thing happening, occasionally it is supa expensive. But if you are lucky, and hone your garage sale hunting skills, you can find some beautiful pieces of this stuff for pretty cheap.  And look at it! It is worth the hunting.

(By the way, Wary Meyers, who I talked about a while back are HUGE fans of the ‘dansk’ style and always use it so well in their rooms…)

 
cutting board image here / yellow pot image here / pepper mill collection image here here / utensils image here / wine cooler image here

ID: Cool Cubicles

So, (forgive me for mentioning it) back-to-school is looming!, and this will be my last back-to-school for my undergrad! (Therefore, in my mind, it will be my last back-to-school… ever!)  I am excited and stressing and nervous and cravin it.  The only thing is, I have a big exam coming up right before school, which effectively taints a lot of the good back-to-school stuff (e.g. it ruins ‘fresh bouquets of pencils’, getting to wear fall jackets for the first time, meeting up with friends you haven’t seen all summer!, settling into a new version of home once more, making and getting to eat soup, all things pumpkin-related, etc…)

Anyway, with studying on the brain, for the ID post this week, I thought I’d show you guys some desk enclosures, cool cubicles and study spaces.

Rewrite by Gam Fratesi here // Flatmate here // Secret ‘AIR by ObjetB Art here // OSTRICH pocket pillow for nap, 2011 by Kawamura Ganjavian here // “Woven”, function and private desk area by here

And two more, because I couldn’t leave them out..

Office Collar by Simone Brewster here // Green DESKSHELL by Kawamura Ganjavian here

Cheers!

Artist/Designer Round Up: Wary Meyers

A husband and wife team that I have been watching for the last five-ish years are “Wary Meyers“, i.e.: Linda (formerly Linda Wary) and John Meyers.

John Meyers started as the chief display director for the shop Anthropologie, and began creating innovative installations for the store’s flagship shops in New York City. His designs often reconsider everyday objects, and John tends to focus the display on utilizing the existing features of the objects he’s using.

An example of his style is seen in is this beautiful display he did in this Rockerfeller Center window display:

Clearly, he uses marshmallows as they already are, but re-thinks their application by letting his imagination run wild or go-literal. Here’s some other amazing Anthropologie displays that John has done:

(Here he uses colored chopsticks.)

During the time that John was working at Anthropologie, Linda was doing a variety of her own design work.  She has worked as a graphic designer, a freelance art director, a columnist for the New York times, and doing freelance fashion design work. (article here)

The couple both loved to garage sale hunt, and after collecting an assortment of finds from their travels, a friend one day approached the couple to ask them if they would decorate her apartment for her. She was on a budget, but had a very similar aesthetic to the couple – mid-century-modern and playful, and usually extremely 1960’s-70’s.

After successfully decorating their friend’s home, the couple started their  own company full-time, Wary Meyers Decorative Arts.  In their company the two work on interiors, object design, paintings, illustrations, and soft sculpture.(Interview here.)  Wary Meyers has been featured in Domino, Time Out New York and Roomarks.

In 2009 the couple also wrote a book about re-purpose-ing furniture, and let me tell you, having bought this book, it is one of the funnest, most ‘hip’ DIY, furniture refinishing books I have ever seen. It’s called Wary Meyers’ Tossed & Found: Unconventional Design from Cast-offs and its filled with some really unconventional DIY ideas.

Here are a couple photos of projects feature in the book:

Now Linda and John continue to work and live in Portland, periodically working on commissioned art installations, doing interior design projects, collaborating with different companies (Urban Outfitters, etc.) or re-selling some of their amazing finds.

Theme On Eames. Chairs.

Oh man. That title is so lame. But as soon as I thought of the rhyme, I HAD to write it.  It was a Siren Song moment (in case you don’t know what a siren song is: when you find yourself in a situation, where you know you should NOT! do something, but you just NEEED to do it anyway. E.g. 1) this lame title, 2) wanting to drop your keys in a grate as you walk over it (I’ve never actually done it, but everytime I walk over a grate, I actually have to hold onto my keys tighter to fight this insane compulsion..), 3) wanting to press every button only when someone tells you not to press any button, etc. )

[p.s.: Do any of y’alls have some bad/good Siren Songs? Post them in the comments below! (Ha, seriously, do it! Some of the ones mentioned on the podcast (that I linked above) were hilarious!) Oooo. I just thought of another one! When body lotion smells really good (and like food of some sort) I really, really have a compulsion to eat it.]

DAR 1948, by Eames

ANYWAY. Today’s post! So, today’s post was supposed to be up on Monday, but of course some issues arose on Monday, so I am posting it today! Here is the start of a series I’ve been working on:

 I’ve drawn up probably the most famous and well-designed Eames Chairs, the DAR (1948).   After, I have started imagining up crazy and weird variations on the theme.

To start off slow, I drew this cushioned version of the chair.  Its kinda interesting cause for me, I was totally going for an 1850’s interpretation of the chair, but while keeping the original chair as in-tact as possible,  but I think it may have come off as FULL 1960’s version anyways..  Whatever, as they say, what happens, happens. Also, I drew this a while back, way back when my perspective still sucked and also, I kinda had to finish it off fast, since I kinda spent awhile on that cushioning, so don’t mind the rough-and-dirty-ness! Anyway, hopefully I’ll be able to show you guys some more versions on this theme sometime soon.