11.30.2011
11.28.2011
New in the Shop
Among 15 things we just added:
Rare 1960's Honeywell Tap-Lites,
J.B. Blunk-ish Redwood Burl Cheese Board ,
and a Koons-ian Ceramic Doggie
Please Don't Eat the Mistletoe!
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11.27.2011
Terence Conran at London's Design Museum
Terence Conran talks about Habitat's beginnings, his philosophy, intelligent designing, the importance of supporting crafts, making things, and never giving up. Backed by his Retrospective at the Design Museum which I would have loved to see in person. Like a live Habitat Catalog.
Look at this awesome old Habitat launch poster:
And what is that great big graphic behing Stafford Cliff, in the upper right?:
And related, a spread about us from The Guardian UK earlier this year, talking about how we're more inspired by Conran's House Book and the 1970's than just about anything else.
more great photos etc. on Jim Stephenson's blog here: http://blog.clickclickjim.com/2012/02/17/design-museum-conran-partners-feb-12/
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11.26.2011
El Feminine Producto
Am I just seeing things?
It would be a nice box to keep it all in.
(pun intended)
(pun intended)
designed by Paul Rand, c.1950.
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11.25.2011
11.23.2011
Thanksgiving dinner extra chairs idea
The Plia Folding and Stacking Chair, by Giancarlo Piretti (1967).
Top: working off the pounds in The Head-to-Toe Exercise Book (1975)
And above, from Italy: The New Domestic Landscape (1972)
Happy Thanksgiving!
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11.21.2011
Spillows
Soft Spills! Our newest creations, combining our love of soft sculpture, fake food, the 60's, the 70's, Monster Vitamins, Freakies, and our son, with a little hat tip to the stripes of Ettore Sottsass and the scale of Claes Oldenburg. We've been wanting to make something like this for a while, ever since the Golden Drip from our book, where the spill was used more as furnishing. But going forward, we thought this is more of what we really love- object design. And when you put a face on it, work becomes much more fun.
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11.18.2011
Vintage Grocery Store Window Posters, pt.2
Six of the vintage 1965 grocery store posters we had in our shop (the last three are here) beautifully framed and hanging in their new home in Australia. This is exactly how I pictured them looking, all in a group, framed in shadowboxes so their crimps and wrinkles weren't lost- like objects rather than graphics. They look awesome. (Excellent job Uri! Thanks again!)
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11.17.2011
Shop Update
New additions to our shop include, from top:
An old Pouchinelle zig-zag style corkscrew; prints of a Story of O-style girl; a vintage velvet mushroom toadstool; a lot of Gunnar Cyren-designed plastic ware by Dansk; and a David Hockney Nichols Canyon Rd. exhibition poster, from his Retrospective at the Met, 1988.
The Wary Meyers Shop
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11.12.2011
11.11.2011
Wary Meyers City Posters
The first four posters from a total of 12 cities which I drew earlier this year for a travel series. As alluded to in the last post, we're super excited about these, in particular all the logotypes. Typography is a big love of ours, and when we can incorporate it into a project we're all the happier. So here are the first four. Coming soon are SF, LA, DC, and Dallas.
The posters are 19" x 24", printed on 100lb. smooth Bristol paper, signed. $55 each, in our shop
The New York poster owes a lot to the work of Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast, with a little Tadanori Yokoo thrown in at the bottom. It started out as Massimo Vignelli Subway lines coming worm-like out of the apple, forming the frame, but later I changed the bottom lines to lox coming out of the bagel. But then we changed the line colors, since , although kind of funny, all-salmony didn't look that great as a border. And a lot of food worked its way in, mostly after drawing the bagel, then we had to represent the hot dog and pretzel, and all the eggplants and ugly tomatoes.
Miami's logotype is based on Ettore Sottsass' Superbox wardrobes. No relation to Miami, but it was the shortest city name and I the boxes would be nice and bold. Plus I've always wanted to make my own Superbox, modified into a monogram. The view is an artistic-licensed South Beach, with a couple Stilt houses in Biscayne Bay, the Bacardi buildings, a little Mondrian, and the ubiquitous rooftop cranes. The two curved graphics at the corners of MIAMI represent the sun, while the two at the bottom are tanned boobs, in a blue cutaway-bikini-top.
Seattle is overall a little more sci-fi/Moebius influenced. We wanted the logotype to be sort of rock n roll, and I was listening to a lot of Paul McCartney and Wings at the time (and still) which may have influenced the design. Coincidentally Wings' big US Rock Show kicked off at the Seattle SuperDome. On the right is a giant Peep looming behind two towering onions. Probably the most accurate rendering of anything in Seattle is the outline of Mt. Rainier in the background.
London is my favorite. I love the red telephone booth type, and yet another Beatles reference in the Yellow Submarine spreading its colour along the Thames.
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11.10.2011
1953 NCO DCM
January 1953 Eames DCM (Dining Chair Metal), originally belonging to an NCO (Non Commissioned Officers) Mess Hall. It came into our hands with a 25 cents sticker on it, from a weekend yard sale- but- no one bought it, so it was left on the side of the road with some other stuff and a "free" sign. Our landlord spotted it on a Tuesday, and put it in his truck. After doing some work at our place I walked out with him and said "Woah!" then I traded a lamp for it, which, as Linda tells me, we had already given him a couple years earlier. Crazy!
I love Eames, and I also love old Army stuff, and typography, markings, etc... so the bottom of the chair is especially cool. I'm not sure what the Eames "0 #7" -stamped above "1 53"-means, or the Army (Navy?)"1 35". Or the masking tape on the rod in front of the "DCM" embossment. The biggest mystery though is why no one bought it for a quarter. Is it a Magic chair that had to make its way to us? The Force? That aside, imagine what that Mess Hall looked like!
Related- Fort Bragg NCO mess hall in 1954- cool, but not as cool without the Eames:
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11.09.2011
A Tour of Lloyd Kahn's Home and Philosophy
This is so fantastic, thoughtful, funny, and inspiring.
Lloyd Kahn makes me want to be a better human.
And also makes me want to organize all my old Barbara Plumb-era American Home magazines.
Related:
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11.07.2011
London Calling
New things we've made are on their way, including four travel posters.
Here are their logotypes!
Here are their logotypes!
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11.05.2011
J.B. Blunk at Greens, San Francisco
Sculptor J.B. Blunk's amazing redwood masterwork in the cafe area of Greens restaurant in San Francisco, 1979. Although it could be 2011, since thankfully it looks exactly the same today as it did when it was built and opened by the San Francisco Zen Center in the late 70's. Where else can pull up an Aalto stool and have a coffee on a J.B. Blunk? Nowhere!
See also: Checks Please! Milton Glaser's Big Kitchen
From the ever-inspiring book The Interiors Book of Shops & Restaurants, 1981.
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See also: Checks Please! Milton Glaser's Big Kitchen
From the ever-inspiring book The Interiors Book of Shops & Restaurants, 1981.
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11.03.2011
Poul and Hanne Kjaerholm's House, Denmark
Poul and Hanne Kjaerholm's home. Architect: Hanne.
from Living Architecture Magazine (Denmark) #2, 1984.
Love it.
If you click on a photo you'll be sent to our Flickr, where the original magazine scans are (a little bit back).
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11.02.2011
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