Design Bureau Issue 16

Go Bold At Home:

4 inspiring interior designs

p. 134

TM

MAXIMUM MINI THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD’S MOST STYLISH LITTLE CAR

WINDOWS THAT WOW SELFRIDGES’ AWESOME STOREFRONT DESIGNS

Ship Shape Design inside a luxury yacht

STORES WITH STYLE 30 High-Design Stores From Around the World

PLUS

OOh la la! 8 Perfume Bottles to Covet Burton Snowboard Gear Goes Designer FEB 2013 $8 USA/CAN

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DESIGN BUREAU

Contents

Un r iva l ed M a s t e r p i e c e s Siren Tr i p l e S e v e n Fortuna Sunrise Kogo Pe l o r u s

f itz

inter ior

info@fitzinterior.de | www.fitzinterior.de

Contents

DESIGN BUREAU

What’s in Store

CONTENTS ISSUE 16 FEATURES 112 Shops Outside the Box Shopping on the Net? Boooring. Retail designers around the world are amping up the wow factor with an anything-goes attitude and unexpected materials (ever seen a store made with 25,000 paper bags?)

114 The Ultimate Retail Surface Rafael de Cárdenas’ storefront designs are out of control, and that’s just how he likes it 134 Big Shapes, Bright Colors Pops of bold hues and geometric forms define these designer spaces 140 Maximum MINI It’s been more than a decade since the classic British car was revived by BMW, but its look is as stylish as ever

Today’s best retail design goes beyond bricks and mortar PAGE 112

DIALOGUE & DESIGN THINKING 86 Otherworldly Building Systems The developers of Spaceplates Greenhouse in Bristol, U.K., have high hopes for the system’s future 94 School’s Back in Session A defunct middle school gets a new life as a creative college arts center 98 Architecture Eye Candy A modern addition adds contrast to Australia’s Osbourne Road House 102 In the Details Getting the look for a glossy bungalow or a home curiosity shop

INFORMER 15 Pixels & Print 29 Objects & Gear 39 Fashion & Beauty 47 Travel & Culture 55 Structures & Spaces

PLUS 06 08 10 79 145 146

Contributors Letter from the Editor Letters Notes From the Bureau This Issue’s Best Albums For Hire

Berlin’s Christian Koban jewelry shop, designed by Studio Kattentidt. Photo by Marcus Zumbansen

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Contents

JEWELRY DESIGN

Moratorium Jeannette Lai Thomas works with metal Page 39

CARS

MINI me BMW’s retro reissue turns 11 Page 140

INSIDE ISSUE 16 Photo of Jeannette Lai Thomas by Eric Luc; MINI photo courtesy of BMW

Contents

DESIGN BUREAU

STORE DESIGN

Retail Wild Rafael de Cárdenas’ storefront designs Page 114

Photo of Rafael de Cárdenas by Eric Luc

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DESIGN BUREAU

Letters & Contributors

DESIGN BUREAU CONTRIBUTORS

PUBLISHER & EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Chris Force chris@alarmpress.com

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

-----

-----

MANAGING EDITOR

ACCOUNT DIRECTOR

SENIOR EDITOR

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

Ellie Fehd ellie@alarmpress.com

Tarra Kieckhaefer tarra@alarmpress.com

Kristin Larson kristin@alarmpress.com

Liz Abshire, Jill Berris, Krystle Blume, Kevin Graham, Arghavan Hakimian, Emily Kirkwood, Jenny Palmer, Emily Schleier, Cole Stevens, Natalie Valliere-Kelley, Mallory Wegner

Kathryn Freeman Rathbone katie@alarmpress.com

Dusdin Condren works in portrait, editorial, and fashion photography.

His background includes undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Slavic literature, stints living in Russia and other parts of Europe, and a short career directing theater. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. dusdincondren.com

Murrye Bernard is an architecture and design writer who lives in Brooklyn. She is a contributor to Design Bureau, and her work has appeared in other publications including Architectural Record, Architect, and USA Today. She is also a contributing editor to e-Oculus, the newsletter of the AIA New York Chapter. murryebernard.com

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

John Dugan john@alarmpress.com

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER

Liisa Jordan liisa@alarmpress.com

Joel Hoglund joel@alarmpress.com -----

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Colleen Batterman, Kylie Callander, Rachel Clarke, Tristan Hanselman, Ainsleigh Monaghan, Miranda Myers, Gloria Puljic, Matthew Quilter, Christian Romasanta, Allison Weaver

DESIGN DIRECTOR

Lindsey Eden Turner lindsey@alarmpress.com -----

PRODUCTION MANAGER

CONTRIBUTORS

Aryn Beitz, Murrye Bernard, Alli Berry, Lexyrose Boiardo, Shamara Bondaroff Jeremy Brautman, Sarah Cason, Ann Chou, Dusdin Condren, Kady Dennell, Eve Fineman, Amber Gibson, Eric Granwehr, Sarah Handelman, Jen Hazen, Jason Kerensky, Heidi Kulicke, Jessica Barta Lam, Maggie Lange, Brian Libby, Eric Luc, Sarah Murray, Eve Fineman, Justin Ray, Lauren Smith, Lesley Stanley, Katie Tandy, Bonnie Turtur, Brittan White, Jenny Wilson COVER IMAGE

Photographed at OHWOW Book Club in New York by Dusdin Condren. Styling

by Lexyrose Boiardo; makeup and hair

by Brittany White; Model: Jessica with Major Model Management; Stylist assistant: Bonnie Turtur; Stylist intern: Antoine Bregman

Aryn Beitz is a writer living and working in San Francisco. Aryn attributes her passion for design to her father, a Michigan-based architect who taught her how to appreciate architecture and design at an early age.

When she’s not exploring big cities or moving to new places, you can find her outdoors running or hiking with friends.

Heidi Kulicke is a freelance contributor for Design Bureau. She lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., where she is a reporter for the Orange County Business Journal. Before that, she worked for Editor & Publisher magazine.

She is originally from Salt Lake City and doesn’t miss the snow at all.

Lauren Carroll laurenc@alarmpress.com -----

MARKETING MANAGER

Danelle Sarvas danelle@alarmpress.com HUMAN RESOURCES

Diana Shnekenburger diana@alarmpress.com

STAFF ACCOUNTANT

Mokena Trigueros CONTROLLER

Linda Wolf

ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER

LeeAnne Hawley leeanne@alarmpress.com

A one-year subscription to Design Bureau is US $40. Visit our website at wearedesignbureau.com or send a check or money order to: Design Bureau 205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 3200 Chicago, IL 60601

T 312.386.7932 F 312.276.8085 info@alarmpress.com

Design Bureau (ISSN 2154-4441) is published bi-monthly by ALARM Press at 205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 3200, Chicago, IL, 60601. Periodicals postage is PENDING at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to Design Bureau at 205 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 3200, Chicago, IL, 60601 Retailers: To carry Design Bureau in your store please call 201.634.7411. © 2012 Design Bureau. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited. DESIGN BUREAU is a trademark of Design Bureau.

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DESIGN BUREAU

Letters & Contributors

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

“MOST INTERESTING THINGS COME OUT OF INSECURITY AND DISCOMFORT BECAUSE YOU ARE HYPER-AWARE OF YOURSELF AND HOW YOU FIT INTO THE WORLD. COMFORT IS BORING. IF A SOFA IS COMFORTABLE, IT’S UGLY.” – Rafael de Cárdenas, page 114 Rafael de Cárdenas’ work is beautiful. We loved the personality of the tiny, loosely Navajo-inspired OHWOW pop-up shop / clubhouse in New York City’s West Village. His theory on design, however, caused a stir of debate in the office. Can’t people be comfortable and produce interesting things?

When we began to assemble our cover story on retail design, I was pressed to discuss what stores I loved and why. I’m drawn to retail environments that I feel understand me. Contrary to part of Cárdenas’ design theory, I want to understand and clearly navigate a store. I don’t want to be told who I am. I know who I am.

And better yet, I want the store to listen to me—I’ve got the sales pitch, not you. Here is who I am. Now deliver.

What perfect items have you collected and presented that are a seamless extension of me? A good store will do just that. They provide those missing pieces that you never knew were missing.

Design consumers are conscious to authenticity, creativity, and unique and exclusive designs. In this issue, we’ve chosen 30 retail environments that we think deliver on these traits (page 112).

What are some of your favorite stores? Why? -----

Chris Force Publisher & Editor-in-Chief chris@alarmpress.com

Photo of Chris Force by Noah Kalina

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DESIGN BUREAU

Letters & Contributors

LETTERS TO DESIGN BUREAU January 2013

DB shout-outs from the Twitterverse

SOUND BITES

Join the conversation at twitter.com/DesignBureauMag

DB TWEETS Seems our restless readers fell hard for our January travel issue, while the homebodies were bored senseless. We love you both and we love feedback, so email us: letters@ wearedesignbureau.com

Sleep better knowing that where you're staying was cool even before it was a hotel PORTLAND // On the National Register of Historic Places, the 79-room Ace Hotel Portland occupies the former Clyde Hotel, which opened in 1912.

HISTORY LESSON

ACE TOUR NEW YORK // The Ace Hotel New York occupies the 1904 building that once housed the Breslin Hotel.

Its Michelinstarred restaurant The Breslin pays tribute.

RELAX

SEATTLE // A Salvation Army halfway house was reborn as the trendsetting 28-room Ace Hotel Seattle in 1999.

SPECIAL FEATURE

108 DESTINATION: DESIGN

SPECIAL FEATURE

HOTEL SCHMOTEL

109 DESTINATION: DESIGN

“I admit that all the designer hotels in your recent issue look swank. But, have you stayed in one? I’m a business traveler and prefer a safe, boring chain hotel. Who needs a vintage typewriter and a butter churn at arm’s length while on vacation? Pass.”

(B.D., VIA EMAIL)

I

t’s too bad a hardware store beat This sense of feeling connected to the city’s Alex Calderwood to the slogan “Ace culture is largely dependent upon the design. is the place” because it seems to be Guest rooms look more like your coolest the truth about the hotelier’s line of friend’s apartment than a hotel room, thanks to their blend of Americana décor, vintage Ace Hotels. furniture, and sharp original artwork. And In Seattle, Portland, Palm Springs, and New extra touches like free bikes and in-room York, the Ace is a magnet—not just for trav- record players with staff-curated vinyl make elers, but also for the locals that turn up at it easy to forget you’re even at a hotel. the property sans room or reservation. They come because their favorite DJ is spinning “The reason Ace feels authentic to people is in the lobby, or because their hairstylist cuts that it’s actually our voice, and it’s actually there, or because a night at the Ace could things that we are genuinely into,” Caldebring anything from an Easy Rider-themed rwood says. Things they are actually into… pool party to Chloë Sevigny staging a reading and that others looking to capitalize on Ace’s of Pussy Riot’s letters from prison. When cachet have tried to rip off. “I think it’s really guests check in at an Ace, they’re not just unfortunate when other brands don’t follow getting to hang at a hip hotel; they’re getting their own ethos. It’s just sort of lazy when to experience what it’s like to be a part of that people are trying to directly create a derivative. It’s a lost opportunity.” city’s local culture.

“In the past I’ve checked into corporate hotels, and if you squinted your eyes, it’s like you could have been anywhere,” Calderwood says.

“I think when you’re at one of our hotels, you really feel like you’re actually in that city and connecting with locals there.”

Backstage Hotel ZERMATT, SWITZERLAND backstagehotel.ch If ever there were a place to indulge your Messiah complex, Backstage Hotel is it. Designed by artist and architect Heinz Julen (whose on-site design shop lets you browse his handmade furniture creations), this unique hotel in the shadow of the Matterhorn invites guests to partake in a truly divine spa experience based on, yes, the Biblical story of creation. In seven different treatment rooms, you’ll journey from a dark steam room into the birth of light, recline upon heated glass pearls as the video-projected heavens divide, and travel into the cosmos in a sauna brightened by Hubble telescope images. [JC]

Ace Man ACE HOTEL FOUNDER ALEX CALDERWOOD CREATES HIP HOTELS

BY TAPPING INTO EACH CITY’S AESTHETIC AND GIVING THE LOCALS A REASON TO HANG THERE.

BY JOEL HOGLUND PORTRAIT BY DOUGLAS LYLE THOMPSON

PALM SPRINGS // A run-of-themill Howard Johnson motel was converted to the 180-room Ace Hotel & Swim Club. Its on-site diner is a former Denny’s.

RELAX

@hannahbhappy @DesignBureauMag - has anyone told you how awesome you are?

DESIGN

HOTELS WITH HISTORY

SPECIAL FEATURE

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DESTINATION: DESIGN

master theater architect C. Howard Crane and built in 1927 by the founders of UA, the building will retain the ornate character of its Old Hollywood days despite its new life as a hotel hotspot. “There’s a 1,600-seat movie palace that is in pristine condition,” says Calderwood. For the last 20 years or so it was used as a church and we’re going to reactivate it as a movie palace and a forum for talks and bands and events.”

L.A.-based interior design group Commune (the ones behind the mid-century look of the Ace Palm Springs) created the design for the new L.A. property. Although it would be easy to replicate any of the other successful Ace hotel designs, the team is instead creating a look that truly feels like home to Los Angeles.

For Calderwood, that’s what traveling and staying in a hotel is all about.

And where others miss opportunities, Calde- “I’ve been traveling a lot this year,” he says, rwood seems to seize them. Like the oppor- “and I really appreciate finding the little tunity to turn the landmark United Artists details of the local design vernacular, or the Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles into tiny architectural details [of a place] because the latest Ace Hotel property, scheduled to there are subtle nuances in different cultures. open in late 2013. “It’s an amazing site,” he We always look to become a thread in the says. Designed in a Spanish Gothic style by fabric of the community.”

SPECIAL FEATURE

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DESTINATION: DESIGN

ACE IS THE PLACE

“I was pysched to see the Act Hotel in your January travel issue. I must give Alex Calderwood and the Ace credit for making travel hip, fun, and cool again, even in the age of TSA patdowns.” (C.H., VIA EMAIL)

GOING FOR AIR

“Wow, loving the whole concept of airbnb.

Finally an online travel site offering something unique.” (L.A.., VIA FACEBOOK)

@lucyinteriors Great quote from our feature in the anniversary issue of Design Bureau Magazine: “Lead quietly. It’s important...” @aroomofhisown We’re not the only ones obsessed with man caves. Check out this awesome @designbureaumag slideshow. @Aballatore @DesignBureauMag Thank you so much for having me a part of The Inspiration Issue!!! @soprotocol @DesignBureauMag has truly fabulous taste, if we do say so at Southern Protocol... and we do! Looking forward to the wedding issue!

evening!

“Interesting things come out of insecurity and discomfort because you are hyper-aware of yourself and how you fit into the world. Comfort is boring. If a sofa is comfortable, it’s ugly.” RAFAEL DE CÁRDENAS, PAGE 114

@KeelanRogue @DesignBureauMag Great party! Nice drinks, fun crowd, perfect

CORRECTIONS, NOV/DEC 2012:

The incorrect photo ran on p. 112 in the Nov/ Dec Caroline Beaupére story New York Living.

The correct photo was taken by Matthew Arnold, matthewarnoldphotography.com. We regret the error.

FOR THE RECORD: Rants, ramblings, and random facts from behind the scenes of this issue

CHAIRS

PAPER BAGS

1910

GIN

Carleton College’s new arts center features a ceiling sculpture made from 1934 auditorium seating. Read more p. 94

New York boutique Owen features interior walls covered with 25,000 plain brown paper bags. See p. 120 and tell us that it’s not chic.

The year Harry Selfridge opened a beauty department near the street entrance of his Oxford Street store. See what Selfridges’ looks like now, p. 71

Legend has it that the original door bins for the MINI Cooper were designed to hold a bottle of gin. See where the little car has headed since on p. 142

Have a question or comment? We want to hear from you. Give us a shout at letters@wearedesignbureau.com.

Decors with a new natural touch Facades that tell a story TRESPA® METEON® ‘S NEW RANGE OF WOOD DECORS AND NATURALS ADDS AN ENTIRELY NEW DIMENSION TO ITS PORTFOLIO. ARCHITECTS LOOKING TO ACHIEVE A CONTEMPORARY AESTHETIC LOOK WITH NATURAL ELEMENTS WILL LOVE THE EXTENDED POSSIBILITIES IN FACADE DESIGN WITH THE NEW WOOD AND STONE DESIGNS. COMBINING THESE DECORS WITH TRESPA’S NEW MATT FINISH ACCENTUATES THE AUTHENTIC AND NATURAL SENSE IN ARCHITECTURE EVEN MORE. THE STORY CONTINUES: TRESPA.COM/NEW

VISIT US TRESPA DESIGN CENTRE NEW YORK

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Difference between the Satin finish and the new Matt finish.

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DESIGN BUREAU

DESIGN BUREAU RECOMMENDS...

Spring will be here soon-ish, so start getting organized, pumping up your decor, and taking the last sip of your winter booze. Our staff has some ideas and is here to help

JOHN DUGAN, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

CLIP TREE

JOEL HOGLUND, ASSOCIATE EDITOR

“The entryway in my new place is a minefield of bags, shoes, and coats.

And I’m constantly hunting for my keys and wallet. The configurable Clip Tree from Matthew Plumstead is a handsome solution to my clutter woes.” $240/two-post kit, mccartyquinn.com

FLASK IN TWEED SUITING “Every young gentleman needs a flask, and these covers, made from suiting by Chicago’s Rogue Empire, lend your hooch a much-needed extra touch of class.” $28, etsy.com

LAUREN CARROLL, PRODUCTION MANAGER

TRINA TURK HEXAGON PILLOW “I was looking for a little splash of color to brighten up my living room. This geometric pillow from fashion designer Trina Turk should do the trick.” $150, pkhc.com

KATIE RATHBONE, SENIOR EDITOR

DOLL LAMP “I’m a huge fan of Ionna Vautrin at Foscarini. I just adore the simple yet modern look of this playful lamp.” $341, foscarini.com

KRISTIN LARSON, MANAGING EDITOR

SHARP AQUOS 90-INCH LED TV “I'm a bit of a homebody, so I think owning this cinema-sized, smart, world’s largest LED flat-screen with WiFi is completely justifiable.” $11,000, sharpusa.com

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Pixels & Print

PIXELS & PRINT

DESIGN BUREAU

The best of the best in graphics and photos

ILLUSTRATION

Fill in the Blank

When it comes to graphics, U.K. communication design firm Peter & Paul does it all British communications designers Peter Donohoe and Paul Reardon do a little bit of everything. Their firm works on everything from brand identities, websites, and print communications for culture makers like rapper Kid Acne and Victoria & Albert Museum. A keen sense of Brit humor is at the heart of all their projects, and we decided to put it to the test with some quirky questions of our own.

WE GOT STARTED IN THE COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN

WORLD BECAUSE WE HAD… a need to do our own thing.

IF OUR AESTHETIC WAS A FLAVOR, IT WOULD TASTE LIKE...

Yorkshire Pudding.

CONTINUED

“Two people are on the verge of their most important hopes,” February 2012

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Pixels & Print

1

3

(CONTINUED)

THE IDEAL CLIENT UNDERSTANDS THAT

IF WE HAD TO WORK ON ANOTHER PLANET, WE

DESIGN IS...

WOULD OBVIOUSLY CHOOSE...

fundamentally about truth and trust. The designer has to find the truth of what the client’s really about, and the client has to trust the designer in his ability to articulate that.

OUR BEST IDEAS COME TO US WHEN…

we have something to prove.

the fictitious Planet Dune.

WE KNOW A PROJECT IS DONE WHEN…

the next one needs to start.

SHEFFIELD IS TO LONDON AS…

a stone is to a sponge! —JUSTIN RAY

FAILURE USUALLY TEACHES US THAT…

we are not as good as we think we are.

1.

Posters for Sheffield’s 2011 free Tramlines Music Festival

2. Branding for the Architecture Foundation 3. Postcards for The Table, a U.K. arts collective Photos courtesy of Peter & Paul

2

2012 was a busy year for Fontsmith. The internationally known type designers created typefaces for different television channels and even signage for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Their designs are so popular because each has its own true personality. “Fontsmith typeface designs are given the name of a person or place. As we describe our fonts as people, we have found it very easy to deliver fonts that fulfill a particular brief,” says Jason Smith, the company’s founder and creative director. For their work with Peter & Paul, they hope their typeface inspires a spark of creativity.

Pixels & Print

DESIGN BUREAU

Documents of Higher Learning A U.K. publisher makes innovative design central to telling the story of a unique American college Oberlin, the first documentary project from U.K. publisher College Green, is no dust-gathering college commemorative.

On the contrary, it might be a whole new type of college brochure: a book that is beautiful, emotional, and a work of art in itself. “No college had a beautiful book that truly reflected the institution, nor conveyed the experience of being there,” says College Green’s Mark Brunton.

“Lots of clock towers, overhead rowing shots, and brochure photography, but nothing moving or exceptional.” The idea of a fine art documentary book on a college was born. “Our goal was to authentically capture and reflect the meaning of a college through the pages, in a timeless way.”

Oberlin College, the famed free-thinking, Quaker-founded liberal arts school in Ohio, liked the idea.

CONTINUED

Book photos courtesy of College Green Publishing Ltd.; Photos by Jonathan Glynn-Smith for College Green, and Courtesy of Oberlin College Archives

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Pixels & Print

TALENT TO WATCH

Fairy Tale Painter German illustrator Olaf Hajek creates colorful worlds within ads 118

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The generational gifts and legacies of Oberlin are apparent elsewhere.

One alumnus, who went on to work and teach on campus, had an aunt, uncle, father, mother, brother and sister who all went to Oberlin (his daughter broke the mold by heading to college in Chicago). Strong family links are not uncommon. Likewise, anecdotally at least, an unusually high number of Obies marry, or are partnered to, other alumni.

There is an affinity with other ex-students—even during a chance meeting in the outside world—that is hard to pin down and express. This does not mean a self-absorbed or self-interested old alumni network. Far from it. The elements of togetherness, openness, a willingness to listen to another’s opinions and point of view are taken out into the world, to create and build other communities.

But there remains a special and distinct bond with other Obies. Some speak of “Oberlin conversations,” a very particular kind of communication that is simply not possible with people who weren’t there. It is a form of interaction founded on a mutual understanding. A “wink-wink” thing. An in-joke that only another Obie can share.

There is a word that comes close to capturing this amorphous atmosphere at Oberlin, one that even a visitor can sense. It permeates dealings small and significant, casual and formal, social and academic. Perhaps it was absorbed into the campus buildings themselves during the founding years, into the sand and stone and fixtures and fittings.

It is called love.

on taking part largely for love of the game. “Victory isn’t all-important in football,” Oberlin’s legendary football coach John Heisman said. “How the game is played is the thing.” Though winning is, of course, striven for and often attained.

The defining and—for the vast majority of alumni—very welcome absence of fraternities and sororities has led to the blossoming of other, more distinctively Oberlinian, forms of collective living. The co-ops hold a particularly cherished place in many memories. There one learns about the hard work of consensus, the true value of camaraderie, about tolerance and cooperation.

They also host very good parties.

Oberlin’s community houses and theme-living ventures—from AfricanAmerican Heritage House to Sci-Fi Hall, the Women and Trans Collective to the Student Experiment in Ecological Design (SEED) House—provide smaller clusters of togetherness for those with similar interests and identities. As one alumnus expressed it, “You get together with a lot of people who are passionate about the same thing, and often you turn into friends as well.”

An equally precious aspect of Oberlin life is the bond that develops between students and faculty. In the vast majority of cases, relations are on a first name basis. Students and professors hang out together at the Slow Train Cafe or the Feve. Many faculty members have open houses on weekends. Alumni report that they felt very cared about and valued as people by their tutors. “I counted professors as friends,” one remembers, “it was real. It wasn’t fake. It lasted.” Mentorship is prevalent, highly prized and passed on through the generations.

284

(CONTINUED)

It took nearly three years of digging through tens of thousands of images both new and archived, plus weeks of tirelessly going through photos, posters, essays, books, maps, and architectural plans. Writer Guy Evans and photographer Jonathan Glynn-Smith immersed themselves in campus culture in 2009 and 2011. But it’s Stegano Strara’s design, which incorporates sparse text, vellum overlays and hundreds of gorgeous full bleed images (some dating to the 19th century) that makes Oberlin such a pleasure. “It was obvious from the start that a chronological approach would not do the book, nor the college, justice, so we found ourselves following a more cinematic approach of ‘scenes’ and movement through space and time,” Strara says. “Those juxtapositions and combinations of old and contemporary capture and express the spirit of Oberlin in its timelessness and actuality.” a

Photo courtesy of Olaf Hajek, "African Beauty"

by Olaf Hajek courtesy of the artist

Few visual artists can utter the word “uncompromising” when talking about their work in advertising, but for Olaf Hajek, the two have gone hand in hand. The illustrator released his second monograph this year, Black Antoinette, collecting the best of his vibrant work, created with

brushes, paint, wood, and sometimes a bit of coffee grounds.

While he has focused more on art gallery shows in the last four years, with Hajek, there’s hardly a qualitative divide between his personal pieces and his ad and editorial work. His work has a surreal fantastical feel, drawing on an imaginary global folklore that transcends geography. Illustrations for Burgbad bath catalog, a Chopin CD for Universal, posters for Coca-Cola, portraits of the Talking Heads and customized wallpaper for Austria’s Apartment Hotel 25Hours have all the vibrant spark of his African Nature Man or Tree of Ancient Time. a

Pixels & Print

DESIGN BUREAU

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Pixels & Print

PHOTOGRAPHER

Alex Prager

San Francisco, California Los Angeles–born photographer Alex Prager’s striking photos and short films expose America as if it was a bizarre version of Mad Men stuck on infinite loop.

Prager skipped art school and credits a visit to the Getty Museum in L.A. for showing her the way out of a 9-to-5 rut.

DB: When did you know you wanted to be a professional photographer?

Alex Prager: In late 2000, I came across a William Eggleston exhibit at the Getty museum in Los Angeles and was totally floored. I still get goose bumps when I think about how I felt seeing his pictures that day. It was that same week after seeing his show that I purchased my first camera and set up a darkroom in the bathroom of my apartment.

DB: You’re self-taught, we hear. How did you teach yourself photography?

AP: I bought some darkroom equipment on eBay and it came with a couple books on photography that explained how to process and print my own film. I would always pick up books at yard sales and thrift stores if it had the word ‘photography’ in the title. Then, of course, there was the seven years of trial and error that led me to find my own style. It’s a constant learning experience.

DB: Can you tell us how you make the colors in your images so vibrant?

AP: I think it helps that I’m aware of how colors ‘pop’ better when paired with other colors… It can either bring a color out and almost make it fluorescent, or it can mute a color, all depending on what other colors are close by.

I also bump up certain colors in Photoshop, mainly the reds...

DB: You are partial to ’60s colorful dresses, eyelashes, and hairdos. What do you think it says that we are still excited by that decade and look?

AP: Why not get excited about how the women styled themselves in that era? I think the fake eyelashes and hairdos help add a sense of drama that I like to use in order to make my pictures seem like they are taking place in some kind of strange parallel universe. a

All photos © Alex Prager, courtesy of the artist. Portrait by Geoff Moore

Pixels & Print

DESIGN BUREAU

BOOK SHELF

EUROPEAN GLAM ROCK Wired Up! collects the graphic genius of rock and roll’s glitter era

G Clockwise from top left: Tiffany, 2009 3:32pm, Coldwater Canyon, 2012 Rachel and Friends, 2009 Maggie, 2009 1:18pm Silverlake Drive, 2012

litter rock may not have made a huge impression on 1970s America, where light rock reigned. But the music of the high-heeled Tarzan has stood the test of time—Ziggy Stardust, and early New York Dolls, still hold up. It turns out, however, that we were cheated—not only out of one of the most fun rock trends ever, but of some of the most wonderful single and album art ever to cover vinyl.

The 384-page Wired Up!, compiled and self-published by avid record collectors Mary Blount and Jeremy Thompson, collects the finest of these CONTINUED

Wired Up! book photos by Jennie Lee

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CARAMELA DESIGNER: Anagrama DESIGN:Anagrama’s card for this Mexican chocolatier is uncluttered and informative.

anagrama.mx

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vibrant, outrageous record sleeves along with testimonials from the musicians themselves. The graphics they’ve curated for us here have an infectious and inspiring naivete— rock ‘n’ roll reborn as a riot of color. a

WIRED UP! GLAM, PROTO PUNK, AND BUBBLEGUM European Picture Sleeves 1970 - 1976 $30, wiredupbook.com

Pixels & Print

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PACKAGING DESIGN

Just Business Pared-down, graphic business cards send the right message: Confidence

MAEVEN DESIGNER: Lotta-Nieminen DESIGN: Finnish designer Nieminen’s unusual

color choices make for a card to remember.

Shocking then that this is for a Brooklyn-based vintage clothing online store.

VERENA MICHELITSCH

lottanieminen.com

DESIGNER: Verena Michelitsch DESIGN: The Austrian designer balances the

bling of metallics with a striking icon for her graphic design business card. It just begs to be flipped over for the 411.

THE PROPELLER GROUP

cargocollective.com/verenamichelitsch

DESIGNER: Rice Creative DESIGN: Clean and clear. Rice’s card for

the music video makers (also known as TPG) suggests they’ve got a good handle on memorable images. rice-creative.com

PLENTY DESIGNER: Pablo Alfieri DESIGN: The art director/graphic designer made these cards for a film production company he works with in Buenos Aires.

pabloalfieri.com

The Propeller Group photo by Rice Creative; Maeven photo courtesy of Lotta Niemen; Caramela photo by Carlos H. Rodriguez Garrido; Verena Michelitsch photo courtesy of Verena Michelitsch; Plenty photo courtesy of Pablo Alfieri

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Pixels & Print

PACKAGING DESIGN

Perfume Packaging No, you can’t see scents, but these show-stopping designs for perfume and cologne bottles almost make you think otherwise —SARAH MURRAY

THE SCENT OF DEPARTURE SCENT: Let your olfactory senses take flight with the bona fide (unisex) scents of 20 captivating international cities. Every “souvenir” fragrance, attempts to capture the experience of a city in a single scent. The "fresh cut grass" of Central Park characterize New York, though trash and roasted nuts would have been more accurate. We prefer Milano's spice and chocolate notes.

DESIGNER: Magali Sénéquier DESIGN: The designer plays up the emotional

connection to travel with the modern baggage ticket inspired label behind a clear bottle. Too easy perhaps? $45, urbanoutfitters.com

SEN7 SCENT: Sen7 is a fragrance atomizer that’s refillable and available in gold, various colors, rubber, or pure sterling silver.

DESIGNER: Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, the founders of Le Labo DESIGN: Portable and colorful pods of

scent can come with you everywhere... even past TSA security. $39-45, sen7.com

TOKYOMILK

LE LABO

SCENT: Margot Elena embraces the dark scent trend with the TokyoMilk Dark “Femme Fatale” Collection, featuring eight scents with non-traditional notes and names such as “Arsenic” and “Tainted Love.”

SCENT: The scents are intended to “shock” DESIGNER: Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot, the founders of Le Labo

DESIGNER: Margot Elena

DESIGN: Aged looking bottles with antiquey

DESIGN: The chic, dark "parfum de cigarro" vial for the

roller makes a perfect prop for international intrigue.

medicinal-looking labels suggesting a connection with healing. Maybe a dose of sweet jasmine is just what the doctor ordered?

$24, tokyo-milk.com

$145, store.lelabofragrances.com

Le Labo photo by Lee Setty, Alexa Lixfeld photo by Misha Vetter, HUGO photo by Karim Rashid, sen7 photo courtesy of sen7, TokyoMilk photo courtesy of TokyoMilk, Bang photo courtesy of Harry Allen Design, Standard photo by Simon Ranshaw

Pixels & Print

ALEXA LIXFELD

MARC JACOBS

SCENT: Hamburg designer Alexa Lixfeld has created an array of four unique, citrusy fragrances, appropriately enough called “Fragrances.”

SCENT: Bang is for men: “peppery, woody, spicy, and full of energy” men

DESIGNER: Alexa Lixfeld

DESIGN: From the sizeable dent in

DESIGN: Dainty glass bottles with overbearing

concrete lids spells heavy modern design. We love the contrast. The differently colored concrete lids juxtapose the naturally scented perfumes.

DESIGNER: Harry Allen Design

the smooth, silver metal finish on the heavy faceted glass bottle, one can only assume that this fragrance is not only wear-proof, but also bulletproof. $75, marcjacobs.com

$80, luckyscent.com

HUGO BOSS SCENT: Hugo DESIGNER: Karim Rashid DESIGN: Swirls of green and black

make this bottle look simultaneously chic and manly—unfortunately, it’s about as rare as a unicorn. $55, Limited edition of 1,000, hugoboss.com

STANDARD SCENT: You’ll find Artek Standard Eau de Toilette has citrusy, woody, and musky notes.

DESIGNER: Comme des Garçons and Artek DESIGN: This is what happens when Finnish

industrial design meets Japanese avantgarde fashion: lean, elegant, and modern.

Standard’s no-frills, matte look lives up to its name. We don’t even know if it’s for men or women. £70, doverstreetmarket.com

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Caption

Brand Designs When Levi’s or Coke needs a new look, they call Turner Duckworth For 20 years, British designers David Turner and Bruce Duckworth have been running their awardwinning brand identity and packaging design firm, Turner Duckworth, from different sides of the globe. They’re convinced that a little time (and cultural) difference has ultimately worked in their favor. “As a designer, the separation forces you to make your own decisions and to be your own designer, but you can get advice, which is great,” says Duckworth.

Despite their physical distance (Turner oversees the San Francisco office, while Duckworth leads the London team), the two studios operate seamlessly thanks to their unique design process called ‘Distant Crit.’ “Creative teams or individuals in the Photo by Harry Borden, brand images courtesy of Turner Duckworth, turnerduckworth.com

sister office review work in progress and provide input,” says Turner. “The input is highly objective and focuses entirely on the quality of the creative and provides a cultural perspective as well.” Sometimes, two designers of similar experience will even swap projects and studios for a month. “We’ve used this process for 20 years and believe it is a key reason for the consistently high creative quality Turner Duckworth has achieved,” says Turner.

Over the years, the designers have managed to capture the attention of iconic American brands such as Coca-Cola, Levi’s, and The American Red Cross, landing major scale projects with their British design sensibilities. “We’ve set our goal to work on really major scale brands but with a boutique

Pixels & Print

design sensibility,” says Turner. “Being focused on concept and idea is critical in terms of success. Good problem solving and changing people’s minds about things—that is still quite intangible and hard to replicate.”

But while Londoners and San Franciscans may speak the same language, the cultural differences between the two cities have proven both challenging and highly effective for the teams. “There is a different aesthetic that comes from San Francisco than does from London. [There’s a] different typographic style and a cultural way that Americans are very used to and exactly the same as for London as well,” says Duckworth.

“I think what our twostudio arrangement does is help normalize that a bit so that things don’t end up looking either American or European.” Turner Duckworth strives to produce work that, culturally speaking, is ubiquitous in style.

And while the designers tend to favor a U.K. approach to design, one that focuses heavily on concept over style (infused with a bit of quirky wit and humor), they’ve learned to appreciate American pragmatism. “Early years in San Francisco were very difficult because we’d try and persuade clients to go for simple, clean, concept-based design,” says Turner. “We kept banging that drum and thank god Steve Jobs came along and changed the way the whole of America thinks about design.”—ARYN BEITZ

EXPERT ADVICE

ASK DB

Q

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Curious about the history of design? Need advice before you buy? Send us your questions and we’ll attempt to get to the bottom of them. We promise we’ll be gentle, maybe even wise.

Since grade school, I’ve always wondered why paper measures 8.5 x 11 inches.

I’m 30 and I still don’t know the answer. —D.R., ALEXANDRIA, VA

I’m bored with trendy digital watches and want to invest in a proper ticker, perhaps one with a Swiss movement.

What do I need to know and who makes a good one that won’t cost me a whole paycheck? —T.G.,

A: You’re talking about paper in North America and parts of South America and the Philippines, which comes in a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet. Most of the world uses A4, 210 × 297 mm—a size based on pure geometry and efficiency as the A series papers can be halved or doubled indefinitely and keep their proportion.

A: Interesting time to bring up Swiss watch movements, Timothy. Swatch Group subsidiary ETA, the world’s biggest watchmaker, has been so dominant in making mechanical movements since the ‘80s that it became the main supplier of movements to almost all of Swatch’s rivals. Movements are also used by other movement manufacturers as the tractor (power base and time source) for features like triple date moon-phase, chronograph, etc. But in 2012, ETA began cutting back on supplying these movements to others. Still, 80 percent of Swiss watches have ETA movements currently.

Bernard Watch Co. of Austin, Texas, tells us that ETA’s workhorse movements rank with Rolex’s—though many bloggers still swear by the Rolex. Which movements to look for? The self-winding ETA 2826 has its fans, while others like the 2892 and thinner 2824 are popular automatics found in watches

by Tudors, Breitlings, Tag Heuer, and many others.

The American Forest and Paper Association tells us that U.S. sizes go back to the size of the Dutch two sheet mold of 1690, when paper was made from rags.

The vatman’s arms reach averaged about 44”. Many molds at that time were around 17” front to back.

A 44 x 17 sheet was made, then quartered, forming four 8.5 x 11 pieces. Paper was made this way well into the late 19th century, when mechanized paper-making came into being.

We kept the same size, the AFPA says, to keep the handmade paper makers in business. In 1921, the U.S. government adopted a 8 x 10.5 standard, while the Bureau of Standards Committee on the Simplification of Paper Sizes came up with the letter and legal sizes we know today—but there wasn’t any rational explanation for the proportions, just that it was an effort to reduce waste.

ST. LOUIS, MO

What to look for? Chronocentric.com tells us to look for the term “Official Swiss Chronometer” which comes from the COSC, Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres, which certifies watches are accurate to It took the arrival of the photocopier, which -4 / +6 seconds per day. That said, paying required a standard size, to force President extra for accuracy is probably not as wise Ronald Reagan’s hand in the early ‘80s. Reagan as getting a watch you like the looks of could have gone with the ISO and joined the and don’t mind setting now and then. a world of the A4, but instead he stuck with Herbert Hoover’s 8.5 x 11 inches, ditching the government standard.

Illustrations by Alli Berry.

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Throwback Product Design Mid-century masculine style informs this new men’s product line Sturdy, no-nonsense style is beind the design of Imperial Industries Barber Products. “I call it non-design design,” says Bryan Fisher, co-founder and creative director at Imperial.

He founded the brand along with barber pal Pedro Zermeno with the plan to make better, all-natural grooming products for men.

“We asked ourselves, If you could buy men’s grooming products at a hardware store what would they look like?” The branding and typedriven design was meant to be timeless and masculine. “It’s all about materials and utility

type,” Fisher says. The crown logo was meant to be familiar, not grandiose. “There are thousands of random companies using a crown as a logo,” he says. That familiarity comes through in the Noir-ish, mugshot-inspired ads designed for the brand and featuring actual customers at the Imperial barbershop. As Fisher explains, it’s about breaking down manliness to the essentials for both country clubber and rocker dude. “Blue collar, white collar, or no collar, when guys hit the barber chair it’s the great equalizer.” a

Ad photos by Brian Konoske Photography; Product photography by Mark Aimerito Photography/Robbie Bell Photography/ Ben Hoy Retouching; Matte Pomade Paste, $24; Bergamot After Shave, $10; Glycerin Soap, $10, imperialbarberproducts.com

Left: ”The guys in the ads are all actual customers and friends we found in the barbershop.”

Right: ”We wanted guys to be able to leave the product on the counter and be proud of it.”

Below: Zermeno and Fisher

Objects & Gear

OBJECTS & GEAR

DESIGN BUREAU

Things that make us drool, covet, and go broke

FURNITURE/EVENTS

Studio Toogood Just a London design practice having fun with abstract shapes and high fashion In projects for the likes of Philip Lim, Kenzo and Opening Ceremony, London’s Studio Toogood is bringing a very London-style version of playful minimalism to high fashion spaces and events. Keyword being playful.

For its Kenzo fashion show at LVMH Headquarters in Paris in 2011, it filled the courtyard with giant colorful lettering and served Kenzo-colored cookies while movie star Jason Schwartzman pounded a beat to Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” CONTINUED

Kenzo Fashion Show photo courtesy of Studio Toogood

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(CONTINUED)

The studio’s hallmarks are an ultramodern focus on the basics, showing off construction, transparency, texture, and abstraction often in simple, nearly abstract geometric forms. It brought those interests to bear recently in the great new laboratory of design, the pop-up shop. To coincide with the opening of the Opening Ceremony Pop-Up in London in 2012, Studio Toogood created rubberized custom mechanical constructions to fill shop windows. Faye Toogood (creative director at Studio Toogood, who designs products and furniture under her own name) created rubber-coated furniture and glass tabletops mounted on piles of industrial fabrics—and echoed shapes from her previous collections.

With the Back Room, Studio Toogood turned its canal-side location into a gallery-like showcase for Faye Toogood’s furniture collection BATCH, British-made, all ash, elegantly minimal chairs and those signature geometric tables. Naturally, it even brought in geometric food—local cheese, bread, and salmon cut to abstract forms. Now, that’s what we call design forward. a

The Back Room photo by Rory van Millingen, courtesy of Studio Toogood, studiotoogood.com; Opening Ceremony photos by Leon Chew, courtesy of fayetoogood.com

Objects & Gear

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MUST GET GADGET

The Lytro Camera

SAN FRANCISCO-BASED NEW DEAL DESIGN MAKES FOCUSING A SNAP

Great design is born of a-ha! moments. For the New Deal team in charge of designing the award-winning Lytro camera, that revelation came by closely studying the camera’s actual technology. Lytro is the first camera that captures entire light fields, allowing any photog— casual or pro—to easily focus and refocus long after they have snapped a shot. The result is called a “living picture,” and it finally puts an end to unfocused pics. “The more we studied [Lytro], the more we realized ordinary camera configurations didn’t respect the extraordinary technology in front of us,” says New Deal’s creative director Gadi Amit.

The team started from scratch to create a completely different kind of camera form. Because Lytro relies on capturing a serious amount of light, New Deal found that its lens was too big to ergonomically function inside an ordinary camera shell. After trial and error, they devised a rectangular box that looks more like an oldschool kaleidoscope than it does a camera. It even comes in three pop colors—red, blue, and futuristic silver. And even though Lytro is stripped of clunky camera gadgetry, it’s not lacking in power. It is a playful, elegant fix when it comes to the battle of the blur. Say cheese. —SARAH HANDELMAN

New Deal won a coveted Core 77 Design Award in 2012 for Lytro’s smart looks. For a full list of winners, turn to page 144.

Photos courtesy of New Deal Design

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Objects & Gear

TOYS BY DESIGN

PLASTIC FANTASTIC

Julie B. spent her childhood either kneedeep in LEGO bricks or playing chemist in her family’s kitchen. These days, the Los Angeles artist makes giant blow pops and bunny grenades. “I’ve always seen science as an art form in itself, so I found a way to merge my background in science with my passion for art.”

Although she had never taken a formal sculpting class, in the late 1990s, Julie began

The women-run Los Angeles toy boutique Pretty in Plastic doubles as a limited-edition fabrication shop for top toy designers

making models for a small Brooklyn-based toy company. “Sculpting came naturally,” she says. “I loved the detail and quest for perfectionism inherent to toy prototyping.” Julie followed the developing genre of designer toys to L.A. and fell in love with the city’s mix of highbrow and lowbrow art forms. By 2006, she had a small workshop on Sunset Boulevard and an epiphany: “Artists needed a way to produce limited editions of their work locally and with quality control. I wanted to fill this niche.”

Thus began Pretty in Plastic, a femalefronted fabrication shop and “toy couture” boutique. Aided by her team of artisans in pink jumpsuits, Julie has produced coveted collectibles for Daniel Danger, Luke Chueh, Tara McPherson, Travis Lampe, and Yoskay Yamamoto. Pretty in Plastic is responsible for turning Kim Kardashian’s trash into recycled resin objects for street provocateur XVALA, and for reformatting innocent chocolate

Photos courtesy of Pretty in Plastic. Jeremy Brautman is a Bay Area writer who chronicles the intersection of pop culture and design. jeremyriad.com

bars into Heresy’s Crosses for Desire Obtain Cherish. Julie loves creating installations, and she’s done the spectrum: from setting up a makeshift meth lab tribute to Breaking Bad to Disney’s Save My Oceans project.

What’s it like being the invisible force behind such notable designs? “Sculptors are vessels; our hands are invisible in the final work,” she explains. “The viewer should only see the artist’s influence on the piece.

Our goal is to bring the artist’s idea to life.”

—JEREMY BRAUTMAN

Clockwise from left: Inside Pretty in Plastic’s Los Angeles workshop, a resin bunny with serious attitude, Julie B. in action

Objects & Gear

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FURNITURE DESIGN

Furniture That’s California Cool Mash Studios’ sleek pieces perfectly balance laid-back style with high design details

Mash also designs furniture for commercial interiors. They’ve worked on everything from the sleek AOL HQ to Kid Robot’s quirky shops, mixing it up with their beautifully crafted pieces.

Named for the city in which it was created, Mash Studios’ LAX furniture line certainly embodies California cool. “I cobbled together the first LAX prototypes in my tiny little Los Angeles apartment,” says Bernard Brucha, the furniture maker behind Mash. The minimalist line, which includes chairs, tables, and storage pieces, is light on ornamentation, and each piece is made from solid English walnut finished with linseed oil, or what Brucha calls “real wood”—aka not MDF materials or synthetic wood substitutes.

Brucha’s PCH series, named for the Pacific Coast Highway, grew out of the LAX line, and features larger teak and powder-coated aluminum designs. “PCH is a little bit softer, and I think that came from me being in California and living on the beach, and me becoming a little bit softer.” Many L.A. area retailers have picked up both lines, including the store next door to Mash, which Brucha says he pops into just to check on his pieces every so often.

“Sometimes I’ll sneak over there and pretend to be the salesman. LAX is still my baby.”

Does the PCH canopy bed look familiar? An L.A. set designer purchased two for the movie The Twilight Saga: New Moon. “The sad part was that in that movie, I guess the passion is so great that they end up destroying the bed,” Brucha says. “But that’s our funny L.A. moment.”

—SARAH CASON Photos courtesy of Mash Studios, mashstudios.com

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Objects & Gear

WOOD YOU DARE? Designers are utilizing the renewable material where you’d least expect it

We wear them, rap about them, collect them, even start blogs about them.

But who creates those high-end designer sneakers we love? These guys.

BY LAUREN SMITH

ALEJANDRO INGELMO ALEJANDROINGELMO.COM

WALNUT WALLET, $85, HAYDANHUYA.COM

MAPLE BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD, €125, OREEDESIGN.COM

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What’s the greatest sneaker ever designed?

I don’t think it’s been designed yet.

2

Socks or no socks?

Socks!

3

Is sneaker collecting an embarrassing hobby?

No way! It’s great to see that passion with footwear.

4

Looking back, what footwear trend do you wish you never indulged in?

Bucks.

5

What sneaker are you wearing right now?

I have been wearing a new style from my Spring 13 collection. It is a low top in canvas with leather trim in all black and black outsole. It’s clean, light, and easy.

MAPLE AND MAHOGANY LUXE JAMMY BOOMBOX, $400, LEAPTRONIC.COM

Images courtesy of Haydanhuya.com, Oree keyboard courtesy of Licence K, boombox courtesy of Leaptronic

Objects & Gear

5 DESIGNERS / 5 QUESTIONS /

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High-end sneaker designers

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DEL TORO

JOSH BRUBAKER

MARTIN AHN

ROB CARLOS

DELTOROSHOES.COM

SUPRAFOOTWEAR.COM

HOUSEOFMONTAGUE.DK

GRAVISFOOTWEAR.COM

Del Toro Chukkas and wingtip sneakers—clean, classic, yet innovative

It really changes all the time for me.

Jordan 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… Too many greats to name one. It has changed as I’ve grown as a person. So it would depend on what time frame you asked me.

Never having enough time

I would have to say the Jordan 3... only because it's had the greatest impact on me. Safe to say when that shoe dropped...sneakers turned from wants to needs. I was in 5th grade then.

No socks usually

Socks

Always some sort of sock or else you will ruin your sneaker with your sweaty feet!

At the moment, no socks.

Not at all. Pride.

No

Absolutely not, there are far much worse things one could collect collect than sneakers. Like stamps!

No more embarrassing than collecting thimbles I guess.

Never indulged in it, but sandals

Double tongues.

There are a couple of sneaker choices I wish I didn’t buy, especially from the late ’90s where skateshoes were bulky and clumsy looking. I don’t know how we skated in those.

When I'm old and gray and my memory fades...I hope I never remember that I owned a pair of Zodiacs.

Camo suede wingtip sneaker

SUPRA Falcon from the Spring 13 Collection

I am wearing my own sneakers at the moment, currently the model MALENE “High Top” but occasionally mixing it up between high and low.

Nike Mayfly Wovens. My summer kicks.

Photos courtesy of the designers

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Objects & Gear

A Good Place for Board Meetings Step inside snowboard giant Burton’s R&D facility

Snowboard design hasn’t reached the end of the trail. Far from it, evidently. An originator, an innovator, and the biggest name in American snowboards, Burton isn’t resting on its reputation; it’s pushing the design process forward. Take a look at the 10,000-square-foot Burton facility in Burlington, Vermont, known as Craig’s. It has all the tools and custom-built machinery needed to churn out thousands of snowboards like a factory. But instead, the new space serves as Burton’s research and development facility. It builds only a handful of new boards per day, just not ones you can buy. Not yet, anyway.

Craig’s, which was named for Burton snowboard riding legend Craig Kelly, who tragically died in 2003, exists to create tomorrow’s snowboards. At the massive shop, Burton engineers can play with new shapes and forms, get almost immediate feedback from pro riders and engineers, and produce an experimental prototype board or new binding within a day. Boards and bindings can be tested on-site and designs immediately adjusted at the drawing board. The lightningfast research and development cycle means that Burton is poised to evolve its gear to meet the changing needs and higher standards of the riding public. a

DESIGNER COLLABORATIONS

TEAM BURTON Designer collab looks heating up the hills and lodge

Photos courtesy of Burton; Craig’s workshop photos by Rick Levinson. Burton logo board photos by Blotto

Pink Floyd Whammy Bar The 2013 Burton Whammy Bar comes with original Hipgnosis graphics from iconic rock albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and Wish You Were Here. $420, burton.com

Coogi Rubdown Jacket Now Mr. Huxtable can hit the slopes in style—as the Aussie knit brand brings its unique sweaters to the snowboarding jacket. $330, burton.com

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Craig’s also features a machine shop, so engineers can create and test custom tooling parts and manufacturing processes, which is critical to evolving Burton’s manufacturing techniques around the world.

Craig’s can create a new board in a matter of hours

RED WING ROVER RESTRICTED BOOT The Minnesota boot maker has been really en vogue recently.

Hence, the workboot meets the rad moves at the bowl. $350, burton.com

FILSON X BURTON SENTRY JACKET The venerable outdoor brand teams with Burton for timeless outerwear that’ll last more than a few seasons on the mountain. $325, burton.com

FILSON X HELLBROOK PANT The Filson® shell design features water-resistant oilcloth outsite, silk inside.

Burton adds modern venting for slushy days. $250, burton.com

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Fashion & Beauty

Youare AIGA. Belong.

AIGA is changing to become more accessible and inclusive than ever. No matter where you are in your career or what you want to do with design, there’s a membership option for you!

Jessi Arrington, member since 2003, workshoplovesyou.com

Fashion & Beauty

FASHION & BEAUTY

DESIGN BUREAU

Because style never goes out of... style

Q&A

Geometric Girl In the studio with Moratorium Jewelry Designer Jeanette Lai Thomas creates meticulously handcrafted jewelry inCONTINUED

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Fashion & Beauty

(CONTINUED)

spired by geometric shapes, both organic and man-made. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, and cuffs welded in precious metals feel delicate, yet strong; gothic, yet radiant—transcending gender, trends, and seasons. We hung out with Thomas and her 120-pound South African Mastiff, Baron, at her Williamsburg studio and talked about records, pyramids, and living like a gypsy.

Lai Thomas prefers the companionship of Baron and streams music (LCD Soundsystem to Queen) from Pandora while she works

DB: When did you start making jewelry?

JLT: Since 2009, and I started Moratorium in 2011. I started taking a silversmithing class in Amsterdam and I just fell in love. I love using my hands and I’m very into accessories. Accessories make the whole outfit—it’s the details!

DB: What types of materials do you use to create your pieces?

JLT: I work exclusively in precious metals. I do vermeil—fine plating gold over silver. I don’t use brass. It’s more of an intrinsic value. The process of sanding down and polishing silver, it’s very time consuming. Some artists would rather work with gold so they can charge more. But I don’t believe in that.

DB: Can you talk about the shapes of your work?

JLT: Math is a universal language. Creating these geometric shapes, the pyramids, forces me to get good at my craft. Everything is so precise.

Photos by Eric Luc

Moratorium pieces are inspired by ancient designs, such as the pyramids, and handmade exclusively of precious metals

Fashion & Beauty

“Math is a universal language.

Creating these geometric shapes, the pyramids, forces me to get good at my craft. Everything is so precise.”

—JEANETTE LAI THOMAS, MORATORIUM

DB: What is the inspiration behind your work?

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BRAND COLLABORATION

THE FOX AND THE FAIRY A hip French label and historic liquor brand come together to celebrate the return of absinthe

JLT: I don’t look to fashion for inspiration. I look at what is beautiful to the eye. Patterns, lines of structures.

DB: What inspires you while you’re working?

JLT: In London and Amsterdam, it was perpetually gray so I’m so happy to have a lot of natural light. It makes such a difference.

DB: Can you talk a little bit about your personal style?

JLT: I’m a tomboy. I wear jeans and tops. I have to be comfortable. And I never use nail polish. I ride a motorcycle—a Ducati—so...

DB: What’s next for you?

JLT: I’d like my work to be in a few more specialty stores in New York.

Right now it’s sold by word of mouth, on the website Occulter, and at Opening Ceremony in New York and London. a

The capsule collection is available exclusively at colette, 213 Rue St. Honoré, Paris, FR

Pernod takes credit for the first commercial absinthe, sold in 1805. Kistuné released its first ready-to-wear collection in just 2005. Banned in the States since 1912, absinthe is now legal again. But Pernod hasn’t rushed its formulation out. Instead, it launched Pernod Absinthe Superieure in late 2012 with a limited-edition bottle, concept store, short film, original music, and more as Pernod Absinthe by Maison Kitsuné. Maison Kitsuné founders/designers Gildas Loaëc Masaya Kuroki have turned the project, the first high-end capsule collection for men and women inspired by a liquor, into something noteworthy. The kitsune (Japanese for “fox”) leaps around a dreamy field of flowers on printed shirts, shoes, and caps. If your absinthe bottle runs dry, you can just look real close and drift away. a Images courtesy of ZOÏ Agency

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Fashion & Beauty

Going Dutch For its American invasion, the Dutch line of affordable, made-to-measure suits comes complete with cheeky ads and unusual spaces

Suitsupply garnered a lot of press (and controversy) for its 2010 ad campaign. The racy ads, shot by photographer Carli Hermès, went beyond the usual NSFW ad campaign. Company founder Fokke de Jong says the brand isn’t toning things down for the States. “If we feel like doing that again, we’ll do that again whether it is in China or America,” he says.

Celebrating the label’s expansion across the U.S. (including outposts in New York, Chicago, and D.C.), Suitsupply’s new campaign “Iron Workers” is inspired by the Roaring Twenties. The images recall the inconic image of the Mohawk Iron workers developing the New York skyline… minus the beautiful women also inhabiting the skyscrapers.

“We’re not really an establishment kind of brand,” says de Jong. His suits, he insists, are for people that “need to function within the system, but don’t want to completely surrender to it.” a

All photos courtesy of Suitsupply

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Fashion & Beauty

RETAIL DESIGN

From “Shit Hole” to So Bold A design agency builds a shop with a storefront you won’t soon forget Hong Kong concept store Konzepp stands out for its canary-colored asymmetrical façade and its collection of inspiring off-kilter objects, design magazines, and indie albums. But Geoff Tsui of design agency 33WILL tells us that the project had humble beginnings. “The space itself was dubbed as a ‘shit hole,’’’ he says. “It was pretty rotten with leakage in pipes, it smelled, and it received very little light. The challenge was to go against all doubts and turn the bad into good.”

Tsui turned to several different sources of inspiration to create the store’s unusual design. “The parametric shapes were inspired by origami. We wanted to show that stores do not have to be all about retail. And the yellow came from my childhood. As a kid, I would receive a yellow happy face sticker for a job well done,” says Tsui. “I was hoping that the cheerful yellow would also put a smile on visitors’ faces.” The result, says Tsui, is cozy and cheery. “Some compare it to Batman’s cave, but a happy bright version.” —JUSTIN RAY

Photos by Geoff Tsui and Zarek Wong, konzepp.com

LET THEM EAT TRUFFLES.

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Fashion & Beauty

HIGH STYLE

BAGS WITH SHAPE It’s all about strong, bold shapes this season.

Trapezoids have never been sexier

1

1 Tryst Tropic by Collina Strada, $300, collinastrada. com. Geometric leather punches up the printed canvas on this ultra-cool carrier from Brooklynbased designer Hillary Taymour.

2 Diane von

Furstenberg satchel, dvf.com.

For SS13, Diane von Furstenberg takes color blocking beyond Mondrian’s sharp lines with a structured top handle satchel.

—JEN HAZEN

3 Elia Black

2

3

and Blue by Collina Strada for Needsupply, $300, needsupply.com.

Not a big fan of sharp edges? The circle stands out from the angular crowd.

4 The Bibhu

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We believe design should be thoughtful; honoring our past and celebrating our future; considering human scale and created with purpose.

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Open a discussion regarding your new home with us today.

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Clutch, $1,600, bibhu. com. Created

by NYC-based womenswear designer Bibhu Mohapatra, this on-trend envelope clutch has strict, sleek lines and a black matte/ patent leather combo. Maybe a subtle nod to 50 shades of…bondage?

—JEN HAZEN

Photos courtesy of Bibhu, DVF, Needsupply, and Collina Strada

Travel & Culture

TRAVEL & CULTURE

DESIGN BUREAU

Eat, shop, explore, do what you do

High-End Hive Foodies will enjoy a 20-course meal and the luxe surroundings at NYC restaurant Atera A 20-course meal at Atera takes approximately three hours to enjoy. That leaves plenty of time to absorb the subtle details that Jeremy Levitt of Parts and Labor infused into the restaurant, such as the brass armature connected to the reclaimed wood ceiling at the bar. “It’s almost like a mechanical tree branch,” Levitt says. “Hanging off of it is a very organic spore shape, like a hive.

It’s made of porcelain and on the interior is a gold luster that we describe as gold leaf. It creates a really beautiful amber glow when the space is dimly lit, and adds warmth.”

CONTINUED

Photos by Michael Weber Photography

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HOT RESTAURANT DESIGN

(CONTINUED)

Levitt wanted to mirror the foraging aspect of chef Matthew Lightner’s cuisine through the sourcing of design materials. “In the back wall of the kitchen, we actually installed slate roof tiles from an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania,” Levitt says. “It’s modern with a cool natural texture. He [Lightner] took some of those and used them as serving dishes.”

The newest addition to Atera is a subterranean luxury bar where customers are brought down by an attendant-operated elevator to an underground study with high gloss herringbone floors, plush blue leather and brass sofas, and a solid walnut bar, one third of which rolls out as a bar cart. “Everything [Lightner] does is so complex and calculated,” Levitt says. “Yet the final product is so beautiful that he almost makes it look easy.” —AMBER GIBSON

Travel & Culture

DESIGN BUREAU

Talent Scouts Andy Griffith and Rose Apodaca, owners of L.A.’s hip A+R gallery, have a knack for spotting the next big thing

steel structural grid where we can hang many of the lights we sell, as well as less expected things like chairs,” they say. “We’re finally able to show more of the furniture, rugs, shelving, and lighting by the brands we’ve introduced to North America.”

Andy Griffith and Rose Apodaca kicked off their romance by launching A+R, their L.A. gallery that unites their mutual obsession for the latest in design. They started small, opening their first shop in Silverlake in late 2005 and moved to a bigger space in Venice Beach in 2007. But their downtown La Brea location, opened in the fall of 2012, is twice as large. Griffith and Apodaca collaborated with architect and friend Barbara Bestor to lay out the new space to show off their wares. “It was her suggestion to exploit the 20-foot ceilings with a

A+R’s slogan “Global Design. Edited.” explains its draw. The store showcases modern design from around the world, including rugs by Hay Denmark, furniture by Japan’s Karimoku New Standard, and wooden toys by Kaz Shiomi and Kiko+. This find-and-expose process is no accident. We’d liken Griffith and Apodaca to L.A.’s record execs, known for picking the next-big-things. “Our signature is that we break many new designers and products outside their origin countries.

We’ve always been about finding the relatively unknown. We can’t help ourselves.” a

Photos by Ramona Rosales, aplusrstore.com

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Travel & Culture

Museum Gift Shops to Hit Sure the art’s nice to look at, but let’s be honest: the best part about a museum is the gift shop. Check out six cool and well-curated design stores that just happen to be attached to a cultural institution BY ANN CHOU

MCA STORE Chicago, IL mcachicagostore.org Count on the MCA Store to carry just the thing to make your house a home. The store’s smorgasbord of cheeky products range from an inflatable shark head for the game room to unisex onion goggles for the kitchen. Don’t chop another onion without a pair.

Inflatable Shark Head, $20

TATE MODERN SHOP London, England shop.tate.org.uk In addition to its exclusive artists’ product and book collections, Tate offers whimsical homewares such as the Bauhaus mobile for the budding German modernist in your life and the limited edition Bunny Cloud cushion by Los Angeles-based husbandand-wife illustrator team and Kozue Kitchens.

Bunny Cloud cushion, £45

THE WOLFSONIAN MUSEUM SHOP Miami Beach, FL shop.wolfsonian.org The Wolfsonian Museum Shop asks of us one thing: to think about what the items we purchase say about who we are, who we were, who we want to be. So whether that’s the First Lady Dress Up book (J.Crew pieces not included) or The Peaceful Bomb Vase, which the museum likes to think of as a kind of antiwar protest—if you put flowers in it, that is.

The Peaceful Bomb vase by Owen & Cloud, $52

Photos courtesy of museum shops, Tate Modern photo © Tate Photography

Travel & Culture

MOCA STORE Los Angeles, CA moca.org February is an important month for many people in our country. By which we mean those who remember the day Andy Warhol died (the 22nd).

Honor the late Warhol by perusing the MOCA Store’s entire section dedicated to the beloved artist. Our favorite: a ‘15 Minute Watch’ temporary tattoo.

Andy Warhol '15 Minute Watch' Temporary Tattoo, $5

GUGGENHEIM STORE New York, NY guggenheimstore.org We wouldn’t recommend just any museum store jewelry. But the Guggenheim’s array of products inspired by, well, itself, is surprisingly sexy.

Andrea Panico’s sterling silver Guggenheim Rotunda necklace, earrings, and cuff bracelet are minimal translations of the museum’s iconic rotunda image that we would absolutely wear.

For those in search of something more opulent (for about $40,000 dollars more), Harry Winston offers a ring with a three-digit diamond count!

Guggenheim Rotunda Necklace by Andrea Panico, $200

MOMA STORE New York, NY and Tokyo, Japan momastore.org Let’s face it, the MoMA store has it all, including satellite stores in SoHo and Tokyo, with Japanseseand Korean-language online stores to boot.

The chair collection alone is overwhelming.

Amid the arsenal of furniture and accessories are little gems like Anouk Jansen’s kitschy embroidery-inspired silicon Rose Trivet.

Rose Trivet by Anouk Jansen, $25

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Travel & Culture

DESIGN JOBS AROUND THE WORLD

Global Census DESIGN CAN BE A LONELY TRADE. GET TO KNOW YOUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY—AND FIND OUT IF YOUR PAYCHECK MEASURES UP. THIS ISSUE, MEET FOUR TYPOGRAPHIC ILLUSTRATORS BY LAUREN SMITH

Martin Schmetzer

Nelson Balaban

LOCATION: Stockholm, Sweden

LOCATION: Curitiba, Brazil

Alexandre Godreau “Soup” LOCATION: I live in a small town outside

WEBSITE: martinschmetzer.com

WEBSITE: nelsonbalaban.com

EDUCATION/BACKGROUND: Self-taught

EDUCATION/BACKGROUND: Self-taught

WEBSITE: behance.net/alexsoup

NOTABLE PROJECTS: I’ve just

NOTABLE PROJECTS: MTV Sports, SWU

finished a new logotype for the American Southern Rock quintet “Blackberry Smoke.”

Music & Arts Festival, Desfiacoco New Identity, Accent font

EDUCATION/BACKGROUND: I was in an architecture high school and then I went to an architecture university...

I didn’t really love it so I ended up at an art and advertising university in Paris for three years. Now I work in an advertising agency.

INCOME PER PROJECT/SALARY: Depends on INCOME PER PROJECT/SALARY: Differs

depending on the type of project and client. I work full-time as a designer at Just Go Event Design and take on freelance commissions in my “spare-time.” So it’s looking to be around $9,000 (USD) this year on my hand-drawn typography and hopefully more in the years to come.

QUOTE: I like to draw letters.

the project, but the monthly income goes around $8,000-12,000 (USD).

QUOTE: As a designer, I feel incredibly

lucky for being able to do what I love for a living, as love has everything to do with beautiful things.

Paris called Tournan En Brie.

NOTABLE PROJECTS: My job offers

me really cool projects, work for Maseratti / Harley-Davidson, Aston Martin, Lenôtre...

INCOME PER PROJECT/SALARY: Prices change on every project but to be more specific, at my advertising agency I earn €1,600/month and in freelance, my prices are something like €150/day.

QUOTE: Illustration is the only way

for me to calm down. It needs concentration and precision.

All photos and images courtesy of the designers

Moshik Nadav LOCATION: Tel Aviv, Israel WEBSITE: moshik.net EDUCATION/BACKGROUND: B.Des at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem.

Typeface and typography based design.

NOTABLE PROJECTS: Moshik Typeface, Toronto Typeface, Playful Ampersand, Paris Typeface, and more.

INCOME PER PROJECT/SALARY: It changes; approximately $100,000 a year QUOTE: I see typography as a distilled form of design.

Travel & Culture

DESIGN BUREAU

Runway Rooms The youthful, fashionable energy at this Amsterdam hotel is so strong you can sleep in it While Amsterdam was once known for its bicycles, red light districts, and coffeeshop herbal offerings, it might also be known as a spot for spending the night in the mind of an avant-garde fashion designer. Graduates of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute have dressed 61 rooms of The Exchange hotel’s three historic buildings in avant-garde looks, producing some stunning, inspiring, one-of-a-kind interiors.

There’s the all-white, minimalist Hide and Seek room by Denise de Geijter, textiled sculptures in the Infusion room

by Iris Kloppenburg, and a Marie Antoinette room by Roos Soetekouw, all proof that there’s a lot of unexplored frontier in hotel design and all promising an overnight experience very different, even from the typical modern CONTINUED

Photos by Mirjam Bleeker courtesy of Hotel The Exchange, exchangeamsterdam.com

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boutique hotel. And with rooms available with luxury ratings of every level between one to five stars, there’s a price point for nearly everyone. If admiring your eclectic overnight digs makes you self-conscious of your own dated style, there’s Options!, a groovy on-site department store.

The hotel is part of a concept from Suzanne Oxenaar and Otto Nan of the designophile’s dream Lloyd Hotel and The Red Carpet urban-renewal project, designed to help the hotel’s Damrak neighborhood upgrade its image as a fashionforward destination. The hoteliers also throw design and art events at a spot called the Cultural Embassy. a

STRUCTURES & SPACES

Enviable interiors to shamelessly ogle

RETAIL ROCK STARS

Wonder Stores Meet Masamichi Katayama, founder of revolutionary Japanese retail interior design firm Wonderwall With both high profile flagship stores like Nike Harajuku, the new Uniqlo San Francisco, and super stylish tastemaking boutiques Colette, APC, and A Bathing Ape to its credit, Tokyo’s Wonderwall might just be the world’s top designer of cool-but-inviting retail spaces. Masamichi Katayama founded Wonderwall in 2000 and has built a reputation for modern spaces with surreal twists—including moving mannequins and dripping chocolate—that make shopping

CONTINUED

Photo by Tom Haga, concretewall.no

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THE VARIOUS SHADES OF WONDERWALL

A.P.C. HOMME DAIKANYAMA Industrial outside, warm inside, Wonderwall made this men’s outpost the most modern of all the French label’s shops.

2007

(CONTINUED)

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE 10,000 artificial flowers of six species are kept behind glass at this Japanese label’s flagship store.

2011

fun, instinctive entertainment. For this month’s retail design issue, we thought it only fitting to find out more about the influential designer. [translated from Japanese] He loves modern architecture “I like modernist architects such as Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Oscar Niemeyer, and Louis Kahn to name a few. There is so much beautiful architecture in the U.S. This summer I finally visited The Glass House by Philip Johnson, which is one of my favorites.”

Katayama’s only rule: make a scale model “I always work with a scale model to realize my final designs. I replicate the materials and colors as faithfully as possible. For every project I take on, I like to approach the design process without any pre-existing rules in mind, as if it were the first interior space I was ever designing.”

NIKE HARAJUKU Wonderwall’s indelible signature is the all-white Nike installation that forms the store’s centerpiece.

2009

Portrait courtesy of Wonderwall

Humor is important “I feel that a sense of humor can often be a strong trigger to open up communication with a customer. When something is trying to be too stylish or

Structures & Spaces

DESIGN BUREAU

DESIGN RESOURCES

Prescription for Change CHICAGO’S INNOVATIVE REBUILDING EXCHANGE CHANNELS MATERIALS AND RESOURCES INTO DESIGN INITIATIVES

cool, it can alienate the customer, but humor can make people feel more at ease.”

Why shoppers shouldn’t think about the design “My ideal shopping experience is to be fully immersed in the world of the brand unconsciously.

When you shop at one of these stores, you are already leaving the store with products without thinking about the store design because it is part of the entire experience and in your mind.”

His inspiration “My biggest inspirations are the clients and fans of the brand I am designing for. Each brand is established with passion and has their own unique story and these are key messages that I incorporate into my designs. I listen to the founder’s voice—their aim, their vision—and I of course do research on their products. I test out the products by using/wearing them if I can. I also research how the brand is seen from existing fans. From a technical perspective, I need to see the site and learn about the neighborhood it is in. How the store looks from the street and the atmosphere of the boutiques nearby. I need to gather all of this information before I start working on concept building.” a

A

converted factory in Chicago’s Bucktown houses the Rebuilding Exchange, the first deconstruction and reclaimed building material resource center in Chicago. Founded in 2008 by Elise Zelechowski of the Delta Institute, RX, as it is locally called, has grown and connected people from all sides of the design and building industry.

RX does more than deconstructing and preserving Chicago’s wealth of architectural artifacts and materials. RX has developed RX made, a line of furniture that loops design students and a job training program into the cycle of design and production. Using a woodshop comprised of two donated shops from local high schools, Cynthia Main runs several programs that train the hard-to-employ, taking interns from local design schools to learn shop skills and apply their training to prototype designs, while using materials from the continual stream in the warehouse. Beautiful, innovative and fully sustainable pieces come out of this process, including a high gloss white lacquered coffee table made of solid core doors, and a wall-mounted coat rack collaged together from various patinaed woods.

CONTINUED

Above: Cynthia Main sands walnut cutting boards; photo by Agnes Starczewski

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RX holds occasional design competitions (in 2011 it challenged designers to come up with uses for the ubiquitous hollowcore door—Strand Design took home first prize) and throws parties and fairs. It works with architects who employ RX materials in highdesign projects in the area. At the moment, Zelechowski is contemplating a small manufacturing facility, as well as participation in the writing of Chicago’s new waste management code. Perhaps RX’s deepest impact is shifting the way designers are working with materials, often imperfect, driving the development of objects and spaces. ­—EVE FINEMAN

Clockwise from top left: Blake Sloane assembles the side of a bench; bang bang pie shop features materials sourced from rebuilding exchange; reclaimed old growth pine cut off; RXMade tapered leg coffee table, $295

Workshop photos by Agnes Starczewski; coffee table photo by Jim Newberry; Bang Bang Pie Shop photo by Michael Ciapciak

Structures & Spaces

DESIGN BUREAU

RETAIL HARDWARE

HANGING TOUGH FABRICA If the Eameses joined forces with Joan Miró in retail design, they might have produced Objet Coloré—Fabrica’s modular and flexible system of store display fittings designed to showcase Benetton’s apparel and accessories. fabrica.it

WOODSMITHE WoodSmithe’s in-store retail environments for clients such as Levi’s XX and Converse capture the zeitgeist of our time. They incorporate reclaimed wood from barns and basketball courts, aged metals, laser technology, and hand finishes. woodsmithe.com

Four designers customizing the spaces where we love to shop BY ANN CHOU

CISZAK DALMAS Madrid-based design studio Ciszak Dalmas’ collection designed for Max&Co. stores includes 14 furniture pieces of plain and laminated walnut, metal, and brass accented with the slightest hints of muted seafoam and canary yellow. ciszakdalmas.it

CIGUË This group out of the Paris suburbs boasts YSL and Isabel Marant as clients. For Celine, they created a centerpiece composed of rough sawn pinewood rafters and display cases constructed of formwork boards stacked seemingly haphazardly. cigue.net

Active Workshop photo courtesy of WoodSmithe; Max&Co. photo courtesy of MaxMara; Objet Coloré photo courtesy of Fabrica; Celine photo courtesy of Cigue

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GET THE LOOK

ART DECO DONE RIGHT INTERIOR DESIGNER MICHELE SAFRA KNOWS HOW TO MIX PERIOD PIECES WITH CONTEMPORARY STYLE

“The hunt was the most exciting part, to tell you the truth,” says Michele Safra, designer of this Miami vacation home with Art Deco style. Safra scoured a local Art Deco warehouse for original pieces and

then paired them with contemporary furniture done in bright colors. “I think it works to mix,” she says. “It breaks the monotony.” Here, she gives us pointers on how to pull off the look. —SARAH CASON

Safra’s keen eye for detail stretches beyond sourcing quality pieces. The designer often oversees entire renovations and works with Liebhaber Construction to ensure that her designs are precisely constructed. For her East End apartment, Liebhaber helped Safra rework the solarium. “The original structure was in poor condition and had been leaking, so we had to rebuild the entire glass enclose,” says Chris McGilvray, Liebhaber’s senior project manager on the project.

They repaired the solarium just as Safra instructed, upholding her whimsical yet sophisticated touch within the space.

When Safra can’t find the perfect piece, she sometimes turns to Jay Cunningham to craft one instead. Passion and an eye for detail are especially evident in his work.

“I pride myself on having the eye for the details to create beautiful complementary pieces,” Cunningham says.

“It feels really great when the owner recognizes that I put my soul into every piece I build.”

CHANDELIERS: These matching chandeliers mirror the geometric shapes of the Art Deco period and add a touch of whimsy to the stark dining tables

Images courtesy of Michele Safra

SIDE TABLE: Look for rich woods. Safra favors Art Deco’s popular ebony macassar wood and high-gloss finishes

BUFFET: “Everything we were looking for, we saw in this piece,” says Safra of the buffet. “It fit the color scheme, it was the perfect proportion, the perfect size, and the wood we liked.” Its turquoise interior is what first caught her eye.

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RESTAURANT SPOTLIGHT

Umamicatessen A LAID-BACK RESTOBAR THAT PUTS ITS FOOD—AND CHEFS—AT CENTER STAGE

A

t Umamicatessen, seeing is believing.

“We wanted to put the chefs on stage for all to appreciate their performance and craft,” says Derrick Flynn of Soda, the design studio behind the restaurant’s look. To give diners plenty to watch, the Soda team placed all seating in the middle of the space, pushing the six different culinary stations to the periphery. Each chef has his own space and fires orders as they come in, creating a contiuous show. Flynn’s favorite detail? The rotating ham display. “It’s like a Ferris wheel for pigs!” a WHAT: A rustic restobar where

the food takes centerstage WHERE: Pasadena, CA WHO: SODA Design firm

Photos by Mayoral Photography and courtesy of Soda, sodaism.com

PERFECT FOR

ALL TASTES AND ALL STYLES

Structures & Spaces

RESTAURANT SPOTLIGHT

Vetro 1925 A FAMILY EATERY WITH HIGH ITALIAN STYLE

V

etro 1925 injects a flash of Italian good looks into Fayetteville’s bricks-andmortar style. “Vetro is Italian for ‘glass,’” says architect Tim Maddox. Inspired by the glass hybrid façade/roof/ceiling of the train station in Florence, Italy, Maddox created a sleek glass ribbon bar that cuts across the restaurant, meshes with the floor, and flows back up into Vetro’s front façade.

And thanks to some smart lighting decisions, the ribbon lights up in a variety of colors, inviting passersby into the space for the restaurant’s signature Italian cooking. a

WHAT: A family style Italian restaurant in

a high design space

WHERE: Fayetteville, AR

WHO: Architect Timothy Maddox

Photos by Timothy Hursley, timothyhursley.com

PERFECT FOR

PASTA WITH PIZZAZZ

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RESTAURANT SPOTLIGHT

Old Town Pour House AN OLD-SCHOOL BEER HALL GONE UPSCALE

PERFECT FOR

COLD BREWS, PUB STYLE

“

Arch H worked with Bramco Construction to build out the Pour House’s pub-style design. The crew removed the original full height bar and demolished the boxed enclosure over the stairs, opening up the space and making it much more efficient.

“The design is sophisticated but provides such an inviting and relaxed canvas as you walk through the doors,” says Chad Allman, president of Bramco Construction. Their success with the Pour House has led them to a project in Chicago’s iconic Tribune Building.

“We’re well underway with construction of the massive build-out in one of the most unique buildings in the world,” Allman says.

I

like to think of it as a brewpub without the brewery,” architect Nick Hadley says of Old Town Pour House. To make the bar feel antique, Hadley designed the bar and tabletops using patinated copper and dark woods. Drink rails tucked along the space’s periphery give patrons a place for leaning, and low seating peppered throughout lets people pull up a chair without losing out on the conversation.

But the bar’s shining design feature is the illuminated, stainless steel draft beer enclosure. It lights up the beer when bartenders pull a tap for a pour. And with 120 beers on draft—and wine, too!—Old Town Pour House certainly is a place where you can enjoy a few brews. a

WHAT: A rich pub that’s

perfect for after work drinks

WHERE: Chicago, IL WHO: Arch-H

Photos by Adam Flikkema

In true pub style, the Pour House has plenty of screens and speakers to keep bar visitors entertained while they relax with their drinks. NGSI built the bar’s custom system.

“It allows us to put audio or video content anywhere throughout the restaurant, making the space functional in a multifaceted way,” says Ed Hildreth, CEO of NGSI. So as long as you can convince the bartender to tune in to your preferred channel, you won’t miss any crucial on-screen action.

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STUDIO TOUR

VIA’s Creative Commons The magic feel at this Maine ad agency didn’t come without taking some risks After 17 years in an 1800s molasses factory warehouse, advertising and marketing agency VIA Agency can now be found at the Baxter Library Building in Portland, Maine.

VIA took a risk on an old building and, through a creative collaboration of developers, contractors, architects, designers, and artists, together they transformed the space into its own world. In the center of the three-story building, which loosely plays off its original function as a library, is the second floor common area. It’s one of several large, open-plan spaces that fill with natural light. “People can decide whether they need to be hidden away in their stacks, or out collaboratively interacting on The Steppes [a two story amphitheater] in the courtyard or beside the fridge full of beer,” says founder and CEO John Coleman.

Like an ode to its previous life as the city’s public library, seven giant installations inspired by words, ideas, language, storytelling, and books mark the different spaces. A cloud of letters is suspended from the ceiling over the commons. A pile of books appears to have ruptured a wall. A massive sculpture of a crumpled piece of paper hangs over a conference table.

It’s almost as if these pieces are visualizations of the madness occurring inside the brains that produce VIA’s award-winning work.

Coleman says the space inspires his team at the agency. “New people who come to work at VIA unanimously feel moved by the building. It’s a reminder every day that you’d better create ideas that live up to the beauty of the building.”

In other words, no slacking. —ANN CHOU

Facade photo by Sven Fahlgren; interior photos by Bernard C. Meyers; book wall photo by James Woodman

Structures & Spaces

DESIGN BUREAU

BEFORE/AFTER

A BIGGER, BETTER BUNGALOW CALI’S SNUG HARBOR GETS A LARGE DOSE OF STYLE THANKS TO A NEW CONTEMPORARY MANSE

BEFORE

Historic homes with white picket fences dot the small lots of Snug Harbor, CA. It’s a picturesque waterside town that looks much like it did in the early 1930s, which is why it seemed like an unlikely neighborhood for a brand-new, contemporary mansion.

Architect Chris Brandon designed the house using one paradoxical parameter as his guideline. “My task was to blend it into the neighborhood while still making a statement for my client and his aesthetic,” he says. Aside from this ambitious request, the

client razed the bungalow that was sitting on the property and granted Brandon a blank slate. His design spans 6,800 square feet, and yet its graceful front facade helps disguise the structure’s mass. The home’s beautiful bays and stepped-back front door play off of the character of many of the neighborhood’s homes, updating the details with modern materials.

Inside, the home includes five bedrooms, a gym, and a wine bar. And in keeping with its exterior’s soft contemporary feel, textures

dominate the design: limestone floors, pebble detailing, stainless steel, quarried stone, slate roofing, and wood make the house feel approachable. “When it comes to a contemporary aesthetic, the most important thing is to be true to the material,” Brandon says. “It usually doesn’t involve a lot of fussy details, not painting or finished carpentry.” The house shows its careful craftsmanship, and its design projects a fuss-free vibe much like its neighbors, making it a welcome addition to the cozy town of Snug Harbor. —MAGGIE LANGE Photos by Jeri Koegel, jerikoegel.com

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GET THE LOOK

SMALL SPACE, BIG DESIGN SMART PROPORTIONS AND COLORS KEEP THIS PORTLAND STUDIO FROM FEELING CRAMPED Small space doesn’t stop Courtney Nye’s design creativity. For her first Portland apartment (shared with her designer husband, Noah), she worked in smart details and proportions that maximize the paltry 450 square feet. “What helps to maximize the space is creating clear and designated areas for differ-

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ent functions while at the same time keeping those spaces flexible,” Nye says. She calls these areas “vignettes,” and used their different functions to determine their styling, placing objects appropriately to create the feeling of separate rooms. Aesthetically, Nye chose to keep the apartment’s overall palette

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neutral and integrated color via accessories.

“When your whole house is one room, it can be overwhelming,” Nye says of color overload.

“Seeing colors against neutrals helps them stand out more and creates more depth.”

And for such a small space, Nye’s apartment is certainly deep in design. a 1. A small khaki couch anchors the living room. “Since we rent, having the major pieces be neutral helps them adapt to any different space we may move into,” Nye says.

2. “The Thug” hanging over the couch is actually an old NYPD shooting target. The force used thousands of them in the ‘60s.

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3. Nye picked up this portrait because she loved its warm colors. “In small spaces, keep furniture to a smaller scale, but make art large and exaggerated,” she advises.

4. “Our workstation style was really defined by our work style,” Nye says. “I have a long and narrow worktop and a lot of open legroom below so I can sit at different parts of the table.

Photos courtesy of Courtney Nye

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Photos by Andrew Meredith

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Structures & Spaces

DESIGN BUREAU

Power Windows Selfridges turns department store windows into a visual playground for artists and designers For Selfridges, the high-end U.K. retailer founded by the Wisconsin born Henry Gordon Selfridge, spectacle has always been a draw. The store’s 24 windows at its Oxford Street location have become an international showcase for superstars in contemporary fashion, art, and design as well as up-andcoming creative work. In 2012, Selfridges featured a 13-foot-tall Yayoi Kusama figurine, window displays by Christian Louboutin himself, and Britain Creates 2012, which showcased U.K. collusion in fashion and art for the Olympiad.

1-2. Christian Louboutin windows 3. Museum of Everything window 4. Words Words Words window 5. Britain Creates 2012 window

Closer to street level, curated projects like It’s Nice That showcase up-and-coming talent in design and illustration. The now annual Bright Young Things features U.K.based emerging talents in fashion, art and design, and food. Each gets an Oxford Street or Duke Street window and space in the pop-up shop inside to showcase their talent to a potential audience of millions walking by. a

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Structures & Spaces

Going Mobile Forget the food truck hype. These businesses do crazy things—like bake pizza and marry people—all on the move

With space in many cities at a premium and food trucks a big hit, more industries are moving into the mobile market. From dress stops to fine dining, here are five out-of-the-box businesses that are taking it to the street. —JENNY WILSON

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Del Popolo Pizzeria San Francisco, CA The people of San Francisco have the pleasure of enjoying Del Popolo, the mobile Neapolitan pizzeria with real wood-fired ovens housed in a redesigned shipping container on the bed of a truck. A wall of glass doors exposes the entire 20-foot container kitchen, because, well you have to see it to believe. delpopolosf.com

Lodekka Resale clothing shop Portland, OR You don’t see too many 1965 Bristol Lodekkas around, even in Portland.

More unusual is that this particular custom painted British double-decker darling is now home to Lodekka, a quirky 400-square-foot resale shop featuring women’s dresses and separates, men’s shirts, furnishings, knickknacks, and jewelry. lodekka.com

The Chop Shop Mobile Barbershop Miami, FL Originally created to extend the popularity of the motor-themed Chop Shop brand, the Mobile Barbershop does more than market the original biz. These days, the barbershop on wheels is mainly used for charity appearances, such as those for the nonprofit initiative Chop Shop Cares for Kids. chopshopbarbershop.com

Las Vegas Wedding Wagon Chapel Las Vegas, NV To help couples create more personalized ceremonies, Reverends James and Andy introduced mobile matrimony to the quickie wedding capital of America. The Las Vegas Wedding Wagon brings fun, affordable ceremonies to almost any location. Popular choices include the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign and the soaring sidewalks above the strip, but the mobile walk-up window allows the reverends to accommodate most unique requests. lasvegasweddingwagon. com

Tram Experience Restaurant Brussels, Belgium The city of Brussels has created a unique combination of fine dining and sightseeing in its Tram Experience.

The tram, partially outfitted by Electrolux, has been transformed into a sleek, white, modern mobile dining room. Diners experience classic Belgian cuisine as reinterpreted by the country’s top chefs while traveling through some of the region’s most beautiful areas. visitbrussels.be

Del Popolo photo by Matthew Millman; Lodekka photo by Ryan Flood; Tram photo courtesy of visitbrussels.be; Chop Shop photo courtesy of HW8 Creative

Rotel Hotel Passau, Germany German company Rotel Tours combines the convenience of bus travel with the comfort of a hotel in one large, red package. The rolling hotels feature individual seats and sleeping berths for 20-40 travelers.

With an enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide on every bus, travelers can engage with the scenery and enjoy sightseeing in a more authentic way. Tours are available on nearly every continent. rotel.de

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5 PICKS

All White Minimalist retail store designs let shoppers focus on what’s important: the goods

Although there are many different design disciplines with differing points of view, one seems fairly consistent across the board: designers like white space. Check out these four monochromatic retail shops that show how good it can look when white is done right. —SARAH MURRAY

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FACTO ROYALE LISBON, PORTUGAL, BY IGOR FERREIRA This blindingly white space suggests a serious sense of cleanliness. Every accessory is white, down to the antlers.

A multitude of hands sticks out of the walls to hold the hairdresser’s tools.

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CAMPER SHOE STORE OSAKA, JAPAN, BY NENDO / The Camper Osaka store uses a clean background to contrast against its brightly colored kicks. Said sneakers defy gravity, as do a bright red pair of Nendo’s “lines” stools.

Facto Royale photo courtesy of Goma United Designers; Shop Romanticism photos by Koji Fujii / Nacása & Partners Inc.; Bridal Magic design by Hideki Kureha, Ikuma Yoshizawa, Noriaki Takeda, Tao Thong Villa Co., Ltd and Process5 Design; Camper photo by Masaya Yoshimura

Structures & Spaces

DESIGN BUREAU

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BRIDAL MAGIC HIMEJI, JAPAN, BY PROCESS5 DESIGN / The clever use of mirrors beautifully enhances this bridal studio. Brides-to-be can make full use of the elegant space, which sometimes features only picture frames. The dressing rooms are in the center, while the reception and display areas are on the outside, making the bride (as always) the center of attention.

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SHOP ROMANTICISM HANGZHOU, CHINA, BY SAKO ARCHITECTS The owners of this shop requested a design that no one could copy, so SAKO Architects created a “second skin” that enmeshes itself around the interior of the space. The ultra-modern and chic weave forms everything from railings to furniture to racks, displaying the brightly colored merchandise.

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TIAAN NAGEL JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA, BY ANDREA KLEINLOOG OF ANATOMY DESIGN / This cozy space looks significantly bigger in an all white color scheme. Tiaan Nagel uses interesting sculpture and floral arrangements to punctuate the otherwiseplain room, bringing form and structure.

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Dialogue

ARCHITECTS & ARTISANS

Architecture As Branding In today’s world, a brand’s identity starts at its bricks and mortar

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o there I was on the third day of the Coverings 2012 “They’re made of aluminum,” he says. “And how they came together is tile and stone show, wandering the halls in search of an important—they weren’t screwed or bolted, but locked together like action-packed, fact-filled panel discussion, but skeptical a jigsaw puzzle.” The cube’s shelves are part of their walls, so they’re that anything like it ever existed. Then I poked my head functional, as well as structural. into a room, where I found Architizer co-founder and HWKN partner Marc Kushner explaining to a crowd Kushner says he believes in research-based solutions to architecture that a well-designed building is an incredibly effective communica- and branding. He’s not necessarily interested in a stylistic approach to design, but in diagnosis and psychoanalysis to dig into what a clitions tool, uniquely equipped to bring value to a brand. ent’s agenda might be. If that sounds more like an ad agency than an “It’s a big billboard in the marketplace,” said the 2004 graduate of the architecture firm, so be it. “We’ve learned a lot from agencies,” he says.

Harvard Design School. “It speaks to users. For those who pass it, it “We’ve worked with Deutsch, Kirshenbaum, and KKLD—they hired us to work for their clients with temporary event spaces for campaigns.” enters into their visual life.”

He cited HWKN’s Uniqlo Cubes as a prime example. Developed for the major Japanese retailer, these pop-up stores can be moved around an urban area. Once the cube is plopped onto its location, a section of its form slides open like a vault, inviting customers to come in, try on clothes and make their purchases. At night, the cubes glow in the dark to make their presence known. Their branding power is derived not just from form and glowing geometrical shape, but from the attention to detail in their material and construction.

Between Architizer and his firm’s smart designs, Kushner shows a self-evident savvy of latter-day brand management.

In short, he’s as successful at promoting as he is at designing.

—J. MICHAEL WELTON

For more information, go to hwkn.com

J. Michael Welton writes about architecture, art, and design for national and international publications.

He also publishes a design magazine at architectsandartisans.com. Rendering courtesy of HWKN.

Dialogue

DESIGN BUREAU

IMAGE, STYLE, DESIGN

Capsule Collection Reboot A Twist to Target’s old capsule collection model turns up new partnership possibilities

Many other mass market retailers have joined the designer partnership bandwagon, and these onetime partnerships have begun to look a little too familiar

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ver the past six years, Target has become widely known for its capsule collections created by high-end designers. Many brands have fostered similar partnerships, but Target was the first to really offer high design in a big box store.

Their 2011 Missoni for Target collection drew quite a bit of attention, and thanks to its success, what was previously an exclusive Italian fashion house suddenly received mass-market awaremess. It offered the consumer something great: the chance to own a piece by a high-end label they may not otherwise be able to afford. Missoni gained exposure to a vast consumer base with less individual means but strong mass purchasing power. And Target of course gained from this partnership, just like it has with its previous high-design collaborations.

blog, too, where the boutique owners offer up advice on styling tips, tricks, and key pieces available in their Target collections.

When collections are as successful as the Missoni line, it’s a win-win-win situation.

The challenge comes with market saturation. Many other mass market retailers have joined the designer partnership bandwagon, and these onetime partnerships have begun to look a little too familiar. To keep these collaborations fresh, the retail partner and designer have to very carefully manage the process. And unsurprisingly, Target is attempting to keep discount capsule collections exciting.

Last May, they launched The Shops at Target program. It’s essentially a pop-up shop model, but it takes boutique shops into the big box store. San Francisco’s The Candy Store, Aspen’s bath and body store Cos Bar, Boston’s Polka Dog Bakery, Connecticut’s Privet House, and Miami’s The Webster were the first to offer their goods through the chain. The Shops comes with its own online

But The Shops’ featured boutiques aren’t big brand names. Which brings into question: is it possible to pull off the boutique model in a big box store? Boutiques are special precisely because they’re regionally known—people shop them because their founders’ tastes are trusted within their local communities. The Shops’ products are nice, but the boutique names just don’t carry the brand recognition that comes with being a luxury heavyweight like Missoni. Will these shops’ offerings pull the same high demand outside of their local communities? It’s an important question to ask when considering what the boutiques gain by partnering with Target. Only time— and sales—will tell. —STEVEN FISCHER

Steven Fischer is lecturer of Image, Style, and Design at Northwestern University, and president of the Valspar Color Institute. For more details, go to imagestyledesign.com Illustration by Alli Berry. Missoni pattern not an official Missoni textile print.

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Design Thinking

BUREAU OF ERGONOMICS

SHOPPING CART SHAPE AND SIZING UP CLOTHES ONLINE Certified Ergonomist Dr. Rob Tannen explains vexing shopping shortfalls

Q

Why are shopping carts so oddly shaped?

They’re nearly impossible to load and unload!

A: Like the mullet hairstyle—business in the front, party in the back!—shopping carts are designed to serve two purposes. They need to provide a large amount of mobile storage space to the shopper, but they also need to be herded up and stored compactly. As is often the case with two competing functions, the resulting design is a compromise to both: the cart basket is tall and deep, maximizing volume to increase purchases, but also tapered and narrower toward the front, making it difficult to reach inside.

Shopping carts were not always this way. Early versions were more vertical, like baby strollers, with removable baskets. In 1999, design firm IDEO created an updated version of this cart design that also featured steerable rear wheels, but it never made it past the concept stage. Technical innovations such as electronic cart tracking have started appearing, too. But overall, shopping cart design hasn’t changed much in the past 50 years.

INSPIRING DIALOGUE:

Do shopping carts need a design update? Tell us what design adjustments you would make at letters@wearedesignbureau.com.

Illustration by Alli Berry

Q: I like to shop for clothes online, but items I order never seem to fit. Why can’t I get the sizes right? Hasn’t somebody thought of a way to improve this?

A: Since you don’t want to go to the store to try things on, wouldn’t it be convenient if someone who looked like you did? Or, even better, if you could somehow go online and try things on at each website? Enter Fits.Me, an Estonian website that has developed a physically variable mechanical robotic torso. (Say that five times fast.) Basically, this robot can take on hundreds of body profiles by adjusting its components based on provided dimensions. Online retailers photograph each garment on the robot in all of the hundreds of body profiles so that when you enter your own detailed body measurements you see the image that best matches your body—lumps, bumps, and all. This technology is not widely available just yet, so in the meantime, stick with the brands you know to avoid any unwanted returns. a

Notes From the Bureau

DESIGN BUREAU

Notes From the Bureau NEWS AND MUSINGS FROM THE WORLD OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

A rich brown color, the Iroko wood front door on the Hurst House suits its modern design. “The wood choice really becomes a personal choice dictated by other materials like cladding,” says Elizabeth Assaf, a designer at Urban Front. All of their doors are made of hardwood and feature a steel reinforced antiwarping core and high insulation to ensure both high performance and good looks.

Hurst House, he slightly sunk the ground floor to preserve views to and from the AONB. This base, which contains bedrooms and brackets a landscaped courtyard, is formed from weighty, rough-cut stone sourced 30 Outside of London, one home prioritizes its miles from the site and dry-stacked like the old walls that zig-zag England’s countryside. pristine pastoral views “We contrasted the natural stone with conTake a short drive outside of bustling London temporary detailing at the window openings,” to Bourne End, a northwest village, and you’ll Ström says. He finished the windows with find yourself in the middle of England’s welded metal angles that are as sleek-looking countryside. It’s quite literally—and legal- as they are functional, providing structural ly—a thing of beauty. Throughout the United support to the home and helping the building Kingdom, the government has designated 46 to shed water in particularly nasty storms.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB for short) that preserve land in its pristine The bar-shaped second floor spans above state. Bourne End sits on the edge of an the auxiliary living spaces and master suite.

AONB. And the beautiful-yet-unobtrusive Ström clad it in western red cedar timber Hurst House, designed by architect Magnus that will weather silver to blend with the land, and built in edge-to-edge picture Ström, sits benignly on the actual land. windows to frame the home’s surrounding Ström’s design vocabulary echoes the clean landscape. He even finished the projecting lines of his Swedish heritage as well as Eng- long balcony with a frameless glass guardland’s ancient building traditions. At the rail to ensure clear sight lines.

A View Toward the Land

Each architectural move emphasizes the views and encourages the Hursts to live upstairs. “I think they’ll really live on the upper floor because that’s where the views are,” Ström says. And thanks to its protected status, the view out onto the land should only get better with age. a Ström Architects designed Hurst House in collaboration with John Pardey Architects

BY MURRYE BERNARD PHOTOS BY ANDY STAGG

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Notes From the Bureau

High Design in the Hills A clever layout and smart style characterize this Austin home

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ontrary to popular belief, Austin is not a flat city. Hundreds of peaks and hills make up its ground.

These sites are coveted for their rolling terrain, but their drastic elevations require innovative building techniques to make homes that are both beautiful and structurally sound. One such home, dubbed the Hill Country Contemporary House, is located right in the middle of Austin Country Club’s picturesque hills. Its site was particularly difficult to navigate, but developer Matt Shoberg wasn’t afraid to take it on. “There was a 40-foot drop across the lot and the home was designed to sit in the middle of the slope,” Shoberg says of the site’s biggest hurdle.

Overcoming the steep grade required eight months of planning, redesigning, and collaboration with architect James LaRue, the home’s engineer, and the homeowner.

Ultimately, the team chose to stabilize the site by building a 14-foot retaining wall with atypical engineering. “Due to utilities running through the lot, the retaining wall has no footing. Instead, it sits on 2-foot-wide by 30-foot deep piers that are balanced on 8-foot centers,” Shoberg says of its design. This modified pylon system keeps the site from shifting, and enabled the design team to burrow into the hill to build the house down below ground level.

Shoberg describes the plan as “upside down,” and notes that the house’s main living spaces open onto the country club’s gorgeous greens.

While the structural rigging is impressive, it’s the home’s interior details that Shoberg counts as a real achievement. “I’m proud of the Shoberg Homes-designed fireplaces in the master suite and living room, and the execution and attention to detail of the carpentry, stonework, steelwork, and masonry,” he says, adding that the home’s hand-scribed soffits, hand-trowled walls, and locally fabricated steel front door are some of his favorite touches. “This was by far the biggest springboard that Shoberg Homes has ever had,” Shoberg says of the house’s overall effect. “It is one of my alltime favorites.” a

BY HEIDI KULICKE PHOTOS BY COLES HAIRSTON PHOTOGRAPHY

Despite rocky topography, hungry deer, and the 100-degree Texas heat, the landscape architects at Land Restoration build outdoor oases. “We take the ideas and infrastructure from Shoberg Homes and try to create a personalized outdoor setting that our clients will watch flourish for years to come,” says Tim Benton, owner of Land Restoration. For Shoberg’s Hock Residence, Benton and his team pulled elements from the home’s materials palette, including corten steel and stone, to give its garden a modern edge.

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Notes From the Bureau

brightest illuminated surface or object in the field of view.” a

BY KATHRYN FREEMAN RATHBONE PHOTO COURTESY OF JUNO LIGHTING GROUP

Perfectly Imperfect Style To interior designer Kristi Nelson, true style comes from real life experience Sometimes, design just needs to loosen up. This is interior designer Kristi Nelson’s theory, one she’s grown comfortable developing thanks to years of European travel. “American style tends to be rigid and focused on perfection,” she says. “European design is loose and imperfect. I like imperfections because they’re a part of the story of those who’ve gone before us.”

Standout Lighting at Home Five tips for perfectly illuminating your space A space isn’t complete if it’s not properly lit. “It is the targeted placement of light to support the design of a room that is the hallmark of effective lighting design,” says lighting expert Scott Roos. For more than 30 years, Roos and his team at Juno Lighting have designed lighting fixtures that emphasize light itself. He knows what it takes to make a room be seen in its best light, and he shares his top five pointers here.

1. Think about your art, architecture, and furnishings first. “It is impossible to create a truly standout lighting design without first considering the location of furniture, artwork, and architectural details.”

2. Plan lighting in layers. “Solve for functional lighting requirements first, such as reading and food preparation. Next, consider the decorative fixtures that you want to use as ‘room jewelry,’ and use accent lighting to add interest and drama. Finally, consider the overall ambience you want to create. Most good residential lighting designs employ lighting controls to switch and dim fixtures to create multiple scenes.”

3. Your lighting sources and surface finishes are intimately related. “You cannot optimally design lighting without taking into account surface finishes and materials. Surface fin-

ishes often have interesting color nuances, such as the rich warm hues of natural woods, or colored flecks in granite countertops. To highlight these nuances it is important to match the color spectrum of the light source with the colors in the material. Look at your materials under different light sources before deciding which is best.”

4. Concentrate on your walls. “Painting light thoughtfully onto vertical surfaces is what evokes feelings such as spaciousness or intimacy. And often the light reflecting off vertical surfaces provides much of the needed illumination for ambient lighting.”

5. The eye is drawn to the brightest object in a room. “Know where you want the eye to be drawn, and then take care to make it the

Nelson has not only traveled abroad, but has also lived and worked across Paris, London, and Florence, so her understanding of European design thinking goes beyond that of the enthusiastic traveler.

Each city has left its imprint on her personal design style: she takes her appreciation for necessary rigidity from the Italians, whimsy from the Brits, and pure Even if Nelson likes style to look imperfect, her design details are very precise. She often works with Window Collections to design treatments that do not overwhelm rooms with yards of fabric. “We radically minimize the projection of treatments into the room space,” says Paul Bynum, president of Window Collections. For their treatments for the Wilshire Corridor condo, Bynum and his team even integrated technology right into the blinds. Push a button on an iPhone or iPad, and the shades will go up or down to your liking.

Notes From the Bureau

DESIGN BUREAU

fantasy from the French. “Florence design is classic, but classicism is important because you have to learn the rules before you can break them. London design tends to be whimsical with dry humor. And Paris design has a legacy of surrealism, which has really influenced me,” she says.

Together, all three cities have certainly taught Nelson how to create imperfection in her own designs. And it starts by taking ownership of your own space. “Europe has taught me that design is about making your things work for you instead of working around them,” she says, adding that personal objects best reflect personal style, even if they don’t create that picture-perfect room. “To me, style is about incorporating where you've been. Take the mementos, art, and ideas and translate it into design. Be a little imperfect.

It adds depth and personality.” Spoken like a true world traveler. a

BY HEIDI KULICKE PHOTO BY PETER VALLI

Sprawl in the Family How architect Bill Isaman built a house for a family of 24 without sacrificing efficient daily living

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arty and Kathie LaGue have a big family—six children and 18 grandchildren, to be exact. The couple wanted to build a home that wouldn’t make everybody feel cramped during family get-togethers, so they hired architect Bill Isaman to get the space just right. “They wanted to encourage their kids and grandkids to visit,” Isaman says. Although the couple wanted space, they also wanted to live there without having to traverse across its 5,350 sprawling square feet on a daily basis.

To make the home spacious yet keep its everyday living spaces compact, Isaman organized the Mediterranean-style residence into two wings: a master wing for the LaGues, and a wing designated specifically for visiting family. The LaGues’ daily wing begins at the garage, and houses the master bedroom, two home offices, and a living room. Isaman located all additional bedrooms and bathrooms on the other side of the home. “The family wing provides extra bedrooms, and each has its own bathroom,” he says. “There is a large playroom that is a game room by day, and a camp-out space by night.”

Isaman wedged the home’s kitchen, dining room, and main living spaces in the center of the house. They take up prime square footage so that the family can be together without relaxing on top of each other. But if things ever get too crowded, everybody can just retreat to their separate wings. Because sometimes space (and peace and quiet) is what keeps families happy together. a

BY JASON KERENSKY PHOTOS BY TREVOR POVAH

The LaGue home’s large footprint makes it difficult to fit into a singular photo frame. “The home is situated on a ridge, so capturing a pulled back image was a bit more difficult,” says photographer Trevor Povah. Getting the shot required a bit of investigation into the surrounding topography. “Luckily, there was another ridge nearby,” Povah says. “I was able to shoot from there with a long lens.” Povah’s skills made the shot work, capturing the LaGue home in all its sprawling glory.

A Home for a Modern Pioneer In Indiana, architect Fred Bamesberger is building literally off the land

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he pièce de résistance of architect Fred Bamesberger’s home in Valparaiso, Indiana, is a salvaged Burr Oak tree branch. Bamesberger turned it into his home’s cornerstone column, and it’s very much symbolic of his design philosophy. “I want my work to contribute to the lives and landscape that will come after our own,” he says.

For the house itself, Bamesberger sourced as many local materials as he could find. He salvaged wood from other project sites, and

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Notes From the Bureau

FR Sheetmetal and Bamesberger Architecture have worked together on more high-end projects than they can count. “We really enjoy doing projects that most other outfits do not know how to do,” says Mark Remilinger, project manager for FR Sheetmetal. “For us, there aren’t any challenges working with metal.” The company is currently working on three projects with Bamesberger, including an Indiana residence with copper standing seam roof panels, and a Michigan home finished with corten steel trim.

used trees that had been blown down in storms. To transform the trunks from raw to workable wood, he had them dried in a solar powered kiln. “It’s like a greenhouse with a woodstove and fans, and it takes about a month,” he says of the process. After drying, Bamesberger had the trees sawed at a local sawmill and then crafted into interior trim and ceiling planks.

Back at his home, Bamesberger installed the wood and used cypress siding and copper flashings to give the exterior an earthy, warm facade. The materials are highly durable and relatively low maintenance, so they fall in line with the architect’s philosophy. Inside, Bamesberger chose a concrete floor as a smart heating and cooling system. It absorbs

excess heat on hot days and is plumbed to provide hydronic radiant heating when the temperatures drop. Its raw finish also builds up the home’s pared-down look. And in true do-it-yourself style, he built most of the furniture using leftover wood scraps.

Now that the house is built, Bamesberger has turned his attention to his land.

“We’ve planted thousands of trees, and we’re developing a native prairie and wetland. No corn, though,” he says with a laugh. It’s a fitting project for the architect who cares so much about caring for the environment. And even though Bamesberger doesn’t cite his house as an example of Midwest Modernism, it’s certainly modern in its approach, leaving a big impact on architectural thinking while treading lightly on the land. a

BY ANN CHOU PHOTOS COURTESY OF FRED BAMESBERGER

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OTHERWORLDLY BUILDING SYSTEMS The developers of Spaceplates Greenhouse in Bristol, U.K. have high hopes for the system’s future

WHEN STUDENTS AT THE SOUTH BRISTOL SKILLS ACADEMY SAW THE FOUR GLASSY domes at the end of the campus parking lot, they joked that a UFO had landed.

The honeycombed structure is actually a Spaceplates Greenhouse, a revolutionary new building system developed by Copenhagen-based designer Jon Sørvin and architect Anne Romme. The Bristol academy uses its Spaceplates building to support a horticulture curriculum, but the greenhouse also represents the Danish duo’s research toward the potential of a pure plates building system.

BY SARAH HANDELMAN PHOTO BY JAMIE WOODLEY PHOTOGRAPHY/ GINKGO PROJECTS

Pure plates utilizes thin plates to transmit both structural tension and compression. In other words, put the pure plates together, and they’ll support themselves, no extra bracing or girding required. It sounds complicated, but the beauty of Spaceplates is its simplicity: less hardware, less cost, and increasingly more structural flexibility translates into tons of potential for future projects. For now, though, Romme and Sørvin are thrilled to hear the greenhouse in Bristol is still standing, and they’re happy to share their trials and tribulations here.

Sarah Handelman: How did the Spaceplates Greenhouse go from a paper concept to a built reality?

Anne Romme: A professor here in Copenhagen had worked on the basic idea for pure plate structures but hadn’t been able to build anything beyond small tests.

So we began our own research. When we learned about the competition in Bristol [for the greenhouse], we wanted to use the opportunity to try our system on a real building.

SH: How does Spaceplates differ from other self-supporting structures that have been done before?

Jon Sørvin: The key thing to understand about current double-curved shaped architecture is that almost all of it is built with plates laid over a lattice structure. Our building system might look like a Buckminster Fuller dome, but it’s actually very different because [with Spaceplates] there are only plates. That’s

Right: The Spaceplates greenhouse in Bristol, U.K.

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why there’s huge potential beyond the greenhouse to develop the system. The greenhouse we designed is a simple structure that’s easy to assemble. It requires basic hand tools to build, and the geometry makes it easy to see what goes together. Anybody can work with the system. Of course, right now, it requires someone to design it.

SH: Now that you’ve built an actual structure, what has surprised you most about the Spaceplates system?

JS: What’s most interesting is the simplicity that would enable anyone to do this same thing. People are becoming more capable of designing for themselves. We have to make intelligent systems that enable people to have the freedom to make their own decisions on space and shape, while ensuring that aesthetics, construction, and resources work together. Today, as an architect or designer, it’s good to try to do away with yourself in the process of design.

SH: What’s next for the design?

AR: So far it’s been a lot of technical detailing. ‘How do we do actually do this?’ At the moment, we’re exploring other morphologies for using the plates on other structures. We are now able to make convex and concave structures—really organic structures—just by changing a few parameters in design

Structural engineer Anne Bagger learned about Anne Romme’s work through the architect’s website. Intrigued by what she saw, Bagger reached out—only to learn that Romme had been planning on contacting her as well. “I am an engineer and researcher with a passion for morphology and art, and Anne is an architect and artist,” Bagger says. The two women share an interest in shell structures, and they decided to team up on Romme’s Spaceplates system. In particular, Bagger has helped Romme develop the plates’ self-supporting edges, eliminating the need for an internal structural frame. The move brings down building costs and makes the plates easy to use, and both Bagger and Romme hope to see them popping up in residential projects very soon.

programming. Eventually, we want to make a web interface that allows people to design their own building and print it out in the place where they live. The CNC machine you need to print the parts can be found anywhere in the western world. a

Jon Sørvin is the founder of N55, an art and design studio in Copenhagen. Anne Romme is a practicing architect also living and working in Copenhagen.

specialties: Glass structures, including columns, beams, fins, and insulating glass units Plate shell structures such as the Bristol Greenhouse Structures with a minimal material consumption, where form follows force Structures in nature Patterns and structural morphology Tensegrity Denmark +45 30 53 35 05 glass@annebagger.dk www.annebagger.dk

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THE ROADSIDE MOTEL, REDESIGNED Santa Monica’s Shore Hotel celebrates the city’s SoCal car culture

THE SHORE HOTEL SITS RIGHT ON SANTA MONICA’S ICONIC Ocean Boulevard. Architect Kap Malik and his team of Gensler colleagues designed the hotel so that it comes right up to the roadside, embracing Southern California’s car-crazed culture. “Ocean Avenue evolved with California culture,” Malik says of the famous street. “From the ’50s, this has been a boulevard where people went cruising in their top-down Chevys.”

The Shore’s design definitely takes its direction from the nostalgic images that Ocean Avenue conjures up. As a nod to the roadside motels built in the 1950s, Malik and his team created a U-shaped building and wrapped it around a courtyard with a pool. Take a dip, and you’ll look right out onto the cars passing by. The architects even chose to clad the Shore in a sleek blend of glass and metal panels as an homage to the riveted details of classic automobiles.

But the hotel’s striking metal trellis, its most dramatic exterior detail, plays up Ocean Avenue to the fullest. To really see the ironwork, you have to look from the street, which has become the Shore’s key characteristic. “It has become the icon,” Malik says. “People don’t refer to the hotel as the Shore Hotel. They say, ‘That’s the project with the big space frame on the front.’ ”

BY BRIAN LIBBY PHOTOS BY RYAN GOBUTY AND SKOTT SNYDER

Right: Two hotels previously sat on the Shore’s site.

When they were razed, Gensler salvaged their materials and repurposed them to build the Shore

The Shore’s facade isn’t all metal and glass. It also incorporates wood paneling on the guest balconies that looks like the insets found on the sides of classic cars. “Gensler selected Trespa’s Meteon facade panels in wood decor for their durability and proven performance,” says Steve McKenney, the company’s western region manager.

“They provide natural warmth and a great contrast with the modern look of stainless steel.”

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Clockwise from top: The pool at the Shore Hotel is the perfect place for people-watching on Ocean Boulevard ; the relaxing lobby; a guest room

Although the Shore may celebrate car culture, it’s really meant to be a social hub where people can come in, relax, and have fun. And its design, which is sleek without being stuffy, definitely sets the mood.

The Shore’s pool deck and balconies make for great people watching spots, and drivers on Ocean Avenue can peek right into the hotel’s goings-on. The public/private combination makes the hotel feel like a place that celebrates Santa Monica’s laid-back way of life. “We were able to invite the public into the hotel,” Malik says of the Shore’s overall design. “You don’t have to stay there to enjoy it.” a

At the Shore, even the bath fixtures hint at the automobile chrome that inspired the hotel’s overall design. Symmons custom designed the pieces specifically for Gensler. “Our custom product process allows the designer to put their own personal touch on plumbing fixtures,” says Frank Foster of Symmons. Gensler was so satisfied with the Shore’s faucets, taps, and drains that they’ve partnered with Symmons on six other projects and have more underway.

It was a thrilling opportunity for tile and stone suppliers Design & Direct Source to partner with Gensler on the Shore. “It is an honor to work with world-class design leader Gensler,” says Ann Sacks, owner of Design & Direct Source.

Sacks always strives to make the specification process efficient, inspiring, and affordable, and her approach was no different while working on the Shore. “We are always available to talk through a concept and send the best possible options,” she says.

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SCHOOL’S BACK IN SESSION A defunct middle school gets a new life as a creative college arts center

CREATIVITY COMES AS A BUILT-IN FEATURE AT CARLETON COLLEGE’S ARTS CENTER. The building, formally named The Weitz Center for Creativity, sits in Northfield, Minnesota’s former middle/high school. But instead of basic reading, writing, and math, dance, the fine arts, and theater are now taught within its walls.

BY MAGGIE LANGE PHOTOS BY LARA SWIMMER

Carleton purchased the building in 2005 to unite their various arts programs under one roof. The town of Northfield constructed the school in 1910, and two population booms produced two additions, the first in 1934 and the second 20 years later. Each renovation added three floors, but none of the floors aligned.

Thomas Meyer, the architect brought in to retrofit the building for Carleton, likens the pre-renovation flow to a puzzle. “The building had three floors but was 13 different levels,” he says.

It was such a complicated plan that Meyer ultimately chose to work within its every-which-way orientation. This worked perfectly for the multidisciplinary vibe that Carleton was seeking. “It was a puzzle, but it was perfect because it made the building more of a collage rather than a singular idea,” Meyer says. To make sense of the maze, he built a central atrium and looped all the existing levels through its core. He left the renovation styles primarily intact, but carved out soaring ceilings and added floor-to-ceiling glass walls to help students and faculty understand the new connections.

In Meyer’s makeover, each department has its own space, and now those spaces feel linked together. “If you’re a student or faculty member in the building, it’s like you’re in a city,” he says. “There are buildings from multiple eras. This has great aesthetic implications for the creative process.” a

Above: The Weitz Center’s main entrance Below: The commons. Meyer clad the elevator in planks taken from the school’s former bleachers.

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Meyer, along with his partners Jeffrey Scherer and Garth Rockcastle, put their thoughtful renovation skills to good use in their Mount Curve Residence. The house needed an update, but its owners didn’t want to sacrifice its original mid-century charm. With the help of contractors Welch Forsman, the team was able to retain the home’s modern feel. “We had to employ some visual tricks,” says Don Forsman, owner of Welch Forsman. Custom oak cabinetry and oak wall paneling were significant to the look, as they meshed well with the existing design of the house. “It was important to be able to provide seamless joinery from old to new,” Forsman says.

Meyer, Scherer, and Rockcastle worked with theater designers Schuler Shook to make sure the theater space at the Weitz Center works ideally for Carleton’s young thespians. The space had to be arranged in a way so that it served both daily educational needs as well as front and back of house production requirements. “We were fortunate to have a very engaged theater and dance faculty that were constantly involved and provided clear direction when necessary,” says Michael DiBlasi, partner at Schuler Shook. The design team built a combined black box theater, rehearsal studio, scene shop, and support space, and then made the entire space acoustically sound. A multipurpose lighting schematic and a catwalk system finish off the room and give it an artistic aesthetic touch. It’s the perfect home for Carleton’s theater department, and it inspires great work from the faculty and staff who use it every day.

From top: Remnants of the building’s past make for eye-popping design elements; the modern gallery space; floor-to-ceiling glass on the facade unites multiple levels

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Schuler Shook provided Theatre Planning and Architectural Lighting Design services for Carleton College’s Weitz Center for Creativity

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The Osborne Road House ARCHITECTURE EYE CANDY: Spaces to covet and copy

Manly Beach, Sydney, Australia

BY MAGGIE LANGE ARCHITECT: VINCE SQUILLACE OF SQUILLACE ARCHITECTS PHOTOS: NEIL FENELON

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The Osborne Road House serves as a perfect example of how to tastefully clash polar opposite architectural styles. It was built in the 1880s following a strict Georgian Italianite code, and architect Vince Squillace knew it would be difficult to build a matched addition that didn’t detract from its original beauty. “I wanted to juxtapose the beauty of this Georgian Italianate house with a contemporary addition,” he says. “Rather than mimic the original building, it would enhance its character by contrasting.”

The contemporary addition stands as a distinct small pavilion at the back of the property. Its natural elements, including glowing copper, slate, and wood, complement the existing structure’s plaster and timber, and its new copper-clad upper level echoes the roof of the original building. Squillace says that this move, in particular, “sets up an evocative dynamic between the two forms.” And in between, a daring glass hallway connects the old with the new, gracefully bridging 19th-century good taste with 21st-century high style. a

Design Thinking

1.The home’s kitchen looks out onto the pool 2.Sliding glass walls combine indoor and outdoor living spaces 3.The home’s pool flows literally underneath its structure 4. A bedroom terrace with prime backyard views

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IN THE DETAILS Exploring the key elements of uncommon spaces

A Japanese shoji screen-inspired fence (with a hidden door!) and a trellis with a colonial flourish give the outdoor patio a minimal contemporary look

A HIGH-GLOSS BUNGALOW Shiny whites and pops of color make for a perfect modern art backdrop

PROJECT: MONTECITO HOUSE LOCATION: MONTECITO, CA INTERIOR DESIGNER: THOMASIN FOSHAY OF FOSHAY DESIGN

The Montecito House is a tiny cottage tucked away among the exorbitant manses of the town’s rich and famous. And while it may look small in comparison to its neighbors, its refined design packs a powerful punch. New York-based interior designer Thomasin Foshay liberated the space by knocking down walls, opening the ceiling, and punching out doors and windows to let in natural light.

“With a small space, light is your greatest ally,” says Foshay. To further enhance the home’s natural glow, Foshay painted the ceiling and walls a vibrant white and offset its monochromatic sheen using bursts of bold primary colors. The pared-down palette also provides the perfect backdrop for homeowner Bobbie Foshay’s rotating art collection, making the revamped bungalow feel like an elegant gallery that’s much larger than it actually is. —ANN CHOU Photos by Andrea Brizzi, andreabrizzi.com

As the former president of MoMA’s Contemporary Arts Council, Bobbie Foshay is an avid modern art collector.

She likes to rotate her pieces through her home.

Design Thinking

To turn up the home’s volume, Foshay opened the existing eight-foot ceiling to the pitch of the roof and installed tongue and groove slats and rafters

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Portrait by Dutch photographer Hendrik Kerstens. His work references the Dutch masters but features mundane items, including the subject’s plastic bag headpiece

Louis XV-style chairs provide a stately touch to the living area

Foshay applied an espresso stain and four coats of polyurethane to the new oak floor to give it extra sheen. “A high gloss finish creates the illusion of depth. The floor looks like it goes on for miles,” she says.

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IN THE DETAILS

Foshay added a large picture window over the soaking tub to open the bathroom onto views of the garden

A shock of yellow makes for a cheery guest bath

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IN THE DETAILS The English Knolestyle sofa by J.J. Custom is covered in a Calvin fabric that stands up to Newsome’s two rat terriers. “It’s also extra deep, which allows us to cuddle up to watch movies,” she says.

Newsome always keeps the Classic Cloth sheers closed to filter the light

Newsome upholstered the Warren Planter chairs in a glazed green linen by Brochier.

“They’re one of my favorite pieces,” she says. “We’ve reupholstered them twice and will do it again with our next home.”

AT-HOME CURIOSITY SHOP Mix-and-match pieces from zany sources keep this Denver apartment looking fresh

PROJECT: UNIVERSITY HILLS APARTMENT LOCATION: DENVER, CO INTERIOR DESIGNERS: CONNI NEWSOME & ASHLEY LARSON OF CA INTERIOR DESIGN

Interior designer Conni Newsome lives with her husband in a small space that’s a mash-up of different styles. “Many of our favorite movies are set in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. The interiors in those films were spectacular,” she says of her inspirations. To keep the home looking pulled-together, Newsome worked with her design partner, Ashley Larson, to build vignettes in each room. They coordinate well as a larger collection so that the Newsome’s eclecticism is kept in check. “I love seeing the vignettes that not only serve as decoration, but also have a function,” Larson says. “Every space tells a story.”

—KATHRYN FREEMAN RATHBONE Photos by Jason Jung

“The bar cart—it has a sense of humor. I love the vintage cart and glasses, the architectural lamp, and the Italian mirror,” Larson says.

Newsome describes her headboard as “tall, dark, and sexy”

The bedroom’s blank wall is the perfect place for a bike rack. “It’s the only place we had where we could store my husband’s bike, so we rolled with it.”

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IN THE DETAILS

Philippe Starck’s Eros swivel chairs add “surprise and sparkle” to the dining room.

Knutsen says everybody likes to spin in them.

A view into Knutsen’s living room from her pool deck

Custom steel supports hold up Knutsen’s massive table slab at just the right angle

CALIFORNIA COOL Fiery reds set against soothing browns and raw materials pull this laid-back home all together

PROJECT: MODESTO HOUSE LOCATION: MODESTO, CA INTERIOR DESIGNER: SONJA KNUTSEN OF SONJA KNUTSEN INTERIOR DESIGN

Sonja Knutsen had known her home for 25 years prior to purchasing it. Longtime family friends had put the house on the market, and when its sale fell through, Knutsen decided to buy it instead. “It was a sign. I thought, ‘It’s got to stay in the family,’” she says. She took the keys almost immediately and knew exactly what she wanted to do with the design. Raw materials and deep earth tones set up the perfect staging ground for Knutsen’s favorite family treasures.

—KATHRYN FREEMAN RATHBONE

Photos courtesy of Sonja Knutsen

Design Thinking

The metal shower curtain is actually a sheet of cascade coil drapery. “It only came in aluminum, so I painted it with auto paint because I didn’t like the light silver color,” she says.

The previous homeowners had converted the bathtub into a soaking tub, but Knutsen had it blasted out and restored to its original deep footprint.

“The niche usually holds shampoos and soaps,” she says with a laugh.

Candles take the toiletries’ place when partygoers come over.

Corten steel toughens up the living room fireplace. The square grids can be opened and closed using a pulley system, and the low ledge is the perfect height for lounging.

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Knutsen drilled a hole in the back of this Japanese Tansu trunk so she could neatly stow away her hairdryer

Knutsen’s custom bed was so large it almost didn’t fit into the house.

“We had to remove the frame from the sliding door to get it in,” she says.

The ceiling’s skylight is one of Knutsen’s favorite architectural details

Like the color of Knutsen’s bed? She looked through more than a thousand fabric swatches to find the perfect shade. “It’s hot, hot, hot,” she says of iridescent pinkish-orange.

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IN THE DETAILS

A top deck complete with a pool, spa, and bar makes for the perfect place to take in some sun

SHIP SHAPE STYLE This minimalist yacht serves as the perfect luxe home while sailing the seven seas

PROJECT: THE M.Y. SIREN LOCATION: MYKONOS, GREECE INTERIOR DESIGNER: KATHARINA RACZEK OF NEW CRUISE YACHT PROJECTS & DESIGN

The M.Y Siren is a yacht in constant motion. “A boat is always moving since there are forces that pull it on each side,“ says Katharina Raczek, who designed its interiors. “You have to [keep] an eye out for how you mount things, and make sure you have rails so books don’t fly out of shelves. Designed with what she calls a fresh and modern reduced style, the yacht, which clocks in at 7,300 square feet, is perfect for entertaining and can accommodate up to 14 people. “[The design] comes from my soul,” says Raczek. “It has a good ambience, and is modern and cozy. When you step on board, you feel it right away.”

On top of that, Raczek’s smart design details keep everything in place, even while sailing through the roughest waters. —LESLEY STANLEY

Interior photos by Klaus Jordan. All others provided by New Cruise

The dining room has two tables, made of gray maple with an ebony inlay, that seat 22 people.

An illuminated buffet rises out of the table and is ideal for family-style spreads.

Design Thinking Rectangular recess ceiling lighting, which continues throughout the boat, was added to give the appearance of a lightweight, floating ceiling

The main lounge and dining area have an open plan and a calming color palette of oyster, taupe, mauve, and plum. “You can nearly feel [the Zen-like atmosphere] physically when you step into the room,” says Raczek.

Raczek says she wanted an opulence in these rooms. A pearl-adorned bedspread ties in with the sheen of the silk luxe carpet border, while the creamy maple walls complement the bird’s-eye maple furniture.

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OUTSIDE THE BOX

As the Internet continues to change the way we shop, retail design is more important than ever—and it’s never been better. These 30 high-style spots around the world take the brick and mortar store to a whole new level.

PHOTO BY DUSDIN CONDREN SHOT ON LOCATION AT OHWOW BOOK CLUB IN NEW YORK STYLING BY LEXYROSE BOIARDO, BONNIE TURTUR, AND ANTOINE BREGMAN MAKEUP AND HAIR BY BRITTANY WHITE MODEL: JESSICA WITH MAJOR MODEL MANAGEMENT

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Temporary pop-up shops provide designers with the perfect space to bring bold new looks

THE ULTIMATE RETAIL SURFACE Rafael de Cárdenas’ storefront designs are out of control, and that’s just how he likes it

BY MURRYE BERNARD PHOTOS BY ERIC LUC

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Nota Design is known for its bold, experimental, and sometimes risky wall finishes. “We did a downtown New York loft bathroom inspired by Moorish design,” says Nota’s owner Peggy Bates of a particularly memorable project. Appropriating a technique called tadelakt, the team painted and plastered the walls to feel as if they were covered in intricate handmade tiles. Architecture at Large took notice of Nota’s interesting portfolio and tapped the firm for two upcoming projects. Bates immediately said yes. “We felt we could design surfaces on walls, ceilings, and furniture that create the unexpected,” she says. We’ll just have to wait and see to find out.

D

ressed casually in a pink and green plaid shirt, shorts, and slip-on sneakers, with his clip-on sunglasses flipped up, Rafael de Cárdenas is a firm believer in looking good over feeling comfortable. His theory seems to extend to his retail design work, as he’s responsible for overthe-top designs for stores like Nike, Cynthia Rowley, and Barneys in his role as the founder of New York-based Architecture at Large. Unsurprisingly, de Cárdenas is a lover of fashion and, by his own admission, the ultimate consumer. He shares how he plans to recreate the retail experience and his belief that comfort should be sacrificed in shoes and sofas.

RAFAEL’S WOWWORTHY SHOPS Photo by Jordan Kleinman

MURRYE BERNARD: You started your career as a fashion designer at Calvin

Klein, and now you work completely in architecture. What parallels between fashion and architecture do you see in your current work?

RAFAEL DE CÁRDENAS: Fashion is really my first love: the ideas of styling, dressing and undressing, costuming, and robing. It translates into architecture and interiors and furniture. If you think about this idea of ‘surfacing’—which I hate using the word because it’s a ridiculously overused word in architecture—but that’s actually what fashion is, right? A surfacing of yourself to create a series of meanings. I have a similar approach in our practice, maintaining a dialogue with popular culture, fashion, and art. They’re all things that move fast. That’s my gripe with architecture, is that it tends to work on a slower pace.

Photo by Floto + Warner Photo by Jordan Kleinman

MB: It seems like, as a child of the ’80s, you’ve also been heavily influenced by that decade.

RDC: Some of it is nostalgia—it’s easy to look back to the time in which you were breast-fed on culture, so to speak. The early ’80s was that for me. They were a significant time in American culture, when design risks were taken across the board. Music, fashion, and design. There was this kind of frivolity; it was the age of gratuitous nudity in films.

MB: Do you look to films for inspiration?

RDC: Movies are a big inspiration. Right

now we’re working on a project where all of the visual language is inspired by the film The Hunger from 1983, specifically Catherine Deneuve’s clothes.

Aaron Somers fabricated the reveal between the shelving at the OHWOW Bookstore. The trompe l’oeil makes the slim ledges visually lighter. “We do all kinds of different finishes and play around with abstract painting and burning effects,” says Somers of his design process. “Working with Rafael has introduced me to so many artists that my work has been moving more towards art production.”

MB: You love to incorporate bright colors and strong geometries into your retail designs, which can make those spaces feel disorienting. Does being a little uncomfortable make people want to shop?

RDC: Most interesting things come out of insecurity and discomfort because you are hyper-aware of yourself and how you fit into the world. Comfort is boring. If a sofa is comfortable, it’s ugly. Shoes that look comfortable are ugly. When designing interior projects, there’s always someone who says, ‘Well, it’s got to be comfortable.’ And I’m like, ‘Are your 500 pairs of Balenciaga shoes about comfort?’

MB: Which brands are doing it right, in your opinion?

RDC: Jil Sander exhibits perfect, impeccable branding. None of that is comfort-

able. There’s nothing comfortable about walking into the original Gabellini Sheppard-designed stores. The giant, cavernous spaces don’t give you code for how to behave; there’s no furniture, so you don’t even know what you’re supposed to do.

You don’t have a clear path. That’s interesting to me.

MB: What’s going to happen if you start designing spaces for comfort?

RDC: Comfortable people do not produce interesting things. People who are under duress produce interesting things. The more successful people become, the less interesting their work. a

De Cárdenas leads the branding efforts for OHWOW, a Miami-based gallery, publisher, and creative community that lives in pop-up shops that, well, pop. For his design of two OHWOW shops in Miami, de Cárdenas drew inspiration from a variety of sources. The black and white color scheme makes for a graphic background, and the custom shelving units reference patterns from Navajo blankets. These elements, combined with the aqua walls with jagged cut-outs and glaring fluorescent lights above, contribute to an effect that is so dynamic, customers might just forget about the books for sale.

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HERE TODAY...

Photos by Sarah Shepard

01 AETHERSTREAM San Francisco Thierry Gaugain thinks big—like yachts and airplanes big. He creates outside-thebox designs that celebrate mobility and authenticity. So when L.A.-based outfitter Aether needed a designer to transform a 34-foot Airstream PanAmerica trailer into the retail version of the ultimate man cave, Gaugain was the perfect fit. “Aether is a brand built around mobility, not a caricature of adventure,” says Gaugain. His sleek mobile toy chest has carried Aether’s cool, outdoorsy, man’s man vibe to stops in L.A., San Francisco, and New York.

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Words by Jenny Wilson

02 Photos courtesy of Snarkitecture

ODIN New York

So simple, so effective. Snarkitecture’s Alex Mustonen and Daniel Arsham created this dramatic and pleasantly disorienting space to present Odin’s unisex fragrance line using only the bottle itself—1,500 of them to be exact. Cast in white gypsum cement, the bottles hang in a soft wave pattern from the ceiling and rise boldly from the floor. By replicating the recognizable shape and flipping the color scheme to an unexpected matte white, Snarkitecture allowed Odin’s actual fragrances in their dark bottles to become the focal points in the otherwise light and clean sea of white.

Photo by Gonzalo Baro

03 ZALANDO Berlin Considering the irony, we’d say German designer Sigurd Larsen did a fantastic job of creating a physical presence for a retailer whose business all takes place through the mail. Larsen says he likes his projects to tell stories while simultaneously solving problems. By creatively transforming three large shipping containers into freestanding closets, Larsen tells the story of the online shoes and clothes retailer Zalando. The uncomplicated background creates unity among the clothing’s various patterns and colors. Even after its dismantling, Larsen’s work will live on: The entire interior of the shop will serve as furniture for the company’s new headquarters.

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HERE TODAY...

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BOTAS 66

ILLY

Prague

Milan

Shoelaces decorating a shoe shop—who knew that could turn out so cool? The creative team at A1 Architects finds inspiration in the often-overlooked details of everyday objects, so for Czech shoe company Botas 66, co-designers Lenka Křemenová and David Maštálka made part of the shoes into part of the design. By attaching 1,800 shoelaces to an overhead grid, they created a colorful soffit that elevates the laces from utilitarian shoe parts to a playful and certainly tactile work of art. And, yes, Botas 66 reused the laces.

Take sugar with your coffee? Resembling giant sugar cubes, 200 white cubbies display a variety of Illy coffee products and form the shop’s tables, lights, video screens, and recycling containers. Italian designer Caterina Tiazzoldi started with a generic 45cm-squared shape and manipulated depth, thickness, opacity, length, and extrusions in order to represent different characteristics of the brand’s products.

She covered both the walls and the ceiling, creating a playful, multidimensional environment that can easily be reconfigured .

Photo by David Maštálka

Photo by Luca Campigotto

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Words by Jenny Wilson

Photos by Evan Joseph

06 THE LAKE & STARS New York Ooh la la. New York-based design studio SOFTlab partnered with Focus Lighting to create a pop-up shop that acts as a peep show for lingerie boutique The Lake & Stars. Shoppers peer at specifically chosen details of the lingerie through kaleidoscope-like dichroic acrylic viewing cones that change in color and reflectivity based on the angle. By viewing the intricate, beautiful details of the merchandise first, people get the opportunity to appreciate the pieces without being forced to decide whether to touch and try them on. This bit of playfulness helped to reduce the intimidation factor often involved with lingerie shopping.

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Daring Designs Mannequins on the ceiling, lunch bags on the walls... imagination runs wild at these far-out stores

NEW YORK This fashion boutique in New York’s Meatpacking District gives new meaning to the term “brownbagging it.” Jeremy Barbour of Brooklyn-based Tacklebox Architecture designed this honeycomb-like floor-to-ceiling archway with 25,000 brown paper lunch bags, adding a texture to the space that is both edgy and elegant. “It perfectly resembles my vision and direction for the store to incorporate the industrial history of the building with this juxtaposition of this floral, curved ceiling,” says owner Phillip Salem.

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Photos by Juliana Sohm

OWEN

A brand whose shoes are little works of art must display them as such. Especially when it’s a brand co-founded by cutting-edge architect Rem Koolhaas. Koolhaas, who serves as United Nude’s creative director, designed this Amsterdam flagship as a “dark shop.” The store is completely dark except for product displays, most remarkably the computer-controlled color-changing LED light wall that highlights shoes tucked in uniform cubbyholes, which stretch from floor to ceiling and gently curve around the perimeter of the store.

Photo courtesy of United Nude

UNITED NUDE AMSTERDAM

Photo by Ramon Prat

ARMANI STORE NEW YORK To unite a massive space occupying three floors across two buildings on high-profile Fifth Avenue, Italian designers Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas bid farewell to geometry and dreamed up a form-defying central staircase whose sensuous curves emanate upward and outward throughout the store.

Built with steel and clad in a dreamlike white plastic, this sculptural centerpiece creates an exciting sense of movement that echoes in the subtly curved walls, tables, and display cases.

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Photo courtesy of Billy Poh and Paul Coudamy

DARING DESIGNS

COMME DES GARÇONS TOKYO Talk about organic design. For Comme des Garçons’ Dover Street Market Ginza store in Tokyo, French designer Paul Coudamy created what he calls “an uncertain explosion, a wild and invasive sculpture” resembling two giant trees crashing on the ceiling of the otherwise vanilla space. Coudamy constructed his “Fantastique Canopée,” as it’s called, from 9,715 wooden planks without a clear end in sight, and it looks as though its scaly bark could just keep on growing.

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Photo by Kanta Ushio

DIESEL DENIM GALLERY TOKYO

SMALL SPACE, BIG DESIGN Photo by Andrey Avdeenko

Diesel has been successfully rocking the retail-store-as-gallery concept for years in Tokyo, inviting global designers to create merchandise displays that are works of art in themselves. Diesel holds four exhibitions a year in its Shibuya store; the latest, Yoshimasa Tsutsumi’s “Digit,” runs through Feb. 17, 2013.

Inspired by fossils trapped in lava, the installation’s tiny plastic boxes allow the merch to fuse with the display—and inspire us to dig up those old pin-art toys we found so fascinating as kids.

PETITE SHOPS

SOLO UKRAINE For this cosmetics showroom, Odessabased Studio Belenko channeled a child playing with building blocks—though Belenko kept its fresh white playroom nice and tidy. belenko.com Photo by David Joseph

Photo courtest of 3Gatti

ALTER

Welcome to the fun house. In response to a limited surface area in the Shanghai boutique Alter, Italian architect and designer Francesco Gatti created a continuous stepped space for product displays, and to maintain a continuous visual flow throughout the store, he ran those steps right up the walls and onto the ceiling. And he didn’t stop there: The designer added a series of unclothed white mannequins, posing them on the steps in every direction.

We’re not going to say Lionel Richie’s “Dancing on the Ceiling” music video was the inspiration for this, but we’re not ruling it out, either.

Nemaworkshop turned a coffee bar near the Bryant Park Library on its head—putting hardwood flooring on the wall and lining the rest with custom bookshelf tiles. nemaworkshop.com Photo by Michael Franke

SHANGHAI

D’ESPRESSO NEW YORK

DIPTYQUE LONDON Christopher Jenner worked all the way to the Victorian pressed ceiling in this tiny shop, decking tall cabinets with turned brass, stained glass, and antique mirror. christopher-jenner.com

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OHWOW pop-up for Cappellini's Greenwich Village store. Photo by Floto + Warner

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Shops With History We’d rather buy our shoes from the place where Franz Kafka was born, too

Photo courtesy of Edit! Architects

PRAGUE

Photo by Ryan Lewis

SHOPPING WITH A CONSCIENCE

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THESE STORES DON’T JUST LOOK GOOD, THEY DO GOOD

826 STORES Eight offbeat stores around the U.S.—like Superhero Supply Co. and Time Travel Mart—fund the nonprofit youth writing program 826 (826national. org), founded by Dave Eggers.

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Photo courtesy of Treasure & Bond

PUMA SOCIAL CLUB

Talk about a metamorphosis. Puma enlisted Edit! Architects to create this retail shop and café in Prague, but this was no ordinary location: The early 20th-century building is the birthplace of novelist Franz Kafka. To get back to its historic basics, Edit! ousted additions to the space, including a mezzanine level, and (at Puma’s request) workshopped the redesign concept with architecture students. The resulting motif of steel chains suspending the products was inspired by Czech coal miners’ practice of raising their clothes from the mine on chains to air them out.

Photos courtesy of Mexx

MEXX

DEN BOSCH, NETHERLANDS

At a time when many elegant old movie houses have been razed or fallen into disrepair, a big “bravo” goes to retail mega-chain Mexx and Belgian architecture and design firm DIFFERENT by Design for embracing the historic charms of this 1930s Art Deco theater. Period details like leaded glass, naturally patinated stone cladding on the façade, pink theater chairs, uplighting reminiscent of red-carpet searchlights, and even the cinema’s original projector were all worked into the layout of the 7,500-square-foot store.

Photos by Marcus Zumbansen

TREASURE & BOND This Nordstrom-owned warehousechic NYC shop (stocking everything from clothes to furniture) sends 100 percent of its profits to NYC children’s charities.

CHRISTIAN KOBAN Designer Studio Kattentidt spared nearly 9,000 pounds of rubber from the Berlin dump by upcycling car tires into awesome jewelry cases.

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Photos courtesy of LP/w Design Studios

SHOPS WITH HISTORY

5 HEARTS MILWAUKEE

A renovated jewel in the heart of Milwaukee’s Third Ward neighborhood (listed on the National Register of Historic Places), 5 Hearts is a chic boutique designed to echo its womanly wares. Designer Libby Castro of LP/w Design Studios combined varying textures—like a white quilted wall with geometric wooden shelving—to achieve a sophisticated shop with sass that is undeniably feminine. Hot pink highlights the wall behind the register, but so does a clever practicality: Every rack is on castors so the shop can be reconfigured. With Nelson bubble lights, illuminated mirrors, and season-specific graphics that can be rotated, 5 Hearts is posh without pretension. —KATIE TANDY

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Photo by Andrea Martiradonna

ZARA ROME

Rome has no shortage of historic structures and epic preservation projects, so we’re happy to see Zara take care of Palazzo Bocconi, a whopping neo-Renaissance-style palace on Largo Chigi that dates to 1886.

Duccio Grassi Architects sought to create a harmony between the historic architecture, what they call “the soul of the building,” with both the requirements of a contemporary retail store and a brand identified with fresh and modern looks. Grassi restored the large front windows to their original size and removed modern false ceilings, creating a majestic open center that gives breathing room to the stately building and its wellspaced merchandise.

Already familiar with their reputation, artistic background, and custom interiors, LP/w contacted 360 Degrees for their help on the 5 Hearts Boutique. 360 made the boutique’s flexibility possible by building portable fixtures, clothing racks, and adjustable shelving. The fixtures even help establish 5 Hearts’ funky aesthetic through their industrial materials and dark colors. “Besides the functionality and unique design, it looks fresh,” says 360 owner Brian Polster of the designs.

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Hip Flagships Expect the biggest and baddest designs at these brands’ most high-profile stores

02

SANDAST

CUSTO BARCELONA

Los Angeles

New York

For his downtown L.A. flagship, leather designer Milan Franeta created a space as rugged and stylish as his vintage-inspired bags, belts, and shoes. “This location used to be an auto garage,” says Sandast co-founder Chris Pak. “We really loved its pre-existing antique wall and high wood ceilings. We built everything with recycled woods and materials, from the walls to the furniture.” Don’t be surprised if you have to step through sawdust to snag a smooth-as-silk Italian leather handbag from atop an old American horse sadldle.

If Custo Barcelona opens its U.S. flagship, can spring be far behind?

Italian artist Francesca Signori drew on the fresh, light, and relaxed fashions of the Spanish clothier for her design of its main NYC outpost. The ceiling of the otherwise pretty tame space bursts with huge, brightly colored pendant lamps from SoftLab and Signori’s delicate strands of flowers that cascade from the ceiling, creating a cheery, spring-air feeling. Signori’s sometime gig as a cake designer is evident in the candylike colors and textures.

Photo by Francesca Signori

Photo by Stoyan Vassev

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Photo by Itay Sikolsky

SHOW-STOPPING SHOWROOMS

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PENTHOUSE, TEL AVIV

JEAN DE MERRY

Showroom design can be tricky. With insider clientele looking to cut through the noise and focus on the product, it’s tough to still create a statement-making space. But Studio Yaron Tal succeeds with this modern, elegantly unobtrusive look— a perfect foil for Penthouse’s brightly colored furniture.

Warning: Spend enough time wandering the homelike Jean de Merry furniture showrooms in New York, Chicago, or L.A.—an expansive space filled with natural light and impeccably outfitted with tastefully eclectic designer wares—and your brain may trick you into thinking you’re at home. But they won’t let you spend the night. Trust us.

03 UNIQLO Tokyo

Twelve stories. A brand synonymous with hipness. Tokyo, home to some of the most exhilarating design in the world. With the pressure on, design firm Wonderwall really raised the bar for Uniqlo’s already awe-inspiring interiors with this fullheight glass façade guarded by revolving white lacquer mannequins. No two floors are exactly alike; they bestow such goodies as space-expanding ceiling mirrors, perimeter-long LED ticker tapes, bottom-lit plexiglass product displays, and armies of lined-up mannequins that resemble modern-day Terracotta Warriors.

Photos courtesy of Albus Design

Photos by Samuel Frost

Photo courtesy of Wonderwall

GOBBI NOVELLE, BRAZIL Albus Design found inspiration for its design of the Gobbi Novelle furniture store in Porto Alegre in a quote from Aristotle Onassis: “I dye my hair white for business meetings, and black for romantic outings.” They applied the black-and-white theme throughout the store, including in these hot splitpersonality “libraries.”

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HIP FLAGSHIPS Photo courtesy of Vipp

04 VIPP Copenhagen You’ve got to be pretty good at what you do to get a garbage can into the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Vipp’s chief designer Morten Bo Jensen may not have been around for the 1939 pedal steel trash bin that first launched the brand to fame, but he does its legacy justice in his über-sleek design of the Danish kitchen and bath retailer’s flagship in Copenhagen. With its two-tone palette, clean lines, and concrete floors, the space is the definition of minimalism, and who does minimalism better than the Scandinavians?

Photo courtesy of Eight Inc.

05 NOKIA São Paolo No, this isn’t a set from Tron, it’s Eight Inc.’s Nokia flagship store in Brazil. Electronics companies compete to keep their products on the cutting-edge, so why should their bricks-and-mortar stores be any different?

Eight struck out to integrate technology into its design, creating translucent walls lit by color-changing LEDs above a panorama of LCD screens that are controlled by the display phones. And if you want to ditch the futuristic lighting, there’s a comfy courtyard in the back with a contrasting vibe—sunlight, landscaped green walls, and lounge furniture.

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http://www.facebook.com/buildit360 Custom furniture - Signage - Commercial/Residential Interior Design/Build - Sculpture

360 Degrees provides superior custom design & build services for commercial and residential spaces. Our associates are distinguished by their functional, technical & artistic expertise. Being a small firm, clients can appreciate our care and passion. We are 5 years strong with over 13 years tenure. Recent projects use reclaimed lumber and raw steel to create a defined look and build sustainability. Each design is unique and original, transforming ideas into works of art.

3950 North Holton Street, Milwaukee, WI 53212 | (414) 906-0360 | info@buildit360.com

FREE iPad edition

ARCHITECTURE: THE PEOPLE, PLACES, AND IDEAS DRIVING CONTEMPORARY DESIGN A Special Edition from Design Bureau Get it in print at wearedesignbureau.com or for free on the iPad at itunes.com

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BIG SHAPES BRIGHT COLORS BOLD HUES AND GEOMETRIC FORMS DEFINE THESE DESIGNER SPACES

135 ANTHONY BARATTA, LLC Designer’s apartment Miami Photo by Michel Arnaud

A Damien Hirst dot painting

A George Nelsoninspired headboard

Wet-look orange vinyl walls

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In partnership with Baccarat, de CĂĄrdenas fuses tradition and modernity by illuminating the space with two crystal chandeliers and industrial neon lights.

De Cårdenas’ design strikes a contemporary tone inspired by utopian designers of the 1960s and 1970s such as Joe Colombo

137 RAFAEL DE CĂ RDENAS Derniers Jours at AD IntĂŠrieurs 2012: Voyages Imaginaires Photo by Matthieu Salvaing

The hard-lined geometric floor echoes the dynamic shapes of the bed and office, which are infinitely reflected by highly reflective black walls and ceiling.

Simplistic blacks and whites are infused with pops of teal, rich eggplant, and dark wood in the optically buzzing patterned carpet by Inigo Elizalde.

138 GARY HUTTON DESIGN Mt. Tiburon Residence Mt. Tiburon, CA Photo by Matthew Millman

Frank Stella’s Honduras Lottery Co, painted initially in 1962

Hans Bellmer’s 1938 sculpture La Toupie, which translates roughly to “Peg Top”

The silver patinated A6 coffee table is a custom Gary Hutton design Vintage Gio Ponti chairs

139 MCK ARCHITECTURE & INTERIORS DPR House Sydney, Australia Photos by Willem Rethmeier The long linear kitchen draws the eye down the middle of the home, out toward the lawned garden

White zones and plate glass windows dominate the downstairs area

Whether it is timber, exposed brick work, or bald marble, materials do the talking, bringing a restrained color and texture to this sculptural space

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Features

MAXIMUM MINI It’s been more than a decade since the classic British car was revived by BMW, but its look is as stylish as ever

Features

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Q+A

T

Anders Warming HEAD OF MINI DESIGN he drive up to the Circuit Paul Ricard racetrack in Le Castellet, France, offers everything you would imagine from this coastal region of Provence: winding roads over rolling hills, pictureperfect vineyards, and sleepy towns full of romanticized French Country architecture.

But on one perfect weekend in May, we also found one unforgettable sight—the idyllic landscape littered with thousands of highly customized cars. More than 25,000 MINI owners from around the world gathered to celebrate the small vehicle with the big design at MINI United 2012, and Design Bureau was lucky enough to go along for the ride.

DB: What are a few of the most subtle, yet lasting, design changes since the original MINI?

Not many compact car brands can claim to have the kind of zealous fan base that MINI has, and we like to think its loyal following stems from those sporty good looks and the care that MINI has paid to both form and function from its inception through to today’s latest models.

AW: Certain “genuine” design icons have been retained from the classic Mini and have always been developed further, like the hexagon grille and round headlamps with fog lights as beauty spots.

“MINI today is a cult, a way of life, and more contemporary than ever,” says Adrian van Hooydonk, senior vice president of BMW Group Design.

DB: What are the fundamentals of MINI design?

AW: All MINIs provide as much space as possible for the occupants in the smallest footprint possible in order to maximize interior space. The short overhangs and the principle of “stance on the wheels,” which means that the four wheels are positioned at the outermost part of the body, underline the sporty character of the MINI. This gives it its distinctive appearance and the typical go-kart driving experience. So even when it grows in size or gets a model makeover, the MINI design takes care to transfer the typical proportions of the vehicle.

The principles of MINI design follow the archetypes of the human body, uniting the muscular shoulders of a man, the soft, flowing forms of a woman, and the cuteness of a child. The goal, according to MINI, is to create “an emotionally charged form.”

With all the men, women, and children gathered in Provence to cheer their favorite car at MINI United, we’d say it’s working. a

A MINI TIMELINE The MINI launched in the U.K. with one instantclassic model in 1959. It became a movie star in the 1969 film The Italian Job (and again in 2003). John Lennon and Queen Elizabeth II even drove the small, moderately priced car that was practical yet stylish. BMW purchased the design in 2001 and set about updating and expanding the lineup while remaining faithful to the original design pioneered by Sir Alec Issigonis. You know what they say, if it ain’t broke…

All photos courtesy of MINI

1959

2000

Morris Mini, first Mini produced in 1959

Classic Mini (The Original), produced until 2000

DESIGN BUREAU

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Model R50: MINI Cooper Hardtop

Model R50: MINI Cooper Hardtop

Model R50: MINI Cooper Hardtop

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DESIGN BUREAU

CORE77 DESIGN AWARDS 2012 Each fall, Core77 recognizes some of the world’s best design work. “We were able to honor over 200 unique projects from 22 different countries,” says Sarah Spear, manager of the 2012 awards. See the entire list below.

CATEGORY

PROJECT TITLE

DESIGNER / TEAM NAME

EQUIPMENT

PRO

Crown RM 6000 MonoLift™ Reach Truck EG - Personal head protection for the mining environment

Crown Design Maxime Dubreucq

STUDENT

PACKAGING

NuBone Packaging Tights packaging

Jacky Kaho Ling, David Dong-Hee Suh Seoyeon Hong

STUDENT

The Service Design Programme Museumvirus

Design Wales Clementina Gentile + Northernlight. School: TU Delft, Design for Interaction

The Revolights bike lighting system Shavit - Electronic Adjustable Superbike

Kent Frankovich & Revolights Eyal Melnick / Shenkar college of design and engineering, Israel

PRO Graphic Design: Now in Production catalogue STUDENT The New Design Smell

Walker Art Center design studio

PRO

STUDENT

SERVICE

TRANSPORTATION

PRO

PRO

STUDENT

VISUAL COMMUNICATION

SOCIAL IMPACT

PRO

Eliodomestico AdaptAir Pediatric Nasal Interface

Gabriele Diamanti Alejandro Palandjoglou / Stanford University

Edible Containers - Diane Bisson CityGrill

Diane Leclair Bisson Copenhagen School of Design and Technology

Teagueduino

TEAGUE

STUDENT

FOOD

PRO

Michèle Champagne / Sandberg Institute Amsterdam, Design Department

STUDENT

INTERACTION

PRO

WRITING & COMMENTARY

STUDENT

The Intertwining—Bodies and Spaces in the Aftermath of Argentina’s Dirty War

Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa / California College of the Arts (Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies)

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES

PRO College of Design, Engineering and Commerce (DEC), Philadelphia University

DEC Core Curriculum

STRATEGY & RESEARCH

PRO GE User Experience Strategy and Capacity Building STUDENT Defining patient-centered design opportunities in stereotactic breast biopsy

frog

FURNITURE & LIGHTING

PRO

Philips Freestreet kuli

STUDENT

SPECULATIVE

Window to the World

INTERIORS & EXHIBITIONS

PRO

SoundAffects NYC Liminal Spaces

Charlotte Lux / University of Notre Dame

Philips Design Julia Wolf & Felix Haeffner Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Toyota Motor Europe/Kansei Design

STUDENT

Tellart Innovation Design Engineering students / Royal College of Art (MA) + Imperial College London (MSc)

DIY

Laser-Cut Folding Ukulele Kit

Brian Chan

CONSUMER PRODUCTS

PRO

Lytro Light Field Camera Musicon

NewDealDesign LLC Kamil Laszuk / Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw, Poland - design

Maxi-Cosi Pria 70 Whaletale

ram Daye Kim / California College of the Arts

STUDENT

SOFT GOODS

PRO

STUDENT

Architects of advanced reality, New Deal Design creates objects and non-objects that seamlessly bridge cultural shifts, business dynamics, and tech spheres. “I connect my design to the everyday lives of people and the purpose of the core technology we deal with,” says Gadi Amit, founder of New Deal Design. “With this connection, I am able to build

a strong meaning for the product, which serves as the cultural grounding for simplicity and style.” New Deal’s designs, including their most recent work for Singlemedia, Fitbit, Better Place, and Lytro, live up to their mission: they are uncluttereed and easy to understand, perfect for constantly on-the-go people everywhere.

THIS ISSUE’S BEST ALBUMS

Music

DESIGN BUREAU

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ALARMPRESS

Presented by

DEFTONES Koi No Yokan (Reprise/Warner Bros.)

Now onto its second album with new bassist Sergio Vega—who has subbed for Chi Cheng following his very serious car accident in 2008— alt-metal quartet Deftones is back with its usual blend of swagger, aggression, and emotion.

Koi No Yokan, a Japanese phrase that describes inevitable love, tries to capture a mood with its title alone. And, to the best of its abilities, it does so with deep guitar grooves and a renewed atmospheric interplay. The low-register tones again come courtesy of Stephen Carpenter’s eight-string guitar, and he balances the heft with midrange melodies and reverberating effects. Naturally, vocalist Chino Moreno plays a large part in the sound—which remains noisy and abrasive at times—with his breathy delivery and occasional agonized screams. And with slinky riffs, dreamy keyboards, and bellowing tonality, Koi No Yokan is an effective if unconventional reflection on its name. [SM] /01 02/

03/

04/

05/

06/

07/

NEUROSIS

GRAVEYARD

TY SEGALL

Honor Found in Decay (Neurot)

Lights Out (Nuclear Blast)

Twins (Drag City)

Twenty-five years after the influential sludgeand post-metal band issued its first LP, Pain of Mind, Neurosis remains as stark and dichotomous as ever with its 10th studio full-length.

Again led by guitarists/vocalists Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till, Honor Found in Decay pushes and pulls between anguish and ascension—between darkness and light—sometimes within the same passage.

The band is referring to the album (again produced by Steve Albini) as its “pinnacle studio effort,” and it’s hard to argue. Among the usual soft/loud dynamics is another assortment of sounds, whether effect-coated guitars or keyboard atmospherics, making the songs’ epic durations pass much more quickly. [SM] /02

Lights Out, the latest from Swedish psych-rock band Graveyard, is an album that drinks beer for breakfast, drives a rusty El Camino, and gets kicked out of bars for fun. Hot on the tails of 2011’s Hisingen Blues—which was as much a ’70s hard-rock homage as it was a reincarnation of the genre—Lights Out catapults the Black Sabbath sound into a more fuzzed-out, psychedelic universe.

Recorded entirely in analog, the album creeps in with the aggressive “An Industry of Murder,” cools off with “Hard Times Lovin’,” and hits a high point with the catchy “Goliath.” Joakim Nilsson’s gritty tenor is the perfect partner to Jonatan Ramm’s straightforward guitar work, and at the end, it’s lights out. [BVL] /03

On last year’s Goodbye Bread, garage-rock singer-songwriter Ty Segall displayed a newfound sense of maturity. On Twins, the San Francisco wunderkind is cast as a young lover awash in Beatles-indebted melodies, filtered through thick, grimy distortions à la Big Business or Lightning Bolt.

He hasn’t entirely abandoned lean, fistpumping rockers like “You’re the Doctor,” but either way, Segall truly shines when he embraces his gifts as a singer-songwriter. Paired with a female vocalist on the John Lennon-esque “The Hill” or harmonizing atop the gentle acoustic strum of “Gold on the Shore,” his songcraft is as adept as ever, even when it’s not blowing out speakers. [ZL] /04

EMERALDS

GRAILS / PHARAOH OVERLORD

WIRES UNDER TENSION

Just to Feel Anything (Editions Mego)

Black Tar Prophecies, Vol. 5 / Pharaoh Overlord (Kemado)

Replicant (Western Vinyl)

Cleveland trio Emeralds made queasy, sprawling, psychedelic drone music prior to 2010, when it released Does It Look Like I’m Here? That album condensed the music into concise, direct, and absolutely stunning takes on the formula.

Just to Feel Anything is a new mutation in the Emeralds pattern. The most noticeable addition is the regular presence of a drum machine, which places a grid over the proceedings that limits the meandering of previous albums. The upfront aggression of fast, midrange saw-tooth arpeggios has been swapped out for more delicate pads and chords. If the last album felt like an amplified variation on 1970s kosmische, this one feels like a modern take on the new age and electronicexperimentation of the early 1980s.

[PH] /05

Tied together by a mutual appreciation of psychedelia, this split record by Portland’s Grails and Finland’s Pharaoh Overlord is a fitting introduction to each obscure group.

With a masterful command of melody, Grails’ songs are like a miniature psychedelic Western score, offering smoke and twang with harmonized swells and acoustic timbres. It’s all joined by distorted bass grooves and guitar murmurs, and underpinned by a steady thump.

With two tracks eclipsing 24 minutes, Pharaoh Overlord takes another road to stoner bliss, allowing repetitious rock and ambient riffs to build and morph as the listener zones out (or in). It may be another road to the same end, but both journeys are spellbinding.

[SM] /06

Do androids dream of amazing music? If so, they might hear South Bronx duo Wires Under Tension, whose new album derives inspiration from Blade Runner and its Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

With help from a few friends, violinist/ multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz combine live performance with electronic manipulation, previously sounding like a progressive Dirty Three with aggressive hip-hop beats.

Replicant’s opener best channels Blade Runner’s rapid-fire synth programming, here topped with Tignor’s staccato violin accents, and elsewhere the influence is marked by swaths of electronics and custom software instruments. Paired with organically performed loops, metallic tones, and those huge beats, the music on Replicant is some of the best you didn’t hear about in 2012.

[SM] /07

Scott Morrow is the music editor at ALARM Press and author of This Week’s Best Albums, an eclectic weekly series presenting exceptional music. Visit www.alarmpress.com for more.

[PH] Patrick Hajduch, [ZL] Zach Long, [SM] Scott Morrow, [BVL] Benjamin van Loon

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For Hire

FOR HIRE DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

For Hire: Alli Berry FOR HIRE

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DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

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Design Talent This time, we’re putting our own intern on display.

She’s Fresh On the so pleasant and Market helpful, we sort of wish she wasn’t up for hire (and that we could keep her!)

FOR HIRE

DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

FOR HIRE

Design Talent Fresh On the Market

FOR HIRE DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

FOR HIRE DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

FOR HIRE

How did you pick design and illustration as your area of expertise?

The first programs I learned were Photoshop and DESIGN TALENT FRESH InDesign, soONmy early explorations with type and layers THE MARKET were horrific explosions of drop shadow and magnetic lasso. I started investigating what other designers were in the editorial realm and,DESIGN like every novice, I tried DESIGN TALENTdoing FRESH TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET THE MARKET to recreate what I was seeing. AsON I developed a workflow, I became hooked. I chose design and illustration because it became a way of merging my artistic skill, my love of technology, and my desire to reach out to people. It’s the trifecta.

FOR HIRE: Laura Allcorn DESIGN TALENT FRESH ON THE MARKET

FORFORHIRE HIRE

Who are some designers you look to for inspiration?

Tim Boelaars does great work with icons. Jackson Cavanaugh and James Edmonson are great with type.

Tauba Auerbach does fantastic things in general. Mike McQuaid does great local work here. Rick Valicenti, Two Points, and Superscript have great studios. And many of my classmates. So many great designers in this world...

What are your post-graduation career goals?

I want to start a design/print studio of my own. Also make more time for the activities I’ve been putting off while in school like climbing and skiing.

Why should somebody hire you?

Before you decorate, you must communicate. That’s something I really work toward. a

A sampling of Alli’s graphic design and illustration work (check out her stuff on pages 27 and 77, too!)

Alli Likes: Graph paper, calligraphic pens and markers, blue, red, yellow, The Popol Vuh, Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges, Don Draper, the Wasatch Mountains, backpacks, shoulder bags, bags, bags, bags—I love vessels for schlepping Alli Dislikes: Dark green, staring at the computer too much, the cup holders in cars, Android phone interfaces, not having ChapStick, Outta’ paper

RESUME SNAPSHOT: Alli Berry EDUCATION The School of the Art Institute of Chicago BFA in visual communication and design, expected graduation 2013

SELECT WORK EXPERIENCE Art Director, fnewsmagazine.com 2011-current Visual Display Intern, Anthropologie, 2012-current

Interested in being featured in For Hire? Email us at forhire@wearedesignbureau.com

SKILLS Painting, drawing, photography bookbinding, fiber arts, woodworking; proficient in Adobe CS5 Creative Suite, HTML5, CSS3, Java

Wanna hire Alli?

Check out her website: alliberry.com

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