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April 2008

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Apr 30 2008

Conférence Armchair by Jean Prouvé by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Aesthetics, Art, Design, History of Design, Inspiration, Materials, Product Design, furniture, history, wood
Jean Prouvé has done some fascinating nearly-Bauhaus work, including this c. 1950 armchair. It does have Bauhaus school elements such as the sharp color contrast and choice of colors as well as the textural contrast of metal and Leatherette. I would very much like to admire this piece in person.
Apr 27 2008

Art by the masses (Part 1 of 2) by Eric Silva
Filed under: Misplaced Thoughts
In 1996, Dave Soldier conducted a poll of 500 people on the Dia Art Foundation's web site. He was attempting to determine what people "liked" and "disliked" in music. Based on the results of the poll, he composed two songs, The Most Wanted Song and The Most Unwanted Song. Here are some notes by Soldier: This survey confirms the hypothesis that today's popular music indeed provides an accurate estimate of the wishes of the vox populi. The most favored ensemble, determined from a rating by participants of their favorite instruments in combination, comprises a moderately sized group (three to ten instruments) consisting ...
Apr 26 2008

Lindy Hop by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Misplaced Thoughts
Absolutely mesmerizing...
Apr 23 2008

The Better The Schooner by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Aesthetics, Design, Engineering, history, wood
The Thomas W. Lawson is the only seven-masted schooner ever built and holds the honor of being the largest schooner even built. Additionally, it is the largest ever pure-sailing ship (a sailing ship without auxiliary engine for propulsion). That said, it failed to carry the amount of cargo that it was designed for, sailors likened the handling to that of a "beached whale," and the boat was relegated to coastal shipping of coal instead of the mighty transatlantic voyages it was meant for. When it did finally set sail for London, it was torn to bits, killing ...
Apr 18 2008

Text Clock at Fuori Salone 2008 by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Aesthetics, Apple, Art, Associative Thought, Data Presentation, Design, Engineering, Product Design, Typography, Visualization
This clock by Christiaan Postma is fantastic. At first, it looks like a Sol LeWitt conceptual art piece. Then, you realize that some of the lines are turning to form the word of the hour. You can see the words forming and going back into chaos, which I guess tells you how far along you are in the hour. This part reminds me of the Mondaine "Don't Rush" wristwatch. Let's see this Christiaan Postma piece as a wristwatch! (...or an iPhone app.) (clock found via Pan-Dan)
Apr 15 2008

Olle Eksell by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Misplaced Thoughts
I have recently come upon the works of Olle Eksell. I think they are very beautiful and resonate with the aesthetic of Paul Rand. I haven't seen much information about the artist other than the fact that he is Swedish by birth which made it difficult at the time to study graphic design as educational resources were lacking for this field of study. Eksell died in April 2007 and there is an obituary in English by AGI. (via Happy Mundane)
Apr 11 2008

Maarten Baas Clay Furniture by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Misplaced Thoughts
I like the playful nature of Maarten Baas' furniture designs. The most immediately striking designs are in his "clay furniture" series (bench shown below). These pieces have a metal skeleton and clay skin, which is applied by hand. There's also the "smoke" series which involves torching some wood furniture, then putting out the flames and coating the remnants in a clear epoxy coating. There's a video of an exhibit for this series (Works->Smoke... sorry, can't link to it!) It looks like he torched some pretty desirable piece of furniture, including the drawers by Tejo Remy for ...
Apr 08 2008

Frank Lloyd Wright interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1957 by Eric Silva
Filed under: Misplaced Thoughts
Photo by Al Ravenna and the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress In 1957, Mike Wallace conducted a two part interview with Frank Lloyd Wright, spanning topics from Christianity to modern art. It's been made available by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and can be viewed here. Here are Wright's thoughts on certain types of criticisms of modern art: Wallace: What do you think of modern paintings that some people say look like scrambled eggs, some people say that serious modern music sounds like a bad night in a boiler factory. Wright: I've heard all those reactions, and don't you think ...
Apr 04 2008

Christian Dell by David Goligorsky
Filed under: Aesthetics, Architecture, Art, Design, History of Design, Materials, Politics, Product Design, history
Christian Dell was a German silversmith who is probably best known for his lamp designs through Gebr. Kaiser & Co. They represent the use of bakelite and plastics in products as early as 1929. According to the Wikipedia page, Walter Gropius invited him to America after Dell was forced from the Frankfurt art school by the Nazis, but Dell stayed in Germany. Now... Walter Gropius was the founder of the Bauhaus school at Weimar before it was shut down by the Nazis. Gropius eventually found himself in America and became the director of the Harvard Graduate School of ...
Apr 04 2008

I think we all believe in change by Christian Eager
Filed under: Associative Thought, Design, Graphic Design
I saw a new five-dollar bill the other day, and I can't help but agree with the implicit judgment from Jonathan Hoefler's juxtaposition: it sucks. I'm reading The Wisdom of Crowds right now and couldn't help but think about how it illustrated what seems so obvious from Surowiecki's crystal prose: aggregating diverse ideas generally produces the best results. Sure, there sometimes needs to be a mechanism for picking the best, but that works pretty well for Linux, the Iowa Electronic Market, and, evidently, the Royal Mint. Related: Get Helvetica Off Our Money

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