My love of chairs is legendary. I think I’ve just found me new favourite website in the whole world. Chair Whore.
Tag Archive for 'Design'
How could you NOT want to read a film magazine with covers as cool as these? For more on Little White Lies and to see more covers: www.littlewhitelies.co.uk
*note-to-self: see previous post’s note-to-self
Maybe it’s because I work at home, alone, with no one to talk to, that I have a strange obsession with other people’s offices. Call it Office Envy if you like. But thankfully the internet provides satisfaction for every fetish imaginable and my office fetish is no exception. Welcome to OfficeSnapshots.com, one of my favourite websties. I’ve spent/wasted/enjoyed many a long afternoon starring longingly at the monitors, desks and chairs that others take for granted. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Again, you’re welcome.
*the picture above is of the office of brand development agency The Wonderfactory. I like the shelves. I have a thing for shelves. I like putting things on shelves. I know. I’ll stop.
Just ordered my one-sheet poster for Gary Hustwit’s new film Objectified. It’s going in the kitchen next to the poster for Gary’s last film, Helvetica.
The film got its world premiere at SXSW in Austin last Saturday. The London screening is in April but it’s sold out. Which is a bugger because I was too slow and didn’t manage to get a ticket (Gary, if you’re reading this, please, I’d be very grateful). If you’ve now idea what I’m talking about, here’s the Objectified trailer.
If that looks liks something you might be interested in then check out the Helvetica trailer.
Gary is also on Twitter @gary_hustwit
I’ll stop now.
Objectified, the new documentary feature from Gary Hustwit of Helvetica fame, which gets its world premier in March at this year’s SxSW, will include a rare interview with Apple design guru, Englishman Jony Ive (I know, a bit jingoistic, but we have so little to shout about these days). Rarer still, the interview, from whence the above picture came, was filmed inside Apple’s Design Studio. Might not sound like much, but it’s on a par with pulling back the curtain and catching a glimpse of Oz.
Not since Bobby Kennedy ran for the democratic nomination in ‘68 has the idea of a particular individual being elected President stirred so many – particularly in the jaded world of creative media – into action. From the primaries to the inauguration, graphic design and photography have been at the centre of capturing, distilling and expressing the Obama feeling. The posters, the photographs and the graffiti, as much as all the viral videos and Twitter feeds, were key to making him larger than life, aspirational and look like a president in waiting even before he’d won the nomination. Where photographs of John McCain made him look folksy, those of Obama made him seem almost god like. The notion of Obama – not just the colour of his skin but his young, dynamic approach – spoke of revolution while the other candidate looked like more of the same. Those looking for a claim on history sensed the opportunity to take their Kennedy pictures, write their Kennedy stories, to design button badges and posters which just like Kennedy’s would tell future generations that it was the most exciting of times. Obama inspired the best and the most talented and they literally made him history.
Ah, the eternal question: What is cool?
Always followed by: And why have some people/places/things got it while others haven’t?
Are cool and style the same thing?
Are all stylish things cool?
Does something have to be fashionable to be cool? Or is cool about doing your own thing?
Is cool the same as the other indefinable quality we call x-factor? Or can you have that special star something and still be naff?
Is cool passion, authenticity, confidence, lack of effort or all of the above?
How do you know when you’ve got it? How do you know when it’s gone?
Is it something you’re born with?
Can you acquire it?
Can you buy it?
Can you sell it?
Is it something you can learn to be or does trying result in instant disqualification?
What’s your definition of cool?
Would it be the same as mine?
If it really is indefinable, then how come we all seem to know that those pictured above – Barack Obama, Steve McQueen, Apple’s iPhone, New York, Philippe Stark’s Juicer, Keith Richards, Miles Davis, James Dean, Adidas Shell Toes – all have it. Or maybe you don’t agree that they do.
How important is it anyway?
All my life I’ve been fascinated by the concept of ‘cool’, something you can’t see or touch yet we all instantly recognise, and react favourably to. Cool people/places/things are always popular, always respected, usually successful, invariably admired. Why? What have they got? What do they know? Can they themselves define it?
That’s what I’m intending to find out with The Definition Of Cool, my own personal journey in search of that magic formula. But first I need your help. I need to know your definition of cool. Who are the people, places and things that you think have it? And how would you put it into words? Don’t be too clever. I’m trying to get together a solid cast of characters I can go and interview – or in the case of products, places and dead people, those who know/knew them well. So don’t be afraid to be too obvious – obscure may be cool, but for our purposes it won’t get us very far. Pick people, places and things which are widely known and recognised, and tell me why you think they’re cool, along with your own definition, in the comments. Once I’ve got a sufficiently cool long list, I’ll be running a series of polls here on the blog to narrow it down to a short list of interviews for the book so don’t forget to sign-up to the mailing list here or subscribe to the RSS feed here, so you won’t miss your chance to vote.
In an effort to make things look cheerier (and prove that I really am a journalist) I’ve added page scans to all the articles in the journalism section. You’re welcome.
The Eames Lounger & Ottoman. Charles & Ray Eames at their best, although with so many stunning creations to their name, it’s a tough call. Don’t believe me, look here.
After years of searching the high street and the internet, months of envying those of friends and after sending numerous emails to the manufacturer begging for them to help me in my quest, I am finally the owner of my very own examples of minimalistic, futuristic, cartoonistic Japanese design that is the TagCup. And better still, I bought them in the Selfridge’s sale. Half price. Some things are just meant to be… for everything else there’s perseverance.
The coolest film posters by the greatest graphic designer of the 20th century. Find out more about Saul Bass’s life and work here and here.
If you’ve been to www.dangennoe.net before (as in, in the last year), you’ll notice there have been a few changes. This blog bit is new for a start, and we’ve had the decorators in. There are lots of new features as well, Twitter updates, a Flickr photostream, a tag cloud… Yes, I know, all very web 2.0.
It’s still not finished so don’t expect miracles just yet, but hopefully you’ll like and have reason to come back – there’s a mailing list link and an RSS feed sign-up on the right, so you can stay up-to-date. Before it was all very informative, but a bit dull. Not much happened. Seen it once, you’d seen it a hundred times. Not now. Now it’s new and exciting and up to the minute. If you’re worried about what you might have missed though, www.dangennoe.net used to look like this…
I’m in love with my shiny new MacBook Pro.
It’s my 5th Apple laptop. My first was a little grey scale PowerBook 150. The internet was a new invention, colour was way out of my price range and the trackball was quite possibly the most exciting thing I’d ever seen in my life. My last Apple laptop was the last PowerBook G4. And when I say last, I mean last. I ordered it online via the Apple Store first week of Jan 2006. Second week of Jan 2006 Apple launched the MacBook Pro. Gutted doesn’t quite cover it. It took a little under two weeks to arrive. By the time it did it was already obsolete. As laptops go it was alright, but it didn’t have the new Intel CoreDuo chip, it was bulky and from the off I knew it wasn’t going to be a classic. My new MacBook Pro on the other hand, this is vintage Apple. In years to come I’ll look back in that misty way I do when I think about my little 150 with its golf ball sized trackball.
I am, totally in love.
