Hasta La Ideas

That’s right, Stockholm! The Designers Accord Town Hall Meeting is making its debut on the other side of the Atlantic on December 10th, hosted by The Swedish Association of Designers at Ecoteque in Stockholm, which also happens to be the very first European Green Capital. Please note that the event will be in Swedish.

Sustainability is all about geeky stuff, isn’t it? Striving for people to live in tents, eating raw and cold food and joyfully arguing on how to implement socialism throughout the world? Not really. There is money to make. And with the chance of making money comes legitimacy. And, with money and legitimacy things start to happen.

The event:
6-6.30 p.m Networking. Green drinks to keep your mind on sustainability. .
6.30-8 p.m Area initiatives. Brief showcases and follow-up.
8 p.m Sharing tools and first steps. Discussion.

Designers Accord Stockholm Town Hall
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Ecoteque, Kulturhuset, Sergels torg Stockholm, Sweden
RSVP here.

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Times are tough for Design Within Reach, the ten-year-old retail startup turned publicly traded lifestyle emporium. According to the company’s most recent regulatory filings, quarterly net sales (for the period ending July 4) plummeted 35% compared to the previous year. In the first half of 2009, the company’s net loss totaled just over $13 million, approaching the annual net loss ($14.3 million) DWR reported for 2008. Over the summer, DWR voluntarily delisted from the Nasdaq and sold a 92% ownership stake to a hedge fund, which recently ousted CEO Ray Brunner. Meanwhile, DWR’s early commitment to “fully licensed” reproductions has been supplanted by a growing collection of blatant ripoffs, which are raising legal hackles. So, how did DWR’s reach exceed its grasp? What went wrong? Can DWR Tools for Living, the new 700-product line of covetable accessories, save the company? Writer Jeff Chu lifts the Alexander Girard-patterned curtain in a fascinating look at “The Rise of Fall of Design Within Reach,” published in the December/January issue of Fast Company. We asked Chu for a little backstory on the backstory.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in the course of reporting this story?
I think the most surprising thing was that [former CEO] Ray Brunner had a chair signed by Anna Nicole Smith in his office. It was kind of gauche and amazing at the same time. I tried to think of a bigger significance—modernism was for the masses, right?—but ultimately it was just that he had a chair signed by Anna Nicole Smith in his office. No more, no less.

More seriously, I think the most surprising thing to me was that Ray did not keep his board fully informed. I was really surprised that two of the board members told me that they had no idea they were being sued. Especially in a time when regulatory pressures are so significant, it just seemed weird that he would decide he didn’t have to tell the board. You’d think he’d err on the side of caution and just tell them everything—better to have that cover, right?

Why do you think DWR (and particularly its stores) inspires such…well, strong feelings in people?
One of the reasons DWR inspires such strong feelings in people is because of the confusion caused by their name. They’ve never been about pricing things within reach, but that’s what we all think about—and then of course we’re outraged when we see that the chair we want costs almost as much as than the New York apartment you want to put it in. For people in the design community—and especially for the people I interviewed for this story—the passion was driven largely by what they believe the company was built on. The problem with the knockoffs for many of them was not inherently that DWR is doing knockoffs—you see knockoffs all over the place, and there needs to be more discussion about that—but that there was this great hypocrisy: The company was built on the designers’ names and stories and reputations, and on this righteous platform of educating us about them. Then it replicates their pieces and sells them for the original price. One could say that’s a bit rich.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

by Anna Carnick

The new book “Arcadia: Cross-Country Style, Architecture and Design” interprets its namesake (the remote mountain region of Greek mythology) for the modern age, surveying contemporary alpine and back-country architecture, bespoke furniture and interior design projects that take their inspiration from the beauty of their natural surroundings.

Demonstrating an awesome range of possibilities for integrating of-the-moment aesthetics with breathtaking environments, the book’s traditional and progressive architecture ranges from pristine, private mountaintop homes and forest-set hotel lodges to temporary or professional spaces and ski jumps. (Click above image for detail.)

Throughout, a sense of respect for specific location—both aesthetically and logistically—drives the project. Simple but dramatic spaces reveal shapes and colors informed by surrounding terrain—the land, the sky and the water—celebrating the full impact of their surroundings. Meanwhile, abundantly large windows and rustic materials like wood, clay and natural stone help bridge the separation between inside and out.

Circling the globe, Arcadia’s chapters include “Off Shore,” “Cross-Country,” “Deep in the Woods” and “The Mountain Calls.” Each entry—spanning Taiwan, The Netherlands, Chile and New York—is beautifully photographed and accompanied by elegantly descriptive text.

By showing how these stunning solutions work with the elements instead of against them, Arcadia hints at a reinvented back-to-the-land movement that harmoniously integrates contemporary living with nature. (Click above images for detail view.)

Arcadia sells from Gestalten or
Amazon. (Click above image for expanded view.)

This post brought to you by:

Dans la lignée du travail Camouflage par Liu Bolin, voici les posters et la série de photographies intitulé “Transparency” par l’artiste Khristian Mendoza. Une conception transparente et très efficace sur ces affiches promotionnelles. Plus d’images dans la suite.

Portfolio de Khristian Mendoza.

Previously on Fubiz

• 3D Posters Illusion
• Duracell Ultra Print
• Where the Wild Things Are Posters

In English, Husmus means “house mouse.” It’s also the name of a new recycling bin system by We Muungano (who had a part in the PeePoo Bag), named for the abstract mouse face created by the rivets and handles on the front of the container.

In addition to being cute, the bins are sized in response to hard-core research on “kitchen sizes, different types of standard modules, garbage throwing behavior, sizes of plastic and paper bags, and the weight of glass, metal and paper.” The bins, made from recycled plastics, are cut in such a way that plastic and paper bags can fit into them in different configurations, depending on the user’s specific needs. For example. each bin can hold two or more bags, separating glass and plastic with just one container. Or use the shorter one to fit under the plumbing.

The bins cost between 15 and 22,50 euros each, ship flat (with rivets) and can be bought directly from Muungano.

More shots after the jump.

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