Hasta La Ideas

Whenever I watch a cooking show on television, I’m always humored by the absurdly detailed mise en place. The chef will talk to the camera about adding an eighth of a teaspoon of salt to her dish, and then she’ll hold up the world’s tiniest glass bowl containing a speck of salt. The viewer never sees any measuring, just a platter full of itty bitty bowls with unlabeled ingredients that are waiting patiently to be dumped or dashed into the pan.

Are there people who do this at home? Is there someone out there who dirties 14 miniature bowls each time he cooks?

I’m in favor of gathering all ingredients and measuring supplies together before starting the cooking process (or even while the oven is heating to its desired temperature). Beside that, however, I usually just measure as I go. That is, unless I have ingredients that shouldn’t mingle needing to use the same measuring device, such as if the recipe calls for a teaspoon of milk and a teaspoon of lemon juice.

I think about the celebrity chef mise en place vs. my cooking style whenever I’m organizing. I remind myself that if my system is too detailed, all I’m doing is figuratively dirtying too many bowls. It’s okay that I put all of my paperclips together in a container in a drawer, even if some paperclips are gold, some silver, some large, some small, and some plastic coated with decorative prints. I don’t need separate bins for every style of paperclip in my drawer to be organized. In fact, being overly detailed with an organizing system can be a form of clutter.

When organizing anything — papers, socks, rolls of toilet paper — ask yourself:

• Is this the most obvious and easiest way for me to store this item?
• Will I consistently put the item away in this location in this manner, even when I’m tired?
• Am I organizing because the new system will improve things, or am I just organizing for the sake of organizing?

Being honest and realistic with yourself can help you to develop organizing systems that will work for you and that you’ll maintain. Set limits to keep clutter — even super-organized clutter — out of your spaces.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

MTV today launches five new idents, each based on one of the five senses, which represent the fruit of a new collaboration with streetwear label 55DSL…

The five new idents constitue the third phase of MTV‘s POP x 1000% international brand refresh, which we first covered here on the CR blog back in July last year.

For this phase, MTV and 55DSL together selected a handful of visual artists – Alex Trochut, iLoveDust, James Roper, Tei, Yué Wu and Zeloot – who each designed a T-shirt based on one of the five senses. Each artist was then paired with a motion design studio to turn their original artwork into a 30 second short film. Here are a look at each of the T-shirts created for the project and the corresponding new ident:

Above, Touch, designed by Alex Trochut. Trochut was teamed with Barcelona-based motion studio Physalia and sound designer Simon Pyke at Freefarm to create this ident:

MTV TOUCH from MTV WORLD DESIGN STUDIO on Vimeo.

Above: This T-shirt by iLoveDust represents the sense Sight. iLoveDust also directed and produced the film below, working with Alan Boorman of Wevie who provided the audio:

MTV SIGHT from MTV WORLD DESIGN STUDIO on Vimeo.

James Roper‘s Hearing T-shirt design wraps around the front and back of the shirt (detail shown, above). Roper was paired wtih Universal Everything to create the following ident. Simon Pyke at Freefarm designed the sound.

MTV HEARING from MTV WORLD DESIGN STUDIO on Vimeo.

Tokyo-based artist Tei created the T-shirt design for Smell (above) and worked with 3DCG on the ident below along with 0mb who created the sound

MTV SMELL from MTV WORLD DESIGN STUDIO on Vimeo.

Paris-based Yué Wu designed this T-shirt (above) to represent Taste. Division Paris and also Digital District collaborated with Wu on the corresponding ident (below), with Tez providing the sound.

MTV TASTE from MTV WORLD DESIGN STUDIO on Vimeo.

A sixth T-shirt (that has no corresponding ident) was created for Intuition (the sixth sense) by Dutch artist Zeloot

The idents go live today across MTV‘s 63 channels, and the T-shirts will appear for sale for a limited time in 55DSL stores during December.

Après l’iPad Light Painting, voici cette collaboration entre Dentsu London et BERG avec ces vidéos “The Journey” et “Incidental Media”. Une réflexion autour de l’avenir et de l’omniprésence des médias, ainsi que sa déclinaison sur les différentes surfaces de notre vie quotidienne.

Previously on Fubiz

• Popular Science +
• Amazing iPad Animations
• iPad Light Painting

Belgian studio adn Architectures have renovated this old farmhouse in Walhain, Belgium.

Called House NSV, wonky beams and columns of the existing farmhouse are exposed throughout the interior space.

The textured exterior façade is punctuated with windows in varying sizes.

Photographs are by Filip Dujardin.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

House “NSV”

The request of the client was the transformation of an old farmhouse composed of a main building and a cattle shed.

Following the first studies, the attention was focused on the main building, chosen by the client to install its house.

In a general way, the will was to the “patrimonial” setting ahead of the elements having a significant architectural value; the masonry or wooden structure of the roof for example.

This valorisation was supplemented by some specific contemporary interventions on the outside and by a deep refitting of the interior spaces.

The dwelling, very decayed, was consequently the object of a heavy restoration, only the basic structure (walls and roof structure) was being preserved.

A special attention was given to the structure: much reinforcement, out concrete, fastenings and ties, were necessary to maintain the existing structure.

On the outside, the “contemporary” interventions were established by successive keys while trying to find a dialogue between the old architecture and the new elements – forward setting of the entry by a natural concrete gantry just as bay of the stay towards the back garden, play of depth of the bays.

The external coating offers a texture that homogenizes the heteroclite masonry and accentuates the materiality, the plastic “sensuality” of the frontages.

An element made of birch is composed of various arrangements, the staircases, the cloakroom and the sanitary.

Men cross it; men borrow it, to reach the floors.

This architectural element shapes all over the width of the house, is turned over, gone up on the floors.

At the upper level, spaces let appear all their height under the roof, accentuating this, the bathrooms are volumes with flat roof on which is placed an indirect lighting.

Through various spaces of the dwelling, the three old wooden structures are magnified, crossing volumes, skirting walls, disappearing and appearing at other places, being based on a new structure.

A special attention was given to this old farm in order to meet the current energy standards and the comfort required for a family use in 2010 – roof, ground floor and walls insulation.

Radiant heating, solar panels for the hot water, re-use of the rainwater were included.

Program: Refurbishment of a XVIIIth century farmhouse

Client: Private
Location: Walhain, Belgium

Principal architects: adn architectures

Project team: David Henquinet, Nicolas Iacobellis, Didier Vander Heyden

Floor area: 270 m2

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

See also:

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Bastogne by adn Architectures	House Satiya by adn Architectures	House K by Yoshichika Takagi