Hasta La Ideas

A series of single letter prints in black and white make for an eye-catching debut screen-print project from YeahNoYeah. (24 other letters are of course available)…

“Our alphabet posters are lovingly designed and screen-printed in the UK using water based inks and recycled paper,” says YNY on its website. “[The] posters are all 40×50 cm and are sold unframed allowing you to choose your own off the shelf frame.” All prints are £40 each. The full set is at yeahnoyeah.co.uk – a few zingy tasters are below.

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“There is no way to understand making, other than going through the process of making,” writes Anders Brix, Head of Studies for Architecture, Design and Industrial Form at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. To that end, a class of fourth-year students led by associate professor Nicolai de Gier were tasked with making chairs. Lots of them. Specifically, each student would have to physically make one chair every week, for the duration of the five-week course.

What we love about this is the gradual way the assignments were unfolded—for example Week 1 they could use only slats to build a chair, Week 2 they could use slats and plywood, Week 3 was only plywood, and so on—and the great variety produced within these gradual steps.

Writes de Gier,

There can be many approaches to designing a chair. Typically students start out by making sketches, drawings and models before making final full-scale prototypes. Usually the period of time spent on the small-scale explorations expand to leave only a limited and flustered period of time to develop full-scale pieces. Many of the limitations of the design are not actually encountered until the full-scale chair is constructed. In recognition of these concerns, we were very interested to explore possibilities to speed up and intensify the design and realization process. For us, it was extremely important to have some physical material at 1:1 scale to inform a series of ongoing discussions in the studio, to improve the skills in the workshops and to develop a synthesis between the material, the tectonics, and the form of the chair.

(more…)

A showdown of heritage alarm clocks

This past year saw the relaunch of a slew of throw-back designs to the so-called golden age of Braun. Joining the analog clocks and minimal wristwatches is a line of digital clocks inspired by the clean look favored by designers Dietrich Lubs and Dieter Rams. Seen side-by-side, both the analog and digital options are enviable design objects, but we imagine two camps must form around the digital and the analog.

Sizing up the two lines, there’s a lot of crossover: both are controlled by radio signal available in select countries; both feature a crescendo alarm and a snooze function; both are designed to be easily read; both light up in the dark. In short, they have all the specs you might expect from a classically reliable alarm clock.

The digital line features a quick-set function and a crisp reverse LCD readout. The radio model—not available in analog—also includes a speaker and six presets for a standard alarm-clock setup. On the analog side, the classic alarm has been updated with a voice-activated snooze feature for groaning sleepers. While the digital models do their best to imitate the original designs, there’s something gimmicky about an alarm clock that is made to look “vintage”. The analog models have a more honest heritage appeal, and the readout the only major difference. Points would be given to digital for ease of use, although the spare face of the analog clock isn’t exactly difficult to read.

At the end of the day, it’s a matter of personal taste. While the new digital clocks may be milking the last ounce of cool out of the Rams and Lubs heritage, we’re still won over by the sleek look, which was developed under the direction of Markus Orthey. For fans of the old-school vibe, it makes a bit more sense to search around for the original and iconic AB1 alarm clock, which can be found around the web in limited stock. We’re not sure why Braun opted not to recreate a perfect facsimile of the original with the new analogs; it seems like authenticity would trump voice-controlled snooze any day.

Whichever way you swing, both the digital and analog models look great on a nightstand—which, after all, is what you’re really after.

Monday, April 23 at 8:00 AM 

I’m working on my blog post for Bella Umbrella before my husband and I spend the day exploring Seattle on our third wedding anniversary. I’m looking through art deco images for inspiration for tomorrow’s post while Drew is walking our nearly 21-month-old son Nathaniel to day care.

I’m thinking about how we’re going to spend the day together. I love that this day is basically unplanned. The only thing that we know for sure that we’re going to have a “city day.” We’ll explore Seattle unencumbered by a toddler’s whims and see where that takes us. Our only definite destination is Pike Place Market.

On this day I’m reminded of our honeymoon. We spent two weeks traipsing around Italy, exploring different cities at a leisurely pace. Our favorite stop was Siena. Everyone seemed to be so proud of their city, but not in an arrogant way.

I feel so grateful to be married to Drew, and lucky that we get to have lots of adventures together.

Up next: 10:00 AM Toothbrushes and tattoos

One of my favorite places for small living inspiration is Ikea Hackers. If you’re unfamiliar with the site, it’s a collection of reader-submitted modifications to pieces of furniture from Ikea. The hacks range from relatively small (like adding paint to a Lack table) to extremely involved (like turning a Spar butcher block into an electric guitar). The site has been around since 2006 and is teeming with ways to personalize Ikea furniture.

Earlier this month, the site featured Regina’s amazing closet for her itty bitty Swedish apartment. Under what I think is her lofted bed, she has five modified Expedit bookcases (in the 2×2 configuration) that she added a piece of wood to the base and then attached four casters to the bottom of the piece of wood. In the U.S., these Expedit shelving units are just $40 a piece and the Besta casters are $10 for two, so the whole system probably cost less than $350 to create, which isn’t bad for a custom closet that could easily cost four times this price. Visuals from the article:

The rolling bookcases not only hold her clothes, but also her hobby supplies (such as the sewing machine and fabric stash pictured above) and other necessities for her apartment. I like that she can roll the sewing Expedit directly to her sewing table, and then roll it all back into the closet when she’s done. The storage system is ideal for this small space, and I think could easily be utilized in other homes — small or large.

Note: There are casters that are specifically made to hold the Expedit bookcase, but they stick out beyond the base of the bookshelf, so you can’t nest the shelves directly next to each other. They’re also $5 more for two casters, which adds $50 to the cost of casters, but gets rid of the need to attach a piece of wood to the bottom of each bookcase. If you don’t need the items to nest next to each other, the Expedit casters might be a good alternative for you.

If you are unfamiliar with Ikea Hackers, spend some time perusing it for even more ideas. Most of the hacks are inexpensive and easy to do.

Images by Regina as posted to IkeaHackers, and thanks to reader Shalin for bringing this closet to our attention.

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