Hasta La Ideas

After what worked out to be a little over a month, the Belomo sideboard was ready for delivery. Last time I saw it was a week prior when all the components were made and legs welded. Waiting those nail biting 7 days was nerve racking. I have the nails to prove it. What if I don’t like it? What if it doesn’t look right in my space? Why the hell am I so pessimistic? Curtis has given me no indication that he was anything less than stellar throughout this entire process. My phone rang… delivery. Hit the jump!

Pardon my language but it’s fucking gorgeous! I love it. It fits perfectly into my space, right under the window and my Belomo has a sidekick – a custom fabricated box to hide my ugly box a/c unit. It’s all raw looking but so smooth to the touch. The top surface is finished in a white wash along with the white legs, helping to frame the linear lines now so familiar with the Micklish design aesthetic.

Honestly as my first custom piece made for moi, I couldn’t be happier. You guys don’t realize it but I can be quite critical. My writing staff is pretty well aware of it so when something amazing comes along, I better love it, especially if it’s going to live with me. Speaking of which, Belomo and I have been happily living together for months. Now I understand handmade quality in furniture. It’s as solid and study as the day it was delivered and has held up to everything from constant sunlight beating down on it to a dog name Miko who has figured out he can open the doors if he presses his nose against them hard enough. I love the little cubby holes Curtis made to display my Playsam toys. I love that there’s no exposed hardware on the doors.

Thank you Curtis, thank you Micklish. Read parts one and two.

Designer: Micklish

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(Commissioning Work: Micklish Part 3 was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. Commissioning Work: Micklish Part 1
2. Commissioning Work: Micklish Part 2
3. Between Art and Work

For anyone who’s met me, they know I’m a talker. And, a fast one, too, especially when I’m excited or nervous. The words seem to get bottled up behind my teeth and like bubbles in a shaken soda can, they try to burst out all at once. The result is usually that the person I’m talking to gets a perplexed look on his/her face and I’m asked to repeat myself (slowly, of course). Other emotions can take over, too. For instance, if I’m feeling particularly testy, it’s helpful to wait until I’m in more positive frame of mind before engaging me in conversations (whether in person, on the phone, or via email/text message).

Controlling your emotions so that you can get down to the basics of what you want to say doesn’t have to be difficult, though. All you will likely need is a strategy or two, along with some practice, to help you communicate more clearly and keep conversations uncluttered.

Before figuring out what you want to say, first …

Recognize your triggers

As I mentioned, when my nerves or enthusiasm get the best of me (or both at the same time!), I know I need to take things a bit more slowly. If you make a point of focusing on how you’re feeling at specific times, you’ll be able to decipher which situations make you the most anxious (like public speaking or asking for a raise) so that you can come up with some strategies to remain calm and in control of what you say and how well you say it.

Think about what you want to say

If you have to opportunity to craft a message ahead of time (like when writing an email/letter or leaving a voice message), take it. You’ll be able to gather your thoughts and really think about what you want to say before your say it (even if you’re saying it electronically). This is especially true if you’re annoyed or angry. In those situations, it’s best to wait until you’re feeling more positive, as you run the risk of saying something that you may regret and are unable to retract if you type when you’re mad.

Stay in the moment

Sometimes we trip ourselves up by focusing on things other than our conversation, like what the person we’re talking to thinks about us (like during a job interview). Just like multi-tasking can leave you feeling a bit scattered, so can shifting back and forth from the key points that you’re trying to make. If you start worrying about the impression you’re making, you could find yourself grasping for words, lose focus, and you might not come across the way you intend. Instead, stay in the moment, keep your attention on your discussion, and …

Breathe deeply

… from your diaphram. When you’re feeling nervous and tense, diaphragmatic breathing allows you to take in more oxygen and helps you to relax. This is also a useful technique for the moments leading up to a group presentation, report, or interview. Taking deep breaths will give you some time to think rationally, to put things in perspective, and solidify your talking points.

Rehearse

To get more comfortable with what you want to say, do a trial run, if possible. Say it out loud (and/or record yourself) to hear how you sound. Does your pitch increase or decrease drastically? Are you speaking too quickly or slowly? Does a nervous laugh pop up? Rehearsing can help you fine tune what you want to say in a natural way. It can also help to practice in front of a mirror or with a friend who can give you objective feedback and suggestions for improvement. Recording yourself and playing it back can also be helpful.

Gather pertinent information

You may feel pressured to respond to emails immediately, particularly if the sender indicates they need a quick reply. You could send multiple messages — one that says you received their email, another that actually shares the needed information, and a final follow up. Or, you could gather all the data you need before replying. This will save you some time and reduce inbox clutter.

Block distractions

One way to reduce distractions when you’re on an important phone call is to turn off your call-waiting notification. Turning off call waiting is like turning off email notifications. Both tempt you to stop fully attending to the person you’re talking to, and can make you lose your train of thought (especially when you take your mobile phone from your ear to see who’s calling).

Maintain a positive attitude

Saying the right thing at the right time is important. But, rather than focusing on how poorly you may be feeling, turn your mood around by holding on to your sense of humor and focusing on solutions. Choose strategies that help you feel more comfortable so that you can communicate well.

The less clutter you put out in your communications, typically the less clutter you receive in response.

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

Ikea Communications runs the largest photo studio in northern Europe. Inside their 94,000-square-foot facility an army of carpenters, designers and shooters all plan, build and photograph the faux rooms you see in the Ikea catalog. Here’s a brief look at their facility:

Fake rooms still require real skilled labor to produce. The walls need to be painted, the kitchens need to be tiled, the living rooms need to be styled. It’s a lot of work, and when the catalog’s finished, the rooms get torn down to make way for next year’s.

It’s therefore no surprise that Ikea is using more and more digital images in their catalog, like the ones you see here. (That’s right, none of these are real.) Yet when I first heard this fact during a presentation at Autodesk headquarters, where a company flack mentioned Ikea uses their software to create the images, all of us journalists in the room snatched up our phones to Tweet this.

No one can tell the difference between the studio shots and the CG ones, so it makes sense to save on all of the building materials required for the former by shifting focus towards the latter. Currently just 12% of the Ikea catalog consists of digital images, though they’re ramping that up to 25% for the next catalog.

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A personal guide with a modern take on geek chic shopping

Sponsored content: What began as a digital dog-ear for products of interest has quickly evolved into one of the leading lifestyle guides for men. Aptly named Gear Patrol, the online magazine is a go-to guide for gear aficionados and design-minded urban adventurers. Recalling the sleek presentation of catalogs interspersed…

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Data visualization, as a specific form of graphic design, is as much a phenomenon of the Information Age as the Internet itself, not least for the sheer amount of data that we generate and consume on an ever more granular level. Besides the fact that we’ve all seen plenty of examples of bad data viz, even as companies and clients increasingly adopt the format, we’ve all seen plenty of bad infographics, and particularly egregious examples overcomplicate the matter. Yet this is precisely why data viz remains a promising frontier for the creative expression of quantitative information: at the far end of the specturm, data sets can serve as parameters for mathematically-derived abstract artwork, but those that clearly and compellingly represent a vast amount of data are arguably even more beautiful, as exemplars of visual communication.

Which is a long way of saying that this “Wind Map” by Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viégas (a.k.a. Hint.fm) is pretty effin’ awesome. Just as the natural world continues to amaze and inspire us, so too do we strive to understand and harness the power of nature: besides capturing the mercurial fluid mechanics of variations in atmospheric pressure, the zoomable wind map demonstrates, say, the regional feasibility of wind power.

Digital artist and designer Jer Thorp brought the Wind Map to our attention on the occasion of Hurricane Isaac; so too are our thoughts are with those weathering the storm in New Orleans…

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