2013 Holiday Gift Giving Guide: Gift ideas from professional organizers

This year we thought we would ask a few professional organizers from around the world what their favourite gifts were to give and/or receive.

Erin Rooney Doland of Unclutterer.com in the Washington, DC-area, suggested the Cubitec Shelving System.

Erin said, “We have had this shelving unit for almost a decade and it hasn’t aged a day. The color is consistent, even though it has sat next to large sliding glass doors the entire time. Not a single shelf sags. Most importantly, it can be configured to fit your space and it’s fun. We use it in our living room, but we’re giving a unit to our son for toy storage in his room. I truly love furniture and organizing products that stand the test of time and also look amazing.”

Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing, LLC in Cary, NC, is a fan of supplemental battery power for her smartphone. She would love to receive an Everpurse this holiday season. The Everpurse is a purse that charges your smartphone. Leave your purse on its charging mat all night and it will keep your smartphone charged all day. Geralin loves also the Purse Perfector purse organizer she received as a gift and keeps it in the centre console of her car to keep everything in its place.

Julie Bestry of Best Results Organizing in Chattanooga, TN, recommended Grid-it by Cocoon to organize and maintain cables, chargers, ear buds, pens, small tools, flash drives, and just about anything that would otherwise be lost in the bottom of backpacks and purses. Julie would love to receive the Cocoon Backpack with its ability to hold a 17” laptop and its multi-pocketed organized interior and ergonomically designed shoulder harness.

For those who want to have their files accessible from anywhere, but don’t feel comfortable hosting them in the cloud. Brooks Duncan of DocumentSnap in Vancouver, Canada, recommended the Transporter Sync. It lets you turn your external hard drive into a secure, connected, cloud device that is in your control.

Some people have small homes and it can be hard to accommodate Christmas trees in the living room during the festive season and in storage spaces the rest of the year. If this is the case with your friends or family, Soraiya Kara of POSabilities Personal Organizing in Vancouver, Canada, suggested giving ornament display stands. These stands come in a variety of styles and a range of prices and allow people to display their beautiful, sentimental ornaments.

Nanette Duffy of Organized Instincts in Atlanta, GA, wants Cyber Clean as a gift! Nanette said, “The product is practical and effective, but the bright neon green slime feels like a toy! A slick consistency makes cleaning your tech gadgets just plain old fun. I have been told that recipients seek out dirty and gross gadgets like remotes, computer mice and tech devices just to keep playing with the neon green slime. Cyber Clean is not gender specific and can be used at home or work, so it’s a great office gift exchange gift idea. The small packet or bottle makes it an easy, low cost gift to ship. When you have used up Cyber Clean’s cleaning powers, the colour changes letting you how it’s time to toss it out. This mean no “gift clutter” to accumulate.”

Janet Barclay of Organized Assistant in Hamilton, Canada, suggested the book Time Management for Unmanageable People: The Guilt-Free Way to Organize, Energize, and Maximize Your Life by Anne McGee-Cooper as a gift for those creative types for whom time management may be a challenge. As a right-brained individual who has overcome traits of dyslexia, hyperactivity, and attention deficit disorder to become a successful author, lecturer, business consultant, creativity expert, and business owner, McGee-Cooper knows her subject matter well, and presents her information clearly and with a sense of humour.

Patience Oaktree organizing novels and books of short stories are fictional stories about the adventures of a professional organizer. Valentina Sgro of SGRO Consulting in Cleveland, OH, suggested these books as a gift because they don’t run the risk of implying, “Happy Holidays! You’re a mess!” And, organizing aside, they make entertaining reading for most anyone.

Want more gift-giving ideas? Explore Unclutterer’s full 2013 Holiday Gift Giving Guide.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

CH + Bonobos: Holiday Gift Guide: Our collaborative guide to some of the most unique gifts for the holiday season

CH + Bonobos: Holiday Gift Guide


Sponsored content: Searching for the perfect holiday gift can be a daunting process. Even with the convenience of online shopping, the hours can pass by with little show for it—save for tired eyes. Luckily, we’ve teamed up with premier menswear…

Continue Reading…

Comfort Zone Photography

Le photographe Tadao Cern a passé l’été dernier à prendre des photos d’étrangers à la plage allongés sur leur serviette. En résulte la série « Comfort Zone » qui veut pour, chacune des images, raconter une histoire différente. Des clichés intéressants à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.

Comfort Zone Photography-6
Comfort Zone Photography-5
Comfort Zone Photography-1
Comfort Zone Photography-4
Comfort Zone Photography-3
Comfort Zone Photography-2
Comfort Zone Photography-10

A Case for Coding

freespace.JPGHacking away at San Francisco’s Freespace, a pop-up space for artists, designers, developers and other creatives.

I’ve been spending a lot of time at hackathons lately. It’s not a surprise; here in the Bay Area, hackathons and coding sessions are a way of life, a social scene as common as a cocktail party in New York. The idea is what it sounds like: a bunch of people come together and “hack” on a project. It can be a group project or an individual project, something you’ve been working on for a while or something you’re starting. And it’s an idea I’ve seen come to life in creative communities across the globe, in places like Shanghai, Kampala and Manila.

The “-athon” suffix is appropriate: As in a marathon, simply doing an activity with others is a lot more fun than coding alone, even when you’re aiming for your personal best. And having people with different skill sets and energy levels around you provides an additional motivating force. Don’t know much about the Natural Language Toolkit? Someone probably knows. And in return, you can share your experience with WordPress libraries.

sciencehackday.JPGOne of the many rooms for hacking at the California Academy of Sciences.

I recently spoke with Ariel Waldman, who organized the most recent Science Hack Day at the California Academy of Sciences. Waldman, a designer herself, felt it was important to encourage more people to engage with science. This year’s event included skills workshops, a planetarium show, star gazing, access to lots and lots of tools like 3D printers and LEAP detectors, and a chance to sleep over at the museum next to the shark tanks.

“With hackathons in general, the thrill of knowing you can make in such a short amount of time is exciting,” noted Waldman when I spoke with her the phone. “I think with Science Hack Day, it’s a place where people can play w things they don’t normally play with. It adds to the excitement of what you can prototype.”

(more…)

A homage to Braun

More than 30 creative studios have submitted posters for a new exhibition celebrating the design of Braun systems.

Systems was curated by Das Programm, an online archive selling products created for Braun by industrial designer Dieter Rams between 1955 and 1995. Designers Michal Polak and Giorgio Del Buono created the graphics and accompanying catalogue for the show, which opened in London on Friday.

Studios were asked to create an A1 print based on the theme of Braun systems – designers’ responses include photographic, typographic and geometric prints, many of which feature the Braun word mark and Berthold’s Akzidenz Grotesk typeface. Fine artists Henry Coleman and Rupert Norfolk have also submitted artworks for the event.

New York designer Antonio Carusone’s series is inspired by the slots on Braun products (top and below):

 

 

 

While Berlin studio Neubau’s prints feature actual size illustrations of Braun designs. The studio has also produced a video on the making of the project, below:

 

 

 

Designer Tom Hingston’s contribution is inspired by Dieter Rams’ principle that good design should make a product useful, “whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it”:

 

 

Bibliotheque’s abstract print uses the core elements of the Braun logo:

 

 

And London agency Spin’s design focuses on the production of Braun systems, rather than their polished exteriors:

 

 

The prints will appear alongside iconic Braun products and archive material supplied by the company. They will also be available to order at dasprogramm.org and you can view the full set online at aisleone.net/systems

Systems is open until December 31 at the Walter Knoll London showroom, 42 Charterhouse Square, EC1M 6EA.



L2M3



Mark Gowling



Hey



Playgroup


Lundgren + Lindqvist

Luce’s Gluten-Free Bread Mix: A just-add-water baking kit for a delicious artisanal loaf

Luce's Gluten-Free Bread Mix


Although gluten-free products have sprung up everywhere, a lot of them tend to feel like they’re lacking something fundamental. Texture is altered, flavor is bland and occasionally joyless, and many of them are not nutritious. Even as awareness and demand grows, it can…

Continue Reading…

Timber observation tower shaped like “a cucumber” by Mjölk Architekti

This 25-metre wooden lookout in the Czech Republic by Mjölk Architekti is named Cucumber Tower in an attempt to discourage association with phallic forms (+ slideshow).

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

Constructed from larch, the tower has a straight shaft with a curved top, which accommodates a rooftop viewing platform looking out across the Czech woodland and on towards Germany and Poland.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

“We called it a cucumber due to a certain shape similarity, and also in order to avoid other vulgar associations,” architect Jan Vondrák of Mjölk Architekti told Dezeen.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

The architects designed the tower before finding a site or a client. It was then commissioned by the mayor of the town Hermanice for a rural site along a Czech mountain range called the Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

The structure took three months to build and comprises a pair of staircases arranged in a double-helix foramtion. The exterior is made up of vertical, bolted lengths of wood and is supported by curved wooden slats, which act as cross bracing.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

Five curved lengths make up a larch balustrade for the staircase and guide visitors to the top.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti

Photography is by Roman Dobeš.

Here is some information from the designer:


The Cucumber tower

One of our showcase projects was born shortly after our architecture office was founded.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Plan – click for larger image

We moved to a house on the Jested ridge and spent two weeks thinking about what we actually wanted to do as architects. And just like that, without a commission, without a specific setting in mind, we came up with the design of this observation tower.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Elevation – click for larger image

Situating buildings in an open landscape is an unusual architectural discipline, yet in northern Bohemia it has a long tradition that we can take up with confidence.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Construction stage 1, top of the structure – click for larger image

Once the design was finished, we started looking for a customer. Naive, you say?
 Not a bit! Within a month we found an enthusiastic taker – the mayor of Hermanice, Mr. Stribrny.We found ourselves at a meeting of the town council in earnest discussion about how to carry out this project.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Construction stage 2, top of the structure – click for larger image

During the following couple of months, we received a building permit and secured EU funding for an extensive project involving the construction of a network of bicycle trails whose center point was to be the Hermanice observation tower.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Final construction, top of the structure – click for larger image

Three villages have ended up participating in the project – Hermanice, Detrichov and the Polish village of Bogatynia.

Timber observation tower shaped like a cucumber by Mjölk Architekti
Detail of cross bracing – click for larger image

Architects: Mjölk architekti, Jan Mach, Jan Vondrák, Pavel Nalezený
Height of tower: 25 metres
Location: Hermanice, Poland
Budget: 140,000 euros

The post Timber observation tower shaped
like “a cucumber” by Mjölk Architekti
appeared first on Dezeen.

Offices by Carl Kleiner

Le photographe suédois Carl Kleiner parvient toujours à surprendre le public avec ses œuvres. Avec cette nouvelle série « Offices » réalisée pour le magazine Wallpaper, l’artiste nous offre des bureaux infinis, jouant avec talent sur les codes et les dispositions du mobilier. A découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

Offices by Carl Kleiner6
Offices by Carl Kleiner5
Offices by Carl Kleiner4
Offices by Carl Kleiner3
Offices by Carl Kleiner2
Offices by Carl Kleiner
Offices by Carl Kleiner7

Design File 002: Jacques Adnet

DesignFile-JacquesAdnet-1.jpg

In this series, Matthew Sullivan (AQQ Design) highlights some designers that you should know, but might not. Previously, he looked at the work of Tobia and Afra Scarpa.

Jacques Adnet (1900–1984): Born in Chatillion-Coligny, France

Jacques Adnet’s active career thrived for over five decades, from the 1920s through the 1960s, spanning the Jazz Age, the Machine Age, Functionalism, Art Deco, the International Style and midcentury modernism. His designs negotiated these surges with intelligence and subtlety; Adnet was never content to passively copy. He was inclined toward a pragmatic luxury, a tactile and rich reductivism.

Adnet stands with Jean Royère, André Arbus, Mathieu Matégot and Pierre Guariche as what is probably best called Post-Deco. These men opted to take Art Deco’s robust expressions and make them more simple and direct. In addition, they preserved Deco’s bespoke/artisanal fabrication, not giving in to the postwar industrial goadings. Adnet’s silhouettes are denuded of ancillary details but not dogmatically—that is, they are not reduced simply to make a point. But neither is there a tremendously idiosyncratic stamp; this is well-designed, aesthetically useful and high-quality furniture.

DesignFile-JacquesAdnet-2.jpgAbove: Adnet lounge chairs from 1950. Top: A shelving unit circa 1950s

DesignFile-JacquesAdnet-3.jpgLeft: A sling chair circa 1940s. Right: an armchair circa 1950s

(more…)

Indian bridal store “integrates traditional craft practices with modern construction”

Movie: in our next exclusive interview from Inside Festival, Aman Aggarwal explains how his studio Charged Voids combined traditional designs with modern construction techniques to create the interior of Tashya, a high-end Indian bridal store in Chandigarh. 

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

Tashya by Charged Voids, a local studio founded by Aggarwal and Siddharth Gaind, won the Shops category at last month’s Inside Festival.

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

Aggarwal says that the idea for the interior came from the Indian fashion industry itself, where the intricate embroidery of traditional craftsmen is still used in combination with modern industrial machinery.

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

“The concept emanated from the approach that has been dominant in the Indian clothing industry for quite a while now,” he explains. “You have these high-power machines and looms and everything, but you [also] have these traditional Indian craftsmen.”

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

He continues: “It’s not the same in the construction industry [where] the artisans are losing work. So the store is actually an attempt to revive those craft practices and integrate them with the modern construction industry.”

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

The store interior makes extensive use of jalis, traditional wooden screens with ornate patterns cut into them.

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

“We started with four motifs, which are the basic elements of a lot of jali patterns,” Aggarwal says. “Then we started using those motifs on different scales. The jalis we designed, which were actually cut using a laser, were a combination of all these motifs at different scales.”

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

Charged Voids combined these jali screens cut using a computer-controlled process with traditionally crafted decorative metalwork. “We wanted these craft practices of India to come into the mainstream of construction,” Aggarwal claims.

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

The store also features a number of private lounges, where those less interested in shopping can take a break.

“Bridal wear in India is a big thing,” Aggarwal explains. “It’s always a big family affair where you have eight to nine people coming in just to select a couple of dresses. The focus was to get the people who are really interested to shop and the people who are not really interested to entertain them in a different place.”

Tashya bridal wear store in Chandigarh, India, by Charged Voids

This movie was filmed at Inside Festival 2013, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.

Aman Aggarwal of Charged Voids
Aman Aggarwal of Charged Voids

The post Indian bridal store “integrates traditional
craft practices with modern construction”
appeared first on Dezeen.