It’s no secret that Apple’s products have spawned a veritable cottage industry of Kickstarted third-party accessory design, so it was only a matter of time before designers started looking to design accessories for accessories. Hence, “Tembo Trunks,” a set of injected-molded silicone earbud cones.
Industrial designer Scott Norrie shares his inspiration in his Kickstarter video:
With e-readers more ubiquitous than ever, its become harder and harder to judge a book by its cover. The brilliantly curated site, Designers&Books is a public platform for creative luminaries like Shigeru Ban, Elizabeth Diller, Massimo Vignelli, Paula Scher and Steven Heller (the latter two are part of the Core77 Design Awards Graphic Design Jury) to share books that are “personally important, meaningful, and formative—books that have shaped their values, their worldview and their ideas about design.” All judging aside, it’s fascinating to read through these lists and the accompanying commentary from some of our most creative minds. Best of all, you can start your own reading list to email or print (and add to it every Tuesday when the new contributor’s book list is unveiled!).
Celebrating their 70th contribution, today Designers&Books published the New Yorker Architecture Critic Paul Goldberger’s list of 33 must-read titles with a fascinating essay, “Books Every Architect Should Read,”
History, science and design vernaculars in the work of an emerging Brooklyn designer
by Meghan Killeen
Engaged in the timeless debate of form over function, Brooklyn-based furniture designer Paul Loebach seamlessly reconciles the two pillars of design through his distinct approach to craftsmanship. “The forms of our material environment carry a collective meaning, just like a spoken language,” explains Loebach, continuing that his goal is to “communicate through my designs with as much impact as possible. Form and function are inseparable, so functionality is an imperative element of any good design.” With a hand in the past and a nod to the future, Loebach’s designs call upon the ingenuity of Americana and the curvy couture of neoclassicism, backed by progressive manufacturing tools and techniques.
Loebach’s historical homage shows in the simplicity of his American Shaker-inspired nesting tables, a trio of interlocking wooden step-stools painted in varying pop colors of green, blue and charcoal (available through Areaware). Loebach’s Great Camp Collection (available exclusively through Matter) is a throwback to the handcrafted, country chic of Adirondack furniture popularized in the mid-to-late 1800s. Using a four-axis CNC router, Loebach creates an organic-looking furniture set comprised of a dresser, credenza, chair and coat rack, engraved with the hand-hewn appearance of cross-hatching reminiscent of forest branches. CMYK color accents make the collection’s rustic re-interpretation contemporary.
Loebach also explores historical motifs with his foray into textiles, introducing a wool quilt (in collaboration with Jessie Henson) stitched together from laser cut felt and bearing the proverb, “Gather up the fragments, let nothing be lost”—an adage adopted by American quilters from the Civil War era and a philosophy that permeates many of Loebach’s own creations. Frequenting museums and flea markets, Loebach draws much of his inspiration from “the notion of ‘the unknown craftsman’ and the evolution of objects over time.” He further pays tribute to the pioneering spirit of Americana with his rococo wallpaper print, playfully dubbed “Yee-Ha!” (available through Studio Printworks) for its Texan imagery of gun-touting cowboys and industrial oil rigs set in a damask interlace.
With designs bridging themes of the past with current innovation, it’s no surprise that Loebach grew up “with a ‘hyper-awareness’ of manufactured objects,” descending from a family lineage of German woodworkers and industrial designers. Loebach’s grandfather built airplanes for the U.S. military and his father is a manufacturing engineer. Born against the industrial backdrop of Cincinnati, OH, Loebach studied Industrial Design at RISD before moving to NYC, where he apprenticed under fellow RISD alum and furniture designer John Davies. Loebach’s talent quickly earned him a roster of private clients as well as the attention of Williams Sonoma and Martha Stewart, leading him to set up his own “design laboratory” in a converted knitting factory in Brooklyn—an area that Loebach describes as the “hotbed of artistic and cultural creativity in the U.S.”
Loebach’s authentic approach to design continues to evolve, blending artistry with technology. Armed with a toolkit that is equal parts power tools and digital software, Loebach begins the process of design through a series of “impromptu investigations.” Loebach’s latest design, The Watson Table (which premiered at Milan Design Week 2011, pictured above) is an examination of how design and function inform each other. Referencing DNA scientist James Watson, the tables showcases his twin skills of deft tool mastery and artistic intuition with its helical shaped legs made from wood and carbon fiber, laminated over a 6-part plywood mold. Loebach’s says, “The most important skill I posses as a designer is my capacity to shift seamlessly between multiple, seemingly disparate modes of operation and thought.”
Paul Loebach’s new collection called “Glacier” will premiere at Matter Gallery during NYC’s upcoming design week, 14-17 May 2011, when he will also debut “Halo,” an LED chandelier designed for Roll and Hill at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
Inspired by the all-new Audi A7, Cool Hunting is highlighting a group of notable individuals that share a similar spirit of creativity in their approach to their craft. From architecture to paper art, the people we’ve chosen to profile all bring something unique to their work that positions them as future leaders in their respective fields and beyond.
Over the course of the next two months we’ll debut profiles of 16 leading figures, united by their dedication to innovation and design. Each week, we’ll profile two Icons, their work, and explore what drives them to create.
Surveying the design details of the world’s newest notorious hideout
Like any media-obsessed normal person, we’ve been riveted to the coverage surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, and especially interested in the descriptions of whereabouts that overnight went from “cave” to “McMansion.” Curious about what exactly goes into sheltering an international terrorist for six years, we focused on what architectural details have surfaced so far. In other words, what kind of a fortified compound does a million bucks get you in the “affluent suburb” of Abbottabad, Pakistan?
Built in 2005 and described by local residents as the “Waziristan Mansion,” the three-story house looms eight times larger than neighboring buildings and was one the first shocking clues indicating that the place was significant to the mission.
Concrete retaining walls topped with barbed wire surround the building, reach 18 feet on the southeastern side of the compound, and range 10-12 feet high on remaining sides. Anyone trying to get past the towering walls would also face reported armed guards and numerous security cameras.
Located at the end of a narrow pathway, opaque windows obstruct the view inside from onlookers and a seven-foot-tall privacy wall hides anyone up to, oh about 6’4″.
The courier that led the U.S. to the location was the sole way Osama communicated with the outside world; the compound had no telephone or Internet connections.
Describing it as “surprisingly permanent and surpassingly Urban,” LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne ranks Osama’s crib up there with Saddam’s as one of the “most notorious examples of hideout architecture in recent memory.”
via the New York Times and DailyMail
Images from top to bottom: European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), Diagram by NYT, EPA, EPA, AFP/Getty Images, T.Mughal/EPA
Edited by Graham Hiemstra, Ami Kealoha and Tim Yu
There’s another new face at the top of a major design masthead, as John Czarnecki prepares to take the editorial helm of Contract. He will begin at the magazine, which focuses on commercial interior design, on May 23. “I want Contract to be the design professional’s go-to resource for both knowledge and design inspiration,” said Czarnecki in a statement announcing his appointment. “Readers deserve the most relevant information on design’s positive impact on an organization, as well as the practice and business of design, sustainability, evidence-based design, and material and product innovations.” His editor-in-chiefly duties will include presiding over Contract‘s Interiors Awards, now in their 32nd year, and the Designer of the Year Award (Verda Alexander and Primo Orpilla of San Francisco-based Studio O+A were this year’s winners). Trained in architecture and urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Czarnecki comes to Contract from publisher John Wiley & Sons, where he spent the past eight years as an most acquisitions editor. He was previously an associate editor at Architectural Record, where he managed the magazine’s coverage of the 9/11 disaster for the October 2001 issue, and before that, practiced architecture with two Wisconsin firms.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Now that you know who NACTO is, we can tell you what they’ve been up to. NACTO has just publicly released their Urban Bikeway Design Guide in both web and PDF form.
The NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide is intended to help practitioners make good decisions about urban bikeway design. The treatments outlined in the Guide are based on real-life experience in the world’s most bicycle friendly cities and have been selected because of their utility in helping cities meet their goals related to bicycle transportation.
The guide is a culmination of international data collected from areas as far-flung as Austin, Baltimore, Copenhagen, Portland, the Netherlands and others. It covers Bike Lanes, Cycle Tracks, Intersections, Signals, and Signage & Markings broken down into three levels of guidance: Required, Recommended and Optional. There is tons, and I mean tons of information in the report, all well-illustrated with images, renderings and diagrams. Anyone interested in urban planning and cycling should avail themselves of this painstakingly compiled and completely free document. The PDF, thrown onto your iPad, will provide hours of interesting reading.
Sur une période de 6 semaines, la danoise Lene Wille a construit avec 270 000 briques de Lego blanc cette structure incroyable intitulée “Metaphorical Horizons”. Installé dans le hall central du World Trade Center d’Amsterdam, ce projet est parrainé par la marque Lego.
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Tonight, Core77 welcomes Joe Mansfield and Ken Tomita of Grove to our bi-weekly creative speaker series: The Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club hosted at the Hand-Eye Supply store in Portland, OR. Come early and check out our space or check in with us online for the live broadcast!
Tuesday, May 3
6PM PST
Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, OR, 97209
“Why Made in Portland Kicks Ass”
Grove will discuss the numerous benefits of local manufacturing, touching on the difficulties they’ve encountered in their mission to keep it local. Portland is known for it’s strong DIY culture and artisan community, and Grove takes this spirit to the extreme by doing everything themselves. Joe and Ken will talk about how they transformed their idealistic vision into reality.
Made-to-order exterior light fixtures. 24v LED light bar at 2W per linear foot in brushed aluminum tree branch inspired fixtures. No two are ever exac..
 | Dinner talk can get kinda boring. Liven it up with some fun table play! Everyone is told to not play with their food but no one said anything about the condiments! These Boogie Woogie Salt and Pepper shakers are fun for the whole family. With wheels attached to both shakers all you need to do is push the shaker and it€™ll wheel itself across the table to the next person. Now you don’t need to worry about arms in your face while you’re eating. The shakers come in black and white (to distinguish between salt and pepper) and look great on your table with their aluminum finish. Dinner just got more interesting!
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