Hasta La Ideas

It’s been a fun Halloween week here at Unclutterer, and we hope you have a terrific time celebrating the holiday officially tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy these links related to uncluttering, simple living, and some randomly cool things:

• Recent bride Naomi Selden wrote about how to create a clutter-free wedding registry on D. Allison Lee’s Organize to Revitalize blog. If you’re getting hitched, this is a wonderful resource.
• E-book owners might be interested in Leatherbound — a website that compares prices for e-books from around the web to find you the best deal.
• If you live in a small space, Matroshka may have some space-saving furniture options for you. Production appears to be limited at this time, but the company is growing.
• I’m drooling over this Stackable Oven-To-Table Cookware that was featured on Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn. I don’t typically make eight casseroles at a time, so I have no need for it. But, I’m happy to know it exists.
• The website She’s Next, a site “featuring 60-second inspirational videos for 21st century women,” launched this past Thursday. Erin is one of the presentations, talking about where to get started in your uncluttering efforts.
• Website ZenHabits has a quick resource for unclutterers from Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project: “Nine Quick Tips To Identify Clutter. I especially like the question “Was I ‘saving’ it?”

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

Spotted by our sister blog, Galley Cat, the show Mad Men is further dipping its toe into reality, as well as cashing in thanks to a helpful subplot, with the upcoming release of the book Sterling’s Gold: Wit and Wisdom of an Ad Man, a fictional memoir penned by the show’s fictional character, Roger Sterling. Galley reports that the book is to be 176-pages, priced at $16.95, and, to prove it’s an honest to goodness book, wrapped in a cloth cover. Will it sell? To that certain subset of rabid Man Men devotees, surely. But wherever there are aunts, uncles, parents who remember that one time you mentioned liking that show, or last minute gifts for people who work in anything close to the advertising business, it will sell like Sterling himself had put together the campaign for it. The only thing that really gets us about any of this silliness is the truly horrible cover. We’ll be cool with it if that wrap around the bottom turns out to be a removable insert used to move units, but if not, our eyes are going to scream every time we have to see this at the bookstore this holiday season.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Photography great Mick Rock’s new book and exhibition

by Matt Spangler

Photo books flaunting the great faces of rock ‘n’ roll sometimes seem to outnumber the actual musicians presently vying for their shot. But when one of the last legendary lensmen like Mick Rock takes up the pages, the pictures are worthy of that precious space on your coffee table.

The idea of rock photography itself, following the Internet’s democratization of the photographer’s star status, will never quite be the same. Rock is among the last of the classic rock photographers, with contemporaries like Danny Clinch, whose own stardom is intrinsically linked to the bands he shot. Arguably the modern-day nightlife photogs Mark “Cobrasnake” Hunter, Last Night’s Party and Nicky Digital carry the torch down the path blazed by Rock, but aren’t likely to wield the same genre-defining influence as Rock has on the American perception of music.

Celebrated as “The Man Who Shot the ’70s,” his images help visualize what we know today as rock ‘n’ roll. A portrait of an unknown David Bowie launched Rock’s career in 1972 and he since spent the next four decades capturing the who’s who of rock royalty. With a special mix of talent and right-place-at-the-right-time, his career was established.

“London in the late sixties and early seventies was a hotbed of creative interchange. The prevalent hippie philosophy united all manner of artists, musicians, filmmakers, models, designers, actors, writers, and photographers into a unique and fertile community. My timing was excellent. Curiosity and circumstance drew me into the flame of rock ‘n’ roll.” said Rock. The exhibition “Rock: Music” on view at NYC’s Morrison Hotel Gallery—aptly located in the former CBGB space—coincides with the launch of Rock’s new book, “Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘n’ Roll.” The exhibition features large format prints of some of the most distinctive music portraits of all time, including rare photographs from sessions with Syd Barrett, Iggy Pop and Bryan Ferry and video art from Dean Holtermann.

“Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘n’ Roll” is Rock’s latest book and is a retrospective that includes 200 previously unseen and unpublished images from over 40 years of work. It includes images of ’70s legends David Bowie, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Blondie, Queen, Iggy Pop, the Sex Pistols, Andy Warhol, Rocky Horror and more mixed with the new guard of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Killers and Lady Gaga with a sprinkling of multi-genre heavyweights like Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and Kate Moss.

Soon following the New York opening, the exhibition will move to London at the Idea Generation Gallery and runs concurrently until mid-January 2011. Fitting for a man who helped define the connection between the two cities, with music being one of the relationships defining characteristics. With British bands Radiohead, Coldplay and 2010 Coachella headliners The Gorillaz still serving as stadium selling forces in America, the British invasion defined by the Beatles, Bowie, and partially Mick Rock seems stronger then ever.

As the pages of his book, the party to launch the exhibition was filled with a diverse mix of rockers and artists like Andy Rourke and Harif Guzman. Watching Rock in the pit of the concert shooting with his digital camera, he didn’t let his legend restrict his unbridled enthusiasm for English rocker Adam Green as he snapped flashy pics of the pretty young things with a smile on his face. If anything it reveals the secret of many great photographers—most of his famous subjects are his friends.

“Exposed: The Faces of Rock ‘n’ Roll” sells online from Chronicle Books and Amazon.

Dezeen have teamed up with Laurence King Publishing to give readers the chance to win three copies of Planning Office Spaces by Juriaan van Meel, Yuri Martens and Hermen Jan van Ree.

To enter the competition, visit the Laurence King Publishing Facebook page and click the Like button to become a fan. Three winners will be chosen from the new fans and notified via Facebook once the competition closes.

Go to the Laurence King Publishing Facebook page »

Competition closes 10 November 2010. Laurence King Publishing will select the winners at random and notify them via Facebook. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

The information that follows is from Laurence King Publishing:

Planning Office Spaces A Practical Guide for Managers and Designers by Juriaan van Meel, Yuri Martens and Hermen Jan van Ree

Planning Office Spaces, by Juriaan van Meel, Yuri Martens and Herman Jan van Ree and published by Laurence King in October 2010 is a practical guide to creating successful work environments. With a step-by-step approach, it takes the reader from strategic objectives and fundamental choices to space-by-space design guidelines and practical recommendations for implementation.

When planning a new office, designers and their clients are faced with many challenges and questions. Fundamental questions to be addressed include: What do people actually do in an office? What types of activities need to be facilitated? What kind of office spaces best support key activities? Subsequently, a wide range of decisions has to be taken concerning issues such as floor plans, zoning, partitions, furniture, and so on. Before rushing into detailed design proposals, however, it is important to set a number of strategic objectives, decide on various crucial choices, and select the right office spaces.

At the strategic level, it is important to set clear and constructive objectives concerning issues such as occupancy costs, effectiveness of the working environment and environmental impact. Subsequently, organizations need to decide whether employees work at the office or elsewhere, whether they get allocated or shared workstations, whether they work in open spaces of enclosed rooms, etc. Finally, the right work spaces, meeting spaces and support spaces need to be selected. Planning Office Spaces is written to assist during all phases of the planning process, looking at each of these issues in turn and showing the alternatives on offer and clearly indicating the advantages and disadvantages. It helps both clients and their design teams to structure ideas, think critically and create unique work environments that really work!

Juriaan van Meel is a senior consultant at ICOP, a workplace consultancy firm in the Netherlands, which he co-founded. He is also senior researcher at the Centre for Facilities Management – Realdania Research in Copenhagen. His previous publications include The European Office and, as co-author, The Office, the Whole Office and Nothing but the Office.

Yuri Martens is a researcher and a practitioner on workplace strategy, combining his PH.D. research on creative work environments with strategic workplace consultancy. Previously he worked at the Center for People and Buildings in the Netherlands, where he co-authored the Werkplekwijzer, the Dutch predecessor to this book.

Hermen Jan van Ree is a senior consultant on strategy, CSR and sustainability – specializing in performance management. Previously he worked as a senior research fellow at University College London and various research institutes in the Netherlands and the United States. He is an active member of the BIFM and a principal expert to the European Committee for Standardization.

150 illustrations 230 x 170 mm
144 pages
PAPERBACK
ISBN – 978 1 85669 698 2
£17.95

Buy this book and others at the Dezeenbooks store
(in association with amazon.co.uk)

Competition: speaking of volcanos (see our earlier story), we’ve teamed up with Today Designers in the Netherlands to give away five copies of their Volcanobook, featuring a cover printed in volcanic ash.

The book contains an essay on the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland earlier this year, which resulted in a cloud of ash drifting into European airspace and grounding flights (see our story here), plus work by designers and illustrators on the theme of volcanoes.

To enter this competition email your name, age, gender, occupation, and delivery address and telephone number to competitions@dezeen.com with “Volcanobook” in the subject line. We won’t pass your information on to anyone else; we just want to know a little about our readers.

Read our privacy policy here.

Competition closes 9 November 2010. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeenmail newsletter and at the bottom of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.

Subscribe to our newsletter, get our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter for details of future competitions.

Here are some more details from Today Designers:

I would like to inform you about The Volcanobook, a limited edition from Today Designers about the Icelandic volcano eruption, printed with volcano-ash (see attachments). Perhaps you can give this creative project some publicity on dezeen?

The idea started when the Eyjó-ashcloud hit Europe in april 2010 for several weeks. Everyone was complaining about it and we felt the urge to turn it into something possitive. With the help of internet we contacted Icelandic people who work or live close to the volcano area. We asked them to send a bag of volcano-ash to Holland so we could turn it into a workable ink for print. We used this ash to create a beautiful illustration on the book cover.

In The Volcanobook information and creation come together. A volcanologist researched this ash and wrote an article about it. Futher many designers and illustrators contribute with an inspirational artwork about Iceland or the volcano. The first 500 copies are in Dutch. We are working on a complete english edition as well.

The book presentation is on thursday the 14th of october in the Hot Ice gallery in Amsterdam. The mayor of the Iceland volcano area will present the first copy of the book. His name is: Ísólfur Gylfi Pálmason and he is the mayor of Hvolsvöllur, a little village counting 850 people.