Peachy Christmas

It's become a bit of Christmas tradition to photograph my cat Peachy for the holidays and mail the pictures out to friends. This year I think came out really nicely. You can check out some of my older photos in a previous post.

Mid-Century Birthday Cake

I haven't had time to post lately with all the rush with work and Christmas so this post is a bit late but relevant. My girl friend for my birthday a couple of weeks ago was sweet enough to take some simple icons I had created and turn them into a birthday cake. The result for the price was really nice. It's just a photo cake from a local super market called Ukrops. You can do your own if you go to Kroger, they also offer photo cakes. I really like these little icons I'm looking to get them made into a embroidered hat from Zazzel when I get some money saved up.

Merry Christmas Charles and Ray Eames

A Christmas card design by Bob Wirth and mailed to Charles and Ray Eames in 1948. This is part of the Library of Congress collection.

French Modernism

When I think of modern furniture design usually Denmark, Germany and America come to mind. Let's face it the French are known mostly for their modern art not modern furniture. The French have always lagging behind in modernist endeavors. They mostly attempted to dabbled in modernism during the WWII era, but that was more about ideas than actual design. That's not to say they haven't produced some good modern design , but their specialty is big French Provencal pieces decked out with ornamentation.

Enough rambling! French artist Richard Prince has tried his hand at modernism. The collection as a whole I felt was not very innovative and reminiscent of a lot of American and Danish pieces from the 1950's, but not in a "WOW I want this" kind of way. However, I did love his coffee table pictured above. His chair also was very interesting, it reminded me of a very clean fresh starched sheet frozen in time.

Sometimes as artists we try to do and give too much to a collection. I am guilty of it myself I often give a client more than is needed instead of narrowing down the best pieces to show. I believe Richard Prince should have narrowed down his collection for a much more successful presentation.

Read More at Design Boom

Robots Are Back

While vacationing in NC I ran across a small store selling robots like theses. Ever since then I have been hooked and the best place to purchase these are at Tiny Toy Arcade. Nice customer service and free shipping on items over $75.

Building a shell chair

The process of building a shell chair.

Eames Rocker

I just got my Christmas present in early! Reproduction Herman Miller rocker legs! My girl friend ordered them off of Ebay for me and the quality is superb. I mounted them to an early 60's Herman Miller chair with original red / blue strip fabric.

Eames Shades

The Shade Store just recently released the Charles Eames Dot Pattern in various window treatments. I have to say they are pretty nice. However, I wish I knew of a store that made affordable knock off fabric.

Now that you have your pipe

Great piece taken from Swissmiss Typepad

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

Pictured:
Charles Eames; Le Corbusier; Frank Lloyd Wright; Eero Saarinen. Harry Bertoia; Mies van der Rohe; Arne Jacobson; Lets face it post WWI everybody smoked. You cant be a good designer without your trusty pipe.

Eero Saarinen Richmond VA Architecture Museum

If you live near Richmond Va stop by the Virginia Architecture Museum to see the Saarinen exhibit ending January 25, 2009. It's not bad, but lacks a lot of history. I wouldn't drive more than an hour to see it. The museum itself is a beautiful old house designed by famous Richmond architect John Pope. However, the museum as a whole does not utilize the space. The main exhibit gallery was small and very nice, but it seems that 80% of the rest of the house is used for meeting rooms. I found the staff to be unfriendly. I do believe that they may have some rooms dedicated for classes or other learning opportunities which is good. The photo above was taken from a Boston Globe Article.

Eames Montage

Eames Montage featuring the Eames Era

Like I need another couch

Urban Outfitters is one of the few stores that has picked up on the Mid Century Modern Craze and has a great collection of home goods. I really want this couch, but one reviewer said the quality was kind of poor and that worries me a bit.

If they would sell these things for $350 including shipping they would fly off the shelves. You know the cost of building these cant be much. Crossing my fingers for a Christmas sale.Though I wish they would have this in store so I could see it up close.

Storage

I just put a couple of more things in storage this week. I'm building the perfect Mid Century modern town home in my mind. I'm hoping in a year or two to get out of apartment living and purchase my own place. For now I'm storing what will not fit into my apartment. Trust me kids graphic design is not a stable career! I'm hoping to fix a few minor repairs to the orange couch pictured over Christmas.

Save gas in style

I'm dying for one of these. They are actually pretty affordable in comparison to other motorized bikes. 120 Miles to the gallon and street legal! However, I am super poor :(

Design at its best

Great video on modern design

Reac Japan Stocking Stuffers

I have been wanting some of these chair miniatures. The price actually isn't to bad about $60 compared to the $200+ Vitra miniatures which are outrageously! Why would I want to go out and pay $200+ for a miniature when I could go out and put $200 towards the real thing.

A bit of reto Thanksgiving history

This package is very similar to the first TV dinner ever created in 1955.

Gerald Thomas, a C.A. Swanson & Sons executive, had a big problem. What to do with about 270 tons of left over Thanksgiving turkey.

"After Thanksgiving, Swanson had ten refrigerated railroad cars -- each containing 520,000 pounds of unsold turkeys -- going back and forth across the country in refrigerated railroad box cars, because there was not enough storage in warehouses. We were challenged to come up with a way to get rid of the turkeys," said Thomas.

He got the breakthrough idea from the trays used for airline food service. And the TV dinner was born. The first production order was for 5,000 dinners, thought to be a big gamble at the time. They had about two dozen women armed with ice cream scoops filling the new trays at night.

The first TV dinner featured turkey, corn bread dressing and gravy, buttered peas and sweet potatoes. It cost 98 cents and came in a box resembling a TV.

Taken from Fifties Web

Schöner Wohnen Living Unit

This design is truly a remarkable use of space. Created by Verner Panton in 1966 however, it never fully went into production. I hope to one day recreate this piece to use in my home.

I just borrowed this book from a coworker. Great book, Jim Flora was a virtually forgotten about artist/ record designer until this release. Two books followed with a full website dedicated to him.

New Lamp

I lucked up and found this sweet lamp in the nick of time! A little brass cleaner and fresh stain and it is like new. If anyone is trying to clean any type of metal I recommend Brasso.

Best Photo Ever

I just got the original 1961 Playboy in the mail the other day just so I could get this photo. It's amazing and I was shocked at the lack of nudity in the magazine, it really was about the articles back then. Featuring George Nealson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames and Jens Risom.

Cheesy Christmas Card

My girlfriend and I got bored last Christmas and decided to make these Cheesy Christmas Cards. Featuring a Finn Juhl and Burke style chair and yes thats our cat Peachy.

Dont Forget your Eames Stamps

Eames Stamps are still available online. I went to two local post offices and neither knew what I was talking about.

Dwell Christmas Cards

Dwell has just released Eames style Christmas cards that you can customize and print. So get yourself some thick paper stock and get cutting!