l'espace plié

You're not like the others. You like the same things I do.

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Is this thing still on?

Well thanks for reminding me what we were all doing several years ago. I’m back I guess.

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I’d tread lightly if I were Blu Dot. Except for being constructed without hardware - and the price - there is little to distinguish the Happy Day shelving from Cassina’s authorized production of Charlotte Perriand’s Nuage. Everybody knocks off the French modernists these days, but none of them give us what we really want: a replica of the Maison du Mexique bookcase.

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Whenever I'm critical of something, that something never fails to "like" the photo. Congratulations! You're illiterate/stupid/a robot.

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Doctor Who and fonts are two esoteric universes that collide today as we examine the graphic design failure that happened somewhere between the early 1970s and the last several years of BBC marketing. The original Pertwee logo is lovely for its era and never really bettered for the venerable franchise. It's clearly based on the Boulder font with a few modifications and flourishes. For the 1996 tv movie, this logo was resurrected, but rather than reworking it afresh from the font, the designer did a naive traced approximation that results in some lumpy letters - especially the horrible R! BBC continues to use the hacked version to this day. Can nobody see the lumps? I propose a more accurate rendering with a modest alteration to the C, which was the only slight deficiency in the original.

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Finding the perfect sconces has been tricky. They needed to be small and compatible with mid-century modern yet not an obvious vintage item or anything high end. I finally came by the "Wink" by ET2 - a company which mostly makes gaudy, baubled things. This piece is the exception to their brand with it's bold yet subtle black finish and petite size (5.25" in diameter). It recalls the work of Serge Mouille without actually knocking off one of his designs - and it's only $54.

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#GeorgiaBeforePeople is the only #book I know of about #Georgia's specific #prehistory, but I hope the writing is better than the #illustration. If the author wants to revise this, I'll draw for free.

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Exit 2014

It's that time again. Never mind Ebola, Kardashian weddings and social unrest. I'm ready for a conscious uncoupling with these lesser, dubious trends to make way for the new year. 1. P&S cameras, camcorders Smart phones, DSLRs and action cams have finally displaced them to the point that I don't see why the manufacturers even bother. 2. mag stripe credit cards It's time for chip and pin to become the norm in the US. 3. DVDs, Blu-ray Discs I wish my video collection could be data-only just like music. The extras are the only reason I keep buying physical media. 4. overused slang Because reasons, is everything, cray cray, saying "hashtag" aloud, yassss, etc. Bye, Felicia! 5. Internet cats I still love Lil Bub, but you can buy plush Internet cats in bulk at Sam's Club, and Grumpy Cat had a Christmas tv movie. It must stop. 6. selfies Only share these if they're exceptional or communicate something. 7. hate-watching I'm plenty guilty of picking the carcass of a terrible movie or tv show instead of simply watching something good. 8. celebrity branded crap Do we really need a Guy Fieri cutting board? 9. Food Network Look at the full list of shows and try finding the ones that are not reality/games/gimmicky. Not much left is there? Back to PBS then. 10. Dollar General They're for when you just can't make it to a real discount store, grocery or pharmacy in the same ZIP code.

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New Who Review

In spite of excellent casting in the title role and a less frantic style, Doctor Who and I are going to have to part ways if the production continues in the manner of Series 8. With the exception of a couple of refreshing episodes (e.g. "Flatline"), most of the writing has been an unbearable mix of retread plots, boring peripheral relationships and some of the worst science ever. There's no reason to get the grade school stuff wrong, or at least adhere to the show's own rules.

It's a shame, too, as so many other things are really right about the production including occasional glimpses into a real sense of danger and consequence. It's like getting all the ingredients right and then burning the cake.

To fix this, I propose a few things. 1) Stop saving the world or entire universe for a series or two. There was a time when this show was more often than not an adventure for nosy wanderers. 2) Don't force a series arc. 3) Invent new foes and characters instead of using the classic ones too often. 4) But do revisit things from the classic series that left the audience wanting more. Daleks a thousand times yet the Osirans only once? Really?

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I like Uniqlo, but this jersey blazer doesn't fit the model. I don't care what is trending. Those sleeves are too short, and the fabric is pulling away from the button. Ridiculous!

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What does this mean? Dry your corn rows? Heat will shrink your skull?

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This #color is so #now. #perforated #sprinklescupcakes

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Here's a lesson in how not to do a knock-off. I can understand the attraction to Zanuso's lovely Lady chair. It is simultaneously cute and smart and relies on its contours and form. Anthropologie decided to hide the form under a boxy pattern and fill the voids under the arms.

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Do your own work, West Elm! Honestly, it's not the bigger names of mid-century modern that get knocked off as much as Paul McCobb lately. The originals of this particular chair are not even that hard or expensive to acquire. To be fair, even McCobb's design is like a budget version of Nakashima's work for Knoll.

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I have laughed 'til I cried! IKEA might want to rethink the placement of the tv with the fireplace video. It looks like the tree is on fire!

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Remind me again why this Ross Lovegrove table that looks like something from IKEA costs more than a Richard Schultz icon? The price of the Petal table hurts my wallet, but at least there are some high end manufacturing processes in its construction. It will get more beautiful as the teak ages - an heirloom. The Tri-Oval's rounded, asymmetrical triangle of glass? Oh, we've never seen that except for Noguchi and his imitators for over 60 years.

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Aren't they pretty? Perhaps, but each one is a terrible design by a renowned designer. The first is Michael Graves' woeful garlic press for Target. It's cast metal - too brittle for the pressure exerted on the thin neck of the handles. I broke one myself.

Next is Ross Lovegrove's pot for Hackman - a cookware company that should know better. The melamine framing the glass lid can't take the expansion and contraction from heating. It cracks pretty quickly. The handles are also the perfect shape to funnel steam right onto your hands. Lovegrove's design failures deserve an entry of their own.

Stemware should be designed to preserve the bouquet of its contents, but it would be nice not to need to tilt it so high to drink from. Are Karim Rashid's pieces for Mikasa some kind of joke? His "Kimono" flatware (not pictured) was also an unbalanced oddity with handles folded like ribbon and doubling the weight.

The problem with these designers is that they're really just stylists (even with their respective educations). This is no disrespect to stylists. The best know how to collaborate with engineers so that little things like product safety aren't ignored.

This is a rewritten entry from a retired blog of mine. It seems so relevant now that I decided to re-post it.

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Jonathan Adler producing Happy Chic for J. C. Penney? More like Happy Cheat! Adler at times produces inspired ceramics (when he's not ripping off Bjørn Wiinblad), but the Bleaker chair from his new JCP collection is nothing more than a copy of a classic Jens Risom chair. You know, the Jens Risom who is still alive, who has licensed the design to Ralph Pucci and who probably would like to be paid for his work. It's no surprise, though. The rest of Adler's furniture consists primarily of Dunbar knock-offs.