Design Studio 54

It seems that Simon Doonan's fascination this holiday season with Andy Warhol has influenced his husband Jonathan Adler's designs.  Adler, who mixes modern and kitsch better than anyone, has created what I consider to be the most perfect, poptastic gift choice of the season.  Yes, ladies and gents, behold Adler's needlepoint Liza Minnelli pillows!
Warhol was fond of the Studio 54 scene and so is Adler apparently.  He has taken his traditional handcrafted wool pillows, typically done in bold, colored geometric prints, and has covered them with the faces of Liza, legendary fashion designer Halston and the Studio 54 logo. Pop imagery combined with arts and crafts? Yes indeed.

Adler says the pillow is "Our homage to the hard-core hedonism of the disco era rendered in the paradoxically cozy medium of needlepoint." Brilliant, just brilliant.

Sketches become reality

The Furniture for Production students at CCA are totally hitting their stride in the class we’re hosting. They’ve been sketching furiously and presented their best of three drawings two weeks ago. Their next challenge was to pick one to focus on and creating a ¼ scale model of it. They presented these scale models last week. The details in the chairs are so cool. And I can’t help it, but aren’t all small things adorable? See for yourself here.

Want to make your own ¼ scale model chair? Our Champagne Chair Contest is coming. Check back in December to get the details.

DWR.com gets a facelift.

Everyone needs a change now and then, so we’ve recently redesigned the dwr.com homepage. We’re trying to make it easier for our customers to navigate the site and find exactly what they’re looking for. We want to make sure everyone knows about the events happening in our Studios and reflect our design aesthetic a little more strongly. Did we succeed? Let us know what you think.

Pursuit of quality.

The launch of the limited edition 20-06 Chair from Emeco and Foster + Associates (which is available only at DWR, I might add), was the perfect excuse to find out more about Norman Foster, a true living legend of architecture. His firm, Foster + Partners, has a positively staggering international portfolio. Start to look at their projects – which include London’s Millennium Bridge, the Bilbao Metro, Wembly Stadium and the Beijing International Airport (set to open in 2008), just to name a very few – and it becomes clear that their understanding of the big picture is remarkable. Whether it’s the London skyline or the Swiss Alps (check out my personal favorite, the Chesa Futura apartment building in St. Moritz; shown above), Foster and his team build structures that somehow manage to simultaneously stand out and blend into their surroundings. Thus, it’s so very exciting that they’ve gone from macro to slightly more micro with the launch of the 20-06 Chair. Their partnership with Emeco makes perfect sense – both strongly value the pursuit of quality and environmental-consciousness in their work. Definitely worth checking out.

Learn more about Foster’s approach and the emphasis he places on creating green architecture with this piece he wrote for CNN and find out more about his background and upbringing here.

Crossing Boundaries

Last week DWR’s Flatiron studio (I work there so stop in and say hello sometime) hosted an event in conjunction with Waterworks celebrating the launch of interior designer Vicente Wolf’s newest book Crossing Boundaries: A Global Vision of Design. Wolf presented a slideshow of his work and signed books afterwards.

Obviously, the event has come and gone but we’d be remiss not to point out just how much we’ve fallen in love with the book.  It is 200 pages of his work and a story of how his travels have affected his design aesthetic.  The people, colors, textiles, products and landscapes of his many trips find ways into his work, both directly (a textile from a foreign country) and indirectly (a colorway from a riverbed halfway across the world). Wolf’s impressive resume includes residential designs for Clive Davis and the NYC restaurant Alto, pictured above.

He is also a designer who understands “modern” without overtly embracing it.  During his lecture he suggested mixing both modern and traditional in equal parts, thus allowing each part of an interior’s mixture to stand out and tell a story.  It is great book, full of wonderful ideas. 

A Dandy Dunny

Kid Robot is at it again.  Having teamed up with fashion designers as diverse as Heatherette, Prada and Versace for past collaborations, it’s no surprise that their latest fashion muse is the Ralph Lauren of England, Paul Smith. Smith is no stranger to collaborating either. In the past, he’s developed a line of textiles for Maharam, designed a Mini Cooper in his signature stripe and redesigned Arne Jacobsen’s classic Series 7 Chair for Fritz Hansen.

Smith is known for his suits, loud shirts and multi-stripes. He is a dominant fashion brand globally and recent efforts have suggested he’s set to conquer the U.S. This year, PS has launched a store in LA (that Wallpaper magazine went gaga over) and a new flagship here in Soho. His first U.S. shop on 5th Avenue is a mixture of suiting, shirts, books and found objects that Smith has discovered all over the globe. It is also the only place you can snatch up a limited edition PS/Kid Robot T-shirt.  For $120, you get the toy too.

Or you could wait until November 24th when the 8” version of his Kid Robot toy, the Dandy Dunny, will go live online. But you’d better be fast.  They’ll assuredly sell out right away.

Perks of Being a Wallflower

As you might have noticed in recent DWR catalogs, our art direction team has been spicing up our photography through the use of wallpapers that act as decorative backdrops to some of our more streamlined products. We’ve received many questions from customers asking where these can be purchased, so we’re more than happy to hook you up with a link to the Cole and Sons site. Their wallpaper designs range from the feminine to over the top (in a good way).

Even more adventurous are the designs from Nama Rococo, a wallpaper studio that claims to draw influence from the French artist Watteau, Chinese hand-scroll paintings from the Qing Dynasty and Funkadelic album covers. Not only are their wallpapers striking, but their website is fun to explore.>

Being a renter and someone who constantly likes to mix up my environment, I’m always looking for ways to customize my home on a whim. These designs might just do the trick.

MODERN + DESIGN + FUNCTION

For the third year in a row, Chicago's North Avenue Studio is hosting a juried furniture competition entitled, MODERN + DESIGN + FUNCTION: Chicago Furniture Now to support new, innovative furniture designs by emerging Chicago designers. The contest has attracted the attention of the regional design community. Chicago Furniture Now was created to foster new ideas in modern furniture design in the Chicago area. A panel of judges made up of respected professionals in architecture, art, design and fashion will select 20-25 top entries to be exhibited, making this a great opportunity for up-and-coming designers and design firms to have their original work juried.

Please review the application [pdf] and the complete rules.

Application deadline: Friday, January 12, 2007, 7pm.
Approximately 20-25 of the top entries will be exhibited Thursday, February 15, 2007, 6:30-9:30pm.

“I hate camping.”

Or so says Marcel Wanders in his latest design jaunt with Puma to bring some fun into the outdoor lounging realm. I love the idea of making camping/life outside more than just yellow and black gore-tex and green coleman grills. This is what crossed my mind today as my co-worker Karen John handed me a gold and black marketing book from one of our favorite Dutch designers, Marcel Wanders. Wanders teamed up with Puma to launch products designed a camping/beach/lounge experience. The line includes a shade structure, coolers, beach balls, flip flops and bags, all jazzed up with his black and white prints. Wanders and Puma seem like a match made in heaven. The line will be in stores this week. For now, I’m going to play with the marketing book, it has cutouts and dolls so I can pretend camp, all from the comfort of my desk. Now how about a desk meets tent type of thing?

Going Once, Going Twice...

Wright, the Chicago-based auction house, will offer Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21 (1958) at auction on December 3, 2006. The Los Angeles property has been immaculately restored to the original intent of the architect. The steel and glass residence is surrounded by reflection pools and nestled into the Hollywood Hills. Estimate $2.5-3.5 million.

For New Yorkers, an exclusive Manhattan preview to this auction, along with others from Wright’s upcoming season, is being held at the Urban Glass House located at 330 Spring Street, New York City. The structure represents Philip Johnson’s last residential commission and was designed with the same rigorous attention to detail as his world-famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. This preview event is open to the public November 14-19. Exhibition items will include Poul Kjærholm designs and a 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster from Koenig’s Case Study House, as well as Isamu Noguchi’s rare Prismatic table, which has never before appeared on the market.

Warholidays

Andy Warhol is everywhere this Fall, thanks to Barneys, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  Window-dressing legend, Jonathan Adler-husband and Barneys’ creative director Simon Doonan has concocted some of the most impressive window designs seen in a long time, all revolving around the bewigged pop art legend.  He wallpapered Warhol portraits in one window with naked models wearing glasses and grey wigs.  In another he depicts Warhol’s early years with a silver Christmas tree and rows of his fashion illustrations.  But it is the window inspired by the artist’s obsessive compulsive behavior that delivers the goods: It features a shelving unit in the shape of Warhol’s head that’s lined with jars of buttons, dishware and soup cans. Barneys will also be selling actual Campbell’s soup, but in a Warhol palette of extreme color.

Barneys entire holiday campaign is focused around the artist and that means much of the merchandise is as well.  The must-have part of the collection has to be the Levi’s wax-coated Factory jean printed and embroidered with famous Warhol images.  They’ll retail for $185.

Warhol once wrote that “being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art.” Nearly 20 years after his death the Warhol brand is stronger than ever and it seems his 15 minutes are going nowhere.

Going Back to Move Forward

The opening of a new bespoke shop in Notting Hill is probably not something that is normally newsworthy, however when you’re Claire Goldsmith, greatgranddaughter of Philip Oliver Goldsmith, it is.

Philip Oliver Goldsmith began as an eyeglass salesman in 1926. After finding that metal and tortoiseshell were far too expensive, he turned to vibrantly colored acetate. Ten years later Charles Goldsmith turned the concept of sunglasses, which at that time were made from used eyeglasses with tinted lenses, into a full-fledged fashion statement and permanent accessory. Soon the custom eyewear was gracing the pages of Vogue and Harpers. Through the middle of the century Goldsmith created some of the most eye catching designs to be captured on film, worn by the likes of Michael Caine and Audrey Hepburn, and on the runway by creating eyewear for Givenchy and Dior.

Eighty years later, Claire Goldsmith is not riding on icon status alone, she is attempting to reconnect to a past tradition and craft to create something new. She has called on the original craftsmen, most now well into their seventies, and has gone as far as to raid forgotten warehouses stocked with acetate to create great new collections from vintage stock. She has definitely taken the tradition and heritage to heart in her new undertaking, attempting to carry on the iconic legacy of her forefathers.

This makes me wonder if somewhere there isn’t a forgotten stash of rosewood sitting in a remote warehouse in Michigan just waiting to be formed into a new Plywood Lounge Chair.

Good design or just make it work?

Have you ever really looked at a roller coaster? Or, for that matter, the control panel of a roller coaster? You know, ever paid attention to what’s controlling that ride you’re going really fast on, up in the air, maybe even upside down? Well, I did. Last weekend I was in Chicago, just in time to see the leaves changing colors and to take my niece and nephew to a pumpkin patch for Halloween.

As it turns out, a suburban pumpkin patch has much more to offer than the urban ones I always went to: Junk food, farm animals, pumpkins, rides and tractors. I’m there with my neice and nephew and they love it. That’s where the roller coasters come in. The kids spot one with little tow trucks that they can sit in and pretend like they’re driving. It goes around in a circle with a few little bumps and twists. As I’m taking pictures I notice the control panel for the ride. The control panel is pure low-budget, sci-fi, carnie hokiness. It amazes me. It’s got a big red button (“stop,” right?) and a little green button (you’re with me now, that one’s for “go”) and then there’s a dial (who knows?). It’s rusty and ancient and is being used on this fancy little tow truck ride. Does it matter that it’s so low tech? I mean, this is what they’re using to control a ride that hundreds of kids ride on every day. So my question is this, good design (simple, functional) or does it just make it work?

Midterms over, now what?

The 2nd half of the CCA class, Furniture for Production, began last week. The students were asked to present initial sketches for a multipurpose chair targeted at the needs of DWR. Instructor Brian Kane said a successful solution will be based on visual and material innovation as well as ergonomic, manufacturing, and sustainable considerations. Unlike the foamcore project they worked on for their midterm, this chair can be designed in any material they choose. Still very much in the idea stage, nothing is considered impossible. However, they’ll soon have to decide on one idea to pursue for the rest of the class. Brian, along with furniture designers, Mark Kapka and Brian Graham, continue to help by sharing their own experiences. Eventually one or more chairs may be put into production by DWR. No guarantees of course.

Local Forms that Function

Join us at DWR San Diego in support of the local design community. Pieces from five local furniture designers will be on display until Sunday, November 26th. Come have a cocktail and enjoy the work of Jennifer Anderson, Tanya Aguiniga, Paul Basile (Basile Studio), Christopher Gay (Christopher Gay Design) and Joey Vaiasuso (Wood FX). These innovative designers work with a wide range of materials, including wood, metal, felt and plastic, to create furniture with a modern aesthetic.

Friday, November 17, 7–9pm

RSVP to sandiego@dwr.com by November 15.

Stairway to Finland

The rainy weather in San Francisco gave me the perfect reason to head to a lecture last night at the SFMOMA. It was on Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect and designer. The lecture was given by Markku Lahti, director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and Museum. He took us through Aalto’s life (1898-1976) using photos and sharing stories. What I really dug seeing in these images was his use of wood and brick. You can see the brick work in a dorm he was commissioned to do at MIT, as well as a building for the Finnish House of Culture. The variegated brick work is probably too time consuming and costly to be used in today’s buildings. He also had an amazing attention to detail. Aalto made handles for doors, chairs for lobbies, put stairs on the inside, in lobbies, instead of the outside proving that he was really thinking of how light came in and how a simple staircase can be made more communal and more inviting. One of his most famous buildings was the Paimio Sanatorium, a hospital for tuberculosis. He approached the task with extraordinary care, even taking the time to pretend he was sick, laying around on his back for hours.

 

Despite the extreme attention to detail in his buildings, in his day to day life he was the dreamer, letting his wives take care of the details. Both his first and second wives were architects, as well. The lecturer mentioned a funny side note, that Aalto put a bigger stair at the bottom of a stairway in his house so the “lady of the house” could pause for ten seconds on her grand entrance to a dinner party. I love that. And, I’ll leave you with this parting quote of his, “Home is not a place for a design competition.” I like my home to look great, but I also like the idea of leaving some imperfections. Looks like I’m in good company on that one.

Lots of resources online, maybe start with the bio on our site.

Unveiling of the Ban and Maltz House

The Houses at Sagaponac is a development launched by the late Harry J. Brown and Richard Meier, featuring 34 summer homes designed by internationally recognized architects on a 65-acre site. The latest one to open was designed by Shigeru Ban and Dean Maltz, and DWR not only furnished the space but will be hosting the unveiling. Based on an unbuilt Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe brick country house, the Ban and Maltz House also includes artwork curated by Silas Marder Gallery.

Saturday, November 11, 5–7pm
21 Forest Crossing
Houses at Sagaponac
Sagaponack NY 11962

Students ace DWR midterm

California College of the Arts (CCA) and DWR have teamed up to host a class, Furniture for Production, in which students are developing seating solutions for contract and residential markets. For the midterm, students were asked to design a full-scale foamcore chair that supports their weight. The only material allowed was one 4'x 8' sheet of half-inch foamcare. No glue or fasteners could be used. Oh, and as if that wasn’t challenging enough, they had to create a design that could ship flat and be assembled on site. The innovative solutions included a rocking chair, a folding chair and a chair assembled with dovetailed joinery. One student even peeled the hard coating off parts of the foamcore to give his chair a shaggy texture. The result was more Muppet noir than cute. “A piece of evil should be in every project,” said the student.

View more projects here.

Tile Style

We’re long-time fans of Portland, Maine-based textile designer Angela Adams. Our customers have grown to love her rugs for their cheery colors matched with refined, modern graphics. Imagine our joy when we discovered her line of ceramic tile for the venerable brand Ann Sacks. The marriage of Sacks’ quality and Adams’ whimsy has everyone at DWR thinking about redoing their bathrooms. They’re that good.

In the spirit of ‘60s Pop art—with a tip of the hat to Finnish textile pioneers Marimekko—Adams’ line of ceramic tile is bold, colorful and above all fun. Personal favorites? Islands, pictured above, and Argyle (which happens to perfectly match her Argyle Rug, which, by the way, is available only at DWR).