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Emu Heaven Seating / Italy 2009 / Jean-Marie Massaud |
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Emu Heaven Seating / Italy 2009 / Jean-Marie Massaud |
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Emu Heaven Seating / Italy 2009 / Jean-Marie Massaud |
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| Emu Heaven Seating / Italy 2009 / Jean-Marie Massaud |
October 3, 2011
Beautiful weather + beautiful furniture
The weather around here has just been phenomenal lately! Sunny, breezy, and mid-70's during the day with cooler, clear nights. What more could ask for?? Makes me want to spend my time outside in some beautiful furniture, like the pieces below from Coalesse.
September 27, 2011
My cousin was telling me about this site, Pinterest and said I should check it out. It's vitrual cork boards that you "pin" pictures and videos onto. I thought it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a whirl.
Well, first you have to request to get an account.
.....
Four hours later, I was the newest member of Pinterest, free to pin to my hearts desire.
It is actually pretty cool. You can have (what seems like) unlimited number of boards that you title and pin pictures to. You can create tags and mention fellow pinners as well. So far, I only have two boards. But... I'm getting there.
You can literally pin a picture from almost any site. I am having trouble with some sites though, it will pick up the wrong images off the site (like the banner at the top) or it will say "no large images found". But you can also pin pictures by uploading them. I have a wedding board and an house ideas board. There are fashion boards, food boards, quote boards, and much more!
September 7, 2011
Significant Memorial Buildings
I was browsing the Architectural Digest website and came across an interesting article. Here are some of my favorite pieces of the article. (For the full article, click here)
"The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center opens on the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the United States. Like other well-known memorials, the fountains designed by architect Michael Arad in the footprints of the twin towers incorporate figurative symbolism, while exploring architecture’s power to express emotion. AD visits the most noteworthy memorials of the modern era from around the world"
"Most people don’t think of St. Louis’s celebrated Gateway Arch as a memorial, but in fact it’s the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial built to commemorate the westward expansion of the United States. In the 1948 competition for the memorial design, an unknown Eero Saarinen beat out his famous father, Eliel, with a simple but powerful steel parabola. America’s first modern monument, the 630-foot-high engineering marvel did not begin construction until 1963, two years after its designer’s death."
"Just 21 years old and a student at Yale University, Maya Lin was plucked from obscurity and immediately plunged into controversy when her design—a visual scar on the National Mall—won the 1981 competition. The memorial invites the viewer below ground level to read the names of the war’s more than 58,000 dead and missing inscribed on the face of two 247-foot black-granite walls. Decried as an insult to veterans, the simple structure elicited such powerful emotions upon opening to the public that its critics were almost immediately silenced."
"No museum dedicated to the history of the Jews in Germany can be just a museum. Opened in 2001, Daniel Libeskind’s first major work is arguably his best. Built around the concept of erasure and void, its architecture integrates the meaning of the Holocaust into the consciousness of the city, physically and spiritually. The zigzagging form of its main building, the unusual gradient of the Garden of Exile, and the Holocaust Tower’s claustrophobic container are disorienting, but the architect calls the project an 'emblem of hope.'"
"In a two-acre park near the point of impact of American Airlines Flight 77 on 9/11, the Pentagon Memorial features 184 cantilevered, benchlike “units,” each engraved with the name of a victim, hovering above a pool of water. Somewhat convoluted in its details, Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman’s design was chosen from more than 1,200 submissions in an international competition."
"The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago. The 184-foot-long memorial, accessible only by boat, sits on the surface above the sunken vessel’s midsection, rising at either end to signify the United States’ ultimate victory. Its designer, Austrian-born Alfred Preis, fled the Nazi takeover of his homeland only to be imprisoned as an “enemy alien” in Hawaii, not far from where his monument now stands."
"The National September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center opens on the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the United States. Like other well-known memorials, the fountains designed by architect Michael Arad in the footprints of the twin towers incorporate figurative symbolism, while exploring architecture’s power to express emotion. AD visits the most noteworthy memorials of the modern era from around the world"
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| Gateway Arch, St. Louis |
"Most people don’t think of St. Louis’s celebrated Gateway Arch as a memorial, but in fact it’s the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial built to commemorate the westward expansion of the United States. In the 1948 competition for the memorial design, an unknown Eero Saarinen beat out his famous father, Eliel, with a simple but powerful steel parabola. America’s first modern monument, the 630-foot-high engineering marvel did not begin construction until 1963, two years after its designer’s death."
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| Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C. |
"Just 21 years old and a student at Yale University, Maya Lin was plucked from obscurity and immediately plunged into controversy when her design—a visual scar on the National Mall—won the 1981 competition. The memorial invites the viewer below ground level to read the names of the war’s more than 58,000 dead and missing inscribed on the face of two 247-foot black-granite walls. Decried as an insult to veterans, the simple structure elicited such powerful emotions upon opening to the public that its critics were almost immediately silenced."
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| Jewish Museum, Berlin |
"No museum dedicated to the history of the Jews in Germany can be just a museum. Opened in 2001, Daniel Libeskind’s first major work is arguably his best. Built around the concept of erasure and void, its architecture integrates the meaning of the Holocaust into the consciousness of the city, physically and spiritually. The zigzagging form of its main building, the unusual gradient of the Garden of Exile, and the Holocaust Tower’s claustrophobic container are disorienting, but the architect calls the project an 'emblem of hope.'"
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| Pentagon Memorial, Washington D.C. |
"In a two-acre park near the point of impact of American Airlines Flight 77 on 9/11, the Pentagon Memorial features 184 cantilevered, benchlike “units,” each engraved with the name of a victim, hovering above a pool of water. Somewhat convoluted in its details, Keith Kaseman and Julie Beckman’s design was chosen from more than 1,200 submissions in an international competition."
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| USS Arizona Memorial, Honolulu |
"The USS Arizona is the final resting place for many of the ship’s 1,177 crewmen who lost their lives in the attack on Pearl Harbor 70 years ago. The 184-foot-long memorial, accessible only by boat, sits on the surface above the sunken vessel’s midsection, rising at either end to signify the United States’ ultimate victory. Its designer, Austrian-born Alfred Preis, fled the Nazi takeover of his homeland only to be imprisoned as an “enemy alien” in Hawaii, not far from where his monument now stands."
August 28, 2011
What a trip!
I was lucky enough to end my week with a wonderful trip to the Jasper Group facility in Jasper, Indiana! They were most hospitable there, and the weather and scenery could not have been better! What a beautiful place to make beautiful furniture.
We went on a personal tour through the Community manufacturing facility, where we saw how they create their chairs, from the lumbar yard to the last coat of polyurethane. It was so interesting to see how everything works, especially how they bend the wood to make those elegant curved legs.
We also went on a tour through the JSI casegood manufacturing facility. Again, really interesting! They make a really good quality product, and that makes it easy to want to partner with them.
By far, my favorite thing I saw was Community's new product line, Finn.
They actually have a solid piece of aluminum between two pieces of wood! I know in this economy, some other furniture manufacturers might just paint a silver stripe, or just put a very thin piece of aluminum on top of the wood, but not at Community. This is the real deal. And the product is so good looking!
We went on a personal tour through the Community manufacturing facility, where we saw how they create their chairs, from the lumbar yard to the last coat of polyurethane. It was so interesting to see how everything works, especially how they bend the wood to make those elegant curved legs.
We also went on a tour through the JSI casegood manufacturing facility. Again, really interesting! They make a really good quality product, and that makes it easy to want to partner with them.
By far, my favorite thing I saw was Community's new product line, Finn.
They actually have a solid piece of aluminum between two pieces of wood! I know in this economy, some other furniture manufacturers might just paint a silver stripe, or just put a very thin piece of aluminum on top of the wood, but not at Community. This is the real deal. And the product is so good looking!
August 22, 2011
Perfect for someone with borderline OCD (like me)
I found this great product from Wolf Gordon called Wink (check out what Interior Design mag has to say about it here). It is a clear finish that you can put on top of any paintable surface to make it a dry erase surface! Wow! I'm thinking... all over the kitchen... office... etc. I love making lists, so I could make a list virtually anywhere!
August 17, 2011
Missing Europe
Last summer, I was most fortunate enough to attend a two and a half week trip to London and Paris with two instructors from the Art Department and a (large) handful of us art kiddos. It was... awesome, amazing, beautiful, eye-opening, exhausting, wonderful, unforgettable... you get the idea.
I've been missing that trip lately. We returned June 31st of last summer, so about this time last year I was still high (metaphorically) from the trip.
Since I can't afford a $1500-something plane ticket, I will post some JMW Turner images instead. We got to see an entire gallery of his work. It was phenomenal. Even his "sketches" were better than anything I've ever painted.
(this is my desktop background)
Modern Rome: Campo Vaccino, 1839. JMW Turner
Ulysses deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey, 1829. JMW Turner
Regulus, 1828. JMW Turner
My Dream Kitchen
Well, we are house shopping. I'm currently (and embarrassed to admit) living in my parents house... it's not a dream, that's for sure. So, as we are house shopping, my designer brain is running wild!!!
Today, we found a house that had a good head start on my dream kitchen. What is my dream kitchen you ask? See below.
How much do I love this kitchen? Let me count the ways. First off, I love the natural light! Wow, wouldn't that be a dream to cook and entertain in?! Second, I love the island. I want an island that is not more cabinets and countertops, but more of a furniture piece. I like how this one has open shelving. It just seems more familiar and comfortable to me, like being at the dining table. I also love the cabinetry. Classy and a little modern with a small hint of country. And I love the lighting... and...
PS - I think this kitchen is half the size of the houses we are looking at... what can I say? My parents taught me to dream BIG :)
August 16, 2011
Neotini 2011
Every year the St. Louis part of the IIDA Mid America Chapter hosts a Neotini event. They rent out a venue and vendors and manufacturers set up for a Neocon-esque day with their latest and greatest. Last Thursday was this years event, held at the beautiful Kemp Auto Museum in Chesterfield. There was such a great turnout (I think the cars drew people in) and all of the vendors had wonderful products to show. It really was a great event, especially since I won a $25 Visa gift card (thanks IIDA).
Some of my favorite products were:
LiquidMotion Floor Tiles from Hirshfield's
Halina Stripe window treatment fabric from Carnegie
SW_1 Lounge Seating from Coalesse
"Residence Hall Suites May Foster Greater Alcohol Use" from InformeDesign
I like to regularly visit the site InformeDesign and browse through articles that interest me. What I like about InformeDesign is they read the article for you, then sum it up so you can just get through the article down to the facts. It's like the Sparknotes version of lengthy research articles.
Today, the article that sparked my interest was "Residence Hall Suites May Foster Greater Alcohol Use". Being that I just graduated last summer from a university that has only suite-style dorms, and being that I was a Resident Advisor (RA) at said university for two years, this article hit home for me. As an RA, we had to deal with alcohol policy violations all the time. I remember I was the RA on Duty one Halloween night and we were up until 6am writing incident reports, mainly for alcohol violations.
The article was saying that it is too easy for students who have suite-style dorms to hide away and not be seen with alcohol. They have a bathroom, a sink, and a fridge. They could live in there for days if they wanted to.
I just thought it was an interesting article... click here if you want to check it out.
August 15, 2011
Let me fill you in...
Boy, it has been a loooong while since I have posted. Let me give you a whirlwind update of my professional life. I got a job selling furniture at a retail store. It was not what I was looking for, but it offered a paycheck (something I was temporally missing) and some skills about sales. While working that job, I went to an IIDA event and met some awesome people from the furniture and design industry. We exchanged business cards, etc. etc., and now I am working at Color Art Integrated Interiors as the Customer Experience Manager. I am doing some sales, some design, managing the resource library, and meeting and event planning. It is really fun, and very fast paced. I am learning so much, it is hard to believe that I actually went to school before this. Some advice to current Interior Design students: there is so much they don't teach you in school. Well, rather, they can't teach you in school. Like how to deal with snotty clients, or how to work within a budget. Those kinds of things are too hypothetical, it would just be hard to make a realistic lesson.
I am very grateful to have this position, and to work for this company. I have met so many people that have been my champions, and I know they will continue to help me grow.
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