August 2012
7 posts
6 tags
DIETER RAMS. YOU SO CRAZY.
Dieter Rams is the classic creative industrialist. Affordable form and function- my favorite form of design.
Read his ten commandments. They summarize everything I believe good design to be. I know I ultimately love them because they’re so wonderfully ideological.
This is a favorite:
“Good design makes a product useful: A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria,...
6 tags
GHANA THINKTANK : SOLVING 'FIRST' WORLD PROBLEMS
I know it’s probably hard to believe from our thrones in the post-Colonial West sometimes, but ‘first world’ nations don’t always have the answers to everything.
Overdue (but we’re glad someone got there in the end), part-public artist and part-community activist, Christopher Robbins, founded Ghana ThinkTank - a network of worldwide think tanks, strategically...
4 tags
RAE JONES SHOES LAUNCH IN NYC!
My dear friend Rae Jones - talented shoe & bag designer to the London hipster fashionistas who know - is launching favorites from her most recent line at No.6 Store in SoHo, New York!
Simultaneously pleased and displeased, Style.com were on the pulse with this feature before I was! Amazing job Rae! Can’t wait to sport some Blighty-stylin!
And one day soon hopefully. Starting with this bag...
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FOR THE LOVE OF A GOOD MELA
It’s been a tough month for the South Asian community in the aftermath of the heartless gurdwara shooting in Wisconsin. Typical of Jackson Heights in Queens, New York however- arguably one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the US - there is positive, pro-active recoil, surfacing as a colorful celebration of South Asian culture.
Next Saturday, August 25th, ChhayaCDC and it’s growing...
AND BROOKLYN WILL NEVER BE THE SAME WITHOUT YOU
I was completely honored to attend Everett Ortner’s private memorial service last month at the Greenwood Chapel in Brooklyn. We couldn’t have imagined a more perfect day or location to send him off.
If you know anyone that has chosen to live in Brooklyn today, it is undoubtedly due to much of the hard work he, his wife Evelyn, and their pioneering friends set out to achieve fifty...
3 tags
MO FARAH, LESS PROBLEMS →
As London 2012 comes to a close, I have to give a quick shout out to my favorite British gold-medalling Olympiad, Mo Farah. Not just for two inspiring wins, but for showing love for his birth country Somalia in continuing a plight for emergency aid.
http://www.mofarahfoundation.org.uk/
Right on, Mo.
July 2012
8 posts
4 tags
5 tags
NEW YORK MAGAZINE LOVES WHIRLYBIRD BROOKLYN
My handsome and arguably perfect friend Jeffrey Bailey, owner of Williamsburg’s much sought after breakfast taco and coffeeshop, Whirlybird, has had some nice folks at New York Magazine write about in-house activities.
I know the cajun duck & bacon taco over baby arugula with pickle red onions, cashews and an orange white balsamic vinaigrette is hard to believe, but the proof is...
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A VISIT WITH SEEMA AGNANI
Seema Agnani is one of my most favorite important people. Seema is one of the most hard-working people I’ve ever met, but does an equally spectacular job of making it look as effortless as sleep. She is the Executive Director of the irrefutably-pioneering Chhaya CDC based in Jackson Heights, Queens, working to bring affordable housing options to immigrants all over New York City.
Aside...
3 tags
DAVID STARK SKETCHBOOK
Every once in a while, everyone needs to be reminded of this wizard for a shot of instant inspiration. David Stark is magic-making machine. Relentlessly transforming beautiful spaces into alter-universes. Like this random little sumthin-sumthin he slapped together for the American Friends of the Israel Museum gala, entirely inspired by the lenticular hologram logo on the event’s...
6 tags
IN THE OLB STORE: NICO'CLOCK
The Nico’Clock was conceived to inspire creative, philosophic thinking amongst everyday folk as they go about daily life.
It began with 20th Century philosopher and Zen Buddhist, Alan Watts, and his supposition that all is made of ‘wiggly lines’. I happened upon the 1979 film A Conversation With Myself , where he roams around the woods of Northern California recalling:
“I once asked a group of...
4 tags
A QUICK PHONE CHAT WITH.. MY MUM.
Me: Mama?
Mama: Yes darling.
Me: Please don't die ever.
Mama: Oh darling! Don't worry! We've shared many lives together before now, and we'll have many more to share in the future.
4 tags
MIRABELLE/MIRABELLA
When I was 19 and about to graduate from my foundation year at the Wimbledon School of Art in London, I met British design legend, Vaughan Oliver. Ever since our meeting, I think I’ve dreamed that all projects could be approached in the way he created his record covers for the most legendary 4AD Records.
He told me that Ivo Watts-Russell gave him a copy of The Pixies’ Come On...
June 2012
1 post
8 tags
INNOVATION AS CURRENCY
What if we were a society that bought, sold or traded resourceful ideas? What if the value of a product or service wasn’t based on its lead over the competition, but on how prolific its effect was on a community?
It seems to me that an excess in monetary profit is too often at the expense of economic, environmental or social resources. I have no interest in reinventing capitalism, as much...
