“Eero Saarinen Shaping the Future project at Cranbrook. Eero Saarinen was the son of the celebrated Finnish architect and first President of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eliel Saarinen.” (Metromode video on YouTube)
Link: Eero Saarinen, Cranbrook
In honor of George Nelson’s 100th birthday, Vitra has released a special re-edition (limited to 1,000) of Nelson’s Pretzel Chair (from 1952).
“n the 1950s, George Nelson and his New York office developed a series of individually expressive seating furniture, a number of which have long established themselves as classics. In 1952, predating the famous Coconut Chair or the Marshmallow Sofa, he designed a chair made of moulded plywood originally referred to simply as the “Laminated Chair”. The bold and elegant curve of the seat back and armrest soon earned it the nickname Pretzel Chair...” —from Vitra
The Pretzel Chair is by no means representative of George Nelson’s full body of work. He began his career as an architect. But when there weren’t enough new projects coming in, he turned his creativity and talents towards other areas of design, including graphic, furniture, and interior design. George Nelson was also the Associate Editor of Architectural Forum magazine from 1935-1943.
When I think of George Nelson the first designs that come to mind are his clock designs for Howard Miller (Herman Miller’s brother). The AIGA has a great article on Nelson’s legacy and also showcases the variety in his design portfolio. One of my favorites is his simplistic package design system for Abbott Laboratories (seen below)
excerpt of Articulating the Eye by Judith Nasatir:
“George Nelson was not a graphic designer. He called himself, simply, a designer. He practiced a variety of the so-called design disciplines during his fifty-odd calendar years of ceaseless professional activity. His formal training was in architecture. He became extremely well known as a furniture designer, an industrial designer, an interior designer and exhibition designer. He was in the vanguard of a quiverful of design "disciplines" which were only becoming bona fide professions, or at least ways to make a living, at the same time he began to turn his hand to them. Or when he began to write about them. Or when he began to do the work that proliferated and sneaked in many, often unexpected, directions.”
(all images of the Pretzel Chair seen here are © Vitra Design Museum)
In honor of the Brooklyn Bridge’s 125th Birthday
“The Grand Display of Fireworks and Illuminations: at the opening of the Great Suspension Bridge between New York and Brooklyn on the evening of May 24th, 1883”
John Augustus Roebling was the orignal designer for the Brooklyn Bridge. He began work on the bridge in 1867. The costly endeavor took 13 years to build, and unfortunately claimed numerous lives. Sadly, Roebling lost a couple toes duing an accident on the construction site and did not live to see his spectacular design reach completion. He died on July 22, 1869. His son, Washington Roebling, lived to help carry out his father’s legacy.
top image credit: Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 2691 (Library of Congress)
bottom image credit: Photographic Print on Stereo Card © 1888 George Barker (Library of Congress)
A sixth grader from Castro Valley, California won this year’s Doodle 4 Google competition. Grace Moon’s logo was visible on Google’s homepage today. There were 16,000 submissions all in response to the 2008 theme, “What If...?”
I found the winner’s artist statement to be very cute:
“My doodle, “Up in the Clouds,” expresses a world in the sky. This new
world is clean and fresh, and people are social and enlightened. Every
person here is treated as family no matter who they are. The bright sun
heats this ideal place with warmth, love, and brightens everyone's day.“ —Grace Moon
Google has set up a map of the USA to see the rest of the Doodle 4 Google finalists.
Link: Doodle for Google
Notes from Russia by Alexei Plutser-Sarno
After 20 years of research and collecting, Alexei Plutser-Sarno gives a glimpse of Russian street culture as observed through the graphic fragments of hand-made public notices.
The interior design of the book is very elegant, with careful selection of paper stocks. Embossing on the paper over board cover is a nice touch to help give the tattered paper aesthetic a more authentic look.
This is first title I’ve purchased a book from the publisher Fuel. The publishing group Fuel is an outgrowth of a design studio of the same name founded by Damon Murray and Stephen Sorrell in 1991. Murray & Sorrell (FUEL) were both the designers and the editors for the book.
Link: Notes from Russia book
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About Me:
- Working on:
everything but what I should be doing. - Listening to:
television - Reading:
a few too many things at once: The Host by Stephanie Meyer, The End of America by Naomi Wolf, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - Watching:
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
