The designer and the commonplace.

Having grown up in a culture where people had little, I’ve always had an old-fashioned, time-consuming relationship with the things in my life that seemed to be at odds with American material culture. Designers may notice the thought that went into banal objects, but for the most part the public was blind to this subtle beauty. Things have changed however as the desire for simplicity, smallness, and clarity has become loud and clear in these lean years. Recently I’ve come across several voices in design, singing praises for the commonplace.

KIOSK, a tiny store that carries small objects from around the world in a curatorial format, is as hip as it goes in New York City. I found its wares more moving than those of any other high-design showcase (though Moss was very stimulating). I bought this bird caller of wood and metal, an object of simple construction that does something unexpected. I loved the description of this wooden comb.

“… It’s all very idyllic and every time I use the comb I think of me in New York and them working away in their workshop. I believe objects either harbor their own being and give off an energy or we instill a certain energy within things. These combs provide a daily dose of tranquility, they radiate happiness and satisfaction.” Read More…

Tad Toulis does Sao Paulo.

Earlier this week Teague Creative Director, Tad Toulis, headed down to Brazil for the annual International MOB Design Conference. While he was there he had a chance to speak with Valor Econômico,’ the country’s largest economic newspaper.

1) Do you think that design and architecture have overcome fashion as creators and launchers of new tendencies to other areas? How does this happen?

Design and architecture have a long history of incorporating and reflecting greater socio-cultural trends and projecting them back into society at large. In recent years however the pace at which design and architecture can do this has become significantly faster. The Salone in Italy is very much the same as Paris couture – it’s a mechanism to broadcast new ideas and commentary through objects instead of garments. The difficult and potentially dangerous thing is that most of the interest in design and its ability to be a ‘forecaster’ of trends is very much linked to some of design’s bad behavior. By which I mean the thoughtless making of stylish objects that serve little purpose other than to be ‘trendy’ or ‘current’. To be sure this is a component of what the designer does; reconcile a problem with technology, material and social concerns. But when design serves to just support and capitalize on ‘trend’ it becomes a contributor to the greater problems we face as a global community.

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Rolling the dice on a weekend in Madrid…

“I can’t believe we’re doing this!” I said. It was 5 AM on a bright pinkish-blue Seattle July morning. It was one of those Seattle summer mornings that people dream of for the other 364 days of the year…and we were headed to the airport to leave it behind.

“I know! Do you think we’ll get a first class seat?” I asked my wife.

“Oh geez I don’t know. It is summer” she replied. My wonderful wife works for an airline, so we “fly for free.” It sounds great doesn’t it? “Fly – for – free.” In reality, what that means is that we fly standby whenever we fly. Sometimes we get a seat. Sometimes we don’t. It also means that sometimes when we do get a seat, we get a seat in first class.

First class international. Maybe that’s why we decided to roll the dice on the long-shot of scoring two seats from SEATAC to SFO, then again from SFO to Frankfurt, then from Frankfurt to Madrid during the height of the summer travel season (and repeating that triple crown feat on the trip back the following Monday). A 14 hour international flight in first class cabin can be a vacation in itself. Free drinks, free food. Excellent service, movies, music, fold flat sleeper seat, warmed nuts, wine, champagne, beer, four course meals, a fully loaded MP3 player, ice cream sundays, port wine, sleep – sweet sleep. No cash – no cards. My passport is rattling in the dresser drawer as I type… Read More…

Not for those on a diet.

I recently visited the Wisconsin State Fair and man, was I in for an experience. It was about 75 degrees and sunny with about 60% humidity, which on a summer day in Wisconsin, is somewhat bearable.

My Midwestern fair experience started off with a bang by witnessing a sea of people not only crowding the fair, but jamming surrounding traffic and side street parking. This fair has got to be good if the leftover parking is in a local’s lawn.

Between inevitable people- and animal-watching, I started to gradually ease into the fair concessions by eating ribs ‘n’ chips and sipping a homemade lemonade. Up next was the irresistible roasted, buttery, and salt and peppered corn-on-the-cob deliciousness. It would be a sin to not eat the corn from the Midwest. At this point, I was feeling good about the fair food so far.

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Slow life.

I’ve long been aware that not only is the future not evenly distributed, but time isn’t experienced the same way by all, despite our capability to measure and keep time with precisions of billionths of a second. Stepping into different cultures, as close as the back roads of Washington, we step into different times where animals graze unhurried and somehow that slows down your footsteps as well. I grew up in 1970s China, which is akin to 1930s America. Arriving in the US on a Boeing 747 in the early 90s is stepping out of a real time machine, and not only is it a different time here, it also moves faster.

We don’t question time, and aside from sci-fi provocations we assume its absolute uniformity. Tick, tock.  But what really is time passing, and how do we know it? Before there were clocks, it was measured with movement and change: sun and shadow, movement of water and sand, burning of incense. In her book Yosemite in Time, writer Rebecca Solnit documented the alpine trees that grew only millimeters in a century, looking exactly the same as in pictures taken in the dawn of photography, and called them “tree clocks” that kept time on a wholly different scale. Movement and change is based in perspective and therefore time also; Solnit relayed that in some cultures, people say that time is different in the middle of a big river and along its shores. One can hardly argue that: if you want to experience time differently, just go into the water in the middle of a river, or go nearer its edge.

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A long time ago…

The photo above is all that’s left of the UA 150/70 Cinema that once graced downtown Seattle.  This little piece of terrazzo and tile is a mini shrine for me.  As a kid I shuffled right past it with my dad, in May of 1977, to see Star Wars.

You may be thinking, “Nerd alert!”  Okay, but the special effects were awe inspiring.  Star Wars helped shape my personality as I became intensely interested in space, science, and art.  I wanted to know how they created the effects.  For hours on end I pored over photos of the intricate props and models, and the incredible concept renderings and matte paintings that Ralph McQuarrie and others had created for the film.  I dreamt of one day working at Industrial Light and Magic.

When I found industrial design in college, it was like the feeling I had when I saw Star Wars for the first time (or how Luke must have felt when he first saw his lightsaber crackle to life).  I thought, “How incredible it is to be part of creating real life objects and environments that become part of people’s everyday lives.”  I work with extremely talented designers and craftsmen every day now and every day is like I am on the set, helping to create that next big fantastical blockbuster…though sadly without Wookies.

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The human factor.

For the past 45 days, I have been coming to Teague with the primary intention to work hard, conducting research and articulating strategy, leaving little time to bond (grab a beer) with my colleagues. So being a newbie in this place, it was great to be “let out of the cage to run around a bit.”  Last Friday night, deep in the basement of the Garage, Teague came together for an employee-exclusive bowling party. Opting out of the bowling bit, I was free to play cheerleader and snap a few candid pics…and a few not so candid pics…”Just take one more…just one more.”  Hanging with my fellow Teaguers and talking about life in general…your dating life after divorce, your horoscope sign, your teen’s money making efforts… all helped me see another side of the gang. Now back in the studio, form and function continue to dominate, but that night it was all about the human factor.

Here kitty kitty.

I have three neighbors—two of them are named Emily. One or more of the people in my building have cats. Recently, there have been catfights outside my bedroom window in the early morning. I don’t like it. Though they deny it, the numbers suggest that one or more of these bloodthirsty animals could belong to one or more of my neighbors.

Last week I came across this beautifully designed poster a block from place, and I can say with absolute certainty that this is one of the cats that’s contributing to my restless nights.

Note, the poster says to call Emily…

The poster says a lot actually, it speaks to me; the information is clear and concise. The design is simple, with just a touch of decorative flair. And perhaps best, it’s emotionally captivating.  After all, who doesn’t want to drop whatever they’re doing to find a cat that can speak from its behind?