Nest Rest

I think I can live here .

or hang a couple more and have a tree party .


Nest Rests designed by Daniel Pouzet and Fred Frety.


: ) ,
D

Phantogram

Happy Saturday!!!

Enjoy,

D

Katy Perry + Cute Prep School boys = :D

Maybe...

“A guy and a girl can be just friends, but at one point or another, they will fall for each other...Maybe temporarily, maybe at the wrong time, maybe too late, or maybe forever”

Dave Matthews Band

Boyfriend Criteria

Every girl should have a "boyfriend criteria" list or as illustrator Katie Turner puts it "things I like that you could do to be my boyfriend." What would be on your list?

Evaluation Month

It's that time of the year again that I am surrounded with more questions than answers.

photo by :confusedvision

I question

my beliefs
my patience
my relationships
my capabilities
my future
my accomplishments
my failures
my confidence
my fears
my strength
my passion
my drive

Stuck with so many quandries
I hope I get my answers soon.



D

Train- Soul Sister

I'm loving Hawaii 5-0 right now. While watching one of the more recent episodes, i heard a little boy singing Train's Soul Sister. I had to google him and found out that he was just 8 years old.
How cute is that?

Happy Listening!!!

Swing necklace

Designed by Johanna Richter as a piece of jew­elry for your home, the Swing Neck­lace is made from 10 feet of felt balls. Hand­made in Ger­many.

Wouldn't you agree that it would be a nice conversation piece ?

; ),
D

Noah

Designed by Damien Chivialle as part of Estu­aire 2009, “Noah” is a lovely retreat for two located in the Loire estu­ary in France.

Wolf in Sheep Clothing

I recently chanced upon Wolf in Sheep clothing new Holiday 2010 collection. I personally love it because it's mesh between feminine meets edgy and classic meets sculptural .

Here's how the designer describes her clothing line:
wolf in sheep's clothing loves pastoral landscapes, escape, cityscape, sounds, movement, opposites, impermanence, the ephemeral and the everlasting.

we are about easy, trendless, quality design. clothes that transcend the short term trend cycle. we also understand that nothing is permanent, so our clothes are made with the idea of "aging beautifully" behind it.

See her whole collection here.

Keep Calm ....

Tattoos .... love them or hate them.

One of the sites that I frequent is Contrariwise.
It a website that showcases tattoos based on books ,poems,lyrics and many other literary sources.
This is one of the unique ones I've seen so far.
“I Go Back to May 1937.” The poem is there, on my arm, in its entirety. Olds is my most beloved living poet, and this poem speaks to me with my own work–taking life experiences and professing: “Do what you are going to do, and I will tell about it.” Olds once said that poetry comes out of her lungs, and now I have this reminder, this collection of gorgeous language, that tells me again and again: don’t forget to breathe, don’t forget who you are.


Thinking about getting inked? Go to Republic Tattoo. They have a number of talented artist that can help turn your ideas into reality .

Revamped Movie Posters

Moxy Creative House redesigned movie posters inspired by men's style? Each piece highlights a classic menswear piece from ten different movies. See the entire collection here.


P.S. I secretly like Dumb and Dumber . i think it's hillarious . which one do you like?


:),
D

Talking Water

Solidarités International: Water talks from La Boite Concept on Vimeo.

This installation in Paris ingenious! It's a public service announcement and i was surprised to see the final answer. What a creative way to get the message across for such a difficult world problem.

Brooke Fraser

I have yet to listen to New Zealand singer-songwriter Brooke Fraser's new album "Flags" but I like how on her website they describe her music as the kind "that sounds like a pop marshmallow has dropped into a folk hot chocolate and become a warm, spicy chocolatey broth."
Have a listen and see if you agree.

Happy Saturday!!!!

:),
D

TRON accessories for the CHIC warrior in you

Have you heard about the latest from Disney? TRON is back...TRON: Legacy hits theaters Dec. 17th in both Disney3D and IMAX3D!

From the Disney Consumer Products press release:

Disney Consumer Products is collaborating with high-end designers Rousseau, Hayden-Harnett, Rotenier and TomTom to launch a luxury accessory and shoe collection for women inspired by the high-tech 3D adventure, TRON: Legacy, releasing in U.S. theaters Dec. 17, 2010 in Disney Digital 3D(TM) and IMAX(R) 3D.

Designed for the young female urbanite, the new TRON: Legacy couture line features dramatic sterling silver and leather statement pieces including an iconic limited edition 5-inch high-heeled platform sandal inspired by the fearless female warrior--Quorra.

Ranging in retail prices from $90 - $2,600, the new couture line complements the film's sleek aesthetic and any chic woman's wardrobe

Gorgeous sleek earrings by Rotenier starting at $345...

Futuristic collar at $2600

Trendy futuristic Lucite and Gunmetal pieces - TomTom offers TheGrid - mimicking the angel wings and colors from the film.

Architectural earrings in gunmetal with a blue topaz look like they were plucked right from Quorra ears....

....the angel wing inspiration for this gunmetal and Lucite ring is immediately

apparent.

Hayden-Harnett accessories feature clutches and handbags and smart leather cuff!

And now for the Grand Finale....
FABULOUS Jerome Rousseau 5 inch heel Platform Sandal!!!

Complete Gallery of TRON: Legacy products

What's going on ,Bensimon?

I just saw Eat, Pray, Love last night . I expected a bit more but nonetheless it's nice to see snippets of each country.

If you saw Eat, Pray, Love, you may have noticed something familiar, casual, and easy-going about Julia Roberts' traveling outfits. Mystery solved: It's her feet. Happily encased in Bensimon sneakers

Here are a "few "of my faves
Tennis Elastique in Beige


Tennis Lacet in Marine

or
Tennis Lacet in Taupe
I like this French brand because their designs represent a return to simplicity, they look crazy comfortable, and just easy to wear. Here's to the simple life.

And now for some Good Vibes

Rabbit says to itself: "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"

I'm in a quest to look for this watch or something similar.
It's simple straight forward and elegant.

Happy Monday everyone! Be on time!


: ),
D

Ten Things Learned

Ten Things I Have Learned
Part of AIGA Talk in London
November 22, 2001

1
YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

2
IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.

3
SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
This is a subtext of number one. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4
PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything - not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.
Unfortunately in our field, in the so-called creative – I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

5
LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

6
STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.
But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

7
HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered – I don’t know how - that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8
DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right. There is a significant sense of self-righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.
Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad – the client, the audience and you.
Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self-righteousness is often the enemy. Self-righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co-existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read ‘ Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.’ Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

9
ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

10
TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.


http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/essays/es3.html

Azure Ray- Don't leave my mind

happy listening!

Good vibes,
D

Bike Shelf

How beautiful is that bike? And the shelf? Look at that shelf! (sigh)

Heidi Klum for New Balance

Heidi Klum just released her active wear line for New Balance. I love everything!!! I don't even think i'd even use it for the gym. It would be a nice motivation to workout even harder or frequent the gym even more.

I think it would also be great option to wear especially during long flights. You still want to look your best but feel comfortable with what you're wearing .... Airport chic!

Enjoy!
D

Louche Absinth

Love this bottle design by Holly Canham in Australia, which is inspired by the bohemian culture in Paris. The bottle is colored milky beige and has a characteristic watercolor spot in front.

Khan Academy

The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. The Khan Academy is being developed as an open source project, consider it a free classroom for the World. *This*, TED and Kickstarter are perfect examples why the internet had to been invented.

Hypothetical Development

Hypothetical Development Organization (Kickstarter Trailer) from R Walker on Vimeo.

Why not pick interesting sites and come up with Hypothetical Development renderings? Consider it a new form of urban storytelling.

Or as they explain it on their site:
Members of this Hypothetical Deveolpment begin the narrative process by examining city neighborhoods and commercial districts for compelling structures that appear to have fallen into disuse —“hidden gems” of the built environment. In varying states of repair, these buildings suggest only stories about the past, not the future. What this means is that they will put huge signs with illustrations/graphics of what soon is to come on this site outside various locations in New Orleans.

Take the Museum of the Self as the first example. (Rendering above) I can’t help but think about how much these futuristic hypothetical developments would make me chuckle.

I like this !!!

You make me feel like dancing

These Martin Margiela Mirror Shoes is making me do a little dance.

Lovely!

Have a great Sunday!
D

Cary Brothers- Belong

Currently L.S.S. -ing this song. I love this song.

: ),
D

Wardrobe Diaries

Wardrobe Diaries ... work chic for less
I happy to discover this site. It gives me ideas on how to revamp my existing wardrobe.

Let your creative juices flow!

: ),
D

Halloween Bags

These are more sweet- than -scary . The chevron print is my fave .
What's yours?

:),
D

Half Full Wednesday

Wouldn't it be amusing to receive a hinged box package ?
You can check out the optical illusion tape here


: ),
D