TIMBER!!

Alastair Heseltine, a Canadian artist specializing in mixed media in the Pacific Northwest, turned his woodpile into a work of art. Beautiful.

Illustrated coffee guide: order at Starbucks with confidence

I’m completely charmed by this illustrated coffee guide by Lokesh Dhakur. The original post is here, and the follow-up is here. If you have some time to spare and a somewhat twisted sense of fun, take a look at the comments on the original post — they range from grateful to obsessed with espresso semantics. Some people take their coffee very seriously. A little too seriously.

Deerfield butter – product design

I found this in the grocery store last night and nearly died over the kitschy product design. I just had to take it home with me — luckily I needed butter anyway, I’m baking cupcakes today!

The styles of Sofia Coppola’s leading ladies

God bless Sofia Coppola for gracing this world with such gorgeous eye-candy. I’ll be addressing each heroine in finer detail during the next week, particularly the beautifully executed wardrobe of Marie Antoinette (sorry, no pun intended), but for the weekend I wanted to provide some food for thought. (Get it? Eye-candy?)

For your viewing pleasure (click on the images for particulars):

The Virgin Suicides

Kirsten Dunst plays Lux Lisbon, one of five hauntingly beautiful sisters, in this film adaptation of Jeffrey Eugenides’ novel of the same name.

Lost in Translation

Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray play unusual companions, brought together by culture shock and loneliness in a hotel bar in Tokyo.

Marie Antoinette

LET THEM EAT CAKE! A modern spin on Coppola’s modern spin of the doomed queen of France.

RSASKOPKF

I’m working on an article, a real true-blue introduction-argument-conclusion article about the styles of certain pop culture heroines, and in my research I accidentally found the new RSASKOPKF socks at American Apparel. Then my credit card spontaneously leaped out of my pocket and bought a pair in each color. Actually it’s a good deal because there are three colors per sock. That’s like three times the marshmallows in a bowl of Lucky Charms.

Also, and most significantly, the RSASKOPKF socks are totally satisfactory substitutes for the Prada tri-tone socks that I so deliriously desired in fall 2007. Way to go, American Apparel. You are totally the frozen yogurt to my Rocky Road.

Butt/Face bath towels – take the guesswork out of drying off

Are these hilarious or am I just wildly immature?

You can buy them online exclusively from urbanoutfitters.com. “When you think about it, it’s pretty crazy that this kind of thing didn’t come around a lot sooner.”

The exquisite function of…

Reinventing the latte, originally uploaded by girlnoir.

…a cold Saturday afternoon. Best spent indoors with friends (and boyfriends and girlfriends).

Dreaming of Spring

Pillow talk; or “What Girls Talk About During a Night on the Town.”

If I ever make a documentary or an entertainment TV special (to be broadcast daytime, preferrably), it would be about Dolly Parton and Amy Winehouse giving each other make-overs.

That’s all.

Eames’ 2008 Commemorative Stamps

© 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved.

This set of 16 stamps (designed by Derry Noyes) commemorating Charles and Ray Eames will be available next summer in the US. Normally I avoid the post office at all costs but I’ll make a trip for Eames.

General Dynamics postcards

Erik Nitsche, a lesser known Modernist designer who began his legacy while still a child of commercial photographers in the Swiss Alps, has enjoyed a prolific career that spans from art director of Saks Fifth Avenue (1938) to nuclear physics (General Dynamics, early 1950s).

The following excerpt is from Erik Nitsche: The Reluctant Modernist by Steven Heller.

In the early fifties, the spin on nuclear power was that it heralded peace and progress. General Dynamics’ president, John Jay Hopkins strongly held that his corporation should be positioned in the public’s mind as a purveyor of peace. He argued that General Dynamics was in a position to benefit mankind through scientific research. But Hopkins understood that presenting a good public face was endemic to this goal. Gotham’s overall campaign strategy was merely conventional but Nitsche’s ads stood out like gems amidst coal. ‘I was so disgusted with the copywriting and general bad taste of the ads,’ Nitsche recalls, ‘that I created a visual persona that overcame the shortcomings.’ Among other things, he introduced his abstract drawing style to give a futuristic aura that at once suggested General Dynamic’s products as well as its progressive aspirations.

Postcards from the General Dynamic era, made possible by the online archive of Nitsche’s work:

Workspace inspiration

I’ve been ruthlessly organizing and de-cluttering lately, a habit that runs rampant in the early months of every year in any given household. It gets tiresome after awhile, so I’ve compiled a mosaic of inspiring workspaces to keep me going. I am up to my eyelids with sideboards, desks, shelves, and filing cabinets!

PHOTO KEY: 1. white & wood & letters, 2. Chateau wallpaper, 3. white, photos, wood, workspace, 4. Inspiration, 5. thomas o’brien’s living room & inspiration board, 6. nancy_workspace, 7. The Matisse Room, 8. Savannah, 9. Objects for decoration from Millicent & Frank, 10. Studio 06′, 11. New studio redo, 12. The Studio, 13. my desk at home, 14. yellow, 15. studio, 16. my desk-spot, 17. desk, 18. work space, 19. 231_studio.01, 20. My workspace: my desk

Embroidered and printed textiles by Maxine Sutton

New at anthropologie is the work of Maxine Sutton. Layers of crewelwork, stitching, and print dress up linen backdrops with shapes and delicate lacy accents.

Above: Harvest Moon Stitch Art and Spoon Study Wall Art, available at anthropologie.com. Below are some pieces of artwork including lampshades and pillows from the artist’s website. Sutton’s work is self-described as a personal narrative of abstracted forms and figurative images, continuously developing and drawing on a variety of sources, such as “anatomy, nature, folklore, the domestic and the everyday.” The resulting effect is a down-to-earth, folksy and yet singularly modern aesthetic that would work well in a country home or downtown loft.

My personal favorite is the brain matter lampshade, above left, and I’d love to hang it above my desk for some good vibes… but maybe that’s just positive thinking.

Oh eight

Happy new year and happy (belated) holidays to all. We’re still here, just a bit plowed over with festivities and other distractions. I’m leaving on a much needed vacation to Los Angeles on Friday so regular updates probably won’t resume until mid-January.

Until then, may design be with you.