December 6, 2012
Other perhaps some other pagan holiday options? Perhaps we could consider Saturnalia. Or, if it must be organized religion, then the Flying Spaghetti Monster whose mockery-loving followers are known as Pastafarians.
October 20, 2012
There is a particular type of contemporary design that I deeply despise but for which there is no terminology. About six years ago, out of frustration, I started calling it “contempo.” It is a deliberately cheesy term for a cheesy aesthetic, an aesthetic of dumbed-down, cutesy faux-modernism.
September 6, 2012
The cabin is probably the true vernacular architecture of British Columbia’s West Coast and other parts of the Pacific Northwest. Vancouver must once have had some of these buildings, thought rampant demolition and ugly development are doing their best to eradicate any trace of this architectural past.
August 17, 2012
Yellow room in Morocco from World of Interiors. Via MyMarrakesh. “Moroccan tent hanging in yellow. While yellow is often used in Morocco, it’s unusual to see in this sort of textile.” See also this book by MyMarrakesh’s author: Marrakesh by Design
July 11, 2012
My aunt just brought me a bottle of Left Coast Hemp Vodka which is produced here in British Columbia. There are several levels of excellent design and craft involved in it: the vodka itself, the label, and also the distiller’s great logo, a stylized still.
July 9, 2012
Chandelier at Northern Rockies Lodge on Muncho Lake, Northern BC. Wooden rounds each hole-sawn to house a pot light. It was really quite beautiful.
The lodge is on the Alaska Highway that stretches from Dawson Creek BC to Alaska.
June 2, 2012
I wish I’d curated this show:
“Stripes are a fundamental visual element, appearing naturally in vertical lines as trees and in manmade products of all kinds, from street dividers to ornate fabrics.
April 4, 2012
Essay below reprinted from In Praise of Shadows by Junichiro Tanizaki (Leete’s Island Books, 1977)
What incredible pains the fancier of traditional architecture must take when he sets out to build a house in pure Japanese style, striving somehow to make electric wires, gas pipes, and water lines harmonize with the austerity of Japanese rooms—even someone who has never built a house for himself must sense this when he visits a teahouse, a restaurant, or an inn.
March 31, 2012
When humans apply this much care to designing things, it makes me almost teary. This chair is a life-raft on a tidal wave of mass-produced cynicism. The person who made this chair was doing something so careful it’s almost spiritual.
March 27, 2012
Am tired of the Shit_____Says meme, but do look at Shit Vivienne Westwood Says anyway. It’s via the green fashion site Ecouterre. A few samples from it are reproduced here.
