April 29, 2009
When I was about 12, my dad and I built four stellated polyhedra (star-shaped, many-sided platonic solids). Dad, a mathematician and math teacher, used the book shown below as a resource and then worked out his own dimensions and angles (you can see his notations right in the book).
January 28, 2009
“Dazzle painting,” devised in Britain during WWI, was based on the theory that complex optical patterns would confuse enemy naval rangefinders by disguising a ship’s speed and direction. It employed a number of visual tricks including the painting of false bow waves on rear portions of the ship rather than the prow.
December 24, 2008
In the late 1920s, the modernist designer and architect Eileen Gray designed and built a landmark piece of modernist architecture in the form of a seaside house.
November 18, 2008
Poster by Raymond Bellemare for the Canadian Graphics and Design Directorate (Graphisme et Dessin) of the Organizing Committee of the 1976 Olympic Games, Montreal
Only 32 years have passed since this fantastic official poster for the 1976 Montreal Olympics was produced, but from a 2008 vantage point it’s hard to imagine how a committee ever okayed it.
November 10, 2008
I’m still missing Nest Magazine. For much more information, see the previous post. I certainly understand from first-hand experience that these design projects are labours of love and very hard to sustain over time.
November 9, 2008
I have been really feeling the absence of Nest: A Quarterly of Interiors magazine lately, more than four years after it became defunct. On a whim I Google searched “I miss Nest Magazine” this week and found out how very not alone I am.
September 22, 2008
People are in love with their Vera scarves, as you will see if you search Flickr. My mother had Vera scarves, so nostalgia may be mixed in with my addiction to the strange geometry.
September 21, 2008
Much more thought-provoking than “Blind Crest.” Road sign in Tanzania near the Ngorogoro Crater, from Lonely Planet.
August 29, 2008
A few blocks from my studio. When the building was painted, the painters preserved the graffiti by boxing it in. Now it has a white room of its own.
August 24, 2008
These textile shop banners are common in Japan. Given how easy they are to install and how much more beautiful they are than typical signage, it seems strange that they haven’t been widely copied.
