A world away

Posters by David Klein for TWA in the 1960s available from Travel on Paper

There's something very appealing about these vintage travel posters. They're evocative of a time when getting on a plane meant glamour and the promise of adventure, rather than shoe removal and clear plastic bags at a crowded airport. 

These ones were designed and illustrated by the American David Klein, for the airline TWA in the 1950s and 60s, and have come to define the post-war era of jet set travel. They've also become highly collectable, which is not that surprising since they still have an alluring power today. 

One of his illustrations, a 1956 TWA poster for New York City showing an abstract image of Times Square, is in the permanent collection of the MoMA. 


David Klein's stunning 1956 poster is in the MoMA

How times and perceptions change. It would be pretty hard to imagine today's low cost airlines running aspirational ad campaigns like these. Klagenfurt: fly Ryan Air - anyone? 

But then, they've no need to, because technological advances mean we've already Street Viewed our destination from every angle before we even get there - and we know exactly what it looks like.  

Be there or be square



A 9 foot robot by the Mechanical Alchemist standing tall on Clerkenwell Road

The streets were buzzing yesterday as the inaugural three day Clerkenwell Design Week got under way. 



Anyone can go along - it's free and you can register on the day - and I urge you to make the trip. The main hub is the spectacular Farmiloe's Building on St John Street which is housing a pop-up exhibition with displays by Tom Dixon, SCP, The Design Museum and many more. Plus all the local design companies and bars and restaurants are open too - just look out for the pink posters.

I heard a talk by architect George Clarke (off the telly) who talked mainly about his work overseas and the optimism and energy he meets there, versus the pessimism of the UK. His biggest UK issue being that there's less incentive to convert old buildings for re-use - of which there are many lying empty - as you have to pay VAT, whereas new builds are exempt.

I tried out a new product called the Ovei - a seating pod/private cocoon for surfing the net while at an exhibition. Although falling asleep inside it seemed like a major hazard - that and the door, which I hit my head on as I clambered out. 

I ate at Giant Robot (no relation to the one above) a very cool, and tasty, new diner-style restaurant serving Italian-American style tapas - it sounds weird, it's not. 


Giant Robot diner, 45 Clerkenwell Road, EC1

Unique feet

The Sneaker Colouring Book by Daniel Jarosch and Henrik Klingel

This caught my eye, it's a playful look at sneaker culture and the current obsession with customisation. As a sneaker (though I prefer to say trainers) devotee I'm tempted to get the felt tips out. 

Enter the competition here to colour in your favourite pair - there's £100 worth of books by publisher Laurence King up for grabs. 


Still going strong after 93 years: the Converse All Star

Sit down next to me


The Chairless 'chair' by Vitra: coming to a park near you
How about this for a summer craze? The Chairless is a strap that loops around your back and knees to make sitting on the ground feel a bit more like sitting on a chair. It's as simple as that - a temporary 'seat' you can roll up and keep in your pocket.
Picture the scene: you're in a park, at a festival, waiting for a train, you want to sit down, but there are no chairs, or handy walls to lean against. What do you do? Normally you would just sit on the ground with your arms hooked around your knees to prevent yourself falling backwards. But sitting like that occupies your hands. 
What if you could sit on the ground, lean back and remain hands-free to read a book or eat your lunch? 
Hmmmm
Check out the slick website which invites you to join the party and become... Chairless. It's an intoxicating blend of colourful photographs and authentic backstory, put to a melodic beat. 

And pretty convincing it is too.
The Chairless has got credibility - it was designed by a famous architect Alejandro Aravena. It's got heritage - it was inspired by the Ayoreo Indians of northern Paraguay, who use a length of twine as a seat strap. It's got soul - part of the proceeds go to the indigenous Paraguayans. 
All that for £20. So far, so good. 


The craze of the summer?

Thing is, there's still a part of me that can't help wondering whether this is an elaborate hoax - all that jazz for what is essentially a belt? 
I know it's not a joke because it has been made by high-end design firm Vitra. This is a company which sells chairs costing a few thousand pounds, so selling a seat strap for £20 is a canny idea - and in that context feels like a bargain.
Will people buy into it? I reckon it's one of those things where you either get it - or you don't. And you are unlikely to fall in between. 
Try one out for yourself when it's launched this week at the inaugural Clerkenwell Design Week 25 - 27 May. 





Consider this?

The Conran Shop meets student kitchen: the Cheese Grater Light

I'm not sure where Terence Conran is coming from on this one. 

The light is part of the Well Considered range of affordable household items at The Conran Shop - a timely and much appreciated enterprise seeing as everything else in there is so expensive - but, seriously, a cheese grater? 

I get the other stuff in the collection. The 16-piece white porcelain starter set of plates and bowls is timeless and useful, the red lacquered bentwood chair is a quirky take on a classic design, and the 1950s style Ercol-designed plank table would be good in a small space. 

Bentwood Chair in red lacquer

But the kitchen utensil as light fitting aesthetic? I don't really get how that fits into the well considered box. It looks like it was rescued from a halls of residence where it was being used to make cheese on toast in the dark.

Mind you the box itself is pretty nice, the brightly coloured graphic illustrations are by Spanish designer and artist Javier Mariscal. Who, incidentally, designed Cobi the mascot of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, which was apparently one of the most commercially successful of all time. 

So maybe Conran is on to something after all.

You can see the collection in Conran Shops, or at the pop-up shop at Westfield shopping centre until 6th June. 

The virtual daisy chain


Unhappy Hipsters blog
A wry commentary on architectural fads and fashions

There are some very funny people out there writing very funny blogs. One I always like is the one above, click on the link to read the caption for today's post. 

The anonymous author sources photographs of ultra-modern so hip it hurts architect-designed houses and the people who live in them. He/she then writes alternative captions - little thought bubbles which usually reveal a sense of unease within the seemingly perfect walls - that most definitely were not published with the original picture. 

A lot of the photos were taken for hip American design magazine Dwell which is the very definition of interior design porn.

What I like about the blog is the way it sends up the unachievable (for most of us) aspiration that glossy magazines do so well. For me, it's this essential element of schadenfreude which makes all the enviable floor-to-ceiling windows, and cantilevered balconies, a little bit easier to swallow.

Yes, the concrete walls are very cool, but is it any fun living there? It's a kind of reverse smugness that levels the playing field.

I first came across this site on the brilliant Swiss Miss blog. Her blog is a showcase for all that's cool and groovy and useful - or sometimes just things that make you smile - in design from typography to tea bags. There is always something on there you want to tell someone about, surely a mark of quality - and staggeringly it's been going nearly five years. I originally came across her via a recommendation from a friend. 

And so it goes on in the internet world, one blog leads to another, it's like a virtual daisy chain. And I like that too.

Party political, er... kitchen

Ikea's latest advert

Election fever has reached the advertising teams of more than just the political parties. Ikea are jumping on the bandwagon with a rather more idiosyncratic version of 'domestic policy'.

Click on the link above and scroll over their latest, and uncannily topical, kitchen designs.

Look out for the Kamerun - 'with its sleek and shiny deceptivia work surfaces, underpinned by the maggie'.

And Kleggi - 'this week's most popular kitchen, which has fotoshelvia for putting pictures of honeymoon periods'.


(thanks to Pete Wingfield for emailing this on)



Under the covers

Publishing alchemy: a nerdy book with curb appeal

It takes real skill to make a book called Landmarks of Chair Design something people want to pick up.

It is properly nerdy.

But then Charlotte and Peter Fiell - the publishers of this new book - know a thing or two about sexing up subjects like chairs and tables and lights. They have spent part of the last twenty years writing and editing design books for glossy pictorial publisher Taschen.

The decision to launch their own eponymously-titled publishing company in 2010 - the year of the read it on a screen iPad - is a bold move which suggests they have insight we don't. (Some people still read books?) And gives them extra kudos for doing something which seems a little counter-intuitive.

But then we expect a bit more from the Fiells. This is the Sotheby's trained couple who became experts on furniture of the 1950s and 60s when the mid-century period was deeply unfashionable. They are partly responsible - through books such as 1,000 Chairs and Design of the 20th Century - for its popularisation and revival today.

While one of their skills is undoubtedly foresight - how did they know Danish furniture would become so hot? - another is their ability to present fairly dry subject matters in a beautiful package. 

It's probably not the title that's selling this book: Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s

Their new collection of books is remarkable for the lush photography, high production values and uniformly bold, colourful and graphic covers. And what's written inside is pretty geek-friendly too.

The Fiells have been quoted as saying "society is increasingly gravitating from a literary culture to a visual culture". Which roughly translates as you need a picture to tell a story - perhaps now more than ever.

So will they sell many copies? That remains to be seen, but don't be surprised if an iPad-friendly version is available soon. While the Fiells may be standing up for traditional publishing - and the tactile delight of an actual book - they also have a pretty good track record of predicting the zeitgeist.

Using graphic design to sex up globalization: The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts


So hot right now

Time has really moved on in Spitalfields market.

Canteen restaurant: an early pioneer of the 'steel and glass' architecture in the new Spitalfields

Ten years ago Londoners were desperate to save the old market vibe - with its scruffy and makeshift stalls - from developers. In a highly publicised media campaign there were anxious articles written about gritty urban authenticity being stifled by corporate blandness. The City was encroaching. It was clearly doomed.

Walk around the area now and all that seems a bit hysterical - it is buzzing. Yes, there is a lot of concrete and steel and glass architecture - Norman Foster-designed offices were built at the western end of the market - but two thirds of the market was rebuilt. 

It has become a hub, not just for shops, bars and restaurants, but for weekly markets and arts events.

New kid on the block is The Lollipop Shoppe, a purveyor of modern furniture and accessories. 

It strikes me as being the epitome of the new Spitalfields. The shop building was redeveloped by groovy architects Found Associates and it sells highly desirable objects which have been thoughtfully sourced by the owners. It's the 2010 version of the marketplace, and it's pretty slick.

It's pretty obvious this is a very cool shop

The floor is black, the walls are black

The chairs stand alone, but they are not alone

The clock is melting


Doing it for the kids


Nostalgia for adults and shiny new stuff for children at Kids.Modern

It was back to Dulwich at the weekend for Kids.Modern - the design show for children whose parents yearn for the simple days of yesteryear, possibly a time before their own childhoods even, when the 'big family film companies' hadn't got their hooks into everything from clothes to toys to books.

Not that the films aren't loved and appreciated and enjoyed, because they truly are. As road trip movies go Cars is up there with Thelma & Louise.

What the show offers - just for one day - is an alternative to the familiar line-up of themed children's merchandise that follows a big cinema release. A respite from the repetitive cycle of branded socks, pyjamas, drink bottles and the rest.

The idea behind it all is to encourage children to let their imaginations run wild - without working from a Hollywood script.

No-one said it was going to be an easy sell.

Some people even brought their kids along

There were stands selling vintage children's books, child-friendly furniture, fancy dress costumes, hand-made cards and stationery, cardboard play houses and children's clothes.

So, I should probably admit at this point that I went without my kids. It's much easier to walk around in a cloud of nostalgia - musing on the wonder of childhood - without being repeatedly asked, 'Where's Ben 10?'

Needless to say, it was a riot of colour - not all of them primary - and very uplifting it was too. Here are some highlights.

Whimsical themes and sweet shop colours: knitted toys - just like your Granny used to make - mugs, cards and notebooks by Petra Boase


Wrestling masks optional: alternative fancy dress from I Wish I Was A





Not all girls wear pink: prints from Belle & Boo by artist Mandy Sutcliffe


One stand-out company was showing their award-winning range of toys made from that perennial parental favourite - wood.


For kids and kidults: the imaginative 74-piece PlayShapes by Miller Goodman which can be endlessly arranged to create wacky shapes and characters.



An original - and not made from plastic - present for the over 3s: Miller Goodman's versatile ShapeMaker wooden blocks. Bold, totemic and slightly scary.


The next show will be in the autumn, I'll keep you posted.




Pictures speak louder


Minimalism doesn't work for everyone: the creative's home office

This is the cover of a new picture-led interiors book by Japanese publishers Edition Paumes. It's called Bureaux a la Maison and it contains photographs of the home offices belonging to 25 creative people. 

How they were selected is unclear, but I think they are all based in France and they all do arty things for a living.

What working from home looks like in France

It's the latest in a series of books by the publisher that hone in on elements of the Northern European home and lifestyle (fave locations Paris, London, Stockholm, Copenhagen) in an affectionately voyeuristic way. It's all about the pictures, well it has to be, as the text is almost entirely in Japanese.

The only bit they translate is the title and the names of the owners. Previous book titles have varied from the romantic Stockholm's Love Apartments

to the you-wouldn't-think-they'd-get-a-whole-book-out-of it Children's Rooms London

to my all-time favourite completely bonkers and utterly non-translatable The parent's love-chiselled gifts for their tiny ones. I'm sorry, what?

But I kind of love the fact that they don't translate the whole thing into English, yet the book is on sale in the UK.

Not only do they seem to be saying - let's face it, homes and interiors books are all about the photos, but the Japanese script is an appealing typographical addition.

Plus it's always interesting to see your own culture through the eyes of another. Especially when they make Europeans look so reassuringly chic.


I heart this

Anthropologie: more like walking into someone's (very swanky) home than a shop

Fans of the American fashion and home emporium Anthropologie can rejoice as there are now two stores in London - the first on Regent Street, and now this one on the King's Road. 

I'm really into this shop, partly because it doesn't really feel like a shop, it's more like being through-the-keyhole in Stella McCartney's house and you're allowed to gawp at all her nice things without being arrested.

Everything is shown together so you'll find dresses, books, dinner plates and t-shirts all on the same stand. You might casually stumble across an enticing book about swimming outdoors in Britain's lakes and rivers (Wild Swim, by Kate Rew) while you're contemplating a floaty summer dress or a rustic-chic serving bowl.

Yes, it's shamelessly 'lifestyle' - in the sense that you're unlikely to be jumping into a freezing lake anytime soon despite the pull of the lush photography - but so what. 


Moss covered pillars? Quirky design features are everywhere

I like the fact they've really gone to town on their displays: blankets piled up on the back of a giant wooden horse, huge palm tree leaves bursting out above a bed, a water feature and tropical plants just for the hell of it. I was in a much better mood by the time I left.

The antithesis of the typical (and tedious) rail-after-rail-of-clothes shopping experience 



Great for squirrel watching



Nice space - but would you really get any work done? 

I imagine this is what Kevin 'Grand Designs' McCloud's office looks like. It ticks all the right boxes for a modern, architecturally inspiring workspace; there's lots of glass to give the effect of bringing the outside in, there's plenty of space for laying out plans on the floor, and there's just the right amount of intentionally thoughtful isolation. 

But let's be honest - and we know Kevin likes to tell it how it is - doesn't it make you want to just sit back, drink in hand and gaze out the window. If you did have any urge to exert yourself it might only be to rearrange everything so it still looked beautiful against the scenic backdrop - there are no hiding places for piles of junk in a see-through building.

This studio belongs to an artist called Marion Bembe (who looks like she's on top of her paperwork) and it's in a place called Riederau, in Upper Bavaria, Germany. The photograph is from 'Interiors Now! Vol. 1' published by Taschen. 


Kids get all the good stuff

Child's bag with Karkuteilla pattern by Maija Louekari for Marimekko

Zany colours.
An elephant in cowboy boots talking to a pink flamingo.

What's not to like?

Yes, it's a bit odd that he's only got two boots on. But maybe this is one of those things that appeals to the kidult more than an actual child. We like the naivety of the drawing, they see two missing boots.

Over to the resident three year old, he says: "it's not very good, but it's a zebra, an elephant and er, er, flamingo, so I like it... can I watch TV now".

Caught my eye

There was much to see at yesterday's Midcentury.Modern show in Dulwich. 

Vintage dealers were crammed into the main hall (the 1960s designed refectory Christison Hall at Dulwich College) with their collections of European and American mid-century furniture and lighting. It was wall to wall tables, chairs - and bodies.


Midcentury.Modern at Dulwich College. Quite busy actually.

There was some beautiful vintage furniture on display and not all of it was as crazily expensive as you might expect. We hovered over a rather elegant round rosewood dining table for a while before remembering we have two small boys, one of whom likes climbing on tables. Back it goes on the long list.  

Why go to a show like this? I suppose it's about thinking a bit more about the things you bring into your home and not automatically buying new stuff all the time. By searching the dealer websites, instead of going into a high street store and checking out this season's stock, you might just find something a bit different that surprises and delights you, like this:

Beautiful Ercol beech and elm dining table and chairs designed by Lucian Ercolani, 1958. Selling for £450 from dealer Mark Parrish who was at the show, and had that nice table. Admit it, you could not find something similar in Ikea (although I still love Ikea). 

It's worth a mention that not all the furniture on dealer websites is by big name designers, there's still plenty of solidly made 1960s G plan furniture knocking about at bargain prices.

Back at the show, upstairs there were some fresh graphic treats from the contemporary homeware designers.


I'm always a fan of bold and colourful graphic prints, these ones are simple but powerful. Tablemats by Jenny Duff with illustrations by Gillian Blease (you may recognise her illustrations from The Guardian Weekend magazine)


Loving the granny chic and 1970s colours of these hand thrown storage jars with hand glazed lids by bespoke ceramicist Lubna Chowdhary



In the know

London Design Guide £10 edited by Max Fraser

This is a very handy new book which I highly recommend. It's a guide to the hip and groovy design areas of London with maps, walks and where to get a decent coffee. 

It acknowledges that the city is massive and often hard to navigate, but that it has lots of amazing things to offer - and it's a crying shame if the visitor gets off the tube at Oxford Circus and thinks 'Wow. Oxford Street. I'm here, this is it'. 

So the book works on the basis that you're looking to scratch the surface a little - you might be more interested in Paul Smith than Primark or Marimekko than M&S - and whether you've just arrived (or have been living here for years and got lazy) it shows you where stuff is and how to get there. 

And while it has neat descriptions of places like Dover Street Market, Liberty, the Apple Store, it's not all about shops. Take the Shoreditch and Brick Lane chapter: there's a walk from Old Street tube that takes in a gallery, a church, some radical architecture and ends in a pub.

The book cover, with its graph paper graphics, may have more than a hint of school swot about it, but then after reading this you will be a bit of a know-it-all. Albeit one with an asymmetrical haircut and skinny jeans. 

Bread and butter

Toast house & home s/s 2010 catalogue. They sell jam too.

I don't know what it is about the Toast catalogue, but I always enjoy flicking through it. It's dreamy and evocative of a life I don't actually live, but might do one day if I got my act together and moved to that lemon grove in Sicily. 

Like that's going to happen.

The vibe is very pared down, with soft colours like dove grey and dusky lilac and the odd dart of yellow, it's the simple life in a djellaba, with hammam towels in the bathroom and ticking stripe linens on the bed. If it had a soundtrack it would definitely be found in the world music section.

There's a bit of Morocco, France, Mexico, India and Italy thrown in there, but with a solid dose of Britishness too - they sell marmalade and deckchairs.

This time I'm loving the catalogue for the tiles. Annoyingly they don't actually sell them, the tiles are just in the background on one of their dreamy shoots.

I want these tiles

The Toast look: Hammam chic meets MC Hammer


From haus to home

VitraHaus by architects Herzog & de Meuron, photography Iwan Baan © Vitra

This is the VitraHaus a spectacular new building on the premises of designer furniture and manufacturing company Vitra. If you're a fan of contemporary architecture and happen to be in the suburbs of Basel (on the Swiss/German border) you can visit it. There's a shop and cafe too.


Designed by legendary architects Herzog & de Meuron - of Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing fame, and converting Bankside Power Station into Tate Modern. It is a five-storey stack of houses, abstract versions of the archetypal gabled-ended house, which stick out at gravity-defying angles. It's madness, and I love it. It's purpose? To showcase the Vitra Home Collection. 


VitraHaus at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany

A bit of background. Vitra is the acme of designer furniture in Europe. The company holds the licences to manufacture and distribute some of the greatest hits of 20th century furniture design. Classics by such luminaries as Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, George Nelson, and more recently designers such as Jasper Morrison and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. 

And chairs, they have a lot of chairs, in fact they have their own museum devoted to them at their campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany. 

Since 1981 Vitra has been commissioning world famous architects to design unique buildings here: there's the Design Museum by Frank Gehry, the Conference Pavilion by Tadao Ando and the Fire Station by Zaha Hadid. It reads like a roll-call of contemporary architecture's brightest stars and the VitraHaus is the lastest addition on site.

So we know they've got some close personal architect mates, what else? Well, the company used to be known as a slightly dry supplier of office furniture, but in the past few years they've gone all interiorsy. Their Home Collection brings together past and present design classics. And this unparalleled back-catalogue is what makes them stand out. 

They've also got a good ethos. They believe you should furnish your home gradually over time, with things you really love, so it becomes a collage of your taste and experience - but maybe just have a few kick-ass pieces holding it together.


Living la vida Vitra: designer furniture you can actually live with

Nostalgia trip


Blackbirds/Seagulls sketchbook by We Are Family

You may not actually need another sketchbook (or even one at all) but one day you just might find yourself at the cash register with one in your hand. Like I did with this one from We Are Family which has blackbirds on the outside and - quite unnecessarily, but in what makes it feel a bit more special - seagulls on the inside covers. Inside it's plain white paper; page after page of pure white paper and possibility. 

It's very reassuring to be reminded that no matter how much we desire the high resolution LED-backlit multi-touch display of the iPad say, there's nothing quite like the tactile delight of flicking through the pages of an old fashioned sketchbook. And pondering the possibilities that lie within. 

And then picking up your iPhone to type something about it on your blog. 

Hmmm.



Pencils/Scissors sketchbook by We Are Family