Place Posts

Slightly off topic - but a really brilliant day - gave me so...

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:37:37 +0100

Slightly off topic - but a really brilliant day - gave me so much bounce to carry on with various things I’ve been thinking about recently.

Picture above is a quick scribble of a wonderful day spent with Lori Gordon and many other new friends - essentially having some make & do fun in central London. I totally plan on staying in touch with you all … in fact I feel I have quite a few things which slowly I’m going to be doing over the next few weeks or so .. so watch out…

- at some point (hopefully soon) moving this site over to Wordpress so I can do a better job of building up commenting, engaging with other people etc.

- making a bit more of a home for the some of projects i/we started with Lori .. again no promises as to when this will happen, but aiming for sooner rather than later …

Really hoping this hasn’t broken my cardinal *no plan* rule of late… which interestingly, this TED talk added some weight to (don’t tell people your goals) .. but seems worth the risk as I really wanted to say a proper hello :)

Some interesting visual effects I’ve spotted lately and possibly...

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:00:06 +0100

Newspaper Window

Clip Board

Dream More

Cropped Window

Some interesting visual effects I’ve spotted lately and possibly the singularly best bit of graffiti I’ve seen in ages!

Newspaper Windows
- Yes, a café being refurbed, but loved…
- … the softness of the light and the gently moving shadows
- Not totally blocking out the outside world, but not totally open either

Clipboard Wall
- Really stylish and practical display board
- Easy for others to add, move around etc

Motivational Graffiti
- Just because
- Oh okay to analyse.. bright pink, grey sky, Finsbury park….
- (slightly gutted I didn’t juxtapose more to the right – if I’m feeling perfectionisty I might go and resnap this one)

Hair Salon – Cropped Window
- Very eye-catching window black-out/interior light contrast
- Like cropping a photo – very on tone with their ‘award winning’ messaging
- Works on lots of levels .. plays to celebrity culture, wanting to be a star etc
- … also reminds me of looking through a post-box – but that’s more of an aside, for my personal reference

March Bar Spots … No.2 Café Etienne Marcel I...

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:00:06 +0100

Café Etienne Marcel

Café Etienne Marcel

Café Etienne Marcel

March Bar Spots … No.2 Café Etienne Marcel

I haven’t quite visited this bar yet, but is top of my Paris hit list for two reasons - the obvious it looks weird, wonderful and incredible …

and a recent description of the process the design team M/M followed to bring the place to life …

“Working with artists Pierre Huyghe and Phillipe Parreno, thy conceived the interior design for Thierry Costes’ Café Etienne Marcel in the 2nd arrondissement. They imagined the space first as an abstract idea - experiences, memories and references that the group shared - and then created three-dimensional objects, sounds and graphics

With no preconceived vision of what the space would eventually look like, the visual identity of Café Etienne Marcel evolved organically. Certain parameters were put in place: it would be a cafe, somewhere for anyone and everyone to meet, and would work on memories of 1960s and 1970s ‘utopia design’ (an effort by architects, cultural theorists and others to rethink urban life with an emphasis on the integration of art into daily life).

‘Those public places in the 1970s in the suburbs of France were part of a very special moment in time because they were in a lower middle-class environment, but were utopian and full of hope’ says Amzalag. The cafe would eventually incorporate works of art (a work by Huyghe and Parreno, for example, us the graphic on the cafe’s carpet), but accessibility would be central to the operation, a novelty for the Costes operation, which practically invented the velvet rope”

Words - Marina Cashdan, Wallpaper* (April 2010 print edition)
Images - Le Salon de Mademoiselle Ho (wish I could read it think it is in Japanese? or Korean?)

Note to Self - Check Spotted by Locals when travelling!

March Bar Spots ..No.1 L’Experimental Cocktail Club The...

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 17:00:00 +0100

L'Experimental, Paris

Curio Parlour, Paris

March Bar Spots ..No.1 L’Experimental Cocktail Club The Experimental Cocktail Club, in Chinatown London has been making some ripples of late, check the excellent review by Gin Monkey - my favourite source for news on all things cocktail related Interesting however to learn that the place has been brought together by a French team - Romée de Goriainoff, Oliver Bon and Pierre Charles Cros, who established an original L’Experimental Cocktail Club in Montorgueil and the Curio Parlour in St Germain. They have apparently been joined by Xavier Padovani a ‘global brand ambassador’ for Hendrick’s gin according to Wallpaper* Magazine

I recently happened upon a brilliant article entitled...

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:54:00 +0100

Rapture

Dread

Despondence

Repose

I recently happened upon a brilliant article entitled “What Would Happiness and Despair Look Like… as Chairs? “ about a Swedish designer, Tomas Ekström’s project to translate human emotions into physical objects

His video below is beautiful and brings to life his journey from empathising with the emotional depths of music and art and translating this into wonderfully original designs. Utterly beguiling - a brilliant way to spend 10 mins of your life!

I particularly love the forms of the wolves found within the Despondence design - truly inspired

Emoticons from Kallbrand on Vimeo.

Check out Ekstrom’s site, Kallbrand, for more on his work

I find I’m often seduced the by the style and design of old...

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:00:04 +0100

Yamaha Organ

Cigarette Machine

Board Games

Local Butcher

I find I’m often seduced the by the style and design of old things. Shout me down for rampant nostalgia, but I tend to think that further you go back in history, the more the production of things was considered and as a result the objects and products were more functional and beautiful.

Physical objects should have a clear raison d’etre, a purpose, a relationship with the people they’re designed for. For me good design happens when a designer has truly understood this and thought about the emotions and response they want to evoke in a user.

A couple of items from my seaside jaunt provoked these thoughts … And soon to follow with a post about a brilliant designer who truly gets into the emotional design of his products ….

Yamaha Organ
- Perhaps not an obvious choice, but identical to the organ in my gran’s house
- Spotting it for sale (for £100!) instantly brought back memories of how satisfying it was to push the brightly coloured plastic buttons …
- …They had a gently concave surface which exactly matched the size of my index finger and a gentle resistance gave way to a final clunk as I added a Vibraphone to a Bossa Nova beat (or whatever musical mangling I was making…)

Cigarette Machine
- Reassuringly solid and simple design
- Designed to last and not about to be budged from this shop window, even though it’s now a jewellery shop

Board Games
- Scrabble, Monopoly - timeless designs, ‘nuff said
- Add some late-afternoon winter sunlight and you’ve got me hook, line and sinker ..

Local Butcher
- Simple, functional design
- Purposeful and almost timeless …

A few pictures from a wander in Whitstable, loved the -...

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:54:13 +0000

Whitstable Sea Front

Luncheons & Suppers

Working Harbour

Winter Sun

Shell Beach

A few pictures from a wander in Whitstable, loved the

- crispness of the air

- the cold warmth of the sun

- the softness of the worn shell beach

- the higgledy piggedly purposeful clutter of the harbourside

That all sounded vaguely romantic, to ruin that atmosphere and get all analytical on place … It was really interesting to see how people wandered along and around the seafront. It’s not actually such a simple space as a simple parade, there are actually lots of unexpected ‘obstacles’ such as oyster buckets, anchors and other harbour clutter that make it a much more visually interesting area, move evocative and engaging place to wander. Plus great to see how not just children enjoyed jumping over the sea wall or the groines in the beach - makes the space more playful and alive - no zombie drudging along allowed!

Marginalia - a disappearing habit

Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:31:00 +0000

Marginalia - a disappearing habit:

A couple of articles have been published by the NYT recently on the endangered future of marginalia - or scribbling notes, annotations, thoughts, underlinings in books. That in some way through decline of paper books we are going to lose some of the richness of a shared reading experience.

Not strictly related to my theme of places, but feels relevant to thinking about how we can create places which enable greater shared experiences. Reading a book others’ have read is of greater value, giving us a glimpse into their thoughts

One famous example, apparently when Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in South Africa in 1977, a copy of Shakespeare was circulated among the inmates. Mandela wrote his name next to the passage from “Julius Caesar” that reads, “Cowards die many times before their deaths.”

Boundary between physical and digital disappearing

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:29:57 +0000

Boundary between physical and digital disappearing:

- Description of SXSW-ers …..”they herald the final disappearance of the boundary between “life online” and “real life”, between the physical and the virtual”

- Something I think is incredibly true and slowly becoming true for a growing segment of the population

- Raises really interesting ideas about what that means for how we behave, interact and spend time in physical spaces…

- … and lots of exciting possibilities too … I am super fascinated in exploring what this could mean and am that the very early start of thinking about this …

- … any suggestions, pointers, examples, theories you can recommend?

Perhaps I need to add Prague to future travelling...

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 23:12:55 +0000

Perhaps I need to add Prague to future travelling plans!

notthebossofme:

The Grand Cafe in Prague or the “cubist cafe” delicious lattes and like every other place is Prague, alcoholic beverages.

Summit, San Francisco In their own words… - “an...

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:41:00 +0000

Summit, San Francisco

In their own words…

- “an artisan approach to modern café culture… also functions as an art space called Peek Gallery, celebrating the connoisseur as curator and craft as art.

- Inspired by Ray Oldenburg’s “Third Space” concept which states that society needs a place away from home (First Space) and work (Second Space). Third Spaces are “Anchors of Community Life and facilitate and foster broader, more creative interaction.”

- Located in the unique I/O Ventures incubation space, The Summit is home to 40+ telecommuters and 4 startups, which receive mentorship and funding from leaders in the tech industry. I/O Ventures is backed by the founders of seminal tech companies: MySpace, BitTorrent, and YouTube. The Summit is their public living room”

They also have an old blog I plan on reading at some point.

Reggio Emilia Approach

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:43:08 +0000

Reggio Emilia, an Educational philosophy which originates from North Italy. Why is it relevant to Places Posts? A very interesting central tenet ..

- The environment as a third teacher

This takes many forms, but includes …

-”integration of each classroom with the rest of the school, and the school with the surrounding community …

- … The preschools are generally filled with indoor plants and vines, and awash with natural light. Classrooms open to a center piazza, kitchens are open to view, and access to the surrounding community is assured through wall-size windows, courtyards, and doors to the outside in each classroom. Entries capture the attention of both children and adults through the use of mirrors (on the walls, floors, and ceilings), photographs, and children’s work accompanied by transcriptions of their discussions. These same features characterize classroom interiors, where displays of project work are interspersed with arrays of found objects and classroom materials. In each case, the environment informs and engages the viewer….

- Other supportive elements of the environment include ample space for supplies, frequently rearranged to draw attention to their aesthetic features. In each classroom there are studio spaces in the form of a large, centrally located atelier and a smaller mini-atelier, and clearly designated spaces for large- and small-group activities. Throughout the school, there is an effort to create opportunities for children to interact. Thus, the single dress-up area is in the center piazza; classrooms are connected with phones, passageways or windows; and lunchrooms and bathrooms are designed to encourage community”

Foodhall @ Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS - Beautiful cafe, deli...

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 18:11:12 +0000

Foodhall @ Barbican, London EC2Y 8DS

- Beautiful cafe, deli space

- Linger or atmospheric quick snack

- Interesting jar lights

- V. nice 50’s style functional counter