Tag Archives: Design

Woman lll – Willem De Kooning

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On the list of “The 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold”, is Willem de Kooning’s Woman lll. In a private sale in 2006 Woman lll sold for $137.5 million dollars!

Willem de Kooning (April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist that painted in a style that came to be referred to as Abstract expressionism or Action painting.

With aggressive brushwork, blatant imagery and strategically placed high-key colors, Woman lll created a sensation when it was first shown in the early 1950’s.

This piece of art still creates a sensation in both subject and wonderful colour.

Willem De Kooning Woman lll Colour Palette

Image via Modmissy

Pantone’s Color of the Year 2013??

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Pantone Color chairs

Every year at this time Pantone announces their ‘Color of the Year’.  Seen as the global authority on colour and provider of professional colour standards for the design industries, Pantone Inc. declares what they believe is the colour best suited to the upcoming year.  There is a philosophy in choosing this colour based upon world situations and influences of the period.

This year was Tangerine Tango, a lively orange and in 2011 it was Honeysuckle, an energetic pink.

Pantone Color of the Year

Interior designers, fashion designers, the automobile industry, the makeup industry and many other consumer product industries take notice of this ‘Color of the Year’ decision.

Pantone has influenced the shoe industry www.seavees.com

Pantone and Seavees shoes

Toothbrushes are even available in Pantone colours www.kikkerland.com

Pantone color toothbrushes

Makeup company Sephora www.sephora.com joined forces with Pantone to create colourful beauty products.

Sephora and Pantone

And these colourful stand mixers from KitchenAid www.kitchenaid.com are available every year in many new colours.  Influenced??

Kitchenaid Mixers

So if I had to wager a guess on what the 2013 Color of the Year might be I am thinking somewhere in the blue shade.

Stay tuned!

 

 

Brother® Business Smart

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Nobody said you can’t have it all!

Speed, intelligence, versatility and outstanding good looks!

No not Superman but the Brother® Business Smart all-in-one printer.

Brother Business Smart MFC-J4510DW

At an exclusive event hosted by Yummy Mummy Wall Candy blogger, Sarah Gunn and Brother® I met the MFC-J4510DW.  And I fell in love!

With its cool, sleek, sexy design this new printer has the ultimate combination of printer, scanner, copier, fax and wireless networking.  With fast print speeds, low print costs and the ability to print 11” X 17” format using landscape print technology which greatly reduces the overall size.  The engineers thought of everything.

My Printer, Scanner, Fax vs. Brother Business Smart

But it’s the designers who I tip my hat to – this new piece of technology looks good!  In the past printers/faxes/scanners/copiers have not had a true sense of style.  Instead we always hid these bulky, boring ‘beige’ pieces rather than showcasing them.  We tucked them in desks, cupboards or drawers so they were out of sight.  Now not unlike other ‘smart’ technology the Brother® Business Smart is a piece of technology you display.  Its black and white, compact clean lined design fits into any home’s décor.  It’s cool, it’s hip.

As I always say “Design is everywhere” and finally that motto found its way into the world of printer technology.

Thank you Brother®!

 

One of a Kind Show

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I attended the One of a Kind Show on opening day – fabulous!

I hate to admit how long I was there for (6 hours!!) but there were so many great things to see, beautiful things to buy and over 800 talented artisans to meet.

The One of a Kind show first started in 1975 and is the largest consumer craft show in North America.  Everything sold at the show is made by hand in North America by Canadian and/or American artisans.

This year’s show had a real ‘bringing back the cottage’ vibe with a lot of natural, organic and re-purposed designs.

Here were some of my favourites.

Tremblay Mills www.peppermilltremblay.com  had beautiful salt and pepper mills.  Made with original materials (mill on right is made from the banksia nut) and vibrant colours these works of art give a whole new meaning to ‘Seasons’ Greetings!

Cedar Mountain Studios  www.cedarmountainstudios.com creates wall art from reclaimed cedar boards.  In their backyard studio a team of nine artists, 2 dogs and 1 cat design and build pieces that will make you stop, read, ponder and laugh.

The Identity Apparel Co. http://www.identitytees.ca had a colourful booth.  I love Hudson Bay point blankets and Identity has re-purposed them into pillows and totes.  Also knapsacks made from 1945 Swiss Army mess hall tents waxed canvas were very cool.

Industry keeps making the same thing over and over expecting a different result from us.

Imagine Woods www.imaginewood.com goal is to create new wooden tools that really work for you… like a curved spatula for round frying pans and one-handed salad tongs. The result is a line of Rock Maple kitchen utensils that are ambidextrous, beautiful, long lasting and most of all, useful. Brilliant!

Wineplanks www.wineplanks.com creates from recycled oak wine barrels unique serving trays, and candle holders.

And I love the undies at The Candi Factory www.candifactory.com.  Sweet!

Definitely a show worth checking out.

All images via Modmissy

Queen’s University

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My son is in his final year of high school and now faced with the task of choosing a university to attend next year.  Selecting a university by program is important but I have come to realize that the ‘feel’ of the campus ranks very high too.  So we have been visiting campuses every weekend.  Recently our travels took us to Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario.

Walking around the campus gives the best overview.

My niece (a Queen’s student) was our tour guide. Thanks Jen

Founded in 1841, Queen’s has a lot of historical presence.  Most buildings including all constructed before the 1960’s are faced with limestone giving many of Queen’s buildings a castle-like appearance.

Ban Righ Hall, opened in 1925, is the first student residence on the Queen’s campus that also provided dining facilities.  The historical dining hall could have been the inspiration for Dickens Oliver Twist, “Please sir, I want some more”.  Outside the dining hall’s large windows was terrace seating perfect for eating on a sunny day.

Goodes Hall, a 110 year-old Victorian schoolhouse, has been preserved into the Queen’s School of Business.

Blending the old with the new Goodes Hall recently expanded combining the history of the 1892 schoolhouse with the contemporary design of a 75,000 sq. ft. wing addition.

Much of the old architecture in Goodes Hall was maintained such as the grand maple staircase, maple wainscoting and tin ceilings.  Once again I felt like I was walking into an old movie set.

The old and new architecture blend together quite beautifully.

A ‘green’ roof bridging the two buildings together is very cool.  (pun intended!)

And to top it all off Queen’s University sits right on the shore of Lake Ontario so we finished our tour with a picnic lunch on the beach.  What’s not to love about a university on the beach!?

All images via Modmissy

One Small Step for Mankind

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Green.  Green is the colour that symbolizes nature and the natural world.  It is the colour of balance and life.  And being green is to be thinking of the earth in sustainable and healthy ways.  We have not inherited this land from our fathers; rather we borrow this land from our children.  It’s about everyone doing their part.  Less impact on the earth; reduce, reuse, recycle.

I want to give a big ‘shout out’ to Keilhauer, www.keilhauer.com a furniture manufacture who I have previously written about (see here).  Part of Keilhauer’s mission statement is their sustainability program called ‘Planet Keilhauer’ – to create a company that is environmentally benign and socially progressive.  Their ‘Big-Time Corporate Goal’ is closed loop manufacturing – a sustainable system in which a product is created using renewable energy, with no pollutant output and no waste, the materials used in production are recycled and reused rather than discarded.

Wouldn’t it be great if all manufactures thought of this?!!

Well guess what?  Keilhauer has achieved their mission statement goal.  Their products are now LEVEL® certified.  LEVEL® is the sustainability certification program for the furniture industry that was created to provide the most open and transparent means of evaluating and communicating the environmental and social impacts of furniture products in the built environment.

A family owned company that started in 1981 manufacturing custom furniture for the local market Keilhauer products are now sold world-wide.  Since its inception Keilhauer’s values stressed respect and integrity for its people and its customers.  Today that includes people and the planet.

Bravo!

Audrey Hepburn – Breakfast at Tiffany’s

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It was over 50 years ago today, October 5th, 1961, that the much-loved movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s was released.  One of the greatest female screen legends, Audrey Hepburn, played Holly Golightly, a young free-spirited New York socialite.

The first time I watched the movie I had thought (or hoped) that the beautiful Holly had it all; great fashion, big dreams, lots of friends.  The world was her oyster.  Not true.  By the end of the movie I had tears rolling down my face.

Audrey Hepburn made a lasting impression on generations of people and she still does in so many ways.

She endorsed the colour pink.

She showed us how softly painted pink walls can make one look beautiful.

Audrey made ‘repurposed’ furniture look au-courant whilst lounging on her bathtub sofa in her NYC apartment in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

She has always been the perfect figure for pop-art,

And is the perfect silhouette for mega-giant IKEA to create PJÄTTERYD, a larger-than-life sized canvas of Audrey Hepburn, seen hanging in everything from hair salons to clothing shops and living rooms to dorm rooms.

We love you Audrey Hepburn.  Thanks for everything.

The legend lives on.

 

Niagara Falls

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This past weekend I visited Niagara Falls, Canada.

The Horseshoe Falls dropping about 173 feet in distance and averaging 4 million cubic feet per minute of water crashing over the crest line provide an amazing spectacle of the power of water.

But while admiring the falls I find it hard to ignore the beautiful colour of the water.  The green colour is a byproduct of the ~60 tonnes/minute of dissolved salts and very finely ground rock produced by the erosive force of the Niagara River.  But I am thinking paint colour – Benjamin Moore Greenwood Lake 2037-50.  A fresh green that brings life to spaces, illuminating the room with pure, extraordinary colour.

Of course design takes inspiration from nature and fundamentally shapes how a person experiences the world.  One only has to take a look at the Waterfall Table and can predict what the designer’s inspiration possibly was.

Design is everywhere.  In life take time to smell the roses and notice their beautiful colour!

Nostalgia

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Nostalgia is defined as ‘a sentimental longing for the past’.

At what point in our life do we start to become nostalgic; begin to feel a sentimental longing?

Curious about the logic of ‘nostalgia’ I started asking younger family members and friends what they felt about a particular antique or item from the distant past.  Did it conjure up a certain feeling or a sense of longing for them?  Would they feel a sense of yearning yet?

Ralph Lauren once said, “There is a way of living that has a certain grace and beauty.  It is not a constant race for what is next, rather, an appreciation of what has come before.”  Adding an antique or vintage item to a room can give the space a sense of history and soul.  Antiques are the signposts to our collective past.

I love visiting antique shops even though I lean more towards the contemporary when it comes to my homes décor, I find there is something sentimental about touching and seeing things from the past.  An old teacup reminds me of my Grandmother, the smell inside an antique oak hutch reminds me of my aunt’s Victorian home and a Sunbeam mixer pulls at my heartstrings reminding me of baking cakes as a child with my Mother.

So…..is it about going back and being inspired?  Or is it those who live in the past limit their future?

What makes you nostalgic??

 

 

My End of Summer Place

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This weekend I am going to take advantage of the last days of summer.  The weather forecast looks promising for spending time lounging about in the backyard reading, hanging with friends and noshing on some delicious food.  Too quickly the leaves will start falling and the snow will begin to fly so I plan on grabbing all the summer memories I can.

Whatever your weekend may bring have a great one!

My ‘end of summer’ backyard.