Philip Johnson Cover

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"Rethinking the Shape of Everyday Life"

This article from the New York Times has some great projections for the way life will operate in the not-so-distant future. I especially love the idea of turning telephone booths into charging stations for the next generation of electric cars and to feed the increasing demand for power sources for personal electronics. This also plays into the ultimate buzzword of the last few years ("green," of course) by transforming something old into something new.

"Hammer Time or Miller Time?"

A classic case of mistaken identity... Is this promoting drinking whilst carpentering? Or is it in fact what it proclaims; a hammer for breaking up beer cooler ice that happens to have a bottle opener on the other end? I'm not sure. But it sure is snazzy.

via core77

Taking Education Into the Future

I took the summer off from interning/working and just stayed home. Some of the most interesting changes I witnessed going back to my hometown were the improvements to and constructions of the schools in town. The high school had major renovations with an entire new wing and lots of "smart classrooms." Down the street was a brand new elementary school that, frankly, looked more like a prison than a school. No doubt this design choice was purposeful, but I still felt it missed the brick & mortar feel of the schools of my childhood.

Check out this blog post from Allison Arieff from the New York Times. Solving the space problem and the issue of integrating new pedagogical technologies is something that everyone should be interested in. Designing sustainable and energy efficient schools is also a huge issue. Overcrowding will eventually cripple our classrooms if we don't take action and intelligent classroom design is the key.

Digital Reading

What a contentious issue this is... people have such very strong opinions about the act of reading a book or a newspaper. I'm on the fence about this. I think that economically, environmentally, the digital option is the best for the future. However, I will agree that there is something very tactile and grounding about reading something that is physically printed. Personally, I think it'll go like this... Books will never become obsolete. However, they may at some point attain the "cult" status that items like LPs have achieved. Stylishly anachronistic.

Check out this competition for the future of digital reading.

via core77

Hiding your emails...

From Seth Godin

"Promiscuous dispersal of your email address

I just went through the hassle of trying to get some B2B firms the details needed to give me an informed quote on a project.

I visited eight sites. Six of them hide their email address. They use forms of one sort of another. One firm refused to accept more than 500 characters in the "how can we help you" box, while three of them wanted to know what state I was in, etc.

Email contact is like a first date. If you show up with a clipboard and a questionnaire, it's not going to go well, I'm afraid. The object is to earn permission to respond.

If you sell something, set up an address like "sales@xyz.com". Put this on your home page, "contact us if you're looking for more information or a price quote." Sure, you'll get a lot of spam, but deleting spam is a lot easier than finding customers. (Hint, ask your IT people to make it a mailto link, with a subject line built in. That way, you can use the subject line to find the good email)."

This is an interesting phenomenon. When the internet first arrived on the scene, everyone was excited to get email. Now we live in a world of ubiquitous spam and people are afraid to give out their personal, or sometimes, business email addresses. It's the same thing has having an unlisted telephone number. What are you trying to accomplish? Sure you might get less spam, but making yourself available to your potential clients/customers is more important, isn't it?...

"In Praise of Shadows"

I love the idea behind this design exhibition in London. We always talk about how we use "light" in spaces, but no one ever talks about how you use the dark to create a statement in a space.

Not to mention, the post feeds my ongoing obsession with light fixtures:

via core77

The Crystal Cathedral, Orange Co., CA

by Philip Johnson.

Daniel Johnston

I'm familiar with the music of Daniel Johnston and saw the stellar documentary, "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." I also interned with his music publisher. I'm just not entirely sure that an iPhone app is the logical next step for the way off-kilter aesthetic that is Johnston's life.

Check out the article here.

Does everything in life need an iPhone app? Are we long past the age of slick new applications and on to the muddy world of "me too-ism?"

New Lights

Lighting can add or subtract an enormous amount of character and warmth to a room. I enjoy interesting light fixtures. One thing that's always fascinated me is the general continuity of the original lightbulb design. The exception, of course, being the energy-efficient coil bulbs. Perhaps Benjamin Hubert will design a lightbulb that looks like these fixtures?

via core77