Material_Anthropology_(Revealed)

Times are tough shouldn’t your iPhone’s case be as well? Now you can protect your phone with cardboard and it’s cheap and can be recycled. Go to link to purchase.

Courtesy of Wired Magazine and Kansas State University.

What Apple’s 80′s product line web presence would have looked like today.
See the designers Twitter page.

I recently completed a project code named the sidecar, pictured above. It’s an infant co-sleeper built from Jatoba, a Brazilian hardwood species. The project grew challenging the minute I started cutting the material. Jatoba is a dense hard material. The size of the original uncut plank was roughly 17″ wide x 1/2″ thick x 10′ long. The wood was left untreated to avoid health issues relating to toxicity.

In Tokyo, master bartenders know, a 2-inch diameter ball of cold has a lower surface-area-to-volume ratio than a typical cube. That means it melts more slowly, preventing vintage hooch from warming up and getting watered down. Japan’s mixologists hire apprentices to chisel perfect frozen spheres, but if you aren’t so flush, pick up DIY molds (two trays for $16) from the MoMA store.

In the mid to late 90′s graphic designer David Carson was all the rage on the cutting edge of the “grunge” post modern style. There is no doubt he was one of the most influential graphic designers of the nineties. He began at Skateboarding Magazine although he produced only six issues before the journal folded, his work there earned him more than 150 design awards. But he most notably left his mark at Raygun Magazine.

Hillman Curtis, a designer who needs no introduction has made a short film about Carson.

Last year Portland, OR based architect John Froning started rev.ent architecture. His latest project K4 Court is nearing complettion in NE Portland.
John received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Architecture degrees from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ. While attending ASU he completed his last year of graduate school, including his thesis, at the Universität Stuttgart in Stuttgart, Germany. In addition to a private practice, John is an adjunct professor at Portland State University teaching all ranges of architectural studios.

In the past decade relaxation training has been one of a number of behavioral approaches to the treatment of chronic pain. Recently, flotation REST (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy), which consists of floating in buoyant liquid kept at skin surface temperature in a sound-proof, light-free enclosure, has been used to induce deep states of relaxation and assist in the relaxation training process.

Floating inside a float tank frees the body from the strains of gravity and external stimuli, triggering a powerful reflex inside the brain, causing both the mind and body to enter into a relaxed state. Floating will leave you deeply relaxed. How deep, research has shown that the brain activity during floating is nearly identical to the elevated states of consciousness experienced by trained Buddhist monks during meditation.
Find a relaxation escape pod in your area.

I’m constantly on the search for new and exciting developments in the area of Architecture as well as design of all types, music, culture, etc. Looking for inspiration to expand my awareness and creativity within the discipline I practice, furniture design and building. I really am impressed with Feldman Architecture in California. Go to their site. I would also like to mention, while on the subject of California and Architecture, a documentary that is going to be released soon entitled Coast Modern. Filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome take you on a journey through three generations of modernist movements on the West Coast of North America. From Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra’s 1920’s Hollywood, through today’s current modernist renaissance. The film speaks with architects and their patron’s and asks if Modernism’s time has finally come or if it ever really went away. More info.

Designer and builder of simple, beautiful furniture, Maloof, whose career began six decades ago just as the American modernism movement was becoming popular, put usefulness before artistry and turned down multimillion-dollar offers to mass-produce his original designs. He worked out of his home workshop, shaping hardwood, one part at a time, into rocking chairs, cradles and hutches that were shorn of unnecessary adornments.

Even after Maloof was recognized as an influential pioneer of contemporary California decor, and even as his furniture was reselling for 100 times its original price, Maloof referred to himself simply as a “woodworker.”

Video of Actress Rene Russo visiting Sam Maloof