Design

Remember when Mom scolded you for playing with the food on your plate? Not anymore. There’s a growing international trend by makers, designers and artists who are taking preconceived ideas of how Interactive Tableware and cutlery should relate to the user and turning them (sometimes quite literally,) on their heads. Former textile designer, Martin Kullik is one such provocateur. He …

In Greek mythology, nine muses presided over the arts and sciences. For Renaissance man, sculptor, horseman and jewelry designer, David Yurman, ‘Sybil’ is the only muse he needs. Her name, which means oracle and prophetess, is his wife of 37 years; muse, painter and business partner for 47. When I mention that coincidence to the elegant Yurman, dressed all in …

If you grew up in the late 60s and 70s you’ll remember that the Bean Bag Chair (knock-offs came in corduroy and fake fur,) were the height of flower-power fab and could be found in every teen’s rec room and college dorm. Flopping into it was no problem – like being swallowed by a giant pillow – but getting up, …

From Bass Guitarist In British Band, Funkapolitan Touring With Simple Minds, Bob Marley And The Clash, To Welder And Self-taught Industrial Designer Imagine a rocking chair inspired by an illustration of a cat’s skeleton (Bolide Chaise, 1988); a sofa, its snaking curve reconfigured from a child’s electric racing car track (Serpentine Sofa 2003,) or light fixture based upon the reflection …

When multi award-winning architect and designer, Patricia Urquiola was a little girl in Oviedo, Spain she played with dolls but with one exasperating quirk: she liked to pull their heads and limbs off and look inside. “My sister wouldn’t let me touch her dolls for that reason and my mother has told me, “‘you approach your work with so much …

A cumulonimbus cluster of bubbles cast by Cloud is reminiscent of the cosmic phenomena of a starburst galaxy. The Shield, revolving around the earth, keeps asteroids (or dinner guests) at bay while organic Tear lights up a wormhole travelling through the universe. These are not part of the new set design for television’s Star Trek: Discovery or even a NASA project. They’re just a few of the …

In the opening scene of the 1961 classic, Breakfast At Tiffany’s , an insecure Holly Golightly, (the stunning Audrey Hepburn, pretending to be a wealthy Manhattan socialite in order to nab a rich husband,) looks longingly into the display windows of Tiffany & Co., New York, resolute that one day, she’ll have the independent means to shop there. Fifty-three years …

“The Pacific Northwest has experienced a major design boom and we really need to recognize ourselves as world-class,” says Jody Phillips, IDS-Vancouver’s show director. Now in its 12th year, it may be Toronto’s Interior Design Show’s younger sister, but it’s no shrinking violet, annually attracting 36,000 people to view 275 designers, speakers and distributors. “In addition to Vancouver’s hotbed of talent, …

From corsets and long skirts to cat suits, gladiator boots and cleavage, the fashionistas of women’s tennis have historically made clothing a spectator sport created in marketing heaven. Historians try to tell us that a game resembling tennis was originally played by the ancient Egyptians but it’s difficult to imagine Cleopatra going for an overhead without being toppled by her …

Can you imagine concerts held in a moving streetcar, a hospital’s operating room or the apartment building where Oscar Schindler once lived? Architect, Daniel Libeskind with the Alte Oper, will bring together 75 spectacular concert performances in unusual and unexpected venues within Frankfurt, Germany, May 21 to May 22, 2016, and all within a 24-hour period, interpreting One Day In …