Momentary lapses of inspiration
If you touch one thing with deep awareness, you touch everything.
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Over the years, we have created mood boards, conceptual packages and idea books for clients in architecture, interior design, fashion and the entertainment business.
We eventually realized that the most interesting and gratifying aspect of our work was the world we were creating outside of all of the research. It was the things that would inspire us along the way that had made a lasting impact in our lives.
Our Blog is collection of images that have made us pause, reflect and appreciate art that reinforces our belief that each and every day there is a endless flow of beauty being manifested in the universe by people who are capable of providing a glimpse into a world of infinite possibilities, beauty and excellence. Enjoy!
Alfredo Häberli was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1964. Today, he is an internationally established designer based in Zurich. He manages to unite tradition with innovation, joy and energy in his designs. The result are works with companies such as Alias, Camper, Iittala, Kvadrat, Luceplan, Moroso and Volvo.
Jayson Tyler Brûlé (born 1968 in Winnipeg, Manitoba), known as Tyler Brûlé, is a Canadian-born journalist, entrepreneur and magazine publisher.
The only child of Canadian football player Paul Brule (of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Rough Riders, and Alouettes), and Virge Brule, an artist, he moved to the United Kingdom in 1989 and trained as a journalist with the BBC. He subsequently wrote for The Guardian, Stern, The Sunday Times and Vanity Fair. After being shot by a sniper while covering the Afghanistan war in March 1994 and losing the use of his left hand, Brûlé left journalism and launched Wallpaper*, a style and fashion magazine which was one of the most influential launches of the 1990s. Time Warner bought it in 1997, and kept Brûlé on as editorial director. Two spin-off magazines were launched: “Line” addressing sports and “Spruce” covering fashion; both were discontinued after three issues. In 2001 he became the youngest ever recipient of the British Society of Magazine Editors’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2001 he was hired to design the “look and feel” of Swiss International Air Lines at their relaunch, after the collapse of Swissair.
In May 2002, Brûlé left Wallpaper and concentrated on Winkmedia (now Winkreative), a design agency he founded in 1998.
In 2005, Brûlé hosted the TV media magazine The Desk on BBC Four. In 2006, he co-produced Counter Culture, a documentary series about cultural aspects of shopping, on the same channel.
He was a columnist for the Financial Times, The New York Times, and Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag. His “Fast Lane” column, which appeared in the weekend supplement of the Financial Times, covered his observations on travel, trends and high-end consumer goods gathered in the course of his travels during the week, which often seemed to involve visits to more than two continents.
In October 2006, he announced that he would create a new magazine, to be called Monocle, which launched February 15, 2007. In December 2006, he announced in “Fast Lane” that he would be taking a break from the column to work on projects. On February 14, 2007, the International Herald Tribune announced a “new weekly column on urbanism and global navigation” by Brûlé, starting on the 3rd of March.
On April 2nd 2008, it was announced that Brûlé will leave the International Herald Tribune to revive his weekly column, Fast Lane, on April 26, when FT Weekend relaunched.
According to UK fashion sources, Tyler Brûlé is rumored to be the main contributor in the forthcoming Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly.
Brûlé serves on Dopplr’s board of directors.
Bridget Riley was born in London, England and spent her childhood in Cornwall and Lincolnshire. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College. She studied art first at Goldsmiths College (1949–1952), and later at the Royal College of Art (1952–1955), where her fellow students included artists Peter Blake and Frank Auerbach. Her early work was figurative with a semi-impressionist style. Around 1960 she began to develop her signature Op Art style consisting of black and white geometric patterns that explore the dynamism of sight and produce a disorienting effect on the eye.
During her early career, Riley worked as an art teacher from 1957-58 at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Harrow now ‘The Sacred Heart Language College’ then at Loughborough School of Art in 1959, then at the Hornsey School of Art, and from 1962-1964 at the Croydon School of Art. She also worked as an illustrator for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency prior to giving it up in 1964.
Riley lived and worked with fellow Op Artist Peter Sedgley during the latter half of the 1960s. Together they created the artists’ organization SPACE, with the goal of providing artists large and affordable studio space.
Ernstings Warehouse Coesfeld-Lette, Germany
This is the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by Santiago Calatrava.
Santiago Calatrava Valls (born 28 July 1951) is an internationally recognized and award-winning Valencian Spanish architect, sculptor and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zürich, Switzerland. Classed now among the elite designers of the world, he has offices in Zürich, Paris and Valencia.
Calatrava’s early career was dedicated largely to bridges and train stations, whose designs elevated the status of civil engineering projects to new heights. His Montjuic Communications Tower in Barcelona, Spain (1991) in the heart of the 1992 Olympic site was a turning point in his career, leading to a wide range of commissions. The Quadracci Pavilion (2001) of the Milwaukee Art Museum was his first building in the US. Calatrava’s entry into high-rise design began with an innovative 54-story-high twisting tower called Turning Torso (2005), located in Malmö, Sweden.
Calatrava is currently designing the future train station – World Trade Center Transportation Hub – at the rebuilt World Trade Center in New York City.
Calatrava’s style has been heralded as bridging the division between structural engineering and architecture. In the projects, he continues a tradition of Spanish modernist engineering that includes Félix Candela and Antonio Gaudí. Nonetheless, his style is also very personal and derives from numerous studies of the human body and the natural world.
Since Fischer began showing his work, in the mid-nineteen-nineties, in Europe, he has produced an enormous number of objects, drawings, collages, and room-size installations. Mentions Massimiliano Gioni. Fischer’s pieces range in size and scale from an ordinary apple and pear to a thirty-foot-high metal tree whose leaves are laser prints of more than two thousand of Fischer’s vivid, slapdash drawings. The New Museum show contains work from the past two years. Five huge cast-aluminum sculptures that are being made in China have been in the works since 2005; one of them is behind schedule and can’t be shipped by boat. Fischer is not a conceptual artist. His work starts with the materials he uses, and the way he shapes them. Dozens of skilled people in Zurich and Shanghai were building and assembling the elements of his New Museum show. Mentions Scipio Schneider. Fischer was born in Zurich in 1973. He moved to Amsterdam in 1993 and had his first solo show at a gallery in Zurich, in 1996. Fischer’s current studio occupies a large warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Words by Calvin Tomkins, Onward and Upward with the Arts, “The Imperfectionist,” The New Yorker,
Design Museum Holon, designed by Ron Arad
Ron Arad (born 1951 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli industrial designer, artist and architect.
Ron Arad attended the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem between 1971-73 and the Architectural Association in London from 1974-79. He was Head of Design Products Department at the Royal College of Art from 1997 to 2009.
In 2005, Arad designed chandeliers for the Swarovski crystal company which if one has the number, can display text messages that are sent to it by incorporating light-emitting diodes (LEDs) operated by SMS text messages. He also has had tables that climb walls instead of being centered in the room. Arad’s works are often worked into distinctive biomorphic shapes and are created from his medium of choice, steel. In 2008-09, Arad paired with KENZO to create his first perfume bottle. The bottle was on display in his exhibit No Discipline.
Alessi Espresso coffee maker by Richard Sapper
“Tizio” table lamp, 1972
Richard Sapper (born 1932 in Munich) is a German industrial designer located in Milan, Italy. He has received numerous international design awards, including 10 prestigious Compasso d’Oro industrial design awards, the first being in 1959, and 15 of his products are in New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) permanent collection.
After working as a designer at Mercedes-Benz, Sapper relocated to Milan and partnered with Italian designer Marco Zanuso. They were hired in 1959 as consultants to Brionvega, an Italian company trying to produce well-designed electronics that would compete with products manufactured in Japan and Germany. Together they designed a series of radios, televisions and other consumer electronics that became enduring icons. One of their more notable designs was the rounded, compact and portable Doney 14 (1962), the first television to feature completely transistorized construction. Using the aesthetic of sculptural minimalism, the pair designed the compact folding Grillo telephone for Siemens and Italtel in 1965. The Grillo was the first telephone with a flip-down mouthpiece, and today is a featured display at New York’s MoMA.
After starting his own independent studio, Sapper created the iconic Tizio lamp in 1972 for Artemide, Sapper Office Chair for Knoll (company) in 1979 and Melodic kettle for Alessi (company) in 1983. In 1980 he became the IBM corporate industrial design consultant and began designing portable computers, including the first ThinkPad 700C in 1992 and follow-on models such as ThinkPad 770. Sapper continues today to influence the iconic ThinkPad brand as design consultant to Lenovo after it acquired the IBM PC Division in May 2005.
Franco Albini & Franca Helg 1968 Lamp
Franco Albini Luisa dining chairs
‘Fiorenza’ lounge chair, prototype
Franco Albini Wooden wall library, model LB7
Franco Albini (October 17, 1905 – November 1, 1977) was an Italian Neo-Rationalist architect and designer. A native of Robbiate, near Milan, Albini obtained his degree in architecture at Politecnico di Milano University in 1929 and began his professional career working for Gio Ponti. He started displaying his works at Milan Triennale. In 1930 he opened his own practice. Through his creations, the modern furniture design merged the Italian traditional artisanship with the new forms of modernism. In his creations, he used raw, inexpensive materials. He exploited the very skilled Italian craftsmanship. This also meant an elegant design based on a minimalist aesthetic. One of the first, successful works in 1939 is a radio, made of lucite, so to show its internal components.
In 1950 Magistretti designed the famous and fashionable “Margherita” and “Gala” chairs, made of woven cane. In 1952 he created the “Fiorenza” armchair for Arflex; in 1955 the “Luisa” chair; in 1956 the “Rocking chaise” for Poggi. In the 1960s he worked on industrial design as well as important architectural projects. In 1961 he designed the Rome Rinascente building. Three years later he designed in a team of experts many Milan subway stations. In 1964 the television set he created for Brionvega was displayed at the Milan Triennial. In the same year, he created various lamps for Arteluce.
Franco Albini, among other companies, worked for: Brionvega, Cassina, Arflex, Arteluce and Poggi. Albini was also an architect & interior designer. Among the others, in 1945 he created the ‘Zanini Fur Shop’ located in Milan. As writer and editor, from 1945 to 1946 he worked for the Italian magazine Casabella. Albini obtained three Compasso d’Oro awards, the most prestigious Italian design prize.
