The invisible woman – Art Photography by Cecilia Paredes

Article adapted from Adam Stone.

“Siren in the Sea of Roses” photography by Cecilia Parades

The invisible art or photos shoot by people melting with the surrounding environment already has a tradition in the works of Liu Bolin and Desiree Palmen, however, it does not make Cecilia Paredes a plagiarism because her art photography is completely unique and unforgettable. Her style is characterized by strong color saturation and does not occur in the work of anyone who creates in this style.

“Transition” by Cecilia Paredes photography wallpaper

The art photographer Cecilia Paredes was born in Lima, the capital of Peru. In 1998 she moves to Costa Rica where she lives and works for 8 years. Her first original art photography exhibition is held in 1998 in Guatemala. In her latest project she recreates her body as a part of a landscape, as this landscape is unique in every single picture.

“Paradise” photography by Cecilia Parades

The invisible woman series

“Meditative Mermaid” photography wallpaper by Cecilia Paredes

For this series she selects specific fabrics and linens made of natural materials. With this project she is trying to avoid the nomadic life and to find her identity. With the project “Landscapes,” the artist proves that the female body (in this case on these unique pictures – her own body) is something sacred and mysterious, which is worth to be admiring. Meanwhile, a woman’s body appeared on earth as a connection key to the dialogue between the soul of man and nature around us. Currently the artist lives and creates her art photography in Philadelphia USA.

“Invisible Woman ” series a wallpaper “Spirit of the East” by Cecilia Paredes

“Lilly” a photography wallpaper by Cecilia Parades

“Magnolia” Art Photo by Cecilia Paredes from series “Invisible Woman”

“Invisible Woman” “Tutti Frutti” Art Photo by Cecilia Paredes

“Dreaming Rose” a photo wallpaper by Cecilia Parades

“Crisantemo” photo wallpaper by Cecilia Paredes

Cecilia Paredes art photo wallpaper

Cecilia Paredes and her “Invisible Woman” series art wallpaper

Artwork photography by Cecilia Parades called “Rhythmic Garland”

Photography artwork by Cecilia Parades from “Invisible Woman” series wallpaper

“Art Nouveau” art photography by Cecilia Paredes

Artwork by Cecilia Parades from photography series “Invisible Woman”

 

 

 

Color Art Show Fall-Winter 2012 for Christian Dior

Adapted from Adam Stone’s article.

Flower art show by Raf Simons for Christian Dior

Since it become clear that Raf Simons is headed to Christian Dior the fashion world waits with bated breath for the outcome for this famous brand and it is already here – with the debut of color art show for fall-winter 2012. A crowd of celebrities entered the residence Avenue d’Iena where the rooms were decorated with real flowers to enjoy the beautiful view. There were designers such as Azzedine Alaia, Diane von Furstenberg, Alber Elbaz, Riccardo Tisci, Donatella Versace and Marc Jacobs, Sharon Stone, Princess Charlene of Monaco and many other fashion art stars and other stars as well. Raf Simons decorated in a unique and artistic way five large rooms of this residence located in Paris outskirts.

Colorful Decoration

With these vibrant colorful decorations he brings a fresh and modern approach to the vision of the famous fashion house. The rooms are covered from floor to ceiling with beautiful tapestry of colors including blue delphinium, white orchids, pink peonies and different-colored roses, dahlias and many others. It is stated in a popular ad from the closed past “Say it with flowers!” Raf Simons definitely knows how to express himself.

Art fashion show by Raf Simons

Model in colorful fashion art show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz7qwUslYcQ

 

Jaguar: Beauty by design

By Jeremy Sinek for MSN Autos

Why are Jaguars so darn pretty? It’s easy — their designers try harder. Toronto, Ont. — One of the highlights at the recent Toronto auto show was the Jaguar C-X16 prototype. The gorgeous two-seater, widely hailed as a modern-day E-Type, was accompanied to the show by design chief Ian Callum, who answered our questions about the C-X16, the E-Type, and Jaguar design.

The C-X16 looks like a real, workable car, not just a blue-sky concept. Is it ready for production? We call it a production prototype for obvious reasons. It is feasible. That car drives — quite quickly actually. But we haven’t made a statement of commitment yet that we will build it.

I don’t see much value in producing something at the conceptual stage that you can’t really make or use. Concept cars used to be hugely flamboyant. But nowadays any vehicle is constrained by so many inputs, whether they be legislative or packaging or cost, that invariably if you do something completely fancy you couldn’t build it anyway. So you might as well take all these inputs up front and work with them.

Also we’re less precious now about showing the world what we might want to do. The secrecy is less than perhaps it used to be back in the ’50s and ’60s when it was more about the fashion and the latest model. Now with the world being so international, and the supplier base so common among many manufacturers, these things are not so easy to keep secret.

Are you calling the C-X16 a successor to the E-Type? Only in that, if we were to build it, it would be the first two-seater since the E-Type. And for me personally, that type of vehicle is the very centre of our brand. But we’ve had other things to do first. Now we’ve got to it I’m very glad we have. It will fit into what the E-type stood for in the 60s, hopefully.

The E-type is widely considered the most beautiful car, ever. Why not just reproduce that shape exactly as it was, but with modern engineering? Where do I start? In legal terms it would be impossible. Not by millimetres but by inches. From the nose to the tail. Almost every aspect of the cars we design now, I can give you reason to why it ends up the way it does. The designers have to be creative and manipulate these rules into something we all like at the end of the day.

But right, let’s start at the front: it’s got no bumpers. It’s got wheel coverage. The hood line is too high for the four-degree down-vision line. The windshield header is too low for the U.S. unbelted occupant requirement. The vision lines around the car probably infringe on a number of legal requirements now. And the side impact … there’s no way there’s space to get airbags in there.

Besides, I think if we did that car right now, the stance would look very old-fashioned because nowadays we like to get the wheels out to the body. And compared with the C-X16 the E-Type was tiny. It was probably about the same length, but it was about a foot narrower at least. And certainly a lot lower. I don’t like to get into an E-Type because it’s too small, even for somebody my size.

So there are many physical reasons why you wouldn’t do it. Now if you were to replicate that car in the dimensions that I’ve just spoken about, all the areas it would have to fit into, I don’t think you’d like it. It’s not the way to design a car. The E-Type was of an era. It was a very pure car, and that’s its beauty. And what we try and do is instil these values into a modern car.

Where is Jaguar now with moving forward while still acknowledging past design cues? I don’t like the word “cues” because I think they tie you into very specific things which may or may not be relevant. A lot of designers talk about design language, and “this is what our cars will do,” and it’s called whatever it’s called. Jaguar design is based on two or three fundamental values. One is to have a very exciting proportion and profile. You may say, “well, every car company wants to do that,” but they don’t do it. The reason they don’t is that they don’t actually decide it’s very important to them. Other designers will take a set of hard points that are given by some other set of inputs and they work to those hard points. I challenge every millimetre, to get that perfect roof line, that perfect fender line. And that is part of Jaguar’s DNA and its values.

 

 

Legends of automobile design

By Annette McLeod for MSN Autos

Carroll Shelby

Automotive icon Carroll Shelby passed away in May of 2012 from a heart condition from which he’d suffered most of his life; it necessitated a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996. And yet, he still made it to age 89, proof that that good don’t always die young. Shelby made his permanent mark on design with the Mustang Cobra, and his mark on motorsports starting in the ’50s; he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in an Aston Martin in 1959. Shelby and his team get credit not only for souped-up Fords like the GT and the Mustang-based Shelby cars, but also for turning the K-car into a rocket, developing the Dodge Viper and creating the muscle truck. A moment of silence, please.

Giorgetto Giugiaro

Giugiaro won an international poll of automotive journalists under the management of the Global Automotive Elections Foundation to be named Car Designer of the Century in 1999; he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. In addition to cars, Giugiaro also designed cameras for Nikon, computers for Apple, even pasta shapes, but his automotive designs were many and mostly pretty righteous, including a host of origami-based 1970s designs, the DeLorean DMC-12, Lotus Esprit S1, Audi 80, Alfa Romeo 159, BMW M1, and the late, unlamented Hyundai Pony. Oh, and he also pulled off the odd motorcycle for Ducati and Suzuki.

Harley Earl

A stroke carried Earl off to the great wrecker’s yard in the sky in 1969 at age 75. As GM’s first-ever vice president of design, Earl pioneered several techniques, such as freeform sketching and the use of hand-sculpted clay models. He also thought up the concept car as a design tool and marketing aid with the Buick Y-Job, which would eventually become the Corvette. He is widely credited with authorizing the introduction of the tail fin, but scuttlebutt has it he did so only reluctantly after higher-ups decided they liked the look. The Hollywood-born Earl also made a contribution to the art and science of camouflage in the Second World War.

Alec Issigonis

Sir Alec is the man from whose mind sprang the Mini, and that alone would earn him a spot, but he also designed the Morris Minor and the Austin 1100. The eccentric Issigonis was outspoken in his belief that market research was bunk, and even mathematics were ‘the enemy of every truly creative man.’ A reasonable position for a creative guy who repeatedly flunked math to take. Issigonis was born in Smyrna (then Greece, now the Turkish city of Izmir) to British parents in 1906. His father and grandfather were both engineers; his efforts to follow in their footsteps led him to an engineering program at Battersea Polytechnic, where he may have stunk at math, but he shone at drawing.

Bill Mitchell

Mitchell started sketching cars at an early age, presumably taking inspiration from his father’s Buick dealership. He parlayed the skill into a job as the official illustrator for the Automobile Racing Club of America before Harley Earl recruited him to GM in 1935, where he would go on to influence the design of landmark vehicles including the 1949 Cadillac Coupe DeVille, 1955 Chevy Bel Air, 1963 Corvette Stingray, and 1970 Chevrolet Camaro. Mitchell spent his entire automotive design career at GM, a total of 42 years that culminated as vice-president of design for the 19 years prior to his retirement in 1977.

Virgil Exner

Virgil Exner made his biggest mark designing ‘Forward Look’ cars for Chrysler in the 1950s. Soaring tail fins, lots of glass, a little chrome, and low belt-lines across the line-up. Prior to that, he’d gotten his start at Pontiac, and joined Raymond Loewy’s industrial design firm in the late 30s, where he helped shape the Studebaker line-up. The man behind the original Chrysler 300 and 300C won six national design awards. His 1960 Valiant featured radical long-hood, short-deck styling and was among the first computer-aided designs. When replaced at Chrysler following an unsuccessful design-downsizing on the 1962 Plymouths and Dodges, he went on to design boats.

Raymond Loewy

French-born Raymond Loewy spent most of his career in the U.S., where he was responsible for a host of non-automotive designs including a Greyhound bus, Shell and BP logos, vending machines, a couple of trains, refrigerators, and a cigarette package. But it’s Studebaker that got him on the list. Studebaker first retained Loewy as a consultant in the late ’30s, along with Virgil Exner. They went on to produce the 1953 line highlighted by the Starliner and Starlight coupes (credited in particular to team member Robert Bourke) and the early ’60s Avanti. Loewy also overhauled the logo and came up with Studebaker’s lazy S. He made the cover of Time magazine in 1949.

Frank Quick Hershey

Frank Quick Hershey authored the tail fins Earl finally approved, on the 1948 Cadillac, but carved his place in history by coming up with the Ford Thunderbird. Also, for being fairly openly gay (he had a wife and two kids) — and remember, he was born in 1907. He became lead designer at GM in 1931 and redesigned the 1933 Pontiac, adding the streak of chrome that would be the brand’s trademark for a long time after. Hershey worked for Opel in Germany just prior to the Second World War, and also worked at GM’s Australian division, Holden.

Battista “Pinin” Farina

Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina was the 10th of 11 children, born 1893 in Turin, Italy. At 12, Farina started working in his brother’s body shop and quickly learned enough to start designing cars of his own. He formed Carrozzeria Pininfarina (a coachworks) in 1930. He started working with Ferrari in 1952. He legally changed his name to ‘Battista Pininfarina’ in 1961. In his career, he worked with Maserati, Rolls, Cadillac, Jaguar, Volvo, Honda, Fiat and Lancia; he also designed trams, trains and trolleys in Europe and the U.S. The last design attributed to him personally was the 1600 Duetto for Alfa Romeo, which appeared at the Geneva Motor Show in 1966. Pininfarina died less than a month later.

Dick Teague

The prodigious Dick Teague has a wild back story, including losing the sight in one eye to an accident caused by one drunk driver that also turned his mom into an invalid, and then losing his father to another drunk driver. He also had a stint playing a girl on Our Gang. Teague would go on to influence designs at Kaiser, General Motors, Packard, and AMC including the 1963 Rambler Classic and Ambassador. He stayed with AMC from 1959 until he retired in 1983, leaving a totally awesome design legacy that included the Gremlin, Pacer, Javelin, Hornet and Matador coupe. He also helmed the Jeep Cherokee in the early ’80s.

The Callum Brothers

Dumfries, Scotland-born brothers Ian (1954, pictured in photo) and Moray (1958) both worked long stints at Ford, with Ian making his mark on the Blue Oval’s bread and butter cars of the 1980s, and Moray currently serving as director of design for Ford’s North American passenger cars. Moray served a respectable term at Mazda too, playing a prominent role in the brand’s early 21st-century revitalization. Ian is the current design director at Jaguar; his partnership with Peter Stevens and Tom Walkinshaw in TWR Design (for which he left Ford in 1990) resulted in the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish.

Trevor Creed

Trevor Creed retired as head of Chrysler design in 2008, leaving a legacy that included the PT Cruiser, Challenger, Viper, and Ram trucks. Creed has the dubious distinction of producing the Plymouth Prowler, too. Now 62, he was a 20-year Ford vet before joining Chrysler as Director of Interior Design and Color & Trim. A graduate of the University of West Midlands in Birmingham, England, Creed was awarded an Automotive Interiors Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995, and currently acts as chairman of the board for the Walter P. Chrysler Museum.

Chris Bangle

This quirky corn-fed Wisconsonite is currently in the midst of authoring a three-part, fictional e-series that takes place in the car industry of the future. The narrative gimmick for his Peter Teuful: A Tale of Car Design in 3 Parts is a Christmas Carol-y structure, a la Dickens. Even his website is a little surreal. Bangle made a big splash over the pond at Opel and Fiat before immortalizing himself in Munich with a 2002 BMW 7 Series overhaul that included the infamous Bangle Butt. The Bavarians’ first American chief of design, he left in 2009 to pursue his artistic interests with his own company, Chris Bangle and Associates, in Turin, Italy, leaving his post to the awesomely named Adrian van Hooydonk.

J Mays

Mays (whose actual first name is J, after his grandfather S J) currently serves as group vice president of global design and chief creative officer at Ford. In his early days, Mays worked on exteriors for Audi in Germany, including the Audi 80, and for BMW in Munich, where he contributed to the 5 Series and 8 Series cars of the early ’80s. Back at VW, he worked on the Golf and Polo. He unveiled the Audi Avus quattro concept at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1991, which would lead to the development of the TT by colleague Freeman Thomas. As chief designer of VW in the U.S., he developed the Concept 1 concept car in 1994, which would go into production as the New Beetle. He joined Ford in 1997.

Ralph Gilles

Ralph Gilles is president and CEO of Chrysler’s SRT brand, and senior veep of design of the Chrysler Group LLC, to which he ascended in 2008 after Trevor Creed; he joined Chrysler career in 1992. NYC born of Haitian parents and raised in Montreal, the exotic Gilles was named 2005 Motor Trend designer of the year. Gilles gets credit for the interiors of the 2003 Dodge Viper and 2002 Jeep Liberty, as well as a handful of nifty concepts, like the Jeep Jeepster and Dodge Viper GTS/R. We’ll admit that it’ll be a while before we know if he’s going to achieve truly legendary status, but he’s definitely the hottest designer on the list.

 

Solar plane takes off for its first transcontinental flight

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse takes off on May 24, in Payerne on  its first attempted intercontinental flight  from Switzerland to Morocco. Solar Impulse, piloted by Andre Borschberg, is expected to land in Madrid for a stopover before heading to Morocco without using a drop of fuel. Bertrand Piccard will pilot the second leg on to Rabat, scheduled to leave Madrid on May 28 at the earliest.

The president of the Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse project, Bertrand Piccard, helps pilot Andre Borschberg prepare for takeoff on May 24, in Payerne on its first attempted intercontinental flight  from Switzerland to Morocco.

AP reports — An experimental solar-powered airplane took off from Switzerland on its first transcontinental flight Thursday, aiming to reach North Africa next week.

Pilot Andre Borschberg planned to take the jumbo jet-size Solar Impulse plane on its first leg to Madrid, Spain, by Friday. His colleague Bertrand Piccard will take the helm of the aircraft for the second stretch of its 1,554-mile journey to the Moroccan capital Rabat.

Fog on the runway at its home base in Payerne, Switzerland, delayed the take off by two hours, demonstrating how susceptible the prototype single-seater aircraft is to adverse weather.

“We can’t fly into clouds because it was not designed for that,” Borschberg said as he piloted the lumbering plane with its 207-foot wingspan toward the eastern French city of Lyon at a cruising speed of just 43.5 miles an hour.

Before landing in Madrid in the early hours of Friday, Borschberg will face other challenges, including having to overfly the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate France and Spain.

Just in case things go disastrously wrong, Borschberg has a parachute inside his tiny cabin that he hopes never to use. “When you take an umbrella it never rains,” he joked in a satellite call with The Associated Press.

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse prepares for takeoff on May 24, in Payerne on  its first attempted intercontinental flight from Switzerland to Morocco.

Japan Sets Sights on Solar Future

As it shifts from nuclear power following the Fukushima radiation disaster, Japan is positioning itself to become the second largest market for solar power. The country introduced incentives for renewable energy that could expand revenue in this area to more than $30 billion by 2016. In the U.K., energy from renewable sources accounted for roughly 12.4 percent of the European Union’s overall consumption, with Estonia recording the largest increase between 2006 and 2010.

Germany, who also opted to move away from nuclear by 2022, is feeling the burden of its decision. Miranda Schreurs, director of the Environmental Policy Research Center at Berlin Free University, said, “The way for Germany to compete in the long run is to become the most energy-efficient and resource-efficient market, and to expand on an export market in the process.” If Germany succeeds, Technology Review reported, it could provide a workable blueprint for other industrialized nations.

A new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory finds the prospects for renewable energy, at least in the U.S., to be promising—concluding it could supply 80 percent of the country’s electricity by 2050.

 

Japanese Capsule Hotel カプセルホテル. Try one?

Nine Hours is an ultra minimalist capsule hotel in Kyoto, Japan (see a video tour of the hotel by Monocle). The hotel seeks to distill the hospitality experience into a simple equation: one hour to shower + seven hours of sleep + one hour of rest = nine hours. The design of the hotel echoes the overall concept with a mostly white interior and simple pictographic signage.

Elevator to your capsule.

Main Hall way after entry.

Capsule Hotel’s entrance.

Most famous are Tokyo’s napping salons and capsule hotels  which offer  one moment out of the energy-sucking Japanese working life. Commutes are long  and work often stretches across the weekends. And working twelve hours a day is  none of an exception. The Japanese call it ‘Karoshi’: death caused by too  much work. Karoshi claims roughly 150 lives a year. So the Japanese are  embracing a new cure for stress, the power-nap.

 

Amsterdam’s Lean, Green Shipping Container Homes

Living in a Box

Amsterdam  student Rose Mandungu stands in front of a colorful apartment complex  constructed of a rather unusual material—discarded shipping containers.  The crowded Dutch city has been meeting a pressing need for student and  other low-income housing by using ubiquitous steel shipping containers.  After years at sea, the containers were rusted and dented but ready for  reuse to house people instead of products.

The  interior of a shipping container is compact, but it can be  surprisingly comfortable, as this Amsterdam student dorm attests. When  their service at sea is finished, a growing number of steel containers  are cleaned and refurbished with flooring, insulation, air conditioning,  electricity, plumbing, and other modern conveniences.

The  result is creative green housing that requires only a fraction of new  construction’s energy and materials and costs less as well. In  Amsterdam, students have happily taken to dwelling in these  unconventional new digs built by Tempohousing.

An  Amsterdam woman produces clothing inside her shipping container  dwelling. The cheap, green, and durable freight containers, available  for just a few thousand dollars before refurbishing, are also being  pressed into new commercial ventures around the world.

Former  cargo carriers are in use as shops, marketplaces, office buildings,  hotels, and even a Nomadic Museum, which has circled the globe as a  traveling art exhibit.

A  giant student dorm serves as a shining example of “cargotecture,” the  growing application of discarded steel shipping containers to serve  architectural purposes around the globe. Despite their uniform size and  shape, the containers can be used in an endless number of configurations  because they fit together like real-world Legos.

The  uniform size and shape that made them easy to transport on  long-distance trucks and ships allows them to be stacked up to a dozen  high without significant external reinforcement.

According to figures from SG BLOCKS,  a New York-based shipping container builder, fitting a container for  housing use takes only one-twentieth the amount of energy of  reprocessing the same amount of steel—and results in an additional  hundred years of lifetime.

About  18 million steel shipping containers are currently moving cargo on seas  and roadways around the world. But at many ports, mountains of them may  be found stacked up due to a lack of outgoing cargo, particularly in  nations like the United States, where imports outnumber exports.

Some  2 million steel containers are sitting idle at any given time and all  the containers in use are eventually headed for retirement. In a growing  number of cases, being put out to pasture means a second life as a  functional building material.

An  Amsterdam resident enjoys the benefits of “cargotecture,” the growing  practice of reusing steel shipping containers for housing units. The  internationally standardized (ISO) containers are 40 feet long by 8 feet  wide by 8.5 feet high (12.2 by 2.4 by 2.6 meters), though there are  some 9.5-foot “high cubes” that are are especially favored for building.

They  can be stacked, mixed, and matched like so many Legos to create larger  buildings of creative configuration. The containers are super strong  because they are designed to carry 30 tons of cargo while withstanding  the rigors of sea travel.

Today  half of the people on Earth live in cities, and the figure is expected  to reach 60 percent by 2030. Most of that urban expansion, some 95  percent, will occur in the sprawling cities of the developing world that  already suffer from a lack of decent, affordable housing. And all of  Earth’s cities combined occupy only two percent of its land—so space is  increasingly scarce where most people live.

The topic of sustainable cities is high on the agenda for the United Nations Conference on  Sustainable Development (Rio+20), to be held in Brazil from June 20 to  22. The kind of compact, modular, stackable housing being created from  shipping containers may be of particular use in the world’s growing  cities—and affordability is one of its great assets.

Bathroom –

More  than 800 million people live in slums and that number is growing  quickly. Slum housing often lacks basic necessities for human health,  including running water and proper sanitary facilities.

Steel  shipping container housing can be economically fitted with necessities  like modern bathrooms and other amenities common in the developed world  for a fraction of traditional construction costs.

The units are also entirely portable, making them well suited as temporary housing for disaster response.

You needn’t be a student like this Amsterdam woman to experience a shipping container stay. In 2008 the hotel chain Travelodge opened a 300-room hotel constructed of shipping containers in Uxbridge, in the United Kingdom. Verbus Systems fitted out the containers in China with plumbing and insulation, as  well as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning—then assembled them  into a complete building on site in just three weeks.

The  intriguing hostelry is not just green in terms of saving energy and  materials compared to building from scratch, but it’s also green in terms of  the bottom line. Companies that build modular buildings from shipping  containers claim savings of 20 to even 50 percent of traditional  construction costs.

Pop-Up Shops

Amsterdam-based  Tempohousing, builder of student dormitories and other ISO shipping  container frame buildings, was launched in 2002 because of the obvious  need for affordable student housing in a crowded urban area of central  Amsterdam. By 2004 the company was fitting out container homes at the  rate of 40 per week in a Chinese factory.

From  these beginnings, Tempohousing has branched out to build low-cost  worker accommodations, cafes, supermarkets, hotels, an office building, a  laundry, and even the prototype of a portable miniature hospital—all on  the framework of the 40-by-80-foot steel blocks.

A  student smiles from a window of her shipping container apartment—and  looks toward a possible future of low-income urban housing where space  is scarce and expensive. Thanks to their convenience, affordability, and  friendly environmental footprint, a growing number of shipping  containers may continue to make the journey from the high seas to become  the high-rises of affordable urban housing.

 

Dwell on Design 2012 Expo Debuts Inventive Designs

Adapted from houzz.com by author Natalie Myers

The Dwell on Design expo is going on this weekend (June 22–24, 2012) in Los Angeles, and this year is bigger and better than last. I saw some cool new products you’ll want now. If you are in the L.A. area, check it out for innovative ideas and interesting lectures. If not, here is a roundup of the products creating excitement on the show floor.

Upon entering the exhibit hall, you immediately see this sculptural installation, called “Screenplay,” by Oyler Wu Collaborative — so you know you are in for an elevated design experience. Peppered among the exhibit booths are high-concept showings by design students as well as various design competition winners, making for a thrilling walk around the expo.

Dunsmuir Cabinets provides custom cabinet doors to work with any Ikea kitchen cabinet body. The new system allows you to create a beautifully modern custom kitchen affordably, because you are using the existing Ikea cabinets system. Dunsmuir can retrofit Ikea kitchens back to 1988 and work with the Ikea planning software. The best part is you can install it yourself for an instant DIY upgrade. Brilliant in its simplicity.

Clei offered a modern take on the Murphy bed called Compact Living Solutions. It’s a modular unit of wall bed with sofa, to which you can add storage and shelving units.

The styling is young and sleek. The wall bed unit was drawing a crowd on the floor both in the closed and open positions. Once you customize your unit, it is delivered to your door flat packed to be installed by a contractor. It’s perfect for small urban dwellings, studios and guestrooms.

Hansgrohe has launched a new line of bath fixtures called Axor for lovers of minimalism and functionality.

The Axor Bouroullec collection of more than 70 items allows you to compose your own unit to fit your exact needs. What fun!

From Kohler, we find a collaboration with Jonathan Adler to introduce a world of saturated color to your kitchen and bath. The colors — yellow, pea green, sky blue and navy — are not intended for the faint of heart.

Porcelain tile that looks like wood planks is not a new idea, but I have never seen as good an example as the Over line from Arizona Tile. It should be available in August 2012. Gorgeous.

The Spore doorbells and chimes were adorable. From illuminated little buttons for home exteriors to larger door chimes evocative of schoolhouse bells, the look was modern and vintage at the same time.

Another home exterior idea, this one from Potted, is the City Planter, which doubles as a home numbering marker. As the metal ages and takes on a rusted patina, your home exterior won’t be affected because the planter sits on a cleat a half-inch away from the surface.

We all love our chalkboard paint, but new on the scene is Whitey Board, which makes clear and white paint that can turn any painted wall into a dry-erase board. It has also has vinyl dry-erase decals that stick onto walls and can be removed and repositioned.

I like the Urbio modular storage systems too. They’re magnetic, and you can install and arrange any collection of the containers onto any part of the flat panels. They’re an easy and attractive vertical garden or office supply solution.

A new online shop called Shelter Black caught my attention. The line was utilitarian, fresh and natural feeling. Some neon, natural wood and green elements combine to make for a new favorite home goods and gifts source.

The outdoor fireplace offered by Modfire is exactly the type of product I expect to see in editorial about outdoor living for the next five years. It has a Southern California midcentury-cool vibe that will be welcomed in many a summer gathering.

In furniture, Bend Seating introduced a very of-the-moment line of versatile geometric wire chairs I would gladly have in my living room or on my outdoor patio.

 

Make Your Home Inspiring

Adapted from Houzz.com under author Kristie Barnett

Most of us want to create a home that guests will admire — but have you ever thought about decorating your home to inspire? If you’re not sure what I mean, have a look at these ideas to make the spaces in your house more inspiring to all those who enter.

When a fabulous library shares space with a previously underused dining room, guests will be inspired to take a fresh look at their own underused spaces. Dining rooms and formal parlors can be lonely rooms, but they can come alive again when filled with amazing books.

Painting moody or vivid colors on the backs of shelving can highlight books and art objects.  Unusual and unexpected groupings of furniture like the one here can inspire conversation and deep thoughts in those who spend time  in this room.

Using bold paint colors and unexpected color combinations can embolden you to take risks and step out of your decorating comfort zone.   Think of the exhilarating conversation that must take place in this dining room. As my mother always said, there are no decorating police, so don’t handcuff yourself  by making the same color and decor choices as your neighbors.

Displaying amazing art is another way to inspire those who enter your space.  In this Nashville, Tennessee, client’s home, I grouped frames with different detailing but the same finish to make her art collection cohesive but not boring.

Groupings of collected items or photography elevate the individual items displayed — the grouping itself is artful!  I love how these inexpensive framed photos, mirror and coral tray look together in this inspired wall grouping.

This space is inspiring for a variety of reasons. The bold choice of wall color, unexpected flooring finish, beautiful baby grand piano and impressive art all arouse the imagination.

I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to install an actual inspiration board. Use one or more to collect photos, words and ideas to motivate and encourage you and your family.

You can even make your own inspiration board with some colored electrical or duct tape on your wall, like in this photo.

 

Garden advocates and artists in San Francisco have joined forces to find creative ways to bring nature back into the urban landscape

 

Adapted from Houzz.com under author Annie Thornton.

Urban Hedgerow is a group of San Francisco “instigators” and artists, formed by Benjamin and horticulturalist Jason Dewees, aimed at creating public awareness of the extraordinary — and necessary — environmental processes happening around us every day. By creating pockets of nature deep within the city, they hope to redefine what makes a landscape good.

Urban Hedgerow team members reuse urban finds to make wall-mounted shelters for pollinating insects and even migratory birds.
Hedgerows were originally used in farms as property divisions and lane lines. To Urban Hedgerow, a traditional hedgerow is “a row of trees and shrubs at the margins of country spaces, one that people lightly manage and partly neglect. It’s a space that attracts and harbors wildlife and offers people wind protection, enclosure and pest management.”

The classic hedgerow is an obvious interaction of the managed and wild landscape — untamed trees beside carefully planted farm fields. In a similar way, Urban Hedgerow installations like this one bring fragments of the wild into the city, redefining the fringe.

Public awareness and support are critical to Urban Hedgerow’s success, so the group aims to create pieces that are attractive, fun and attainable. This panel of foraged and reclaimed materials designed and built by Benjamin and Kevin Smith hangs at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco. This art piece and potential habitat invites us to ask how willing we are to invite nature into our domestic landscapes, even in a subtle way.

This Urban Hedgerow prototype is designed to hold bundles of foraged twigs and plants for bug habitats. It was displayed at the Farmer’s Block exhibition in San Francisco.

Benjamin and collaborator Moose Curtis created an Urban Hedgerow installation at London’s 2012 Chelsea Fringe Festival. It focused on building awareness of two species of a local butterfly: Vanessa cardui and Vanessa atalanta. In an installation titled “I Love Vanessa,” Benjamin tagged countless street weeds and plants with butterfly-size tags identifying them as critical butterfly habitats. Being presented with sidewalks as hosts to the beautiful Vanessa butterfly, passersby may rethink the value of “weeds” and what they mean to animals.

Curtis power washed images of the butterflies on sidewalks and walls surrounding the installation as an additional reminder of the wild creatures that occupy managed spaces.

Check out a map of butterfly image locations. The installation will remain intact in Chelsea until the art naturally weathers away.

Many things go into the choices of locations selected for Urban Hedgerows. Public spaces are important, because they maximize exposure and enable pedestrians to take notice and ask questions. Proposed habitats in San Francisco coincide with critical paths for migratory birds. “Reclaim Market Street!” (shown here) was created as a temporary green space in the middle of San Francisco’s Civic Center. By staging a native habitat at this political and pedestrian center of San Francisco, designers, artists and plant experts were able to share their expertise and collaborate with the public on a communal stage.

Nesting birds and insects can find shelter in this habitat built with Green Roof Shelters. Native plants are tucked inside recycled and reused construction materials.
While Benjamin works with artists to create attention-grabbing shelters, the real needs of nesting birds and bees still must be met. Even then, the result is not always foolproof. “I once watched (a bird) go straight into a screw hole after a week working on a hand-crafted mud concrete panel,” Benjamin says.

Small hedgerow prototypes, such as this, enable portability. There is still a lot left  to be discovered about the lasting importance of these mini urban habitats. The ecological benefits that humans receive from native plants, bugs and insects is undeniable — pollination, decomposition and carbon removal are just a few. Benjamin believes that awareness at the personal level will determine how we affect our environments moving forward. “The insects will very well survive without us, but we will not survive without them,” she says. “All in all we are just another animal, so we should start behaving like one.” Pay attention to what is happening right around you and respect what’s already there, she says.

Rolled burlap, twigs and other natural materials cost little and create colorful and textural habitats.
Benjamin suggests leaving some areas of your garden natural, or planting host or pollinator plants. Think about garden “problem” areas differently. If considering your own hedgerow, Benjamin reminds us to to be creative, intentional and resourceful with materials. Ask yourself what the animals would choose if they were in your place.