Photos: Edward Sumner
Via Designboom an amazing new cantilevered barn in England.
Can I have one too please ?
Tag Section: Architecture
Fabulous new barn
10/18/10
Logo’s we do like – #2
10/15/10
The second logo I want to feature in this series is the identity for the Museum of Art and Design in New York – which of course is affectionally known as MAD. The museum was formally known as the American Craft Museum but changed it’s name in 2002 – the new identity was designed by Michael Beirut at Pentagram when it moved to it’s new location – the iconic building, 2 Columbus Circle.
The highly stylized letterforms pay homage to the original architecture of the building (designed by Edward Durell Stone in 1964) which relied heavily on circular arches (see slide 6). The pure exterior geometry was unfortunately lost in the redesign of the building by Allied Works Architecture (see slide 7) but some elements are retained on the interior.
What I like about the logo is it’s versatility (as shown in the slide show) - because the letterforms are so strong it can work as a picture frame for any background, no matter how complicated, without losing it’s impact. They actually expanded the letterforms to an entire alphabet which was used for the early PR blitz. The Pentagram website has a great feature on the project.
London Cabbie’s Cafe’s
08/05/10
One last post based on my visit back to England. When I was walking down Knightsbridge to go visit Harrods (still impeccable service by the way) I passed by this funny little building in the middle of the road. For those who are not familiar with London it might just look as though someone plonked a garden shed down by mistake but actually these are tiny dedicated cafe’s for London cabbies.
They’re been around for over 125 years and there are still 13 of them in existence (originally there were 61). I learned about them because there was one just up the road from the Royal College of Art where I went to college. Not easy to get a cup of tea from if you’re not a cabby but well worth a peak inside.
This website has a great article about them for those who are interested.
Victoria and Albert Museum
08/04/10
When I was back in England I managed to fit in a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London (my old college stomping grounds). I hadn’t been for years and I have to say it was very inspiring. I started off on the 4th floor and one of the things which blew me away again was the work of Christopher Dresser, who was a big inspiration to me back in college. He’s considered Britain’s first independent industrial designer and ran a studio in the late 1800’s producing an extraordinary range of products, many of which still look fresh today. One of the pieces I was especially enamored with was the mug, tray and beaker set shown in the second photo above – it wouldn’t look out of place in next months wallpaper*. Read more…
The blog is back
07/29/10
So, I’m back from my little break in England with lots of tidbits for future blog posts but I thought I’d start by featuring one of my favorite shops in London, James Smith and Sons. They are specialists in umbrella’s (amazingly though it only rained once all the time I was in England) and to coin a phrase – what they don’t know, isn’t worth knowing. I bought a dark grey tweed number with a leather U-shaped handle last year and the customer service was impeccable. Unfortunately I’m so worried about it getting damaged I hardly ever use it on the crowded sidewalks of New York !
In addition the store has been basically unchanged for the last 140 years so even if you’re not in the market for a new umbrella it’s well worth a visit to see an example of a classic Victorian shop. They’re located on New Oxford Street, close to the British Museum.
If you’re in the neighborhood another store I love to visit is Blade Rubber Stamps at 12 Bury Street (just off New Oxford Street). They have a really eclectic selection of old fashioned rubber stamps and inks.
Cool Tiles
05/08/10
We were doing some research into repeating patterns for a new project when I remembered these cool tiles I saw on a Fifties apartment block in Forest Hills, Queens. Love ‘em.