Tag Section: UK

Welcome to 2011

01/05/11

I’m back after a most-needed break over the Holidays and I thought what better way to start the New Year than with a post about Santa ? Actually, make that *Santa (the introductory asterisk reminds customers of a snowflake alighting on the eyelash of a fawn) – at least that’s according to the very, very funny *Santa brand book produced by Quietroom in the UK. I don’t know that much about them but I’m sure they’re getting plenty of attention after this piece of work.

It certainly brought a smile to us all here in the office and it’s well worth downloading the entire document here.

  

Fabulous new barn

10/18/10
Photos: Edward Sumner

Via Designboom an amazing new cantilevered barn in England.

Can I have one too please ?

  

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.

  

ICFF – The British Section

05/18/10

I wouldn’t ordinarily write a separate post about the old country (well maybe I would) but in the British section there was a magical concept from Tomomi Sayuda called Oshibe. It was an interactive lighting sculpture consisting of stamens (oshibe in Japanese) and glass eggs. When you put the eggs in the stamens they light up and it plays ambient sounds (bird songs etc..) – each stamen plays a different sound sand they change according to the number and position of the eggs. I loved it – so did my daughter. I hope Tomomi gets it into production.

Also of note were some decorative lighting designs from Tay Lighting and some gorgeous hand drawn wallpaper patterns from Camilla Meijer.