This morning a reader alerted us to the possible dangers of some wood shipping pallets, of toxic chemicals leaching from treated woods (required by law to prevent insect infestations, although not all treatments involve chemicals), or of contamination by e-coli and other pathogens (a bi-product of being used to transport food or being exposed to…
Read Morebrilliant d-i-y pallet desks, table, stairs
When we pass cast-off wooded shipping pallets on the street, we find ourselves imagining ideas we’ve collected in our “pallets” file, and trying them out in our minds. We are especially inspired by the visionary open offices Dutch firm Most Architecture designed as a temporary space for the company Brandbase. The client asked that the…
Read Morestefan sagemeister on ‘serious failure’ and training the mind
Last March, we wrote about legendary graphic designer Stefan Sagemeister, who shutters his design studio every seven years to take a sabbatical, and explore new ideas. He recently spoke at Levi’s traveling print and design workshop; this video is a recap. The audio is not great but some terrific chunks come through. Here are some we love:…
Read Morestones and pebbles to fill an odd space
Lately, we’ve been seeing stones and pebbles used to fill odd spaces. Here they patch missing wood in an old floor. We don’t know what these green stones in a little entrance garden in New York City were meant to disguise: perhaps access to a pipe…or maybe they are just there because the owner thought…
Read Moresurvival guides + other apps/books for the great outdoors
Mashable recently posted a great round-up of iPhone Apps for the Great Outdoors. You can download guides to trees, wild mushrooms, birds, and butterflies, not to mention ‘scat and tracks’ and the constellations overhead. Given our survivalist ‘what would I do if?’ sort of mentality, we love the US Army Survival Guide ($1.99) which blends…
Read Morewhat is the most powerful word in the english language?
An intriguing question came to us in an email one recent morning, via a TED-minded LinkedIn group. We thought we’d pass it on and see what you think… What is the single most powerful word in the English language? There are so many wonderful words: IMAGINE, WE, LOVE, JOY…Our vote (subject to change) is YES.…
Read Moreroald dahl’s ‘revolting recipes’ and other kid’s food books
Over the years we’ve collected a pile of favorite books to give to kids we know; many of the books, curiously, are about food, maybe because kids (and we) find it so much fun to mess around with. We’ve just added Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes to the list; it’s got some mighty compelling recipes, like: …Stink…
Read Morefree, open university courses
We were looking at the recent redesign of Yale Undergraduate Admissions website, masterminded by our dear friend Pamela Hovland, when we stumbled upon an unexpected trove at a distant constellation of Yale’s site that is not part of the redesign: Open Yale Courses. These are free for-real Yale courses that have been recorded and archived…
Read Moredormant websites as messengers + creating systems that work for your unique self
We spotted this very odd picnic table on Planetargonautes, a French blog whose most recent post was in January, 2010. We poked around its eclectic archive, around the several years of stuff, using our basic French reading skills to navigate the author’s charming, rather ‘out there’ writing. (Using a language translator turns it into a…
Read Morerough painted brick walls
We’re always amazed at the way we can start thinking about something and then, like magic, we find more examples, or pictures or casual mentions of the idea. It’s a kind of radar (or perhaps just a shift in our vision); we don’t know how it works or how to control it but it is…
Read Moreshare your improvs on our facebook page
We get so many emails from readers telling us about their own improvisations that we decided to create a special ‘improvised life’ Facebook page, where you can share your ideas, improvs and sightings. Write on our wall, and upload photos or video. You can also comment on posts and keep up with our tweets. Or follow…
Read Moreserendipity (free) at issey miyake
I wandered by the Issey Miyake store the other day and was drawn inside to look at the wonderful clothes. I walked around imagining myself in strangely beautiful outfits, and a tall salesman named Jeremiah came over. “How do you like the collection?” he asked. “I love it, totally beautiful” I said. “And the music. What…
Read More‘the furniture doctor’ and other hot tips for second-hand
Over the years, I’ve furnished my living spaces with second-hand furniture, scavenged from flea markets, thrift stores, Ebay, and occasionally, found on the street. Early on, I didn’t really know what I was doing; I just bought stuff whose look I liked, that I could use, that seemed well-made. I’d clean the wood with Briwax,…
Read Morewhat a painted slab of plywood can do (d-i-y)
In 2009, artist Lee Walton exhibited his “destination specific” sculptures: brightly colored, asymetrically-shaped slabs of plywood, dated, with directions for being taken taken out of the gallery and “displayed elsewhere”. He drove one to a field and leaned it against a tree stump. From a distance: a winter field with a surprising blast of red.…
Read More‘wing it!’ (moist von lipwig)
Moist von Lipwig is a character from Terry Patchett’s young adult novels Going Postal and Making Money. He is a sweet con man who always finds ways to turn the most dire situations to everyone’s advantage. The real beauty is his game attitude, even when the shit is hitting the fan. Although he’s only a fictional…
Read Moreidea maps on a ‘whiteboard’ wall
We love maps of ideas and are inspired by this photo published in last weekends in Sunday New York Times Business Section. It got us thinking about how to create a good-looking erasable wall without having to use chalk. (Chalkboard paint is GREAT in many places, but we wondered about other options.) We thought of the “whiteboard” often…
Read Morethe art of temporary shelter
Here is the challenge: Build a structure that is… …temporary …has at least two and a half walls …is big enough to contain a table …has a roof made of shade-making organic materials through which one can see the stars… … What would you build? These are some of the Talmudic constraints that twelve design…
Read More‘where good ideas come from’
Steven Berlin Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation is so full of smart thinking, fat salient bits, illuminating stories and revelations…so full of deep understanding of the true flux-and-flow of ideas and innovations, and so compellingly written, that we are knocked out. We’ve dog-eared and marked-up our advance copy to…
Read Morevintage blueprints as wallpaper
When I was a kid, the foyer of my family’s GreenwichVillage house was papered with blueprints of the building, the inspiration of our friend David Barrett, an interior designer, who always had amazing ideas. In those days, house plans were really blue, with white type and design, and came in big glossy folded sheets or…
Read Moreannals of bad design: stove window
We’ve just added this image to our file called “Bad Ideas”: ideas that look great, but practically speaking, are impossible to maintain. Most seem like a good idea for about a minute, until you try imagine the harsh realities of living with the them (which is our test for anything we put in our home…)…
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