Over the past several months, Pixar’s former story artist Emma Coates‘ 22 Rules of Good Storytelling has been flying around the web. Although we find it to be excellent advice for writers, we found annotating it made it even better: a list of fine life principles for any creative soul. Our favorite: No work is ever wasted. If it’s not…
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Spotted on a well-worth-checking-out riff of interiors photographed by Simon Watson‘s: a cool, clever workstation make out of simple wooden sawhorses, a hollow core door, an industrial drawer unit, and a Tolomeo lamp. via Desire to Inspire Related posts: copy this: hinged, folding/expanding table top sawhorse tables as solution + sculpture d-i-y expandable table pt.2 (round) for holiday…
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We were instantly smitten by this mesmerizing gif by Pataak that pushes gif-dom to new heights of loose abstraction. For us it combines the chic of polka-dots with the ephemeral way ideas come and go. Strange magic. Lately, we’ve been checking out apps and software for mapping our gazillions of ideas that often, once out…
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Cara de Silva sent alerted us to Smithsonian’s wonderful Jane Goodall Reveals Her Lifelong Fascination With…Plants?. Here is a particularly illuminating chunk, about a tree (which has come to be one of the most commented on subjects by our readers). If you don’t have time to read it all at once, it’s worth bookmarking: Just…
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(Video link here.) This tiny gem of a film comprised a curious and moving Op-Ed in a recent New York Times by filmmaker Anthony Sherin. The story of how Sherin came to make it, as well as the story documented in the film are pure improvisation: responding to the moment, not knowing what the endpoint would…
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Scraggly, unkempt electrical cords can be the bane a well-designed interior. At L’Ouvrier Restaurant in Toronto, black electrical cords are wound and tacked onto walls in spirally designs, turning a normally ugly element into something visually pleasing, without trying to hide it.
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(Video link here.) A couple of years ago, we wrote about the discovery of a trove of photographs by Vivian Meier, who, while working as a nanny in Chicago and New York during the 50′s and 60′s, was secretly photographing the cities’ street-life during her time off. It was not until years after her death that…
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French by Design recently featured Veerle Wenes‘ unique home in Belgium that serves as both residence and gallery. We recommend taking the full tour for the wealth of design ideas the images hold. Take this foyer, for example, with unique, diy-able peg hooks that run horizontally and vertically, not to mention the swell two-legged plywood desk…
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Zef, a wonderful endlessly-improvisable color doodling program by Patakk, gif-maker extraordinaire, sent us on an unexprected psychedelic journey and we found ourselves curiously refreshed. Just go to the blank page, move your cursor, and see where it takes you….
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(Video link here.) About 6 months ago, we got an email from Merete Mueller, a friend of a friend who was just finishing up a film about the Tiny House Movement. The film, “TINY: A Story About Living Small” follows Christopher Smith and my attempt to build a tiny house from scratch with no building…
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Found on …Found, the great, full-of-amazing-things National Geographic Tumblr of images from its archives in honor of its 100 birthday: Alexander Graham Bell and Mabel kissing within a tetrahedral kite, October 1903. It reminded us that kissing is probably one of the most improvisational things there is. Related posts: a mantra from bill murray
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One of our secret passions is connectors — not just connectors of ideas – but connectors of physical things as well: materials you can build with. We can’t wait to try out Stick-lets, flexible, stretchy silicone connectors made in a variety of configuerations. (They’re meant for kids, but when did that ever stop us?) You…
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(Video link here.) In a recent post at the Houdini File, David Saltman rounded up a huge trove of formal public challenges to magician/escape artist extraordinaire Harry Houdini, inviting him to escape from all manner of restraints, one more complex and seemingly-impossible than the next. According to Saltman, Houdini accepted every single challenge issued: “every…
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Architects SMLXL Studio seems to have a real THING for shipping pallets, which they’ve used all through a tiny two story apartment in Prague. In many cases, it seems they took they pallets apart and reconfigured their components: thick blocks and slats to custom make furniture the exact size they wanted. Pallet has clearly become…
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(Video link here.) This slightly rough, illuminating 4-minute TED talk is by Philip Henson, an artist who developed permanent nerve damage that made it impossible for him to make the fine drawings he loved; his hand shaked so much he could only draw squiggly lines. When his neurologist asked “Well, why don’t you just embrace…
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Bradford Evans at Sidesplitter collected wildman-wiseman-truthteller-comedian Louis C.K’s best bits of wisdom from shows, interviews, and appearances. (His ‘everything is so amazing, but nobody is happy’ video on Conan is still the bomb.) Here are our favorites: It seems like the better it gets, the more miserable people become. There’s never a technological advancement where people think,…
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In the small country of Burkina Faso near the border to Ghana, it is common for dwellings to be painted with intricate patterns using colored mud and chalk. The patterns tells stories of the community’s culture. We are amazed at how modern these rustic wall paintings are, and imagine how beautiful they would be adorning…
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Take away the visual clutter (pots, cutting boards, dishtowels) and you can see a wonderfully distressed wall with very cool faucets made from black and copper piping, materials available at many hardware and plumbing supply stores. It’s a variation on the theme of sculptural diy faucets which we love: endless possibilities for configuring the bendable pipe…
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(Video link here.) We don’t remember how we stumbled on this video by Kathleen Hanna, a New York City-based artist best known for her groundbreaking performances in the seminal 90′s punk band, Bikini Kill, and her more recent multimedia group, Le Tigre. She made it to accompany the song Let’s Run. We find it curiously uplifting: a…
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(Video link here.) Recently, while discussing a particuarly stylish Ikea creation, our friend Maria remarked: “I figure Ikea’s stuff is only good for about 5 years.” Suddenly, we flashed on all the discarded particle board Ikea storage units we’d seen on New York City streets. In the long run, Ikea can simply be a waste…
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