OFF TO MILANO FOR SALONE 2011

Harry Allen Design is saving all of its Spring launches for the ICFF in May, but I am off to the Salone del Mobile. Its always interesting, and lots of friends are showing, so look forward to some blog coverage.

Beastly Things

New York Spaces was all animals this month.

We love being featured in the same issue as our Areaware pals Salvor Studio.

Twin Reality

When I started my REALITY line in 2004, I took the name from the burgeoning entertainment genre, "Reality TV."



Survivor and American Idol were just coming into their own and I saw a correlation between what the TV executives were doing, deriving entertainment from real-life situation, and what I was doing, borrowing form for products from real-life. The name REALITY was tongue-in-cheek, but as both mediums have thrived I now get weekly alerts from friends and family as my REALITY products appear on reality programs. Some have already been posted, but together they are quite an impressive list of REALITY on reality spottings:

1) My friend Benjamin Budde spotted a blue Pickup on the set of Andy Cohen's Watch What Happens Live.

2) Bank in the Form of a Pig was spotted by a reader named Pat on the bookshelf of one of the Realtors (Josh Altman) on Bravo's Million Dollar Listing.

3) My friend Rune spotted a Pickup on Million Dollar Listing too - in the "schmuck's office."

4) I spotted the gold Banana Bowl on RuPaul's Drag Race.

5) And Rune skyped me again last night with the news that he spotted a Skate Stop on The Real Housewives of Miami.

All I have to say is "Rune, you are watching too much reality tv," (but to his credit he also spotted the pig in Italian Vogue) AND I am amazed at how these two reality genres have found themselves like lost twins.

Gift of Greed

Check out the gift ideas inspired by the Seven Deadly Sins in the LA Times blog. Saving a little here and there always adds up.

Swimming in Tokyo

Last weekend in VT I was shopping for season end skiwear bargains at the Burton store in Burlington. John spotted this bathing suit on the rack at the Burton store - board shorts with an image of Tokyo printed on them.



I loved them so much I paid retail.

OINK

Bank in the Form of a Pig, my previous piggy bank effort, is very conceptual, but for Steuben I just wanted to capitalize on what Steuben does best - hand made glass.

I found myself working in a whole new vocabulary - dollops of glass for ears, lumps for the rump, and a twist for a tail. My basset hounds inspired the gesture, they have the same basic proportions as a pig.

The only innovation here is that rather than a standing glass pig, with a slot, I sat this pig down, and gave him a big mouth. That is where the money goes in, and when it is capped the stopper has nostrils. Admittedly, it is not my most modern design, but you must agree, he is very cute and very Steuben.

We've designed a whole suite of "change management" objects for Steuben that will be launching in the coming months. All very different designs. Stay tuned.

Thinking Big in Brooklyn

Spring 2010 is a perfect time to visit Brooklyn.

Three of our designs, the Kila Lamp, Rubber Lamp, and Clamp Table are being shown in a temporary exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum called Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions on view until May 29th, and you can celebrate the month long Cherry Blossom season next door at the Botanic Garden (April 2 - May 1).

Slow Plastic Reward

This has been my week of putting in time. First Wagner's Das Rheingold on Wednesday night. Opera rewards, but only after you endure the claustrophobia, uncomfortable seats, lack of intermission, and brief head nod about half way through. In the end the music is epic, you feel like you have made a journey, and you emerge inspired. Then on Thursday I headed off to Permanent Change: Plastics in Architecture and Engineering, a conference on all things plastic at Columbia University - another slow burn - but equally inspirational.

First of all, the conference is free. And then they gave out the best gift I have ever received in a gift bag ... a mini architectural scale, already very useful, but this one is made from recycled plastic from the Gates project in central park! It was love at first ponder. The recycled billboard laptop bag is very nice too.

The roster of speakers includes architects, engineers, scientists and historians. I missed most of the famous speakers - Greg Lynn on Wednesday night (I met him yesterday), Michael Graves last night, and I will miss Paola Antonelli today - but honestly, I know their work - the less-famous speakers are where the information is. The only issue is that there is not enough time and too many great ideas.

I'm heading back this morning to hear the material scientists speak. My main impetus is to research green alternatives to the resins and RTV products I like so much. Not sure if they exist; I have some leads from yesterday, and the journey has been fun.

Das Rheingold

I saw Das Rheingold at the Met last night. I've always wanted to "do the Ring Cycle" and now I am a quarter of the way there.

I love the Metropolitan Opera. They keep threatening to tear it down, and someone might design a better building, but it is a pretty great modern expression as it is. It is always exciting when the starburst chandeliers go up.

The Robert Lepage sets proved that money in the right hands is money well spent. The production was a little set-heavy, featuring large creaking piano-key-like structures that proved a technical challenge to the performers - but ultimately they stole the show! So minor distractions are all forgiven in the name of new creative vision. Julie Taymor needs to see this.

Only weak link were the costumes - way too traditional for the brave new landscape.

Molto Chic

We are very pleased to see our Bank in the form of a Pig as the main accessory for the cover story in Italian Vogue - photographed by Steven Meisel.

Truck

A friend of mine was watching Andy Cohen's "Watch What Happens Live" and saw our blue Pickup in the background of their set.



Let us know if you see any of our products out there!

HDL

Pipeline recently featured in Israeli magazine HDL.

Canadian Modern

I felt like a traitor diverting our ski trip from Japan to Canada last week, but the news from Japan was just too bad. Mt. Tremblant in Quebec is an easy get away with direct flights from Newark. We stayed at a cute little B&B, Le Gite Roupillon, and enjoyed three days of spring snowboarding.

The design highlight of the trip was the Scandinave Spa.

It is both modern and rustic, and it delivered on the spa therapy with a sauna, various hot and cold pools, a steam room located in the red turret (up on the left in the image), and a very cold river to plunge yourself into!

Love to Japan

John and I were supposed to be skiing in Japan this week, but the tragic events there prevented our travel. My work has brought me to Japan many times, I love the people and the country, and my thoughts go out to them.

A couple of times I hit the cherry blossoms just right. In April 2004 my friends Dara and Sojiro took me to the spa, and on our trip home we crossed a bridge in Tokyo, and this scene unfolded on either side. Hundreds of cherry trees dropping their petals.

That night, I celebrated with a huge group from Idee under the cherry trees in the park. Teruo Kurosaki was there, as well as Casey Lurie and Colleen Murakami. This is not a great pic but it captures the spirit.

My thoughts go out to all of my friends in Japan.

May Spring bring cherry blossoms, renewal, and hope for happier times to come.

New Love

In limbo after our trip to Japan was cancelled, I headed to the New Museum on Saturday with some friends. The building was just fantastic in the sun, and we saw Bette Midler in the galleries.

The highlight was the George Condo show. What a surprise. I did not know the work, and the images I had seen in the press did not do the exhibition justice. All of the creepiness, in context, is very sympathetic. In addition, Condo is a great technician, the drawings are wonderful.

And I love the work of Lynda Benglis, the second exhibition, but the installation was not so great. It could have used more room, and more content.

Texas Talk

On Monday I spoke to students at the University of Texas School of Architecture in Austin.

Despite midterm exams, a good audience showed up.

I stayed at the Hotel San Jose on South Congress Avenue. It was one of the first places in town to undergo a hip transition, as featured in the documentary "The last Days of the San Jose." Its hipness was contagious; a whole neighborhood popped up around it, and helped cement Austin's reputation as a very cool city.

The City is permeated with music. Last night the hotel lobby had a great vibe; locals mixed with guests, and a fantastic guitar player entertained the crowd.

Music posters are used as decoration all over town. The printing business in Austin must be alive and well with the SXSW Festival set to start this weekend. I would have liked to stay.

In like a Lion

March 3 was a good night for design in NYC. My partner in crime, journalist Melissa Feldman, and I headed out into the cold to attend some openings. Our first stop was Suite, the Park Avenue showroom that features a very sophisticated selection of European furnishings. Here is Melissa with owners Kris Fuchs and Maria Sepulveda.

Brian Messana of Messana O'Rourke was in the house.

And then it was off to Moss. My friends Murray and Franklin have long been showing work that crosses the line between art and design. Last night they made a stand, right on the line.

If art is out of bounds, then let it be Arthur. The lighting in the window was a beautiful play on the hanging lamp by young French designer, Christian Haas. If you need a reading lamp, look elsewhere, this one is a beautiful tangle of rope lit within by LEDs. Many of the objects inside straddled the line between art and design with elegant ambiguity.

I ran into Charles Brill, of Rich Brilliant and Willing, whose Bias clock was on display, and also the design czaress of Philadelphia, Lisa Roberts who is filming a TV show called "My Design Life" that will air on the Ovation channel in August. She and I pose here before the work of my favorite arthurist, Massimiliano Adami.

My final stop for the night was at my new favorite restaurant, Heartbreak, on the corner of 2nd and Second, my old stomping ground. I've been watching the space transform for more than a year. The red metal facade is of a quality rarely seen on a NYC restaurant. Heartbreak is a surprising eatery, like one encounters in Europe, where the cool design belies the warm ambiance and food. I love it.

Chef Ingrid serves up her signature Swiss fare. She owned AG Rotelle, the dearly-missed East Village eatery that closed in 2002. She's back and has created something special here. At first I hated the bold signage, but it has grown on me and is destined to be a NYC icon. And just you wait until the summer; that big red facade rolls open. The beautiful details just keep revealing themselves, last night I noticed that the pipes on the ceiling are foiled in bronze, gold, and silver.

The Home Front

On March 17th I attended a design talk called Making It, the second talk in the series Home Front: American Furniture Now, at MAD curated by Dan Rubenstein.

No one cares more about the plight of the independent designer in America than I, and bravo to everyone involved in The Home Front for instigating a dialogue, but the conversation on the 17th was very basic.

I wish these talks well, but I have yet to attend a panel discussion about design that actually forges new ground, or offers real solutions to our predicament here in the USA. I will try to make it to the other talks, to lend support and see if discussions get more interesting, but ultimately I do not think discussing it will change anything.

There are three more presentations in the series at the MAD on Columbus Circle in the cute little theater in the basement (I'm pretty sure its from the original building design).

DRAFTED: The evolving role of architects in furniture design

Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

AFTER CLASS: The first steps of the American designer

Thursday, March 24, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

AMERICAN DESIGN CLUB

Thursday, April 21st, 2011 at 7:00 pm

tickets | more info

Brief to Build

We are very pleased to be included in From Brief to Build, a new book from our friend Jennifer Hudson. The book showcases a wide variety of interiors in a case-study format. For each project it includes sketches, renderings, fabrication shots and images of the completed project. It is a very interesting document, especially the 8 pages detailing the design process behind the Corian Design Studio in Philadelphia.

Spiderman

When theater is great it inspires me. Julie Taymor's work on the Lion King was incredible. She did so much with so little, and that is the magic of the theater. I was excited for her new production of Spiderman so we ordered preview tickets. Even after the early reviews came out I had hopes that the sets would be fun. But 65M doesn't buy creativity, it buys more stuff - more mechanisms and special effects - and they actually get in the way of the storytelling. The take-away from Spiderman ... too much is too much.

The Next Drag Superstar

My gold Banana Bowl has taken a star turn. It was spotted on Monday night amongst the bevy of beauties on RuPaul's Drag Race Untucked! Every queen, real or imagined, should have a gold Banana Bowl in which to keep her fruit, and so it made perfect decoration in the "Gold Bar" where the contestants go after the main show to drink and dish. Bravo/a to RuPaul for bringing drag to the masses, and bringing some REALITY to reality TV.

Pickup Picked Up

Our Pickup for Areaware was nicely featured last weekend in the Wall Street Journal. I named this piece "Pickup" because I like the association between the truck form and the idea of picking things up - as in picking up paper clips and putting them into the Pickup on your desk. It is after all just a fancy dish; the truck bed holds lots of small stuff. This bothered a few people because it is not technically a pickup truck. It is a dump truck, but I cannot bring myself to call it Dump, and Truck lacks poetry, so Pickup it will remain.

Memphis with Murray

Today I had a lunch date with Murray Moss, who wanted to go to "that Memphis restaurant on Lafayette." Where? The Noho Star, of course.

I have been to the Noho Star a few times over the years, but never taken notice of its historic design value. It was in fact completed in 1984 and is pretty Memphis-y, right down to the little laminate hostess stand. It is a time capsule.

Lots of things discussed, including his upcoming Arthur Show on March 3rd.

Lunch with Murray is always fun.

ON MY WAY TO TOKYO FOR A FEW DAYS

Is that a banana?

I love this picture of me holding my Mixed Fruit Bowl.

Just kidding!

Special thanks to photographer Adam Raphael for letting me use this photo of a very handsome guy named Josh holding my Mixed Fruit Bowl. I uploaded it a little bigger than usual so you can see all of the beautiful details.

Gift Show

I ran by the Gift show on Monday to see what was happening. It looked busy, which is a good sign, and all of our products were doing well. Our new silicone pill boxes for Areaware were on prominent display.

And I stopped by to give Gaye Cevikel of Gaia & Gino a hug. She looked wonderful with her new short hair and her new collection is timely - affordable high design.

Dwell

Home featured in this month's Dwell magazine - LDF 2010 ...