Greatness

Wall Art

These are high quality, layered die-cut vinyl art editions from some great artists.  Made of gallery quality low-tack vinyl, they can be applied to any flat surface.  Check them out at Bodega.  Cody Hudson is one of my favorites.

Grass Carpet, Part 4

From Seattle: The Seattle Public Library; architecture by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), environmental graphics by Bruce Mau Design

Practical Practice

I can't overemphasize how important it is to make you interior your own.  It can't all come from a store or a magazine.  You need to get your hands dirty.  You can wear little white gloves if you don't like getting your actual hands dirty, but you must put them to work.  I'm inclined to be a little worried about someone who needs gloves, but it's more important that you are taking action and I can't criticize you for that.  If you need the gloves to get going, fine, go for it.  As for where you get those cute little gloves I have no idea, you're on your own there.  Start making things and I will promise not to disparage.  It doesn't matter so much how you get there only that you arrive safely.  I will say one more thing and drop the issue of the gloves for good.  Getting your hands dirty can be a part of the process and if you are afraid of that part you might want to question your levels of commitment and dedication.

Okay, with these images today I want to focus your thoughts on how you can make things (call it art or whatever you like) and those things can be both practical and beautiful.  Things that look good and things that are functional are not exclusive.  Ideally you can make all of your functional things look good.  Doing so will again require work on your part since it's really impossible that all of your functional things can look good straight from the store.  These are two great examples of how you can get started.

First we have a set of books with handmade covers.  This is one of my favorite ideas.  Listen to the books talking to each other.  Notice the typography.  Are they even real books?  It doesn't matter.

I'm sure you're aware that most book covers are lousy.  If you have an area where your books are in view remaking those covers is a almost mandatory in managing your interior.  It's a lot of work and I'll admit that even I haven't gone all the way with this one, but you really don't need to do every book.  Start with one.  Then do another.  Then do another and you'll have three.  And keep going.  You could do one a week.  Or one every other odd numbered day in each odd numbered month.  Here's a tip: focus your attention on the spines- the front and back covers can be blank if the books remain stacked. 

It is possible to get well designed books, in fact, I would advise that you stop buying poorly designed books and look to buy more well designed books.  Get the ugly ones from the library and buy the cute ones with the intent of displaying them.

Don't forget to get creative with the book stops.  If you live near some trees you can chop one down and have lots of dividers on your shelves and have plenty left over to give as gifts to your tree loving (or hating) friends.  Also think about other uses for that tree before you turn it into 54,000 book stops.

Next up is a bag.  It is of course useful.  I don't think I need to talk in length about how bags can be useful.  What you should notice here is how this bag is hung.  Bags need a place.  It's easy to throw them on a chair or table, which can look good, but not always, and not with every bag.  You need a variety of techniques for dealing with where you put your bags so I've decided to focus on one of the lesser known.  This bag is hung from a nail.  That's all you need.  Put a nail in the wall.  How easy right?  The important part is that it's hung in a way which lets you know to stop and look at it.  It should demand that.  Many bags like attention.  This one certainly does.  Look at it.  Such cachet.  While not the focus of this particular post, you should know that the actual bag is critical.  And I advocate making (or at least altering) the bag yourself.

Everything I've covered here will take practice.  You don't jump ahead to making fantastic things like these examples right away.  What you need to do first is slowly begin to change your thinking.  Here's how I would start.  Rather than immediately assuming things need to be bought ask yourself if you could make them.  For the ugly things (if they are screamingly hideous and you don't use them just throw them out) you already own ask yourself if you could alter them.  As you get started making and altering, work into it slowly.  Don't try to tackle every project and skill at once.  Give each the attention it needs to be learned and executed properly.  As your skills and confidence grow you will quickly be able to personalize almost everything you buy.  Very few people get this far, but it's really not too difficult once you really get started.  Be persistent.  Now put on your gloves and get to work.

Grass Carpet, Part 3

Do-It-Yourself. 

Collections #2

Metacognizant has some words for you about collecting.  "I am convinced that scavenging has the potential to make an unchalleng[ed] modern existence worthwhile... .  A teeming city becomes magical when infused with the potential of a good" find.  "[T]he never stopping tides of humanity present in a big city guarantee good pickings, as all these consumers are constantly doing the buying for you, and then throwing their purchases away."  "[A] scavenger walks around with eyes always open."  If you are collecting you should be scouting alleys, dumpsters, and roadsides daily.  Collect and use whatever you can find.  There is a wide variety of ripe and available goods.  It's harvest time.

More than collecting, slow down and enjoy what's going on around you.  Collecting depends on seeing and awareness.  If you're frustrated with your collecting you're probably forcing it and trying too hard.  First, learn to see and appreciate.  There's always limited space for collecting, so take some time to explore and let the actual collecting come to you in its own time.  There are many possibilities.  The well is never dry.  Think before you fill your garage with junk.

Grass Carpet, Part 2

Can you spot the one thing in this picture that is real?  Do the terms real and fake have meaning anymore?  Why do some people insist on holding on to the real in one case and prefer the fake in another?  Why do we need to classify things as real, fake, fake-authentic, or hyperreal?

I know that no one is asking me (I have this blog precisely because I can ask myself questions and then answer them as if there's real dialogue happening (does that further complicate the issue?)), but I think the real/fake issue is moot.  I don't care for excuses or post-rationalization.

All carpet is all fake right?  I like fake grass carpet.  I also like hyperreal grass carpet, and real grass carpet, and fake-authentic grass carpet.  I guess grass carpet wasn't the best example because it's such an awesome idea that you can't go wrong no matter how it's done.  Take a look at some cats:

Do you like one cat over the other?  You should like #2.  It's unquestionably better.  It would without a doubt trounce Cat #1 in an alley brawl.  Look at the intensity in its eyes.

This post was supposed to be about grass carpet, but it's been a big bowl of nothing with two cats thrown in.  I don't know where I intended to go with it.  If you want some semi-intelligent words about these topics, please visit the links above.  Maybe future parts in this series will shed some light on this scrambled line of thought.  Is that shred of hope enough to bring you back for part 3?  I hope so.  Part 3 might include chocolate chip cookies.  Come back to find out.  Good night phonies.

Grass Carpet, Part 1

From Tokyo: House H by Sou Fujimoto Architects

Excerpt from an interview with Sou Fujimoto:.

 ----

describe your style, like a good friend of yours would describe it.
 ----
I call it 'primitive future'.
a sort of primitive situation that relates to the human 'cave'
habitation but at the same time I like to create something
new for the future.
I recently gave a lecture 'cave or nest', the two embryonic
states of architecture.
a 'nest' is a place for people that is very well prepared,
everything is assembled and very functional, meanwhile
the 'cave' is just a raw space, which people need to explore
and find their own comfort within. this is a situation where
people can use space creatively.
I prefer something like the cave-like-unintentional space.
something that is in between nature and artifact - formless
form.
.

formless form?
 ----
space is relationships and architecture generates various
senses of distances.
I'm very optimistic and see architecture as something
between living together and independently. there are many
degrees of interaction amongst people.
to construct a wall is to bisect a space into 0 and 1, however
a space must have intrinsically many graduations between
0 and 1. I like to create an in-between-space, therefore my
works are very basic (I've designed architecture that is
very simple but looks complex due to its geometric form).

watch this interview for more about caves and nests.

Knots

Today I want to talk about knowledge.  You need book smarts to go with your design skills and you need to be able to use your smarts when talking people up.  Most of this information doesn't have to be important or relevant or even interesting, but you do need it, and you need to be secure in delivering it with conviction.  I hope you aren't asking how this is relevant to design.  If so I'm ordering you to memorize this post.  I'm calling these bits of knowledge "knots" (if you like memory aides half as much as I do you'll appreciate that they both start with the same three letters) because they (the knots) are entanglements along lines of thought and intent and can be used to kink, bunch, splice, yoke, tangle, tie, twist, and twirl situations to your advantage.  There are complicated knots and there are simple knots.  You'll learn the types and appropriateness of each with experience, but today I would like to focus on making your first knot.

I'm going to suggest for your first knot that you start with something semi-obscure.  Your mom and friends shouldn't know much (if anything) about it, but it shouldn't be unbelievable or highly laughable either.  It needs to be yours.  Yours no one else's.  A one-man (or woman) show.  This is one area in which you don't want competition.  You need to be an expert.  The expert.  This doesn't mean you need to know a lot (and if you're really good you don't need to know anything), it only means you need to know considerably more than your target or client or friend.  Once you have the gist of your knowledge set you will be free to improvise and invent to meet the situation.  You should now clearly see the advantage of semi-obscurity.  Choose wisely and you won't need to learn much.  When you're the expert anything goes.  If Einstein thought that imagination was more important than knowledge you shouldn't disagree with him.  Set your creativity free.  Isn't this where you want to be anyway?  Don't you want to create and invent and have people trust your vision?  Design is just another version of selling a story.  You are the storyteller.  You are the ringleader, the lion, the trapeze artists (all of them), the magician, and the ticket taker.  Get to know your knot.

Knot selection is critically important.  You don't want your credibility challenged.  Being challenged is always bad.  Even if you are correct or win the challenge you are permanently associated with fallibility.  Your credibility is key.  You can't lose it.  Anyone who is an authority on anything, no matter how obscure, is always in demand and always liked.  You need that prestige as well.  But don't let anyone know you need it.  To them, you must look, act, and talk like you don't care.  Like you could take it or leave it and you don't notice it or know what they're talking about when they mention it.  And they will mention it.  If you're good they will.  And if you're good they'll believe you when you shrug it off.

I'm going to use one of my current pursuits as an example.  I'm fascinated by trees and tree products.  I often use wood, wood grain, and tree imagery in my work so I decided to add some aspect of trees to my vast set of skills.  I decided on Dendrochronology.  Now don't go running off to your local community college or local community college website to see what's available just yet.  Have you heard of Wikipedia?  Of course you have.  Go get your free two-minute education.  And regarding those Wikipedia entries, you can skip lots of those parts.  Some of them get really long and you won't remember most of it anyway.  Now back to Dendrochronology.

More than just a great name, Dendrochronology is the scientific (always impressive) study of tree-rings.  Used for source dating and monitoring climate, ecosystems, glacial movement, water levels, rainfall, wildfires, insect populations, air pollution, and landslides, Dendrochronology is a wide-reaching asset to any knowledge set.

Versatility is a great quality in your first knot.  The other knots can be more specific and obscure, but I would advise you to stay on the safe side with the first one.  With Dendrochronology the usability is clear.  It's almost impossible to not be near a tree or tree product.  That alone makes Dendrochronology omni-relevant.  I know I said before that relevancy doesn't matter, but sometimes I don't think things through, and sometimes I let my cat tell me what I should say, and sometimes I write with one eye on Judge Joe Brown or Dr. Oz., but I will say now (ignoring my cat) that relevancy, while not essential, is helpful in convincing people that you are well-adjusted.  That seems to matter to some people.  I recommend making some effort to appear well-adjusted when around others.  But, with that said, you could also say that relevancy is a relative term.  And you can always invent some sort of lame segue, even after the fact, if you or others feel the need to seem or be in the company of well-adjusted people.

Well, I think that's about as far as I can take you today.  I'll leave you with a few first knot recommendations.  Have fun.

Exposition (literary technique)
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Tetrahedrons
Program music
Noumenon
Dream argument

A Loose Declaration of Intents

It's a great time to be alive kids.  For the next four weeks anyhow.  After that you won't want to be alive quite as much, which isn't to say that you won't want to be alive, because I think you will, just not quite as much.  So pay attention (both of you).  I have some words.

The first post on this blog was without words.  I wanted to let the images set the tone.  I also didn't really know what to say.  I was tentative and didn't know where I was going.  Since that long-ago first post I have been making progress.  I am headed somewhere.  I'm still not sure where it is but I'm pretty sure that it is an actual place and that I'm heading in its general direction (I'm hoping it's not in the Arctic or anywhere colder than Chicago, but will let it take me where it must).

It's true that The Trapezoid Sleeps is still young and naive and will continue to be so for some time.  These are not characteristics I wish to shed.  On the contrary, I will embrace them.  I hope they are with me forever.  I will embrace them because with youngness and naivety come experimentation, rule-breaking, misguidance, imagination, zeal, kittens, comics, pain, revelation, observation, injury, vomiting, Saturdays, discovery, innovation, brilliance, turbulence, fist-fights, instability, irresponsibility, honesty, flight, mummmbling, embarrassment, greatness, strength and inspiration.  Isn't it about time for a bit of those things?  I hope you are nodding in agreement.

Maybe I shouldn't say it, but just thinking about "interiors" bores me.  I want to take them apart.  To get inside and take out the insides of inside.  To knock things down, stomp and destroy, admire the mess, take stock of what's left, mine the rubble, and with patience begin again.  I want to make something new from the pieces.

Things will be happening this month.  It's actually already happening.  Sure, it's the shortest month around and I'm at a serious couple days disadvantage for divulging the maximum amount of wisdom possible, but it won't matter.  It's going to be great.  If you've had enough of my self-proclamations stop reading.  I don't care.  If you don't think I can do it I don't care about that either.  You know why?  Because I only have so much potential for caring and I'm reserving every bit of it for re-envisioning our interior habitats and posting the proceeds.

This is the heart of what I'll be doing for the next month.  I intend to expound and deliver, to prophesy and exclaim.  This blog will be the record of those efforts.  It will live here forever.  It will be your manual for the part of life you spend indoors.  I'm telling you this, in part, as a warning, so that in the darker days (March and April and beyond) you will remember this month of incomparable merit.  Please come back and visit.  Return to The Trapezoid's February archives.  Rediscover and push forward.  Help others push forward.  I don't intend to dwell in gloom (not yet) because we still have a full amazing month ahead, but you need to be fully warned.  Do not get caught up in the inevitable wave of joy of the coming weeks.  It will invariably crash.  I'm telling you that right now.  And for those who think they may be able to ride this wave forever, well, theirs will be the bones we find at the bottom of the ocean many years later on a misguided sunken treasure hunting expedition.  Will those future treasure hunters know how those bones came to be?  No they won't.  And they won't care.  They won't know or care about this design blog either when that time comes, but, they will know, and will be eating the tasty yield of the seeds being sown this month.  Now here's where I need you.  You are the ground.  Don't be rocky or sandy.  Don't let anyone come along with skull and crossbones labeled bottles spilling the contents all over you.  Wrap these seeds in warmth and wetness.  Fill yourself with nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.  Keep it loose and airy.  And please be happy.  Don't be those bones.  Don't even think about those bones anymore.  Be the soil.  This moment is the eve of each Christmas, Halloween and birthday you've ever had, attended, or will have or will attend all wrapped together and stretched out into one full month of celebration.  You should wake up excited and eager to bathe in the warm viscous slightly-salty substance that is the zephyr of design nourishment.  You know where to find it.

It's February 2010.  The greatest month ever to live indoors.

Mastery

Rally time.  Here's what you need.

Pots.  Soil.  Plants.  Put all of that together and do it as many times as possible.  We'll get into plants a lot more in future days, but for now all you need to know is that you need them.  It's hard to go wrong with plants, but stick with me and drink lots of green tea and you'll get better.

Crates and bottles.  Find some.  You might find them in an alley, but you still need to be selective.  Color is important.  Don't overdo it.  Most of the best skills can't be appreciated by the novice.  Subtlety is one of those skills.  Hand-cutting stone is another, but don't try to tackle everything at once.

A framed picture of your favorite uncle.  He doesn't have to be your favorite uncle, or an uncle at all, but it should be a guy.  And he should be bald.  As seen here, the bald area controls the textural score, and through its contrast and placement holds the arrangement together.  This piece is supremely important.

Light.  Texture.  Stone.  Debris.  An old table.  Some plain fabric.  There's a lot going on here and it's all working.  APPROVED.  Study this one kids.