Turn Color into Poetry

Color is playful! Color is fun! Color is profound? Paint manufacturers all offer infinite color on demand in a mostly commodity item, but each as found a creative way to engage those that arrive at their website. This is Benjamin Moore's entry into the paint wars, and it is charming for the wordsmiths among us. Turn one of the selected words into your favorite color and leave your thoughts on the word and color combination behind for posterity. Consumer engagement at its best.

More Defined Edges/ Brand Denmark Shanghai 2010

The Danish architectural firm 3XN has designed another "defined edge" building for Brand Denmark at the Shanghai Expo 2010. The shape and colors are that of a folded Danish flag. No information is available on the exterior skin that the architects specified.

Paolo Soleri turns 90

This slide show is my favorite tribute to Paolo Soleri, whose 90th birthday will be celebrated at Arcosanti this year. It is fitting that his birthday falls on the Solstice, as he truly designed for and lived sustainably long before Al Gore started his "creative" endeavors. The website at Arcosanti explains how he lived with the land at both Arcosanti and Cosanti, his homes in Arizona.

And who says that youtube is only for youngsters? Some, like the creator of this particular youtube slide show are contemporaries of Soleri and definitely young at heart.

Why hasn't someone thought of this before?

These charming hand-knotted stair treads with coordinating runners by Liza Phillips Design are both clever and beautiful, and from my perspective - the most unique product at this year's ICFF. Every stair has a separate color and design to be arranged at will, and Liza Phillips artistic sensibility is apparent in each design and natural colorway. These exquisitely colored rugs are hand-spun and pot dyed in Tibet. Another collection is hand-tufted in India of New Zealand wool in undyed natural tones. Both collections are made without child labor.

The New Defined Edge

In the new era of frugality, creativity will appear in new guises...not that the Libeskind pre-fab house on the right is frugal.(The house is energy-efficient, manufactured in Germany and can be shipped anywhere in the world for $2.8-4.2M.)

It is the new "edge" aesthetic that is more in tune with the times than all those swooping curves and undulations that we have seen recently in both architecture and furniture. Exemplifying simplicity in the best sense of the word, the exquisite table with eased edges on the right is called "gorge" and is made from a single piece of powder-coated steel. Designed by Korean designer Ramei Keum, it is - at once elegant and child-like.

Long Live Crayola

TheDieline, which bills itself as the #1 packaging design website, features a story of the history of Crayola's packaging. I guess that I am not alone with my obsession over my boxes of Crayola's, is it nostalgia or just simply great branding over the continued lifetime of a product? Since Hallmark purchased the company, they have great presence on mass merchandisher shelves.

Barbie love/ "Mangenta" love?

If creativity is putting disparate ideas together, then Chloe Ruchon has hit the jackpot with "Barbie foot at the DMY Berlin Design Festival 09 . Yes, Barbie has returned to her German roots. Designboom has even more images and sees deep meaning here, but I will leave that up to each reader. We know that there is nothing more dear to European men's heart than Soccer. Then does Europe's "mangenta" love (or pepto bismal pink love) simply infer Barbie love?

The indoor "babyfoot bonzini" game is available in a wide range of aesthetics including custom themes.

America's Innovation shortfall...Can it be?

I see this as only about 5% of the problem. Actually a bigger problem related to this is that the labor force can't keep up with the innovations that exist already. All the ads notwithstanding, one need only read all the complaints about dealing with and living with today's technology. Often we find it is just not worth the hassle until companies get their technology foolproof. Help desks, no matter in which country they answer the phone, are less helpful every day that goes by.

A recent article in the The Atlantic (May 2009) The Quiet Coup , IMHO represents 80%, if not 100% of today's reality. The article suggests that we are on our way to becoming a banana republic. The causes of the downturn presented in this article by Simon Johnson, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund during 2007 and 2008, give more insight into the seeds of the recent downturn in our economy than the simple explanation in the Businessweek video.

Barbie parties in Milan

Here Barbie is all washed up, but in Milan at the Kartell showroom she is still hot stuff.

Man Space continues to take on more importance

I recently discovered The Smart Set, an independent online magazine generously supported by Drexel University."The Smart Set is published for people who enjoy reading, and enjoy thinking about what they read. The Smart Set feels that what unites its readers is their intellectual curiosity, and this cuts across age, gender, income, and education level."

I have found quite a few amusing pieces to contemplate there. This week there is a piece called "A Room of one's Own" about those all-important man spaces that have found their way into our homes and culture. This is a trend that will continue to grow despite the current economic climate.

I wish that I were half as clever as Paula Marantz Cohen, who writes regularly. My favorite piece is her take on the International Contemporary Furniture Fair: "Perused Furniture." While I never miss this show, as it is important from a trend perspective, I have often had some of the irreverent thoughts that she expresses so well. At this year's ICFF, I though about her article as I gingerly dropped myself into a clever looking chair - with trepidation and instant regret. How the hell was I going to get out of this thing? Getting out turned out to be about as attractive a proposition as my trying to get on a horse. Definitely not a pretty sight!