consume

Buy design. Goods for sale at the new online home of the Shop at Cooper-Hewittt.

Whether you’re in the market for a hollowed-out half dollar, a megaphone-shaped iPhone speaker, a “living necklace,” a magazine designed to double as stunning wrapping paper, or a silicone-filled ostrich egg (Father’s Day gift alert!), the new Shop at Cooper-Hewitt has something for you. With its physical home in the throes of a $64 million renovation, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum is expanding into new realms, from Governor’s Island (where on Saturday, it will open the highly anticipated “Graphic Design—Now in Production” exhibition) to cyberspace. It’s the digital realm where the museum has relaunched its famously well-curated shop, overseen by newly appointed director of retail Robert Nachman. The Cooper-Hewitt tapped Marque Creative to design the new site, which features seamless checkout, integrated member discounting, and enhanced search capabilities. “A true design destination for online consumers, the Shop offers a selection of works by established and emerging designers that will surprise, delight, and inspire,” said associate director Caroline Baumann in a statement announcing the relaunch. Plus, shop purchases are sales-tax exempt and all proceeds go to support the museum’s educational goals and mission—as if you needed more reasons to splurge on a hand-beaded Hella Jongerius bowl.

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At the Herman Miller pop-up shop, a family of Alexander Girard figures implore visitors to peruse Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee’s mega-monograph on the designer. At right, an Eames lounge and ottoman with pedestal tables and an asterisk clock designed by George Nelson. (Photos: UnBeige)

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair doesn’t kick off until next Saturday, but Herman Miller is getting a jump on New York design week with a pop-up shop in Soho. The 6,000-square-foot showroom, open to the public through July 1, is arranged as a series of vignettes sprinkled with whimsical objects and designer-friendly books as well as art from Portland’s PDX gallery. It’s also the first place to see the Herman Miller Collection, a mix of classic pieces (Eames chairs, Noguchi tables, George Nelson‘s enduringly endearing Marshmallow sofa) and the work of contemporary designers such as Konstantin Grcic, Jasper Morrison, and Naoto Fukasawa. The portfolio of freestanding furniture for home and office is a revival of sorts. Ben Watson, executive creative director of Herman Miller, looked to heed Nelson’s 1948 call for “the continuing creation of a permanent collection designed to meet the requirements for modern living.” And so Ward Bennett credenzas mix with Stefano Giovannoni‘s swooping Paso Doble chairs, and BassamFellows’ elegant Tuxedo sofas cozy up to Nelson’s own mod tables. Watson has lined up future Collection pieces from the likes of Leon Ransmeier and Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck.

Wooden bears by David Weeks prowl a table of books and accessories. At right, Grcic’s new Medici chair, produced by Mattiazzi, has a mod Adirondack vibe.

A rainbow of Eames molded plastic chairs around a Nelson X-Leg table.
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Did you get your hands on a bottle of that coral-infused red polish that became a must-have accessory for designing women? Achieve a pedicure that pops thanks to Cato Pink? These trendy shades aren’t the latest creations of Chanel’s Peter Philips but part of a popular series of upholstery-themed nail colors from…KnollTextiles. Founded in 1947 by Florence Knoll (née Schust), the company prides itself on creating fabrics that “combine beauty and function in the Modernist tradition” and recently was the subject of a color-soaked (and widely lauded) exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. What began as a one-off holiday marketing move—the December 2010 introduction of Knoll Red nail polish—quickly gained traction in the design community. Soon Facebook fans were begging for limited-edition bottles of the company’s signature orangey red, and the polish even inspired a tablescape at DIFFA’s 2011 Dining by Design benefit gala. KnollTextiles wasted no time in debuting a second hue: a bright pink tribute to its beloved Cato fabric, which turned 50 last year. Its latest lacquer is Tryst, a pewter-toned polish that celebrates the unique polyurethane upholstery of the same name (pictured above, in the icicle colorway). Designed by Dorothy Cosonas, the elegant horizontal stripe has already attracted some discerning fans: earlier this year, the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum acquired the textile for its permanent collection.

Three cheers for 22 vintage megaphones, which go on the block tomorrow at Wright in Chicago.

You don’t hear much about megaphone collecting. A cruel irony at a time when the world needs a bit of the old-fashioned boosterism that comes from holding a large cone to one’s mouth and yelling “Go Team!” Those that grimace at the sight of foam fingers (vulgar, shoddily made, soundless) won’t want to miss the rare opportunity to acquire an instant collection of megaphones that goes on the block tomorrow at Chicago’s Wright auction house as part of its Living Contemporary sale. Estimated to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000, the lot of 22 vintage bullhorns includes several handsome models designed to cheer on various mid-century squads of Spiders, Indians, and Macon Whoopies (“Georgia’s Finest”). The names of their original owners—Diane, Susan, Joan, Nancy, Lucy—are preserved in an interesting range of typefaces, while a wee brown one reads “Die Schnitzel Bunk Jug Band.” Set for speaking-trumpets? Cheer yourself with a few of the other offerings from tomorrow’s sale: Paco Rabanne space curtains, a delightful dozen of Dorothy Draper chairs, or a set of “Inflammatory Essays” by Jenny Holzer, who we suspect enjoys a good megaphone.

Call a somnambulance. The multimedia goodness of the Sleepwalkers box.

Doug Aitken is up to his old tricks: enveloping museums in high-definition video projections that illuminate their facades and mesmerize passersby, which in the case of his latest project may include President Obama. The Los Angeles-based artist has transformed the National Mall’s Gordon Bunshaft-designed concrete donut (also known as the Hirshhorn) into a 360-degree convex-screen cinema aglow nightly through May 13 with his “SONG 1.” Meanwhile, the Seattle Art Museum recently commissioned Aitken to wrap a corner—the northwest, bien sûr—of its downtown HQ in a jumbo LED display that will debut early next year. The months between these Washingtonian works provide ample time to savor the Sleepwalkers box, an ultra-covetable multimedia remix of the public artwork that took New York by nocturnal storm in 2007.

Part deluxe commemorative edition, part DIY-spirited artist’s book, the Sleepwalkers box is a bold collaboration between Aitken, the Princeton Architectural Press, and DFA Records. The perforated cardboard cover reveals and conceals a fold-out poster of scenes from the five urban narratives (starring the likes of Donald Sutherland, Tilda Swinton, and Chan Marshall, better known as Cat Power) that were projected onto the exterior of the Museum of Modern Art. Set that aside to discover a turntable-ready vinyl “picture disc,” which the strong-willed will manage to avoid framing as an art object. A book of “fragments, markings, and images” from the making of Sleepwalkers includes breathtaking full-bleed images as well as an interview in which Aitken discusses the installation with Jacques Herzog. “Your work needs an ideal architectural conservation to unfold its quality,” advises the architect.
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In the town of Secaucus, New Jersey (which we like because it suggests a high-level meeting about oceans), there is a place where dreams are made—dreams of fully licensed, if slightly scuffed, design classics. We imagine this place to be at all times filled with directionally bespectacled people, many of whom as infants were soothed not by kitschy musical mobiles but by the comforting presence of a George Nelson Ball Clock. This place is the Design Within Reach Outlet, which tomorrow begins a weekend megasale (restocked daily, they assure us). Grab a friend—preferably one with a car or better yet, a capacious private jet—and get there early (doors open at 10 a.m.), because DWR’s 12,000-square-foot discount design wonderland teems with “non-pristine” furnishings discounted up to 75% off retail price. As for carting that dinged Saarinen table home, you can arrange for delivery. DWR advises you to bring a tape measure and an open mind.

Serkan Ozkaya’s “Radisson/Picasso,” a “manipulated ready-made.”

Serkan Ozkaya has made a chair from 15 sticks of spaghetti, lobbied the Louvre (unsuccessfully) to turn the Mona Lisa on its head for a few days, and created hand-drawn replicas of major newspapers. With the help of a 3D rendering program, the Turkish artist made a supersize golden version of Michelangelo’s David for the Istanbul Biennial in 2005, although the 30-foot-tall statue proved impossible to install and ended up shattering into pieces before the exhibition opened. No such tragedy is likely to befall his pocket-size “Radisson/Picasso” (above), a pair of manipulated matchboxes that is among the lots on offer in Storefront for Art and Architecture’s benefit auction. Also up for online bidding in advance of Thursday evening’s NYC soirée honoring Barbara Kruger and Bernard Tschumi are works by the likes of Louis Kahn, James Welling, Vito Acconci, and Robert Venturi, who with Denise Brown contributed a jazzy sketch of a McDonald’s.

(Photo: Wright)

“They communicate fast. And with style and wit,” noted the circa-1965 promotional copy for Howard Miller’s Pronto Posters, designed by the George Nelson & Associates team of Bill Cannan, Lance Wyman, and Irving Harper. Screenprinted onto sturdy masonite(“treated so as to stay new-looking and be used and re-used for years”), the set of 24 placards tackled a range of freshly minted workplace safety regulations and best practices, from the strategically bandaged figures of “Wear Your Helmet” and “Use Your Safety Guards” to pseudocharred “Flammable” and “Think,” in which our magenta man has forgotten his pants. An original trio of Pronto Posters (pictured) is among a stellar line-up of Nelsonian lots—don’t even get us started on the 1954-55 Carousel Weather Vane (so Crying of Lot 49!)—that will go on the block at Wright’s Modern Design sale on March 29. “They add flair and humor to the surroundings, improve morale, reduce accidents, and aid efficiency,” promised Miller. At an estimated price of $1,500 to $2,000 for the set of three, how you can afford not to buy them?

All is well at Knoll. The mod furnishings company powered through 2011, picking up a Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award along the way to a 14% year-over-year increase in net sales, to $922.2 million. With an eye to further expanding its high-margin, high-design “Specialty” business, Knoll recently announced a pair of acquisitions. The company has purchased Boston-based FilzFelt, the go-to source for German-milled wool design and craft felt. Founders Kelly Smith and Traci Roloff will continue in their executive roles at FilzFelt. Also joining the Knoll family is Richard Schultz Design. “Richard Schultz began his career as a designer with Knoll and co-founded his company with his son Peter in 1992,” noted Knoll CEO Andrew Cogan in a statement announcing the deal. “Together, they have built an international reputation for exploring new materials and forms for outdoor furniture.” Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. In other Knoll news, the Cooper-Hewitt has added five KnollTextiles upholstery fabrics and two wallcoverings to its permanent collection. They include designs by Abbott Miller, Proenza Schouler, and Dorothy Cosonas, creative director of KnollTextiles. All of this Knoll talk making you crave Bertoia chairs and Risom stools? Good news: the Knoll Classics Sale is now on. Peruse discounted goods through Saturday at the NYC Knoll showroom (76 Ninth Avenue) or click over to Design Within Reach, where the sale runs through Sunday.

(Photos: UnBeige)

Hallucinations are par for the course at the Javits Center, particularly during the biannual New York International Gift Fair (NYIGF, to those in the know), during which the cavernous space is chock full of innovative gizmos, colorful homegoods, and enough “accent pieces” to sink an ably-piloted Italian cruise ship. And so when, shortly after selecting the Chick-a-Dee smoke detector as our pick for a Bloggers’ Choice Award earlier this month, we spied Queen Elizabeth II clutching her handbag and waving regally to passersby, we chalked it up to good ‘ol gift show burnout. But this was no monarch mirage! Kikkerland Design convinced the Queen to get a headstart on her Diamond Jubilee festivities with an appearance at their NYIGF booth, where she helped to promote a new limited-edition version of the company’s “Solar Queen.” Designed by Chris Collicot, the grinning figurine waves daintily when placed in sunlight, and the Jubilee edition is tricked out with a brooch and a crown. Meanwhile, Collicot promises that the Queen will soon have a companion in Elroy the Solar Corgi.