|
UnBeige logo by Steven Seighman, as part of our regular design our logo feature
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
generalThursday Nov 20, 2008
Reminder: UnBeige Call for Gift Ideas
Friday Nov 14, 2008
Tips Are Appreciated, Now Anonymous
Thursday Nov 13, 2008
At Energy-Efficient New York Times HQ, They Won't Leave the Light on for You
"We designed our building to use 1.28 Watts per square foot of lighting power. With Quantum, it's using only 0.38," said Glenn Hughes, director of construction for The New York Times Company during the design, installation, and commissioning of the building, in a press release issued by Lutron. "The energy usage savings is stunning." The system works by setting the appropriate target light level for each space, automatically dimming electric lights when enough daylight is present, and turning lights off when space is vacant. It's estimated that the savings in lighting energy usage will mean an annual savings of about $315,000 for the Times Company—a sum equivalent to the price of 78,750 copies of the Sunday paper. Click "continued..." for a look inside the building, although be warned that the photos will make your office jealous. Wednesday Nov 12, 2008
UnBeige Holiday Gift Guide: Call for Ideas
Wednesday Nov 05, 2008
Wanted: Your Design News
We're just an e-mail away at unbeige AT mediabistro DOT com. Friday Oct 31, 2008
UnBeige's Top Five Design-Minded Halloween Costumes
It's here. That day when you can dress up like anything you want, scare little children, and demand candy from strangers—all with festive impunity. That's right, it's late funnyman John Candy's birthday! He would have been 58 today. Coincidentally, it's also Halloween (observe today's spoooooky Google homepage graphic). You know that Team UnBeige is going as Charles and Ray Eames (although we won't get very far trick-or-treating, as chairs are a key element of our costumes), but we thought we'd give you, our loyal and perhaps still costumeless readers, a few ideas for quick, easy, and design-minded getups for this All Hallow's Eve:
4. The Chanel Mobile Art Pavilion. Swathe yourself in shiny yet reptilian white plastic and carry a Chanel handbag. Don't stay anywhere for very long. Zaha Hadid-designed shoes and Karl Lagerfeld teddy bear optional. Monday Jul 21, 2008
Alfred Gescheidt on Satire's Return(s)
The publisher received an official White House letter from Ronald Reagan's lawyer, warning him that many considered it the ultimate in bad taste. Yet Mrs. Reagan herself said on TV that she would never wear a crown because it would only mess up her hair. My federal income tax was audited for three consecutive years. Monday Jul 14, 2008
Happy Bastille Day from UnBeigeWe're feeling a little queasy here at UnBeige headquarters, having spent much of the day chasing down Nutella-smeared baguettes and flaky delicacies from nearby Payard with too many flutes of Moët & Chandon. And so, while we retire to our Pierre Paulin-designed Mushroom chairs to enjoy a screening of Le Ballon Rouge, we offer you Paul Tedeschi's charming tribute to a wiser choice of festive beverages on this Bastille Day: Orangina. "Back in the stone age of web-based animation, oh, maybe five years ago, I put this together to entertain my clients at Snapple," noted Tedeschi last fall when posting the below video to YouTube. "I set it to the Canadian nation anthem because, frankly, the French one isn't all that funny." For further proof of Tedeschi's anthemic assertion, we point you to Jean Renoir's 1938 film La Marseillaise, which only becomes funny after the aforementioned quantity of champagne. A votre santé! Friday Apr 18, 2008
Diana Lind's Brooklyn Q&A-a-Palooza
As we mentioned the other day, author and architecture/design/city planning expert, Diana Lind, is finally answering questions sent in to the NY Times about all things Brooklyn-related. And it looks like she's out to not disappoint a single person, as she's answered, in two parts, a bazillion of the submitted questions, from the obvious stuff about the controversial Atlantic Yards project to the more hypothetical, such as how all of the ubiquitous new housing construction will be viewed in the future (as oft-putting as it is today? or will people slowly get used to it once it starts to get some years on it?). Even if you don't care a lick about Brooklyn, there's some great discussion therein and you'd apt to get something out of it no matter where you live, even here in fly-over country. Here's a pick about how big and tall Brooklyn might get: At the moment, the tallest building in Brooklyn is the Williamsburgh Savings Bank, a k a One Hanson Place. The tallest structure in the Atlantic Yards project, called Miss Brooklyn, will rise 511 feet -- one foot shorter than the bank. Because the project's developer, Forest City Ratner, has yet to identify an anchor tenant for the building and rumors have circulated about the project's lack of financing, I'm not convinced Miss Brooklyn will be built at such an enormous size. She was originally designed to be 620 feet tall -- she might shrink even farther. And if that isn't enough for you, the site promises a third and final installment of Q&A sometime later today. Monday Mar 31, 2008
With Babies Vs. Design, Babies Will Always Win
Surely inspired by this story in the NY Times a month or so back, "Parent Shock: Children Are Not Decor," The Independent just published this piece yesterday, "My New Baby Is Destroying My Perfect Designer Home." It's simply a series of entries by a self-professed "design-freak-turned-new-mother," wherein she complains about how her new child isn't doing its part in keeping her fancy, well-designed home as pretty as possible. While it's very simple to cast judgement on the people in both stories (the ones in the NY Times piece get off a little easier), reading each with a perpetual "tsk-tsk-tsk" emanating from your mouth, we somewhat understand that that has to be an incredibly difficult transition when your baby first comes home. But christ almighty, why would you ever agree to do a piece in a major newspaper about it?! No matter how positive the light they cast you in, there is absolutely no way to come out of something like this looking anything less than a heartless, materialistic jerk. Case in point: December 2007: The black high chair has arrived. It is beautiful. The baby is beautiful. The baby looks beautiful in it. More importantly, the room still looks beautiful. See?! We're sure she's a perfectly nice, capable mother, but gah, that quote! And that's just one of many! So please, let this be a lesson to you design-obsessed, expecting parents, especially those of you who live in fancy houses: if you catch a reporter sniffing around, chase them off or call the police. You don't need everyone who reads the newspaper hating you. PreviouslyPing Gets Into Workspace Voyeurism Happy Alissa Walker Tribute Day! Happy Thanksgiving from UnBeige Celebrities, Design and Magazine Ads Don't Mix The EPI's Brown and a World of Poorly Designed Cities and Their Traffic Jams Madrid's Subway A Mess, The People Blame Rafa Sanudo Design for Everyone and Accessibility for All Just Two More Year End Reviews and Then That's It... Half Robot, Half Passport, All Cop...Wait. What? Doing the Numbers: Designers' Earnings Across the World The Web Elite, Sittin' Round the Fire, Talking Shop A Round Thing Full of Air By Any Ol' Name Even Now We Can Feel You Reading These Very Words What We'll Look Back In 2024 and Regret They Said It, Not Us. But "Fair" Seems A Little Harsh... Don't Worry, We Don't Make Any Money Either The New York Times is Such a Spoilsport Google=Rich & Cute, Frank Lloyd Wright=Dead & Celebrating Will Ze Frank Be My Valentine? Clients Communictions, Lesson 1 More About That Logo (yes, that one) Ettore Sottsass: "Architecture for People" Pantone: We're In the Army Now |
|
||||||||||||||||||||