In media res
A dispatch from the middle of so many design things
A few weeks ago, during the ultramarathon that is New York “design week month,” I had the pleasure of joining LinYee Yuan, David Michon of FOR_SCALE, and Jean and Madeleine from Colony design gallery for a panel at the newly minted Shelter fair. And that panel—discussing the future of design media—has been a jumper cable to many of my IRL conversations since then. I shan’t summarize, but am happy to continue that discussion privately or in public anytime!
A quick note on Shelter: love the building, love the natural light, love the impetus to make design more accessible (and appeal to a certain cross-section of younger cultural consumers, you know who you are), and loved a lot of the exhibitors. However, if you’re disrupting the design fair model, I think we can do more with all that floor space than individual trade show booths, no? I’d love to see something more unexpected, something more collaborative, something altogether different.
It’s also boring to malign the Javits Center (longtime home to ICFF) as much as people do—I personally thank god for that FXFOWLE renovation every time I schlep over there. The half-billion-dollar curtain wall system with high-performance, bird-safe glass? Don’t hate it! And perhaps trade show floors are depressing, but it is possible to design a great booth—Molo did it this year by coiling around the interior architecture and working with the show floor’s flat gray color palette.
Last but certainly not least, the launch of Herman Miller’s New Mexico Collection, an homage to the friendship among Georgia O’Keeffe, Alexander Girard, and the Eameses. This was one of the last huge projects I worked on at Herman Miller and it was… it must be said… epic. Mega thanks to buds at T List and Blackbird Spyplane for doing the story justice.
Printed matter
For the 10th anniversary edition of AN Interior, a grip of thinkers, writers and curators were asked to respond to the prompt What—and how—should we be looking at when we view design?
Alongside Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Carson Chan, Dung Ngo, Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, Elizabeth Goodspeed, Sami Reiss, and many others, including photographers like my fave Daniel Everett), here’s how I weighed in:
George Nelson famously said that design is a response to social change. There are many ways to interpret—and misinterpret—that maxim, but it’s indisputable that the world we design through cities, buildings, interiors, and objects either mirrors or rejects the prevalent culture. I would identify our present, collective need as one that responds to tech dominance, a phenomenon most of us are familiar with, from phone addiction to AI fears to screens, everywhere you look. What we, the people, need from design today is experiential, tactile, and better in person than viewed in a grid of rearranging pixels.
One example of the desire for experiential design is the exploding interest in sauna-building. Mark my words, everyone you know either wants access to a sauna, has built one, or is researching how to do it. Saunas, to me, connect two prevalent cultural moods: this desire to get offline and to live in the world with a rising awareness around health and well-being.
Building a structure isn’t the only move toward the experiential. The notion takes shape through a burgeoning consumer interest in natural, renewable materials over synthetics, valuing fabrics that translate best through touch. I see it in a small but growing coverage area in design media that highlights collecting antiques, vintage, and secondhand—objects with patina—over traditional retail shopping. The feeling is also in the ether (and, contrarily, in our digital landscape) vis-à-vis interior photography that captures mess, weird angles, and lamp cords.
Odds and ends
This story—about a revived textile mill in Connecticut, reported by Stephen Kurutz—has taken up permanent residence in my brain. (Read it twice through and immediately texted it to ten people.) The Loro Piana of it all! The Sisyphean belief that manufacturing matters in America! His conclusion that in that in our present age, durability is “luxury.” This quote!
“The low point — and this was a low point — came in 2017 at a trade show in Chicago,” he said. “A suit manufacturer looked at me and said: ‘Jacob, you know what we need from you? We need an Italian-designed cloth offered at a Chinese price point, but made in America.”
Kaitlin Phillips noted the above, along with a Financial Times profile on the last Irish linen beetler in the world, in a dispatch on threatened craft. Beetled linen is an absurdly beautiful, out-of-time material… and if I were shopping at Kindred of Ireland I’d go for one of the coats.
Alexandra Lange’s recent Pulitzer win!! I’ve had the honor of working with Alexandra for nearly 15 years, from Dwell to Curbed—where she was the official architecture critic—to Herman Miller. She’s pioneered the design/cities/family beat in modern media and I am beyond thrilled to see her critical contributions recognized, for a series she did at Bloomberg City Lab for editor Kriston Capps. (Kriston: drinks on me, the next time I see you.)
Be still, my heart: Massimo de Carlo gallery published a book on Lily Stockman’s exceptional Minotaur series, originally shown at Fondation Le Corbusier Maison La Roche. Fun fact about Lily is that she learned to paint in another Corbu building, the Carpenter Center at Harvard, so the story comes full circle.
My review of The Room Next Door: Much reclining, great lipstick, excellent pairing of green and red throughout. Watched the latest Almodóvar film on a plane, sound off: clearly not for the plot or dialogue but for the colors. Also why isn’t anyone blogging specific costume credits? (These are the best I’ve found, but I want more.) Film and furniture: future issue?!
I’ve been hearing about all the slashed arts funding from museum friends and other non-profit folks (even the Shaker Museum has lost its NEA funding…). Sounds like there are other plans afoot for that budget. I know you know, but this is propaganda pure and simple.
Speaking of Shakers: Vitra worked with the museum as well as the ICA in Philly and the Milwaukee Art Museum to open an exhibition exploring the influence of the 18th-century American sect on the world of design.
OK SORRY, one last Shaker thing. Did you know there’s a musical on the life of Mother Ann Lee coming out this year? And it’s (loosely) connected to the production of The Brutalist?
A most precious artifact housed at the Shaker Museum at Mt. Lebanon. This is an 18th-century linen apron remnant believed to have belonged to Ann Lee—later embroidered by Shaker girls and saved as a relic. Astute pal Emily Keegin (AKA “the internet’s favorite photo director”) weighed in on all that gilded nonsense in the White House.
Is this the year of Mark Twain? If recent magazine pieces by two of America’s foremost essayists count toward that notion, yes: John Jeremiah Sullivan for Harper’s and Caity Weaver in The Atlantic.
How to DIY “art that eats an entire wall for breakfast.”
I’m doing a fun thing with my friends at Alex Mill: a summer design series highlighting useful, everyday objects with outsize significance. Follow along here.
PSA! I am planning a full month of SAUNA content for October, featuring some special guests, buckets of design inspiration, and a plunge into the practical info you need to know. Pertinent questions, project submissions, or sponsorship queries… you know what to do:
PS. I am unlocking access to some of my older stories for a limited time. If you like what you’re reading, please consider a paid subscription:
Knock knock, who's there?
Someone told me this week that she’s “burnt out on opinions,” which I found to be a pretty relatable assessment. With that in mind, here’s a service-y thing I’ve been saving up—inspired by my own research into non-Neutra house numbers and an entreaty to the Instacrowd* to send me their own best sources.
Quonset quorum
Everyone has a house they’re obsessed with. This phenomenon is very much not limited to architecture people, or design writers, or erstwhile shelter magazine types— it is simply a statement of fact. It might be a derelict house under a blanket of ivy in an otherwise-manicured neighborhood, or one of the 20th century’s masterpieces of domestic architectu…
Aluminum, plywood, tile, and erstwhile media empires
Oaxaca. Teased in my last newsletter missive and glancingly referenced in Instagram Stories: If you’re going to buy a rug in Teotitlan de Valle, spend a lot of time with the person who makes it. If you’re going to tile a whole bathroom, incorporate the