burdifelik....

I am completely blown away by the new menswear department in the lower ground floor of brown thomas on grafton street..high street fashion meets high design....

its almost like a nightclub with the cool sleek lines and sharp colours and its undulating curves that seem to flow seemlessly throughout slinky corridors leading into different rooms for suits, highend streetwear and shoes...the fitting rooms are so cool

zaha hadidesque in style almost....

designed by a candadian team diego burdi and paul felik, however as much as i've tried to find anything on them i've come across countless articles and awards listings i've been unable to find their company website or contact details...so if anyone has any info on BurdiFilek Interior Designers please feel free to comment....

accessible design...

i attended a seminar on tuesday night past hosted by the interiors assocaition which focused on parts M and K of the building regs.

its good to keep abreast of these things and current legislations but what i thought was going to be a very dull and boring 2 hours was actually very interesting and i came away with a whole new train of thought on accessible design.

a few thoughts that stuck with me form the seminar are

• its not the building that is disabling its the environment thats disabling
• its not the building that has to be accessible, its the service that has to be accessible

there is however a bit of a conflict there between compliance nad best practice, however i got to thinking there arent enough of us designing for disabled users and creating a wow factor in that design, then again are the products out there for us as designers to create that wow factor...

while we as designers are constantly seeking solutions, design is constantly evolving, as is accessible design. i for one would like to see a big push in this area and feel that the wow factor is certainly accesible in this area of design...

everybody's at it...

a pet peeve of mine and more to come from me on this regarding celebs and their association with just about everything from perfumes and clothing to interiors...i mean what in all seriousness is it all about...i can understand celebrity endorsements and why not...if someone wanted to pay me to wear their jeans i think i'd be doing it...

but celebs and their interior or home furnishing ranges really annoys me but i saw something today that took the sting out of it....

The Perspective Chair is designed by Pharrell Williams in collaboration with furniture designer Domeau & Pérès. The Perspective chair will be shown in Paris at the prestigious Emmanuel Perrotin Galerie from October 21st 2008 until January 10th 2009. The chair isavailable in four colors and only 4 units of each will be sold. 

This is a piece of furniture is a limited edition, and if they’ll sell only 4 pieces just try to imagine the price. 

The inspiration behind the design of the Perspective Chair was the relationship between a man and a woman, and here is what Pharrell has to say about this : “I had often wondered what it’s like to truly be in love, not lust for once.. So I decided not to ask what it was like in someone else’s shoes or what it was like to sit in their seat.. 

I can almost imagine what is happening from the knees up - how rude!

I actually do like Pharells chair - I just got to wondering what inspired Kylies home range for Dunnes Stores....

nice guns...

with the release of quantam of solace i got to thinking about the ultimate lad pad and absolute must haves...with this bedside lamp she can say 'nice guns' and mean it....

Bedside Gun Lamp by Philippe Starck (www.icone.co.uk)

colour me richy...

Colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, yellow, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light (distribution of light energy versus wavelength) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors. Color categories and physical specifications of color are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc., based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra.

bleugh.....thats the science part over...

i saw a fantastic article recently in an irish indepenent property plus supplement featuring a colleague of mine, danielle mac innes of fuse interiors. (www.fuseinteriors.ie). 

provided with a quote from oscar wilde and colour analogies from colour psychologist angela wright, danielle's insights into her use of colour highlighted how crucial it is to think about colour when designing your home, or indeed any space...

it brought me back to some careful studying and thinking i did when completing my graduate project at university, and how important i thought of colour and its uses in the spaces i was designing...if you havent read it, i highly recommend this reading;

itten, the elements of colour; published by chapman and hall...

as much as oscar wilde realised that mere colour can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways, itten also understood that the philosophys applied mean that we as designers must also understand and be conscious of its interests and requirements....

ittens writings provided me with the competence to qualify me with colour control for the rest of my life, i learned alot about colour mixture, on ways hues can be arranged to create harmonious order, (i've never forgotten that statement ), how colours and form relate to each other and create spatial effects.

i've always thought back to this man and his writings anytime i've had to think about colour, and the advice and conclusions i was lead to study have saved me from making clumsy mistakes where colour is concerned...

the business head on me...

i haven't really got one...

i've been a designer for 6 years, within my course at uni we had to study professinal practice but thats exactly what it was all about...professional practice and how to deal with professional aspects of being a designer, nothing to enlighten me as to how to set up a business, run a business, maintain a business...

and i guess in recent weeks alot of advice coming my way has been to set up my own thing and do my own thing, but where do i start and how do i start...

i was at workshop a few weeks ago where a colleague in the design industry said that he had been described as 'a business man first and a designer second'... is that my problem, i'm a designer first....it's all i know and its just the way i am

it lead to a very interesting discussion amongst a few of us trying to decide what comes first - design or profit? can you give 50% to each or will one always lead the other...? 

get involved...

science has delivered exactly what the design community needs...

the science gallery on pearse street is billed as a world first...a new type of venue where todays white-hot scientific issues are thrashed out and you can have your say...a place where ideas meet and opinions collide...

could you imagine if the design industry had a physical space where we could do this, rather than our online bloggs and forums....

the exhibitions change on a regular basis and the opening hours change with each exhibition...

they're all about opening science up to passionate debate and want your opinions and likewise am i about me and design...i want your opinions, how do you want design to develop? what direction should it go in?

it is a very cool space - a wedge between trinity grounds and pearse street, and its been utilised well...ghost chairs and escher-esque floor graphics create a very minimal space punctuated with loud graphics and bold phunky furnishings....

'the' plan expo...

irelands showcase for the built envoronment...for 26 years now plan expo, supported by the RIAI and CIF, has been a hghlight of the irish construction calendar...

as trade shows go, plan expo must be one of the most important in the calendar. the industry showed a strong front in these times and exhibitors came together to showcase whats new, highlight progree nad plan for the future...

an interesting feature this year was the art in architecture exhibit, showcasing succesful irish projects where architects and artists collaborated to create spaces that celebrate the visual arts, incorporating artwork as part of the design process within buildings and external spaces...

stroller, saunterer, drifter...part deux

the flaneur...ok so the term flaneur comes form the french verb flaneur, which means 'to stroll'...

a flaneur is thus a person who walks the city in order to experience it...aka redundant richy in these past few weeks...becasue of the terms usage and theorisation by numerous thinkers in economic, cultural, literary and historical contexts, the idea of the flaneur has accumulated significant meaning as a reverant for understanding urban phenomena and modernity - charachterised as a ''gentleman stroller of city streets''...

so folks take to your streets and wander...i had a very interesting conversation with a colleague of mine who recently spent time in beijing, having talked of his experiences of the city and the people and how much he enjoyed both, he got to talking about how he got a real sense of both from walking off te beaten track - the side streets and back streets in the small hours of the morning, this is where he seemed to really get a sense of the city and the people who lived there...

revolutionise your weekend plans and abandon all plans, take to your city streets and simply wander, view your surroundings in a completely different context... as Tyler Brule, the founder of wallpaper* puts it - it forces you to consider what elements are necessary to weave a strong, diverse urban fabric...

so in order to become a real city resident i have to agree with his comments - you've got to let the city push, pull, divert and distract you until you're either worn down from over-stimulation or you reach the point where you decide that you and your city are never going to get along...

so in recent weeks i've found the best way to make a real connection or disconnection is to walk it...and thats what i've had the chance to do it dublin all over again, i don't think i've done this since i first moved here and i chose to walk the city streets to get to know it...and leaving behind the daily grind of commute and office work, i've had this chance to fall in love with dublin all over again...yeah redundancy...(although the finances are yearning for that grind again...)

tiger mash...

i think 2 of the highlights from my weekend in edinburgh had to be our dinner on saturday night in a nifty retro spot called monstermash and then finding the cure on sunday on george streets tigerlily...

tigerlily has to be the newest boutique hotel in edinburgh, it has bene rated one of the coolest 65 hotels in the world.  (www.tigerlily.co.uk) the independent calls it 'the showgirl among edinburgh hotel bars' and they've hit the nail on the head...

its a hip destination bar with its chic booths, revolving glitter balls and beaded curtains. i found tigerlily simply to be a blend of trendy elegance and shimmering opulence perfectly befitting george streets magnificent history - incredibly glitzy and oozing style...

monstermash, close to potterrow was the complete opposite - a retro cafe giving great food with a nostalgic twist. (www.monstermashcafe.co.uk)... i found the concept here fantastic - we sat at formica covered tables on old style kitchen chairs, complete with the ubiquitous red plastic ketchup 'tomatoes' and brown sauce bottles...

the 1950's retro design for a restaurant is an original idea, there were beano comics in the magzine racks, the atmosphere was brilliant and need i mention the speciality is bangers and mash...

i also had time to stroll around the bruntsfield/morningside area, which was where i lived mostly while i was studying in edinburgh...it was amazing to see the small deli's and grubby student cafe bars had given way to chic boutiques and glitzy specialist jewellery shops...

tartan trends...

following my weekend trip to auld reekie, i've noticed on all the magazine stands and in stores that tartan is featuring highly in this seasons trends...

tartan is going from traditional and country to sexy and cool, be it loud and bright or softly toned and muted, tartan is back looking better than ever...