CAFE DESIGNS

LATEST CANTEEN DESIGNS

Puff Piece

The name for this product just about sums it up: Smoke Screen. I couldn't have come up with a better pun myself. But the punny name doesn't belie how gorgeous this piece is, with its high contrast printed panels depicting rivulets of white smoke against a solid black ground. It has an proto-goth feel that would feel equally at home in a minimalist setting as it would working with a more eclectic decorating style (especially because of the scalloped tops of the panels, which soften the starkness of its coloring... or lack thereof). I'd certainly want one in my studio, although it's more than prohibitive, price-wise, at just over $4500... and that's before shipping and handling.


So alas, most of us without the disposable income will just have to settle for admiring it from afar, from online. Check it out at Culture Label's website, read its description and fantasize about it. And if the never-to-be-fulfilled yearning should make you well up with tears, perhaps you can say smoke got in your eyes...

Shanghai Surprise

One of the world's new destination cities gives you even more reason to make the trip: The Waterhouse at South Bund in Shanghai is a beautiful new boutique hotel fashioned out of a derelict old building, a former Japanese army headquarters in Shanghai.

I'm a big proponent of mixing vintage and modern design, as the mix creates a feeling that's warmer, familiar, more lived in, and less clinical, and the Waterhouse definitely achieves this. The contrast of the rather dilapidated exterior with the updated interiors make for a great juxtaposition of the old and new, and the wide open spaces filled with carefully curated modern furnishings really impart a sense of luxury that's not imposing. If anything, it's all surprisingly comfortable. 

I'm generally not one to wax poetic about the whys and wherefores of architecture and interior design, but I do appreciate a great space, so I'll let the photos do the talking. But if you need more info on the hotel itself, check out their website at waterhouseshanghai.com.

Not To Be Missed: Missoni

Perfectly timed in terms of fashion's current pattern obsession, Missoni for Target drops in a couple of weeks, with an enormous 400+ piece collection encompassing everything from clothing for men, women and children, to home goods and travel accessories. NY Magazine has a slideshow of what they claim is the entire line of goods here. It won't be the high-end quality one expects from this venerable Italian designer brand, but what do you expect, it's a Target collaboration. Expect flame stitch patterns galore! But enough from me, I'll let the rather informative little video do all the show and tell. 

Modern Traditions

I'm in the middle of redesigning a friend's website, so I'm keenly aware of emerging new trends in website design. Since much of what I have to do is dependent on my limited ability to code in the WYSIWYG program I use, I can't normally imagine new user interface designs since I'm not so aware of what the new programming can do. But with the combination of increased bandwidth and HTML5 being explored more and more, I'm getting a good idea. 



Gant isn't a brand we associate with modernism, being a very traditional, heritage-type brand. But their current website is anything but old school. In fact, it's so new school, it's the freshest website I've seen to date. With multiple layers and drawer-opening panels, and the huge photographic imagery I had only recently decided was the way to go (I'm particularly in love with their reversal of the zoom feature for product imagery, turning it into an immense background image), they're miles ahead in forging a brave new path I haven't seen any other retail brand even attempt. I want to find out who designed this site so I can properly get on my knees and bow before them! I won't try to explain it any further - check it out for yourselves at us.gant.com. 

A Sofa To Die For

As featured items go, this one is a bit dead on arrival, in multiple senses of the phrase. The fact that theHeretic Sofa is a converted coffin is one obvious reason for the figure of speech. With it's absolutely gorgeous goth lines, the couch references both traditional and modern design styles, with it's delicate cabriole metal legs and sleek tufted frame. The other reason for my introductory description is that, being a limited edition of 3, this item is no longer available to purchase. Autum, the website that touts this as well as a few other very limited run items, has understandably sold out on these beauties. So consider this an official viewing, so we can pay our respects to a gorgeous and cheeky piece of design work. If you want to find out more about the unavailable, check out the full specs

Leg Work 

Sharp Reminder

How appropriate is it to have magnets that look like kitchen knives sticking into your refrigerator? Very much so, I'd say, as things could get ugly in the morning if I forget to buy more coffee. Get them for $9.99 each at Think Geek, although they're sold out at the moment. The Geeks estimate that these rhodium-coated plastic magnets will be back in stock on the 24th of August, so check back then. Wouldn't it be nice to have a knife magnet so you can stick a reminder on your fridge to do so? 

Plume Service

Photographic prints have been a picture-perfect fashion trend in recent seasons, but now you can take the look home. Flor's new Fine Feathers range of photo-printed carpet tiles - imprinted with detailed closeups by photographer François Robert - allow you to feather your nest almost literally. The tiles remind me of the work of the late, great designer AlexanderMcQueen, with his photographic printed fabrics as well as his penchant for feathers. With those references in mind the look is less retro 70s photomural and more modern graphic chic. But because they're so organic-looking, I think they can also be very versatile. They work well in the somewhat rustic setting Flor showed them in (above), but I can see them adding rich texture to any number of rooms, from the more classic all the way to something sleekly minimal and modern. The print technique must cost a bit more, as the tiles are easily double the cost of Flor's cheaper options, but I think the effect is also much more luxe and unexpected. And with Flor's modular conceit, its easy to add as little or as much feathery style as you wish. Get Fine Feathers for $26.99 per tile from Flor.com. 

Connect The Dots

As designer Graphic Nothing (aka Gary Andrew Clarke) says, these prints "make no sense close up. Make every sense from the other side of the room." He's taken the concept of reducing an image to individual spots of color much the way a tiny thumbnail on the web would, deconstructing them to a bare minimum 15 by 10 pixels or so before he blows them right back up. Knowing the names of these iconic originals allows our brains to process these otherwise unrecognizable collections of colors, and the further away you get from the canvases, the more your brain can imagine what the dots represent. Or in other words, you'll be able to connect the dots to the image it's supposed to suggest.

The concept may not be completely new (I have a very similar art piece of my own based on this) but I love the way he reinterprets the pixilation, via perfectly round, even spots of color. Even moreso, now you can display trite visual icons like the Mona Lisa (above) in your home, or even the album cover of Michael Jackson's Thriller(below) because they're so playfully reinvented by this process. 

Thriller is particularly funny, because MJ's complexion is reduced to about 5 different shades of skin tone, and knowing how he whitened as he got older, you'd be hard-pressed to say which one is the right one.