Most people are usually a bit confused when they look at Belgian artist René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images for the first time. The painting is of a simple smoking pipe with the phrase “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (”This is not a pipe”) written below it. (more…)

It’s evening in Miami. A haunting, diffuse glow lingers over the treetops, contouring an old bus parked on a residential street. The door of the bus stands open and Mary Trody can be seen sitting inside, her own profile glowing from the light of her television screen. From a distance, Trody looks like a strangely proportioned, soft-sculpted doll. She’s wrapped in a white blanket, (more…)

Design in the Service of Science

Scientific models of the atom, molecule and the DNA present a fascinating example of science and design amalgamation. When researchers need to create an actual three dimensional model of the abstract formula they worked on and perfected for years, they become designers. (more…)

So-called experts typically don’t even know a recession is taking place until years after the fact.

Let me be the first to tell you in live time: things don’t look good.

In case you missed the massive financial meltdown, the multiple national banks failing and the general panic overtaking (more…)

When Steven Klein turned Brad Pitt’s paparazzi-infested romantic life into a disquieting fine art fashion shoot, the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie affair became iconic before it had officially even begun. The shoot, printed in W Magazine’s July 2005 issue and titled Domestic Bliss, channeled all the sultry onscreen chemistry the actors had in Mr. and Mrs. Smith (more…)

Marilyn Monroe is the symbol of the eternal feminine. She represents an era when sex was not openly discussed or depicted but was suggested in looks and body language.

And Marilyn had a language all her own. She was sex incarnate and that’s what everyone saw up on the screen.

“Marilyn is as near a genius as any actress I ever knew,” said Josh Logan, director of Bus Stop. “She is an artist beyond artistry. (more…)

There are 80,000 chemicals that affect child safety and our environment. According to Congressional statements made by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), the EPA has requested information on about 200 of these chemicals, and has restricted five of these chemicals in 32 years. Many of these chemicals are in thousands of children’s products and regulation would affect design (more…)

According to the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, an NGO based in Geneva, 1.5 million people were forcefully displaced by Olympics related construction. These people were primarily displaced for city ‘beautification’, improvements to city infrastructure and to create space for the newly designed and constructed Olympic venues. (more…)

Ask anyone associated with traditional, British mod culture, and they will tell you that when it comes to scooters, there are two iconic designs. If you wanted to be a mod, you simply had to ride a proper scooter. While the Vespa has been experiencing a surge in popularity following the reintroduction of the scooters to the US market, the other scooter has been sadly absent … all of this is about to change, however, with the reintroduction of the Lambretta motor scooter to the United States. (more…)

As business owners we are often faced with a lot of daily obstacles. From something as small as organizing our messy desk, to major issues like budgets, staff and the all-important search for new and better paying clients. We grow in short and often violent spurts and before we know it, our once small operation is now a multi-personnel jigsaw puzzle of challenges. Somewhere along the way, many business owners become overwhelmed in parts of their business and let certain areas fall behind. Oddly enough, they are often the most important areas. No, we’re not talking about remembering to buy coffee filters. We’re talking about a business’ mandate. Their message…their original reason for being and more importantly, how the rest of the world knows it and understands it.

Somewhere along the way many small businesses will become to busy to continue to invest the same attention to their company’s identity as they once did. This is to be expected. After all, for your business to last long it needs this success and you the owner need to control all aspects of that growth and success in an intricate juggling magic trick. It is common with in these times of growth, that you will take a minute out of your day and look over your company with pride and then you will notice it…through all the growth, you have lost your visual edge. The look of your company has become dated or inconsistent or worse…maybe it was never really united to begin with. Many owners start their business the same way.
(more…)