Bel & Bel studios refashion vintage Vespas as office chairs.
They also make bars out from VWs. Much more on their site.
Design
18 PostsY'all know I love a well-made product. I also like niche items that solve specific problems. Therefore, I give you Simone Giertz's Coat Hingers:
I initially approached Giertz years ago about carrying her Habit Tracker in Volver (my weird Toronto shop). We couldn't quite come to terms, but that doesn't mean I don't think her stuff is awesome.
She's currently taking pre-orders on the next batch of Coat Hingers, so if this is something you can use, get shopping!
Breathtaking home in Jakarta, designed by StudioRK.
Everything is spot on, from the design, to the flooring and railings, door handles and fixtures. The tapestries and artwork, the plants... stunning space.
Here's the full tour:
If you saw Wim Wenders' most recent film, and are not someone who has visited Japan, I'm guessing you were impressed with the public bathrooms of Tokyo.
These photos were gathered by EastEast for their piece, In Praise of Shadows, Ruminations on the aesthetics of a Japanese toilet.
I have a bit of a fascination with "time-tracking" devices that do not tell you the time. These days, I wear an Apple Watch Ultra 2 for health reasons. For many years, I wore a DURR.
What's a DURR? You wear it on your wrist, like a watch, and every 5 minutes, it touches you. Yes, really.
Here's how the designer pitched it:
It's an interesting thing to have something silently tell you that five minutes have passed since the last time it told you five minutes had passed. And yes, it does nothing else and the five minute interval is fixed.
My DURR looks like this:
The chassis and buckle are milled, sandblasted anodized aluminium. The strap is vegetanned leather. It takes a standard CR2032 watch battery. Mine's been kickin' for 10+ years, though I did have a few panicked days when I thought it was on the fritz. Turns out CR2032s have a high rate of failure.
When not using it to make me hyperaware of time itself, I used it as a navigation tool. I walk a lot and know how fast I do it. So, morning-wake-up, I'd look at a map to see where I wanted to end up. Then, I'd memorize a pattern of turns based on five minute intervals. Like this: 3 Left, 2 right, 1 left, 5, look for the tunnel, 2 right... This meant I would walk for 3 vibrations (15 minutes) and then turn left, walk for 2 vibrations (10 minutes) and turn right, etc. Obviously, this was not an exact science as I'd get waylaid by friendly dogs, people, buildings I wanted to photograph, not-friendly dogs, talkative prostitutes, curious locals, etc.
I'd usually arrive at my destination without again checking a map, though I never got there in the estimated time and rarely spoke the local language enough to understand road signs. The clumsiness of my method resulted in many adventures and many fantastic misadventures. I walked thousands and thousands of miles this way. In LA, in Spain, in Vanuatu, Cuba, the Dominican, and Toronto.
Only 700 DURR exist — 1000 were made, 300 of which didn't function. I regret not buying one or two more when I had the chance. They were made by industrial designer-artist duo, Skrekkogle, and if I remember correctly were about $150. The partnership has dissolved and the two men behind it have vowed to never make more. When I thought mine had died, I pleaded with one of them to let me know if he had any kicking around that he would part with... he didn't respond.
For a few years I tried to get industrial designers I knew to develop one with me on Kickstarter. They all thought I was nuts. Last year, someone else did exactly that and sold about a $150,000 worth. I initially funded the project but backed out, not liking the proprietary band (it's the only thing I don't like about my DURR); I wanted it to take a standard watch band.
If you're still confused how the DURR can actually be useful, here's some press on the Alpha version from The Verge. Mine was the Beta release. And here's a physician talking for a couple minutes about his own Beta release:
In the next Products I Love post, I'll write about the keyboard in my DURR photo: the WayTools Textblade, a truly remarkable device that never saw the light of day.
Not too long ago, I made a post about the beauty of Blue Note Records album covers.
Some in extraordinary condition recently came into my life and I thought I'd share them with you. These albums were all released between 1957 and 1962 and these are originals so are between 67 and 62 years old as I post this.
Cliff Jordan & John Gilmore — Blowing In from Chicago — 1957, Blue Note Records #1549
The Hank Mobley Quintet — Self-titled — 1957, Blue Note Records #1550
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers — At the Corner of the World Vol 1 — 1959, Blue Note Records #4015
Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers — Big Beat — 1960, Blue Note Records #4029
Hank Mobley — Soul Station — 1960, Blue Note Records #4031
Jackie McLean — Capuchin Swing — 1960, Blue Note Records #4038
Stanley Turrentine — Look Out! — 1960, Blue Note Records #4039
Tina Brooks — True Blue — 1960, Blue Note Records #4041
Jackie McLean — Jackie's Bag — 1962, Blue Note Records #4051
Hank Mobley — Roll Call — 1961, Blue Note Records #4058
Dexter Gordon — Doin' Allright — 1961, Blue Note Records #4077
Dexter Gordon — Dexter Calling — 1961, Blue Note Records #4083
Original Blue Note Inner Sleeve with 43 West 61st St New York 23 address.
Aussie Greg Neville shows and discusses his Penguin Books collection, with an emphasis on Series Design. For instance, here are some from the Modern Classics series, and Neville's thoughts on them.
Plenty more on the Penguin Series Design site.
Via Metafilter.
Perhaps you've read Ron Padgett's Love Poem. If not, it's below. Or you can listen to him reading it.
Love Poem
We have plenty of matches in our house.
We keep them on hand always.
Currently our favorite brand is Ohio Blue Tip,
though we used to prefer Diamond brand.
That was before we discovered Ohio Blue Tip matches.
They are excellently packaged, sturdy
little boxes with dark and light blue and white labels
with words lettered in the shape of a megaphone,
as if to say even louder to the world,
“Here is the most beautiful match in the world,
its one-and-a-half-inch soft pine stem capped
by a grainy dark purple head, so sober and furious
and stubbornly ready to burst into flame,
lighting, perhaps, the cigarette of the woman you love,
for the first time, and it was never really the same
after that. All this will we give you.”
That is what you gave me, I
become the cigarette and you the match, or I
the match and you the cigarette, blazing
with kisses that smoulder toward heaven.
It's available in the Collected Poems of Ron Padgett, which unfortunately is out of print, and many people I'm sure are familiar with an early draft of it from the film Paterson:
But did you know that in the 60s, Saul Bass designed the packaging for the Ohio Match Co.?
Photos by the always wonderful Present & Correct.
"Curbside Classic is a general interest automotive and transportation site with a special emphasis on history and documenting the older cars still on our streets."
Worth a visit for the pictures of cool vehicles — but there's also some great in-depth info on the cars, including some with old sales brochures and ads. Neat!
For instance, here's the entry on the 50s Mercedes Benz Coach pictured above.
And the Morris Minor below:
I tell you about this stite today because I've added a new Curbside Classics section to A Tiny Bell: favorite cars I've seen on my travels.
Kathleen Reilly has redesigned the butterknife so that it doesn't slide off plates and jars. Genius.
She calls this knife Oku. It was inspired by Japanese design and the Oku are made there. Back her on Kickstarter or get more information on her site.
