Concept, art direction, video editing, title design, and writing for West Elm’s social channels. This shoot was part of an extended series on West Elm’s Instagram and blog called “#AskWestElm,” which shared helpful tips and how-tos for the home. This installment showcased the various layers that go into making a bed, with the added whimsy of some stop-motion animation.
Your bed won’t make itself! Here are all of the layers for making a perfect bed: ✨ 1. Flat sheet – Adds a thin layer between you and your duvet. Keeps you from needing to launder your duvet cover as frequently + functions as a lightweight cover on hot summer nights. ✨ 2. Duvet/Comforter – Filled with down or down alternative, this fluffy number will keep you cozy + warm on cold nights, and adds comforting weight. ✨ 3. Coverlet/Blanket – Kept at the foot of your bed, a coverlet is great as a middle-weight cover for adding a tiny bit of extra warmth when you need it. ✨ 4. Pillows! Pillows come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and fills. Explore your options on westelm.com to see what’s best for you!
The Kingston, New York studio of Blackcreek Mercantile. Written and photographed for Design*Sponge.
Studio Tour: Blackcreek Mercantile
On a drizzly November morning last week, I found myself standing in the Kingston, NY studio of Joshua Vogel, learning way more about bees than I ever thought humanly possible. Joshua, a wildly talented woodworker—and apparently quite the loquacious fellow—has just finished telling me about propolis, the bee-produced material that is a key ingredient in his company Blackcreek Mercantile’s cutting board oil. Did you know that this wondrous, naturally anti-bacterial varnish is the only thing aside from honey and wax that honeybees produce? Did you know that, in the winter, bees will form a massive huddle and vibrate in unison to keep warm? I certainly didn’t. Although I’m meant to be snapping photographs of the space, I can’t help but feel momentarily transfixed. Joshua’s passion for everything he does is quite clear—and it’s infectious.
It’s this passion that led Vogel to create his two businesses—Blackcreek Mercantile and his fine art branch, Joshua Vogel. It’s also what led him to pen a do-it-yourself handbook on the art and history of hand-carved spoons, due out next fall from Chronicle Books. At his Midtown Kingston studio, housed in a former pajama factory, this passion is a guiding and energizing force. With a rambunctious and gung-ho team that includes woodworker Dan Votke, apprentice Max Friedman, and Josh’s partner, Kelly Zaneto, the atmosphere here is one of warmth, vitality, and conviviality. When I arrive, music is playing, coffee is brewing, wood is being turned, and Josh and Kelly’s daughter, Violet, is playing merrily in the office with studio assistant Rachel Silverbloom. If it was cold and dreary outside, one would never know.
This is to say nothing of Joshua’s actual work which is, simply put, absolutely stunning. Wonderful examples of lovingly handcrafted woodwork, Josh’s sculptures and design objects are beautiful both to look at and to hold. From elegantly carved spoons to luxurious black cutting boards, the boundary between art and functionality is practically non-existent. These are the sort of objects that one will want to use and display.
With the holidays just around the corner, Josh’s studio is producing at full-force, so we are thrilled that we were able to sneak in for a behind-the-scenes peek. We hope you enjoy the visit as much as we did!
Concept, art direction, research, and writing for a weekly feature on Design*Sponge that showcased iconic design objects throughout history. The feature ran for more than 40 installments and highlighted objects like furniture, textiles, toys, and everyday objects. Each installment was accompanied by illustrations by Libby VanderPloeg.
Design Icon No. 11: Honeywell Round Thermostat
Designer: Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972)
Date: 1953
Country of Origin: United States
Manufacturer: Honeywell
Background: Although Henry Dreyfuss is often compared to his contemporary Raymond Loewy, the famed industrial designer who helped to popularize the 1930s “streamlined” look, Dreyfuss’ work stands apart because of his emphasis not on style but on function. Obsessed with ergonomics and the need for design to suit the human body, Dreyfuss compiled exhaustive data on body measurements and forms in an effort to create the most optimal designs. This information was later compiled into two books— Designing for People(1955) and The Measure of Man(1960). Several of Dreyfuss’ designs have gone on to achieve legendary status (his Bell telephone, for instance), but one of his most ubiquitous designs is without a doubt the Honeywell “Round” thermostat. Designed so that it could hang “squarely” on a wall no matter how or where it was installed, the thermostat never appeared slanted due to its circular shape. The round dial provided a simple and intuitive interface, free from cluttered buttons and unnecessary information. As design lore has it, Dreyfuss had a penchant for drawing perfect circles, something he did continuously. When approached by Honeywell to produce a new, modernized thermostat, Dreyfuss is said to have drawn a circle and said “Here. Go ahead and make something of it.”
Design Icon No. 19: Bookshelf
Designer: Charlotte Perriand (French, 1903-1999), with Atelier Prouvé
Date: 1953
Country of Origin: France
Manufacturer: Atelier Prouvé (today Perriand shelves are manufactured by Cassina)
Materials and Construction: Oak shelves, aluminum vertical dividers, sliding trays to cover certain areas.
Background: As was the case with Ray Eames, female contributors to design teams were oftentimes overshadowed by their male counterparts during the twentieth century, only to be truly acknowledged in recent years. This was certainly the case for Charlotte Perriand, the designer behind some of the last century’s most iconic pieces of furniture. The above piece, oftentimes referred to as “The Mexican Bookshelf” because it was designed for the Maison du Mexique at Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, was commonly attributed to the french designer Jean Prouvé. In reality, the piece was designed by Charlotte Perriand and produced by Prouvé’s Atelier Prouvé. Because Jean Prouvé’s name attracted higher bids at auction, Perriand’s name was all but erased from these designs—it wasn’t until recently that the actuality of Perriand’s authorship was finally accepted and widely acknowledged. This shelf, one of several similar shelves and multi-purpose furniture pieces by Perriand, is composed of oak shelves, subdivided by aluminum vertical elements. Sliding trays ran along the front faces of the shelves, allowing users to hide and reveal certain areas. Because of the shelf’s variously-sized compartments, one was able to store a number of different objects on it. Today, many of Perriand’s shelf designs are in production again, this time by the Italian furniture company, Cassina.
Design Icon No. 31: Wonder Bread
Date: 1921
Country of Origin: United States
Manufacturer: Taggart Baking Company
Background: You know the phrase “the best thing since sliced bread?” Well, as it so happens, the exact date of this world-changing invention is in relatively recent history. Introduced by Wonder Bread in 1929, the concept of pre-sliced bread encapsulated many of the ideals of the time. The late 20s and early 30s saw the introduction of Modernism to America, largely through the over-the-top ornamentalism of the Art Deco and Moderne movements—it wasn’t so much about functionality, but the novel and the superficially futuristic. Scientific and industrial advances had captured the nation’s imagination, something that created a thirst for products that embodied these ideas—even if that product was bread, pre-sliced. Since then, Wonder Bread has become part of the the American canon, the embodiment of the American impulse for wild innovation and an icon of our Atomic Age. In 1939, Wonder Bread took part in New York City’s World’s Fair, an event that showcased similarly futuristic productions, from advances in agricultural technology to the latest and greatest in automobiles. Although it may not seem this way today—indeed, we have long-since abandoned the fluffy white goodness of Wonder Bread for healthier options—Wonder Bread (and its mythology) fit in perfectly.
Photography and writing for a home tour feature in Design*Sponge, profiling the Upstate New York home of designer Kieran Kinsella and illustrator Giselle Potter.
Two Artists Find Home In A Charm-Filled 1900 Farmhouse
“I wish you could have seen the house a few years ago,” woodworker Kieran Kinsella tells me when I arrive to take pictures of his Rosendale, NY home, “back when everything was all fresh!” His feelings are ones that many have after living in a space for a long period of time, after the luster of newly-acquired furniture and fresh paint starts to wear off. I understand his sentiments—nobody knows better the insecurities homeowners encounter when welcoming guests for the first time—but I’m not sure that I share them. Looking around this light-filled hilltop farmhouse, it’s hard to imagine it looking any better than it does now. Sure, there are a few scuffs here and there, a few squeaking floorboards. But these are the sorts of timeworn patina that only come after a home has been truly lived in, something that in itself has beauty.
Kieran came to this 1900 home 17 years ago, when he and his wife Giselle Potter, a children’s book illustrator, vacated Brooklyn for greener (and decidedly more spacious) pastures. They fell in love with the surrounding area, the property’s expansive acreage, and the giant apple trees that filled its grounds. With an old chicken coop that would make for a fantastic at-home studio, it seemed the perfect package.
When the couple arrived, they had very few belongings, just some curbside finds and an old clawfoot tub that they managed to cart all the way with them from Brooklyn. “It was very sparse and Shaker-like,” Giselle notes. Over time, Kieran and Giselle accumulated more belongings, like hand-me-downs from Giselle’s grandmother and wooden furniture that Kieran crafted himself. The couple also welcomed two daughters, Pia and Izzy, and a dog, making their family (and home) much more full.
Today, this fullness makes for a wonderfully rich and charming home, a space that emanates warmth and love from every imperfect angle. “In the cold months we warm up by our wood stove, listen to records or sing along with Kieran on the ukelele,” Giselle says. “In the summer we spend a lot of time outside, us in the garden and the girls in their tree house or in the giant forsythia bush.” No matter what the season, it’s a beautiful place to call home.
Writing contributions for The Cooper Hewitt Museum’s “Object of The Day” (now Object of The Week) series, which launched as a way to provide the public with in-depth access to the museum’s design collection. Each day, the museum shared one object from its collection, with imagery, accession information, and a brief backstory.
From the New York Subway system to American Airlines, Massimo Vignelli was responsible for some of the most iconic and enduring graphic identities of the twentieth century. Born in Milan in 1931, Vignelli displayed an interest and aptitude in design at a relatively early age. At sixteen, he began working as a draftsman at Castiglioni Architects in Milan. Here, he not only became immersed in the practice of architectural design, but also in the ideas of key Modernist thinkers.
As a designer, Vignelli firmly believed that design should be clean, simple, and completely timeless. He detested trends and what he referred to as the “culture of obsolescence.” For him, good design surpassed the merely ephemeral, something he believed was a cause of waste and “visual pollution.” He favored primary colors and simple typefaces. “I don’t believe,” he has written in The Vignelli Canon, “that when you write dog the type should bark!” While Vignelli limited himself to just a few colors and typefaces, he was able to create intriguing, eye-catching designs through his clever plays with proportion, space, and balance. Like many of his modernist peers, he was obsessed with the grid and his negotiation with its stark boundaries produced elegant and beautiful results.
In 1967, Massimo Vignelli was commissioned to redesign the graphic identity of the American furniture company, Knoll. Known for its modernist furniture by designers such as Eero Saarinen, Marcel Breuer, and Harry Bertoia, Knoll’s products were perfectly suited to Vignelli’s timeless aesthetic. In the graphic program that Vignelli produced for Knoll, one can see many of his ideas at work, from his preference for clear, organized space to his use of the new (at the time) Helvetica typeface, something Vignelli undoubtedly favored because of its versatile simplicity. This poster depicts the Knoll logotype in large letters that overlap to form an almost abstract pattern. While a number of Knoll’s products are depicted as line drawings on the back of the poster, none are visible on its recto. Alone, the colorful, bold type communicates beautifully the power and elegance of the Knoll brand.
When it was introduced to London in the 19th century, the first underground railway was revolutionary. Able to provide quick, uninterrupted travel for commuters and easy access to the bustling city from the suburbs, the London Underground promised a better, more efficient future. It would take some convincing, however, to get the general public to hop onboard. People were understandably skeptical of the new technological marvel—after all, the idea of loud, smoky locomotives navigating the dark circuitry of London’s underbelly wasn’t particularly appetizing. In fact, the public was so unwilling to experience this new form of transport that the Underground Group faced bankruptcy at the beginning of the 20th century due to lack of ridership. In order to dispel any doubts about the safety and comfort of the new subway system, the general manager of the Underground, 30-year-old Frank Pick, turned to poster design to get the message across.
The first posters commissioned by Pick touted the convenience, pleasure, and affordability of traveling underground. Aesthetically, these initial posters were in line with other advertisements of the time. In addition to featuring an assortment of possible Underground passengers, these posters sought to add glamor to London Transport by illustrating the numerous scenic destinations accessible through mass transit.
As the century progressed, Pick became more adventurous in his choices for poster designers. As the public became accustomed to traveling underground, new posters were commissioned to advertise not only the Underground’s accessibility, but its modernity. This 1930 poster, Power—The Nerve Center of London’s Underground, designed by the esteemed E. McKnight Kauffer, is a one such example. Taking cues from other Modernist graphic designers, Kauffer communicates the speed and might of London’s Underground with bold, modern typefaces and dynamic illustrations.
With their stunning aesthetic qualities and avant-garde sensibilities, the Underground posters produced during the early to mid-20th century were unusual in that they blurred the line between advertising and art. In addition to graphic designers like Kauffer, Pick commissioned artists such as Man Ray, Lázsló Moholy-Nagy, and Graham Sutherland to produce posters that added beauty and prestige to the Underground brand. Pick’s preference for simple, yet aesthetically thrilling designs set a high standard for transit advertising—something that The London Underground has endeavored to continue to this day
