Karl Benjamin

I became familiar with Karl Benjamin's work last year at the Birth of Cool exhibit at the Blanton Museum. The above painting stood out among a stunning group of other abstract paintings in the exhibit. I love his work from the 50's but equally as exciting is more recent stuff from the 80's and 90's. Apparently the artist, who is now 84 now, stopped painting in 1995.

New York Times Article
Geoform interview

Katie Turner

I just re-discovered Katie Turner's work, and I really like it. She's a senior at Parsons and I can totally see The New Yorker hiring her regularly as soon as she hits the pavement.  She recently did her first Op-Ed for the New York Times (link). I especially like this boyfriend criteria series. Not only do we have similar tastes in guys, the subway, tattoo, and bike illos are making me very nostalgic for NYC.

Website
Flickr

Irena Zablotska

If this Visa card was available in the U.S., it would be enough to get me to establish some credit.


Ukrainian illustrator Irena Zablotska does beautiful work on the computer, on canvas and in her notebooks. I love her colors, patterns, and characters. Get lost in her portfolio here.

Miller Goodman

It's lucky I don't have kids. I'm afraid I would spend way too much money on toys that they wouldn't be allowed to play with. Children's toys should be simple, colorful and safe. And if you have to pay $100 for a set of blocks in order to fulfill those standards, so be it.


I love the ShapeMaker and PlayShape wooden blocks by Miller-Goodman. They remind me of a bunch of different things I like: the wooden toys created by Alexander Girard, AJ Fosik's rad spirit creature heads, designs by Paul Rand + Charlie Harper, Mary Blair's It's a Small World Ride, and 60's Scandinavian dishware.

This animation is pretty darn cute too:



More at the ShapeMaker Flickr pool + PlayShapes Flickr pool and at their shop.

Jeff Canham

I love the work of artist Jeff Canham.
I wonder why.





House Industries is releasing a Alexander Girard Font soon(?)! Can't wait.

More Alexander Girard

Oh my gosh. I want them I want them I want them!

FLOR is about to release an Alexander Girard line and I can't wait to see it tile by tile. (Maybe I'll be able to afford at least one for my wall - I mean there's no way I would walk on these.)

I just cannot get enough of him. He encompasses everything that I love about design. Bright color, simple lines, inspired by folk art, modern and sleek but but still comfortable, intimate and playful. He and Mary Blair can absolutely do no wrong in my book.

Here are some images from the amazing site lafondadelsol.net, which is all about the restaurant he designed in 1961. (Gosh, have I already posted about this???) He designed everything from the wall hangings to the dishware - and it's all fantastic.




Look - that's a paper plate that transforms magically. Even the directions are pretty.
He designed the chair and the fabric. (He was the head of the Herman Miller Furniture Company textiles division in the 50's).
A menu. I can't say for sure - but I think it's the size of a record album.

The bottom of a glass. Could you just die?

One day, I'd like to visit the Museum of International Folk Art and see the collection of 10,000 pieces from the Girard Foundation Collection. Oh, and yeah, apparently I have already posted about him. Probably not the last time either...

Mmmm.... Color

I just wanted to post something pretty so that horrifying caterpillar from the previous post would stop staring me down.

I'm a big fan of Steven Harrington. Especially this print:

It like an Alexander Girard Memory Card Game.

Unrelated - this is sorta interesting. I gotta get to work.