collapse and delight

san francisco mapped in literary quotes

So charming. By Ian Huebert for the Chronicle, via @RonCharles.

the prettiest mid-century ad i’d never seen

Two of the most popular things these days are Mad Men and ephemera, so it’s not surprising that mid-century advertising is all over the web. I spent a bunch of time a week ago looking at Container Corporation of America ads from the early 20th century, which were a steady source of inspiration for me when I was in design school. I’ll post more on them separately, but then mid-week Carin Berger was tweeting about Herbert Bayer ads (separate from his work on the CCA series). And then toward the end of the week, Sandra Gulland emailed me about this list of 50 great vintage ads, which included the one above. I’ve never seen this before and have no idea who created it, but I would like a poster-sized version to hang on the wall so I can stare at it all day long.

new treehouses


My favorite thing about our house is that it feels like a treehouse, and my favorite people are those who make this observation. Most recently, a five-year-old boy we’d never met before came in our back door, looked around, and asked me point blank: “Is this a treehouse?” But living here hasn’t quenched my lifelong desire to have a real one — a fancy one. I’ve been collecting images for years, and I’ll be acquiring this new book reviewed and previewed at the LA Times, but I can’t imagine there’s a better image in it than this one.

echium in full splendor

   

for the love of hotze eisma


Hotze Eisma is one of my very favorite photographers. We’ve used a lot of his shooting in the European interiors series I edit, and I’m compelled to say HOTZE EISMA! out loud, emphatically, every time he comes up. I also have a number of the original magazine features on my corkboard and in my files, and so know a lot of these places by heart — as if I've stood in those rooms, in that light. But Emma Fexeus today pointed out something I did not know: his website is not only packed full of images, many of which I’ve not seen before, but there are downloadable PDFs of dozens of homes. So much insanely beautiful stuff. For example, I’m pretty sure I could live happily ever after on this little Netherlands waterway —

waiting for his wings


I’ve been thinking, somewhere in the way back of my brain, about everyone’s favorite oversimplified metaphor: the caterpillar becoming a butterfly. Do you ever wonder if the butterfly ever yearns for its caterpillar days? Or how it feels about the change as it sets in? Anyway, I just came across this great post at Open Salon — with magnificent photos — and was struck by this line: “Because he’s waiting for his wings to be ready, he’s immobile.”

if you’ve ever seen anything cooler than this, please share


This great post about a poor Chinese farmer who makes crazy-great robots reminded me of one of my all-time favorite inventor-artists: Theo Jansen. The video above is his TED presentation, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, the really exquisite little film about his work that used to be on the web appears to have been scrubbed. I think it must have been part of the 30-minute documentary, Strandbeesten, which I hope to get to see someday. You can get another glimpse of the pieces in motion here.

“how to murder your wife,” the townhouse

                                           

I can’t remember where I first heard the reference to Jack Lemmon’s 1965 film “How to Murder Your Wife.” It is a not a very good movie, but I’ve watched it several times in the past year or so (with the sound off all but the first time) just for the townhouse, which really is the central character of the movie. The chief threads that run through the place are white lacquer cabinetry and bentwood chairs — a combination I always love. And there's a fantastic long hall of cabinets (in which the butler stores the stilettos and such of the bachelor's overnight guests). It’s amazing how little you’d have to change (the bed, some curtains, the prop styling) to make the place feel completely current. But what’s amusing is that this, in 1965, was presented as the ultimate bachelor pad.