"“Some people thrive on clutter and mess and other people can’t stand it,” says designer Massimo Vignelli in his Italian accent, still thick even after several decades of living in New York. “I like to start the day fresh. If I start the day with things left over, it’s like starting dinner with leftovers — it kills your appetite.” So, even though during a working day, detritus may build up on his desk’s surface, at the end of each day Vignelli clears it away leaving only his laptop, mouse, black Tizio lamp and some white paper and a pencil to calmly greet him the next morning."

Mind blowing graphic design work from Taiwan.

"There are objects that are timeless in design. You can’t improve much upon simple tools like a spoon or a compass. Brands can do this too—Dieter Rams designs for Braun fit in almost any decade and it is hard to imagine much by Muji looking dated. But a digital device is not an alarm clock or a shelving unit. It will grow obsolete very quickly. Which makes the atemporal look of electronics by Apple more uncanny, more rarefied. The personal computer as Holly Golightly's little black dress... The iPhone in particular seems born out of years of science fiction fantasies of handheld gadgets with boundless capabilities. It appears to have arrived not from China, but from just a few years ahead of time. A little piece of the future we were lucky enough to receive early... There are two prevailing science fictional design aesthetics. One is a worn, rusty, lived-in-looking future. It is the junkyards in Philip K Dick novels and the dust collecting on Star Wars flight control interfaces. Then, there’s the world of tomorrow imagined as a sterile place of white and translucent surfaces... A willingness to try Apple products at all suggests appreciation for, if not commitment to its value of simplicity over ornamentation. Design asceticism was a way of life for the company’s founder... To return the favor, some Apple consumers practice a kind of Western interpretation of Shintoism, valuing and caring for the products as if they were living creatures. They respect the objects — their painstaking craftsmanship, and the promise of a better, less dirty, less vapid world —by keeping them in just-unboxed condition."

"When I played it at home, I found that his singing was in tune with my piano, and I improvised a simple accompaniment. I noticed, too, that the first section of the song - 13 bars in length - formed an effective loop which repeated in a slightly unpredictable way. I took the tape loop to Leicester, where I was working in the Fine Art Department, and copied the loop onto a continuous reel of tape, thinking about perhaps adding an orchestrated accompaniment to this. The door of the recording room opened on to one of the large painting studios and I left the tape copying, with the door open, while I went to have a cup of coffee. When I came back I found the normally lively room unnaturally subdued. People were moving about much more slowly than usual and a few were sitting alone, quietly weeping."

Wooden products from Jonas Damon, creative director at frog design. Modernist, nostalgic.

Three iPhone/iPad wooden docks that turn them into old-time devices: alarm clock, portable radio, CRT TV from frog design creative director Jonas Damon.

"When I was 8 I wanted a puppy.
When I was 10 I wanted parachute pants.
When I was 12 I wanted an Ogilvie perm.
When I was 14 I wanted a boy named Robbie.
When I was 16 I wanted a car.
When I was in my 20's I wanted to make bad choices.
Now I want everything.
I only need enough to survive."

"We wanted to ensure a connection between IKEA's kitchen appliances and one of the best things you can do in a kitchen, some great baking. So the main attraction in the campaign became a 140 page coffee-table baking book presented in a very visually unique and spectacular way.

90% of all the photographs taken in baking books look extremely alike. We wanted to try something different and present the recipes in a totally new fashion.

We let ourselves be inspired by high fashion and Japanese minimalism. The idea of the book became to tone down the actual cake and put the ingredients in focus. The recipes are presented as graphic still-life portraits on a warm and colorful stage. And when you turn the page you see the fantastic result.

The baking book contains 30 classic Swedish baking recipes everything from small biscuits to large cakes."

"The key to good writing is not that magical glass of Bordeaux, the right kind of tobacco or that groovy background music. The key is focus.

Writer has no graphic settings or formatting features. It avoids all distracting glitz in the user interface and puts all the beauty in the shape of the text. It uses an interactive logic that helps you concentrate, find your orientation and express yourself. With Writer all your thought goes into what you write, not how your writing looks."

»35mm« is a shortfilm about cinema itself. We picked 35 of our favorite movies and tried to simplifly them as far as possible. The outcome is a 2 minute journey through the history of film.
Take a close look and tell us if you've recognized them all!
--
Concept / Layout: Sarah Biermann, Torsten Strer, Felix Meyer, Pascal Monaco
Animation: Felix Meyer, Pascal Monaco
Sound: Torsten Strer

"Me: Can we get rid of the television now?
Her: No, we might need it.
Me: OK, but I’m not plugging it back in.
Her: I hate you." — True.

Grant Hamilton takes these wonderful Polaroid pictures of color details.

Minimalist CMS to showcase visual work. Very popular in some circles.
[Originally saved: 02 Jul 2007]

"Honest psychologists and good spiritual healers often advise patients with overactive minds and squirrel-like attention spans and problems focusing and problems sleeping, they will tell them not to pop some Ritalin or merely take an herbal tincture and eat more leafy greens, but to go home right now and, yes, clean out your closets. Clear out your clutter. Strip it all to the beautiful essentials and then keep it that way."