News And Updates
Recently, interior designer Charise Glasson shared her favorite design maganzines. All over the internet, people have been talking about what changes need to be made to save magazines. What content needs to change? Will advertisers come back to magazines? Will readers? Will they all go online? Even Elle Decor’s Margaret Russell discussed this in last month’s issue.
One group of consumers is putting their money where their mouth is. They want to build a group of support for the magazine industry by having everyone buy a magazine on the same day — tomorrow, February 1, to be precise. They even made a Facebook fan page, imaginatively titled “Save the Magazines!! Make Feb 1st National Buy a Magazine Day!”
I’m not sure if corralling everyone to buy a magazine on one day is going to cure the magazine industry’s ills, but it’s nice to see people wanting to do something to save a media platform they care about. And it’s fun, so why not?
Tomorrow, I think I’m going to buy three magazines — at least one that I wouldn’t otherwise buy — and subscribe to at least one. All design, of course.
I’ll see you tomorrow, in the magazine section.
(photo via Flickr)
In an effort to highlight as many sources of great design deals as possible (and also to clean up our content stream), the DesignBoston team is going to start listing all sales in one post, starting with this one. Let us know how you like it, and if you’re shop is having a sale that should be listed!
Grand – 20% off everything in the store to celebrate their 2nd birthday on Saturday 1/30 – with a party that night!
Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams – 35-70% off floor samples and select stock (and 20% off select upholstery) through 1/31.
Vessel – Bring in 3 non-perishable food items and get 15% off Gus* Modern furniture and accessories through 1/31.
DWR – 15% off all upholstery and rugs through 2/2.
Infusion Furniture – 50% off selected inventory: Side tables, coffee tables, console tables, etc. Contact for more details.
Ever since the Puma City display last spring, I’ve been fascinated with using shipping containers for architecture. You can imagine my pleasant surprise, then, when I discovered the Box Office, an office building made of shipping containers 50 miles away, in Providence, RI.
Designed by Distill Studio and built by Stack Design-Build, the Box Office is made by upcycling thirty two 40-foot long shipping containers and turned them into 12 office/studio spaces. It sits on a narrow lot between Harris Avenue and and Interstate 95, a perfect location for the transportation-inspired building.
The benefits of using shipping containers are environmental (recycling or upcycling), cost (much less expensive than a traditional building) and construction time. Check out this time-lapse video of the Box Office being constructed.
MONTHLY GIVEAWAY: WIN A FREE CHUMBO KVAD
(Used in the upcoming Twilight movie!):
1. Visit inmod’s Facebook Profile, and add them as a friend.
(Before Midnight, E.S.T. Thursday, 1/28.)
2. Become their fan on Facebook
(optional, but highly recommended!)
3. After your friend request has been confirmed, copy and paste the following into your Facebook status and then “tag” us (Before Midnight, E.S.T. Friday, 1/29.):
“Just entered to win a free Chumbo Kvad (used in the upcoming TWILIGHT movie). Click here for details: http://bit.ly/7FugcU. Copy & Paste this into your FB status and tag Inmod Modern Furniture to automatically enter to win”
HOW TO TAG: In your status update field, type “@” followed by “Inmod Modern Furniture, and select their profile (Inmod Modern Furniture) from the drop-down which appears under your status.
* This contest will run until midnight Friday 1/29 EST. Three winners will be selected on Monday Feb 1 and notified via Facebook. Prizes will be shipped anywhere within the Continental US.
So what Can You Do With A Chumbo Kvad?
Sit on it – it’s a seat!
Use it as a table.
It’s perfect for cocktails.
Illuminate your space.
It’s also conveniently a light.
Use it as a planter.
Some flowers or branches will really make it look nice.
Throw some ice in there and your favorite bottle to keep it chilled.
Poker in the dark.
Use it as an ottoman.
Put your feet up and kick back.
Use it inside -
hey it’s free and way better looking than that free stuff you got on Craigslist
Use it outside – see above.
Create a lounge.
You can even charge a cover if you’re smart.
Watch the upcoming Twilight Movie with your friends and tell them that’s where it’s from.
Really small game of beer pong.
New England Home magazine is on a search for the top young designers in New England, and they need your help.
New England Home is taking your nominations for the top architects, interior, furniture, or home-product designers under 40 years old. “Selected by an all-star committee of regional design leaders, 5 Under 40 winners are the people to watch, producing some of the most beautiful and innovative work available today.”
Each winner will have the opportunity to design a custom rug that will be produced by Landry & Arcari, the presenting sponsor. These rugs will be auctioned off at a celebration honoring the winners on June 10.
This is a great opportunity to help talented, young designers gain some well-deserved recognition. But you have to hurry – nominations end at 5pm on January 31. Winners will be announced in a March press release, in the May/June issue of New England Home, and right here on DesignBoston.
Saying 2009 was a tough year for design magazines is quite an understatement. With the loss of Domino, Metropolitan Home, ID and scores of others, last year was the hardest ever on the publishing industry.
Like many of you, I’m sure, this hit me pretty hard. I LOVE design magazines. I mean, sure, I love the multitude of design blogs out there (I’d better, right?), but there’s something about holding a magazine (or especially a coffee table book, but that’s getting off the subject), seeing some of the best photographers shots of fantastic rooms, let alone read about how these spaces came to be. The combination of tactile and visual experience can’t be matched online.
I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, so I reached out to my friend, interior designer Charise Glasson, and asked which magazines were her must-haves. And, like a true design fanatic, she reads several cover-to-cover every month. Take a look at Charise’s “Magazines I lust, love and simply can NOT live without” (that was the subject of her email!):
1. Veranda
3. Elle Decor
EDIT: Southern Accent was actually one of the victims of 2009.
9. Elle Wonen
10. Haute Living
13. Real Simple
14. Home & Design
15. Dwell
16. Artichoke
She also included a number of local magazines separately:
17. New England Home
19. Boston Home
20. Boston Design
Wow, what a list! Thank you, Charise! What interesting to think is, to manage annual subscriptions to all of these magazines, you’d have to renew roughly two subscriptions every month. At $10-20 per subscriptions, it’s not a huge expense per month, especially compared to what it would cost over the counter -
What about you? What magazines can simply NOT miss an issue of?
Another interesting duo that I met at SHIFTboston are Derek Cascio and Sam Aquillano. They are creating the Design Museum Boston, where they will share all types of design – architecture, furniture, product design, graphic design and more.
The approach Derak and Sam are taking for Design Museum Boston isn’t the normal route of raising millions of dollars in funds, finding a building and curating exhibits. Instead, they will open DMB in vacant store fronts, flash store-style, in various neighborhoods. This way, they’ll be able to share design with people that may not otherwise take the opportunity to experience it.
I had a chance to talk with them briefly at SHIFTboston. They’re just starting out, and I’m hopeful that Design
We’d all love to go crazy and buy up all custom furniture and accessories, or have only pieces by the icons. But, there’s the reality that not everyone can afford to go all out. What then? How do you know what to spend the money on, and what to pull back on?
Local interior designer (and fellow blogger) Linda Merril was recently featured in the Boston Sunday Globe Magazine for helping a South End couple do just that. Through a series of selective buys of custom, and high- and low end retail, she was able to help the couple restore their home, and keep within budget.
Well done, Linda!
Believe it or not, throughout Boston, there are small tracts of land sitting, waiting for eager green thumbs to have their gardening way with them. I don’t mean the community gardens you see sprinkled about, like the woefully-place one near my apartment in Charlestown. What I mean are the small patches in your back yard, or next to the steps of your brownstone. But who would want to garden in such a small space, you ask.
That’s where Beantown Beanshare comes in. This new organization pairs “eager hands with idle hands”. The premise is easy: Register on their site of whether you want to garden or have land available, and Beantown Beanshare will pair you up with a corresponding owner or gardener. It’s that simple.
Simple is good.
I had the chance to meet Katie Flynn, Anna Engstrom, and Morgan Pinney of Beantown Beanshare at SHIFTboston, where their proposal was among the finalists featured. Beantown Beanshare is just starting out, but they have big hopes for it. Check it out:
This past Thursday, Boston’s design, government, and business communities came together to discover new ideas for the future of our city. The SHIFTboston Forum was the culmination of a months-long search for ideas of “What if…?” In the end, 141 submissions came in from 47 states and 16 countries – that’s a lot of interest in our little city!
Emcee Brian Healy, AIA (and former President of the Boston Society of Architects) led a conversation with panelists Audrey O’Hagan, AIA (and 2010 President of the BSA); Maria Aiolova, LEED AP; and Carlo Ratti, PhD. They discussed the variety of themes presented (technology, transportation, and the environment were big ones) and featured the finalists.
There were a number of proposals to move out over the water — whether by barge, a Manhattan-shaped island on the Charles River, or an elevated landmass with housing hanging from below it — and a good amount of proposals focused on the Fort Point Channel (one of two sites specified in the challenge). There was a community gardening initiative and a proposal that consisted of one blue line throughout the city, a reminder of how high the sea level could rise given current rates of climate change.
But there can only be one winner.
SHIFTboston from DesignBoston on Vimeo.
The winning submission, by Sapir Ng, of Tsoi/Kobus & Associates, and Andrzej Zarzyck, of NJIT, was unlike the other proposals in that it didn’t propose to add anything to the city’s current infrastructure. Instead, the TUTS – Tremont Underground Theater Space – would reuse a closed-off section of subway tunnel under Tremont Street for underground theater.
What I love most about this proposal is the excitement Sapir and Andrzej have in it, and the fact that, unlike some submissions, this one can very easily happen.
After the presentation, local and state government officials spoke about their support for these ideas, but what I found most promising was Robert Culver, President and CEO of MassDevelopment, expressing a real interest in financing big architectural ideas around the city.
There were a few complaints in the crowd, and on Twitter, about the forum. There were some concerns afterwards that it was less moderating by Healy and more monologuing. Also, some suggested the design entries were too tame, possibly intimidated by the thought of being judged by a more established, mainstream jury. As this was the first SHIFTboston, I’m sure there will be changes made by both organizers and contestants, and I look forward to seeing what SHIFTboston has to offer in the future.