Girard inspired designs

Inspired by mid-century textile and folk art designer Alexander Girard? If so, you are not alone.

Electra Bikes displayed two Girard designs at Interbike. Fresh designers at Dear Creatures cite Girard as influencing their design concept for Fall 2008 Collection along with Mary Blair and Scandinavian Folk Art.

Alexander Girard was chief textile designer for the Herman Miller Furniture Company, in the 1960's heydey that also included George Nelson and Charles Eames.

A modernist, Girard used color reflecting his affection for artifacts, toys and dolls of the southwest and Mexico. His collection was eventually one of the largest collections of Central and South American folk artifacts in the US and now resides in the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe.

Where have you spotted the Girard influenced designs?

Interbike 08: a non-techy recap

Let me be clear, I'm not totally bike fluent. I enjoy riding most any kind of bike but do not have a mechanic's appreciation of their inner workings.

The truth is, I enjoy an outsiders love.

Last week, I was fortunate to tag along for interbike, an annual event that takes place in the least bike-friendly city in the galaxy, Las Vegas. Below is a recap of what I saw:


the goods:

1. Chris King goes brown. Everyone else can continue their King bottom bracket discussion but brown (the 10th color) will be adding some flair to the bikes in your hood soon.

2. Commuters all over the place. I liked the Civia with bamboo racks.

3. Baggage: Chrome bags have held hipster appeal for some time but they seemed to catch fire with the show crowd. Everyone was rocking the buckle. Honorable mention: Rickshaw has a cool zero waste bag and a saweet beerdalero strap.

the peeps

1. There was another show going on in the bike storage area. It was interesting to see how the crowd spend their dollars and pimp their personal rides. From the ganders I took there was many a fixie in the keep, we're talking 50% or more (thanks to Rich at Interbike for suggesting a look-see).

2. What's up with the mustachioed? Was there a subtle HammerSchmidt guerilla campaign going on? There were a lot of stashes circulating and most appeared un-ironic.

3. Shimano's $100 shoe sale (was $350). A constant line and hundreds of blue boxes spotted in the crowd.

the events

1. Cross Vegas was WOW! Trebon controlled the race but Kabush's flyer with 4 laps to go kept things interesting as well as the chase group that included Johnson, Page, Wells and Craig. Loved that the suspense kept rolling till the finish.

2. Dirt Demo at Bootleg Canyon: cool breezes and good rides on a hot day. Spot SS belt drive 29er, dahon foldables and FS bikes with more travel than my Maverick offers. Favorite ride of the day was the YETI 575.

3. Social Media Panel Thursday: Nielsen stats, bike hugger and swobo-itude. Really good stuff.

4. Urban Legend. Bikes, Art, Fashion. Say no more. It was short and sweet on Thursday evening. Thanks to the Momentum folks for a job well done.

An insider's look

How you live is who you are.
The Sartorialist documents what the stylish are wearing, Cobra Snake documents how the cool kids party and The Selby documents the inspirational spaces of interesting peeps. Photos of Cheri Messerli and David Rager from the Selby site.

Mapping Stories

City of Memory is a mashup charting collective stories on a city map of NY. Open participation is encouraged at the site where contributions of stories, old and new, may uploaded to the interactive map.


According to PSFK, this is a Local Projects effort, the same group responsible for StoryCorps.

Do You Know Swobo?

A focus on design, clear understanding of personality, and utilization of social communication tools add up to a yummy brand.


Sky Yeager, designer for Swobo, foretold the rising appeal of city bikes. She has laid claim to the segment by offering form + functional rides that are influencing the industry–note the debut of the district from Trek.

Swobo's user-friendly and graphically fluent website covers the details in an interesting way.

Community is promoted at their blog How to avoid the bummer life. User contributions are encouraged but it is Stevil Kineval who gives voice to the brand, sharing stories and you tube links providing cues as to what it's all about.

Yes, I'm bike-curious, name another brand that makes themselves knowable.

Grounds for Play

Recall your grade schoool playground. How and what did you play? Did you twirl on bars, practice penny drops? Did you climb on jungle gyms or simply use them as imaginary shelter in fantasy play? Did you make yourself sick on the merry go round?

In Fall Down Go Boom, Good magazine provides an excellent report on the history of playgrounds and how they have been dumbed down to decrease the risks that provide the opportunity to build cognitive functions.

Adjunct articles describe innovations that are afoot in parks like Berkeley's Adventure Playground (pictured) that use scrap materials to promote creative play or Imagination Park planned for Manhattan, that offers colorful oversized blocks and loose parts.

These examples challenge playgrounds to think outside the current out-of-the-box-style of play areas: sterilized, safe and familiar to fast food patrons.

And what about us grown-ups? Play continues to provide a sound antidote to the serious nature of our lives. PSFK recently reported on Bruno Taylor a renegade playground designer and advocate for play. Bruno is on a mission to bring play back into public spaces, evidenced by the installation of swings in London bus stops.


Photos via GOOD & PSKF

Library Love

Collective book love is happening, good cause for a library celebration. Seattle library fans may purchase “I read in a Koolhaas” t-shirts and indeed they do, Architectural Media breaks down the architectural wonder on their blog.

Aside from the library design star, there is renewed affection for books of the borrowed kind being professed here and there. At hula seventy the recent post little worlds documents the library pilgrimage and ensuing inspiration.

Are you borrowing or buying your books? What are you checking out? Where are your favorite libraries?

Courtyard views of one of my faves, the Boston Public Library.

This for that, free of charge

Madonna's not the only one getting political these days. In separate efforts, Radiohead and Sheryl Crow are promoting social responsibility by offering up their goods in exchange for fans' participation.

In July, at ease shared that Radiohead surveyed fans who bought their North American show tickets through the W.A.S.T.E. ticket store. The survey allowed fans to enter their travel information to and from the show and calculate their carbon footprint. The survey results will be used in planning future tour schedules. In exchange for filling out the survey, Radiohead offered fans a free download of a live track from this year's tour.

Sheryl Crow is working with rock the vote to promote voter registration. Fans can earn a free album by getting three friends to register during the month of August.

With digital delivery and musicians good intentions, we can expect so see more of this for that transactions.

photo via wired listening post

commuter cycling up

Bicycling continues to gains fans evidenced by booming sales, strategic placement in fashion catalogs and a surge of commuter-friendly innovation.

Springwise reports that Trek has developed a prototype bicycle parts vending machine. Located just off a bike path in Madison, Wisconsin, the full-service vending machine is stocked with fix-a-flat items such as spare tubes, patches, tire levers, and CO2 cartridges; it also features an information center. A work stand and free air are also available beneath a covered work area.

The story also reports that Seattle-based Aaron's Bicycle Repair has offered a similar vending machine for after hours service since 2005.

Bikestation offers storage, bike rental and vehicle-sharing access at their sites currently located in Seattle and a handful of Californian cities.

And NYC is installing bike racks designed by none other than David Byrne who submitted his own designs after he was asked to judge a competition ny times story here.
















J. Crew photo found here cayenne & carob
additional info via Springwise

shared stories

Storytelling will never be a thing of the past. As Scientific American breaks it down
here, storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal across culture and through all of known history.

It's no wonder then that communities are organizing around a love of lore. To wit, back fence pdx is a collective with the mission of telling stories. Self described, they are kissing cousins to Porchlight, a storytelling series based in San Francisco. The Back Fence pdx blog offers a weekly story by a writer, blogger, or someone with an unusual story about the topic.

Shared Experience
Select Back Fence performers share their 6-minute stories organized around themed topics bimonthly. True Colors, the current series, is scheduled for Wednesday, August 13 at 7:30p.m. You can register for the event here or visit the blog for an auto-odyssey. Another way to stay in the loop of future scheduled events is to follow Back Fence on twitter .

Golden Anniversary

Trends in Japan reports that Honda is releasing a limited anniversary edition of its iconic Super Cub as it turns 50 this year.

Commemorative bikes go on sale August 1. According to their post, over 60 million super cubs have been sold world wide making it the top selling motorbike of all time. With consumers focused on fuel economy the golden years seem likely to stay gold, Ponyboy.

A pen for every purpose

Pens are in, especially as functionality goes freestyle. Trendhunter does a round up of 28 pens of the future here.

Forthcoming implements include pens that record your writing, the wi-fi detector pen, and long-distance autograph writers invented by Margaret Atwood.

And soon you can state your mind a little easier with the Philips emotion sensitive pen, that detects well-being and selects inks accordingly.

Postcards: p.s. I heart you

As reported by News Scotsman Postcards are enjoying a renewed interest among the British. The article reports that the Royal Mail is processing around 135 million postcards every year, an increase of 30 million over just three years.

It's no wonder, postcards serve as romantic but feasible artifacts to share among loved ones and the short hand requirements fit nicely with modern lexicon.

You can find unique designs or go DIY style here

or organize a swap a la the talented and industrious andrea at hula seventy

hooping it up

Therapy, Exercise, a distant memory, hoola hooping is many things to many people. And it seems, the love is growing beyond dirtbag festivals.

Classes are being offered that promote fitness as well as a spiritual philosophy engendered by the love of the circle. A popular Central Oregon offering is
Hoopdazzle combining dance and hooping taught by the impressive Mollie Hogan pictured above.

World Hoop Day is coming up on August 8 so maybe it's a good time for you to get into the hoop?

Photo via Hoopdazzle

Drawn to this: sketchbook pages

Cool book Drawing From Life features fantastic glimpses into the interior pages of creative journals.





















cool lettering sketches from the talented artist Linzie Hunter on Flickr






and good diy inspiration here:

wreck this journal