Urbis - New Zealand interiors/architecture/product/fashion
World Sweet World - New Zealand craft/design/diy mag
Vogue Living Australia - Australian interiors & lifestyle mag
Frankie - Australian fashion/art/diy
Inside Out - Australian interiors & lifestyle mag
Time's design issue - USA design overview (annual)
2. Why do you read these particular publications?
I enjoy reading both local and international publications. The above magazines are easy to access in New Zealand and relatively inexpensive. To follow European trends I prefer to follow blogs as imported magazines are much more expensive and harder to come by.
They cover a good mix of accessible design that is easy to replicate in my own home and inspirational work that can act as a catalyst for my design work at school. Many of the objects and interiors are aspirational on my student budget!
I am particularly interested in wallpaper/textile design and ceramics and these magazines often feature work in these fields. Reviews of local stores, exhibitions and shows are great because I can go out and see these for myself.
Time and Urbis are critical and evaluate the design showcased whereas the lifestyle magazines are much more descriptive and privilege the image over analysis.
3. Who are your favourite designers? Why?
Herzog & DeMeuron
I enjoy the strong external silhouettes these architects create in their work and the relationship this has with their interiors. An example of this is the Vitra Haus museum they designed in Basel, Germany. Set in countryside that changes from a summer pastoral paradise of undulating fields to bitter, windswept and snow covered in winter the setting is as important to their work as the structure itself. Block outlines of different traditional 'house' shapes project out at different angles, stacking one on another like a precarious stack of Monopoly houses. The external shape is mirrored inside the building in high loft shapes, but where the outside is made of heavy industrial materials and creates a dominating, almost threatening silhouette, the inside is clean lines, brightly lit, of white plaster and bleached wood. Huge windows contrast the interior view with the external silhouette and when viewed from the outside creates an interesting visual tension.
Frank Lloyd Wright
I particularly like Lloyd Wright's residential architecture. Like Herzog & DeMeuron I like that the shape of the structure is sympathetic to its setting. However, Lloyd Wright is much more consistent in his use of materials from the exterior to the interior. One of my favourite designs is his winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona 'Taliesen West'. A long and low structure it is built of materials extracted from the local landscape and blends in with it beautifully.
Catherine Martin
I've loved Martin's work since seeing Romeo + Juliet. She works with her husband (Director Baz Luhrman) to create entire worlds for their film's characters to inhabit. The attention to detail and sophisticated use of colour and texture is phenomenal and a modern approach to the German notion of 'gesamtkunstwerk' or total work of art. I admire her blending of models, large sets, painted backdrops and CGI to create the worlds and particularly the strong use of light and filters to acheive different effects.
She has branched into pattern design and interiors which makes her film aesthetic accessible in a home environment. My favourite copy of Vogue Living is the one that she guest edited and designed the cover for. She blew up and repeated an image of Florence Broadhurst's 'Cockatoo' design (another designer I admire) - which in itself was a cheeky reference to Broadhurst's modus operandi when it came to designing. It is great to be inspired by Antipodean, female, talent.
I do not watch television but I have seen every episode available of Mad Men and the work of Amy Wells is the main reason. Wells is the set designer on this show and recreates different aspects of the American interior in the early sixties.
Like Martin it is the attention to detail, colours and textures which are so appealing. The colour palette of the sixties is very different to that of our contemporary interiors, however, Wells recreates so that it does not look dated and retro but fresh and current. Many of the design objects from this era are undergoing a resurgence in popularity which helps and is in no small part probably due to her beautifully detailed and put together sets.
George Nelson
I enjoy Nelson's philosophical position but not necessarily all of his designs. For example, I appreciate the political comment he is making with his 'Atomic Clock' without wanting the piece in my own home but adore his 'Onion Skin' lampshades on a purely aesthetic basis.
Nelson made a film 'Elegy in a Junkyard' which reflects upon the consumerist society and that everything once complete is almost immediately obsolete. This resonated with me and has led to my interest in designers and installation artists that repurpose derelict items or spaces to give them a new lease of life or celebrate their transitory nature, what the Japanese call 'wabisabi' an aesthetic of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." (Pallassma, 2009).
Claire Coles
Coles is a designer who repurposes vintage wallpaper to create unique installations and decorative spaces. Similar to Nelson's philosophy I enjoy that she is giving new purpose and meaning to old and usually discarded items. Her subject matter can be somewhat cutesie and banal but the overall purpose behind her design of recycling and repurposing appeals to me.
I particularly like her use of colour, she has a strong grasp of how colours work together and whether a pieces is of complementary hues within a particular shade or an interesting contrast the overall effect is harmonious to the eye.
Hanna Werning
Werning is graphic designer who has turned her skills to creating unique patterns for wallpaper and textiles. Her designs blend the traditional with the modern, for example she will take an old pattern (eg: Fleur de Lis) and recreate at a much larger scale than is usual using a modern, bright palette of high contrasts.
4. If you were on a desert island, what five design objects would you take with you, and why?
I love to read and one book would not be enough, so thank goodness for this cunning design in which I can store countless books to wile away my days.
A fabulous opportunity to document a totally different environment cannot be missed. I love my Canon camera and would ensure this was in my backpack.
A desert island seems to insist on some down time and so a spot to relax in the sun, shade or at night is essential. A New Zealand design it is a giant beanbag shaped like an armchair with a matching ottoman that can double as a table. It is covered in weather proof fabric so would be ideal for any of the extreme weather conditions the island might throw up while I am stranded there.
The inclusion of two design objects that require their batteries to be recharged necessitates another design to power them. After some research this power generator seemed ideal - self contained, easily transportable and generating power through the sun.
I like my shade and shelter to come with a wooden raised platform floor, full height roof and walls, mosquito netting, electrical inlets for lights and cooking and enough space to walk around in. The verandah with drop down net 'windows' is a bonus.
References
Pallasmaa, J. The thinking hand : existential and embodied wisdom in arthitecture. Wiley Books, Chichester, U.K. 2009.
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