DJ and Commander Headphones by MUSE

Based in Melbourne, Australia, MUSE makes well-designed headphones for people who want something that looks good, sounds good and at an affordable price. The young Company is a collective of an entrepreneur, a gadgeteer, a communicator and a designer. New products include The DJ with its retro look, made for true music lovers who want an immersive listening experience, and The Commander, custom designed for the gaming experience, complete with adjustable ear-cups and a noise-cancelling microphone.

The DJ and The Commander, by Cedric Austria, for MUSE

Photography: Kim Høltermand

Kim Høltermand (born 1977) is a Danish architectural photographer who also works as a fingerprints expert in The Crime Scene Unit of The Danish National Police when he’s not out taking moody epic photos of modern architecture. The 32-year-old has become well known in the field of architectural photography, being featured in endless amounts of blogs and international magazines such as Baumeister, DWELL, D-Mode, GRAFIK, Euroman, Politiken, C-Heads Magazine, etc.

Photography by Kim Høltermand, via: Archinect

Krueck & Sexton Restores Mies 860-880 Lake Shore Drive

Architects Krueck & Sexton recently completed restoring one of legendary Modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s most celebrated commissions: 860-880 Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago.

860-880, which was built between 1949 and 1951, consists of two 26-story, exposed steel and glass apartment towers set at right angles on an irregular travertine plaza. Based on ideas and theories Mies had been perfecting since his earliest days as an independent architect in 1920s Berlin, the buildings redefined highrise living for the post-war generation.
Many architects and critics believe 860-880 is the closest Mies ever came to achieving his goal of less is more “skin and bones” architecture. According to the American Institute of Architects’ Guide to Chicago, “No other building(s) by Mies had as immediate or strong an impact on his American contemporaries, and the influence of these structures was to pervade much of modern architecture.”

860-880 is the third and largest Mies commission Krueck & Sexton, a firm more noted for its original work, has completed in recent years. The other two, all are in Chicago: Crown Hall on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology and the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago.

860-880 Lake Shore Drive, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe,
Restoration by Krueck & Sexton Architects

Kenneth Smythe Synergistic Synthesis XVII Sub B1 Chair

The upcoming Wright Modern Design auction includes this Synergistic Synthesis XVII Sub B1 Chair by San Francisco based designer, artist and scientist, Kenneth Smythe, who creates work originating from evolutionary models of nature. His furniture designs are essential forms derived from complex theories; the nature of Smythe’s process renders each work unique.

Synergistic Synthesis XVII Sub B1 Chair, Estimate: $2,000–3,000, by Kenneth Smythe,
at Wright Modern Design Auction, 23 March.

Pleated Star Wall Clock by George Nelson

The upcoming Wright Modern Design auction includes this wall clock by George Nelson & Associates. Pleated Star clock was made in 1955 from lacquered wood and enameled aluminum by the Howard Miller Clock Company, Zeeland, Michigan.

Pleated Star Wall Clock, Estimate: $2,000–3,000, by George Nelson & Associates,
at Wright Modern Design Auction, 23 March.

Photography: Yangtze, The Long River by Nadav Kander

“After several trips to different parts of the river, it became clear that what I was responding to and how I felt whilst being in china was permeating into my pictures; a formalness and unease, a country that feels both at the beginning of a new era and at odds with itself. China is a nation that appears to be severing its roots by destroying its past in the wake of the sheer force of its moving “forward” at such an astounding and unnatural pace. A people scarring their country and a country scarring its people.”
- Nadav Kander

Yangtze, The Long River, by Nadav Kander

Books: Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams

Heavily influenced by the German Bauhaus and Ulm School of Art, Dieter Rams pioneered a design spirit which embraced modernity and placed function above all, resulting in products that were free of decoration, simple in function and its purpose self-evident. Through his more than 40 years of work at Braun, Dieter Rams designed anything from hair dryers, cigarette lighters, loudspeakers, radios and radio-phonographs to clocks and watches. Each item holds a special place in the history of industrial design and has established Dieter Rams as one of the most influential designers of the late 20th century. With the logically-placed and spatial definition of their controls, simple forms and philosophy of functionalism, Braun products remain influential to product designers today.

Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams. The book contains images of hundreds of Rams’s products as well as his sketches and models – from Braun stereo systems and electric shavers to the chairs and shelving systems that he created for Vitsoe and sold by sdr+. In addition to the rich visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context. In this way, the work of Dieter Rams is given a contemporary reevaluation that is especially useful in light of the rediscovery of functionalism and rationalism in today’s design. Less and More shows us the possibilities that design opens for both the manufacturer and the consumer as a means of making our lives better through attractive, functional solutions that also save resources.

Read more: Ten principles of “good design”

Less and More is edited by Professor Klaus Klemp and Keiko Ueki-Polet. One of the world’s leading experts in the field of product design, Klemp has been acquainted with Dieter Rams for many years and is an authority on his work. Ueki-Polet is one of Japan’s most renowned design curators. She is well acquainted with design developments in both Asia and the Western world and works at the Suntory Museum in Osaka.

Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams, Editors: Klaus Klemp, Keiko Ueki-Polet, German/English, 19 × 23 cm, 808 pages, full color, PVC cover, in slipcase
ISBN: 978-3-89955-277-5

Buy it here: Amazon or Gestalten

Ottoman by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance for ligne roset

ligne roset has presented a new armchair and sofa designed by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance at imm Cologne.

Ottoman Armchair, Ottoman 3-seater, by Noé Duchaufour Lawrance, for ligne roset

Sen by Nicolas Gwenael for Agape

Brushed anodized aluminium taps available in grey or black finish, with autonomous controls, to match accessories in the range by the same name. The Sen system includes wall-mounted taps, a flexible hand shower, a shower column, surface-mounted taps and floor-mounted spouts. The accessories include holders for small objects in various sizes, a soap dispenser and towel holder. Suitable for use with the bathtub, washbasin or sanitary fittings, Sen stamps its distinctive mark on any space in which it is fitted.

Sen, by Nicolas Gwenael, Curiosity, for Agape

Forest of Woods by Mark Giglio

Different types of scrap wood turned into a forest.

Forest of Woods, by Mark Giglio, Pen Pencil Stencil