minimalistico's posterous

Of all the forms of design, interior design is the one that's closest to home: we interact with it from the moment we get out of bed - while we get ready in the morning right through to dinnertime, leisurely evenings and back to bed again.

And great interior design is more than just good to look at - it's about function, comfort, and how we actually relate to our environment. Studies often show that clutter and stress can be closely linked: that piles of mess and disorganised heaps of stuff are actually not good for us on a physical level.

It follows, then, that good design is good for us. Even if that's not scientifically proveable, having good interior design within the home certainly brings a lot of pleasure - and that in itself means that there's a feelgood factor that we all benefit from, if we appreciate interiors.

Of course while the tactile and the ergonomic are aspects of interiors - the dominant sense here is visual - what makes a great room great? That's a subjective question, obviously. But it's still one worth answering as it can help you to define and refine your own taste - and maybe even provide you with some insight that'll help you find new interior design ideas. Try looking at sme o fthe stuff on Pinterest when you do a design search within the site. One of the great things about Pinterest is that you can dive right in and see loads of stuff just by scrolling down, without needing to click through.

In other design news: get yourself along to the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum for their extremely cool exhibition British Design 1948 - 2012. Described as a celebration of "the best of British post-war art and design from the 1948 'Austerity Games' to the summer of 2012'.

Hello

Minimalistico is still here.

Just not been posting so much of late as it's not really been a minimalstic enough Zeitgeist out there right now.

All the talk - quite rightly - is about tablet computers. iPad this, Sony that. HP exit stage left, Motorola Mobile goes Google, Amazon appear on the scene, making many (including me) a bit excited. Excited enough to check their homepage twice a day, in hopes of seeing the gleam of their new machine and being able to get in the queue and order one. Their Kindle - while far from being a perfect device - is still beautifully thought out and a joy to hold. It's even good for reading books on too, which is what (I believe) it was invented for in the first place.

Anyway - on the subject of ye tablet computers. I would like to see intelligent minimalism built in to the OS, not just the casing. I find it slightly amusing how you can have these futuristic - almost miraculous - touchscreen devices, and then when you go into the shop and try them out, half of the available OS's (what's the plural of OS? Was that apostrophe a rogue one?) are kind of wham bam thankyou dayglo. It's a weird aesthetic disjuncture, in my opinion!

Maybe the perfect OS will one day just appear. The things I'm wondering about:

 

• Will the perfect OS be open source? Or will it be like Windows: available to put on any machine? Or will it be machine-tied like Apple? These three contending ways of supplying an OS will surely one day show a clear winner. Hasn't happned yet though.
• What would the perfect OS behave like? What would it look like? What new things would it do?
• What would the perfect OS be called? I thinkit shoul be called Jim.

 

Technology - don't you just love it?

 

We cannot help but appreciate fashion design, but before we start waxing lyrical about wearable art, we'd like to draw attention to the fact that the large majority of fashion fans cannot afford the sleek creations of high end designers.

Of course this has never stopped stylish people of all ages expressing their affection for the catwalk by donning careful interpretations of designer looks, gleamed from the wide offering of high street stores in the UK.

Which is why it is so refreshing that the efforts of affordable, quality fashion design is being recognised again in The Lorraine Show’s High Street Fashion Awards.

Okay, it may not be as glamorous as New York fashion week, but you have to admit it takes the pressure off to know that you can nip down to Peacocks for a £30 outfit and still look on trend when times get tough. And it’s nice that Lorraine Kelly and her TV family realise that £30 is more similar to the average viewer’s budget range than £300.

We like the affordable fashion category the most, because brands like Peacocks, Primark and George at ASDA are up for a prize. Over the last couple of years these brands have perfected the art of designer inspired fashion, and managed to produce stylish, high quality garments for a fraction of the price of their designer counterparts.

Stores like Peacocks have even managed to provide shoppers with great design for far less than the average high street stores, making their creations a representation of true value for money

Well, the new iPad will be in UK stores soon - unfortunately none of us here at Minimalistico have got enough pocket money this month to actually buy one, but we will definitely be at the Apple store trying it our for size Initially it didn't seem like the new iPad was much of a great step forward for the Apple tablet but then how much of a step forward did it need so soon anyway - this one is lighter and works faster than the original model. No doubt the wheel will be reinvented in time but for now let's just enjoy touchscreen tablets for what they are - a new type of computing, as smooth and perfect as a pebble. Until, of course, the next thing comes along.

russian avant garde cubo futurism. you can't beat it :)

great design is all in the detail. that doesn't mean that the design needs to be detailed or intricate, it just means that everything about the item needs to be right, from its intended longevity to the way it looks. oftentimes the best designs are the ones that have the confidence almost do disappear from view and just get on with their job - design classics do that. while lesser ideas have to jump at us colorfully for attention, design classics sit back, cool and aloof. i first became interested in design as a kid. i was fascinated with the graphics on cereal packets, i was fascinated by the design of my bicycle frame, and i loved anything chrome. and that's when i first came across the name brabantia - the brand actually goes as far back as 1919. for me it represents all that's great about great design. and i love the way that they're designed to retain their looks and performance for 20 years. that's unusual, and it's part of the charm.

For graphic artists, the twelve-inch record sleeve was an almost perfect space to work upon. Enough to make a visual impact much more than any of its successors (cassette tape, compact disc, MP3 file), and with real cultural currency - think of Trout Mask Replica: it's everywhere. What the broadsheet arts critics would call 'iconic'. Compare then with now. (By 'then' I mean, of course, the days when vinyl ruled and before sleeve design was primarily done for the 5" square CD cover). Great though the designs may be for albums like The Blueprint 3 and  My beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, they're never going to have the same cultural effect as, say Pink Floyd's Animals, partly because of the small format of the sound carrier, and partly because youth culture has moved on to other areas of visual expression, in this electronic, post- just about everything age. So, in mourning for an age long gone, here's my list of top 10 album sleeves. 1. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures 2. Crass - Feeding of the 5000 3. The Beatles - The Beatles (aka the white album) 4. Neil Young - After The Goldrush 5. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland 6. Sonic Boom - Spectrum 7. Red House Painters - Red House Painters (aka Rollercoaster) 8. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti 9. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks 10. Teenage Fanclub - A Catholic Education

Pearl Lowe started off with an enviable enough career as singer in Britpop band Powder. Since reinventing herself as a designer she's had massive success. And it's not just the designs that Pearl Lowe has excelled at, but the whole business model: from concept to delivery, pearl Lowe's clothing collection is a masterclass in how to get it right. Perhaps sensing that the days of the £350 pullover were over, Pearl Lowe made sure that her collections for Peacocks were a great deal for the consumer, which continues as can be seen with her new Christmas Collection 2010, available at Peacocks. The response from the fashion media has been, to put it midly, phenomenal. Another stroke of genius was the deployment of Lowe's daughter Daisy as the face of the range, effortlessly adding an extra touch of magic to the range. Sometimes design is more than just about design, it's about making sure that all the right factors are in place for when the product has been made available to the public: in terms of ditribution, promotion, and so on. And designing items for the affordable price point has to be a winner in the current world we live in.  Long may it continue.

Phillippe Starck is pretty much a one off. A unique individual. Whether or not you like his designs (and I'm guessing that there's bound to be a Marmite type polarised response to his work) you can't ignore his influence on design in our age. Starck's English is, let's be honest, not great. Thickly Gallic-accented, he sometimes has to ask for the word he is looking for in English. And yet, even with this slight language barrier, he is many times more articulate than most speaking in their own language. The recent television programme, along similar lines to The Apprentice, where Starck gets to set challenges to young design graduates, only went to show how difficult the job of design actually is. Mainly it seems to be searching around in the dark, not knowing what exactly it is you're looking for. And not finding it either, if most of the projects were anything to go by. Starck alarm clock by Telefunken

Time was, when designing websites was fairly simple in terms of the user context. What I mean is that the user wouldn't be on a plane or on the bus, or sitting in a pub. They would be sat at a CRT monitor, using a desktop PC. Probably one with Internet Explorer as the web browser. Nowadays your user could be just about anywhere. They could be lazing in bed, they could be at the summit of Mount Everest. And they could be using a laptop, a smartphone, a netbook. This level of change means that web design continues to be a fast-paced and exciting area. People might not be going round on jetpacks by 2020, but one thing's for sure, the internet will have evolved so much by then that right now it's impossible to tell what form it will take.