HAY office furniture...lithuania

One of the best investments you can make for any growing business is a cohesive office design.   HAY produces one of the best ranges of comfortable office furniture around.  Here's a quick look at one of the latest projects.

The modularity of HAY products make it easy to mix and match the designs to produce a flexible interior that can be easily added onto for your growing business.   

We like the simple colour scheme and the addition of warm wooden accents in the chair legs and the ceiling details.   The simple colour scheme of pale greys with punches of colour in the green vintage lighting.   

Wooden ceiling lathe detail to hide electrics and other equipment behind. 

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HAVE A WONDERFUL EASTER!

this weeks products in the wild

This week, we're revisiting some of our best sellers- we have always loved the price and practicality of HAY's loop stand range.   The images below are of the less used loop stand trestle table mounts.   So practical and we love the black with the white- lot's of graphic punch.   

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We've almost sold out of HAY tray tables this month. They are well priced and look great in contemporary environments.  We like them situated between 2 chairs, or beside beds  too.  

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We love the mix of colours in this image from the Design Files.   The orange Dinosaur design plate really looks fabulous against the blue of the wall.

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Another oldie but a goodie.   We like Northern Lighting's Bender light because it is light but fun.  It is also extremely functional.  

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Northern lighting's Acorn light looks great above the black tables and chairs from HAY in this office cafeteria in Oslo.   It's not too obvious here but the Acorn lamp is has a beautiful wooden finial at the top of the light.   

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Gosh, Hay products are popular- the About a Lounge is really a  comfy chair and a great price too.   We have lots of samples of fabrics for you to choose from.  

Dust by Ji Zhou at Christian Louboutin

Dust 1 

I was invited to preview of the works by Beijing artist, Ji Zhou at  Christian Louboutin in Ice House Street  this week and was lucky to catch the artist there to explain his work and influences.  Talking to an artist is always interesting as you do get an insight into the way that they work, their ideas and methodology.   

Born in Beijing, Ji Zhou studied art and printmaking in Beijing and Paris.   His work explores the idea of time, meaning and society, referencing the natural world, architecture and everyday objects and presenting them in a way that is thought provoking and meaningful.   

As the title of the exhibition states, the works are united by the theme of Dust- a metaphor for the passing of time and the detritus it leaves behind.   Some of the works, Dust No.1, Dust No.4 and Spectacle 3, depict naturalistic scenes covered in dust.   

Spectacle 3 

However, though these scenes are naturalistic they are entirely manufactured and false.   Ji Zhou is an artist that likes to play with the viewers perception of reality- tricking the viewer into looking into a scene, believing it is real, but on closer inspection, revealing inconsistencies that make it false.  

Dust 2

Dust 2 is the most appropriate to display in the Christian Louboutin space because of its subject matter.  Ji Zhou explained to me that shoes are the most personal piece of clothing that people use.  The choice and the way that people use their shoes speaks volumes about the individual.   A construction worker would choose a different pair of shoes than an office worker.  Even if two individuals buy the same pair of shoes, they might wear them in completely different situations and the shoes would show evidence of this.  Torn and worn in certain places , the shoes would display the lifestyle, personal habits & even faults in posture or injury.   They are intensely personal and show the effects of time and use.   

Dust is open from March 23rd to April 5th at Christian Louboutin Wyndham Street.   

Apps we can't live without....

Running a business is hard because you have to have a lot of balls in the air.  One thing that makes life a whole lot easier are the apps that we use regularly.   We use these apps to save us valuable time, help us run things better and more efficiently.  

1. Google

The great thing about the Google suite of products is that is free, able to be accessed from any computer and are so easy to use.   We use Chrome, Sheets, Photos and Drive regularly.   It is great to be able to share content so easily, especially if you have a lot of users.   

2. Evernote

I really depend on Evernote to keep track of random ideas throughout the day.   It is also a repository for information.  I try to keep it organised by creating notebooks.  Even my handwritten diaries are transferred into scannable documents and put into evernote.   If I lose my diary- no sweat.   The evernote extension on the top of my chrome bar is great and you can directly forward emails to evernote- tagging them so you can find the information easily.   

3. Canva

I am an experienced user of the Adobe suite of products- especially Illustrator.   However, you can't beat the Canva for the ease that it allows you to create sophisticated graphics with very little skill. We use it to create our product information tags as well as social media graphics.   

4. Pipedrive

Keeping track of customer enquiries and follow through is always difficult.   We checked out quite a few CRM systems before we settled on Pipedrive.   This app can be used on any computer and allows you to see all your deals in one place.    The best thing about it is the ability to BCC an email with the specific deal email address.    By having this you can forward any email to the correct deal card and anyone can follow the progress of the deal.   So easy.   

5.  Send Anywhere

You can spend quite a bit of time and money moving information around your various devices.   I have just discovered Send Anywhere.   Basically, you upload your files in the app, which creates a QR code or a 6 digit code which you can use to access your files from your other device.  So easy!  

So here are a few of the apps we use on a daily basis to keep track of what is going on, helping us to run our business effectively and more efficiently.    

New in- Design Anthology, Arhoj paperweights and dutch deluxes aprons and mitts

Nothing like opening a new mag and checking out the contents.   I can't believe that DA is celebrating its second anniversary.  Congrats Suzie!!! 

This issue focusses on travel with a design perspective, and looks at homes in Japan, NZ, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to name a few.   As always the quality of production is high- fabulous images spread across lovely thick paper! 

Issue 8 is HKD75

Woah- we love our new Arhoj glass paperweights-  we always have a problem keeping everything in place on our desks and these paperweights are the solution.  Our Arhoj ghosts have nearly sold out but the paperweights are just as cute! In three designs- they make a great gift for the person who has everything.   

Also new in store are leather aprons from Dutch Deluxes.   So many of you are fans of the boards (we also have some new sizes in stock) and the leather aprons are really cute and oh so practical.    

Don't you think that this glove would look amazing wrapped around your Le Creuset?   

Look at the quality of the stitching and the punched leather in this apron.   

In other news, Normann Copenhagen is represented in Designmuseum Denmark’s new exhibition Danish Design Now opening March 11. If you are in Denmark, this is a must see as it gathers together the 21st century’s most innovative, attractive and surprising Danish designs.   

Normann Copenhagen is represented with as many as 11 designs, including several award-winning pieces like the minimalist Geo vacuum jug, the flexible Washing-up bowl, and the popular Form range from 2014. We have examples of most of these designs in store, so pop in and pick up a design classic.   

Form chair on the top shelf

Rolling pin, tea ball and dustpan.  

Mormor ceramics

Boxes of NC tea

The beautiful Design Museum

A display from the exhibition.   

Selected designs: 

Form Series by Simon Legald (2014)

Craft by Simon Legald (2013)

Nabo trays by Simon Legald (2013)

Tea egg by Made By Makers (2012)

Shoehorn by Nis Ølgaard (2012)

Geo vacuum jug by Nicholai Wiig Hansen (2012)

Normann tea graphic by Anne Lehmann (2010)

Mormor range by Gry Fager (2009)

Dustpan and brush by Ole Jensen (2002)

Washing-up bowl by Ole Jensen (2002)

Cognac glass by Rikke Hagen (2002)

Fluffy Birkenstocks and all that....

I have a bit of a love/ hate relationship with Birkenstocks...they are supremely comfortable and supportive but dare I say it just a tad ugly- okay, a lot ugly.  

However, they can be somewhat like a shar pei.  So ugly, it's cute. Celine in 2013 thought so- remember these

Gosh, they looked ugly comfortable.   However,  the HKD6k price tag was enough to put me off.   

However, a walk through the West Village led me to Tomas Maier, who is Bottega Veneta's creative director but also has his own label.   His store drew me in, showing off a fab interior with a vintage beni ourain rug (you know I am fond of these) in the window.   

Sitting on the gorgeous table was a pair of fluffy black Birkenstocks with that shar pei effect.    See below- alluring, yes?

I tried on the beige and white ones but my husband said I looked like my feet were bandaged.   Anyway for USD140 they were pretty good value and felt like heaven.   

Do you know anyone who bought the Celine versions?   

New Gentlewoman with Kirsten on the Cover

It's running out the door and it's easy to see why.  The latest Gentlewoman launches into Spring and Summer 2016 with its thirteenth edition starring the sparkling American actress Kirsten Dunst on the cover. Brimming with conversations and encounters with women of infectious zeal and perspicacity, this new issue boasts the Scottish political prodigy Mhairi Black, the fastest British woman of all time Dina Asher-Smith, the enigmatic writerElena Ferrante, art-world powerhouse Manuela Wirth, superstar robotics engineer Cynthia Breazeal, and America’s fabulously filthy funny girl Whitney Cummings. This season, we also introduce a 5,000-word oral history of Maison Martin Margiela’s radical Spring / Summer 1990 fashion show, along with an elucidation on the codes of greeting. Ponderings on matters of size, freewheeling adventures in Barcelona and gorgeous fashions lovingly-photographed for your pleasure top off this new issue. Tasty!

A visit to the 9/11 memorial

I still remember looking at the clear blue sky over Sydney Harbour from our apartment in Wolloomoolloo on that fateful and imagining the terror that New York was facing. 

It was also a beautiful day in NY, with a cloudless blue sky as the backdrop for an event that changed people's lives and the world. 

Today, on our trip to New York, A and I spent a few hours visiting the 9/11 Memorial Museum and its surrounds. We booked a tour which was hosted with tact and respect by Meredith. She was able to explain to us on the 1 hour tour the events of that day and the importance of some of the artefacts preserved in the collection. 

When we arrived, it was snowing outside over the Memorial pool. 

We first entered the Hall where we were awed by the original slurry wall that was part of the Twin Towers. 

This wall is punctuated by tie backs that helped support the original structure. 

This is the last column to be removed from the site and formed a makeshift memorial at the time. 

It's important to remember that many people were saved by the valiant efforts of the first responders.  Around 15000 people escaped. Some of them used this staircase which led to Vesey Street. 

This beautiful artwork tried to capture thousands of different shades of blue- referring to the gorgeous cloudless sky of that day. 

These granite walls reference the original footprint of the towers.  Having visited them in 1991, I can tell you they were huge.  

You can see some remnants of the supporting steel. 

The exhibition had a vast collection of personal artefacts both large and small, including this crushed fire truck and twisted metal.  

The central hall houses two exhibitions- a memorial to the victims as well as a explanation of the events- both before and after.  You could not take photos in these areas, but the collection is vast and personal at the same time. 

I would recommend a visit of around 4 hours. It is truly worth it. 

After our visit, the weather had brightened so we spent some time looking at the memorial. After our visit we started to recognise some of the names of the people who lost their lives and their personal stories. 

The Millennium tower is beautiful. 

The top of the new transport hub. 

The tickets for the Museum can be booked around 3 months before your visit at www.911memorial.org