play it bright !

A little taste of the 80's without the nostalgia (who needs it).

1 Gum necklace - areaware ($100), or do it yourself?
2 Rollerskate door stop - areaware ($95), also in silver or white
3 Charms - Tarina Tarantino for kidrobot
4 Multi zip bag - moma store ($10)
5 Comme des garcons wallet - flight001 ($200)
6 Clockwork Beethoven bust - kidrobot ($200)
7 Turntable - conran shop ($350)
8 Plastic birds water whistles - kioskkiosk ($15 / 5 pces)
9 Clay side table by Marteen Bass - moss ($4,100)
10 Pink piggy - areaware ($95), cast from a pig that died from natural causes. Holds up to $10,000 in $1 bills. Also in silver and gold (we knew these for a while) but also copper, white or black
11 latest nike for Brooklyn Projects

golden days

Never mind the recession, gold is everywhere!
Here are a few cool items out there, but feel free to buy gold spray paint at the hardware store and look around your home to find the not-so-fresh objects (or furniture) asking for a gold revival.


1 Comme des garcons wallet in Gold - Flight001 $226
2 Banana bowl- Areaware $120
3 Bourgie table lamp in gold - DWR $985
4 Tiffany key pendant $950
5 18 litter gold bag - Moma store $16
6 Yoshimoto cube - Moma store $55
7 Yves St Laurent Downtown tote bag in metallic shaded suede
8 Alma simple fortune cup - Areaware $48.75
9 Solid birch chair covered with 24 carats gold-leaf - Scandinavian Design Center $3,000
10 Bar of gold door stop - Conran Shop $79
11 Tam tam stool in gold by Branex Design 78euros

invader art

You all know the invaders right? If not and if you live in a large city, you've definitely noticed them. See "around the world" on their website if you don't know what I'm talking about.
They started a while back (before 2000) and "invaded" many cities by gluing (with pretty much impossible to remove swimming pool grout!) atari inspired invader mosaics on carefully chosen monuments, places, stores, streets etc. And that's how they entered the art world...
Well, I just discovered (I know I'm kind of late), that they were now playing with rubik's cubes!
This is brilliant... more on their website.

the LITTLE BOX #2 is here!

LITTLE BOX #2 was made for Mamie-Claire !

more wood at work !

I love the contrast Low tech-High tech of having wood where we'd expect it the least... More wood in our lives!

1- maple cell phone - seen on cameraphoneplaza.com
2- ASUS bamboo laptop - $1999.00 at amazon.com
3- HACOA Wood keyboard (email them for prices)
4- HACOA Wood usb flashdrive (email them for prices)
more flashdrives on my post:USB drives with personality
5- VERS handcrafted ipod speaker $139.99
6- MOMA STORE mp3 mini speakers $36
7- MINIOT wood iphone case 80 euros
8- CONTAINER STORE wood verneer magnet board $24.99
9- AREAWARE magno small radio $200
10- CD labels could only find them on ebay, but really easy to do it yourself!
11- Last minute item - Flexible love already millions have discovered it. I think it's brilliant. See the videos below. Yes, not 100% wood, sorry!
I found the mini version on ebay for 27 BP

Ruud Van Empel

Another great artist I found very inspiring: Ruud Van Empel, right now at the STUX Gallery in New York.
The first batch here is from the World, Moon and Dawn series.

The serie below is called "souvenir". I love the atmosphere, and I love the still lives. Would be great to do a catalog or an editorial like this... Just things, no obvious structure, no focal point, it's not telling you what to look at first, or second. It's pretty much how I would normally define a bad styling job, which is why it's brilliant (to me) !!

All images are courtesy of Stux Gallery New York

I can't help thinking of how to translate this into my world (art direction). Ideas, ideas, ideas!!!
Van Cleef & Arpels did something in the same direction - a perfect green environment with more than perfect people pasted in it.

Shinichi Maruyama - Kucho

This is an exhibition I saw today at Bruce Silverstein Gallery in Chelsea.
Extract of the press release:

"KUSHO, the Japanese word for “writing in the sky” features ten large-scale photographs that represent the midair interplay of black Indian ink and water. The phenomenon that Maruyama captures—two liquids colliding the millisecond before they merge into gray—is the result of various actions and devices. [...] The split-second timing necessary to photograph these pictures is made possible by recent advances in strobe light technology, allowing the artist to capture phenomena to within 7,500th of a second.

As the art historian Maurice Berger writes of the Kusho series: “Maruyama’s photographs both document and formalistically play on the chance effects of these processes, exemplifying the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi—the beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. [...]"

You'll read again about Wabi-Sabi on my blog as it's a passion of mine. Big time.
Oh and I'm proud to say that my father Michel Merck developed the exact same strobe process for my photographer uncle around 30 years ago!

Also, read below the artist's statement. I like it!

Joshua Allen Harris

You might have heard about him already, he's all over the internet.
Brilliant!

Leandro Erlich at P.S.1

I just discovered Leandro Erlich thanks to his installation at P.S.1 .
Here's a video from the P.S.1 exhibition.
Wouldn't that be an amazing set for a fashion shoot?

The photos below are from his website (slightly different pool)...
So cool, and it's great to see people having fun with it.

Here's more of his work I grabbed from his website:

I took me second to understand the story below: the set is on the floor and people see themselves in the large mirror which is at an angle... so smart, so playful... I just love it.

Takashi Murakami fix

Just a quick nod to Takashi Murakami.
I'm sure you know him, at least for his collaboration with Louis Vuitton.
He's creating a world that he translates into fine art, luxury good and bring it to the mass market with small toys, stuffed animals etc.
Sorry, nothing very new here - except for the paintings above - but I just had a craving for his feel good video (click to check it out), so I thought I'd share...

This is from the retrospective at

MOCA (Museum of Modern Art in LA) last year:

did I inspire Vuitton?

I feel so privileged today: I think I inspired the last Valentine's concept for Louis Vuitton!!!
See for yourselves: above are a few images from the Two's valentine catalog I did -being wholesale, it was produced in March 2008- and below is the Louis Vuitton 2009 Valentine's campaign on their website now.
Just look beyond the product and the quality because that's just unfair...
They did limit the concept to card games only but that's OK too.

They say that being copied is the best compliment, but just try being copied by Vuitton!!
He he he...

USB drive with personality

When you're in the design business, and you go to a meeting present a project, or show your work to potential clients, you can't just get a boring plain old USB drive out of your pocket: because it's our job to present the client's product right, we should be able to do the same with our own work!
I love to carefully pick my "tools" anyway, so finding the right USB drive was a cool challenge for me.
I've been casualy looking for one for a few weeks, but I haven't found anything at all in stores that I liked... I started to look online yesterday, and of course, I found absolutely everything I was hoping for... and more. Here are my best finds in 4 different categories: 007, toys, nature and hungry. Not all work-appropriate!!!
What's your favorite??

............007............

1 hacked, 2 diy eraser, 3 nail, 4 bling necklace,
5 swaroski necklace, 6 gun, 7 bomb, 8 finger, 9 glasses

............TOYS............

1 caterpillar USB, 2 linkable, 3 lego,4 humping rabbits,

5 penguins,6 domo & bw smiling guy, 7 star wars characters,
8 chicken foot, 9 hands

...........nature...........

1 wood sticks, 2 wood sculpted animal claws/teeth, 3 recycled,
4 wood farm animals, 5 cloth pin, 6 bamboo, 7 farm animals

...........hungry...........
1 sushi, 2 fortune cookie, 3 biscuit, 4 bacon, 5 banana, 6 pill, 7 burger

Of course as I was hunting for the last broken links of my selection, I came across a few more excellent ones: audio tape, teddy bear, eraser, zippo lighter, light bulb, wine cork, mini cooper, floppy disk...

A few very useful websites in my search:
wired blog, ubergizmo, techblog, geekstuuf4you.com, technobob,
the office master, geek alerts, the daily dairy

thank you!

organza and paper sculptures

I found out about these sculptures on organza through my favorite blog: white sky. This is the work of a French artist Angelique Lefevre. Amazing work, great choice of subjects... I love the contrasts tough/delicate, junk/precious, wild/sophisticated... I could go on and on. Simply LOVE it!!!

This reminded me a bit of the Peter Callesen's paper sculptures - more for the skill than the style. When I visited his website the first time (a couple of years ago), I spent a whole hour and emailed it to at least 20 friends. Farther down in another paper artist Su Blackwell.

And I couldn't talk about paper sculptures without showing Matthew Sporzynski's work... We all know it through Real Simple Magazine. Very talented, and he seems to be having a lot of fun doing it!



And, just for a little smile, if you want to own a little piece of paper art, there's this lady on etsy.com who sells this little bee... well it looks like it's sold out for now (oops)




A great blog for everything paper-related: paper forest

classics with a twist

I love that there are smart people out there making the classics into new, smart and happy objects.
If you don't know ATYPYK, go see their website , it's a gold mine for smart and cheeky objects (and I'm the one modeling on the ALL SAINTS pillow).

My personal favorite is 6 which I own and love!
3 is a stretch, but I like it anyway - even though I never use coasters - and the glass used in the photo is a classic (which made it qualify, he he)

If you find other objects in that category, please send them in the comments, I'll definitely keep adding to the list!





1 ATYPYK - bon appetit 33euros
2 MOMA STORE - sandwich sponge $10
3 ATYPYK - clumsy coaster 13 euros/2
4 MOMA STORE- p* cell phone head set $80
5 ATYPYK - touilleur en argent 10euros
6 DESIGN PUBLIC - tobias wong light switch $150 (here in gold limited edition)
7 MOMA STORE - crumbled cups $35/3
8 MOMA STORE - I’m not a paper cup $20
9 MOMA STORE - new york coffee cup $14
10 MOMA - 10 key calculator/USB numeric keuboard $39.95
11 CB2 - carton vase $6.95

choosing red! (shopping)

You want the same look as choosing red! (post from Feb3) without the Bisazza or Cappellini bill?
Here's a little selection to start you off, you'll see it's easy and the result is great.
The secret for the look: not to compromise. Some silver, or grey are OK, some black maybe but that's it.

1- TARGET - saddle seat stool $54.99 - $59.99
2- IKEA - bar stool MALTE $39.99
3- IKEA - wall cabinet ATRAN $24.99
4- IKEA - wall shelf ASPUDDEN $29.99
5- CB2 - eco-friendly bamboo bath towels $3.95-$24.95
6- IKEA - bathmat SANNI $9.99
7- TARGET - white stone resine waste basket $24.99
8- IKEA - basket with handle MALLEN $3.99
9- CB2 - resin bath accessories $7.95-$14.95
10- IKEA - bathmat NACKTEN $2.99
11- TARGET - blu dot real good chair $90.30
12- CB2 - ladder rack $79.95
13- TARGET - scooter stool $74.99
14- BENJAMIN MOORE
15- TARGET - analog scale TAYLOR $14.95
16- TARGET - arrow coat hook $9.99


If you do it, please send me pictures! I'd love to see.

choosing red!

I'm so lucky my boyfriend has great taste. He made the Bisazza bathroom before we were together. When I moved in, we were debating what else to put in there... We tried wood to bring some nature in the bathroom, but it didn't do it. Last month, we decided to go with RED. We love it, it's adopted. Super dynamic.
We even had this little Chinese vase and little French Dunny to match the look. I wish I had taken the shot when we had the big white Hydrangea in the vase.
We're already planning on adding wall art and other goodies. I promise I'll post!

pharmacy cabinet - cappellini
red stool from Francois Azambourg - cappellini
turquoise vase - tozai home
Dunny - kidrobot

If you'd like the same look for less: check out the shopping page

the LITTLE BOX project is born

This is my first LITTLE BOX.
I made it for Yolande's birthday.
It's the first thing I did in a loooong time that wasn't work related as all I've been doing since I left my job is work on my website, portfolio, marketing material and networking... At last something absolutely non-useful!
This is clearly the beginning of a series as it makes all my weird impulses I've had since ever make sense: I've been collecting little things, scraps of interesting papers, weird material samples, coupons, and now I can make them center stage again.

In this LITTLE BOX:

The chair on this one was bought at Kid Robot on prince st (kidrobot.com), it comes in a box for $12 and you don't know which one you'll be getting. Which is great as it brings the unknown factor which is going to give the tone.
The lips were bought on a tiny vintage toy store on Houston between 6th Ave and Varrick, it's flip 3D print > see the small photo, you can see (barely) it makes a kiss when you move it sideways.
The lamp is - obviously - made with Japanese newspaper and sulder's wire to give its shape. The foot of the lamp is a Moet champagne cork.
The wallpaper is a design pattern from my library. I just change the colors and scale.

So here it is, hope you like it, I can't wait to make the next one!