Pattern Pulp

Puzzling Ecosystems by Trey Speegle




This Holiday season marks the debut of Trey Speegle‘s exclusive line of home products for Anthropologie. The collection spans everything from pillows and plates to wallpaper and puzzles. This paint-by-number reproduction recently caught our eye, as it’s complexity is masked by clean lines and familiar shapes.  While more expensive than your average lock and key table challenge, it’s worth every penny if you’re in the market for a nature inspired challenge. Innovation’s not cheap when executed artfully and Speegle’s new line adds a refreshing spin to familiar family fun.

November 17, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Budget: Pin Clusters




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Designers and stylists can’t get enough of the safety pin this Fall/Winter season. Forever a signifier of punk culture, fashion houses alike are using this affordable accessory to translate their vision, be it tough, tribal or eclectic. Alexander McQueen‘s latest print campaign along with Dazed and Confused‘s styling techniques and Moschino‘s demurely edgy accents are giving the pin as much prominence as the model, inviting the viewer to draw inspiration and replicate at home. A box of safety pins paired with last year’s twinset can give your wardrobe the facelift it needs to stay current. Just remember, there’s a fine line between cheap and chic.

November 16, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Coralie's Cloth-Bound Covers




Coralie Bickford-Smith-patterns

A week ago, our good friend Alexandra Machinist, a Manhattan based literary agent passed along a link to Coralie Bickford-Smith‘s beautiful cloth bound book covers.  While these beauties have been on the market for a year now, nostalgia for hard cover classics is somewhat recent with the growing success of digital aggregators, such as the Kindle.  Smith’s series is now available in the US and to celebrate the launch, Design*Sponge recently conducted an interview the artist, exploring her process from concept to production. Be it Shakespeare’s Sonnets or The Gothic Horror series, sentiments for a lost art form are reminding us why hard covers deserve a spot on your livingroom shelf.

By: Shayna Kulik

November 2, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Color: Jewel Toned Geometrics




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It’s always thrilling when brands fuse artful thinking with strategic marketing. Pointer footwear appears to be quietly racing to the top as they’ve built a cult following of sneaker enthusiasts over the past two years. Merging relevant trends, such as black and blue color schemes with cubic formations, Pointer’s art direction appears to overlap product categories of every variety. When paired beside this African Shore Eye Palette by Yves Saint Laurent, it’s easy to understand how one color can make the difference between gender specific marketing.

By: Shayna Kulik

October 27, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Homegoods: Wearable Ar(t)chitecture




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It’s no secret that wood’s a mailable material. Add fluid movement and an organic aura and you’ve got yourself a Bart Prince masterpiece. This famed architect from Albuquerque, NM, was recently featured in Wallpaper magazine and has since been popping up throughout the blogosphere. While Prince’s layering technique isn’t new to the fashion world, it’s certainly a breath of fresh air to larger structural forms. Using salvaged shingles to build low-income housing, artisan Dan Phillips mimics this design direction in his Storybook House. A thorough exploration of Phillips’ work can be viewed in this NY Times slide show.

Further blurring the line between art and nature, Anthony Roussel, of the UK is the master craftsman behind this stunning jewelry collection. Inspired by the British coastline, it’s easy to see how technique can be digested, disseminated and applied across mediums.

Research by: Emily Gup

October 26, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Playing Historical Checkers: East Meets West




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Nothing makes an impact quite like black and white tiling. Add graphic theory, a world renowned artist and political controversy and you’ve got a museum piece on your hands. Today features two creative icons known for such experimental designs: Wassily Kandinsky and Vivienne Tam. Of the vast array of works currently on display at the Guggenheim, the above composition, (title and date unknown), reveals delicate vignettes aligned against a grid. Widely known for his sweeping bright strokes, Kandinsky’s works on paper reveal the building blocks for his grand paintings, mathematics at their finest. Incorporating checkerboard theory into modern day fashion, Vivienne Tam’s most iconic pattern is currently on display at New York’s Fashion and Textile Historical Gallery at FIT.  Tam, a Chinese American, has taken advantage of Western attitudes to ironically incorporate the infamous Chairman Mao into this woman’s suit– a true cultural revolution and a great leap forward.

By: Shayna Kulik

October 22, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Tracking Repetitive + Awesome.
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