Charles Pfister (1938 – 1990) American interior designer
2023-03-11
Charles Pfister (1939 to 1990) was an American interior and furniture designer and architect. He was professionally active in San Francisco.Read More →
Keith Haring (1958 – 1990) – art that danced
2023-03-07
Keith Haring was best known for his graffiti-like painting, initially on the black paper used to cover discontinued billboard advertisements in the New York subway. After after a feverish 1980’s style career of surging popular success and grudging critical attention, Haring died of AIDS in 1991 at the age of 31.Read More →
Jay Spectre (1930 – 1992) American Interior and furniture designer
2023-03-06
Jay Spectre (1930 – 1992) was an American Interior and furniture designer. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was professionally active in New York.
He began his interior design career in 1951 in Louisville. In 1968, he established the design company Jay Spectre, in New York. He designed interiors for luxury homes, private jet aircraft, yachts, and offices, which showed Art Deco, Asian, and African influences with high-tech and hand-carved elements. Read More →
Quezal an American glassware company
2023-03-06
Quezal artisans created decorative and useful items, including vases, compotes, bowls, open salts, candle holders, and shades. READ MORERead More →
Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) Italian sculptor, furniture designer
2023-03-05
Harry Bertoia was a sculptor, printmaker, jeweller, and furniture designer. He was born in San Lorenzo, Udine, and worked in the United States professionally. During World War Two he worked with Ray and Charles Eames on moulded-plywood technology. He worked primarily as a sculptor from the mid-1950s onwards. His sculpture was prominently featured in many of Eero Saarinen’s buildings.Read More →
Vance Packard (1914 – 1996), writer and critic of consumerism
2023-02-25
American writer who exposed the negative effects of consumerism in the developed world, including The Hidden Persuaders, Waste Makers, The Naked Society, and The People Shapers. He was a member of a long line of critics of capitalist culture. LEARN MORERead More →
John Mascheroni (b.1932), American furniture designer
2023-02-23
John Mascheroni has been designing furniture for his entire career, recognized for his design acuity and modernism. LEARN MORERead More →
Francis H. Bacon (1856 – 1940) American Furniture Designer
2023-02-23
He was a designer for furniture maker Herter Brothers, commissioned by the company to furnish the New York William H. Vanderbilt House, 1881-83. LEARN MORERead More →
Sam Maloof (1916 – 2009) American furniture designer
2023-02-22
The furniture designed by Sam Maloof can be found in every imaginable place in the United States, from boardrooms to bungalows, from the White House to the Smithsonian. READ MORERead More →
Black Landscapes Matter (paperback)
2023-02-21
“Do black landscapes matter?” is an issue that goes to the heart of American history. The nation’s terrain contains the wreckage of different origins, from slavery’s plantations to today’s divided cities, from freedman settlements to northern migrations for freedom.Read More →
Judith Leiber (1921 – 2018) American designer of handbags
2023-02-21
Judith Leiber (1921 – 2018) was a prolific designer whose fanciful minaudières had accessorised royalties, first ladies, and film stars, and entered the collections of art the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While her couture handbags—carried by celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Claudette Colbert, Björk, and Barbara Walters—are widely regarded as works of art, Leiber preferred the word “artisan” to “artist.”Read More →
Quezal an American glassware company
2023-02-20
Quezel was a Brooklyn, New York-based glassware manufacturer. It produced a range of decorative and useful items. READ MORERead More →
Michael Taylor (1927 – 1986) – “California Look” 🌞
2023-01-08
Michael Taylor (1927 – 1986) was an American interior and furniture designer. He was known for the “California Style” and made his homes showplaces of the unexpected.Read More →
Virgil Exner (1909 – 1973) American Industrial Designer
2023-01-04
He was hired to work in the Pontiac design lab after coming to the attention of Harley Earl at General Motors. Later, in 1938, he worked for Raymond Loewy’s design consultant on Studebaker cars, particularly the 1947 Starlight coupé. Loewy received the majority of the critical accolades. Read More →
Walter Kantack (1889 – 1953) – American Lighting Designer
2023-01-02
Walter Kantack was an American Lighting Designer born in Meriden, Connecticut. He completed his studies at the Pratt Institute in New York.Read More →
Mission Furniture – Design Dictionary Term
2022-10-03
The term mission furniture was first popularized by Joseph P. McHugh of New York, a furniture manufacturer and retailer. The word mission references the Spanish missions throughout colonial California. The style became increasingly popular following the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo.Read More →
Alma Eikerman (1908 – 1995) American jewellery designer and silversmith
2022-08-15
Alma Eikerman (1908 – 1995) was an American jewellery designer and silversmith. Eikerman was born in Pratt, Kansas, and graduated from Kansas State College in Emporia with a B.Sc. in 1934 and an M.Sc. in 1942. Read More →
Herbert Bayer (1900 – 1985) American multi-disciplined designer
2022-08-11
Herbert Bayer was one of the Bauhaus’s most influential students, teachers, and proponents. Most of Bayer’s photographs come from the decade 1928–38, when he was based in Berlin working as a commercial artist. He designed the show Road to Victory (1942), which would set the course for Steichen’s influential approach to photography.Read More →
One of America’s Most Historic Hotels – Mission Inn
2022-07-29
Frank Miller built the Mission Inn for people passing through California in the 1800s. It’s a Spanish-colonial-style hotel, which has been remodelled many times over time, with plenty of onsite production – such as balconies, light fixtures, and door handles.Read More →
Marc Harrison (1936 – 1998) American Industrial designer
2022-07-21
Marc Harrison (1936-1998) was an industrial designer from the United States. Harrison sustained a significant brain injury in a sledding accident when he was eleven years old. He had to relearn simple functions like walking and talking as a result of the crash. Harrison gained experience and motivation for his future work as an industrial designer due to this incident and his lengthy recovery.Read More →