The Bestest Giveaway

Our friends from Iacoli & McAllister are giving away one of their frame lights!


Not sure why they would do such a crazy (but awesome) thing....but I won't stop them or say no to this!!
All you've got to do is leave a comment on the post or their FB page!

It's been exciting to see how they've evolved over the years since they first started. Jamie & Brian are such great designers and the hardest working people I know, so it's seriously awesome to see that all their efforts are really paying off with how much exposure & positive responses they've gotten thus far.

I'm loving all their new stuff!
You guys rock!!

PS. J&B....I'm not saying all this just so you'd pick me for the give away....but then again, I won't stop you from doing so. (wink. smiley face. )

I'd LIke to Make This...Chandelier

Our friend, Herman Yu informed us about LIndsey Adelman's work and her beautiful molecular-esque chandeliers. The combination of the organic blown glass shades and the machine-like metal brackets creates such a wonderful contrast and a beautiful sculptural piece. They seem to fit so well in both traditional and modern interiors. But what's EVEN more amazing is that Lindsey also provides a whole how-to-instruction with all the parts needed on her site, so you can create one of these beauties yourself!!I really want to try it!! It seems a little involved, but with some time, patience, some skills in wiring, and tolerance for couple of electric shocks ...I'm sure I'll be able to make one of these!
It'd be TOTALLY worth it!

Bonbon Lamps by Ana Kraš

Designer, Ana Kraš from Serbia designed these series of fantastic Bonbon lamps with various simple lamp frames and strings. I love the warmth and the lightness of the strings and how Ana uses various colors in sections. I also love the retro feel of the styling. I love it all...
great detail of how the cord threads through the frame.
Via Sight Unseen

JOIN Design Show Update Part 1

Dylan took out the memory card from the camera and I couldn't upload them today! AH!
But thanks to Tricia Martin...who did her homework already! I'm borrowing some of her photos for this post. Thanks Tricia. :D
The Ctlr+Alt+Design opening this Friday was AWE-SOME!! The show looked amazing, and it was a great turn out with more people than I expected. Well...I didn't know what to expect, but there were tons of support not only from friend & family, but also from local Seattle businesses as well as design professionals. We've met lots of interesting new people and found out how so many people are connected!
The show is at Ouch My Eye Gallery and will be up through July 12th. The gallery is this incredible loft space just north of SAFECO field. The show looked especially professional and stunning because of the space and what the guys had done at Ouch. I would love to work...or even live there!Here's the amazing progress of how the Seattle Bread Friend Map was growing! That was totally fun to have at the opening. It was interesting to see how people are connected! The bread was also DELECIOUS!! We even took a little bit home at the end of the night. :D
I made this little chalk piggy bank to accept donations. Although we didn't make a million, we did receive a whole $20 bill! Many thanks to the generous person! We will indeed HEART you very much. And the other person who put in 0.50 cents. We HEART you, too...AND everyone who showed up for support of course!

More photos to come soon!

JOIN us at JOIN Design Show 6/12 FRIDAY

JOIN us for a celebration of 26+ fantastic designs from Seattle and across the states! Our next show, Ctrl+Alt+DESIGN will be opening on FRIDAY, JUNE, 12th from 7pm-Midnight.
Ouch My Eye Gallery is sponsoring the event by letting us use their awesome studio/gallery space with a bar and a new Cafe, Occhio. (Pronounced OH-KEE-OH)
This show is gonna be EPIC!! This is our first juried design show, and we were thrilled with the quality of work and design from the submissions.
There's a great selection of designers and design work from small accessories, jewelery, home decor, lighting, to furniture.

There will be music, all the designers and artists will be there, art installation by (knee shy), all of the BRITE lites, AND a one day only event at reception: Bread Friend Map by Tricia Martin. All I'm gonna say is, YOU+(2 x FOUR FOOT long loafs of bread)=AWESOME FRIEND MAP. If you wanna find out what all this is about, you just gotta come and check it out!! Here's a process shot of the homemade mega bread from Tricia....crazy.
Dylan and I are gonna have some smaller L&G designs there as well! ...Meet Mr. Rhino. Pleasure.
See you there!

BRITE lite RESULTS!!

Hello! We apologize for the delay!! We held our first BRITE event on May, 16. We FINALLY went through the photos (I took 400+ photos!) and can now share with everyone what a fun event it was!

Just to backtrack a little, Dylan & I and Christa & Nin (from Cafe Weekend) teamed up to organize this design charrette (and a trial run) with a mission to start connecting people through interactive and spontaneous design activities. We're calling it the BRITE Collective.

For this first event: BRITE lite, LOCAL DESIGNERS & CRAFTERS teamed up to participate in a spontaneous 4 hour community scavenger hunt/design-build to create ready-made lamps from household and second hand materials.
There was a good turn out with 18 people (total of 9 teams) who participated that day. We asked people to bring materials to share with everyone and there were a great mix of lamps that came from it. We gave every team a BRITE lite kit...which I had a little too much fun with. :D
Everyone also got a special wooden BRITE badge! Our plan is to do that for every event! ...I mean , who wouldn't want to be rewarded for such accomplishments! A simple badge is a perfect item that says "HEY! I accomplished something today and that's a wonderful feeling! (blank stare and a giant stiff smile)" And THAT's pretty darn special, wouldn't you agree? We were all about making this event special. Christa even went and got some cheerful balloons!
It was a beautiful Seattle day so we were able to open the garage door at the Hiawatha community space and some people worked outside or walked to the nearby Goodwill Dearborn to hunt for interesting materials for their lights.
Nin and I were in charge of documentenging the event...we followed people around trying taking candid shots capturing their process at the Goodwill. And in the process of taking photos, I crept around like a creepy stalker trying not to get noticed....and also trying to stop myself from shopping. That was hard.Oh and look! Here's Steve with his new Friend! Apparently he decided to replace his hand with a rubber dinosaur head instead. Oh! all the wonderful things you can find!
It was so inspiring to creative energy in the room and see everyone brainstorming, sketching, playing ,and exploring with materials. It was just amazing to see everyone use ordinary things and turn it into something extraordinary!!

Okay I'll stop with the talking.. On with the results!

Here are some lights people made in 4 hours! Drum roll.....

Pair of hanging lights made with walnut edge banding and paper cups by Lindsay & Sena.

Table lamp made with stainless thermos and glass coffee pot by Joelle & Steve. Hanging shade made with wire ring, staples, and letter envelopes by Mat & Dylan. Table lamp wit braille paper and Stevie Wonder record at the base by Christine & Nick. Hanging chandelier made with mix match of magazine organizers by Chika & Cat.Come see TONS more photos here to see the entire process! The lights will also be exhibited at JOIN's Ctrl Alt Design show at Ouch My Eye, beginning June 12th, with the opening starting from 7-midnight.

If you like what you're seeing and would like to know about our future events, please join our BRITE facebook !

Thanks to everyone who participated. It was a very fun day and great way to kick off the BRITE Collective!!

BRITE Idea

Dylan & I are collaborating with Christa & Nin from Cafe Weekend on a new "arm" of JOIN design Seattle. It will provide a series of spontaneous and fun design events made to stimulate, inspire, and unite the Seattle design community. We're calling it Brite Collective.
Our first event, a charrette where small teams will create lamp designs from existing objects, will take place this coming Saturday at the Hiawatha Lofts in Seattle.

Here's a little preview from a trial run we did together couple Saturdays ago. The trial run was to help us go through the process in order to figure out the details when we host the actual event...it was a TRIAL....it's not us cheating! WE PROMISE YOU!
The challenge:
Design a lamp shade with pre-existing object as a team. Shop at Goodwill thrift store together and spend no more than $15 total for materials. Incorporate the color yellow.
Make a lamp in 3 hours.
The process: Went to Goodwill to scavenger hunt. Got some inspiration for forms and materials.We gathered everything and had it out on a table to narrow down our choice. In the mist of all this, random people were looking over our shoulders, and some people actually picked up the things we had and was going to take it! I had to tell them to back off! See that lady on the left?...yeah..can't trust her. She was probably thinking of taking some stuff when we weren't looking! :P Beware...people at Goodwill are very aggressive...I guess its survival of the fittest..or something like that. After spending 1.5 hours at the Goodwill and discussing what we liked and what we can do with each object, we ended up with these items that came to a total of $11.70. Roll of yellow stickers, 2 bags yellow basket stuffing, yellow jar beater, manila dividers, wire basket, and a tennis frame protector. We all liked the tennis frame since we all thought it looked like a 2D lamp shape. But somehow we convinced ourselves to make a paper mache lamp shade that would mold around the form of a light bulb...big mistake. We started doing that and by that point we were already at 3 hours! At that point, we weren't even close to being done....so we FAILED....We didn't make it in the time line we made for ourselves...But we decided to just continue on, re-think, simplify, and finished the lamp despite our failure! We picked up the manila dividers and thought to just make that a lamp shade and clamp it in between the tennis frame. We played around folding and cutting the paper in various shapes.
So after two more hours of iterating....Voila! We made a simple light sconce made with only the tennis frame and one sheet of manila divider.
In conclusion: It was fun brainstorming and designing together, since we were able to inspire each other and explore new directions that we wouldn't do normally. And it was good that we did the trial run since when we do the REAL event, we won't want to keep everyone hostage for that long. :P

If you're interested in subjecting yourself to this kind of fun challenge email info@cafeweekend.com by Wednesday May 13th for more details on attending.

Urbancase Report

Dylan and I went and checked out Urbancase's ICFF preview show at Cairo last Thursday. It was a great space, great crowd, and a great show overall! It was fun chatting with Darin about his experiences showing at the ICFF. Since neither of us has been to ICFF, we picked his brain apart asking him about everything involving the process and the show itself.
It was great to see his work in person, since you can really see and appreciate the details and feel the quality of his work. I like how there's a mix of modern sleekness in his bigger pieces as well as the more humorous and playful small accessories, such as the 'Energie Lamp' that's inspired by the high voltage warning signs.
I especially love the new beeswax polaroid candles! Both Jamie & I ended up getting one for ourselves. And I happened to have the similar model camera! Now they're friends. :D
The smell of the besswax is AMAZING.......You can get one, here!On top of all the awesomeness, there were also a bunch of well decorated sugar cookies in the form of polaroid cameras and his voltage shocked guys. Super cute AND delicious!...and I ate too many of them... :P
Best of luck to Darin!