MUJI MATERIALS GARDEN - NY Design Week

From the very beginning of our design careers, MUJI has had a special place in our hearts.  Their honest approach to material, function, and lifestyle has always been an inspiring reference point for us.

This year's NY Design Week afforded us the ultimate honor of working with MUJI to create a special installation celebrating their 10 year anniversary in the US.  

For the

Taking the form of a landscaped garden, MUJI Materials Garden featured a series of vignettes curating selections of  MUJI’s products composed with their raw source materials.

Evoking the curiosity of a garden stroll, the landscape explored the genuine origins of the products while conjuring our Visual Stories series, our on-going photo journal of compelling material compositions found in our travels and everyday life.  We imagined an experience that shares our fascination with materials - a passion we share with MUJI.

A haptic stone pathway connected each garden vignette, encouraging visitors to ponder MUJI products in a new context by wandering, exploring, and discovering the inherent beauty of the materials they originate from.

While diverse and broad MUJI's range of products is connected by their materiality and thoughtfulness.   We aimed to reflect this in the landscape by carefully juxtaposing the materials with minimal styling or finishing - letting the spirit of each material qualities speak for themselves.

While researching the installation, we studied the material origins of MUJI’s most popular products, finding moments of natural beauty in each ingredient.   The process was marked by binge watching 'How it's Made' videos, exciting field trips, and hands-on ideation. 

We were overjoyed to see visitors expressing similar curiosity...

Every year, we take NY Design Week as an opportunity to push the boundaries that define our studio. Our ongoing exploration of materiality is at the heart of everything we do at Ladies & Gentlemen Studio be it products, sculpture, environments or design experiences.

Big thanks to MUJI for an unforgettable experience!

Muji + Lego

Dear Muji,

Why have you gone and achieved awesomeness yet again?  Give the rest of us a chance will ya'? 

Seriously though guys...just when I thought legos were about sold-out (star wars, sponge bob, Indiana Jones, etc) you, Muji had to come right along and inject some of that playful simplicity you so caringly distribute to everything you touch. 

The result:  a simple set of legos made spectacularly and invariably more interesting via a few sheets of colored paper, a hole punch, and a few basic suggestions.  You've managed to remind me exactly why legos were a childhood favorite of mine...it wasn't the razzle-dazzle space ships as much as the endless possibilities of our imaginations. 

Oh, but you have failed in one respect where you have also failed in the past:  making it easy for an American like me to get my hands on your best products.  While this product doesn't appear to be available on the US Muji site, it looks to be available on the Japanese one.  Check it out. 

 

via Design Boom

New Year MUJI Resolution

My new years resolution for 2009........is to cross off the list of ALL the MUJI things I want!! I don't need to eat healthier, drink more water, watch less TV, read more, exercise more, be nice to people....yeah yeah yeah...I can always do that when I retire.MUJI recently launched their 2009 screen saver calender, PLAY MUJI where they showcase one of their brilliant, simple & clever product each day right on your computer screen....everyday!! Imagine that...they're really not making it any easier for me to resist them!! Why do I have such weakness for them? or are they simply just TOO powerful? But whatever it is they're hypnotizing me with, it's working.
Oh! How I would sell my soul to live the MUJI life!!Must have....everything MUJI....everyday.....every week....every month....forever and ever and.... ever....

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious

My Recent Muji Finds

Forgot to mention about my recent tiring yet exciting trip to NY.... When I was there, I kept seeing people around NY carrying MUJI shopping bags, and it was killing me that I didn't have to time to make it there! Thank MUJI! for their brilliance in opening a MUJI TO GO shop in JFK, I was able to compulsively buy great little everyday well-designed and thoughful objects from them!! (noticed I didn't say god?...cuz MUJI is it's own religion..my religion) I got this neat soap sponge dish where it drains the water while allowing air flow to keep the soap dry same time!! So no more picking up soggy wet slippery soap, then dropping it & slipping on it and crack your tail bones on it. I hate that! Raise your hand if you agree with me....yeah! I know! Nobody likes craking tailbones on SOGGY soap. eew.
I also got this clever schedual planner notebook they produced by one of the winning designs from MUJI award 02. Designed by Won Kok Keong, this brilliant mind came up with this idea of using a simple and intuitive reference of a clock, to help you (and me!) visually log and graph out your daily schedual! I just can't wait to fill in those pages. All the exciting things I get to write in there!! OH BOY! oh-kay....here's what this coming Monday is gonna look like....Dec.29.2008
10:00AM-Alarm goes off
10:05AM-hit the snooze button for the second time
10:10AM-hit the snooze button 5 more times
10:35AM-turn off the alarm and falls back to sleep
12:00PM-get a wake up text from Chika wondering why I'm not at work and I text back "I'm up"
12:30PM-Finally get out of bed
12:45PM-brush my teeth and whatever
1:00PM-make some coffee and read my emails, check on L&G shop, read up on some blogs, watch some youtube videos, and go on facebook and super poke the crap out of everyone and throw snow balls at them. (nothing like virtual snow ball fights...yeah....)
2:00PM-gets exhausted from all the interneting and makes some lunch
2:15PM-eat lunch and watch some daily show clips online and laugh my head off while dropping food all over the keypad
3:00PM-check on Chika to watch more daily show clips and admire Jon Stewart's wit and charm together.
ahem...okay...I'm starting to think the whole filling in everything-I-do-during-the-day is NOT such a good idea....I'm just gonna write in "work from 10-6pm." DONE.

Ladies and Gentlemen Home: For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious