If you stare at our Nyth bowls long enough....you MIGHT be able to see some 3D dolphins....Give it at least 20 minutes. nooooo blinking!
Perhaps we'll organize a staring contest at RAW+UNFILTERED opening!
Viewing entries in
L&G Project
We did a custom batch of red piggies upon Bradford's (founder of FAB.com) request for their upcoming popup shop during NY Design Week starting MAY 17th!
We're so thrilled to be part of all this as well other awesome events like AmDC's Raw + Unfiltered show, and Noho Design District.
Metropolis magazine mentioned both Raw + Unfiltered and FAB's popup shop as one of the destinations to check out during NY Design Week! How exciting!
We've only made a limited quantity of these babies just for the popup so get 'em while they last!
We love process shots and apparently so does Sight Unseen!
They shared a nice post sharing some pics of our chairs in collaboration with Ashley for Noho Design District.
We've been pretty active on posting our process almost daily on our tumblr & Instagram (jeanLGstudio), so you can see more there, too!
Also the Sight Unseen post shows more sneak peak process shots of other talented friends from Iacoli & McAllister and Fort Standard... plus others talents we hope to meet like Caitlin Mociun, Makers & Brothers, Bec Brittain and more...more...more!!!
Just awesomness all around!
Lots of exciting things are in the air for L&G....we're SOOOO excited to be officially part of this new online shop, Craft & Culture, that recently launched beginning of the year!
The founders of C&C (Hana & Jason), also based in Seattle (yet another awesome point for Seattle!) has a vision to create a super well-curated platform featuring self-makers, designers and artists. They're starting off with talented local artists / designers like Meghann Sommers of &C, Ashley Helvey, Elizabeth Patterson and Actual Pain...and now added, US!
We're so excited to be part of something as special as C&C. Both Hana & Jason have such a great eye and vision for the company... not only are they providing a platform for designers to sell their work, they also go an extra mile to capture the personality and work philosophy by interviewing the designers and photograph their space!
They took all these amazing photos and we're just ecstatic with how nice and professional everything looks!
....so it DOES make a difference when a pro takes photos compare to my ghetto photo taking skills! ;P
C&C will be adding plenty more new and exciting national & international designers in the coming month, so stay tuned!
We we're incredibility excited that on top of us being able to FINALLY go check out ICFF for the first time EVER, we'll get to be in NY during the best time of the year, AAAAAAAND we'll also be part of few extremely exciting satellite events happening during design week!!
Neither Dylan & I have gone and we've only been talking about it for like....8 years...and FINALLY this year we decided that we would go for realz!!! We were just hoping to go for fun and then few opportunities came along where places was doing open calls for shows....so we figured...why not?! We might as well make a worth while trip, right??
Well, lucky for us, we're able to be part of 3 awesome events!!
1. We're extra stoked (and still can't believe) that we'll be part of NOHO Design District!! NDD is organized by the talented ladies of Sight Unseen where they coordinate & curate shows to be shown all around shops and galleries in Noho.
When we got the email from Monica and Jill that our submissions got accepted and that they'll paired us with this amazing clothing brand, Zero+Maria Cornejo, I think I might have even screamed outloud for a long time....then absolute silent with me staring at my computer screen for like another hour....just in total shock.
We just can't believe that we'll be part an all-star group and be featured along all our design crushes like Tom Dixon, Bec Brittain, Lindsey Adelmen, Jonah Takagi, Brenden Ravenhill, Tanya Aguiniga, Fort Standards, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, and companies like Roll & Hill, Areaware, The Future Perfect ...and whole a whole lot more!! I'm feeling high just thinking about all this....
So needless to say, we're MORE than ecstatic to be able to show our work at Zero+Maria Cornejo. Her work is absolutely stunning and I'm already eying up some pieces...SO TEMPTING!!!
The show will begin on MAY 18th at Zero+Maria Cornejo. More event info HERE.
2. Is another awesome show, Raw+Unfiltered, organized by Kiel Mead and head of AmDC. Last year our Cane & Able was shown at the "USE ME" show, but we weren't able to party with all the amazing talents there. So this year...we're definitely NOT going to miss out again!
Here's a sneak peak of what we're showing!
The show will open on SUNDAY MAY 21st at HELLER GALLERY. More event info HERE and to RSVP.
3. We'll be part of FAB's popup shop which will start on MAY 14th. They requested a limited batch of custom red piggy banks! Aren't they cute?!
They FAB sale will beging online. More info TBA.
We're so excited for all this!!!!!EXCLAMATION MARKS FOREVER!!!!
L&G was lucky to be invited to give a talk/presentation about our work at the Western Industrial Design department in Bellingham,WA couple weeks ago!
As flattered & honored as we felt...both Dylan & I got really stressed about it...
The last time I had to put together a presentation was 7 freakin' years ago when we were students!
We didn't want the entire 45 minute talk to be a show-and-tell of our work and wanted to share more about our process and how we think and work. But going with this route, meant that we totally had to dig deep into our brains and souls about what we're about...why we do what we do....what defines us...and what drives us and keeps us going.
Of course...this always inevitably leads to us to ask even bigger questions like "why do we exist?" and "what is the meaning of life?!" and "what's the point of it all!!"
But instead of asking questions that lead to nowhere and us feeling more lost...we ended up looking for for common threads that's been consistent in how we work and operate in general.
We realized it was the simple concept of being HANDS-ON that is a really valuable process in how we design, think, explore, and engage in the physical world around us.
For both of us, we found that being hands-on is been best way to get the most out of any experience....which probably explains why I don't ever like to read instructions and tend to just jump in and start doing and would rather figure things out by trial and error.
There's really nothin that can compare to physically experiencing something and engage all our senses which actually creates muscle memories beyond our brains. It's about physically exploring and manipulating..seeing and touching...which all that enhances our memory in how we think, create, and operate.
I made this little wire hand as a little visual for the theme of the presentation.
We talked about...
how travelling really engages our sense by getting us out of our comfort zone to see & do thing differently.
how we have the tendencies to collect materials, natural or vintage findings as a way to play with physical things and figure out what to do with it.
how we use our live/work set up as a place to test our ideas and how 90% of our shelves/walls are our 3 dimensional inspirational board while trying to not make it look like we're just hoarders!
how we collaborate with people to get hands-on experiences that connect us in a different way and learn and gain new perspectives.
how our lifestyle is about using all our hands-on experiences to gather inspirations, design and make things, and figure out what works or doesn't work for us.....all through physical trial and error.
To add to the fun and to engage the students beyond just listening, we gave everyone a piece of 12" wire and ask that they play with it as if they're doodling with their hands while we give our talk.
...and secretly, it was my distraction tactic and I have to say this was the best idea ever! It took the pressure off a bit knowing they're less focused on us, but mostly I just loved all the delightful things the students end up making!
Going up to Bellingham to do the talk was a great exercise and experience for us that really forced us to get to know ourselves better. As painful as the process was... it was totally worth it to get a better understanding about what our strengths & weakness are....and embrace it all! :D
Thanks to the kids at Western for being such a good sport and listening to our nonsense!
We're SO excited to see photos of the Shape Shop popup on Sight Unseen they just posted! Everything looks amazing and the range of works there is all pretty insane. They've selected works from bunch of great designers and artists, and we're just super happy to be included!
There's so much excitement that I wish I can integrate bunch of explosive graphics like "AWESOME!" "WOW!" "AMAZING!" "NO WAY!" or "I REALLY LIKE THAT AND WOULD LIKE TO GET IT PLEASE!"
Anyway....here are some photos of the popup:
Here's our BLOC necklaces!! yay~~
It was a total coincidence that our necklaces happened to be totally inline with the Shape Shop theme...using simple shapes and block, and even colors....it freaked me out a bit...but in the best way possible!! We hope to have these up on our site next month!
There are bunch of great things from some friendly AmDC folks ( Fort Standard, Patrick Kim, Brian Persico) and other awesome designers we've admired like, Shabd, Fredericks and Mae, Tanya Aguiniga, Fort Makers and tons MORE! See more HERE.
ON TOP of al this, Sight Unseen also released their new book!
Also, the popup will be up at Creatures of Comfort in NY until May 6th!
We're excited to start a tumblr page (lgstudio.tumblr.com) to share more visuals of our process, findings, and inspirations...and more frequently!
Lately I've been bad about posting on the blog only because of how time consuming it is for me! And yes...guilty as charged, I've had my share of back posting!! :P
So I think using tumblr will be really good since it'll force me to do short & sweet updates!
But for those who likes to read more in general, we'll still continue to post on website our blog especially for times when sharing just one sentence or one photo doesn't do justice on the subject....or for when I absolutely need to ramble and share all my nonsense. :)
And in case you didn't know, we also have our Facebook page! So follow us to see more udpates.
But I have to say I'm one of those people who still can't come around in using twitter....sorry, twitter users. I can only handle managing so many sites... :P
We're excited to have some special new necklaces for Sight Unseen's (one of our fav design blogs) upcoming popup shop at Creatures of Comfort!
These are times when I wished we lived closer than the total opposite side of the states. :(
But if you're in NY, go check it out! The shop will be up from from April 9th to May 6th.
See more event info and RSVP HERE.
L&G is totally stoked to be in April issue of Dwell! ...we're actually in there twice! First feature is of the piggy bank along with other neat items...
here's piggy the Dwell website.
...and the second feature is of my Mega-Doily rug project under Meg's "Crafting a Meaningful Home" book!
Yay! Double awesomeness.
This all started back in March when we went over to Ashley's moving sale (yes, I got some awesome stuff!) at first was just us doing a little shopping, but one thing lead to another, we ended up talking about a collaboration of some sort!
This year, we REALLY REALLY want to make it out to NY for ICFF & NY Design week, since we've never been!! We firgured this would be the best time to collaborate & come up with something to submit.
We've always admired Ashley's warm & natural sensibility of using super natural materials. So we thought it would be great to merge both of our aesthetic to design & create furniture pieces for NY Design Week. We' were so excited to hear that Ashley was just as excited about it as we are!
Our first brainstorming session was at Elliot Bay books. Without shame, we sat down and just covered the whole table with bunch of vintage books, drawings, inspirations, and materials to look at together. We were like kids in a playground going from one idea to another getting more and more excited as we talked & sketched.
At the end of the meeting we decided to go with designing some sort of lounge chair or hanging chair...the concept & design was still a bit undefined, but we continued to explore...
We then looked at some random materials we had sitting around our house in hope to find something that can really compliment Ashley's rustic warm aesthetic and also utilizes her textile skills.
Below are some of Ashley's felting & weaving project she was working on another day when we went over to talk. If you follow her blog, you'll quickly get a sense of how everything she captures is beautifully simple, warm, and balanced....and something that we really want to embrace.
I held on to this little tiny ball of Navajo wool sample from Ashley for the longest time...not only to look at it as a sample, but also because it was so darn cute & fuzzy!
playing with some materials....but ended up looking like a robot!
Various cotton ropes to mock up a mini hanging chair concept
All this is still quite priliminary....but I think we've honed in on some good general direction and pallet focusing on a more natrual, simple, and warm feel. Good thing we live & work in the same place, so we can literally look at all this 24/7!!
Go check out THREAT (opening March 9th) by AmDC that's all about weapon of defense in every shape & form.
Damn right this is a show about weapns! This is America we're talking about here!
All this is more about encouraging designers from all over America to all come together and have fun designing & create cool shiz.
Here's what we made....
Hit & Strangle Stick
Yup! You guessed it! You hit, then strangle! It's EASY!
This defense object is a sleek hitting stick made with the use aluminum and copper tubing and fishing rope inspired by dog catchers.
The simple telescoping action allows the defender to tighten the rope by pushing the aluminum tube forward and therefore can capture (and strangle) the invader from afar.
Now here's some REAL action!
TAKE THAT!!
That'll show you to never walk in the house with your shoes on!
More sneak peak of other works below:
(Photos of Kiel Mead, and other projects provided by NYTimes)
The show opens this FRIDAY, MARCH 9th (runs from March 9 to 15) At Present Company, 29 Wythe Street (North 13th Street), Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Also read this great interview on NYTimes with Kiel Mead about the concept of the show....and other intense topics of discussions like, jail beating weapons, squirt guns with hydrochloric acid, and our dark sides.
Oh trust me...this is gonna be goooooood.
That's Jean serving up a fresh tray of 2012 goodness. With the holidays behind us and the NYIGF looming just ahead, it was right back to the drawing board for us in January. We were hankering to cook up something new.
As you may have picked up in past posts about our kitchen...we've been really obsessed with the combination of copper and brass with woods and leather. We've always been suckers for nostalgia and I think these materials really strike a reminiscent chord on a different...more fundamental level.
To that end, it only felt appropriate to pair these warm, welcoming materials with minimalist, elemental forms that celebrate the integrity of the materials without any frivolous details. The resulting collection is a bit of a departure aesthetically from our past products, but a direction we're really excited about!
Without further adieu (follow links for more details or to purchase)...
Segment Necklace: An abstract arrangement of simple shapes and warm material combination using wood, leather and metal tubes.
Perimeter Tray: A solid wood base framed with powdercoated aluminum coupled with a carrara marble cheeseboard insert.
Cylinder Shakers: Copper, Brass, and Aluminum Salt and Pepper Shakers are designed to age and patina with use.
We can't believe it's that time again! 2011 year ended and now L&G is TOTALLY pumped for 2012 and ready to share some brand new works!
L&G will be showing an exciting brand new line of table top items & jewelry along with JOIN and eight other Northwest based studios.
So come visit us at Accent of Design at the Jacob K. Javits Center, Level 3. We'll also be right next to other talented young designers from American Design Club and A+ Young Designers.
It's gonna be a par-tay! woot woot!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Seattle for making the BLANC pop up a success!
We had a great time this week and were so inspired by people's enthusiasm about design! With this and the OBJECT opening a week earlier, we're feeling some serious momentum for Design in the Northwest. FINALLY!
Here's a little summary of the weekend:
It all started Friday with a preview party at Sole Repair...
...A perfect evening of TOTAL wintery white festivities filled with inspiring work from 30+ designers from Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York and Vancouver.
Everything looked pefectly BLANC.....Wintery white but warm and cozy all at the same time. There was special BLANC themed cocktails and snacks and lots of people dressed for the theme. It was exactly how I enviosned...perfectly BLANC! I couldn't have asked for more!
(photos above by Eric Becker)
On Saturday, we braved the wintery elements opening the big garage door at Caffe Vita's Bean Room for the BLANC pop up. Using bags of coffee beans, discarded pallets and crates Jean led the crew of willing volunteers in merchandising a beautiful display of BLANC and non-BLANC design items.
The crowd was consistent and diverse from JOIN followers to coffee-sipping walk-ins. By the successful end of the first day, we knew there was no other option than to extend the hours three more hours on Saturday and open up again on Sunday!
And of course we had to treat ourselves to some hot coco with homemade marshmallows that totally hit the spot!
All and all, it was just so great to so many people who came to support and celebrate design! It's resounding clear that Seattle is ready to embrace design more than ever! We say this is the turning point!! and that deserves a group hugs & high-fives all around!
Phew! I'm totally exhausted and need to go hibernate for the next 6 months now!!
See the rest of the event HERE!
It's BlkFriday! and we gots some sales goin' up in here!
We're offering 25% off of $50+ total purchase starting now till NOV 28th sunday (ends 11:59pm PST) 1st. ENTER PROMO CODE: BLACKFRIDAY25
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!
Anthology's winter gift guide is available online!
It's a beautiful compilation of all the wonderful festive parts of the holidays.
Our special holiday server set is in there, so look for them and get a special discount!
Also this recipe video of making mulled cider by Tiger in Jar is absolutely lovely and is totally making me even more excited about the holidays! And if you like it spiked, I recommend adding honey whiskey or bourbon!
Anthology 2011 Winter Gift Guide Preview from Anthology Magazine on Vimeo.
I'm SOOOO stoked about these limited edition of 30 hand-painted and screen printed posters I had specially requested Chelsea Heffner of plainMADE to make for BLANC!!
I literally thought of the idea randomly while working on something else , texted Chelsea right away, she totally got on board with it, we bounced off some ideas over the phone, she painted and printed them, I got them in the mail, and VOILA! we got ourselves some beautiful BLANC prints made! She's amazing.
It's been super fun art directing the event, especially it gave me a great reason to collaborate with talented people to do fun special projects like this! But the main intent in making these posters is meant to offer something (like a special souvenir) to further extend the concept of BLANC even after the event ends.
As I started thinking about ideas for the posters, I was thinking more of what the sense of white means and what that could look like.
I started throwing out words to Chelsea and started thinking more about natural phenomenons like light, fog, cloud, fluffy, air, water, transparent, reflection....and gradually lead to other mood words like simple, pure, airy, austere, clean, calm, quiet, mysterious....
And final result is this...
Beautifully lightly washed watercolor in layers on slightly textured thick paper.
Looking directly from the front, you can only see the soft gray and light color hues over lapping each other.
and looking at the print from a different angle......
...The word "BLANC" printed in semi-transparent white paint appears as it catches the light.
....and changes from another angle.
I just REALLY love the subtlety and personally think the effect she did added a lot of depth. It's simply magical...
All these prints was SO spot-on in conveying all those concepts that I had in mind... It's as if Chelsea was able to read my mind better than I can!! creeepy~!
Each print is numbered and stamped by plainMADE.
These will all be for sale on both days of BLANC preview party (and if they don't sell out) will also be available at the BLANC popup the next day!
Sorry to say that I get first dibs! yes!
Been seeing some great inspirations for what to wear at BLANC preview party this FRIDAY where we're asking everyone to wear something white! I still got lots to do on the list to prep for the show....Obviously, I totally have my priority set here....
I especially love this whole collection by Rodarte for Opening Ceremony...totally BLANC.
Some great pieces for the boys, too!
