Design Road Show

Started on February 1st this year, a design nonprofit Project H Design launched a project called Design Revolution Road Show run by Emily Pilloton. The project's mission?

Simple but ambitious....35-schools, 75-day, 7000-mile tour and exhibition showcasing design for social impact that takes place in an Airstream.

'The programming will bring the evidence of and tools for design for social impact to the doorsteps of students, with the ultimate goal of enabling and empowering the next generation of creative problem-solvers to apply their skills to the world’s most pressing problems and improve life on a global scale.'

But as I looked at their itinerary, I noticed that they purposely avoided the Northwest! Portland gets to be part more things these days than Seattle, so screw them. But Hello?! What about us!?

What's up San Francisco? I thought us west coast people are tight, that's the one thing we do have in common is the fact that we're physically on the same side, right? We gotta stick together! You guys are like the people who knows how to put on awesome parties, while Portland is like the laid back cousin who have all the great "hooks ups." I know...we're like the dorky brother who never gets invited to any cool events... and yeah, maybe sometimes we seem like we have a stick up our a** but that's only because we're a little socially inapt, but that doesn't mean we don't know how to party!

I know you think its ridiculous that we mix fleece vests with business outfits...but really, it's Seattle who started the whole woodsman-hunter-look of black & red plaid button shirt with Redwing shoes....not Portland! They just know how to wear it well! Just look at this 1966 Edie Bauer catalog!

They even got C.C. Filson's products!....Although I've yet seen anyone in Seattle carry a Filson bag...and no, it's not because we're too cheap to sport one, damn it!

See! Seattle was sporting this whole look more than 30 years ago! Perhaps that's our problem...we're just way too ahead of the game for anyone to understand us. We're like the awkward prodigy guy who's too shy to get a girl's number...or the sexy librarian lady who's too intimidating for most guys....or something like that.

Just you wait and see, soon enough, y'all will be sporting the fleece-Patagonia-vest-with-sports-sandals-look.....and of course with white socks!

New Season, New Beginning...

Recently, we took a big step (big for us) and got our very first retail order of the Chalk-It-To-Me Piggy Banks!! But boy do we really need to stop coming up with names that are way too long (i.e. Ladies & Gentlemen Studio..) It really bites us in the butt in the long run. :P
Perhaps I should start calling them CITM Piggy banks...ok, maybe just Chalk Piggies for now.
We're excited to share that they're available at the New Seasons Market in Portland, where 4 out of the 9 stores around the city are now selling these!!
When we first got the order, we were stoked...but a little freaked out. We never gotten around in figuring out how to produce the Chalk series, but at the same time we didn't want to turn down the opportunity..
So Not only did we not have a production space set up, we didn't even we have packaging, print material, and all that stuff figured out. Don't worry, this is all part of our bigger picture "business plan" that we've drawn up in our own imagination.... so, yeah, we know what we're doing. :P

But we took our first stab at it...All packed up!This is by no means our idea of a perfect packaging design for these. I'd change pretty much everything if I have a dispensable income to make the packaging all fancy with crazy colors and would play music when you open the box like those cards with sounds!
What's better than trying to read a card with thoughtful messages from you family & friends while you're distracted with the cheap sounds of a button battery operated card that plays songs such as “Hot Stuff” by Donna Summer, “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee, “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones, “We’re All in This Together” by the cast of High School Musical?? I have an idea....how about a card that DOESN'T make any sounds so I can concentrate and read the card peacefully?

Anyways....sidetracked. 
All and all, this was definitely an exciting first step to take and a great learning experience that gave us an idea of all the things we'd need to consider to take this even further.
Now we just gotta go work on our business plan!! Oh boy!
I wonder if the bank or investors would accept this as a business plan...
Not only do I have a plan, I'm also showing that I'm a responsible saver with my piggy bank full of change! Booh-yah! Business plan DONE!

FLKS is Good For You

FLKS (flex), a flexible and collapsible workplace by Dutch designers Kapteinbolt.Via Dezeen

World's Smallest Fashionista

Chika recently informed me about this little delightful blogger, Tavi Gevinson....This is one of them successful blogger-stories you wished you never heard....Like everyone else, Tavi started a blog, Style Rookie, about something she's passionate about..in this case, it's fashion. Tavi shares her own thoughts, inspirations, and fashion sense. Her readership grew and grew and now have gotten a whole world following her and is now consider a fashion trend setter...the twist? She only 13 years old!!
Her success has allowed her to travel to Paris & NYC fashion week, watched numerous runway shows, gotten to meet big name designer and has even inspired them to create clothes based on her style......pretty much she's making the the whole fashion industry go crazy over her.
I'm going crazy already...feeling crazy lame that is...
But seriously though....she's pretty amazing.

Everything about her style is so uninhibited that's truly inspiring and refreshing to see. I especially love how she mixes extreme high-end fashion pieces with ripped up mix-matched tights, and shoes from the thrift stores. She layers and creates color pallets that are beyond predictable and is anything but horrific. There's really no one style that can sum up what she's all about. She's sort of like an adorable French kid wearing classy grandma's clothes...or a cute little spunky Japanese kid from Harajuku with an American twist...or an edgy androgynous modern avant-garde adult inside a 13 year old body...or a nerdy hipster who wears 80's/early 90's vintage clothes as if she lived through that period and is also nostalgic of the ghetto blast ...She's all of the above!

It's almost like....she's a trash compacter, but for all fashion styles....she's a fashion compacter!
In any case....She's got the talent..and is using it well.

Here's a great photo spread below for Pop Magazine :So...you're probably feeling like the oldest, lamest person AND the biggest failure at this point, huh? Well...you're not alone.
Just wait till little Tavi turns 14!!......We can all just kill ourselves* when that time comes...

And to top it off...she's even got her own Wikipedia page...

I googled and Wikipedia-ed myself just for the hell of it...Besides links to Lee Jeans, I also found.......

"Jean Lee - The last woman to be hanged in Australia"

Well...guess what Tavi?? You're not gonna bring me down! You're just a KID! You can't even drive and you still need your MOMMY to drop you off at all those "parties" in NY and then have to get her to pick you up before night night at 9pm so she can tuck you in...I mean...talk about embarrassing!! Plus you don't even have a high school diploma OR a college degree....so good luck getting a REAL job in the REAL WORLD! HA!
Who's the lame one now?! Don't...even respond.

* I am not responsible for any deaths hereafter for anyone who have read this post.

L&G on Lucky Magazine!

Okay...take deep breath...
So get this...our Mega Doily Rug got featured on Lucky Magazine! This is our very first time getting our designs featured in a printed magazine! Kind of a big deal for us, since all the past mentions of L&G were all viral, (which I'm more than grateful for all the kind mentions!), but for some reason getting an actual feature in an editorial magazine makes it feel so official!

I knew before that the rug would be featured on the March issue...but totally forgot that the issue comes out a month before....so all this still caught me by surprised when I found out that the issue came out this last weekend!

But on another SUPER exciting note for L&G is that I'll also be contributing to Meg Mateo Illasco's new book "Crafting a Meaningful Home"  (STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books).

I had the honor to meet Meg in person last year at the Renegade Craft Fair when she was doing some book signing for her book, Craft Inc. Through some casual conversation and me getting her autographed book, we ended up talking about her new book. One thing lead to another and the next thing I know, both Chika and I were talking about projects to propose for her book and dates for a photoshoot in SF! I swear, no one was drunk when all this happened!

But this is even BIGGER deal! Don't get me wrong, blogs & magazines...I'm not making it sound like this a competition nor am I playing favorites, but I'm saying it's a bigger deal because I realized how much work goes into putting a book together from both ends.  Turns out publishing a book isn't so easy...who would of thought, right?
There was so much back and forth of editing and re-editing that goes on and really made me wonder how people did this before the world wide inter-web came about...

In anyhow, the book will come out this Fall and we'll be able to share more in beginning of this summer!!  I'm trying really hard not too say too much, but I'm totally excited knowing what I know and knowing how awesome this book is gonna be!

Stay tuned for more updates!!

Newly Coveted From Grain

I'm totally psyched to share that I got some of these AMAZING purses from our friends, Chelsea and James of Grain Design. I been thinking about them since JOIN's Design Shoppe event last November....and FINALLY decided to just make a nice field trip over to their house on Bainbridge Island and pick them out myself!

Their new line of purses, Sololá, is one of their awesome collaborative efforts to celebrate the artistry of Guatemalan women weavers in creating beautiful, one of a kind purses.
"Each purse upcycles a vintage huipile (traditional women's blouse woven on the backstrap loom) to create an individual statement. Turned inside-out, the huipiles are an explosion of color and handwork. Each purse is assembled by Guatemalan artisans in Antigua from textiles sourced at the famous Chichicastenango Market."
I love how they highlight the textural quality simply by using the back side as the exterior. So clever. I had the hardest time picking the ones I want since they're all so beautiful! I'd take them all if I can...

They're available in the Grain Shop!

Also I'm excited to share that they'll be in the NY International Gift Fair starting Jan 31-Feb 4. Grain have been selected to to participate in the "A+: The Young Designers' Platform" section of Accent on Design along with 6 other designers.
Both Chika and I will be going there to check out the NYIGF for the first time, and I'm totally excited to see some exciting new things, eat good food, and ride the stinky subway! Can't wait!

L&G/Chikabird in Meg Mateo Illasco's New Book!

So around last August we briefly mentioned that Meg Mateo Illasco is working on some home decor book....but we forgot to mention that both Chika & I are also gonna be her book!!

Ok, you totally want to hear the whole story, right?
Well...let me tell you! It was a total serendipitous thing.....
It all happened on lovely mid-July day in San Francisco when Chika & I traveled there to sell our goods at the Renegade Craft Fair......But this particular day was more than any other craft show days we worked at. We had the pleasure to meet Meg for the first time that day when she was doing book signing for her book "Craft Inc."
I decided to get a copy of her book to have her autograph it since I'm a big fan of her work and I love the book and wanted to get it for a friend..but instead of acting like my normal self....I some how turned into a giant dork too shy to say much besides looking awkward and mumbling some less than significant words like "uh..your books is, uh, really cool...yeah...I like how you talk about business...and stuff...but for crafters....uh...that's pretty cool...yeah, totally."
Well...those weren't the exact words..but I'm sure it was pretty close. :P

But of course, Meg was totally cool and SUPER friendly and just started asking me what I do...and as it turned out, Meg actually knew about our work!! AWESOME!

On top of what was already an exciting interaction with Meg, things just escalated from there. Next thing I know she was in our booth checking out our stuff and chatting with us as if we're already friends (I love friends!)...and JUST when I was thinking that things can't get any awesome-er..Meg all of a sudden says to me "Hey, I'm working on a home decor book and is looking for people to submit some creative projects with a personal story, you guys wanna do it?"
I looked at her like a deer in the headlight....then looked at Chika who also had the same look as me......I looked back at Meg and thought "Could this be real?!"....then realized I should provide some sort of response since she asked me a question....then finally I responded with great confidence "......yesssss?????"
I totally thought it was too good to be true and thought maybe she just wanted to feel it out and so I was prepared that at some point we'll get an email from Meg saying that she found someone better with a better project or for whatever reason.....but everything fell into place....and we realized it was truly official when both Chika & I went back in SF 2 weeks after we met Meg, and found ourselves hanging out at Lisa Wong Jackson's lovely mid-century modern house doing a photo shoot with Meg, Lisa, Joy, and Joanna with Thayer Alllyson Gowdy the photographer for the book. Everything happened so fast I couldn't even register it all!!!
The book will consist of of 25+ other well-known designers/artists/crafters each with a DIY home decor project that has their personal stories or memories. We were thrilled when Meg told us all the awesome people like Joy from Oh Joy!, Lauren & Derek of The Curiosity Shoppe, Lisa Congdon, Lisa of Good on Paper, Cathy Callahan of Cathy of California, Tootie of ReForm School and more were all contributing to the book!
With a power group like that, I don't even have to know what sort of projects they are doing for me to just KNOW that this book will amazing!

Here's some photos from the shoot. I want to live in Lisa's house!
Lisa & Virginia (Meg's lovely assistant) in their matching striped shirt watching the photo shoot take place.
Below are the projects that got shot that day....
My Mega-Doily Rug....Oh how I wish my living room looked like that....it looks much better than my long skinny coffee table sitting on top of it...
For Chikabird, we made a Coat of Arms for the Dupe with all the graphic icons that represented us and then we wood burned them!
Joy's beautiful gold leaf glass lamp
Joanna's lovely stamped door curtainAn here's everyone sitting down for a nice lunch break. It's amazing how exhausting styling a shoot is! There were lots of moving objects back and forth going on, standing back to look at it, framing the shot with our hands, tilting our heads, squinting, and then repeat....
Yum yum almond croissants from my FAVORITE SF bakery, Tartine!!
I still couldn't really believe that this whole book thing is actually happening even after several months in when we already done the photo shoot and submitted the instructions and story...for some reason I just feared (and was trying to prepare myself) that there would still be a chance that we could get edited out.....for simply looking stupid in our photos or something like that...but they decided to keep our project! Even though I wouldn't argue one bit that I probably do look a little stupid in the photos... :P

I'm just more than excited the fact that not only will this be our FIRST time getting published in a book...it's gonna be in a book by Meg along with an amazing group of people that we've always found inspiring, too!
There's just too much awesomeness all around! Can't stand it!
The real book is plan to launch this early fall!
Stay tuned! 

Calder's Cirque

I got to go see the Alexander Calder exhibit the other day at the Seattle Art Museum.
Besides seeing his beautiful mobiles from small to large in person, I was most delighted to see a video of the Le Cirque puppet performance during his years in Paris using all the little handmade figures and props made with mostly found materials. I was totally entertained to see how he manipulates each charming figures and re-creates a circus performance that's more than impressive and entertaining than seeing the real thing!The perfectly orchestrated circus is made up of numerous elements of kinetically activated wire figures and animals, live sound effects, mini-stage props, and Calder himself performing in front of a live audience. There's a great mix of really impressive well-engineered performances of Calder using wire figures doing trapeze to some occasional humorous act of when Calder throws couple of peanuts on the floor by the circus lion as a signal that it pooped. Who would have thought that lion pooping can be so delightful?! But Calder pulled it off.
This is a 2 part video of his Le Cirque performance below... ( it's much better to see it at the museum on a big projection) But you can get a rough idea of Calder's sense of playfulness and how much pride he takes while doing the whole performance...just don't get creeped out by the way he laughs and talks....but hey, when you're Calder, you can get away with that and it's a-ok.

Part 1


Part 2

Mega Doily on Craft Magazine

If you're not sick of this yet....Here's Mega Doily featured on Craft Magazine! Woo Hoo!

Happy New Year from L&G

This year, L&G is starting 2010 by sharing this little card we made for the New Year.We're looking forward to yet another exciting year, and plan to...
and of course, there's always hopes to...
I suppose that means we need to put that on our resolution and actually start playing the lottery. :D
But really, we'd like to be better about planing ahead this coming year and....
To explain....this past holiday season, I really dropped the ball in terms of sending out presents and holiday cards, and getting into the holiday spirit. I know...horrible. That's why we made these cards to make up for it. Hopefully that worked...
But for ourselves, we didn't even get a Christmas tree or put up any lights or decorations! We had the most non-holiday Christmas day where Dylan and I just roasted a chicken and made some stuffing....and didn't even bother making the gravy....I know...I can only imagine the looks that I'm getting right now...
We already got scorned by Dylan's grandmother when we told her what we ate. It was sacrilegious....
Still...we had our dinner with only chicken and stuffing and watched The Royal Tenenbaums in our non-holiday spirited living room. Despite our atypical Christmas day, it was still nice to just spend some time with each other and enjoy a nice homemade dinner by ourselves (let's just not dwell on the lack of gravy part...)

Sometimes I feel like its okay to just change things up a bit..right? We're not a Grinch, right? I think because we had such a low key holiday for 09', it'll be that much more exciting to go all out for this coming year's holiday and get a 20ft tall tree....where we'll have to lay that across our living room. That should be fun, eh? :D


We're looking forward to the new year and hope everyone will have an awesome 2010!

A Little Dice of Fun...

This is as cool as Michel Gondry's legos video for The White Stripes.
Lovely song by Fujiya & Miyagi.

via MILK



My Love Hate with Rain

I've been super happy with Seattle for the last 4 days because of the amazing sunny weather we've been getting over Christmas. But of course that didn't last very long. So it's back to reality with the rainy cloudy weather.
But despite my negative attitude towards the rain, I've been loving these adorable rain print series by La Casita De Wendy!
What a way to turn something so horrible (like the rain) into something so delightful!

I did a brief interview on the talented duo (Inés Aguilar & Iván Martínez) of La Casita De Wendy awhile back. You can read the post, here!


Mega Doily Making Blog Tours!

Besides our recent exciting mentions on D*S of our Mega-Doily rug and on Apartment Therapy, they've also been making its way around the blog-o-sphere on all sorts of blogs...oh! what a great world that is....

Just when I was starting to feel a little too depressed in this cold and rainy city....there's a beam of sunshine coming out of my computer screen with little blog people smiling and waving at me.... :D
Okay, maybe that's a little creepy...

In any case, thank you all my blog friends and confidant!!

found us on fffound!
The Coveted (of all things stylish)
Petite Pomme (lovely lifestyle blog)Crochet Today (On the Crochet Today Magazine's blog)

Making Chicken Salad (adorable vintage inspired blog)Sodapop Design (a German blog!)
and few others...
Crochet Spot
Chicpea Studio
CaseyBaudin
Erin Everafter
Loverswin
Urban Flea



So Far and Yet So Close

Not sure about you, but I'm always a little behind on knowing what's new and awesome in Seattle...and for the fact that I don't hang out in Downtown Seattle nearly enough, I was REALLY behind in discovering this AMAZING shop/gallery called {far4}....a total hidden gem!

We first came across the shop when Jamie of Iacoli & McAllister mentioned it to us when she invited them to one of our JOIN shows. With the luck of such great exposure at the show, Jenny Klimenkoff who runs the store contacted us wanting to carry some of our Chalk figures! (there's our Mr. Rabbit in the window!)
We were incredibly honored and excited to be in their shop, since they boast an amazing collection of the highest quality handmade housewares, art, antiques, and designs from all around the world. While it seems like a shop from NY, they're actually located in downtown Seattle with an open space and beautifully exposed brick wall that houses {far4}'s shop and gallery showcasing carefully curated selection of ceramic ware and art. (lucky us!)

With an unexpected mixture of objects of both great elegance and humor, I find myself mesmerized by every detail of every single item while feeling unsure if I should even be allowed to handle them!

Here's Jenny & Yelena behind the platter of hard-to-resist French Macarons from local Seattle bakery, Honore.A fabulous porcelain sculptures of a life-size monkey that reminds us a little bit of Jeff Koon's Monkey!
Check out these realistic looking pea pods and flowers with paper thin petals from Klimenkoff Studio!! Holy
wow.....Ceramic doll heads on top of Iacoli&McAllister's Pedestals. Love the arrangements together!
The patterns on the cups are made using only colors of the clay by Yusuke Aida....just incredible.

L&G on Apartment Therapy

Our Mega-Doily rug got yet another nice write up by Seattle's AT contributor, Anne Reagan.
Anne gave a well-summarized post about L&G studio and the rug. On top of that she even provided a little wonderful history about doilies! What a great way to expand our knowledge on a daily biases, wouldn't you agree?

It's been great to see all the positive responses about my Mega-Doily rug. Thank you everyone! But with that said, there's still people with their oh-so-wonderful-but-not-so-positive comments.... I still thank them for taking the time to share their opinions....for my own amusement. Chuckle chuckle...oh they things they say...I friggin' LOVE it! :D

L&G Chalk Series on Seattle Metropolitan

We're still raising the roof since yesterday's mention on D*S. (we slept with our hands up...boy was that hard!)
Jenny of {far 4} kindly shared our mention on Seattle Metropolitan blog with a flattering write up by Laura Cassidy about Chalk series!! Woot woot!

Thanks Jenny for sharing this! Thanks Laura for the kind post!

Au RIGHT!

Our friend Joelle King recently launched her new line of jewelry, Au Fait. Her new collection, BOOM, is inspired by vintage radios, remote controls, speakers and cables. They're versatile, sleek, and handsome modern pieces that can be adorn by both men and women.  With such well-designed and refined proportions, we almost wish that they're actual radios that we can put on our credenza!I'm in love with the Cable Necklace where the ends are filled with yellow resin.
They're available here, and she's offering free shipping till January 1st!

L&G Chalk Series on D*S!

L&G finally made an official release of our Chalk-It-To-Me figures last week! The fact that we got our act together is already pretty darn exciting. BUT, we're even MORE excited to be on Design Sponge's post! AWESOME!
We're dancing around like we're raising the roof right now. Now...that's REALLY exciting!!

Chikabird + Piano Nobile Line Debut this weekend at UCU!

If anyone is around this weekend in Seattle, please come by and say hello and check out our exciting new line of notebooks and cardcases with Piano Nobile at the BIG holiday Urban Craft Uprising show!

December 5th & 6th, 2009
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. both days
Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: FREE!

Isabelle and Nickolas of Piano Nobile runs a multi-faceted design studio where they could be described as professional designers and colalborators. Isabelle has a painting and printing background with a great sense of material, color, and texture. Nickolas on the other hand has an architecture background with mad building skills in all realms whether it be funiture, design build or a large scale printing table. I'm pretty sure he can build a pyramid.... I remember reading that in his resume somewhere....

Not only do they have the perfect print studio with their self-designed and welded textile printing set up, they're also just a short bike ride away from our studio in Ballard! It's almost too good to be true!
(and yes, convenience does matter...)

Did I mention that they have a dog named Bauhaus, and also owns a sweet vintage Vanagon and Volvo?
Can you stand it?!....I can barely keep my composure thinking about all their awesomeness.

So here it is! Our collaboration line with PN! Okay, so come to UCU to see all the goods in person! You can also go to our shop to check out the entire PN collaboration line.

Posted by Jean at 9:22 PM



Henrybuilt...Perhaps the Best?

Remember back in October when we voted for Henrybuilt and Viola Park for the 2009 Interior Design magazine's Best of Year Awards?

Well, guess what?! Both Henrybuilt and Viola Park are one of the 3 nominee under two separate categories!! This is SUPER exciting...actually BEYOND exciting!
So, today is a big day for Dylan, since he has left (don't worry, he's not leaving me forever...I hope not) and is on the way to the Big Apple to attend tonight's Best of Year 2009 award ceremony at the Guggenheim!!
So let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope that Dylan will bring home both awards!
Man! It sure it's hard to type with my fingers crossed....It's all worth it.....fingers....getting cramped...