It's been a long time in the process and making, but here is the first of my fabric designs for Maharam.

Maharam is a very high end fabric company, mostly for the trade (architects, interior designers) with “a strong focus on new technologies and cultural markers, often finding inspiration beyond the textile industry, including collaborations with avant-garde industry outsiders.” That would be me.

This is a fabric built for seating, and is made of 34% Rayon, 33% Cotton & 33% Polyester. Its durability is listed as "40,000+ double rubs", which is a lot of rubbing, if you ask me.

And it comes in 7 amazing colours. I am particularly excited about the red, the red-brown and that stunning turquoise!

To see this and all the specs, or order it, go to the Maharam Virtual Library, click on the first Upholstery binder, click on the index at top right, and scroll through to "Centric" (it's alphabetical). At the moment they don't have a picture of it, but they will soon, I'm sure.

Jen Beckman and Sara Distin asked me to take part in their 20x200 project: wherein they create art prints for reasonable prices by a wide variety of artists, and new work going up every few days (or is it every day? I can't tell).

The art comes in different sizes, and usually you just get a bigger version of whatever the print is. But to me it seemed that the more you spend, the more you should get ... so above is what you get in the 8x10 (inches) size for $20, and below is what you get in the 11x14 size for $50 ...

Big spenders can buy even more, at 16x20 for $200 ...

And if you have a lot of wall space, or you're greedy, or rich, or all three, you can spend $2,000 and get this 30x40 inch baby ...

Buy them at 20x200!

For this year’s Salon del Mobile in Milan, the highly inventive, active and innovative company droog decided to buy various lots of remaindered items from liquidation sales, and then offered the batches of unusual things to 14 designers to transform in some way. Things like glassware and safety vests and dog baskets and wooden spoons … none of it particularly nice, so it was a challenge.

From the lot I chose 2 items: a single wooden table, and 80 wooden folding chairs.

For the folding chairs, well, I had this wacky idea. I had just had my fingernails done in LA for the first time, and I was fascinated with how quickly and nicely the manicurist put designs on my nails. So I proposed to droog that we get 80 manicurists and get one each to decorate a chair. Incredibly, they went for it. In the end there were only 4 or 5 manicurists, but still.

This is the first time ever that I have done something that was only concept, in which I designed nothing, and touched nothing with my actual hands.

These were my instructions:

1) COLOURS
bright colours: pink, red, yellow, etc.
opaque colours: white or nail polishes with a lot of white in them: light blues, greens, etc.
neon colours (a whole chair in neon colours would be cool: it would glow in blacklight!!)
metallic colours: the more shiny-metallic they are, the more they will stand out on the dark surface. Silver, copper, glitter .. .I have found that even metallic dark greens and blues look quite good.
They can choose a colour “theme” or make it multi-coloured.

2) MOTIFS

I’m not looking for works of art. Keep the designs simple and easy to make.
Flowers are very easy to make: 3- , 4-, and 5-petaled flowers
or little grasses, stars, abstract things with shapes and dots (I like this a lot).

Maybe there is some design they have learned that they are good at: a little butterfly or ladybug or something. Whatever they are, they should be small and simple, as though they were done on a fingernail … but there will be lots of them. I would prefer that they pick one or two little designs and just do that over and over, over the surface of the chair. Something they get good at and can do quickly and easily. NO big design pictures, no scenes or designs that would not fit on a finger nail … it should look pretty and delicate.

The Centraal Museum Utrecht bought one of these chairs, but droog still has a lot. The plan is to ship them to the droog store in New York, I believe, where they will be for sale, and more will be made.

Photos by Stefanie Grätz, courtesy of droog.

Maharam is a very high end fabric company, mostly for the trade (architects, interior designers) with “a strong focus on new technologies and cultural markers, often finding inspiration beyond the textile industry, including collaborations with avant-garde industry outsiders.” That would be me.

After wanting to work with them for several years, I have now been working with them on some things for about a year, some of which are not ready to be revealed. But these are: from Maharam Digital Projects, their new collection of wall coverings.

So far there are 3 designs of mine to choose from.

1) Feathers.

This is an old pattern of mine, which I revived and perfected for this project. I confess I was doubtful about the application, but clearly they know more about these things than I do because it looks terrific!

2) Pattern Plaid

This is a plaid in which not only do the colours cross at the intersections but little pattern units do as well. It’s bright and cheery.

3) Birds

This bird is one I drew years ago which has also been resurrected and patternized for the wallpaper. Giant, scrolly birds.

To see these on the Maharam website, or to order them, go to the Maharam Virtual Library and click on the binder (currently on far left) called Maharam Digital Projects, and then click on the index at top right, and scroll though to find mine. But be forewarned, you’ll probably get to the ones by Karel Martens and forget all about me and order his for your entire house. Not to mention all those other fabulous designs that I wish I had a palace for.

Photos courtesy of Maharam.

Todd Falkowsky of Motherbrand in Toronto approached me to design a … a … well, see, there’s this machine that squishes pennies, just like we used to do on the railroad tracks when we were kids (only it’s safer) and it has the ability to impress a new image into the penny, turning the penny into an oval copper thing. So Todd wanted to get 4 designers to make designs for this machine, and then set the machine out somewhere and give the proceeds (I think it costs $2, plus the penny) to an art studio for street youth.

I just liked the idea of squishing pennies … though, isn’t there a law against this? Doesn’t it come under “defacing the queen” or something?

Anyway, So I thought about what one might conceivably want to have on a copper thing that might mingle with your change in your pocket. Ultimately I decided on “Empathy”, because really that’s all the world needs is a whole lotta empathy, and I imagined that you might look at that Empathy penny from time to time and it might actually influence how you viewed a situation.

Then, for the design, I was interested in putting the “round” back in the distorted penny. Or maybe I’m just into circles right now (yes.)

Where can you get this? Only one location: at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

The three other designers were Douglas Coupland, Burton Kramer and Paul Butler, so if you want my design, make sure you turn the dial to the right position!

Last year I was contacted by Émilie Lamy at Pyramyd Editions in France (who also publish the design mag étapes) to have my work published as part of a series of small books called “design&designer”. I said yes. And thank you!

I also asked my fabulous friend, the acclaimed Debbie Millman to write the introduction. She said yes! Thank you Debbie!

The books are for sale. They don’t contain any commentary other than Debbie’s flattering introduction, but do contain lots of images.

Mine is the 66th title. Others include Niklaus Troxler, Pierre Di Sciullo, Massin, Ahn Sang-Soo, Geneviève Gauckler, Paprika, 5.5 designers, Ich&Kar, matali crasset, etc.

These design&designer books are worth picking up, especially if you’re curious about the work of international designers but don’t want to spend a bomb on books. The work of Ahn Sang Soo blew me away.

And here I am in the bookshelf. Right next to Massin (!!), and in some other great company.

Pretty! I worked on this edition of Pablo Neruda’s Love Poems with Rodrigo Corral, for the publisher New Directions. Rodrigo is the designer for this lovely little pocket-sized edition, and I’m really enchanted with his choice of copper foil on pink for the artwork. It’s for sale in fine bookstores everywhere, and of course, on Amazon.

I had been wanting to partake in Coudal’s Swap Meat ever since it went up (‘cuz it’s such an incredibly cool idea), but didn’t feel I had anything that really qualified. So I talked to Jim Coudal and he suggested I make something. So I did! This is available for sale.

Like most of us, I spend a lot of time in front of the computer. There are days when these voices from the internet seem to ask for so much from me. Caught between seduction and hard sell, I hesitate. Are these lost opportunities, or merely invitations to broken promises?

Just follow the instructions.