A Place Where Color and Ideas Converge
from The New York Times
From a rectangular footprint that had the elevators at its core, Charles Patten, an architect with Spacesmith, designed a space that puts visitors into the action the moment they enter the 45-foot-long reception area. Banquette seating with bright, striped cushions is used in a pit configuration that is created by the two-foot elevation of raised flooring that was added to accommodate wiring. In front of the banquettes, metal stools in white, red, yellow and turquoise, and bright, tulip-shaped canvas wing chairs provide a foil to the concrete floor, white walls and wood particle board on the exterior walls of the conference room. More

Nosign of the Times
from Metropolis Magazine
In the last year the designer who calls himself 'Nosigner' has debuted diverse and original products and installations while exhibiting at nearly every major design show around the globe including Tokyo, London, Seoul ,and Sydney. The 28-year-old furniture and product designer says he always wanted to be an architect (he trained as an architect and his student work in 2004 was a finalist for the best architecture diploma project in Japan,) but a look through his portfolio proves his high-concept works are outside a traditional architectural practice. More

Tropical Transplant
from Architectural Digest
If it were not overlooking a coconut-palm-fringed canal, the lavish if modestly scaled pleasure palace that New York designer Todd Black created as Veronica Webb’s family retreat in Key West would surely be taken at first glance for a royal pavilion in Marrakech or Taroudannt in Morocco. More

Would You Live In A Shipping Container?
from Fast Company
Adam Kalkin isn't the only architect to make homes out of shipping containers. A handful of architects, including Jennifer Siegal and Lot-Ek, began using them 10 years ago as a gritty reaction against the tidy white surfaces of modernism. But nobody has employed shipping containers more inventively than Kalkin, a New Jersey architect and artist who has used them to design luxurious homes, museum additions and refugee housing. In architectural circles, Kalkin is regarded as something of an oddball. More

Fashion/ Apparel Design

Fur, Rich Colors Mark 2009 Ebony Fashion Fair
from the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Hundreds cheered for sleek suits, flashy furs and a plus-sized model at the 2008-2009 Ebony Fashion Fair. This year's fair, sponsored by Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., took place recently at the Tupelo Furniture Market. The theme for this year was "The Runway Report," with special scenes dedicated to the most fashionable styles, colors and fabrics. More

The Best New Designers in America: 2009
from GQ magazine
Meet the guys who are redefining men’s style with their leather jackets, silk-screened T-shirts, and cashmere cardigans. In GQ’s third annual search for the most ascendant talents in men’s fashion, we reached from the shores of Maine to the streets of Atlanta, assembling a class of designers whose vision is as broad and diverse as the country itself. More

True Religion Apparel Enters Eyewear Deal
from The Associated Press via Forbes
True Religion Apparel Inc., best known for jeans, said it entered a licensing deal for Revolution Eyewear Inc. to make and distribute eyewear under the True Religion brand. The eyewear, to be available in June, will be sold at more than 3,000 specialty stores such as Sunglass Hut, True Religion's namesake stores and department stores including Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale's and Barneys New York. More

Channeling the Ideal of Modern Beauty
from The Washington Post
The most valuable currency in the fashion industry is beauty. It's like a natural resource: exploited, manipulated, celebrated and often taken for granted until it's close to disappearing. When we talk about classic good looks, we still use a Western standard. It's the beauty so often described in Shakespearean literature: ivory skin, rosebud lips, flaxen hair. But as our demographics continue to shift, the standard of beauty in the future is likely to be more Eva Longoria than Donna Reed. More

Graphic Design/Visual Communication

Catching Up with...Watchmen Illustrator Dave Gibbons
from Paste Magazine
There's a tiny detail in one of the scenes from "Watchmen″ that's indicative of the graphic novel's larger complexity and the play between word and image within it. A locksmith with "Gordian Knot Lock, Co." on his back arrives to replace a door lock that has been broken several times, each replacement more elaborate than the last. That a graphic novel makes a reference to the Gordian Knot is in itself mind-blowing, but then consider that ultimately this minor reference becomes a metaphor for the entire conflict in Watchmen. More

EazyDraw 3.0
from Macworld
If you liked MacDraw—the vector drawing program that shipped with the Mac way back when—you’ll love its conceptual successor, EazyDraw 3. EazyDraw gives non-professionals a painless way to create illustrations, logos, floor plans, technical diagrams, flowcharts, maps, and Web graphics that can be copied and pasted into other applications, such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, or Adobe Illustrator. More

Down Argentine Way
from PRINT Magazine
There’s a comics revolution going on in Buenos Aires, and at the very center is a man who draws himself with the head of a rabbit. "I saw a really bad knockoff of one of my characters painted on a kiosk, and I felt like 'Yes! I’ve finally made it!' " says Argentina's Ricardo Siri Liniers, known by his nom de comics, Liniers. More

Blackmagic Design Updates Software with Support for Adobe Creative Suite 4
from Computer Graphics World
Blackmagic Design Inc. released a new Windows-based software update of its video editing products, including all Multibridge, DeckLink, and Intensity models. This new Blackmagic Design Version 7.0 software update, now available at no charge on the Blackmagic Design Web site, adds support for Adobe Creative Suite 4. More

Industrial/Product Design

i4 Product Design Strengthens Team with New Marketing Manager
from TCT Magazine
i4 Product Design, a leading product development company, based in Edinburgh has appointed Sandrine Sienche, as its new marketing manager. Sienche is an addition to the six-strong team and her role will focus on strengthening i4 Product Design’s marketing and business development activities. More

Palm Treo Pro (Sprint) Smart Phone
from Interior Design
Applauded as an "innovative use of technology, material, and organic spherical shape as paramount to Bernini’s boat fountain in Rome" by European design curator, Dr. Kathryn Hiesinger, the museum welcomes Matteo Thun’s Lavasca tub to its permanent contemporary design collection. Completed in 2001 for Milan-based K/B manufacturer Rapsel, Lavasca is touted as the world’s lightest bathtub. More

Matteo Thun Collaborates with Rapsel, Applauded by Art Museum
from Core77
Half technical, half intuitive, the design process is tough to explain. But that’s my job—I’m a design writer. I write so you don’t have to, putting into words the work that you’d rather do than write about. But write you must—Web site copy, proposals, captions, emails to clients—and though the worse designers are at it, the more work I get, in the spirit of collaboration I’m going to share my secrets. So what if it puts me out of a job. More

Microsoft in 2019: Where's Windows?
from PC World
Microsoft's 2019 is the latest entry in the genre of future product dramatization videos. There's a five-minute version, but also a tightly-edited two minute excerpt. The super-slim and easy-to-use handheld gadgets and wall-sized transparent displays handled by the video's shoppers, students and office workers make Tom Cruise's setup in Minority Report seem obsolete. More important than whizzy interfaces, the videos promise much more extensive collaboration, instant information retrieval, and multimedia communication. More

OBD Announces New Travel Services - DesignTravelers.com

OBD announces DesignTravelers.com, OBD's official Web site for all of your travel needs.

Through our new partnership with Rovia you are guaranteed the absolute lowest price for your reservations. If you find a lower price anywhere else, contact the number located on the pricing page or go to the chat button and discuss your fare differential. It will be matched or bettered.

Airline, Hotel, Car Rental, Cruise reservations, Vacations, and Special Activities, like Honeymoon and Wedding packages. See the Honeymoon and Bridal Registry. It is full of great features.

Want to plan a design culture trip to Rome, Paris, Brazil or anywhere else in the world? Contact OBD at 202-659-3918 and we will help you with your travel and event planning. From itinerary, to resort or hotel reservations.

And once you use our PowerSearch fare and reservation finder you will be using the most advanced new platform for booking and travel sales. PowerSearch has been developed by veterans with over 24 years of experience in the travel industry.

This new platform with its proprietary booking engine takes destination travel to the next generation and further. It searches every available fare to give you the most comprehensive fare and reservation options possible.

And now the good part. A percentage of your travel dollar will be donated to the OBD Scholarship Initiative. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.DesignTravelers.com today to make your next travel reservations.

David Rice
OBD Chairman
Organization of Black Designers
202-489-4822