mlarson.org » Design

Look what I made: a tray

Mark Larson — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:22:01 +0000

I like to have a place for everything.

I have a drawer in my nightstand for all my day-to-day stuff, but it still didn’t feel together enough.

A light went off in my head when I saw these leather trays from JW Hulme and Aspinal. This was actually the whole reason I started messing around with leatherworking in the first place.

Turns out, besides being convenient in my actual house, this is *exactly* what I never knew I always wanted when I settle into a strange hotel room. I hate having my stuff scattered about the room. Everything centralized, mind at rest. Snaps let it pack flat.

I didn’t know how to set snaps when I started, but a few minutes of obnoxious late-night hammering and cursing had me on my way. I also didn’t know how to sew leather at the time, so this one remains unlined.

By the way, I still can’t sew leather very well at all. Evidence forthcoming.

Look what I made: a wallet

Mark Larson — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:33:20 +0000

I love this thing.

Rollin’ flush with my single dollar bill. That’s just how I do.

I stole the idea after stumbling across Leffot’s Fold wallet when I was trying to find some shoe porn. Mine isn’t nearly as nice as theirs. On the other hand, it didn’t cost $100, so I’ll call it a draw. I also got the satisfaction of a job-kinda-well-ish done. I made a quick paper prototype and then went to cuttin’. Part of the fun of doing a quick sloppy draft is that often times the quick sloppy draft is surprisingly good enough.

Like they say, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. I loved the stripped-down feel. I will spare you the #lifehack #diy #dailycarry #tips about how I use it. You’re welcome.

The point is, this thing is awesome. Now that I’ve tested and loved the concept, I’m considering making myself an upgrade with nicer leather and non-crooked cuts. And there’s also the expected satisfaction that comes with generally trying harder—not to be underestimated.

Alas, the ascendancy of this wallet means that my previous favorite, the Backpacking Light/Simblissity collaboration, the LiteFOLD XP, is now retired. After 6 or 7 years of hiking and, um, sitting on my ass, the old wallet was showing its age. I still highly recommend Simblissity and will probably pick up another one for multi-day outdoorsy use. My fold is the new king.

Mark Larson — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:38:49 +0000

Is it truly so hard to keep sidewalks open and walkable? Recent problems in Toronto [via funkaoshi] remind me of my local gripes last year. That spot in my ‘hood recently patched up those threadbare spots with new paving stones. Need to get a photo.

Mark Larson — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:11:22 +0000

Urban Spectacles makes handmade eyeglasses from exotic woods and other materials. I’m due for a new pair. Though I hate to get all fetishy about fashion, if I don’t go the $40 eyeglasses route, I might give this guy a look. I’ve had my current pair for about 8-9 years now.

Mark Larson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:36:44 +0000

The History of Visual Communication. Plenty of good stuff here. I like the care taken in the further readings & references at the bottom of each section.

Mark Larson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:48:24 +0000

Nigel Holmes and Good magazine partnered to make It’s the Economy, Stupid!, an infodesigny look at the American economy of the past 90-ish years.

Mark Larson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:14:30 +0000

It’s been really wonderful to keep an eye on A House by the Park, “a first-hand chronology of the design, planning, and construction of a modern home in Seattle.” I’m not in the market now, nor do I plan to be in the near future, but it’s cool to watch and learn from a safe distance.

Mark Larson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:08:57 +0000

An archive of record covers from Blue Note Records. [via dial "m" for musicology]

Mark Larson — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:47:15 +0000

Rob Giampietro started a collection of imagery from the New Yorker fiction pages, 48 so far. Lots of good stuff there.

Mark Larson — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:45:35 +0000

Austin Kleon found the Gerd Arntz Web Archive, dedicated to the work of the German designer:

Otto Neurath had developed a method to communicate complex information on society, economy and politics in simple images. For his ��Vienna method of visual statistics��, he needed a designer who could make elementary signs, pictograms that could summarize a subject at a glance.

Arntz��s clear-cut style suited Neurath��s goals perfectly, and so he invited the young artist to come to Vienna in 1928, and work on further developing his method, later known as ISOTYPE, International System Of TYpographic Picture Education. During his career, Arntz designed around 4000 different pictograms and abstracted illustrations for this system.

“Holy crap!” indeed.

Mark Larson — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:32:56 +0000

Also via DesignNotes, a new Flickr group for Tables of Contents.

Mark Larson — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:56:59 +0000

How We’re Wrecking Our Feet. It’s the shoes. Old news, but worth hearing again and again.

Foot freedom is a movement in the ultralight hiking community as well. Once you realize that you don’t need to carry 50lbs for a weekend trip, you realize that you can ditch the leather boots and hike with shoes. And after that, for me at least, it’s been an ongoing search for the lightest, most flexible shoes I can find. I really like Inov8‘s line of “trail slippers”. The Vibram Five Fingers models were mentioned in the article. Shoes from Vivo Barefoot were also mentioned but I have no idea why even their cheapest models cost over $120. [via link banana]

Mark Larson — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:57:38 +0000

10 Things I Have Learned, Milton Glaser’s life lessons.

Mark Larson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:44:59 +0000

Stefanie Posavec made a diagram of every sentence in On the Road organized by words per sentence. Here are more literary diagrams.

Mark Larson — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 01:00:22 +0000

Pecha Kucha Night is an informal gathering of presenters who are limited to 20 slides of 20 seconds each. So, theoretically, it’s a forum with less rambling and more variety in the course of an evening. Lots of cities are having them now. Could be cool. The next Atlanta Pecha Kucha will be next Sunday at Octane Coffee. The Atlanta Pecha Kucha also has the previous podcasts available on iTunes.

Mark Larson — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:36:41 +0000

Probably a parallel here with the birth of Athena:

[update: photo of a really awesome woodcut removed due to copyright complaint from Verwertungsgesellschaft Bild-Kunst]

From L’Idee by Frans Masereel.

Mark Larson — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:30:15 +0000

An interview with Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, which I need to remember to buy:

Today there are great drawing tools in a lot of software packages, and many business people, bless their hearts, are getting better at using them. The problem is the pictures look perfect when they��re done. And by virtue of looking finished, they actually turn off people��s desire to constructively comment on them.

[via austin kleon]

Mark Larson — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:27:41 +0000

In a New York Times article about the death of encyclopedias, a Britannica guy talks about well-designed books as a luxury item. Content might be everywhere, but good design can still expect an appreciative audience:

He envisioned the print volumes living on as a niche, luxury item, with high-quality paper and glossy photographs—similar to the way some audiophiles still swear by vinyl LPs and turntables. ��What you need people to understand,�� he said, ��is that it is a luxury experience. You want to be able to produce a lot of joy, a paper joy.��

[via michael surtees]

Mark Larson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:45:36 +0000

Customizable graph paper—modify the pattern to your liking, and then it makes a PDF for you to print.

Mark Larson — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:44:12 +0000

A tour of a 100-square-foot house owned by Jay of the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.

Mark Larson — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:15:39 +0000

The offices of bldgs, a pair of Atlanta architects, was featured in a New York Times slideshow and article. It’s a pretty cool space, even though it looks like a bit of a disaster from the outside.

Every season, more paint falls off the walls and more rust develops. It��s like an art installation in there—a slow-motion show.

I was just on their website the other day looking at their work on the Florian-Hart residence. [via magnetbox]

Mark Larson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 20:29:07 +0000

Selections from the 1962 Sears Christmas catalog.

Mark Larson — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:38:38 +0000

I like these clothes hangers, simple leather balls tethered to the wall. They couldn’t be that hard to make on my own.

Mark Larson — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:05:29 +0000

“It is important to use your hands, this is what distinguishes you from a cow or a computer operator.” -Paul Rand

Mark Larson — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 16:10:29 +0000

Photos of stuffed animals turned inside out. I think these inverted bears have more personality than the ones you see on the shelf. They should sell them like this. [via michael surtees]

Mark Larson — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:26:46 +0000

I like this bit from an interview with Ellen Lupton, talking about common design pitfalls: “My students avoid printing out their work, to save time and money, but then they are disappointed that it doesn��t look good. I explain to them that everything looks good on the screen, because of the glowing light and the way we are constantly adjusting the scale of the image to suit ourselves. The same layout may die on the printed page.”

Mark Larson — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 04:36:34 +0000

Chip Kidd interviews Milton Glaser: “My father was a kind of a metaphor for the world, because if you can��t overcome a father��s resistance you��re never going to be able to overcome the world��s resistance.”

Mark Larson — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:25:51 +0000

How to create an extreme overhang with toy bricks [$]. Via BLDGBLOG, where you’ll find some great images of the crazy stacking and some architectural speculation. I’d love to see some crazy buildings tilting over like that.

Mark Larson — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:28:08 +0000

A map of where all the blondes are in Europe.

Mark Larson — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:37:16 +0000

Oboiler has a little picket fence for your baseboards to hide wires and cords. A picket fence isn’t really in my aesthetic, but I like the concept. I might go for something that looked like a bridge or an aqueduct or something. [via unclutterer]