This suspension lamp was designed by Michele De Lucchi with Mario Rossi Scola in 1996. Made of Murano blown glass, it is available in a variety of finishes including trasparent, trasparent green, satin finished, glazed white, black, and silvered.

Michele De Lucchi was born in 1951 in Ferrara and graduated in architecture in Florence. He was one of the members of the Memphis Group, which debuted at the famous Salone del Mobile in Milan (1981). The group was named after the Bob Dylan song Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again. Sometimes called the New International Style, the movement was a rebellion against the often slick and cold designs of the 70s in favor of work with more personality. In 1988, the group was dismantled.

De Lucchi was Director of Design at Olivetti from 1992 to 2002 and has developed experimental projects for Compaq Computers, Philips, Siemens and Vitra. His professional work has always gone side-by-side with a personal exploration of architecture, design, technology and crafts. In 1990 he set up Produzione Privata, a small-scale concern through which Michele De Lucchi, unsolicited by clients, designs products that are made using artisan techniques and crafts.

You can buy it here in a variety of finishes.

You may recall our previous post on the reigning champ of fine art graffiti Jose Parla. We are happy to announce that he has released his first book- City Scapes from Spoonfed Press. This new work is the memoir of Parla’s City Scapes show at Art Basel in Miami as well as an amazing chronicle of his work. City Scapes is available through Spoonfed’s website for $38 and you better believe we bought one.

If you’re a fan of limited edition handmade designer art, jewelry and clothing you’ll probably be as happy as we were to discover Little Paper Planes. This site is run by Silverlake artist Kelly Lynn Jones who is a talented artist in her own right.

We were especially happy to see some of our favorite underground zines sold here such as FYEO and Broken Wrist Project (if you don’t live in LA, you’ll probably never find these and you are so missing out).

If you see an artist you like, you can probably find out more about them in Little Paper Planes Artist Interviews section.

Artist and fashion designer Simeon Farrar has been creating some great work as of late. Above are some examples of recent artwork. The new work might be described as Rauschenberg meets asian propaganda and we love it.

The clothing really takes advantage of Simeon’s artistic sense, embracing the texture and pleasant imperfections of illustration. A list of stores carrying his clothing can be found here.

Check out the 2007 LA Contemporary Art Fair and discover works by local artists presented by local galleries.

More Info

Our latest fav in the designer/illustrator/whatever category is the work of Pawel Nolbert, owner of Polish studio HelloColor (formerly Norrb). This 22 year old whiz kid is a freelancer for hire on your next project. He also has a few prints (such as the one shown above) for sale here.

Be sure to check out the new Featured Project - Friendly Fire, a visual pairing to Sean Lennon’s new album. You can find the album/DVD here.

Need to do a little Asian inspired work? Well today is your lucky day because Jason Baylor has just released a new set of photoshop brushes inspired by Japanese prints on his blog- Design Fruit. We had a lot of fun playing with some of Baylor’s foliage brushes a while back and are happy to have a new set in our toolbox.
The brushes are free (with a few usage restrictions) and if you want the original vector files they are available for $12.99.

Although currently only available by custom design, Living Homes is an obvious breakthrough for prefabricated housing. The push behind the prefab movement comes from a combination of ease of construction and environmental friendliness. Because Living Homes prefab structures require less labor to build, the savings allows for a higher quality of wood and steel, non toxic recyclable materials, and little extras like a rooftop garden.

A few really smart ideas are incorporated into design that makes the cost more justifiable through energy efficiency. Just a few on the long list include solar power, heat that radiates from the floor, double paned glass, LED lights, and a water reclamation system.

But being the design junkies that we are, what really makes us drool over these houses is the elegant modernist aesthetic of Living Homes architect Ray Kappe. We find it ironic that though these houses are made to be mass produced, the flexibility in customization actually makes them more personalized.

Check out sixspace’s opening this Friday 1/20/2007

kozyndan :: Nirai Kanai

Sarah Cromarty - Books and Records Show
January 20 – February 17, 2007
Reception: Saturday, January 20 from 6-9pm

For more info check out www.sixspace.com