October 2010

Western Homes

We're back in the studio after some western adventures in San Francisco. With Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, the ARTSpan open studios, and Litquake all going on over the last week, the city was swinging with late-summer action. We were invited to give a guest critique at the California College of the Arts by our friend Ben Salthouse and got to see the good work being done there. We also popped in to the Room & Board studios South of Market and learned that our Harbor chair for Loll Designs was selected by Larson Shores Architects in Oakland for their Inspired In-Law project on view at Fort Mason this month. Flickr set is forthcoming.

We'll have some new product announcements coming later this fall as well as some holiday goodies to share. Stay tuned.

August 2010

PechaKucha

The summer is nearly gone and we are at work on a several exciting projects that are keeping us busy and out of the harmful rays of the sun. In September we will be presenting in the 20x20 format (20 slides for 20 seconds each) at the monthly PechaKucha up here on the Northside. PK is a worldwide event that occurs monthly in cities all over the globe. More info about next month's Chicago PK can be found at www.pecha-kucha.org

July 2010

Summer reading

Lots of interesting design press out this summer. Bruce Nussbaum has rehatched the issue of humanitarian design, putting projects like the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) under the microscope once again. In FastCompany this month, he questions whether efforts to design for the world's vast majority that lives on $2/day amounts to design imperialism. We see equal amounts of bad design practice, good intentions, nepotism and hubris in going to market with consumer electronics products that fail miserably in their intended markets but win design prizes back home.

In other news, Best Made Company has garnered much attention for a line of axes, hand painted and sold in downtown NYC, but which are being hailed for their "authenticity". Seems as if every blogger out there is citing this product as either a step away from the fast-paced online world toward a rural vernacular (Gabriel Hargrove) or as complete poser fakery (BikeSnobNYC). Andrew Potter describes in " The Authenticity Hoax" how our misguided pursuit of the authentic exacerbates the artificiality of contemporary life that we decry.

So pull up a Loll chair, grab a lemonade and join the debate. Happy summer!

June 2010

NeoCon 2010 - The No. 9 Collection comes home

Chicago is abuzz with the Stanley Cup, NeoCon 2010 and the 6th Annual Guerrilla Truck Show all coming our way in the next two weeks (well, the Cup is not yet certain). During NeoCon, Studio Murmur will be showing the No. 9 Collection at Fulton Market and will be at the Truck Show contributing a piece for the Junktional exhibit with friends Glenn Wexler and Evan Ward. The Loll Designs team will be down to join us for all the festivities and a bit of lollygagging for sure.

Ugly Step Sister Gallery | 1044 W. Fulton Mkt. | Chicago, IL
Mon. June 14th 6-9 PM
Tues. June 15th 4-9 PM
Reception Tuesday 6-8PM rsvp@studiomurmur.net

Also at Dwell on Design | Los Angeles, CA
June 25-27, 2010, L.A. Convention Center

May 2010

ICFF 2010 - International Contemporary Furniture Fair

We are proud to debut the first product of our collaboration with Loll Designs, The No. 9 Collection, at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair, from May 15-18th at the Javits Center in New York. Additionally, there are design exhibits, parties and events throughout the week and across the city. Loll CEO Greg Benson will speak at the Design Within Reach showroom in Soho on Saturday the 15th, 7-9 PM. 110 Green Street.

In the West, Loll will also be presenting the No.9 Collection at the Hospitality Design Exposition and Conference from May 18-21. Booth #5351 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV. Details at www.hdexpo.com

Studio Murmur and Loll Designs announce new furniture collection

We've just returned from Duluth, MN where we have been working with Loll Designs on a new collection of outdoor lounge furniture made entirely from recycled milk jugs (HDPE) and manufactured right here in the good ol' U.S of A. After a day of creating furniture for modern lollygaggers, the Loll team showed us a grand time on the shores of Lake Superior. Since our return, we've been busy field testing the prototypes and listening to Bob Dylan all day. The collection will debut at ICFF in New York later this month.

March 2010

It's time for the annual International Home + Housewares show here in Chicago which kicks off this weekend. Studio Murmur will be on hand to see what's in store. Find us and we'll flip you one of our new business cards. They're hot off the Heidelberg from our friends over at Rohner Letterpress. In other news, we will be participating in the upcoming IDSA student portfolio reviews where industry pros sit down for some one-to-one with the designers of the future. Details at the local chapter website: www.idsachicago.org

On a sad note, famed Chicago architect Bruce Graham passed away this week. His legacy, including the Sears and Hancock towers, essentially is the Chicago skyline. If you seek his memorial, as they say...look around you.

February 2010

Studio news

Snow and cold prevail in Chicago - just the way we like it - as the Olympics get underway in Vancouver. We remain toasty in our Smartwools while currently working on an exercise product for a Chicago-based company. We are also preparing for the announcement of a very exciting furniture product launching later this year. Stay tuned.

January 2010

Microfinancing

Studio Murmur has begun 2010 with perhaps our best project ever. Through the microfinancing group Kiva and our friend Tim Wojtyniak, we have contributed small business loans to a bookseller in El Salvador and a cattle farmer in Azerbaijan. Both are women-owned businesses. You can get involved too. Go to www.kiva.org and sign up.

NEWER | OLDER