Architecture Legend: Frank Lloyd Wright

One of my all-time favourite architects and inspirations has always been Frank Lloyd Wright. His vision inspired many architects and designers; many of his projects still look modern today. Here are photos of some of his best work through his long career, characteristic of each period of his work:

1. The early years-his home in Oak Park,Illinois, 1889.


2. The Prairie Style: The Willits Residence, the first house in true Prairie style. 1901, Highland Park, Illinois.


3. Early 20th century style: The Unity Church, 1904, Oak Park, Illinois.


4. The Twenties: The Ennis-Brown house, 1923, Los Angeles, California.


5. The Thirties: Fallingwater, Edgar J. Kauffman house, 1935, Bear Run, Pennsylvania


6. The Forties: V. C. Morris Gift Shop (1948), San Francisco, California


7. The Fifties: Solomon Guggenheim Museum, 1956, New York


8. The never-built one: One Mile High Skyscraper, 1956.


The inspiration for this is my latest post for 2Modern Design Talk about the Massaro House here.

Vinyl Records become jewellery...

Having grown up in the vinyl age of records, I always have had a fetishistic relationship with them. The whole ritual of getting the record out of the sleeve after having read every minutiae of information on it, from titles and producer to art director and photographer plus all the credits, putting it on the turntable and listening to music filling the room was very special for me. The smell, feel and look of the vinyl made it precious to me - not to mention the music recorded on it.

Photo of rare Live in Chicago Dead Can Dance LP - surely not to be recycled into jewellery!

Imagine my surprise when, through The Fabulist, I discovered the website of a company making jewellery out of vinyl records. Making stuff out of old vinyl records is nothing new, I have seen even bowls made out of them (yuk!). But the jewellery of Vling! is something quite unique.

My favourite is the cassette necklace - sentimental reasons of course!

Other music related designs - which seem more appropriate to me and best designed (the rest of the stuff looks uninspiring) are a guitar, musical note, the word Rock and a gramophone that looks like a Grammy award:



The company is based in the U.S. They have also a page on MySpace. They even take custom orders, like names written in vinyl. They do ship worldwide and you can e-mail them here for questions. I can think of many records that I would never give up to be recycled but also of many I would gladly see turned into better looking stuff!

The Designer's Virus:how many of us have it?

On the Design Observer blog, one of the best about design out there in my humble opinion, I found this great post from Adrian Shaughnessy, of Shaughnessy Works, musing about design and how designers approach their clients. It makes one think a lot about why one designs, how and for whom. Read it here.

(image:the avian flu virus)

Inspiration in green: Vogue Hellas cover

Remember the US Vogue cover post last May? It seems it is the turn of Vogue Hellas to have the honours. The November issue cover is flush with green, with some yellow dabs and a white logo.



The lady on the cover is infamous in Greece for the beginning of her modelling career and the follow up has been equally scandalizing for some. I say forget all this and look at the pure beauty of the photograph. I am proud to see Vogue Hellas making great issues all the time that have editorials to rival most Vogue editions. The team for the photo shoot is:

Photographer: Kostas Avgoulis
Fashion Editor: Michael Pandos
Hair: Stefanos Vassilakis
Make Up: Manos Vinichakis@Effex+
Photo Assistants: Thanos Tsakonas & Damianos Kartas@D-Tales
Fashion Associate: Despina Isopoulou
Model: Julia Alexandratou

Julia is wearing Silk dress with ruffles of organza by Christian Dior. Pearl earrings by Kessaris. Photographed at the National Garden in Athens.

Made In Jail: art by juvenile jail inmates in Thessaloniki

A few weeks ago, an unusual project arrived at Tetragon: help arrange an exhibition of art made by juvenile jail inmates in the Vafopouleion Cultural Centre of Thessaloniki. The exhibition is based on works made at workshops sponsored by the Group of Friends and Volunteers of the Juvenile Protection Company of Thessaloniki. Artists come as volunteers at Diavata Prison and help the juvenile artists create what you will see in the following photos.


My colleague, the architect Zoe Evangelopoulou, supervised the layout of the show. It was her idea that the whole set up of the podiums to show the works of art would be in the form of a Morse code, spelling out the words "Made In Jail". Such a brilliant idea, it was incorporated not only into the banners of the exhibition (see photo above) but also in the music of the show, made with Morse code sounds. Here is a plan of the layout:


The show included artifacts, paintings and poetry.


How was poetry shown at an art exhibition? It was not only read, but words, fragments of poems, were written in pieces of paper, heaped on the floor of the show room, as seen in the photos:




At the opening, after the necessary speeches, the pieces of paper were scattered in the room symbolically by two children, who relished the idea of course...People present there were supposed to join in but few did...the symbolism of the move was apparent to all I guess...


In the photo above you can see the man behind the show, one of the well known graphic artists in Greece, Spyros Tsiligiridis, helping the kids spread the word.


Some of the works shown looked like they could easily be installed in major "adult" events. Having seen both Greek Biennials this year (Thessaloniki and Athens), I must say this show moved me more than any of the others, because of its symbolism and power. What do you think?


The opening of the show was on Wednesday 17th of October and it will last until the 24th of this month. So if you're in Thessaloniki these days, do not miss this.


All proceeds of selling the artworks will go to help the juvenile inmates' rehabilitation process.


Days- opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday: 10.00 - 14.00 and 18.00 - 21.00
Saturday: 18.00 - 21.00
Sunday: 10.00 - 14.00
Monday: closed


Above is Zoe's favourite piece of art, parts of it were incorporated into the show's poster.


The work above is my favourite one. I am happy to say that it will be hanging at the offices of Tetragon after the end of the show, as one of the partners bought it.

All photos of this post courtesy of Zoe Evangelopoulou

Emily Campbell's time capsule

From the British Council website:

"Emily Campbell, born in Liverpool in 1966, is the British Council Arts Group's first Head of Design & Architecture. Since her appointment in 1996, her critical expertise in design has shaped an extensive programme with three objectives: to enhance Britain's international reputation for creativity; to increase understanding of design in the world at large; and to enlarge the international perspective of design in the UK. Emily commissioned the British Pavilion at the last two and the current (2006) Venice Biennale of Architecture; as well as the first major international design exhibitions to tour India and China in 2003. A series of critical debates, including How Global is Design? at the V&A in 2005 and My Kind of Town at the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2006 continues with The Silk Route: Gone for Good in London in March 2007. Emily has a BA in English Literature from Cambridge, a diploma in clothing technology from the London College of Fashion and an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale School of Art. Before joining the British Council she had been a pattern-cutter for the fashion designer Jean Muir, a project manager at Pentagram in London and a graphic designer with Michael Bierut at Pentagram in New York, where she created visual identities and campaigns for Brooklyn Academy of Music, Nickelodeon and Princeton University. She is on the RIBA Awards Group and the Jury for Designer of the Year 2006".

In a recent interview at Three Layer Cake, she mentions the items she would put in a time capsule to say the most about her and the times we live in. Here they are:

1. Apple's iPod


2. An animation by Daniel Brown.

3. A cow bench by Julia Lohmann:


4. Doshi Levien's Charpoy, produced by Moroso:


What would you put in a time capsule to define the age we live in design-wise?

RIBA Stirling prize awarded to David Chipperfield Architects

This year's prestigious RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architecture) Stirling Award was handed to David Chipperfield Architects for the building they designed for the German Modern Literature Archive.


Read more about it at my post for 2Modern Design Talk blog here.

Inspiration: how to review

"For good measure, it gives the last word to a snooty food critic (Peter O'Toole) who sees the light and argues that the best role a reviewer can play is to champion the new; hailing those unsung heroes who are trying something different, regardless of their background, colour, creed or species."

This is taken from the Guardian's review of the film Ratatouille (which I loved by the way). I think it sums it up so nicely.


I loved the colors of the film - not the harsh bright ones of earlier Pixar, but lovely tones of blue and red and copper and green, with images of Paris so lovely and romantic. And the rat is amazing-even his colour is great. Visually (and not only) inspiring.

Goodbye to summer- inspiration: the color orange

The weather has finally turned to Autumn - so goodbye summer, with some more inspirational colors from my holidays. This time, the colour orange, one of my favourites.



From left to right, clockwise: tourist in the old city of Corfu, sunset in Igoumenitsa, child in the park of St. George & St. Michael's Palace in Corfu, sunset with Paxoi in view, sunset in Igoumenitsa, old house in Lefkada.

IKEA 2008 Catalogue - favourites

I'm late for this compared to other bloggers but the new IKEA catalogue has not yet arrived here - luckily it came to the office! So here are my favourite looks and items from it:

The Ektorp Jennylund armchair with the b&w chequered Stoarp cover is an instant classic. I like the pillow on it too.

This is a dreamy living room in b&w. It looks like the other side of the room from the previous pic. Again a great armchair, Lillberg, in its rocking version. The Granemo display with sliding glass doors is fab.

This year's big hit for me: The Mandal headboard: (dim 240X68cm_ lacquered solid pine wood slats on a metal frame. The photo shows three stacked one on top of the other. I am going to get it for my custom designed bed, it will fit perfectly on the wall behind it. Cannot wait for Christmas!
I also like this version of the Mandal bed, the storage underneath looks great and so does the coordinated storage cabinet in front of the bed. A very attractive proposition for the bedroom.

A very stylish b&w bedroom.I know the bed is in very dark brown, but the overall feel is b&w. Again the lovely chequered armchair is featured (see far left side). If I did this, I would try to find better looking black crystal chandeliers though - or even better forget them all together. The frames above the bed are the perfect icing on the cake!


Great looking wardrobe. It has the look of its more expensive Italian counterparts. And I'm a sucker for maple or birch wood.


The main color schemes of the IKEA catalogue 2008 for Greece are black & white, black, white and green and anything red! The photo is a great look for a home (or even proper) office. I might just make the wall in front of my desk a lovely deep burgundy red like this.


My all-time favourite kitchen from IKEA: the Ulriksdal doors in lacquered solid oak. Instead of the dark lilac wall, I would combine this with dark lime green-like my real kitchen is painted now.


Talk about green! Doesn't this green tile look amazing?


I got this rug for my kitchen! I always pick up cheap rugs for it as the cats mainly live there and they never last for long. The colors are great-they pop up at you!


I love these vases! They look so Renaissance in this photo. I might get them one of these days.


And finally the Varm pots - I got the big olive two-toned one on the far left (it was the last left that day) for one of my living room planters. The walls are going to be painted a very light olive green so it will match perfectly.

Stands at Thessaloniki International Fair 2007

I designed some stands at Thessaloniki International Fair. One of them even got an award as best designed stand in an enclosed space. Here they are:

The stand for the Information Society is the awarded one! I designed originally five different approaches to it, then they narrowed it down to one and a colleague took over while I was on holiday, doing the necessary changes and alterations until we reached the final result.

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

Then there was the stand for the Hellenic Sugar Industry. Here I took a design of a colleague he had done for them last year and revamped it, adding also the bubble display at the right side of the stand. Pity they did not let us do the set up of their products inside the acrylic bubbles, the result would have been much better.

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

Here is the stand I designed for IKA (Social Insurance Institute). This is my favorite stand this year - too bad the client made us change the 3X3 plasma screen display on the right wall and replace it with a single 60" LCD screen.

photo by Dinos Michail

The stand for three of the institutes of the Ministry of Employment and Social Protection had some difficulties in the layout, considering two of the institutes had only a 2,5m front and that they had to follow the general look of the Ministry we had established with the IKA stand and the OEE stand (designed by a colleague). The final result is modern and colorful, unlike the image one has in mind regarding state institutions.

photo by Dinos Michail

Because of the devastating fires in Greece, the Ministry of Economics canceled their participation. HELEXPO decided to devote the space left to a stand dedicated to gathering aid for the people hit by the disaster. In a limited amount of time we had to come up with an idea for it and this is the result:

photo by Dinos Michail

photo by Dinos Michail

The concept was that we had to give a sense of the devastation and despair the fires cased, while at the same time sending a message of hope for the future and the environment. Thus the black color prevailed, while the graphics, designed by my very talented colleague Zoi Gazila, showed lovely images of the forests (by Dinos Michail) accompanied by verses of Greek poets relevant to the theme. A different word on each of the eight towers in the stand, connected to the concept of help and compassion and hope, acted as the marker.

Summer inspiration: red part2

This photo of a red door knocker was taken by my colleague Eleni Vretzaki, while on vacations in the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea.



I love the contrast of the colors and the intensity of the red - such an unexpected color to use on a door knob!