Have you met ‘The Minimalists,” yet? If not, you might be interested in starting here. Though I resisted some of their suggestions, initially (such as clearing my Braun calculator and other well-designed objects off my desk), I’m continuing to read their invitations to ‘reduce,’ with interest.

Here’s a great post on cleaning up your desk

And one on cleaning up your virtual desktop

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Our friends over at From Your Desks featured an interview with designer Chip Kidd. If you aren’t familiar with his name, you are most certainly familiar with his book design.

Here’s a peek at his desk:

Not exactly the office of a minimalist, but charming in its own way. Here’s the interview.

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The New York Art Book Fair is this weekend, and book lovers will not be disappointed, especially those interested in challenging just what a book is. You’ll find zines, pop-up books, and book-sculpture among the booths.

Printed Matter, Inc. presents
THE NY ART BOOK FAIR
September 30–October 2, 2011
Preview: Thursday, Sept. 29, 6–9 p.m.
MoMA PS1

One of the many programs scheduled for the weekend:

Artists’ Photography Books
Gallery C (1st Floor)
Printed Matter presents an historical overview of artists’ use of photography in their books, from the 1960s to today. These are not your typical photo books: from Ed Ruscha’s deadpan cataloguing of the western urban landscape to Sol LeWitt’s use of photography in his investigation of patterns, systems and sequences, these publications employ photography as a strategic component in the aggregate of the book as artwork.

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Ever thought a can of cat food might make a beautiful silver cuff, as-in-bracelet? Me neither! But Jean-Paul Gaultier did. He cut off both ends, dipped it in silver, and called it jewelry.

Susan Orlean’s New Yorker profile on Jean-Paul Gaultier reveals that the designer has great powers to recast the ordinary. By definition, he is a utopianist: he is able to take nothing for granted when approaching the material world; he is able to see possibility where many of us cannot. A cat can, in other worlds, can be a bracelet if it fits on your wrist.

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I really enjoyed Geoff Dyer’s article on the ego of philography, in the New York Times. How many of us have waited in lines to meet our favorite authors, domestic divas, or design inspirations–meekly passing a book from our hands to theirs, hoping for a special message? I have! Whose autographs have you collected?

[Marilyn Monroe, from here]

[Napoleon's signature, from here]

Here’s another article on autograph collecting for your reading pleasure.

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Yesterday, Knoll was awarded a much-deserved Cooper-Hewitt Design Award from Michelle Obama. Check out this slideshow from New York Magazine, to see Knoll’s oldest and newest looks. What’s your favorite Knoll design?

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Here’s another example of a place where form and function meet: look at this gorgeous syringe. Beauty is not an afterthought, here–it’s at the root of the design. Smart Design–the firm responsible for this item–won the National Design Award in the category of “Product Design.”

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Deborah Harry is a music and fashion icon. I’m always interested in fashion’s relationship to design, and the ways in which fashion’s significance–like design–goes well beyond (and around) haute couture runway shows. What has made The Sartorialist blog so popular is his combination of high and low settings–pedestrians on the street vs professionals on the street en route to a fashion show.

Blogs have worked to further democratize fashion, offering people less expensive targets for their fashion fetish pleasure. Vogue is an industry standard, but what about independent fashion bloggers, like The Coveted? Fashion, too, deals with minimalism and maximalism, form, and color. And like design, good fashion is made of unlikely solutions–things you wouldn’t have thought to put together, but once someone else does, you think Of course!

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As Steve Jobs steps down from Apple, it seems like a great moment to think about what Mac has meant for design, among other fields.

Here’s a great visual history of Mac’s first 31 years.

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Back to school–or back to your desk. If you’re looking for something more refreshing than a new pack of pencils, check out our new Library Desk: Made of quartered walnut in a natural finish, the desk’s base is polished bronze. The drawer is adjustable for your legal or letter-sized files, and the pencil drawer locks!

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