Cool New Read

Every now and again a book comes along that reads much like a magazine (read: gorgeous visual images, shorter text and maximum flippability). Diva loves the new "Fashion Décor: New Interiors for Concept Shops," published recently by China-based Sandu Publishing and sponsored by Design 360 - Concept and Design Magazine.

A mix of new fashion retail store designs from around the globe. And the photos are gorgeous, highlighting some of the standout store designs from the past three years. Check it out today at Amazon.com.

--Diva, Display & Design Ideas

Attention Work-not-aholics!

By Gillian Wong, Editorial Intern

 Disguised as a gigantic book printed with Chinese characters, the Workaholic Pillow is actually a doublewide foam pillow that moulds to your head. Conveniently made into the format of a book, the Workaholic Pillow can be placed onto your office bookshelf, while your space retains that professional air that you took so long to create.

Unfortunately for true pretenders, the design is more appropriate for laughs than for deception: your boss may start suspecting something’s up if he or she sees the word “workaholic” printed on the back cover of this so-called book—or see that the pages you’re seemingly reading have no words on.

Of course, one could argue that the Workaholic Pillow is still comfortable to sleep on—desks can be very hard on the head.

However, the Pillow is a terrible 5,600 yen, or approximately $63.00. Surely there can be a cheaper way to get a giggle? And at a mere $24.99, you can get a decent pillow from Sealy too.

You can buy the Workaholic Pillow at geekstuff4u.com

What a house that would be!

 

Several blogs have already picked up on this, but here's a children's book we'd love to get our hands on: The Three Little Pigs, re-envisioned as Frank Gehry, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. It's the work of Steven Guarnaccia, head of the illustration department at Parsons. And here's another for the shelf: His previous retelling of Goldilocks with a Modernist slant.

People who need....design?

Here's a tidbit that came our way via Unbeige this morning and certainly caught us off guard: Barbara Streisand has contracted with Viking Press to write a book about design. Say what? It seems the showbiz legend has recently finished building her dream house, a Malibu, Calif.-based oceanfront compound, and she's ready to expand on the process as well as all sorts of other residential designs. The book, titled "A Passion for Design," is scheduled for fall 2010 and is, according to Streisand, the culmination of a lifelong love of architecture and design.

Book it over to NYSID on April 18

The New York School of Interior Design is having a book sale on April 18 where hundreds of new and gently used books on interior design and architecture will be up for grabs. Highlights include a set of exhibition catalogs from the Royal Academy in London; books by Mariette Himes Gomez, Judith Gura, and Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill; and a set of books on the reading list for the NCIDQ qualifying exam. There will also be magazines available, including a complete set of Nest: A Quarterly of Interiors, published from 1997 -2003.

The details:
Art and Design Book Fair
Saturday, April 18, 2009
10am - 2pm
Arthur King Satz Auditorium, New York School of Interior Design
170 East 70th Street (between Lexington and 3rd Avenues)
Free and open to the public  

When pictures come to life

Photo by Lars Klove for the New York Times

Here's something that make its way under a designer tree or two this holiday season. "Modern Architecture Pop-Up," by David Sokol (a contributing writer for Contract) and Anton Radevsky unfolds architectural gems right before your eyes. Among the folds: the Brooklyn Bridge; London's Crystal Palace; the Eiffel Tower; New York's Flatiron Building; FLW's Robie House in Chicago; Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye; Saarinen's TWA terminal; Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao; Calatrava's Milwaukee Art Museum; and Foster's London "Gherkin" building.