I do the SFMOMA whilst the SFMOMA Does Alexander Girard

While on a visit to San Francisco last Friday, I took a trip to the SFMOMA. The SFMOMA has a great permanent collection, which is partially on view on the top floor right now...but one of the real treats was the small exhibition of Alexander Girards work that is in place.

As director of the Herman Miller textile division from 1952 to 1973, Alexander Girard brought ethnic motifs and bright colors to the clean, streamlined aesthetic that dominated mid-century design. Girard and his colleagues Charles Eames and George Nelson formed a team that transformed the legacy of American modernism. Girard's aesthetic continues to inspire contemporary designers today. It's notable that as one of the chief designers for Braniff airlines (along with Emilio Pucci and Alexander Calder), he created over 17,000 unique designs for the airline. Pretty great stuff.



*The VITRA design museum has also recently re-released Girard's wooden toys. And I have to say, I'm rather tempted...

So Easy To Love:

Cy Twombly

Philip Johnson's Glass House

Music for 18 Musicians

Saul Bass

Quintessential Saul
The Funnel Theory:: My friend, Designer & Director Adam Bluming, knew what he wanted to do from a very young age. Lucky for Adam, his father just so happened to be friends with one of the preeminent art directors of the mid-twentieth century. Around the time that he was graduating from art school, Adam's father took him to the studio of Saul Bass, who shared with him the secret of his creative success: (this is a paraphrase)"Ideas don't come to me by sitting behind a desk from morning 'till night, churning out one project after the next. The ideas come after I've gone out into the world and experienced great music, tasted great foods, seen fantastic art, and felt the warm sun on my skin. It is only then that I can come back to my studio and begin to funnel all those experiences down. It's amazing-suddenly I see things so clearly and the great ideas just come." Adam was a big proponent of the funnel theory when he shared it with me last year, and now...so am I.

Finally...it's done! The lovely and talented Derekh Froude swept in and saved the day by creating my website. What a peach!

There's been too much going on to list, but here's a quick update: I'm working with Trollbäck + Company (a group of brilliantly talented people-see above) for the month of November; then it's off to Paris for a month to study at the Alliance Française.

It does a person good to do something just for themselves every once in a while, and a sojourn in my favorite city seemed like just the ticket for this weary producer.

(Above is a screen-grab of the vignettes that Jakob Trollbäck, Christina Rüegg, and Garry Waller created and I produced for the Pop!Tech conference in Maine this year).