L&G at NYIGF Jan 29-Feb 2

We can't believe it's that time again! 2011 year ended and now L&G is TOTALLY pumped for 2012 and ready to share some brand new works!

L&G will be showing an exciting brand new line of table top items & jewelry along with JOIN and eight other Northwest based studios.

So come visit us at Accent of Design at the Jacob K. Javits Center, Level 3. We'll also be right next to other talented young designers from American Design Club and A+ Young Designers.

It's gonna be a par-tay! woot woot!

Inspiration Pad

I can never write straight or inside the lines. And when I should be taking notes I'm always doodling anyways.... this inspiration pad by Marc Thomasset is perfect.



BLANC success!

More details on the BLANC sale later but let's say it's been so encouraging to see Seattle get excited about design!

The past two days have been so inspiring that we decided to open the shop again today (Sunday) from 11-5! at Caffe Vita's bean room at 1005 e pike , Seattle.

Come visit us!

Pretty In BLANC: Part I

Been seeing some great inspirations for what to wear at BLANC preview party this FRIDAY where we're asking everyone to wear something white! I still got lots to do on the list to prep for the show....Obviously, I totally have my priority set here....

I especially love this whole collection by Rodarte for Opening Ceremony...totally BLANC.

 Some great pieces for the boys, too!

BLANC: a Winter JOIN Design Popup!! NOV 18-19

I'm SUPER excited for this design Pop-Up shop that JOIN and Brite Collective are organizing, which will be happening next week! eek!! 

Its been awhile since we've done an event for both JOIN & Brite in Seattle, and figured this is the perfect time to gather everyone and jumpstart the shopping season with lots of awesome work from independent designers!

We gathered 30+ designers and artists to do a special curated works under the theme BLANC.

Full details below!

JOIN Design Seattle and Brite Collective presents:  

BLANC-A Winter White Design Pop-up Shop

We're ready to ring in the winter holiday season with a one-of-a-kind market of great design. In celebration of winter, BLANC will feature a curated selection of limited edition objects that are white, blank, or otherwise achromous in color or spirit. Additionally, the pop-up shop will offer a cornucopia of other well-made goods from 30+ talented emerging designers from the West to the East.

DAY 1 / NOV. 18th / BLANC PREVIEW PARTY 8pm-12am 
Celebrate independent design. Special preview of "BLANC" curated items, BLANC cocktail menu, live music, and more. Wear something white! 

Time: 8:00pm - 9:30pm BLANC preview shopping event. 9:00pm - 12:00am DJ & special guest performance by NODDY. 

Location: Sole Repair Shop 1001 East Pike Street Seattle, WA.
Suggested Donation: $5.00

DAY 2 / Nov 19th / Design BLANC Pop-Up Shop 11am-5pm 
Support independent design by checking off your gift list early with items from the BLANC curated collection as well as other original design goods ranging from furniture, art, housewares, jewelry, accessories, ornaments, and more. Also enjoy special activities by Brite Collective holiday, hot beverages from Caffe Vita, pizza by Big Mario's, and more. 

Time: 11:00am - 5:00pm
Location: Cafe Vita Bean Room 1005 East Pike Street Seattle, WA.

Get a sneak preview here!

Featuring Works from:
&c. Jewelry / Aleksandra Pollner / Alisha Louise / Ashley Helvey / Blk Pine Workshop / Brandon Perhacs / Cairo / Chadhaus / COATT / Elizabeth Patterson / Erich Ginder / Fleet Objects / Fort Standard / Free Time Industries / Fruitsuper / Grain / Herman Yu / Iacoli & McAllister / Jessaline Beutler / Kiel Mead / Ladies & Gentlemen Studio / Meet Me Here / Piano Nobile / plainMADE / R&L Goods / Studio Gorm / Thomas Im /  Zanna Printed Textiles / Handpicked items from OBJECT and more...



OBJECT Opening 11.11.11

This is a super exciting news for Seattle.

Charlie Schuck, the mastermind behind OBJECT, which first started off more as  concept popup shops is now becoming a real brick and mortar store in Charlies' new studio in Belletown neighborhood (next to Suyama!)

The opening is today, Novemeber, 11, 2011. Starting at 630pm. L&G will have some selective items in there as well!

..and here's the first OBJECT newsletter!

 Check out full event details HERE!

Home Sweet Homestead

Instroducing a new L&G item...Homestead Candlesticks!

We've heard that there's no place like home and got to thinking...does that apply to candles as well as people? Assuming this it does, we've created these sweet wood house-shaped candlesticks out of solid Hemlock and Copper tubing.

This is a combination of our love for wooden blocks, iconic houses, and copper!!

These Homstead candlesticks stems from some of the elements & pallet we're using for our kitchen re-design project (see below post). Even the shape of the candlessticks partially reflects the silhouette of our duplex as well!

 Presented as a set of two, these Homestead Candlesticks add the right mix of homey charm and modern simplicity. Available  HERE!

Almost Finishing Touches

Finally! We're at the fun part of the kitchen process where we get to start accessorizing!

We gathered something we had, along with some material & color samples to compose this pallet.

One of the main element we're most excited about is the idea to integrate copper as an accent color & material that adds the prefect amount of warmth to the overall feel.

We wanted to use vintage knobs and found these simple standard 50"s copper knobs from Second Use to go with our oak and europly cabinet fronts. It's one of those things where we weren't totally sure if it was going to make everything look too dated or out of place....

But once we put them on, the whole kitchen instantly glowed....it just felt 100 times more special and complete! Who would have thought that something as small as cabinet knobs cab make such a difference!

Here's the special nook for our collection of found glass jars with cork tops. I love how the onions even goes with the whole pallet!

I was especially happy to have found couple of these simple copper light sockets to hang above our island area! I was actually debating on whether to splurge on these brass ones from Restoration Hardware for almost $100 each for a simple light socket!! Good thing we waited, did more research, and ended up finding these similar ones from Grandbrass for only a tenth of the price! I should take that extra cash I saved and buy some bottles of champagne to celebrate this triumphant score!

God we're getting SO close to the finishing line I can smell it! I'm picturing all our friends & family awaits for us at the end with warm towels & hugs....it's gonna be amazing.

I'd Like to Tap That: Escher Wooden House

Amazingly understated home from the outside, yet glowingly warm and delightfully playful in the inside. Just looking at the photos reminds me something like an Escher drawing where it keeps my eyes moving around looking eager to discover more.

House K by Yoshichika Takagi (Sapporo, Japan)

Via Sokosokoashiko

Kitchen end in sight

We're nearing the finish line with our kitchen and it's starting to feel real nice.

Today we finally got the sink plumbed up and working...no more trucking dirty dishes to the basement to be cleaned in the laundry sink.

We also received our whitened birch cabinet fronts back from the finisher today...they look great!

We're days from presentable overall shots and more details so stay tuned!

New L&G Item: Rise Over Run Stool

Our newest item, Rise Over Run hanging step stool we recently debut at the IDSwest show in Vancouver!

The idea to make this item came from the need that I (Jean) couldn't reach all the high and tall places...especially in our new kitchen with a floor-to-ceiling-pantry unit!...ooh la la! SO much storage!

And me being a storage maniac that I am, trying to reach to all the empty places to store things made me feel like a crazy 5 year old doing some risky business just to get to a cookie jar...and we all know how that usually ends...broken cookie jars, broken bones...or worst..a broken heart...

So to prevent me from pulling off some silly stunts just to reach the places I need, we came up with Rise Over Run!

This was inspired by the basic construction and elements of stairs in a home. We broke it down and turned it into a mini 3-step folding stool to then be transformed from the functional piece into an elemental abstract shape which can be displayed on the wall.

So the story ends with Jean being able to reach all the high places she needs to, no breaking anything, and a piece that we can appreciate on our wall.  Hurray!

And check THIS quick fun thing I did... BOOM. gif power!

My very first attempt at making a gif animation... oh boy! This is totally SO mundane that it's making some sort of ironic statement?

NO? not convinced?....ok. yeah, me neither...

Just wanted an excuse to make a quick amateur gif clip!

In any case, Rise Over Run will be available online soon! We promise!

All set up at IDSwest

Calling all Vancouverites! L&G is spending the weekend posted up at the IDS West show at the Vancouver Convention Centre through Sunday. We'll be accompanied by Iacoli & Mcallister, Grain, and Urbancase to represent Join Design Seattle at the show.

Along with our normal cast of characters (our piggies, servers, salt & pepper pawz, and megadoily rug), we're also unveiling a super fresh, top secret prototype of Rise Over Run our new collapsable wall-hung step-stairs. More on that soon but if you're in Vancouver come visit and take an exclusive first peak.

Time for Fun: Hand-Making Models for New Ideas

Finally feel like we're getting around to do something fun & creative in the studio!

We'll be going up to Vancouver to be part of the Interior Design Show West (Sept 29th-Oct 3) along with JOIN. This will be L&G's first time showing some of our furniture pieces, but also it will be the first time for all of us to show in Vancouver! Very exciting...

I didn't realize how much I missed hand-making models with color pencils, chipboard, balsa wood, and all that. Totally felt like a kid again.   

More to come, but here's a lil' sneak peak...

Some sample look books

A prototype of our new concept...can you guess what will be?

Aug 2011 NYIGF Wrap up!

Here's a recap of the JOIN at the NYIGF for the 3rd time!

This time with us being in the lobby outside of the Accent on Design area turned out to be a MUCH more pleasant of a space to be in...especially when the sun is out! Just look at how everything shines on the table!

Above: New server colors and cake servers from L&G, and colorful big Silicone ring by fruitsuper....and NO they're NOT eraser rings!

Here we got Chelsea H. from plainMADE getting a little sun tanning sesh at the Javits....

Photos above by Grain

New frame light colors from Iacoli & McAllister.

Also this time being next to AmDC made it 100 times more fun, too!

photo by Steph Mantis

Here are some highlights from AmDC's booth:

Bracelets made with mix marble cuts celebrating the colors & patterns of the various types of stone. By Chen Chen & Kai Tsien Williams.

Chika & I got to trade with Patrick Kim for one of his clever wooden tons and these lovely cutting boards with a simple rubber band at the end to keep it from slipping around.  Clever AND thoughtful...

Beautiful & sleek glass vessels from Felicia Ferrone based out of Chicago. 

Playful two-headed animal necklaces in various metals by Steph Mantis! (and yes... exclamation mark is required when referring to Steph!)

 ...and of course, we wouldn't feel complete at the NYIGF until we have some sort of birthday celebration! and this year is no exception...

Here's Chika with her doughnut birthday cake composed by me and Christa (of blkPINE bags). This is second time celebrating Chika's bday at the Javits and we went all out and made a doughnut tower with yummy doughnuts from Doughnut Plant....surrounded with coconut macaroons, strawberry Pocky sticks, and flower pom pom with napkins provided by the Javits.

Yes...I know...only a master mind & a true artist can create such master piece such as this. Christa and I took MAD pride in carefully piling the doughnuts up and sprucing it all up...and all the  grease spots on the box only shows how much thought went into this...

AmDC Pops up in SF

Wish we're in SF for this!  Kiel from American Design Club is working with  Rand + Statler in curating a pop up shop this coming Saturday, August 27th with bunch of designers we adore.

List of designers includes:

Kiel Mead, Silva/Bradshaw, Emily Rothschild, Fort Standard, Kai Williams + Chen Chen, Annie Lenon + Valerie Gnaedig, Lara Knutson, Jill Peterson, Studioooij, Iacoli & Mcallister, Steph Mantis, Pat Kim, Alexandra Snook, Chuck Routhier, Andie Olive, Mark McGinnis, Grain, R&L Goods, Ladies & Gentlemen Studio, Michael Cummings, Thomas Im, Marianne van Ooij, Evan Clabots, Seldon Yuan and Annika Jermyn.

If you're in the SF area, go check it out!