October 11, 2008 world of men's style / fashion / grooming RSS

KEMPT

A blog dedicated to the interesting, scandalous, useful and cutting edge in the world of men’s style, fashion and grooming.

TIP US!

PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

CONTRIBUTORS

Sign up. You'll know what we know.

SIGN UP FOR UPDATES

You'll know what we know.

“design”
“design”
08/27/08 ·

Shelf Life

Grand Prix

corbusier_crop.jpgPhoto courtesy of the Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris / Phaidon Press

If it hadn’t been for a certain dapper Swiss genius named Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris—Le Corbusier to you—the likes of Richard Meier and would still be playing with Legos. Perhaps the very first starchitect—and way cooler than Frank Lloyd Wright—the dapper fellow in the bowtie and black specs masterminded the Modern movement and laid the foundation, literally and figuratively, for all avant-garde design to come.

The Phaidon Press has just come out with a $200, 20-lb., 2,000-image tribute to this towering talent, entitled Le Courbusier: Le Grand. In it you can see how came up with groundbreaking designs for everything from chairs to skyscrapers, dressed to the nines all the way.

09/26/08 ·

Object

On the Table

muji_crop.jpg

People tend not to talk about it outside of design school, but there’s a symmetry between the way things look and the way we use them. Some chairs want you to relax, but others want you to pay attention. Some tables look like they want coffee cups but others want laptops.

This one, on the other hand, looks like it’s ready to design a skyscraper for you. We haven’t been much impressed by Muji, but after this, we’re coming around.