Today.

11.11.11.
Yep.
I went to the IIDA furniture factory tour today.  It was interesting and informative.   Yay for interesting and informative!  I expected to see a lot of Kendall students, but it was just two of us, and the chair of the furniture department, and one of the interior design professors.  The guy who gave our tour was the owner of Grand Rapids Chair Company*, and the whole thing was just...really cool.  POWDER COATING.  I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT.  ALSO, I WILL LEARN TO WELD.   Yep.  Those were really interesting.  I need to get my build on and try to make some stuff.  It can't be that hard, can it?
I know it was an IIDA thing, but I can't help but be surprised by the number of girls who were very obviously interior design students who were there.  Despite my best efforts, I will never, ever pass for one of them.
I'm thinking a lot about sustainability in design.  I like modern things, and I like Ikea, and I like the fast paced consumption of the newer greater thing.  Is that bad?  I like things that are sleek and shiny a lot of the time.
I watched Objectified the night before last (It was good.  You should watch it.  Kendall's library has a copy.) and one of the designers was talking about his father's briefcase, which he inherited, saying that it's gorgeous and gets better with time, like wine.  Basically, you want to design wine, not pop.**  That's possible with shoes, right?  And jeans, sometimes.  And cast iron anything.  Other than that though, what do you own that has gotten better with age?  Tell me, please.  In the comments.
I'm just feeling conflicted.  I like new and shiny and RTA and everything, but I'm in love with the idea of having products that you can just love and rely upon.  I want to own beautiful things.  I need to have a great purge of products and only allow things that are perfect and deserving of love into my life.
*It was great, but it would have been better if there wasn't Comic Sans involved.  Like, a lot of Comic Sans.
**The other thing I learned from this movie:  Karim Rashid looks a little bit like what would happen if Tim Burton and an alien had a child together.  In the best way possible.

I think it's the glasses.  Think of Tim Burton's glasses, then look at Karim Rashid.  See what I mean?  Also, if you tweet about Karim Rashid, some company that he's involved with will follow you.

Part Two:
You didn't know this was going to come in parts, did you?  Well, I'm happy that you were so surprised.
Did I tell all y'all that I'm writing a novel?  It's lovely!  It's amazing!  It's far shorter than it should be!  So yep, my plans for this weekend involve writing, doing an art history project with a friend, writing some more, maybe hanging out with some friends, doing my horrible 2D project of death and despair and pain, and doing my design drawing homework.  And writing.  For design drawing, we're illustrating.  We have to take text (the first few paragraphs of The Hobbit) and draw a picture.  Draw a picture about the text.  Like, take the things described in the text, and draw them.  We have to draw them in COLOUR too.  This concept is deeply stressful.  I came to school so that I could draw furniture!  I don't know how to think this way!

Tweet