Last fall, I happened to be in Paris during fashion week, and happened to be staying at the Westin Vendome, just across from the Louvre. Neither the fashion week timing nor the hotel’s location was really planned, but it put me squarely in the middle of cobblestone streets littered with legs covered in opaque black tights, black leather ankle booties, miniskirts and black wool dusters. Colette had an Hermes scarf collaboration, and Zack Posen was showing in the ornate ballroom at the Westin. Big business, no matter how it was mixed with small-scale enterprise, was in the air.

I hadn’t been in Paris since high school, and had been so busy in New York before leaving, I barely planned a thing. I was more than thankful to find a Yelp foodie list that introduced me to Le Chateaubriand and Inaki Aizpitarte. The place isn’t a hidden gem: in 2010, it was Restaurant magazine’s 11th best restaurant in the world and  T Magazine profiled Aizpitarte for the 2011 Men’s Fashion issue. But despite Aizpitarte’s growing visibility, his bistro Le Chateaubriand is tucked away in the 11th arrondissement. It’s a fitting choice, though, because the neighborhood isn’t the most glamorous, or the most scene-y, but it feels like it’s part of a real city rather than the one seen on postcards.

The whole draw of Le Chateau is the set menu. 65E gets you five courses: no options, take what you’re given. I showed up without reservations around 9 30pm, and was told I’d be the last seating of the night. I had a glass of rose out on the sidewalk, vaguely shivering with a bunch of French hipsters, and was seated with a fresh glass and a switch to red after about 15 minutes. The green bean and goat cheese salad with olive oil parsley puree was super-clean and has stuck in my mind for months, and the raspberry dusting on dessert was also something new. In short, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

But aside from great food, the contrast between the 1e (with Hermes at Colette and the proliferation of labels) and the 11e couldn’t have been more stark. The atmosphere Aizpitarte has cultivated at Le Chateaubriand feels indicative of what’s happening all over the world in small but palpable ways: creatives doing their thing with the intent of making it accessible to a particular though not elite crowd. And this new casual, new communal, new intentional model is bringing people closer to our neighborhoods and the neighborhoods we visit. It’s bringing us closer to food and closer to local. But it’s also creating a new diversity of models for entrepreneurs to adopt. It goes beyond the idea that if you build it they will come–by underscoring the value of building a model that invites people to partake in and shape the experience.

It’s the counterbalance to big business, and lucky for us all, it’s being executed by lots and lots of small scale enterprises with surprising consistency and depth.

Last week, my friend Alex Vessels had an installation at a former stop on the Underground Railroad. The event was lovely, with sound being the primary communicator of information–a mix of interviews with former slaves, spirituals (“Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning”), Malcolm X speeches, pro-America anthems and a bit of Tupac.

A video was projected on a scrim hanging from curbside construction materials, and candle lanterns were hung outside the Brooklyn home. Currently, the city only has standard-issue construction signs proclaiming the house as the former home of abolitionists and part of the Underground Railroad. In light of the standard-issue vibe that the site currently has, the installation was quite nice because it worked with the space rather than against it. Most of the piece relied on components that already existed in the space, so only the lanterns and a projector were needed to create a moment in time.

Overall, a really nice exploration of sound and interaction–quietly calling out a site that was–and is still–invisible to many.

The show was good… a mix of installation and exhibition and interaction, it embodied what design is seeking now. I wouldn’t put this show on the mind-blowing level… I can’t really say there was much new other than that scaffolding, but it was worth an hour walking around, seeing what had been made. I have to say, the site/exhibit/event design surpassed what the contributors made, but it was nice to see thought going into actual user experience beyond the website or gadget or printed page or sculpture. Hooray for community, for thinking about the impact of space, of events, of time and proximity.

If you’re interested, some of my flickr pics are here and some information about the show is here.

***UPDATE FROM ROSE AND RADISH ON 1/7/10

Items have been flying out of the store since we started our sale and we just marked everything down an extra 10% today. On Tuesday we will be marking things down by 10% again, then another 10% on Thursday the 14th. The week of the 19th we will selling all of our fixtures. If you are interested in stainless steel tables, computers, cabinets, warehouse shipping supplies, etc., stop by the gallery to see what we have.

We will also be taking down the webstore in the next day or two, so if you are not in the bay area and have been planning on ordering, please do so soon.

Last week I was in Hong Kong for a short break, and I am so glad I was able to stop by After School. A small cafe in Causeway Bay, After School used to be a work space for designers and a cafe for the public, but the work space has now moved out. The cafe remains as a multi-use space for events, and a side room sells domus and artit magazines.

The space is lovely. School-style desks (with tilt tops) make the tables, paired with matching ladder back chairs. The menus are printed on blue books (exam-style), there’s a piano by the entry, and the vibe is laid back, open and airy. I adore creative spaces that serve a combination of uses, and After School accomplishes this beautifully, without feeling over-designed.

After School // 2F 17 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Wednesday-Sunday: 4pm – 1am

The After School photostream on Flickr
Pokit/After School website

Rose and Radish, open T-F 11-7, Sat 9-7. Pier 3, The Embarcadero.

Outside Starbucks' new 15th Ave Coffee & Tea in Seattle's Capitol Hill

But enough theorizing. I’m wrapping up the summer with a quick trip to Seattle–a new place for me. Granted, I live in San Francisco, a city with a similar eco-friendly, power-to-the-people vibe. But I’ve been impressed with Seattle’s various neighborhoods, each with a well-designed but unpretentious feel. This city is a nice one.

After a trip to the obligatory Pike Place open-air market, a friend and I headed to Capitol Hill to check out one very earnest attempt at corporate authenticity: Starbuck’s new stealth store, 15th Ave Coffee & Tea. Say what you will about how this store has ripped-off the design of other local coffee shops (of which I’m not familiar since I don’t live here), but I thought the shop did a decent job of being true to their mission of serving individual cups of coffee and tea.

When I walked in with a friend, the guy behind the counter welcomed us and asked if we’d ever visited. He explained the types of beans (you pick your own from about six choices), the types of brewing (three methods), the types of tea (six options). We had a look around, were free to take pictures (that alone was a HUGE plus in my book), and were told that there was live music each night. To boot, they serve wine and beer which I really like about local coffee houses (Cosi and Xando do this on a mass scale–which I think gives them a leg-up against Starbucks in the DC market).

ABOVE: pick your coffee beans (center), pick your tea leaves (right)

Overall, I like 15th Ave’s design. Sure, it’s corporate-ish in its finishes, in its consideration, in its mismatched-yet-coordinating style. The sign on the front door that reads “INSPIRED BY STARBUCKS” is more than annoying, as I think the language should’ve been more transparent, less touchy-feely. Why not “By Starbucks” or “A Starbucks Concept Store”? I wish Starbucks had taken a cue from brands like Apple or Target or American Apparel on this small detail. These brands would have no issue labeling a new project a “concept store”… and I wish Starbucks would just call it what it is… because there didn’t seem to be an ounce of inspiration from the ‘Bucks in this small shop.

Bloggers and Seattleites have had a time with this shop. After a regular Starbucks closed for “remodeling”, and after executives had perused the neighborhood with clipboards making notes about this and that, the store re-opened with a new concept. It has been accused of stealing paint colors, stealing seating choices, even stealing the shop’s naming convention. And while I don’t have a lot of interest in addressing those issues here, they deserve to be noted. This shop was put together in little more than 3 months, so I think it’s safe to assume that a fair amount of borrowing went into the design.

ABOVE: "hand-stamped" cups that are actually printed; table made of a door

What’s the hope for this project? It’s not hard to connect the dots here…

Back in 2007, Starbucks’ CEO Howard Schultz wrote a memo stating that Starbucks had lost its soul. The memo was leaked, and all hell broke loose. This was during the time that McDonald’s initiated the Newman’s Own coffee line, and that Starbucks retaliated by offering slightly-upscale breakfast sandwiches (now being phased out). True, maybe Starbucks had become something that was far from its Seattle roots, but many thousands of Americans had grown to love that ubiquitous ‘Bucks. Starbucks was consistent, relatively clean, offered decent food, and the retails spaces were at times oases in urban dead zones (and later, signs of mundane sophistication in suburban sprawl and beacons of civilization in more rural areas). In Manhattan they became symbols of free air conditioning, clean bathrooms, and their cups were neutral-yet-stylish accessories (see also Miranda in the Devil Wears Prada).

This example of a mass-scale brand exuding some level of urban-cool hasn’t been lost, despite the beating the brand has taken in its comparisons to McDonald’s (the Starbucks cup is still a sign of nonchalant sophistication in the same way Evian water was in the early ’90s). It’s true that with the “green,” Slow Food, and locavore movements of the last five years, Starbucks might be losing some of its polish…but what it’s losing in urban settings it’s more than making up for in suburban sprawl. Every mommy needs her latte.

ABOVE: the interior

So is this concept store doing its job? Is it bringing Starbucks back to its Pike Place roots? Closer to “the people?” Closer to authentic customer interaction? I can’t help but think this venture seems slightly off in its strategy.

In theory, I love the idea that Starbucks could launch a sub-brand and thoughtfully create a more user-centered customer experience. It’s nice to think about companies extending their personalities and creating multiple offerings under a single, authoritarian umbrella. There is little doubt that Starbucks knows consistent coffee, so the idea that they’d branch out into inconsistent coffee brewed cup-by-cup is interesting at the least. And if companies are to become more human (an idea I like), it’s great to see a huge one taking a risk and entering uncharted territory.

ABOVE: kraft paper on rolls with handwritten specials, fake handwriting on fake blackboards, coffee beans at bottom

But while this store can provide market research back to Starbucks and the parent brand, the prototype doesn’t have enough changing variables to really provide much information. This store serves less as a prototype for the Starbucks brand and more as a disconnected sub-brand. The end result of 15th Ave Coffee and Tea isn’t to help Starbucks reclaim its soul, but rather to help the company target a demo that long-left the flagship McCoffeeShop.

My thoughts? I’m in partial agreement with Peter Merholz (writing for the HBR blog, but also partner at Adaptive Path in SF)… don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. If Starbucks has evolved to be the McDonald’s of coffee, choosing to see that as an asset isn’t a bad thing (especially considering the sheer retail footprint of stores across the globe). The consistency of the experience has become integral. The 15th Ave model will never replace my need for traditional Starbucks. So for the parent brand, why stop selling those (delicious) breakfast sandwiches? Compete with McDonald’s if you must. Offer $.99 coffee. Give me a drive-through in suburbia. But add a few “nice-to-haves” into the mix. For one, even McDonald’s offers free wifi now. Dump your T-Mobile partnership and make this service free. Add stroller parking to your kid-friendly neighborhood locations. Add docking stations for electronics a la JetBlue’s T5 terminal at JFK. Each of these small design features would add a bit of benevolence to your offering. And to top it off, become a bit more aggressive with your recycling efforts in your packaging, and add a few more charitable products as you have with Ethos water and The GOOD Sheet (by GOOD magazine). (Or, take the advice of a Starbucks’ employee in Virginia, who is offended by the idea that ‘Bucks doesn’t already connect to communities… she suggests communicating with employees more, empowering managers, adding a drip-coffee-only line during busy hours, among other changes).

In the end, I think the concept shop is great…it’s a very human experiment for a very corporate brand. But the beauty of Starbucks is its massive reach in big towns and small across the planet. Incorporating even small changes into these existing retails spaces would do more (and more immediately) than a single concept store. And that’s not something to overlook… especially in this market.

My version:

1/2 icebox watermelon
3/4 liter sparkling mineral water
1 lime, halved and squeezed (plus additional halves for garnish)

Scoop watermelon from the rind with a spoon and blend the fruit to a pulp (I used a food processor); pour into pitcher. Add sparkling water. Roll whole lime on work surface to soften it, then halve and squeeze into pitcher. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then serve in glass with another lime half.

Yields 6 eight-ounce servings

Here’s an excerpt:

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THOUGHTS FROM A HOMELESS GUY NOW THAT I’M BACK ON MY FEET

I was homeless for about 4 years until the manager of a car dealership took a chance on me and now I am the manager of our detailing department.

Okay, so what are the things that I really appreciate?

- Weather: I don’t pay much attention to weather anymore. On the streets, weather is your life. A homeless guy rummaging for newspapers only wants one section, the weather report. If you can read, and you know the weather, you will have every dude you know asking what is coming.

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After reading that, I began to think about how simple it is to tell someone the weather. I love weather. I read the weather in four cities every day: San Francisco, CA, Palo Alto, CA, Richmond, VA, and New York, NY. I used to check more cities, but I’m whittling down. And if someone on the street asked me what weather was coming up, I could probably tell them. The weather is available to me at the push of a button: on my BlackBerry, on my Mac’s dashboard, on the internet at any hour, delivered to me on NPR every morning. The weather is around me just like stock reports or the time of day: basic information that I take for granted.

So I thought it would be nice to make some modular weather fliers to post around SF. A little project to make something in black and white that could be cheaply and easily produced week-to-week, but that would give all the information necessary to know the weather.

The flier is a grid of two weeks, in 7-day rows. Each day has four weather options—sunny, cloudy, rainy and windy—that can be highlighted or circled. Highlighting looks the cleanest, but it also fades in the sun. Depending on the location (and sun exposure), I’ve been using different markings. There’s also room to write-in the date range at the top, the days’ dates on the grid, and each day’s high and low temperature. I designed this specifically for San Francisco, which is why there is no sleet or snow or hail. We just don’t get that kind of weather here.

So I’ve been posting…

Some of the fliers remain for awhile after I post them, others disappear. A homeless man who sometimes sleeps on my block refers to them, and my first post sparked questions from a couple of tourists curious about SF weather. It’s been a nice little exercise.

If you’d like to post weather reports in your own neighborhood, you can download the flier here. For now, it’s SF-ish weather types only.

I think the exhibit seemed uninteresting because the aesthetic didn’t really appeal to me and Murakami’s own celebrity goes over my head. If I were more enamored with him, or if he were more present in his work, I might’ve felt some connection to the pieces. As it was, it just seemed like an exhibit by a company that didn’t capture my attention.

And, now seeing this article in the LA Times, it sounds like others felt they got ripped off by the fact that Murakami’s hand (or even a context-specific artistic intent) wasn’t all that present in the pieces that sold for $6,000 in the LV store at MOCA. I LOVE this. I just love that this lawsuit is the premise for Murakami’s entire body of work. Is there a statute for the “Emperor’s New Clothes”?

And in other “What is Art” news, I’ve been following the Shepard Fairey/AP story. Unfortunate. A true waste of time, in my mind. But a nice post by Steve Heller here. And some great background information here and here.

Despite that, there are a lot of reasons why I’m enjoying this administration, many of which revolve around the administration’s relationship to design and pop culture. I thought I’d share…

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5.  You released your NCAA bracket and it made the headlines. I mean, really? When we’re all concerned about the economy and layoffs, we also care about your NCAA picks? I LOVE that you put Carolina at the top of the list. They might not win, but they’re my pick, too.

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4. Inauguration 2009 was one I actually watched on TV. THIS (Stevie! Kanye! Aretha!) is a soundtrack that I actually like! I mean, what a surprise that inaugurations can actually be interesting with the right cast of characters. So thanks, Obama, for making that inauguration feel relevant.

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3.  “The Office of the President Elect” sign was classic. So made-up! But you love graphic design and branding, President Obama. And that makes me love you.

(PHOTO VIA WASHINGTON POST)

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2. The day after the election, I flew back to SF. Landing at SFO and driving into the city, I saw this Obama wheat paste in SOMA. And it made me happy that our president-elect had an impact on people across the US, across generations. Pretty exciting to have people wheat-pasting about someone you can actually vote for.

(PHOTO COURTESY MEG PICKARD VIA FLICKR)

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1. Election Night 2008 was one of the best nights of the year for me. I was in DC for work, our all-day meeting ended early, and I made it to Adam’s Morgan by late afternoon. This led to a drive out to VA with my dear friend Bethany Powell for a party with college friends, and a stop on the way back into town to grab an OBAMA-BIDEN sign out of the median of RT 7 in Virginia. On our way back into the city, Bethany had the bright idea to stop by the White House, and when we got there, we found a small crowd gathering, that later turned into this:

(PHOTO VIA MY FLICKR SET FROM THAT NIGHT)

Thanks, Obama, for giving me a great night!

And great set design at your acceptance speech. LOVED that. Oh–and your Flickr set for your own Election Night?! Unbelievable. That was like the icing on the cake the day after the election. You rock.

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So really, Barack. Thanks a lot. I know the economy sucks and all, and we’re still in the middle of two wars, and there isn’t universal healthcare yet, but it’s only been 60 days and you’ve had a lot on your plate. So thanks for all the great graphic design and pop culture references. You’ve been fun to watch.

A few months ago, a friend told me that if he heard the phrase “In this economy” one more time, he might explode. Little did we know, then, how many more times we’d get to hear it, and, frankly, how much more we’d care about hearing it. How we’d probably come to hang on the words of stories that began that way, and how we’d pray to move beyond it.

This is a story that begins “In this economy.” It’s a story about the joy that consumables can bring us, and the ability to find that joy for under $20. It’s a story about a showerhead that has changed my life, or at the very least, my mornings … (more after the jump)

Recently I’ve taken on some design-related projects that aren’t graphic design, including a trip to Virginia where I worked on landscaping half of my parents’ yard and redoing one of the guest rooms. I heart this stuff.

The flight from SF to VA looked something like this, somewhere along the way:

I thought the circular pattern in the clouds looked like we were flying over a radar screen for a hurricane. Instead, the flight was pretty smooth sailing.

When I left VA, I took a flight back through bad weather to New York. The flight from Richmond to NYC was one of the most amazing cloud displays I’ve ever seen. Our lowly 17,000′ altitude seemed vast, as these clouds provided unbelievable depth to the sky (that tall center one must’ve been 300′ tall):

A few months ago, here in San Francisco, I went to see the Olafur Eliasson show, “Take Your Time”, at SFMOMA. It is the best show I’ve ever seen in San Francisco, and probably the best one-man show I’ve ever seen, period. Maybe that’s because I’ve seen more review-type shows than one-man shows, especially of contemporary artists, but this thing made me feel so, so good about living in the art world and it gave me hope for art as we know it currently.

This show was so well-designed, so thoughtfully responded to the space of the museum and to the flow of the viewer’s parade through the works, it made me feel like I was being welcomed openly into Eliasson’s process and his state of mind. The show was free of pretense, free of the self-awareness and sarcasm that has pervaded hipster art in the last five-ten years. I’m surely guilty of creating work that’s sarcastic, but I’m trying to move away from that and embrace an open-source philosophy about my work and the world at-large. Eliasson’s show seemed to embody a mentality of openness and interaction (though perhaps controlled, single-channel interaction) without relying solely on technology-based pieces to provoke a viewer-response or interaction.

I highly recommend this show to anyone, now that it’s open again, this time in New York. It’s a playground of serious thought about serious work that is anything but serious.