I have a crush.  The sort of crush you just can’t stop talking and thinking about.  Yes, I have a crush on the whole Marlow and Sons, Diner, Marlow and Daughters, Romans empire.

We’ve been spending a lot of time out in Williamsburg enjoying the excitement that comes with exploring new neighborhoods.  Along the way, we’ve made it a point to acquaint ourselves with other local shops and restaurants.  And while all the discoveries have left us gitty with excitement and very full bellies, our trip to Marlow and Daughters was made extra special thanks to two amazing friends that gave us a gift certificate for our birthdays.

We were torn about whether to be practical or extravagant (ground beef or steaks).  The butcher’s consensus was “buy things for yourself that you would normally buy,” so we went for two beautiful filet mignons, fresh ricotta, house made pate, smoked goat cheese, fancy fig crackers and a few other odds and ends to round out what was the perfect Sunday night dinner.

Wow.  I am loving the graphics and art direction of Knuthenlund Dairy and how gorgeous is that photography?  I dream of a picnic with loved ones,  warm sunshine, a wheel of this Brie and a fresh baguette.  Who’s joining me?

*Via: Lovely Packaging

“From Knuthenlund Estate in Lolland has operated an organic farm since 2007, striving to offer high quality organic foods and at the same time taking care of the unique nature, that is characteristic for the Danish island of Lolland. In the Easter of 2009, Knuthenlund opened a whole new dairy farm in one of the former barns on the estate. The dairy farm is based on milk from the estate’s own organic milking sheep and goats. The fresh milk is handled very carefully to preserve its taste and structure.

Knuthenlund puts pride in affecting the environment as little as possible. This approach is also important in the packaging design process. This is why Knuthenlund Sheep’s Brie is sold in boxes made of sustainable poplar wood. And the brie is wrapped in paper made by potato starch.  Knuthenlund’s Sheep’s and Goat’s Milk is sold in reusable glass bottles. In the printing process, it has been important to limit the use of printing colour. Knuthenlund also offers gift boxes made by unprocessed wood. The inspiration came from the old fashioned hay boxes. The box are isolated with the estate’s own hay and are therefore in line with Knuthenlund’s ambition to run a farm that both shows consideration for product quality and the environment.”

When we were in San Francisco last month, thanks to nudging from these dear family members, we knew we had to make a point to check out Blue Bottle Coffee.  What we didn’t know, is that we would find ourselves there every day–sometimes even twice a day.

When I heard they were setting up shop in Brooklyn I got excited.  Really excited.  Despite the excessive rain, we headed to Williamsburg on Sunday to check it out and were so happy we did.  With oversized umbrellas and big green rain boots, we enjoyed steaming cups of perfectly brewed coffee and a Cheddar-Chive Biscuit from Colson Patisserie.

Now go and experience the gorgeous space and deliciousness for yourself.

Blue Bottle Coffee Roasters: 160 Berry St between North 5th and 6th Sts, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

“I think the myth in marketing is that consistency is the answer”  –Andy Spade

Michael Williams, the force behind one of my new favorite blogs, A Continuous Lean, has recently collaborated with David Coggins to create the series, At the Bar.  At the Bar features interviews with people that have a stake in the design world.  His most recent interview features Andy Spade, one of my favorite creatives.  There is a practicality in the way that Andy Spade sees the world that I admire and appreciate.  We need more people that are as thoughtful about their impact and contribution as this man is.   Enjoy!

Andy Spade’s arc of success is well-documented and yet it remains a cause for satisfaction. The simple, utilitarian design exemplified by Jack Spade seems straightforward, but like a good bistro or garage band, the key is the execution. It turns out that’s not so easy after all. Jack Spade also worked because it was at home in any neighborhood, dressed up or down. And yet it never took itself so seriously it couldn’t release a frog dissection kit.  The case of Andy Spade is a reminder that just because something feels inevitable doesn’t mean it isn’t visionary.

We met at Bemelman’s Bar at the Carlyle Hotel.

David Coggins: You live up here by Bemelman’s?

Andy Spade: Right, just around the corner.

DC: And you’re drinking a Vodka Southside.

AS: Right.  It’s a southern summer drink with vodka, simple syrup, a little lime juice and soda water.  Usually it’s made with gin.  That’s my favorite light drink.  This is what I order in a bar, at home we drink wine.  We spend our summers in California, so we drink a lot of wine, mostly red.  I love this Alexis cabernet is by the Swanson family, who are friends of ours.

DC: This is a great bar to have down the street.

AS: When my wife and I first moved to New York it was our treat to come up here and listen to music.  I’d lived downtown my whole time in New York.  When I moved up here 10 years ago people said, ‘You’re selling out.’  I said ‘New York’s a mile long, if you go up 50 blocks you haven’t changed your entire life.’  I want to have a tree on my block.  Andy Warhol lived on the Upper East Side, Woody Allen lives up here.

DC: You’re associated with Greene Street and Warren Street.

AS: Now Great Jones.  I love good New York City streets.  We started out on Renwick Street and then to Prince and then to Crosby—this is all in the 80’s and early 90’s.  Then we moved to Warren Street.  Our building, like a lot of buildings in Tribeca, was sold.

DC: Were those raw spaces?

AS: Totally raw.  We had a top floor and the roof.  And a lot of degenerates sleeping in the hall.  Then finally my wife said ‘You’ve dragged me around downtown for 15 years, it’s my turn.’  So we found this cool old place up here.

DC: Partners & Spade does a lot of different projects—it’s everything under one roof.

AS: There are two parts to it: there’s the storefront part which we wanted because we loved the idea of being on street level and being in touch with the city.  We wanted to have a space that allowed us to put together all the things we love: advertising, art, design, films, writing, objects. And the back of the space is the studio—all we need is two turntables and a microphone.  We can work the Bowery Hotel if we need more room.  We’re open by appointment or if you knock really loudly.  And I like putting together shows and giving people a chance to show their work.

DC: It seems like you’re attracted to objects that have a some function that isn’t necessarily related to art—something designed with a primary purpose that still looks great.

AS: Exactly.  So much depends on the context and if something is presented in the right way.  The first person we hired at Jack Spade was Mike Abelson who now owns Postal Co.  He came out of Art Center in LA and he studied fine art and industrial design.  I was introduced by to him by my friend James Spindler who I knew from advertising.  He was offered a job designing cars, I said why don’t we create this thing together—he’s like a scientist.  He looks at bridges and how they’re supported when he’s designing a bag.  I wanted him to provide the technical expertise.  And the challenge was just to make a great bag.

You can read the interview in its entirety here

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about my love for terrariums, these magical little contained environments.  This year for my birthday Dan gave me a certificate to go and build my very own terrarium at Sprout Home in Williamsburg.

There seem to be two main types of terrariums, one that is fern and moss based and one that is cacti based.  I went for the latter since they are supposedly a bit easier to care for and because I liked the variety of plants that Sprout had to choose from. Sprout carries a number of different vessels to house the terrariums.  I picked this one by a company called Roost which takes recycled glass and hand blows it without a mold. After layering some lava rocks for drainage, charcoal to prevent mold and a top layer of soil,  I picked out about six different types of cactus for mine.  I also brought some coral and a sea urchin shell that I collected from our various trips to add to the mix.  I am absolutely in love with it and think this might just be my favorite birthday present ever.  Big thanks to Leah, the terrarium expert at Sprout, for all the guidance in building this beauty!

I’ve been feeling the love for the folks over at The Scout, a great new lifestyle and design-conscious site that features unique and inspiring tidbits.

A few months ago they featured Billykirk, two brothers who created a line of beautiful leather bags, belts, shoes, wallets and hats.  The line has an authenticity and craftsmanship that I think is difficult to find these days.  Enjoy this video that The Scout put together that really shows “the beauty behind the process.”

I am really digging the new redesign of the infamous Chiquita Banana.

DJ Neff created a campaign that included these fantastic sticker illustrations, Facebook integration and a microsite with viral videos, a sticker generator and a 3D flash game.

Design:Related recently interviewed him about the design process, the beauty of a client that says “make bananas cool” and the importance of brand equity.  Check out the interview here.

Client: Chiquita Banana
Campaign Name: Eatachiquita
Creative Direction: DJ Neff, Mark Krajan
Art Direction: DJ Neff
Designers: Hillary Coe, Luis Gonzalez
Contributing Designers: Dyanna Csaposs, Nick Perata, Roscoe Ferguson
Developers: Neil Katz, Chris Isom, Isaac Dettman
CG Developers: Kyle Figgins, Ryan Kaplan, Steve Han, Gene Arvan
Production Company: The Famous Group

PSFK recently sat down with Alex Calderwood, founder of the Ace Hotel chain to talk about collaboration, inspiration and intuition.

Piers Fawkes: Alex, I wonder if you can talk to about the collaborations you do. It seems like there’s a kind of fantastic leverage which seems to be very on the pulse of what’s going on in terms of the culture and everything else. Why do you do these collaborations? What’s in it for you?

Alex: It’s a good question. I think in general that the company’s very much rooted in a very collaborative spirit in just the way we work. So in terms of how we create the properties, we try to involve amazing artisans or craftsman or design professionals as much as possible in their respective sort of expertise or art. And so it’s kind of in the DNA at the plan in a sense.

Piers: Why is that?

Alex: I think I’ve always been drawn to the sense of community that develops around the project. So, for example, if you come to a new city. We started in Seattle and then we went to Portland and a couple of other cities, New York and Palm Springs.

But you’re coming to a new city and so you want to create a sense of kind of emotional involvement and creative involvement from different people who are in the community. For example, like we went to New York, we felt it was very important for us to collaborate with a New York firm or New York entity that would help us develop the hotel or design the hotel for a couple of different reasons.

One, that the scale of it, it was a large scale. We just needed to have that, without us having to recreate a whole staff in New York and create a whole design office here. We felt it was more beneficial to collaborate with a firm here as well as just from a timing and logistic standpoint it made more sense just to not recreate the wheel ourselves.

And so we teamed up with this firm, Roman and Williams, and it was a very, very synergistic and very satisfying working relationship with those guys. And we felt like they really were rooted in New York and really represented what our take would be on this particular building we were working with and in this particular context.

And in the same way, when we went out to California, we chose some friends of ours and some people in Los Angeles who we felt really represented that sort of California experience.

And so anyway, to get back to your original question, for me I think that it really engenders this sense of community and kind of, again, emotional investment or emotional involvement in the project. I think that’s kind of where it starts.

And then I think that also a lot of good ideas come from various places. We’re very much a company based on the value that good ideas can come from really anybody.

Piers: Could you tell me a little more about the generation of good ideas in your company? How do you know that the relationship with Stumptown or Opening Ceremony or an artist is a good idea? What gives you that sort of sense?

Alex: Oh, sure. That. Well I think two things. For us, A) it comes down to a little bit of instinct. We’re big believers if something feels right, you at least pursue the conversation and see if it fits. And a lot of times in these things when something feels right the kind of pieces to the puzzle will start to fall into place.

Like for example, Opening Ceremony or Project No. eight or Stumptown. First of all we have a space. We reach out to them. They know what we’re doing. We know what they’re doing. You can start a dialogue. You can kind of get a sense in the beginning of the dialogue if a lot of the positive buttons are starting to kind of be pushed or starting to respond.

So part of it is interesting. But I think the more important part of it is it really comes down to people. So, really getting a sense of all of those examples, as I just mentioned, it really was the kind of direct action between our crew and them and getting the sense that the people felt right. You get a sense of where someone’s intention is coming from.

For us, if it feels like there’s a very genuine intention behind what they’re doing, and a genuine intention for us to work together, then usually kind of all the right answers will show up to have a sense, does the puzzle fall into place.

Piers: I do want to get a sense of where did you focus before that conversation happens? How do you even get the sense of who the right people are to talk to?

Alex: Right. That actually comes through a variety of different channels. Sometimes people reach out to us, and they’ll just say like, “Hey, we heard you’re doing a project, and we’re interested to be involved.”

I think, for example, with Stumptown, when we started the hotel project in Portland, kind of word got out on the street. And I can’t remember if Duane called us first — Duane’s the owner of Stumptown — or whether we called him. But basically, Stumptown is very much kind of hometown favorite in Portland, and we knew we had space, and we liked the idea of a coffee shop. So I believe in that particular instance, he had kind of contacted us first.

Sometimes it comes through other channels. For example, with Project No. eight and Opening Ceremony, there is a gentleman who’s involved in our company, named Michael Bisordi, and he also happens to own a retail brokerage firm.

So he and his staff did a really, really good job of kind of scouring through a lot of different possibilities in Manhattan that could be candidates for the various retail spaces that we had, and distilled it down to kind of like the ones that we thought were the most aligned and sort of the best fit, and really shepherded those conversations through to open up a dialog. So I, in those particular two cases, have to really try to even do a great, great job.

It’s not an easy challenge. So he and his staff did a great job of kind of going through and just really sort of handpicking various different candidates that would be good possibilities.

Piers: I imagine, you don’t suddenly then go into a round of market research to make sure it’s the right sort of company. You use some of that intuition…

Alex: Yeah, for us… I mean, let’s see here. I don’t know if we do, necessarily, a lot of deep analysis or market research, per se. We certainly do a certain level of research. But again, it is so nuanced and comes back to having your ear to the ground, and having a sense of kind of the ebb and flow of what’s going on out there, at least in terms of retail or restaurants or coffee, or whatever the particular area is. So it’s kind of a combination of, like I said, having your ear to the ground, instinct, and a certain level of research.

So it’s not like we went to a traditional retail-marketing firm and said like, “This is our demographic, and please come up with a list of [laughs] candidates that fit that.” It’s really so much more of a psychographic. It’s more nuanced than that.