Serendipity at Silicon Valley

Happy Birthday Gustav Stickley 1858 – 1942

He was a designer, furniture maker, editor and the leading proselytizer for the American Craftsman style, an extension of the British Arts and Crafts Movement.

His furniture can be quite expensive these days, so pay close attention to that old cabinet your grandma has, you never know if a “treasure” is closer than you think.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Hector Guimard

Lyon, March 10, 1867 – New York, May 20, 1942

I have been in love with the work of this man for a long time and I didn’t know him!

I didn’t know who was the brilliant mind behind those beautiful buildings, furniture and objects. Hector Guimard was the best-known representative of the French Art Nouveau style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Guimard was as much a designer and engineer as he was an architect, and involved himself in every aspect of his buildings. 

Its critical reputation has risen since the 1960s, as many art historians have praised his architectural and decorative work, the best of it done during a relatively brief fifteen years of prolific creative activity.

Guimard, famous for designing the entrances to the Paris metro, did many more projects; he incorporated the principles of the Art Nouveau style in his works, always having shapes of plants, flowers, flowing lines and aggressive curves. 

It is a shame that a large number of his buildings have been demolished, many of which he watched vanish. He left an obscure legacy marked by a disappearance of much of his work.  

He made so many things that I wouldn’t have enough space to place them here and to chose them was a real pain, because I wanted all of them…

I found this amazing set on Flickr with more of his beautiful work:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dalbera/sets/72157626265472708/with/5526351583/

Rene Herbst Paris 1891 - Paris 1982

He designed the revolutionary and functional “Chaise Sandows” seat furniture. The frames were nickel-plated tubular steel, the seat and back was made of rubber strips stretched taut and fastened to the frame by hooks at the end. 

Happy Birthday! Alexander Graham Bell

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss’s birthday and to celebrate we are nothing but Dr. Seuss.

I found so many biographies, blogs, post and articles about this exceptional author, so what else can I say about he that is not already said…not so much; because of that I decided to choose some Dr. Seuss facts, quotes and images of course lots of images! 

• Dr Seuss was born in March 2, 1904 in Springfield. He published over 60 children’s books. As one of the most popular children’s authors of all time, his books have topped many bestseller lists, sold over 222 million copies, and been translated into more than 15 languages.

• “Green Eggs and Ham” uses only 50 words as a result of a bet between Seuss and his editor.

In case you are curious about these words here they are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you.

•  He wasn’t a huge fan of children, he once said ” You have them, I will amuse them”. His wife said in an interview once that he “couldn’t just sit down on the floor and play with them,” and was always a bit  uncomfortable and afraid around them

• The word “nerd” was first recorded in his book “If I Ran the Zoo” in 1950

• Yertle the Turtle was based on Hitler, but this is not the big controversy.  What was disputed was the burp a turtle lets out at the end. No one had ever let a burp loose in a children’s book before.

• “Horton Hears a Who” was not about religion or God, it was about Japan. A strong critic about how America treated Japan after WWII.

Here some cool links that I found about him:

http://www.seussville.com/

http://www.seussville.com/Parents/par_seuss_age.php

http://www.drseussart.com/gallery/index.html

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

Tiffany Studios

Lily lamp.

Muller Frères 

From 1895 to 1952 the French Brothers Muller were renowned to produced glassware “Art Nouveau” and “Art Deco” that have been sold worldwide. 

 Destroyed Van Gogh paintings 

Vincent Van Gogh has been dead over 120 years now. Among his over 2,000 known works,  only six works have been recorded as destroyed in fires many of which took place during World War II.

Kraftwerk – The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 

Is a chronological exploration of the group’s sonic and visual experiments and presents eight classic master works from across their celebrated repertoire with spectacular 3D visualisations and effects.