A designers' round table about software

OK, this one goes out to my designerly friends. Well, people on the manufacturer's side too. Just no software people. Got that?

After one of my American Gothic posts from the last few weeks ago, a mini conversation started in the comments about design software. It started with Pam Rodriguez and me and then Sue Murphy got in at the end. I think Pam missed it. Pam's a Chief Architect fan, I'm a SketchUp fan and Sue was wondering about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the different design and architecture rending programs out there.

I suggested that we have a panel discussion about it and that's what we're going to do.

I'd like to schedule a conference call at some point in the next week or so to talk about design software. This is not a sales or a recruitment tool, let me be perfectly clear about that. This is an exchange of ideas, peer to peer.

The great folks at Masco are going to let me set up a Webex for this round table discussion. Doing this as a Webex will allow everybody to take turns sharing desktops and that way everybody can see how you use your design software.

Again, this is a peer to peer opportunity, a chance to talk about software strengths and weaknesses without any providers listening in.

Whattya think? Who's in? Drop me a line here or through Twitter and let me know if you're interested. I'll coordinate everything else.

Find missing money

This is not a scam. Believe me, no one looks askance at this sort of thing than me but this one checks out. Let me tell you how I know.

I have many, many clever nieces and nephews. The cleverest of all of them, and certainly the cleverest one in suburban DC is Sarah Bruno-Currier. Sarah is the mother of the perfect child whose photo I ran back in February. Anyhow, Sarah sent me a text message a week ago and it said simply "Did you ever live on West Shore Boulevard in Tampa?"

I did in fact live on West Shore Boulevard about 15 years ago and it was the site of an unhappy time in my life and an absurd real estate squabbling match when good lovin' went bad. I owned that home and I hadn't thought about it in ages. Getting a text message from my niece that mentioned it sent my mind go to dark places immediately. "Don't make me wade back into that mess" was all I could think.

I don't like communicating through text messages so I called her immediately. Sarah told me that she'd been searching around on the internet and found a website that's a clearing house for unclaimed money. Before I could tell her that it was a scam, she told me that a title company in Tampa owed me money.

That's about the best way to get me to pay attention to anybody. Owes me money? Sure!

Sarah sent me the link to Missing Money, a national database of money that's been turned over to states when the person who's owed the money can't be found.

I clicked on the link, entered my name and was re-directed to the website of Florida's Department of Financial Services. Sure enough, a title company in Tampa owes me $54. While it's hardly a Powerball win, it's nice to know that someone actually owes me money rather than the other way around.

Check it out and see if anybody owes you money. Find Missing Money.

Trendir strikes out

At some point last week, Trendir ran a typically breathless story about this furniture series by Toan Nguyen for Walter Knoll.

Maybe it's just me, but this stuff looks like shriveled genitalia. Expensive, shriveled genitalia. Whither goest thou Trendir?

Kraftmaid cabinetry has a project file on Google's 3D Warehouse

Kraftmaid Cabinetry has a library of completed kitchen designs on Google's 3D Warehouse. They have been streamlined from their original designs in order to fit into the 3D Warehouse's 10mb maximum size, and they are there to serve as a starting point for designers and SketchUp users. Anyone can download them and they're available for free of course.

These models can be used as is,or you can download them and pull them apart to either customize a design for yourself or to learn a bit more about how modeling in SketchUp works.




Direct link to the model here.




Direct link to the model here.




Direct link to the model here.




Direct link to the model here.




Direct link to the model here.




Direct link to the model here.

Kraftmaid is a company embracing new technology and new media with a passion I find to be laudable. Oh and you can even find a couple of my models in their collections. Check out Kraftmaid's 3D Warehouse project files and tell them I sent you.

Ceramic Tiles of Italy and Mosaica+ were the highlights of Coverings 2010

Coverings is a large trade show and it serves as a showcase for the world's finest purveyors of tile and stone. A number of nations' tile and stone industries arrange themselves into consortia and these consortia operate nationality pavilions at the show. There's the Spain Pavilion, the Brazil pavilion, the Turkey Pavilion, the China pavilion, you get the picture. With so many countries represented and with the major ones banding together in pavilions, Coverings takes on the air of a world's fair and in a lot of ways it is.

Standing head and shoulders over all of those national consortia is Ceramic Tiles of Italy. Ceramic Tiles of Italy represents hundreds of Italian tile manufacturers and there were 48 individual booths within the Ceramic Tiles of Italy pavilion. Ceramic Tiles of Italy's pavilion was a world unto itself and it had the feel as if a small section of Milan or Bologna had been dropped into the middle of the Orange County Convention Center.

It came complete with a piazza of sorts. Ceramic Tiles of Italy's central exhibit was an open, multi-purpose space designed by minimalist architect Michael P. Johnson. Part sidewalk cafe, part exhibit space, the central exhibit was clad entirely in large format, Italian porcelain tile. The only things missing were cigarettes and Vespas.

The term trade show booth fails utterly to describe any manufacturer's exhibit at a trade show in 2010, and this is particularly true of the Italian manufacturers at Coverings. The traditionally held, Italian values of hospitality and grace (called bella figura in Italian) are on full display and they're delivered by casually handsome men in Armani suits. It's a winning combination all around.

My favorite booth of the many I saw in my two days at Coverings was in the Italy pavilion and it belonged to Mosaico+ from the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.

Mosaica+ makes mosaic tile as you would expect, but their unique combination of materials and exemplary way of showing their wares makes them a real stand out and they get my vote for best in show.

The images wrap around the corners as you can see here.

Mosaica+'s booth consisted of four, large corner panels and each featured a Warholian, pop art image. From a distance, they had the appearance of being a manipulated photograph or a boldly colored silk screen print.

Upon closer inspection, it was apparent that they were glass mosaics.

Upon even closer inspection, you could see that they were made from single, solid-color glass tiles.

The individual tiles function like individual pixels in a video image. It's brilliant and with these displays, Mosaica+ blurs the line between commodity and art, factory and studio. The pop art exterior set the stage for the great tile inside. Mosaica+ makes mosaic tile in new and exciting combinations. The following photographs mark the first time I've ever seen wood integrated into a sheeted mosaic.

Metal. glass and wood

Stone, glass and wood

Glass in two colors with wood

And so a trend is born. Get ready to see wooden tiles take off.

Coverings was an impressive and informative trade show and conference. Ceramic Tiles of Italy and partner firms like Mosaico+ are a big part of why Coverings was such a success. Bravi!