Have you seen this pendant light?

This is a Panton Moon Pendant. It was designed by Verner Panton and introduced in 1960. The Panton Moon became an overnight sensation and a classic was born.

I received an e-mail from a reader yesterday. She found an original Moon Pendant at a store near her home and picked it up for the unimaginable price of $150. Original Moon Pendants typically sell for ten times that. Somebody got a bargain to end all bargains. She wrote to me and asked if I know of a source where she can buy a licensed reproduction of her Panton Moon Pendant.

The answer is that no, I don't. All of my usual sources for that sort of thing come up blank when I look for that lamp. So I'm writing a post to ask if anybody out there knows where to look for a reproduction. A licensed reproduction will match her original exactly as opposed to a knock off that won't. Her plan is to hang the original alongside a reproduction over her kitchen island. It sounds idyllic frankly, and I'd like to help her out if I can.

Verner Panton (1926 - 1998) was a Danish furniture and interior designer. He's most remembered for his wild use of color and his radical thinking about how form and function interact. Some of his edgier creations, like this environment called Phantasy (1970), preserve his time in the spotlight perfectly.

In 1970, everything was up for grabs, or so it seemed. Who says that there needs to be a clear delineation between walls, floors and ceiling? Who says that furniture can't be structural and that structures can be furniture? Who says indeed? Panton and his contemporaries blazed a trail and carried the whole of our culture with them. Despite the initial negative reaction on Main Street to Phantasy, within a few years the men on Main Street were wearing four-inch-wide paisley ties. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Not all of Panton's work has been left behind in the era when he created it. A lot of his furniture is still in production.

This is his S Chair, also from 1960. The S Chair was the world's first injection-molded, mass produced object and it's been in continuous production ever since. The S Chair proved that injection molding was possible and viable and the world has never been the same.

Panton and the designers of his generation left behind a legacy that lingers, even if his aesthetic is not longer popular. I'm excited that somebody wants to use some of his pieces in her home and the question remains: has anybody seen this light?

Notes from the field: Monogram takes Manhattan

I spent three days in early July in this cooking theater in the Monogram Experience Center at GE Appliances' US headquarters in Louisville, KY. On 7 July, 2009 I wrote a post that detailed my eye-opening experience with a GE Monogram 48" Pro Range.

GE Monogram's Experience Center, Louisville, KY

I went into that seminar with some hard-edged and what I thought were hard-set opinions about what makes a good pro range. Monogram's 48" Pro Range challenged all of that. Aside from the amazing job GE did in developing that range, they put on one amazing three-day seminar, let me tell you. Monogram's Experience Center, where they hold training for design professionals, is a beautiful facility. The interior spaces are a symphony of muted colors and interesting textures. The furnishings and finishes read like a who's who of  20th and 21st century design. Ann Sacks, Harry Bertoia, Mies van der Rohe --the gang's all here. Having seen their Experience Center with my own eyes, I can say without hesitation that GE is serious about having Monogram be a major player in the world of luxury appliances. All of this effort is not just for appearances though. After having met and spoken with the team behind the brand, it's also really clear that they are serious and they know what they're doing. I was struck by the candor and honesty of the product development and education teams at Monogram. This was not just just a marketing spiel, these people were onto something.

While I was in Louisville, I learned that Monogram had opened a design center in the Architects and Designers Building in Manhattan. It's one thing to build a top notch showcase in Louisville, but it's another thing entirely to open a showroom in the holy of holies. The A&D Building has 40 showrooms on 12 floors for a combined 200,000 square feet and it exists to make designers salivate. This is a facility geared specifically to architects and designers, though all of it's open to the public now too. The A&D Building showcases the best of what's available in the worlds of finish and furnishings. Perched high on the 10th floor is the Monogram Design Center.

Monogram opened it a year-and-a-half ago and it is stunning. I was struck immediately by how large it is --it's one of the bigger showrooms in the building. It's decked out with the latest and greatest appliances from Monogram of course, but they are arranged in a series of functioning kitchen vignettes. The kitchens on display a gorgeous and beautifully designed. Yet there's a knowing restraint to everything, and it's in that restraint that Monogram whispers "we've arrived."

Looking across the Design Center lobby toward the demo kitchen

Chef Chef Tageré Southwell holds court in the Monogram Design Center

Monogram has a resident chef who presides over this test kitchen, Chef Tageré Southwell. That primary kitchen is wired for sound and video though it's not at all obvious at first glance. The video monitors, video cameras, mics and speakers have been thoroughly designed around and hidden. As with everything else in their Design Center, somebody spent a lot of time thinking this through.

I'd made arrangements ahead of time, and I was met in the Design Center by Paula Cecere, the Design Center manager. I spent about an hour with Paula and she gave me a thorough tour. Paula had been present for the entire construction and she knew the story of every refrigerator panel and piece of tile. Through Paula, Monogram managed to capture some of the candor and hospitality I experienced in Kentucky. It's funny, I expect people in Kentucky to be friendly and welcoming. I don't expect it in Manhattan and it was refreshing to see. That hospitality makes the Monogram Design Center a surprising island of neighborly calm.

Seeing Monogram's products on display in a showroom such as this one in New York demonstrates the confidence GE has in Monogram, and it's a well-founded confidence. Monogram's most definitely a brand to watch. I don't hesitate to specify them and I owe that to Mongram's outreach efforts of the last few months entirely. Good job Monogram, you made a believer out of me.

If you're in New York and you'd like to experience the Monogram Design Center yourself, it's on East 58th Street between Lexington and 3rd Avenues. Go in there and tell Paula I sent you.

Got a toilet story?

The terrific Joyce Wadler had a short piece in last Wednesday's The New York Times about a literary contest of a sort. American Standard is giving away a toilet to the best toilet story submitted between now and October 9th, 2009 on American Standard's Facebook fan page.

Wadler kills me and she cages this story in the terms of a great literary contest and refers to Facebook as that modern Algonquin Round Table. The former English majors who read her work find this hilarious and I can vouch for that personally. Not content to invoke Dorothy Parker, Wadler goes on to pay homage to Herman Melville in her example of a literary toilet story.

And so on one damp, drizzly November of the soul, I set sail upon a noble whaling craft, the Pequod, although the bathrooms, truth be told, were strictly 16th century.

“Ahab,” I said, “have ye never heard of the control-flush mechanism that enables a user to select complete or partial flush of a toilet tank and is thus more environmentally responsible?”

“Out of my way, Ishmael,” he said. “I’m looking for a fish.”

Haughty humor aside, American Standard is looking for humorous (and true) stories about the humble commode. This is a legitimate contest and American Standard will award five new toilets to the top five entries. All you have to do is go to Facebook, become a fan of American Standard and then write on their wall. The Times piece must have been read by quite a few people because that fan page is already filling up with stories. Some of them are laugh out loud funny, so poke around and read a few.

Some of the best and most disturbing toilet stories I've ever heard have come from plumbers, especially those in bigger cities. Amid the routine plumbing repairs and installations, I can only imagine the calamity a plumber in Los Angeles might go through on a daily basis. Most plumbers live under a professional omerta but when you can get one going, hilarity ensues. Go ahead, buy a plumber a beer some time and you'll begin to understand why the services of a good plumber cost so much. I'm going to forward this to every plumber I know. I haven't heard a good black water story in ages.

Who makes what?

via Flickr

It's no real secret that the brand name on an appliance doesn't tell you very much about who the manufacturer was. Just as with every other industry the last 20 years of the appliance world has been marked by a host of mergers and acquisitions. For the most part, who made your appliance doesn't really matter very much, but I think charts like this from Appliance 411 are helpful to have on hand when you're reading Consumer Reports or any other review source. When Consumer Reports praises a Kenmore range and then slams a hauntingly similar one from GE Profile it always makes me laugh. More often than not, such slams are directed at the brand and not the actual appliance. How could it be otherwise as the only difference a Kenmore and a GE Profile is the styling? Keep this chart handy of you're in the market for appliances. Note too that there's a link in the Sears category that jumps to Appliance 411's guide to the various manufacturers who actually make every Kenmore model on the market. Like I said, it's interesting.

Manufacturer	Brand Name
Amana (recently owned by Maytag, now owned by Whirlpool)	Amana Caloric Danby ( 5 ) Econowash Glenwood Imperial ( microwave, refrigerator ) Litton Maytag ( washers with models starting SAV, NAV... ) Menu Master Modern Maid Speed Queen (older domestic models) Sunray Viking (US fridges except built-in models)
Fedders	Airtemp Climette ( current models ) Comfort-Aire ( window a/c's ) Comfortaire ( window a/c's ) Crosley ( some window a/c's ) Emerson Quiet Kool ( a/c's ) Fedders Hamptom Bay ( some a/c's ) Maytag ( window a/c's and dehumidifiers ) Microsonic
Frigidaire/Electrolux ~ non-USA brands below ~	Affinity™ Airdryer ( dehumidifiers ) Capehart ( freezers & dehumidifiers ) Citation ( freezers ) Dometic (microwaves - serial number prefix "HG") Design Manufacturing ( D&M ) Electrolux Euroflair ( 1 ) Frigidaire Gallery General General Freezer Gibson Harvard Logic ( dehumidifiers & microwaves ) Kelvinator Kenmore ( see Sears below ) Icon Leonard O'keefe & Merritt Polaris ( freezers & dehumidifiers ) Roy Tappan Vesta White Westinghouse ( major appliances only )
commercial products by Frigidaire/Electrolux	Arctic Air ( fridges and freezers ) ( 9 ) Edina ( refrigerators ) Edina Technical (freezers converted to pop machines) Fedpak (freezers converted to soft ice cream freezers) Imperial ( freezers ) ( 9,10 ) Venex (freezers converted to vending machines)
General Electric *	Amana (older dishwashers) Americana Beau*Mark ( most ) BeefEater Camco Concept II Eterna General Electric Hotpoint Kenmore ( see Sears below ) McClary Moffat Monogram ( 1 ) Profile RCA
In-Sink-Erator	Ace Hardware ( 6 ) Badger Crosley ( 6 ) Dayton ( 6 ) Emerson ( 6 ) Franke ( 6 ) Frigidaire ( 6,7 ) ISE (In-Sink-Erator) Kenmore ( 6 ) ( most ) KitchenAid ( 6,7 ) Master Plumber ( 6 ) Maytag ( 6 ) True Value ( 6 ) Whirlpool ( 6 ) Wolverine Brass ( 6 )
Maytag Corp. (now owned by Whirlpool)	Admiral (USA) Atlantis Crosley (except a/c's, also see Whirlpool) Dynasty Gaffers and Sattler Gemini ( 1 ) Hardwick Jade Jade Range Jenn Air ( 3 ) Magic Chef (major appliances only) Maytag ( 2 ) Neptune ( 1 ) Norge
Sears *	Capri Coldspot Galaxy Kenmore OasisSears does not manufacture any of their products, instead they are all made by the other leading manufacturers, often with added features. They are then rebranded with the Kenmore (or other) brand name. Notably are: most laundry products and dishwashers made by Whirlpool, lower end front load washer and matching dryer by Frigidaire and many range models by GE.  See model number reference
Whirlpool *	Admiral (Canada) Chambers Coovert (ac's) Crosley (newer fridges, a/c's and all portable washers) Danby ( 8 ) Estate Inglis Ikea Kenmore ( see Sears ) KitchenAid ( 4 ) Kirkland Maytag Epic® Roper Speed Queen (Canada) Sub Zero (undercounter ice makers) Whirlpool
WC Wood	Amana ( older freezers ) ArticAire Country Squire Crosley ( freezers ) Danby ( freezers, some dehumidifiers ) Edison Electrohome (range hoods, humidifiers, dehumidifiers) Estate ( freezers ) Frost Queen KitchenAid ( freezers ) Maytag ( freezers ) Miami Carey (range hoods) Quickfreeze Quickfrez Roper ( freezers ) Sahara Whirlpool ( freezers )
Electrolux (non-North American)	ACEC AEG Alfatec Arthur Martin Arctis Atlas Bendix Buderus Castor Elektro Helios Elektra Electrolux Faure Flymo Husqvarna Ibelsa Juno Lehel Marynen Moffat Nestor Martin Parkinson Cowan Progress Rex Rosenlew Simpson Therma Tornado Tricity Bendix Volta Voss Zanker Zanussi Zoppas
Nordyne (HVAC products)	Frigidaire ( 11 ) Gibson ( 11 ) Grandaire ( 11 ) Intertherm ( 11 ) Kelvinator ( 11 ) Mammoth ( 11 ) Maytag ( 11 ) Miller ( 11 ) Philco ( 11 ) Tappan ( 11 ) Westinghouse ( 11 )

via Flickr

A couple more illusions for Kelly

The delightful Kelly James from Design Ties is recuperating from knee surgery this weekend. She loved the illusions from Richard Wiseman I ran the other day and asked for more. Kelly's favorite color is purple and she needs some distraction right now, so these are for Kelly specifically. However, anybody can join in on the vertigo-inducing fun.

First up, a "moving" static image.

Stare at this for a sec and then try to get it to stop moving.

Second up is another twist on fooling your brain.

The warped lines in this illustration are pretty plain to see. Or are they? Hold a straight edge up to your monitor and you'll see that there's not a bend to be had. Pretty cool!

Thanks again to the great and powerful Richard Wiseman and good wishes to Kelly.