Add another stop to my intinerary

Recognize this skyline?

Maybe this national anthem will provide a clue.





The great people at Blanco asked me to travel to Toronto with another group of bloggers. We'll tour another Blanco factory and attend Toronto's legendary Interior Design Show, also called IDS. I leave for Toronto on the Morning of January 27th and come home the afternoon of the 29th.

This is fantastic for a whole host of reasons. First and foremost is another opportunity to get to know the folks at Blanco and to see another one of their production facilities and meet another one of their industrial design departments. It's going to be great to see IDS and to meet a bunch of Canadian bloggers and designers I've befriended over the last couple of years. And finally, it will be good to be back in Toronto again. I've been away for too long.

IDS is another massive design show, this time it's Canada on display for the world to see. I'm thrilled to have this addition to my winter travels, I can't wait to see it. Thanks Blanco!

So Zuckerberg's Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Big Whoop.

In case you've been living under a rock, Time Magazine just named Mark Zuckerberg as 2010's person of the Year. So now the founder of Facebook joins such luminaries as 1935's Haile Selassie, 1938's Adolf Hitler, 1939's Josef Stalin, 1942's Josef Stalin, 1957's Nikita Khrushchev, 1965's Gen. William Westmoreland, 1971's Richard Nixon, 1979's Ayatollah Komeini, 1995's Newt Gingrich, 2000's George W. Bush, 2004's George W. Bush and 2007's Vladmir Putin. Time's Person of the Year roster goes back to 1927 and it reads as much like a rogue's gallery as it does a hall of superheroes.

Predictably, the chattering class of the blogosphere hailed Zuckerberg and Facebook as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, I don't think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Don't get me wrong, Facebook changed and is changing the way people use the internet. In a lot of ways, Facebook brought the social web to the masses. That's a huge achievement.

But Zuckerberg and Facebook are standing on some very broad shoulders and before too long, somebody else will come along to alter the fabric of the internet once again.

In 1979, my dad invented a modem. We had a computer at home and every once in a while, we'd call a telephone number in New Jersey. Once connected, we'd set the telephone receiver in the cradle of the modem and we'd log onto with something called The Source. The Source had weather updates and bulletin boards and was an early, early form of the civilian internet. We thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

A little while later, modems improved and got faster. By the early '80s, you didn't need to dial a telephone anymore and my first e-mail address came to me through a little something called CompuServe.

Everybody thought CompuServe was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

In 1993, I was trailblazing user of something called America Online. Back then, AOL didn't have a graphic interface, it was all text. In about 1994, AOL came out with a graphic interface and it was like nothing I'd ever seen.

By 1999, AOL owned the internet it seemed. You couldn't be cool in 1999 if you didn't have an e-mail address that ended in aol.com. Everybody thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And now we're in the era of Facebook. Just like AOL though, Facebook is a walled garden, a dead end. It pulls people in and keeps them there, sequestered from the rest of the internet. It's Facebook's Achilles heel. And like AOL before it, something else will come along to take its place.

When that something arrives, everyone will think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Countdown to Germany: 30 days to go

In one month I'll be in Germany. It's hard to believe but something arrived in the mail on Monday that made it seem a bit more real.

This is my German Press Pass. I've been studying basic (very basic) German for the last three months and I think I say that as Dies ist meine deutschen Presseakkreditierung.

I'm heading to Cologne to attend internationale möbelmess, also called IMM. I'll be at IMM as the guest of Blanco. Blanco makes innovative and exceptionally well-designed sinks and faucets. I sit on Blanco USA's Design Council and this trip is part of my involvement on the council.

IMM had over 100,000 attendees last year and that puts it at a level of attendance beyond any trade show I've ever attended, and that's coming from someone who's no stranger to trade shows.

IMM started as a showcase for Germany's furniture industry but it's grown to become a world showcase for textile, furniture and kitchen manufacturers from just about everywhere.

The more I read about IMM the more excited I get to see it. IMM is hosted by a German trade show hosting company called Koelnmesse. Koelnmesse just released this IMM preview video to YouTube last week.






I'll be checking in regularly while I'm over there and I have no doubt that this trip to IMM and Cologne will provide blog fodder for the better part of 2011.

IMM has an expansive website and a social media presence that's truly impressive. Their website is full to overflowing with preview images such as these.

It's funny, my usual excitement for Christmas has been completely overshadowed by my excitement over starting what's looking more an more like a world tour. 2011's going to be a wild ride and the first stop is Cologne.

Evolution brings natural history to Soho

No other city on the planet offers the kind of street life New York does. Despite its cold and wet weather, life in New York happens outside. All of that foot traffic means that it's possible to make a living as a shop owner. As in a real life, honest-to-goodness merchant. New York city is full to over flowing with them and it's a real pleasure to walk into a non-chain retail establishment, see some cool stuff and learn a thing or two about the people whose livelihoods depend on that store.

Well on Friday afternoon I was walking down Spring Street from Broadway to West Broadway and halfway between Mercer and Greene Streets I stumbled upon what has to be the coolest shop I've ever found in my life.

A shop window similar to this display stopped me dead in my tracks.

I'd stumbled upon Evolution, a 17-year-old natural history store.

I make a living from convincing people to do things like upholster their chairs in toile but what I'd really love to encourage people to do is hang a beautifully mounted Calloplophora solli.

Sadly, not everybody shares my opinion that insects are spectacularly beautiful.

Just look at these patterns and colors. Fabric designers take note.

Evolution has an entomology staff whom they describe as artisans. Artists is more like it. Mounting and preserving insect specimens for scientific study is an exacting and difficult discipline. That Evolution has a staff of them speaks volumes about the store and about the city it calls home.

I love design in all of its forms and for me design starts in the natural world. As designers we mimic and recreate the shapes, forms and colors of the natural world and seeing the natural world displayed like this is a real thrill.

Some people get freaked out by the very idea of an insect and that's too bad. Others get worked up over the idea of mounting what were once living creatures. I don't see the point of that either. Preserving biological diversity doesn't stand a chance if nobody understands it and the key to understanding it is high-quality, scientific specimens. That I can buy them too is a bonus. Evolution has a great statement on their website that sums up their commitment to the world's insects:

All our insects are legally obtained and have been cleared by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We do not sell any species listed in the Endangered Species Act. Most of our insects come from insect farms located in some of the most exotic tropical and subtropical regions on earth. Insect farming provides income for indigenous peoples, eliminates the burden on wild caught species, and promotes the maintenance and care of natural environments rather than its exploitation, as is often the case with other agricultural businesses.

Evolution also sells bones, fossils, minerals, taxidermy specimens and shells. They sell everything with the same sense of awe and respect that they sell their mounted insects.

If you ever find yourself on Spring Street and you're wondering what sort of thing you can buy me, this would be a good start.

Here's a close up because I just can't help myself.

If you can't make it to Spring Street, here's the link to Evolution's website.

A visit with Scavolini Soho

Last Friday I had  a bunch of meetings in New York and I'd arranged them geographically so that I'd start in Soho and work my way north as the day progressed. I set everything up that way because one of my must-see sights was Scavolini's recently opened New York showroom. Scavolini's gallery is at 429 West Broadway, right down the street from the site of my first meeting.

Scavolini calls its Soho flagship a gallery and that's not an exaggeration. The space would be considered large anywhere but in Soho, it qualifies as expansive. It's open from 10am to 7pm Monday through Friday, 11am to 6pm on Saturday and on Sunday it's open from 12 to 5pm.

The Scavolini gallery in Soho is not just a showcase for Scavolini's exquisite kitchens, it's also a valuable trade resource. The Soho staff is there to help you specify Scavolini and there is ample meeting space for outside architects and designers to bring clients in for meetings and consultations.

If you are a professional in Greater New York and you're interested in Scavolini's new space, give them a call and they'll be thrilled to help you in any way they can.

My contact at Scavolini is the the showroom manager, Daniele Busca. Daniele was in Italy when I was in New York so I missed getting the grand tour from the man who supervised its construction. In his place, he left me in the capable hands of Maddalena Nicolosi. Maddalena gave me a tour to end all tours and I came away from the experience even more impressed by Scavolini than I was when I walked in the door. There was no question she couldn't answer or feature she couldn't explain. Thank you Maddalena.

So if you find yourself on West Broadway, drop in the Scavolini gallery. If you're a professional in the area and you're interested in Scavolini's professional support, just give them a call and they'll take great care of you. You can get more information from the Scavolini Soho website.

Scavolini Soho is an asset to the exploding design scene in lower Manhattan and a real credit to the Scavolini brand. Bravi!