London 2012 and Good Design

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And then check these comments out on Digg. Can so many people hate the new London 2012 Olympics logo, and be wrong. Occasionally a radical new design comes along which questions and changes our perception, but I don't think it's the London 2012 Olympics logo. And the trouble with design by committee is that they all start to justify what they've done, and lose sight of it being horrible. It's sharp, ugly, badly coloured in, and confusing.

And talking of colouring in, a few months back there was discussion of developing an icon for Melbourne. The best comment I read was the suggestion that an icon should be something that can quickly be drawn by an eight year old. Think Eiffel Tower, think Sydney Opera House, think Empire State Building. In fact, think Apple iPod. So my first reaction was to ask my 5 year old to design something for the London 2012 Olympics. Funny that the BBC website featured the picture above on the front website.

And then with more thinking (but not much), what do you associate with London, and design round that. And blow me down if other people haven't done the same thing. Why does new design have to be radical, why can't it be beautiful and err iconic! The London Olympics are in London because of London, otherwise they'd be in Manchester!!

Finally, in discussion with Johnnie Moore, we might come up with some "Fruit Salad" design using the Frutiger Linotype font to enhance the Fruit Salad look of the new London logo. And I spotted the Donut Logo as well. And of course there's radical and there's RADICAL!

staircase to heaven

loves stairs as bookshelves and as storage as a way if getting more stuff into less space, but we have never imagined one like this, designed by Tim Sloan of Levitate Achitects. It is an alternating step design that rises twice as steeply as conventional stairs, turned into an extraordinary library. The architect told Kristin Hohenadel at Apartment Therapy:

"We created a 'secret' staircase, hidden from the main reception room, to access a new loft bedroom lit by roof lights. Limited by space, we melded the idea of a staircase with our client's desire for a library to form a 'library staircase' in which English oak stair treads and shelves are both completely lined with books. With a skylight above lighting the staircase, it becomes the perfect place to stop and browse a tome." ::Apartment Therapy

i think this is what the 'stairway' to heaven must be like.

i love books. i love the way they smell, the way they feel. when i was growing up, people coming to our house for the first time could often be heard saying, 'this looks like a library.' my parents have, literally, more than 5000 pounds of books and magazines (mostly national geographic, my mom has the entire collection, one copy each) - all carefully cared for.
people should own as many books as they can care for.

I would change two things

The stairs are dangerous What is you have a pet or child and what if you are up in the middle of the night or half awake? Plus a landloard could not install them because they would not pass building codes. In case of fire.

But the idea would work with FULL steps.

And a hand rail

I would also only have shelves on one side and under the stairs, leaving one side open. This would fit better into many apartments and lofts and narrow urban homes.

This would really excite me as a loft/balcony-to-attic connection. Then the books could wrap around the back, too, and become the centerpiece of a very trendy loft-den-library hybrid. And those of us that hate those wobbly-dangly recessed attic ladders could start using attics more regularly.