Featured On: Show Us Your JA (Jonathan Adler) Style
Jonathan Adler's pieces are inspired by the best eras in design, particularly regarding ceramics. His quirky, cheery adaptations are addictive to be around. I certainly hope to collect more pieces. Which is why we're very happy to be accepted into the "Show us Your JA style" community!



For the holidays, I used the JA Medium Bird Bowl in an arrangement on our dining room credenza. The bird is just so elegant and graceful and added a nice "Peace on Earth" vibe. The Bird Bowl is from Jonathan Adler's "Menagerie" collection.


 

It's a really great idea for designers and product sites to put the spotlight on their customers to see how everyone, everywhere is incorporating their work into their lives—a great way to build stronger relationships with customers. I feel I'm a bit more a part of the brand and creativity of the work, now.




I have visited the store in San Francisco and now that there is one here in Boston, I'll have to check it out! Have fun browsing the whole site, too. There are some really terrific ceramic pieces as well as beautiful furniture and textiles. I guarantee your "to collect" list will be long.
 
Eames and House Industries
Months ago I was happy to finally receive these special edition Eames alphabet blocks from House Industries. Earlier this year, House Industries released an Eames-inspired typeface collection "Eames Century Modern" and offered this set of blocks to showcase the new fonts. 



The packaging is great and will store the blocks nicely on a shelf. The blocks are made from basswood and the varied, cheerful design is beautifully printed in vibrant inks including metallics.








Inspired by their sketches, films and ephemera, House Industries worked closely with the Eames family to reflect the Eames's work in each poster number, ligature and serif. I think they did a great job in capturing their essence of mid-century sophistication & delight.








One of the fonts, Eames Century Modern Light:


 
image source: House Industries



The Eames Century Modern Project history, exhibit and fonts can be found here.



All photos © ourhaus/Jodi Vautrin

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In the Mood for Design
I love mood boards.
I use them as a basis for all kinds of creative projects, from my own graphic and interactive design work, to designing rooms in the house, to planning events.

My methods vary from pasting paper clippings to a large piece of foam core to pasting digital images I find into a Photoshop document.

This new tool I have just read about is a good addition to one of our previous posts, DIY Gets Digital. It is called Olioboard, an online mood board creation tool. I am really looking forward to testing it out (and I really wish I invented it myself).




It pulls images of available products from a variety of sites like Care and Barrel and YLiving. That is key. There is the "inspiration-style mood board" that is more abstract and subjective. Then there is what I like to call the "spec mood board." It consists of more concrete information such as currently available retail products that the average consumer can locate and budget for.

An example of one of the many ways to find items:


Some completed mood board examples from the Olioboard community:

About Us


Christopher Scott and Jodi Vautrin are the husband and wife team behind Ourhaus, where they chronicle their adventures in home improvement, decorating and travel. After purchasing a unique loft space just a few miles north of Boston, they began photographing and writing about their projects and it blossomed into a creative outlet and platform.

When they’re not home improving, Jodi spends her days as a freelance creative director & designer with a focus on user interface and interactive design, and is an entrepreneur at heart. She serves on the board of AIGA Boston as Vice President of Emerging Ideas & Events.

In his professional life, Christopher is the Technology Director for a multi-service ad agency based in Harvard Square. In his private life, he enjoys tinkering in all its forms, whether it's rebuilding the Ourhaus home network (again), fooling himself into thinking he knows how to fix home appliances, or trying to unravel the mysteries of the guitar. He also flies planes, performs open heart surgery and sings at bar mitzvahs (though not all at the same time).

They share their “haus” with their adorable, highly food-motivated chocolate lab, Lucy.