EMMAS DESIGNBLOGG

 

 

If you are a bit tired of wall posters with quotes and letters, but still like the graphic black and white style, this might be for you. Dutch photographer Marjon Hoogervorst has created these art prints, all handmade on high quality paper. The X is the symbol of Amsterdam, my favorite city in the world, but it's also a universal symbol for love or kisses, so these fit me just perfectly!

 

 

 

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend and need something inspiring to read? Try the latest issue of online magazine Slow, entitled "The Glam Issue", investigating what glamour really is, showing some truly lux photos and interviewing some interesting people on the subject.

 

 

 

At the beginning of summer when I was in Copenhagen for the DesignTrade Blog Tour, we visited Vipp and got to see their new bin that was just launched this week. It's a collaboration with Parisian lifestyle store Merci, transferring and translating Merci's iconic paper bags to Vipp bins, to be sold during Paris Design Week. If you can fall in love with a waste basket, I did. I want this so bad, but it's only made in a very limited edition, so we'll see...

 

I got curiuos about the company behind the graphics, Be-Poles, a small graphic agency based in Paris and NY. While browsing the many wonderful cases on their site I came across these photos from their studios, and wanted to share them with you. It looks like an amazingly creative place to work, don't you think?

 

 

Photography: Benoît Linero

 

Earlier this year some of these photos caused a great confusion in the design blogosphere. You see, they were released at the same time as Iittala opened their new showroom apartment here in Stockholm, and most people thought that was what we saw in the photos. However, that is not the case. These images are part of the campaign for Iittala's new step into interiors and small furniture, and styled by Saša Antić. The showroom apartment is much smaller, looks completely different, and is decorated by Jeanette Gostomski from Insidesign. I will try to go there in the coming week to snap some photos so you can see that too.

 

 

 

 

Perfectly on trend, these new art prints from Swedish calligraphy artist Ylva Skarp are sure to become a big hit! As you can see, they include both the graphic statements and the flowing waterpaint effect that are so popular right now. Apart from being on trend, I think they are very beautiful, and the styling by Annaleena Leino really enhances their expressions.

 

In other news, my latest blog post for the DesignTrade blog is up now. It's about the airy summer house of glass designer Ingegerd Råman, I hope you will enjoy it!

This is a new category where I show you my latest wants and needs, the products I would want to add to my own home. Today I'm focusing on my entrance, which is in desperate need of more storage space, hooks and hangers to accomodate the clothes and accessories for the coming season. Autumn always makes such a mess in our entrance, with wet rain gear, gym bags, wellies, scarves and gloves everywhere! And since we don't have any windows here, the combined hook/lamp would be perfect to add some light.

 

 

Let's start this first week of having a new editorial schedule off properly, by posting the first of what I hope will be a long running feature here on the blog; Monday Mix. It's a collage, or several, on a theme that inspires me at the moment. Today it's all about soft natural tones of brown and beige mixed with crispy whites and graphic black. All pictures are sourced from my Pinterest.

 

 

I'm officially back from vacation! I've had a wonderful summer, mostly spent in the city, with lots of sun, baths and enormous amounts of ice cream! Since I moved in June I've also spent many evenings wandering around my new neighborhood, and completely falling in love with it. I'm looking forward to be able to share some of my favorite spots with you, I just need to find a photographer to help me first. I hope you've also had a great summer and enjoyed some time off!

 

As a part of my new plan of getting organized and more productive, I have composed an editorial schedule for the blog that I'd like to share with you. This shows the recurring posts that will be published every week, but there will of course be lots of other posts as well, in between those. I hope you will enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Today marks 8 years since this blog was born. I started it back in 2005 out of pure necessity, I needed somewhere to store all the info on new products and designers that I was given every day in my work as a styling assistant. I never imagined the blog would one day become the most read design blog in Sweden! (If I had, I would probably have tried to think of a cooler name.) The last eight years have been a wonderful journey where I have learned a great deal, met lots of nice and inspiring people and had some truly amazing experiences.

 

 

While thinking back on what this blog has meant to me and my life, I came to realize that I am still treating it like a hobby, even though it is now my full time job. What I mean by that is that I had let it take over my life, spending all my time working on it, and not giving myself any free time for other hobbies or activities. I had no set work hours and would often sit until 2 am surfing the web for inspiration or blogging material, checking my email at the playground, approving ads while watching a movie, and generally spending every waking hour thinking about blog realated things. I had no routines whatsoever, and would often work from my bed, or best case scenario; from my kitchen table. And while most "big" blogs today are run by teams of editors, ad sellers, designers, assistants and writers, I am still trying to juggle everything from advertising and accounting to research and blog design all by myself. This is neither easy or efficient, and that is why it has to change. Now.

 

 

 

I've been spending my summer break learning about productivity, outsourcing, how to become a better blogger and generally how to organize and optimize your life when running your own company. (I'm sharing a short list of links to my favorite resources at the bottom of this post.) So come Monday, when my vacation is officially over, I will be running this blog (and my life) in a completely different way. There will be a new set of routines, and an ongoing plan with the goal of making this blog better for both you and me. As a first step I have, for the first time, set up an editorial schedule, so the blog will be updated more often and on a regular schedule. The rest of the coming changes might be more behind-the-scenes, but I believe you will notice the difference...

 

 

 

With all that said, I want to shout a big THANK YOU to all of you reading this blog! Emmas Designblogg would be nothing without you, and I am so very grateful to see you all coming back here day after day. Your comments light up my days, and just the thought that there are hundreds of thousands of you out there sharing the same taste and interest in design and interiors warms my heart!

 

 

 

List of resources on productivity and blogging: