Famille Summerbelle

Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec

Over the weekend we went to Les Arts Decoratifs (Paris, 1er) to see the exhibition of French brothers'Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Conceived like a retrospective, the show Momentané focuses on 15 years of prolific creativity and features furniture, lighting, spacial design, partition walls, about 300 drawings and sketches, video and photographs of factory production.

The scenography designed for this 1000 square meters event is impressive. Walking up the stairs of the museum des Arts Decoratifs you enter a 12 meter-high textile nave showcasing their well known partition walls (Algues for Vitra, North Tiles for Kvadrat, Twigs for Vitra, Clouds for Kvadrat) which divide the space and guide visitors through the exhibition.

The polystyrene Nuages (Clouds Modules) opens the exhibition, followed by North Tiles produced by Kvadrat.

The beautiful pink/grey and black colours of Twigs (Vitra) modular systems are assembled to create openwork screens, and on the background, the white and blue Clouds (Kvadrat) partitions are designed for acoustic comfort.

Drawings and sketches exploring Erwan and Ronan creative process.

Self Shelve for Vitra and brown Facett sofa for Ligne Roset.

Osso wooden chair for Mattiazzi.

Product research window.

The exhibition continues until 1st September. I highly recommend visiting the show if you are in Paris.

Colours of San Francisco

Photo of the Golden Gate I took when we were there 5 years ago! It's been such a long time...I am so longing to visit this beautiful place soon...
On the right photo from Antiquation Admiration on Flickr.

Hand screen printed Blue San Francisco map.

On the left: SF by Mario De Biasi.
On the right: Boat under the Golden Gate bridge. Seen on Pinterest and on Wish! on Tumblr but cannot find the name of author. If you know it please let me know!.

Hand screen printed Silver San Francisco map.

On the left: Pink house in the lower haight.
On the right: Salt evaporation pond in SF.The pink colour of the water is caused by halophilic micro-organisms. Seen on The Khooll.

Hand screen printed Pink San Francisco map.

All Famille Summerbelle print photography & styling by Aurélie Lecuyer.

Blue Sky

Hello, where are you?!?

This was taken near Blenheim on the South Island of New Zealand...back in the days when we were traveling the World....

Lotta Nieminen

Hello! Today I am presenting a selection of beautiful illustrations by Lotta Nieminen, the talented multidisciplinary Finnish designer, illustrator and art director based in NYC.
I discovered her map illustrations in the lastest Gestalten book A Map of the World. I love the hand made textures and collages feel to her work and the beautiful colour combinations. I was also very impressed by the identity work she's done for Maeven, a Brooklyn-based vintage clothing store.

Window display illustration for French fashion house Hermès.

Cityscape. Limited edition silkscreen posters produced for Lotta first solo show at Printa Gallery in Budapest, Hungary.

Cover and illustrated map of Paris for a supplement to the French newspaper Le Monde about things to do in Paris and its surroundings.

EST: Editorial illustration for Casamica, the design supplement to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The letters in Verso Est (Towards East) were illustrated for the opening spread, featuring elements from all the cultures presented in the issue dedicated to Eastern design.

A short break in the sun...

We are back from 4 amazing days in the South of France - Provence and Côte d'Azur, just the two of us while the children where having a great time with their grand parents on the Atlantic Coast (Oh! we so love French holidays!).
It was one of Simon's dream to climb the mythic Mont Ventoux in Provence. The "Géant de Provence", which rises out of lavender fields to finish in a barren moonscape of sunbaked limestone (The Independant).
We were so lucky with the weather as we had a perfect clear day with no Mistral (The very strong wind in the area).
I met Simon half way through his climb at Chalet Reynard. He stopped for 30 seconds to rehydrate himself while I was enjoying a coffee break in the sun on the deck terrace (No I was not following him on my bike but enjoying a relaxing drive with the music on and cheering him up along the way!). The scenery at the top is so breathtaking with views of the Rhône Vallée and Vaucluse. Next time I would love to take my bike and cycle around the area but no way up to the top of Mont Ventoux. I leave this to hard core cyclists!

This part of France is so beautiful at this time of the year as it not too hot and not yet too busy with tourists. We went to Avignon and drove around the Dentelles de Montmirail to visit the charming villages of Gigondas, Beaumes-de-Venice and Vaison-La-Romaine. Every stop was an excuse to eat an ice cream and have a drink of the local Muscat wine for the apéritif!

We drove to the Côte d'Azur to Saint Tropez and stopped on our way to Marseille to the Domaine du Rayol. It is one of the most extraordinary botanical garden I have ever seen. It is overlooking the mediterranean sea and the garden contains a number of areas dedicated to plants of the Mediterranean basin: mimosa, eucalyptus tree, acacia, palm tree...So many birds were singing. It was like being in Paradise!

After this relaxing day in the garden, driving to Marseille was a bit of a shock to be back to the reality of a city in rush hour: traffic jams/angry drivers and a lot of horn beeping!

Marseille is the European Capital of Culture in 2013. Events are happening in the City and in the Provence region for a year.
We stayed in the newly open Mama Shelter and visited the unfinished building sites of the Docks: The MuCEM designed by architect Rudy Ricciotti and the Villa Méditerrannée. Unfortunately it didn't feel like much was going on the city, as a lot of the new museums were closed - not yet finished to be built.

Screen printing our World Map

Back in March I went to Bath for the day to document the printing process of our World map print. The design is hand screen printed in 2 colours using one silk screen per colour. Duncan, the printer mixes each colour by hand, referring to a Pantone reference. Screen printing is an incredibly skilled job and so inspiring to watch - although on that day it was so cold in the workshop that I had to go for a walk to warm up...I really don't know how those guys do it over winter in their unheated warehouse!

Turquoise colour mixed for the job. It is then stored on the shelf for use later.

The first colour run is printed and dried on the racks for a few hours before the second colour is applied.

Close up of the freshly printed map.

Ta da! The finished printed map!

Colour Combo

These colours put a smile of my face unlike this depressing grey sky outside my studio...So i've made a little selection from my Pinterest Colour Board for you to keep on smiling :-)

Left: Claire Desjardins from Saatchi Online Shop.
Right: Pompom from Purl Bee Soho.

Left: Emily Green watercolours.
Right:Gypsy curtains handmade by Babylon Sisters.

Left: Apartment Therapy.
Right:Harlequin Cushion by Wool & Wool Stool.

Left: Super Soft Merino Wool by Purl Bee Soho.
Right: Still Life from Purl Bee Soho.

Left: Color Wheel by Moses Harris, (1766). Moses Harris's chart was the first full-color circle. The 18 colors of his wheel were derived from what he then called the three 'primitive' colors: red, yellow and blue. At the center of the wheel, Harris showed that black is formed by the superimposition of these colors.
Right: Designed by Inaluxe.