What do you listen to while you work? Mostly to Bowie, but I also listen to a lot of bluesy and rockabilly inspired stuff, and I definitely have a thing for 60s/70s French and Japanese chanteuses. It’s so pretty. I write about wine and I mean, who doesn’t enjoy tasting a bunch of French rosés to a little retro J-pop? When I’m writing, though, it has to be stone-cold silence.

How do you listen? We recently remodeled our garage into a home office and the acoustics are so harsh, so I’m still figuring that out. For now, from my computer and it’s less than perfect. I am lobbying to move our turntable in here.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? My husband used to work in the digital music business so he’s always trying to introduce me to the latest new thing, something about which I usually have zero clue.

Does music influence your work? I definitely feel like mood influences my work, and music influences my mood. Last week, I downloaded the new Eminem after WWD reported that Catherine Denueve was spotted with a copy in her basket—a woman who can do no wrong—but I don’t think anyone wants me to be listening to that while I write, right? I went for a run instead.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? My dad’s vinyl collection, which I’ve inherited (by which I mean, heisted). I grew up listening to a lot of Stones, Flying Burrito Brothers and Tom Waits—and classical, my mother comes from a family of professional classical musicians. For new discoveries—often of forgotten tracks—I turn to Oscar Garza’s excellent blog, to the sublime.

What song or artist best represents the work you create? Little Old Wine Drinker, Me by Dean Martin

HEATHER’S PLAYLIST

Comment te dire adieu?, Françoise Hardy
Shake Sugaree, Elizabeth Cotten
Blind Love, Tom Waits
Some Girls, The Rolling Stones
Bohemian Like You, The Dandy Warhols
Five Years, David Bowie
Guess I’m Doing Fine, Beck
Don’t Let It Bring You Down, Neil Young
Mary Jane’s Last Dance, Tom Petty
Living for the City, Stevie Wonder
Cosmic Dancer, T-Rex
The Flower of Carnage, Meiko Kaji

Images: Heather John

Four examples of the various type of desktops you’ll find at The Desktop Wallpaper Project.

Working on the computer for so many hours each day can be stressful at times, so it’s refreshing when we close out of a window and we’re reminded of our love for art and design when we lay our eyes on our desktop image. We’ve talked about a few free wallpapers on Unplggd in the past, but we’ve come across many more since then!

Lego Desktop Wallpapers
Simple Desktops Finds Un-Fussy Wallpaper
Jonathan Adler’s Free Smartphone Wallpaper
5 Free Liberty of London Desktop Wallpapers
Roundup: Best Free iPhone Wallpapers
Fliqlo
Solid Oak
Elgin Clock-Radio (our personal desktop at the moment!)
Free Marimekko Desktop Wallpapers
Kitsune Noir’s The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Pavel Fuksa

By Kristen Lubbe”

2. Blue Bozza Bowl, $98 This porcelain bowl has a bubbly, cloud-like appearance (just don’t fill it with marshmallows). Get it: Gretel

3. Log Bowls, $79.95 Handmade using only locally reclaimed trees, these containers combine natural beauty with a glossy, candy-like finish. Get it: Loyal Loot

4. O Bowl, $54 Store your afternoon cravings in this simple, chic ceramic piece by Brooklyn-based designer Amy Adams. Get it: Perch! Design

5. Trepied Wood Fruit Bowl, $83.30 Place your beloved treats in this three-footed vessel created by Sebastian Bergne for ENO. Get it: Gretel

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

By Gregory Han.”

1. Gizmodo Great on all things techy. Where to start: Their coverage of the Apple products that were launched this week. Also check here.

2. Swiss Miss I’ve posted about her before but designer Tina Roth Eisenberg’s blog is a joy to wander through. Beautifully designed and well-written. Where to start: Office in the forest post.

3. Core 77 We’ve mentioned them before too but it is worth going there again. This online design magazine has opened an online and bricks and mortar store. Where to start: At the shop of course. Love those Ninja magnets.

4. Rolling Stone Because it is Rolling Stone and it’s online presence is actually very strong. Plus you need a break from work every now and again! Where to start: The behind the scenes shoot on the Mad Men set. Love the pic of the Apple laptop on set.

5. Color Lovers An inspiring look at color. Where to start: The modern muted home office.

I also really want Apple TV. Unlike the iPad I can see exactly how I’d use it!

2. Saturn, contact vendor for pricing Sculptural Saturn by E. Barber & J. Osgerby can even handle formal occasions: on every arch are two metal hooks to hang items on conventional hangers. Get it: classicon.com

3. Tra Coatrack, $250 Made of just six pieces of wood, the Tra from designer Tomoko Azumi can hold several pieces of fall and winter wear. Get it: Design Within Reach.

4. n.a.l. coat tree, $79.95 This surprising lamp-like stand has a “shade” that contains eight hidden hooks. Get it: CB2

5. Coat Tree by Sidse Werner, $1,211 Danish designer Sidse Werner’s cheerful, hardworking stand is rumored to be able to hold an astounding 48 overcoats. Get it: Hive Modern

The Huffington Post recently announced a new column called Design Thursdays and the first post focused on Behar and his work at Yerba Buena. The Eames hack highchair below is part of the design exhibition at Yerba Buena. The exhibition runs til October 3.

What do you listen to while you work? What I’m working on usually determines what I’ll listen to. Since most of the time I’m either writing or editing, the majority of my daytime music is composed of instrumental tracks. Ambient, classical, shoegaze, chillwave, jazz, hip hop beats…anything that won’t interject unintended lyrical influence. If I’m in Photoshop, then the whole library of 20,000 tracks is usually on shuffle and can bring up anything from Iron Maiden to Charlie Parker.

How do you listen? Since both my girlfriend and I work at home, I’ll regularly don my noise-canceling Audio-Technica QuietPoint headphones if I want to listen to anything beyond the lower end of the volume dial. They do a great job of drowning out the sound of traffic in the background and the cries of our cats for snacks in the foreground. When I’m just listening while browsing online, then a pair of Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 speakers do a fantastic job of filling in the small closet-size home office space I work within. They’re superb desktop speakers, though the low end probably would do well with the addition of a separate sub.

And for just relaxing or while cleaning the house, then I’ll turn on the vintage Bang & Olufsen system and put on a record to listen to. Our collection is a mix of my girlfriend’s Northern Soul/girl bands and my 80’s-90’s hip-hop albums, so you never know when they’ll be an impromptu dance party in our living room.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? The Quiet Sounds. These podcast mixes are made for late nights with the lights out, except for the glow of the monitor illuminating your room. If you’re into Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti with a splash of Washed Out, I’d highly recommend a listen to a few of these hour long mixes. Gorilla vs. Bear is another favorite music blog alongside the Kitsune Noir Mixcasts, while Cocaine Blunts is where I check in for new and old hip-hop tracks, and The Funky 16 Corners for yesterday’s diddys.

Does music influence your work? I don’t know if music evidently influences my work for Apartment Therapy and Unplggd, but a recent extended headphone-listening session on a slow evening led to me creating a couple desktops or my personal blog.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I usually discover music in the same way I research topics for work and leisure, meandering between Tumblrs, music blogs, friend’s tweets, Facebook mentions. I’m sort of all over the place when it comes to musical interests, but I would admit the cinema heavily influences what I’ll actively investigate. Lately I’ve been falling back in love with Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound production, thanks to a recent screening of the documentary “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector.” Last night I watched a surfing film, Sipping Jetstreams, and now I’ve got the combination of music and imagery floating in my head, egging me to call it a week and enjoy some summer sunshine. Surf and skate films are definitely a goldmine of good music.

GREGORY’S PLAYLIST

Mysterious Skin soundtrack, Robin Gurthrie & Harold Budd

Wouldn’t It Be Nice, The Beach Boys

Honey, You Know Where to Find Me, Morrissey

The Black House, The Blue Sky (Stars vs. Montag Mix), Stars

Wet Hair (Japandroids Cover), Teen Daze

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), Grizzly Bear

Trap Door (Ft. MF DOOM), Jake One

As It Is When It Was, New Order

Michael, the Lone Archer of the North Shore, Deastro

Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (Ode To Joy), Ludwig van Beethoven

The Want And The Waiting, The Six Parts Seven

All of the Signature Sounds, Volume 1, DJ Premier

Images: Gregory Han

1. First Generation Product
While I agree that the iPad is a nifty device, there are probably a few kinks that will get corrected when the second generation of products will be released. I always wait at least for the 2nd generation, that way I make sure that my tech will last.

2. Product Lifespan
It’s hard to justify spending that amount of money on a product that will get an update within a few months. You’ve probably heard the rumors. The next iPad will most probably have a camera, which is sorely lacking from the 1st generation, and bigger screens. This means that if you’ve bought an iPad this year, you’ll probably be tempted to buy a new one next year.

3. Consuming Media
While you do consume media on your laptop and/or desktop, you’ll probably consume more on the iPad. You’ll download books, subscribe to magazines, watch movies and TV episodes, etc. All of these things will cost you money.

4. Apps
A lot of apps are free, but you’ll most likely spend a bit of money on apps. There are apps for almost everything, and it was a stroke of genius when Apple used the app store model to sell their software. The other thing is that you can’t really install programs that don’t come from the app store. That is a deal breaker for a lot of computer enthusiasts.

5. Spotty 3G Service
Yes, we’ve heard the problems with the AT&T 3G service, but that’s not the only issue. On top of already paying a monthly fee for your cell phone, you’ll end up paying another one for your iPad. These devices can get expensive very quickly.

By Range. Image by Joelle Alcaidinho.”

Tell me about your visit. How long were you there? We were only in Michigan for one full day, but I think we made the most of it. It would be hard to pick a highlight, because I’d have to say the trip was near perfect. The weather was gorgeous, there was so much to see and capture, Susan Lyons and Mark Schurman couldn’t have been better guides. I think the whole group—which also included our filmmaker Gary Nadeau and his assistant, Jason—was just so excited to be there, to get this special glimpse. It’s really a remarkable place.
The Marigold Lodge was the greatest—I loved seeing George Nelson’s old hangout in the back! I like to imagine him back there, designing and carousing.
You spent time in archives. What was your favorite piece there? My favorite nook of the archives was the drawers that held the Girard textiles—they were so incredibly vivid and well preserved. The catalogues and print advertisements were a kick to see as well. We had so many places to visit and film that day, and there wasn’t much time to spare. It was such a shame to leave…I could have happily stayed there all day.
Can you share your impressions of Susan Lyons’ work at Herman Miller? Susan’s talent astounds me, her nuanced treatment of color is fascinating. After listening to the color of the Eames chair, I am not going to venture a guess—I leave that up to the expert (Susan).

2. 7-inch TFT LCD Screen Digital Photo Frame, $33.65 In addition to displaying your favorite images, this well priced silver design also supports video and audio. Get it: chinaecarts.com

3. Putman Digital Frame, $450 Designed for Parrot DESIGN by Andree Putman—the leading lady of Frenchart—this stunning digital frame offers wireless and Bluetooth connectivity for easy photo transfer. Get it: Design Public

4. Appstand for iPhone, $24.99 Make your iPhone work even harder! Just slide it into Appstand, where you’ll have full access to its touchscreen, Home button, and ports. Get it: appstandstore.com

5. Ality Moderna 8-Inch LCD Digital Photo Frame, $39.99 This frame comes equipped with a clock and alarm that lets you wake up to a photo, music, or video. Get it: Amazon

Images linked to their sources within the numbered text

1. Poketo Blog These designers just released a covetable range of office accessories at Target. Get the inside scoop on their cool studio. Where to start: The post on putting the Target look book together.

2. PC World Get everything you need to know about your PC in one well-designed info-saturated spot. Where to start: A great post on cleaning dirty keyboards.

3. Selectism I am a huge fan of magazines like GQ and Details. I like the attitude. I like the writing. This is the online version of one of those mags. I wont be buying any of the stuff (men’s suits don’t look good on me). But I really like the writing. Where to start: Check out their Around the Web round-up.

4. Hello Blog OK, full disclosure – Herman Miller works with Hello, an interactive design agency, on our online presence. Hello also happen to have offices close to my house. Win, win. Their blog is full of cool stuff, design news and interesting behind-the-scenes stories. Where to start: Our obsession with “becoming mayor” of everything, including a restroom.

5. DWR Blog They happen to sell some very fine furniture – including Herman Miller – but Design Within Reach also produces an excellent blog. Where to start: A cool use of Cubitec shelving in an architect’s office.

The UIST 2010 Student Innovation Contest is annual event which allows students to play with prototype hardware, with this year’s contest sponsored by the labs of Microsoft Applied Sciences.

What’s an Adaptive Keyboard? It is a research prototype developed by Microsoft Hardware to explore how combining display and input capabilities in a keyboard can allow users to be more productive. The keyboard incorporates a large, touch-sensitive display strip at the top. In addition, the display continues underneath the keys, allowing the legends to be modified in real time. This lets you do things like change the character set to a different language or display command icons.

What do you think about this hybrid of touch and traditional keyboard input?

By Gregory Han.”

What do you listen to while you work? Since I’m a multi-hyphenate (gallerist/artist/curator/writer), it varies. When I write, I prefer ambient music without words so I can focus on creating my own editorial, and at the gallery there many times video works are playing their own soundtracks. When I’m installing an exhibition and getting my hands dirty, there’s a west coast hip hop vernacular to my taste, and while in the studio painting, my mix-tapes run the gamut from Air to Biggie Smalls to John Coltrane to Elliot Smith to Seabear.

How do you listen? (Headphones, speaker system on computer, radio, iPod…) All of the above.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I like Jango.com. Sigrid Sandstrom (one of the artists we represent at The Company) has a brother who started his own Pandora-equivalent website and it’s really good.

Does music influence your work? Absolutely. Above is still from a video I made using only existing ambient noise, the majority of which being screeching brakes and the songs “Pony” by Ginuwine and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It” blasting from a nearby car on K-DAY (LA-based old school hip hop station).  (Image title: Annie Wharton, Magellan Hollywood, 2010)

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? Our awesome gallery assistants at The Company are great at recommending music, and I spend a lot of time looking at art videos on Vimeo or YouTube, which usually eventually lead me to music videos. My father is a guitarist; so even in utero, I was exposed to excellent music. Music is an intrinsic element to most of the important moments in my life, and there is always a soundtrack running in my mind. I am terrible at names, but I will probably remember what song was playing when we met.

If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? Wow, that is quite a challenging question and one that feels a little odd for me to answer. John Lennon comes to mind as someone whose music was appreciated by the masses, but who marked his own path and wasn’t afraid to try new things or create work outside of the mainstream or what the public expected.

ANNIE’S PLAYLIST

Bright Lit Blue Skies, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

The Chauffeur, Duran Duran

The Passenger, Iggy Pop

I Feel Cream, Peaches

Walking on the Moon, The Police

Landslide, Sin Fang Bous

I Got 5 on It, Luniz

Alejandro, Lady Gaga (there is a very sweet backstory here involving this music video and dancing to it with someone via Skype)

Today Was a Good Day, Ice Cube

Warm Leatherette, The Normal

Don’t Fear the Reaper, BOC

Images: Annie Wharton

Image: Lish Dorset

How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I’ve been a freelance writer for about five years. Up until recently that meant I worked on articles for the New York Times, ReadyMade, and Unplggd from my apartment in Brooklyn, NY, but this past January my husband and I moved to Pacific Grove, CA. We converted our apartment’s second bedroom into an office space we share. I run the pet blog Pawesome out of here.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? Giant Robot meets Mollusk surf shop. My husband and I have very different aesthetics that thankfully really balance each other out. His side of the office is minimal, with just the bare essentials (and the occasional surfboard leaning against the wall) while my side is a collector’s space. I like to curate little exhibitions filled with art, tchotchkes, and personal memories. We have a mix of new, old, budget, and expensive pieces in the office. My side is much more budget friendly, with both vintage and Ikea pieces.

How do you keep your office organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? Honestly, I never feel like the office is organized, but I have a few pieces that help keep the chaos in check. One is my Ikea Helmer drawer unit. Its six drawers are nice and small so I can easily divide items up to make it easier to find them later. The other is my Poketo planner. I’ve used programs like Google Calendar and iCal, but I get too distracted when I’m on the computer to remember to plug in appointments and to do lists. It’s much easier for me to take this little datebook to bed and plan things out for the following day, week, month. Plus it has all these extra sections in it for organizing ideas and finances. When I’m at the computer, as I mentioned before, I get distracted very easily so I’ve found the Instapaper plugin for FireFox (also available for Safari) to be really helpful to keep track of sites, blog posts, and products that have peaked my interest. It’s the equivalent of folding a dog ear in a magazine, but in this case, all your folded pages are on one site.

When you were designing your home office what did you keep in mind? If I can’t spend my days outside, I want to at least feel like I am. We have these beautiful windows that overlook the giant ferns growing in our yard, so we decided to create an office layout that allowed our desks to be as close to that as possible, while not creating too big of a glare on our glossy screens. [Bruce's desk is below]

Is there any piece of home office furniture you covet? My husband’s Herman Miller Embody chair. While I love my little vintage blue chair, it does not do a body good.

What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? Apple’s Magic Mouse. It boggles my mind how Apple was able to build a multifunctional mouse within such a basic form factor.

What would you change about your own workspace? I’d love to figure out a visually appealing way to hide all the cables, wires and modems/routers on our floors. Until we own though, I don’t want to invest anymore in the space.

What do you most love about your space? Having my best friend working across from me.

What inspires you? All of the amazing work I learn about by reading the web. When I see other people being creative, it motivates me to produce great work.

1. Microsoft Office
No matter what people say, I’ve gotten to used to using MS Office, especially MS Word. Even though some people dislike it, I find that it works well, no matter what I plan on writing. In fact, it’s my go-to word processing software. Student editions are most definitely worth it if you are trying to buy these.

2. Mozilla Firefox
Even though Google Chrome is supposed to be faster, I find that Firefox is a lot better for my uses. I use quite a few different extensions and add-ons, which aren’t all available on Chrome, meaning that my browsing is more effective on Firefox.

3. Google Apps
From Gmail to Docs, Google makes some great software that’s available on different platforms. Gmail has particularly revolutionized the way that I use email. I rarely delete any emails now, only archive. Google Docs is another app that I use daily. A lot of people share documents with me, and it’s the way to check them out and contribute.

4. Adobe Photoshop
From editing , retouching, sharpening, photos and images, Photoshop is our go-to image processing software. I use Photoshop daily and would have trouble imagining using something different.

5. Adobe Acrobat Professional
When it comes to viewing, editing, and creating PDF documents, Acrobat is king of the hill. There are other programs that can do this, but Acrobat Professional definitely works better in our experience.

By Range.”

How long have you worked from home? And where is home? I started working from a home office in the Summer 2007 when I began full-time work on Selectism.com (a men’s lifestyle and fashion blog) and consult work. My workspace was inside a loft which was directly across the street from Boston’s Fenway Park. 88 to 90 days out of the year, ball park traffic – both human and vehicle – ruled. In 2009, I moved outside of Harvard Square on the Cambridge side of the Charles River for a bit of relief. I haven’t left yet.

Describe your style? My style is pretty simple. I prefer a very clean workspace which holds only the essentials. My desk and desktop are as bare as I can keep them, which can be a struggle at times.

How do you keep your office organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? At the end of each day, I do my best to reorganize it back into order. There is something about bringing my workspace back to order which actually keeps me focused when I sit down first thing in the morning. It is a bit habitual. Many friends tell me that workspace clutter is how they manage their day. I’m just not one of those people. I have to be organized (on both desktops) to stay focused. I also rely heavily on email filters and labels for both task management and assignment. I use Simplenote for lists but plan on moving to something more robust like Things sooner rather than later.

When you were setting up your home office what did you keep in mind? Well to be honest, the space I am in on this side of the Charles was initially supposed to be temporary. For this reason, most of office is still in storage. Everything from books, music, ephemera, and artwork are packed away. As I need a reference piece, I’ll dig through the boxes and take only what I need, which keeps the room pretty bare – in a positive way. There are lessons learned from this office which I’ll take with me to my next space. Natural light was the most important requirement. In the loft, I only had light during the early morning. Today light flows from two sides of the room, but both indirect rather than coming from windows directly in front of my desk. Also, a desk under-mounted USB hub makes plugging in devices fast and easy. I highly recommend diy’ing your own.

Is there any piece of home office furniture you particularly enjoy? I’ve had a Herman Miller Aeron chair for over 10 years now. It has been the one constant in my workspace since 1999 when I purchased it. While other parts of my workspace turn over often (think swapping iMacs every 16 months), the Aeron has always remained. Every three months or so, I work out of our Berlin office for a few weeks and their chairs are difficult. I miss the comfort of the Aeron immediately.

What is a desk accessory you can’t do without? The (massive) custom amplifier on my desk. I plug a pair of Sennheiser 595 headphones into it. That’s the amplifier’s only function – a headphone amp. It serves its single purpose role better than most devices on my desk.

What would you change about your own workspace? Maybe a bigger desk and some shelving so I can pull the books and magazines out of storage.

What do you most love about your space? Being able to look outside my windows and see green grass and sunlight.

What inspires you? Music inspires me every day as does the “hand made” movement which you can find at craft fairs like Renegade. It is inspiring to see what work people develop in this area – from printing, to accessories. It is incredibly impressive.

1. Jeffrey Scherer’s Blog: An Architect’s Musings Occasional postings from an articulate architect who also happens to be the designer behind The Design Yard here at Herman Miller. Where to Start: An interesting and thoughtful piece on the iPad.

2. Emdashes I had dinner last night with Clark Malcolm who has been a writer and editor at Herman Miller for a very long time. He embodies all of the things I really enjoy about this company – a keen intellect, a sense of humor and that rare ability to see big picture as well as drill down to fine details. He is also an absolute stickler for grammar and I know I horrify him at times. Emdashes is for him. The blog is a mix of personal musings, geeky grammar and lots of  personality from journalist, founder and editorial director Emily Gordon. Where to start: The post titled “So You Love Punctuation?” I think Clark should have been the judge for that competition.

3. ArtPrize There’s a lot of buzz around Michigan’s ArtPrize competition this year and the final count shows over 1700 artists from around the world will be involved. You get to vote for the winner and the top prize is $250,000. You can read more about it on the ArtPrize blog. Herman Miller is one of the sponsors and we’re bringing out artist and architect Maya Lin. I’m a huge fan of her work and this lecture is free. It’s on Saturday, October 2 at 6:30 in the Grand Rapids Art Museum.  Where to start: The incredibly cute baby sporting the new ArtPrize clothing range.

4. Five Books This is such a cool idea – every day the editorial team posts the best five books recommended by a leading writer, thinker or politician in their area of expertise.  Where to start: Even if you don’t buy a single books the blog is a good read all by itself – start at the top.

5. Keiichi Matsuda There are times when I feel like the world  of technology is rushing forward at breakneck speed and I will have to work very hard to catch up. And then I come across a designer and film-maker like Matsuda who manages to write a blog that clearly and concisely deals with new technology and thinking in a way I can actually relate to. Where to start: The only annoying aspect of his cleanly-designed Tumblr blog is you can’t link to individual stories. Find the August 3 post on technology – Disney-style.

What do you listen to while you work? I usually start the day off with an up-tempo bossa or funk cut. I need something with a thick groove to wake me up and get my day going. As I begin to dip into the day’s workload, I slow down the tempo and lower the volume. I’ll usually throw on a jazz album or listen to talk radio. At night, I log into Netflix and stream a movie while I answer emails.

How do you listen? Since I work from home, I can listen to my music out loud. I have a chubby little sub woofer and a speaker set plugged into my Macbook Pro. In the past I listened to records while I worked, but recently I find it too distracting to get up and flip the record each time it reaches the end of a side.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? Sure do. Here’s a few of my faves: Props radio, Soul Sides, KALX, and Quimsy’s Mumbo Jumbo.

DAVE’S PLAYLIST

Camino del Sol, Antena

InnerSpeaker (The whole darn album), Tame Impala

New Life, Sounds of Liberation

Egypt Strut, Salah Ragab & The Cairo Jazz Band

To Brother John, DJ Food

Lost Week-end, Wanda Jackson

Cloudy Shoes, Damien Jurado

Nothing But A Heartache, The Flirtations

Pearlie’s Swine, Monica Zetterlund

Buddah, Jazz Quintet

A Go Go, Dara Puspita

Opiniao, Zelia Barbosa

Nava, Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics

Images: Dave Cuzner

It was also nice to see the Girard silk screen for print that graces Lifework’s blog.

The most important thing about a monitor is its general size, which is measured from diagonally in inches from one corner to the other. Anything under 20″ is definitely too small for most users. The other thing that important is the screen resolution. Most computer monitors have great resolution, which is still better than HDTV resolution, so it’s important to get as high of a resolution as you can. The thing is that you can always select a smaller resolution when setting up your computer, or simply use the zoom feature of many apps.

Refresh-rate is also a particularly important feature. This will cut down on the flicker rate that can be perceptible to some users. The latest monitors use LEDs, which offer great brightness. It’s almost shocking when you put an older LCD next to a new LED screen and compare them. LEDs are the way to go, even if they are slightly more expensive.

A brand that I trust is Viewsonic. My last two computer monitors have been from Viewsonic and I’ve had no complaints. My latest is a Viewsonic 22-inch screen. There are almost no dead pixels and the resolution is good at 1680 × 1050. I always trump the largest size possible, within a certain budget. When I upgrade, I’ll go for a 27-inch screen.

Dell also makes some good screens as does Sceptre. You can get a 27-inch monitor for around $500 and you can easily spend up to $1,000 on it if you go with Dell. The new Apple Cinema Display will also cost a lot more. The 30-inch used to cost $1,800. The 24-inch LED LCD from Apple is sometimes available on special for $599. Check out our full review of this monitor here.

By Range.”

Here’s what Susan had to say “This year, Herman Miller’s Select program is offering a classic interpretation of the multicolored Eames Hang-It-All. Sophisticated touches to the already eye-catching design include a black steel frame and solid walnut hooks.

The Hang-It-All was inspired by the Eameses’ love for playful furniture and children’s toys. Introduced in 1953, it was designed to hold an assortment of children’s belongings—mittens, scarves, jackets, dolls, slingshots, skates, and knapsacks, according to Eames Design.

It was available from Tigrett Enterprises’ Playhouse Division until the company went out of business in 1961. Herman Miller reintroduced it in 1994.

Herman Miller’s Gregg Vander Kooi chose to feature the Hang-It-All as this year’s Select item because of its whimsical appeal.

“Plus,” he adds, “walnut is a fairly neutral wood that fits with almost any décor.”

The Select Hang-It-All carries a minimum advertised price of $249. It will be available from the company’s global network of dealerships and retailers.

Hurry! It’s only available until February 15, 2011, or while supplies last.”

What do you listen to while you work? There aren’t really many genres of music I won’t listen to and I listen to music all the time. Looking through my “Recently Played” list in iTunes there’s The Smiths, Grieg, The Sixteen, some Medieval music, Gorillaz, Dean Martin, and lots of electronica by people like Noisia, Broken Note, Klute, and Calibre.

How do you listen? I work long hours, so I listen on headphones when it’s late but mostly via computer speakers via iTunes.

Do you have any favorite music websites/providers? I use the BBC iPlayer a lot. For electronic music, I visit my friends at Knowledge.

Does music influence your work? Music does inspire me and fuel my work. I find myself listening to different music depending on what I’m designing. If I’m designing a book jacket for a book of medieval poetry, I find listening to Anthrax doesn’t really help me get inside the head of what a 15^th-century monk might be thinking. Some aspects of my work are somewhat drawn out, repetitive, and technical—though Anthrax might be more appropriate listening in terms of keeping me awake late at night as I battle a deadline. Letterforms are like music in that they can be very expressive and convey moods and emotions, albeit in a more muted way.

Where do you find music recommendations? Who influences your musical taste? I guess friends and specific DJs on stations like Radio 1 and Classic FM. Obviously websites are clever now with their “People who bought this also bought this” trickery, so I have been known to find out about other artists that way.

If your work was a song or a musician, what or who would it be? Very difficult because I try to keep my work as diverse as my taste in music. Whether it happens or not, the musician I’d like to best represent my work one day would be someone who could turn his hand to any style and do it at the highest level.

SEB’S PLAYLIST

Swing Me a Swing Song, Benny Goodman

Split the Atom, Noisia

Danse Royale, St George’s Canzona

Officium Defunctorum, The Sixteen

On Melancholy Hill, Gorillaz

When You’re Smiling, Dean Martin

Less Los Ablos, Calibre

Penny Serenade, Guy Lombardo

Smokin’ Mountain, Alex Dolby

Reason to Believe, Bobby Darin

Images: Seb Lester

1. Kaspersky Antivirus and Internet Security
My preferred antivirus, malware, and internet security software. It can be set to be harsh toward viruses and other malware. The scans can also be set deep to root out any deeply encrusted viruses. Of all of the antivirus software I’ve tried, this one helped me resolve some major viruses and malware. It was the only one that would run on my computer, since the viruses would stop the other scanners from completing their scans.

2. Avast Antivirus
Avast is free to use and its ease of use makes it definitely the one antivirus that most computer users should use, no matter what their expertise level. The free version is very basic but gets the job done. You’ll come to love when the software says “Virus database has been updated”.

3. AVG Free Antivirus
AVG is another antivirus that is available in a free edition. I’ve found that it has more features than Avast and I prefer it to the previous one, but Avast is just so easy to use, so this is why Avast ranks higher than AVG.

4. Panda Security
One of the antivirus scanners that we like and that’s pretty easy to use. It’s available from their website for $40.

5. McAfee
Out of the bigger antivirus software companies, I prefer McAfee. It works well, has a bunch of features and is quite reliable.

I used Norton a few years ago, but there was a problem with it and I almost lost a full hard drive filled with movies, music, and other stuff. Although I can only relate what happened to me, not what generally happens with Norton, it was enough to ward me off any Symantec products.

MORE PC TIPS
Uninstalling Software to Free Up HD Space In Windows 7
Automated Diagnostics That You Should Run On Your PC

By Range.”

2. Symbol Coat Rack, $410 During the summer, this rack by Desu Design looks lovely with vibrant anodized hooks that lay flat. But come fall, the hooks pull out to hang cozy coats, scarves, and hats. Get it: Horne

3. Hang On Wall Hanger, €67 The disorderly look of clothes carelessly thrown in piles inspired British designer Jade Barnes-Richardson’s coat-hanger creation. Get it: Normann Copenhagen

4. Coat Range, $195 This functional snow-capped landscape by Brave Space leaves little impact on the real frontier—it’s made from excess material from the Brooklyn-based furniture company’s cut sheets. Get it: Supermarket

5. Sticks Coat Hanger, £164 This unique space-saving rack from Scandinavian designer Stina Sandwallis was created to evoke the feel of a Swedish forest. Get it: Funktion Alley