A bit late

Christmas with the Modernists

At Observers Room this week, my take on the “modern” holiday card, and a completely non-digital network chart from the Noguchi Museum.

Sans Serif Seasons Greetings: ‘Tis the season when the minds of parents of small children turn to holiday cards. What are the mass market choices for the design-minded?

A propos of this, Burning Settlers Cabin considers the pastel tree.

Networks Before the Internet: Network charts — like this one from the Noguchi Museum’s new and excellent exhibit — are a bit of an obsession for mid-century design historians. They are a quick and pseudo-scientific way to show how small and intertwined were the worlds of mid-century art, design and architecture.

Also, Mark Lamster wants to know: what’s the ugliest object you have ever owned? Believe it or not, until I was 12, I thought it was my parents’ Eames LCW.