I love Billy Wilder and I Iove Charles and Ray Eames, but I never thought those two loves would ever unite in a meaningful way. For Eames-o-philes, however, Wilder's unlikely influence on the brand is the stuff of lore. The famous Hollywood director, best known for Sunset Blvd. (1950),Some Like it Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960), was introduced to Charles by graphic designer Alvin Lustig, who was using the garage at Wilder's Beverly Hills house as a studio. The two hit it off so well that the Eames were in Wilder's wedding ceremony.

"We asked them one day whether he would like to be the best man and she the maid of honor, and they said, 'Okay,'" Wilder said. "And then the four of us took off to Nevada, where you can get married for two dollars in three minutes."

Soon after, Wilder commissioned the Eames to build them a house similar to Charles and Ray's own home. Plans were later abandoned, however, when Young objected to the upkeep of washing all that glass. Still, they remained close friends. Charles even produced a montage sequence for Wilder's 1957 film, The Spirit of St. Louis. In fact, it was during the shooting of Spirit that Wilder unknowingly made his first contribution to the Eames legacy. He used temporary benches made from plywood beams and sawhorses for quick naps throughout the day. After shooting ended, he asked the Eames if they could make him something similar, albeit more comfortable, for his office.

"A man of my reputation simply can't afford to have something that looks like a casting couch in his office," Wilder said. "It's too obvious a symbol of lechery." Charles and Ray designed an 18" wide leather and aluminum bench, large enough to sleep on but narrow enough to prevent long snoozes. Wilder would sleep with his arms crossed; As he sank into deeper sleep his arms would fall to his sides, gently and naturally waking him up. And it wasn't lecherous at all, unless, Wilder quipped "you had a girlfriend shaped like a Giacometti, [then] it would be ideal."

The Eames' and Wilder gave each other gifts—often times furniture—for sixteen years before Charles and Ray sent him the infamous rosewood and leather lounge chair and ottoman in 1968. The Eames had no intention of making more until they were approached by Herman Miller. "You design for someone in particular," Charles said, "and then you find out that other people have more in common with the object of your affection than you realized." A note to any furniture designers reading this: like Billy Wilder, I too love chairs. I like to sit in them, read in them and nap in them, and, luckily for you, I'm currently accepting prototypes as gifts. 

 3D Painting: Riusuke Fukahori, Almost Like a Human Makerbot

This is nuts, and a little hard to understand at first: Japanese painterRiusuke Fukahori paints what appear to be three-dimensional fish floating in water. And while the objects he's creating are in fact three-dimensional, he builds them up two-dimensionally, creating successive layers that he seals in resin before adding the next layer on top of the last.

The end result is what you see in the photos here (captured by photographer Dominic Alves at Fukahori's recent show at London's ICN Gallery), and the first half of the video below shows Fukahori's process. (The second half is Fukahori working on a more conventional large-scale painting.)

The first time I saw Richard Shed's Here Hook, my thought process went something like this: "So it's a really simple coat hook in the shape of a...Oh, I get it now, that's brilliant." The hook is exceedingly simple, yet a great visual pun and a steal at only 10£. I started digging through Shed's portfolio and found other great, offbeat products.

There's something unsettling about his Discovery cabinet system—the corners are peeling like the front panels are shoddy pieces of plastic, not fine walnut. But the longer I look at it, the more the detail becomes a playful idiosyncrasy, as well as a surprisingly helpful drawer handle.

The strangest things in Shed's portfolio are definitely the Mr. Moon Shelfand Keith Console. I'll let Shed describe the background on these:

A good few years back, Keith Moon commissioned me to make him some simple, wooden wall mounted shelves. Having completed the job and delivered the goods, the rest was up to Keith. As we know, Keith was quite prone to the odd drink or two. One night after a near lethal amount of alcohol and various narcotics Keith attempted to put the shelf up himself. Without a power drill to drill the holes in the wall he soon became frustrated and lost him temper. In a fit of rock and roll excessiveness he picked up a shelf and launched it at the wall. One end of the shelf lodged itself in the wall and stuck out at an angle.

Keith then vomited and passed out.

The following morning, Keith and the other members of The Who stood and observed the sight. They all agreed it should go into production...

Lastly, Shed's Screwhead Tape might just be the most useless thing I've ever seen. But I love it.

Mini Dynamo Torch Radio Design ( Artix Industries Compant Ltd. ) 

Radio Photo Shooting and Packaging Design ( Artix Industries Compant Ltd. ) 

It would be great if you could leave some comment to us for our imporvement :D

ARTIX 委託我們設計木材收音機

Storage Furniture with a Twist:

Jakob Joergensen's Fjarill Drawers