The touchscreen display is one of the greatest – and polarizing – inventions in modern times. While a display interface on a mobile device can transform into an endless array of configurations and purposes, that adaptability in utility comes at a price: losing the sheer simplicity of operating by tactile feedback. It is almost always easier to press a button or turn a dial than navigating a graphical interface – “tap to open, scroll, and press.”

This is particularly true when capturing audio, a task I often rely upon while interviewing subjects using my iPhone. I make it a habit to have the app ready ahead of recording to prevent the dreaded instance of “GAH! I wasn’t recording” every journalist runs into at one time or another. Even when operating correctly I’m perpetually checking to make sure it’s recording because of the lack of physical (and aural) indications my device is correctly recording.

The Teenage Engineering TP–7 field recorder is an interesting proposition, not so much a compromise, but a digital recording device designed to invite the fingers to intuitively utilize physical controls just like an analog tape recorder of yore: the index finger triggers fast forward, the middle finger rewinds, the thumb records a memo, and the pinky selects the mode.

Just as early computing and mobile device design veered toward skeuomorphism – the approach in making digital tools resemble their real-world counterparts – so can be said of the TP–7’s form, one mimicking the appearance and movement of a motorized tape reel to clearly communicate the device is in fact recording.

Inside the TP-7 is a brushed motor with ball bearings, and a highly sensitive hall sensor that lets you virtually grab your recording. The reel is a cool gimmick, but one that is engineered to be used in conjunction with a novel side-mounted rocker that gives the user the option to scrub, fast forward, and rewind by touch. The entire physical interface would take mere minutes, perhaps seconds, for a new user to figure out. It also comes with the perk of a scrubbing action propelling the wheel accompanied with a ’hyperspeed’ sound for amusing effect.

Kudos to Teenage Engineering for also launching the TP–7 with an accompanying app to automatically transcribe any audio interviews to text.

TP–7 features three stereo two-way jacks to be used as either inputs or outputs, for connecting external mics, headphones, studio monitors, or any other audio equipment like OP–1 field or TX–6, recording with all 6 stereo channels. The recorder is compatible with USB-C for multi-channel audio interface, MIDI, data transfer, and charging, with Bluetooth Low Energy and MFi capability for wireless connectivity. TP–7 also includes our 6.35 mm to 3.5 mm jack adapter, and up to 128 GB of internal storage (which equates to 5 minutes of ideas a day for 20 years).

The Teenage Engineering TP–7 field recorder is not designed for everyone, especially at its eye-bulging price (the very reason I haven’t rushed out to buy one myself). It is by design a purposely particular device for particular people. But for anyone who regularly relies upon recording audio for professional purposes, we wouldn’t blame you for caving into the temptation to splurge hard upon a device engineered to record interviews, capture sound or music, or to use in similar fashion as Twin Peak’s Agent Cooper in such stylish and touching fashion.

Gregory Han is the Managing Editor of Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

In a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it collaboration moment, Design Within Reach (DWR) partnered with Knoll Textiles to showcase limited-edition Knoll chairs upholstered in fabrics from the Nick Cave Collection in celebration of NYCxDesign 2023. The 12 pieces were on display at DWR’s Greene Street location for a week last month before being auctioned off through Wright auction house to their lucky new owners. The cherry on top is the artist’s signature on each chair.

Proceeds benefitted Cave’s charity, the Facility Foundation, which provides scholarships and opportunities for young, promising, and emerging artists through collaborations with established artists and partnerships with organizations and institutions.

Guise Indigo

Guise Rose

Guise Rose

Guise Greenhouse

Guise Flint

Vert Bamboo

Vert Bamboo

Vert Garden

Vert Garden

Vert Terrain

Puff Honey

Puff Evergreen

Puff Cloud

Nick Cave

To learn more about the Nick Cave Collection, visit news.millerknoll.com.

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

It’s hard not to fall in love with South Africa-based Deft Studios’ cheeky furniture. One look and you’ll discover a cohesive collection that’s characterized by its playful designs, generosity in curves, and refined color palette. From larger furniture, like dining tables and media units, to small pieces, including wall hooks and side tables, Deft’s designs are modern, approachable, and not overly precious. After all, the studio believes in creating special pieces made for everyday life.

Each piece seems to reveal delightful details the longer you examine it. The side table made of three columns is a fun nod to the abundant three-leaf clover, while the Kapstock is fresh take on the ubiquitous coat rack. Each piece is made to order using FSC-certified wood and non-toxic finishes, and packaged using recyclable and/or reusable materials where possible. Additionally, for every furniture piece sold, a tree is planted through Greenpop, a non-profit that seeks to better Sub-Saharan Africa through environmentally-conscious initiatives.

For more information, visit deftstudios.co.za.

Photography by Marize Albertyn.
Architecture of home by Pinard Architecture.

As the Lifestyle editor, Vy Yang is obsessed with discovering ways to live well + with intention through design. She’s probably sharing what she finds over on Instagram stories. You can also find her at vytranyang.com.

There was a time when you couldn’t walk into any space – club, restaurant, bar, shop, party – without the ubiquity of the Daft Punk musical catalog ever present. The musical duo’s imprint wasn’t just melodic, but an entire retro-futuristic aesthetic… a whole damn vibe, if you may. Cousins Cédric and Nicolas Hervet have continued to build upon that vibe, founding spatio-temporal hi-fi boutique brand Hervet Manufacturier with the elder of the two, Cedric, helping keep the Daft Punk party going as the duo’s Artistic Director.

Hervet Manufacturier’s latest Bellame Speaker system plays tribute to that musical duo and the vintage recording studios from the 70s and 80s they inhabit in the form of a handcrafted, limited edition audio system bridging “the gap between fine woodworking and high-fidelity sound.”

The Bellame speakers shares the design DNA of pedestal floor speaker designs that once proliferated home and studios throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably the Eero Saarinen designed Bose 901s. These current day speakers are built around a sizable enclosure with left/right satellites tasked for mid-high frequencies and a dual bass all enclosed within a solid Santos rosewood cabinetry, each stationed upon brushed stainless steel stands and reinforcement parts with full-grain leather-covered baffles.

The dual bass enclosure features 10-inch paper cone drivers mounted on the front to really bring forth the oomph of bass.

Within this enclosure, all the necessary electronics are integrated to power the dual bass enclosure and the left/right satellites responsible for mid-high frequencies, featuring 8 line inputs and an MM phono input for turntable integration. There’s also a 24-bit/192 kHz DAC with 5 inputs, including USB-A and USB-B. Note, you will need to invest in an optional dongle for Bluetooth connectivity, which seems one glaring omission from an otherwise comprehensive system for plug and play use (but perhaps wholly in spirit with the 70s-80s reference).

A simplified control panel includes a volume adjustment and a remote control receiver for easy control from the listening area.

The sum of components within the Bellame delivers a power output rated for 2×75 W (satellites) and 220 W for the bass emanating center receiver console unit, plenty to fill a large living room, and then some.

If you ever see one of these Bellame Speakers in the wild around the world, consider yourself fortunate. There will only be 100 of these made by Hervet Manufacturier for a princely sum of $20,990, a handcrafted audio experience warranting the request, “one more time.”

Gregory Han is the Managing Editor of Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

Blå Station has added two generously sized chairs and a table that’s ideal for those in-between spaces to their catalogue. Up first is designer Johan Ansander’s OM chair, lightweight with a slender seat and minimal construction. Molded plywood turns the contemporary chair’s back legs into a continuous backrest, with other pieces of the material used for the front legs and rim.

“My aim was to offer a generous seating experience with very few components, and with the backrest as one visually open piece,” said Ansander.” Johan Lindau, CEO and design manager of Blå Station, shared, “I immediately signed Johannes on when he showed me his sketches a year ago, this was his private little secret, you would never arrive at something so striking through an ordinary product brief.” OM is constructed with European oak or ash, with optional dyed colors and padded seats available.

OM

OM

OM

OM + Max

Max

The second piece of seating – Max – was also designed by Ansander, who added cushioning to his existent wooden Maximus chair. Soft and springy, full of personality, it’s a chair that works in both private and public spaces. While Maximus features softly shaped wood, Max is crafted with nosaq springs that are covered with molded foam that’s held in place using an exact stitching process.

Max

Max

Max + Turn

Max

Max + Turn

Turn

Made in oak or ash, Turn is a hard worker of a table meant to live in either the home or office. With three available heights, it can be used to hold beverages, books, or flowers. The lowest is ideal for pairing with a sofa, while the highest can accommodate your laptop perfectly. You might even notice a touch of Baroque art influence in the table’s reversible turned foot. Constructed in all wood with a steel shaft base, Turn’s ash version is also available in lacquered versions.

Turn

Turn

Turn

To learn more about OM, Max, or Turn, visit blastation.com.

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

London-based artist and designer Adam Nathaniel Furman grew up surrounded by influences from different countries and cultures. Of both Argentine and Japanese descent, they have a unique perspective to share, and are eager to bring ornament and form from around the world into peoples’ lives. Adam’s creative practice includes product design, furniture, interiors, public art, architecture, fashion, and publishing – none of it for minimalists. The ultimate goal is to create items that feel otherworldly, yet strangely familiar. Those who will appreciate these things trust their own instincts, are confident in themselves, and aren’t afraid of being who they are.

Adam says they’ve always loved objects, clothes, and interiors that are full of interesting things – particularly color and pattern. “The switch was not a sudden one, but more of a gradual process over several years, starting with my residency at the Design Museum in London in 2013,” they say of their current career. “That program gave me the opportunity to share my work and ideas with a large audience, and was instrumental in beginning a chain of opportunities and commissions which, several years later, led to my setting up the studio to handle the volume and scale of work coming in. It was a tough decision to leave working for architecture practices, as they provide a sense of security, but within a year I was already doing better than I had ever been in architectural practice per se, and it’s only gotten better since then.”

Public art has also been a big influence on Adam. They named the old Tottenham Court Road Tube Station in London, what used to be known as “the world’s biggest piece of public art” by Eduardo Paolozzi, as the first piece that really made an impression. The space “created a glittering warren of simultaneously dingy but magnificent, deeply colorful spaces that were the spectacular and strange entrance to the previously vibrant and queer world of Soho above,” Adam shared. “Those spaces are burned into my memory as an exemplar of how public art can truly create a context, how it can gently submerge itself into the very fabric of the lives of those who pass through and past it, eventually becoming in the minds of those passersby equated with the area itself and all the memories of it they will have acquired over time.”

The way Adam jots down ideas when they pop up, as either a sketch or a poem, is intriguing. “I find that they are the perfect vehicles for capturing a fleeting thought or idea in such a way that doesn’t fix them too concretely into any one particular form. They remain open and flexible, easily returned to at a later date, and built upon further, modified. I have them lying around all over the place, and often return to them, combining different ones, merging a poem with two sketches – for instance – to respond to a new brief or project.”

Today, Adam Nathaniel Furman joins us for this week’s Friday Five!

Photo courtesy Human Rights Campaign

1. Trans Rights are Human Rights

There is a concerted campaign by much of the media and conservative politicians and spin doctors to use the Trans community as a political wedge issue. They have pinpointed it as something that can divide people along emotional, rather than political, lines and are viciously attacking this tiny, vulnerable minority (who are rarely, if ever, invited onto panels “discussing” their right to exist) with all the – initially rhetorical, and now legislative – weapons at their disposal. It is important to understand that Liberal democracy must mean freedom, protection, and rights for all minority groups, or else it is simply a form of tyranny dressed up as democracy. So, this Friday I would ask everyone to switch off from the hate, and tune into the love.

This book was a huge communal/community project that unfolded over several years, and is a landmark change for the architecture world. For the time that architectural history has existed, queer history has been systematically erased, downplayed, and very often ridiculed and othered. It is quite astonishing that by 2022 there was no wide-ranging book that brought together an accessible historiography of case studies that present a history of queer space. Without which it is virtually impossible for students to do that kind of work in universities, let alone for the wider public to find out about. Queer Spaces does this, and on a large scale, with a multitude of voices (55 contributors), covering vast swathes of the world rather than just Europe and America. We regularly receive photos of students using it as reference and justification in final exams, and also receive a lot of very emotional feedback from people in architecture and parallel industries who feel seen for the very first time in their careers.

As someone with a very mixed heritage, I have struggled in recent years to place myself politically within an ever-polarizing discursive context. Appiah’s beautiful treatise on the contingency of identity, and the framework and structures we can build as humans to accommodate the differences and contradictions inherent in many people’s sense of self and communal affiliation, was something that brought me profound comfort in a dark time.

4. Westminster Cathedral

I am very sensitive to the effects of architecture and ornament. Westminster Cathedral is a place of almost biblical impact, with its vast vaults and domes disappearing into blackness, its innumerable little chapels encrusted like caves of gemstones with multicolor mosaics of every style and description, and incense hanging in the air, catching the rays of light as they cut through the darkness from above. When I am having a particularly difficult time, and everything feels just too much, I always go there and the power of its atmosphere somehow takes me out of myself and is profoundly calming. A magical and strangely unappreciated (I hope it will remain that way!) masterpiece in the middle of London.

Photo courtesy Netflix

I return to this series again and again, the Wachowskis have made a symphony in celebration of love, and the freedom of being liberated from social expectations and our bodily confines. I am not surprised it was cancelled by Netflix, as it was so radical, but the two series that were made are a true riot of liberation and joy.

Work by Adam Nathaniel Furman:

Swarf x ANF Symbols Hardware Collection

Gateways Photo: Gareth Gardner

New Town

Fairfield Beacons

Dina Chair Photo: Lara Zankoul

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

One of the highlights of NYCxDesign 2023 was a groundbreaking exhibition featuring the works of 20 emerging and established, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) female-identifying artists and designers. In partnership with the Asian American Pacific Islander Design Alliance (AAPIDA), Upon Further Reflection was co-curated by Lora Appleton, founder of the Female Design Council and kinder MODERN, and Andrea Hill, founder of Tortuga Forma, to celebrate the diversity and talent within the AAPI design community.

The participating designers were invited to “challenge and address the ideas of reflection through surface exploration, materiality, and self discovery.” Some of the featured artists took the concept of mirroring and reflection quite literally, while others went the more obscure route – all equally enticing though.

Historically, the AAPI community has not gotten the recognition that they deserve, but with this exhibition, and hopefully many more to follow, their talents will continue to be celebrated and amplified. “As an AAPI business owner who collaborates with talented designers as part of my business model, it made sense to turn to the diverse AAPI design community for inspiration,” shared co-curator Andrea Hill. “The exhibition format also felt right for showcasing how each artist has interpreted the concept and materiality of reflection. Partnering with organizations like the FDC and AAPIDA as well as the 3.1 Phillip Lim store is an incredible example of how nonprofit and for-profit entities can come together around shared values and a common vision.”

Photo: Angela Hau

Photo: Angela Hau

Photo: Angela Hau

From co-curator Lora Appleton: “It is an ongoing privilege to work with so many talented female-identified designers and to be able to shine a much needed spotlight on the AAPI creative community. Allowing people of all ages to see themselves reflected in others inspired this exhibition, and enables me to help enlighten others on how broad and dynamic the global community of female driven AAPI studios in design is.”

Co-curators Andrea Hill + Lora Appleton Photo: Angela Hau

Exhibiting designers included: Bowen Liu, Caroline Chao, Ellen Pong, Jean Lee, Jean Pelle, Jialun Xiong, Lynn Lin, Pooja Pawaskar, Rosie Li, Susan Maddux, Syrette Lew of Moving Mountains, Teruko Kushi, Ti Chang, Tina Scepanovic, Urvi Sharma, soft-geometry, Virginia Sin, Windy Chien, and Wu Hanyen.

Tina Scepanovic Photo: Angela Hau

Syrette Lew of Moving Mountains Photo: Angela Hau

Rosie Li sculpture Photo: Angela Hau

Rainbow Bubbly by Rosie Li

Mirrors for Aliens by soft-geometry

Agree To Disagree by Tina Scepanovic

Boundaries For Dinner by Tina Scepanovic

Hitching Post by Windy Chien

Pool Portrait by Jean Pelle

Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.

Money cannot buy happiness… but it can help you buy a Leica. The German camera manufacturer’s legions of devotees have long elevated the red circle badged cameras from mere imaging tools into aspirational photographic heirlooms. Credit the brand’s timeless appeal to a reputation built upon carefully machined minimalist bodies, distinct optics, veneration associated with some of the most famous photos and photographers, and no doubt the exclusivity of owning a standout design that evokes envy. The newest full frame Leica Q3 camera will likely further burnish this storied rep, adding upon its 2019 predecessor with both subtle and major upgrades, in sum offering what may be considered the ultimate street photography camera.

Taking a similar approach to Apple’s incremental improvements with the iPhone, Leica has retained many of the best attributes of the 2019 Q2, an approach that seems to make sense considering the Q2 has remained extremely popular to this day. This third iteration shares the same 28mm f/1.7 Summilux ASPH lens, a fantastic walk-around optics now further enhanced by the newly upgraded 60 mega-pixel BSI CMOS sensor with Triple Resolution Technology, allowing for 60, 36, or 18 MP resolution. As an amateur nature photographer, I’m thrilled to see the Q3 equipped with an integrated macro mode, allowing the ability to get as close as 17 cm to subjects.

There’s also the inclusion of the same digital zoom of previous Q models, offering cropping to focal lengths of 28, 35, 50, 75, and 90 mm; those who like to shoot specifically for online content will also benefit from two new and practical assistants: Leica Perspective Control and Leica Dynamic Range (designed to ensure perfect JPEG images without any post processing).

Content creators take note: the new Q3 can record video at 8k resolution and in H.265 and Apple’s ProRes codecs; USB-C and HDMI accessories are also supported.

Though we’ve yet to get our own hands on a production model, the 3rd in the Q series seems to share all of the same desirable design cues that have made the Q2 an influencer darling. It looks as beautifully crafted, retaining the handsome contrast between cross-hatched front to machined metal body. What has changed is the addition of new tiltable, water- and dust-resistant IP52 certified 3-inch high resolution touchscreen with 5.76 million resolution, addressing a glaring omission from its predecessor.

And as another sign of the continuing convergence between digital photography and mobile photography, the Leica Q3 now supports wireless charging via an optional Leica Drop XL Wireless Charger and separate camera handgrip. Designed by Native Union, the combo makes the case the digital camera category still has a few more features (beyond vastly superior optics and usable resolution) to keep cameras relevant amongst photographers beyond devotees of pricey German industrial design.

This post contains affiliate links, so if you make a purchase from an affiliate link, we earn a commission. Thanks for supporting Design Milk!

Gregory Han is the Managing Editor of Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.

It’s unofficially time for summer to begin, and we’re celebrating with a bold, geometric Designer Desktop by Daniel Ramirez Perez! A true creative, Daniel works in illustration, design, and motion, launching his own illustration studio in 2014. A background in fashion – he interned at Vivienne Westwood! – helped to quickly advance Daniel’s style and put his career on the fast track. Since then, he’s worked with clients throughout advertising, editorial, music, and culture, such as Lufthansa, Thom Yorke, The Wall Street Journal, Ballhaus Ost, and TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Love Is Love Project

Fruits

Joy Breeze Mall Installations

Daniel Ramirez Perez

Download yours with the links below!

DESKTOP: 1024×768 1280×1024 1680×1050 1900×1200 2560×1440

MOBILE: iPhone XS iPhone XS Max iPad Pro

Learn more about Daniel Ramirez Perez here and follow on IG here.

View and download past Designer Desktops here.

Kelly Beall is senior editor at Design Milk. The Pittsburgh-based graphic designer and writer has had a deep love of art and design for as long as she can remember, and enjoys sharing her finds with others. When undistracted by great art and design, she can be found making a mess in the kitchen, consuming as much information as possible, or on the couch with her three pets. Find her @designcrush on social.

Together over time is a debut solo exhibition of works by avant-garde designer Rafael Prieto, the founder and creative director of Savvy Studio, presented at Emma Scully Gallery until June 3rd. The exhibition integrates Prieto’s distinct design aesthetic with the art of emotive observation, harmoniously bringing together elements of furniture, sculpture, and lighting design.

Prieto’s eclectic ensemble of creations serves as a testament to his unique vision and his fascination with the inherent beauty found in everyday life. His careful observation of the world around him forms the bedrock of this interconnected display. Employing an array of materials such as wood, glass, stone, and ceramic, the designer subtly articulates an inherent elegance. Each piece strikes a delicate balance between fragility and robustness, mirroring the nuanced interplay of nature’s forces. The exhibition layout inside the gallery space is meant to inspire a novel spatial understanding that encourages individual interpretations.

The placement of the works within the gallery creates a novel spatial language open to interpretation by the viewer. According to Prieto, the exhibition is akin to a concrete poem or haiku that encourages audience engagement and connection. Nine works are featured in Together over time, consisting of a coffee table, two side tables, a light, two upholstered stools and a bench, and two sculptures that anchor the exhibition.

As explained by Prieto, “I see this as a concrete poem or haiku – something for others to engage with and feel connected to, as I do.” The ceramic inlays used in the tables were made possible with the help of Atelier Lips. The creation of these three pieces was done in close collaboration with Emma Scully Gallery. The crafting process was slow and intensive, involving local craftspeople over a period of six months.

Photography by Joe Kramm.

Leo Lei translates his passion for minimalism into his daily-updated blog Leibal. In addition, you can find uniquely designed minimalist objects and furniture at the Leibal Store.