Happy 2013!

Wishing you a very happy and healthy New Year. We look forward to another great year of pursuing that almighty spark of inspiration and challenging new projects full of creativity, good design and collaboration. Here's to 2013, CHEERS!

10) Botanical Wall Calendar

9) Desk Calendar

8) Wall Art Calendar

7) Invitations

6) Academic Wall Calendar

5) Holiday Invitations

4) Zoo Calendar

3) Diary

2) Architectural Blank Card

1) Wall Calendar

2013) Greeting Card

 

These are a few of our favorite things...

Just in time for the Holidays, well at least with a weekend to spare, here's our gift to you! In a season of beauty here are some visually beautiful things. SMMS Design wishes you a very happy holiday and hope you give with generosity and receive with gratitude!

Snowflake                                 Gingerbread House                                     Winter Wonderland                            Hipster Trees

Art and Dreams

Friend of Mae Skidmore, Laura Baran lost her beautiful brother Jeff to suicide and founded Arts & Dreams as an antidote to hopelessness. "I created Arts & Dreams workshops with my friend Patricia Geremia to inspire and empower children. We have since branched out to work with teens and adults as well. In an Arts & Dreams workshop we make art that encourages us to feel enthusiastic about our worth and our place in the world. I share my experience with depression and losing my brother Jeff to hopelessness in 2000. In his goodbye letter, Jeff wrote that it wasn’t the depression that felt the worst, it was the hopelessness. I wanted to prevent this from happening to others." This is a relevant post this week as the horrible tragedy in Connecticut is in all our hearts and thoughts.

An Arts & Dreams workshop is 2 hours of expressive art projects, partnered with meaningful discussion about how to love and accept yourself. They teach practical tools like affirmations, breathing exercises, and mirror work. And we make art - paintings, drawings, collage, and more. Tonight's Holiday Affirmation Painting Party was one of Arts and Dreams successful events. SMMS is proud to promote another female partnership. Please visit Art & Dreams' Blog for more information on upcoming events.

Laura Baran is an award-winning professional painter (Society of Illustrators, New York) who earned a BFA with honors from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She serves on the Board of Directors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention - New York City Chapter.
Patricia Geremia is a certified Reiki healer and professional photographer, and an event planner and fundraiser. She completed coursework towards an undergraduate degree at Hunter College in New York and has served as a youth mentor in NYC since 1995.  Her line of photo greeting cards and prints is called PatriciaG Photos.

So sweet En Suite

SMMS Design recently consulted on the addition of an en suite bathroom to a master bedroom. At first look, it did not seem as if the master bedroom had enough space for a bathroom. The entrance to the room was one of the obstacles. We moved the doorway leading into the bedroom over a foot which made room for the toilet area. 

The vintage inspired hexagonal Italian marble tile and true vintage pedestal tub are the highlights of this space. Every morning the sun dances off the white marble to create patterns on the surfaces of the bathroom!

Another happy SMMS client indeed. A big thank you to Catskill Coydog Carpentry who completed every aspect of the vision and a special thanks to Smita, lead designer at SMMS, who encouraged the use of natural woods, for which the homeowners are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In between the turkey and stuffing, football and sleeping, small talk with uncles and much too long talks with moms... we thought it would be nice to take a minute and be thankful for lovely things and well designed moments. Thanksgiving is a time to spend with family and loved ones and we found some beautiful ways to add a little gobble gobble to this great day of feasting.

1: At the bottom of each spoonful of yumminess a nice message by Milk and Honey Luxuries 2: You don't have to be Martha to create an amazing tablescape, checkout how at Apartment Therapy 3: Organize the madness by sending out invitations with the menu on the back so your guests can pace themselves or take a load off and have a potluck. Check off the side dish, on the back of the invitation, each guest should bring so you don't get 10 green bean casseroles. Invitation by Fixing it Fancy 4: Best uni-tasker ever! for those of us non bakers. A mini pie maker, any good hostess should have one, available at Williams-Sonoma 5: My new found passion in life, needle felting. These tiny pumpkins were created by our friends at Lil' Chick, order 10 today!

Treasure Hunting

A few weeks ago, SMMS Design joined Catskill Coydog Vintage in hunting for treasure. It was the first time, for the SM in SMMS, to hunt for vintage pieces for the Brooklyn Flea. CCV is pulling together some fantastic pieces for their growing clientele. Lessons learned:

1) there's a lot of stuff on display so give everything a second look

2) consider the piece in context, most treasures are sitting amongst a whole lot of furniture so try and single it out away from the clutter

3) not everything is as it seems, think about repurposing the item into a new function

4) bring a friend, this way you have another perspective and more ideas, plus you'll need help getting that treasure chest back home

LIKE Catskill Coydog Vintage on Facebook to see all their new treasures.
Even better, if you're in Brooklyn stop by their booth to get some booty!

It's beginning to look alot like...

We've officially had our first snowfall and that's sign enough the holidays are upon us. The busy elves at SMMS Design have been hard at work creating beautiful new jewelry just in time for the gift giving season. All our new pieces are sparkling and frosted and ready for purchase.

 Join us at the 4th Annual Craft Show on Saturday, November 17th, 2012 from 10am-4pm
George G. White Middle School

120 Magnolia Avenue

Hillsdale, NJ 07642

We'll be sharing a table with our good friends at Lil' Chick Jewelry

Hope to see you there!

Happy Anniversary!

October is a sort of Anniversary for SMMS Design. It was about 2 years ago we put pen to paper, or more like jpeg to coding, to create our website smmsdesign.com. The concept for the website's layout was quite simple, SMMS at work. The opening view is us at our desk with our portfolio open and full of ideas. If you look up you'll see all of our inspiration; out the window to our clients, navigate the map for all our travels, above for a quote, and notes on our dartboard to links. Check out the website and click around to experience SMMS at work and to learn all about us and what we can do for you.

Thank you to James at www.inkholedesign.com for all your amazing work in creating the site

No Kitchen is an Island

SMMS Design recently consulted on a kitchen remodel with the owner of Orr Media. The plan was to create a well-designed and function kitchen layout, tying together an efficient sized kitchen and adjoining dining room. Initially Orr's want for a kitchen island outweighed the space available so a creative solution was to use a bar height table in the dining room, which worked beautifully in the end. Orr's contractors, Tooth-N-Nail Builders, came in and executed the designs brilliantly. With the completion of the kitchen, Orr is renting the house to families attending Saugerties Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS) events.

Kitchen rendering by Sketch Up/Completed Kitchen photo featuring custom cabinetry and stainless steel appliances

Orr rendered and completed photo of Kitchen pass-through window with handcrafted bar ledge

Orr Media is a Video and Audio Editing, 3d Animation, and Recording studio. Please visit him at www.OrrMediaCompany.com

Grade School Colors

Stay within the lines, the lines are your friend. This might have been the rule when we were kids, but now we're all grown up and we've moved the lines. Here are some of our childhood favorites in grown up form. Think like a child and get creative and messy!

Color by numbers to color in your own dress. Color in a little more each time you wear the dress or be the life of the hipster party and have your friends color you in. This unique dress is by SOEPBOER & STOOKER

Chalkboard paint has endless possibilities especially in the kitchen. Weekly planning, menus, grocery lists, to a free space for the entire family to get creative or just leave phone messages, try chalkboard paint. Its even magnetic and tintable.

Grab a 64 pack, blow dryer, and a canvas frame from your local art supply store and start melting. Google melting crayon art for other great ideas.

London Design Festival

First staged in 2003, the London Design Festival is one of the world's most important annual design events. The Festival program is made up of over 300 events and exhibitions staged by hundreds of partner organizations across the design spectrum and from around the world. This year the festival is from September 14-23, with events and venues all throughout the great city of London. Marketplaces such as 100% Design, exhibits, gallery shows and interactive public installations are some of the fascinating events happening throughout the festival. For a complete itinerary of events click here to download a PDF of the 2012 Guide. 

BE OPEN Sound Portal arrives in the Square, Trafalgar Square, 19-23 September

This September sees the arrival of the BE OPEN Sound Portal in Trafalgar Square as part of the tenth anniversary of the London Design Festival 2012.  Situated within one of London’s most iconic public spaces, the BE OPEN Sound Portal is an entirely new kind of installation that focuses on the design that you can’t see – that of acoustics and sound – rather than visual spectacle.

An alien black, rubberized structure will be home to finely-tuned audio technologies aimed at delivering pure acoustic experiences to visitors in the middle of Trafalgar Square - one of the busiest and aurally chaotic environments in London.

Every day, the BE OPEN Sound Portal will host one of five leading musicians and sound artists, each of whom has been specially commissioned to create a unique soundscape. Expect a range of vibrant sonic and musical responses, from the dramatic sounds of the natural world, such as glaciers breaking up, to exquisitely detailed electronic music.  Cocooned from the external noise and bustle of the city, the BE OPEN Sound Portal allows visitors to experience a very different environment, one created by sound alone.

Yesterday's launch of the BE OPEN Sound Portal was made even more spectacular by the appearance of a flashmob orchestra! While there may not be an orchestra loitering when you drop by (who knows though, this is London after all), the ingenious audio installation is now open so do make sure you pay a visit to Trafalgar Square.

Greening the Olympics

The London Olympics are over but its worth taking a look at its lasting footprint. The London Olympic Committee strove "to ensure that all the athletes perform to the best of their ability whilst pushing the boundaries of sustainability knowledge and design." Many of the venues were existing structures throughout London, but we're interested in the new builds, in particular the Shooting Ranges and the Aquatic Center.
 

The Royal Artillery Barracks were an important training center for British soldiers from the early 19th century until 2007. Site of the longest Georgian-style facade in the United Kingdom, the former home of the Royal Artillery hosted shooting events during this summer’s Games. In stark contrast with this 200 year old building stands three indoor shooting ranges. Each of the temporary venues was built from steel, clad in plywood and then covered in more of the phthalate-free PVC membrane that will be recycled after the games. But what is the most cutting-edge feature? Each of the buildings is laden with octopus-like suckers that will allow natural ventilation to circulate inside. The shooting ranges will be dismantled and be rented for other events after the Games’ conclusion.

Standing out with its wave-shaped roof, the Olympics’ second-largest building after the main Olympic Stadium is the first structure visitors see as they approach the Olympic Park. Built on a brownfield site, the Aquatics Center’s stunning ceiling, which soars over the two 50-meter pools, were built out of sustainably sourced Red Lauro timber. The exterior was constructed with precast modular blocks of concrete, which not only reduced the amount of emissions required to build the facility, but also eliminated the need for painting. The interior stands are made from steel and phthalate-free PVC wrap that will be recycled after the games. And most of the building materials, including the 866,000 tiles needed to line the pool and locker rooms, were delivered by train instead of truck.To learn more about the Aquatic Centre and to see more amazing pictures,visit the master-mind behind the design at Zaha-Hadid Architecture

New Etsy jewelry is now ready to order!

This week we are happy to present two new necklace patterns.  Please visit our Etsy Storefront where these and 24 other items are available for you.

Sterling Silver Art Deco Wing and Flower Necklace:

 This necklace features a 26x17x17mm triangle made in Israel. Normally these pendants are the perfect component for chandelier style designs. In this case we've turned it on it's side and hung one Preciosa® Czech made, pressed glass flower with an Aurora Borealis finish. I love wearing mine with a high collar shirt. Because of it's asymmetrical quality it's one of the few necklaces that looks nice over fabric. 

www.etsy.com/listing/106992872/sterling-silver-wing-and-flower-necklace

 

 

 

Scribed Pure Silver Fan Necklace:

This necklace with it's metalwork detailed pendant, has inspiration from native and tribal artwork. The antiqued silver is amazingly detailed with fine lines in a fan-like pattern. It rests gracefully around the neck with the silver pendant dropping from a fine Sterling chain. Add the matching Hill Tribes Silver Motion Mark Earrings and get 10.00 off!

The Hand-wrought crescent is antiqued fine 95-99% pure silver made using centuries-old technique by the Hill Tribes people of Thailand.  

www.etsy.com/listing/106991294/scribed-pure-silver-fan-necklace

Follow that Dog!

Friend Heather Williams, owner of Pippy's Hot Dog Truck has put together an amazing menu for the summer, and as we are a small business we love promoting the same.  Here are some cute articles about Heathers life long ambition: 

www.pippyshotdogtruck.blogspot.com/

www.chronogram.com/issue/2012/6/Food+&+Drink/Food-Trucks-of-the-Hudson-Valley

www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2012/07/25/life/doc500ed52930be1155884043.txt?viewmode=fullstory 

http://www.pippyshotdogtruck.com/index.html

As designers we love how Heather painted up her truck as well as how she dresses up a dog! Next year SMMS will be creating the trucks roof sign for everyone to see when heading up to Hunter Mountain or Kaaterskill Falls in the Catskills.  

 

Start Ups

This has been a very creative design week in terms of graphics and branding. Our friends at Lil' Chick Jewelry are expanding to Lil' Chick Sitters. Yep, its as it sounds, chicken sitting. Amazingly enough, its a growing need, people are buying chickens and even ducks as the new trending pet.

Lil' Chick Sitters: For all your chicken sitting needs... go on vacation without worrying about who will take care of your flock!

A long time friend has finally realized what everyone around her has been screaming for the last 5 years "You have to start your own personal-training business!" SMMS Design is proud to be apart of the beginning of what will be a very successful and fulfilling business venture. The concept is a balanced approach to wellness, aiming to move each client forward in fitness, nutrition and life.

Do point: the point where you're fed up, done with excuses, and ready to get into action!

Vermont Antique Trip

SMMS went on a picking adventure in Vermont and New Hampshire recently. We unearthed many items for our stock collection plus "in-high demand" goods to be sold at the Brooklyn Flea. Here are a few of our pictures from the trip including our amazing finds.

Makeup cases are handy on so many levels. Whether on a bathroom counter housing jewelry or displayed nicely in a stack of multiples.

People are often intimidated by a rewiring project, what we say to that is, "You can wire a cheese grater!" In this case, we are able to take apart this bud lamp to create three individual pendant lights by using new vintage-looking fabric wrapped cord. In the end, these will be stunning anywhere they hang.

Oh, say can you see...

Its Independence Day and we're celebrating the Red, White and Blue through design. Maybe with a hint of cheeky prodding towards the Brits. Its possible to incorporate a little patriotism and a nod to history into our surroundings without looking like kitschy-Americana. Well-designed patterns, repeats and hues balance the red, white and blue theme in each of these products.

Pillow: Helkatdesign, Dishtowel: Crate&Barrel, Mug: Marimekko, Flooring: FLOR

Enjoy your independence and freedom to use America as inspiration in all your designs. Happy 4th of July!

NeoCon Think BIG

From Steelcase to Wolf-Gordon, many of Architecture and Interior Design's most influential companies unveiled new products and new concepts at NeoCon 2012, June 11-13. The three-day trade show at Chicago's Merchandise Mart drew tens of thousands from national design and architecture firms to see the latest products.

NeoCon is the only place to see thousands of new product launches from industry heavy hitters all under one roof. Attendees at the show were the first to see innovative, next generation products and resources from more than 700 of the world’s top furnishings manufacturers for commercial office, residential, healthcare, hospitality, institutional and government design environments. Products spanned a wide range of categories including: architectural products, artwork and accessories, building products and services, fabric, floor coverings, furnishings, kitchen and bath, lighting, outdoor furniture, stone and tile, sustainable design products, technology, textiles and wall coverings.

NeoCon 2012, Chicago’s contract and design trade-show, brought an influx of creativity and design to the Merchandise Mart. The first major art installation of its kind was a temporary, site-specific sculpture titled “Escalator Canopy” that hung above the 1st to 2nd floor escalator. The 30-foot 1,380-pound sculpture is surfaced in a selection of over 500 yards of Wolf-Gordon upholstery textiles, wall-coverings, and mirrors.