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By Newsweek Editors
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Restaurant
THE MODERN: For a new dining room overlooking the sculpture garden of New York's Museum of Modern Art, the firm of Bentel & Bentel had to meet restaurateur Danny Meyer's seemingly irreconcilable demand for both "spareness" and "warmth." The result is a hushed, light-filled space (mercifully free of art, except for the Calders and Miros visible through the glass) that reminds you why classic modernism still speaks to us. Gabriel Kreuther's conceptually bold, flawlessly executed menu (he covers cod with a tissue-thin crust of chorizo) is worthy of a movement that set out to remake the world through design.
Objects
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STUDIO DROR VASES: Dror Benshetrit's poignant vases for Rosenthal reflect his experience in New York; he calls them "a metaphor for what we're going through in this city: purity, damage and healing."
That's Entertainment
'CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY': Edible grass, candy-cane trees, a chocolate river--the new film of the classic book (directed by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp) is a visual treat. "We didn't want it to look like a theme park," says production designer Alex McDowell. The Chocolate Room (above) is based on a rain forest, where Oompa-Loompas roam.
Everyday Brilliance
MARIO BATALI BASTING BRUSH: The exuberant chef has teamed with Copco on a new line of kitchenware, coming out in July. He swears his is better than other celeb chefs' because "I designed everything!" One nifty item is a silicone basting brush--no more messy, matted bristles. Naturally, it comes in a range of colors, including persimmon. Mangia bene!
TARGET'S CLEAR RX: When Deborah Adler's grandmother mistakenly took her grandfather's pills, the design grad student decided to give the prescription bottle its first makeover in decades. Launched this month by Target, the new bottles have color-coded bands for each family member, large type, a pocket for patient info and new warning icons by master designer Milton ("I(tm)NY") Glaser. "When you open your medicine cabinet, you should know instantly which bottle is yours," says Adler. Now you will.
KRUPS ESPRESSO MAKER: To get a truly fresh take on its kitchen appliances, Krups called in... a furniture designer. Munich-based Konstantin Grcic, 39, known for minimalist lamps and chairs, came up with a professional-grade home espresso maker (and 10 more products to roll out this fall) with characteristic rigor: a small footprint on the counter, high-quality materials and intuitive controls that mean never having to read a manual.
POLAROID ONE: Can design save a company? The Polaroid Corp. introduced its revolutionary instant camera in 1948--and, in the wake of the digital-camera revolution, met with Chapter 11 bankruptcy some four years ago. Now it's making a fresh bid for the diehards who still love instant pictures--and a growing number of newbies. A group of four cameras has been completely redesigned, and the formerly clunky, uncomfortable hulks are now compact, ergonomic and, as ever, totally instant.
Fashion
RICHARD CHAI: This fast-rising designer can sum up his style in 20 words or fewer: "quite understated, sophisticated and elegant. Yet at the same time it has a downtown edge." The Parsons Design School grad toiled under Geoffrey Beene, Donna Karan and Marc Jacobs, eventually becoming the creative director of TSE before setting out his own shingle last year. Chai never cites movies or art as inspirations. "It's about translating things I'm feeling in my life into clothes," says the soft-spoken Jersey native. For his fall line, expect "very hard-tailored masculine things tempered with feminine fabrics." Sounds like uptown and downtown are really getting along.
Electronica
SONY PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER: Does every MP3 player have to be an iPod or at least look like one? Sony, refreshingly, says no. Its latest entry has a big battery (70 hours) and a small drive (700 tunes), but its most crucial innovation is its design: a bubble of color that owes nothing to Apple.
NOKIA N91: These days, we're sometimes in closer contact with our cell phones than we are with the loved ones we're calling. Nokia's new model has a stainless-steel body, a camera and the capacity to hold 3,000 songs to make that time together quality.
LEXON MINI DOLMEN RADIO: Rene Adda, founder of Paris-based Lexon, didn't want to design just another cold, shiny object. So he styled his retro modern radio out of... wood. For the technogeek, he added precise frequency controls and an LED light. "If the design belongs to the 21st century, the material will remind people of the 20th," he says.
Bamboo
PLATES: Design is lousy with high-tech materials like polycarbonate, but we're jazzed about low-tech bamboo--a natural material at once so soft and so hard. New uses include disposable picnic plates (below), as well as... FABRIC: Cute baby. But check out what she's swaddled in: the outfit and blanket are bamboo (blended with organic cotton). Using bamboo fibers, South Carolina's Bamboosa makes durable fabric that feels like cashmere. And...
FLOORING: Why go with boring old maple or oak when bamboo is emerging as an economical--and eco-friendly--alternative? Wood Flooring International's Bamtex line gets in on the ground floor with this quirky material.
Next Wave
FURNITURE: While posing for the photo above, Justin Porcano got down on the floor and pretended to wrestle with the hot pink leather chair he designed. The chair pinned him. He and the six other Pasadena Art Center students whose designs were chosen by Bernhardt for a new line have all learned to surrender to the practical concerns of manufacturing furniture for the marketplace. Working with Bernhardt's creative director Jerry Helling, the students refined their designs over a year, adding padding and adjusting angles. In the end, they got a valuable lesson in how to design in the real world. And Bernhardt got valuable designs for elegant new furniture.
Staying Safe and Stylish
SWEET DREAMS SECURITY: Matthias Aron Megyeri, a 31-year-old designer born in Germany and now based in London, wants "scary-looking security products to look cute." Below, a fence with cartoony spikes. At right, a padlock feeling bearish. Both will be on display at a MoMA exhibit this fall.
Hot Colors
PANTONE'S FORECAST: Saturated color has made a splashy comeback, but to stay ahead of trends for everything from sofas to soup plates, you need to follow fashion. Turns out home furnishings and housewares take their cues from the garment industry in deciding on their palettes. We'll help you get a jump with the top 10 new hues, according to the Pantone Color Institute. Gloxinia? Glazed ginger? You can't make this stuff up.
826NYC: How do you get kids to show up for tutoring? Dream up a clever concept to lure them in. That's what designer Sam Potts did for 826NYC, one of a national network of free tutoring centers started by writer Dave Eggers. With 826NYC director Scott Seeley, Potts created Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., a storefront that sells such items as Invisibility Detection Goggles (ordinary swim goggles in clever packaging). Sales help fund the nonprofit. And the kids? A secret door in back opens into a computer-filled study. Gotcha!
Special Delivery
ARCHITECTURAL STAMPS: The USPS offers 37 cent stamps with classic photos of 12 landmarks--from Margaret Bourke-White's image of the Chrysler Building to Todd Eberle's shot of Frank Gehry's Disney Hall
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