benched!

the ferry from larkspur into san francisco is filled with little

design nuggets just waiting to be discovered.

my brother, mike nardone, and his daughters are visiting

from los angeles and we needed our yank sing fix, so we

floated across the bay, taking in the splendors the ferry

experience has to offer.

i know i can't be the only one who thinks this blue bench is

just about perfect.

under the wire

just entered the decarli house in the dwell "houses we love"  

competition which ends today at noon.  will keep you posted

to see if we make to top 20 because then you need to vote 

for us to show how much you LOVE us.    

whatever happened to the funk?

the purple city was kicking out some serious american music

throughout the 1980's into the 1990's: from the replacements

to prince, husker du, soul asylum, babes in toyland, killdozer!

the creative energy flow was insane!

but only a lucky few ever got to see what, arguably, could

have been the best band to ever play minneapolis: KARL.

kenny, arnie, reggie and lenny have gone their separate ways

but this tape, like a time capsule unearthed, has surfaced,

begging the question, "why?"

baby come to me

greg is on his first vacation in a while and everything must

seem new and exciting.

while he deserves this much needed break, i think he can

up his vacation pics.

bounce, rock, skate, roll

keeping it real, monterey. at del monte gardens

skating rink, the sign is the same as it was when

chris was a kid. so are the skate categories and

older gentlemen referees, hokey pokey and yes,

the limbo.

i can only hope the documentary figures and loops

is as perfect as this sign.

oh, plastic fantastic...

we were just in new york briefly and were surprised

to see these tupperware tumblers included in the

MOMA "what was good design" show. they are the

only item chris kept from her grandparents vast

tupperware collection and, as always, kids love them.

but sentimentality for tupperware be damned. as

penance for a post about plastic, no matter how great

looking it is, visit californians against waste to act in

support of reducing single use packaging and as

a resource for information on recycling in california

(and waste reduction in general).

hug it out

when chris was in miami in january she was hanging out

with gonzalo feunmayor and got to see drawings from the

splendor series he was working on for a march show

in columbia. these drawings are pretty incredible, and as

gonzalo said, "don't you just want to hug them."

flowers on the wall

they don't bother me at all.

we are getting close: installation begins april 2nd for

benny gold. thanks to sean at peterson's paint for his

spot on assistance in finding a stain for our walnut to

match these aged walls...not an easy task.

national museum of qatar

the new design for the national museum of qatar will be

unveiled later today by jean nouvel at the museum of modern

art in nyc. his artistic vision and immense architectural abilities

have smartly helped bridge a cultural gap through the use of

purposeful, intentional design. a truly remarkable mind.

great article in today's NY Times on it.

working it 24/7/365

we try not to work on the weekends, but it seems we always 

find ourselves with at least "a little something that should be

taken care of"...i was recovering chairs for the william tell

saloon and chris was working behind the bar later that

night, helping out with an overflow crowd from a big

local wedding.

chris was looking pretty cool, sporting her new benny gold 

scout belt.  not only are they awesome; they are vegan, too!

why must i chase the cat?

this is our neighbor.  he does pretty incredible tricks with

either a stick or ball.   he wandered into our studio 

balancing a pine cone on his nose, began to show us what 

he could do with it and proceeded to blow our minds. didn't 

get his name, but his owner, bill, told us his tricks were self-

taught.

another tough day in tomales.

the ones that got away

every now and then, we have specific designs intended for

clients that never get built.  we keep them in a folder and

revisit them on a semi-regular basis, looking to refine or

just plain wishing they would have been completed.

this is some proposed work we did for the sarnoff-frizzell

residence along the mendocino coast.  we still have hope, 

that one day, this will come to realization.

table for two

we've just finished a few of these tables for the william tell

saloon.  reclaimed redwood tops on found table bases make

a perfect combination for the deep side of the saloon.  we

found the table bases in an old shed in the back of the

property.  a little wire brush work here and some sand paper there... they are ready for another long run.

if you find yourself in tomales, stop in for a beer and tell 

them form3 sent you. they LOVE us over there!

consolation prize

it's been a busy week for us.  we've been helping out at 

the william tell house in tomales as they gear up for the 

spring season and working diligently on the benny gold 

project as well as a residential project in san rafael and 

still trying to get our shop together.

a number of people have asked to see what we're doing 

for benny.  i can't really show any designs out of respect

for benny and hiromi's grand opening.  (you'll see it for 

real soon enough.)

consolation prize: the william tell saloon drink sign. we

hung it yesterday and now all the local ranchers will put

their brands on it. it should be complete in the next

couple of weeks. 

cradle to cradle

before we began cutting on the benny gold project, chad

took the time to gather and organize our drop off scraps

from previous work and glued up some seats and backs

for these chairs.

employing this simple work ethic and mentality allows us 

the opportunity to NEVER have garbage pick up.  did i say

NEVER?  ah, yeah. NEVER.

nice job, chad.

more wood

we just came across drop-off chunks of claro walnut from

a northern california manufacture of gunstocks, calico 

hardwoods.  these pieces are truly impressive, locally harvested

and ready made for lamps we call our live edge series.  this

particular wood was sitting in the back of a pick up in front 

of one our favorite brewerys in the area, stumptown brewery.

a couple beers later and we had a great deal in place.

the lamp shown above is made from salvaged elm we got

thru evan shively out along the coast at his place, arborica.

morning wood

C'MON!

chris was at one of the lumber yards we use, mount storm,

last week to pick up materials.  she took these shots.  it 

was awesome. 

(it was in the morning.) 

nea artworks logo

last week we submitted this logo to the nea for 

consideration in the artworks competition .  (they 

required both color and black and white.)  it's 

always a nice departure from our normal workload 

to be involved in the graphic design work we do 

for clients and various causes. many people have 

suggested we have a tab on the form3 website in 

order to show some of this work.  we have considered 

that as an option and will keep everyone posted.

good things take time

slowly, but surely, we've been keeping busy with not only our

regular work load, but the little things around the new studio.

like getting a sign up so people can find us...and it's worked!

our good friend krysta, from the excellent cowgirl creamery, 

stopped by thursday morning on her way to work in point reyes 

station. she knew we moved to tomales, but was wondering 

where we were.  now she knows.  

we still don't have a buzzer, but we're working on it.

two tone dresser

we've designed a number of pieces that combine a painted

body and solid wood elements.  we call it our two tone series.

this is a new dresser that will be available soon on our website

or through the marin store.  look for it if you LOVE great

looking furniture.

east coast!

oh, justin walsh.  why do you LOVE us so?  because 

we're AWESOME?  probably.  justin, an art director + 

designer for ogilvy, NYC, used all his creative skills 

to photoshop himself lying seductively on our original

plyform 3-seat sofa.  but who's that peeking around the 

corner? oh, justin walsh!  he used trick photography or 

the such!  we certainly believe nissa ellison-walsh could 

do him one better. 'cause she got mad skills!

and the east coast interest doesn't stop there. shaun m. 

baer at crafted, out of philadelphia, gave form3 a few props 

for doing what we do best. thanks for the post.  you guys 

know good work when you see it.

oh, signs

working on, among other things, getting our sign for the 

building ready to place by the end of today.  now all those 

who come out to tomales will be able to see this from the 

barstools at the william tell (our next sign project).

we are finalizing the designs for benny gold and begin the

fabrication stage next week. he is hoping to open the retail

space by mid-april.  we better finish all these sign projects.

on the press side of things, we got a nice mention from the 

good folks at home architectural design.  they, along with 

all the others, can't get enough of form3! 

signs and the such

yesterday, after our regular workday, we were organizing

a few things and came across letters we had cut out for

the restaurant we designed for rotisseur thomas odermatt 

in napa, rotisario. with a few cuts here and a backward "C"

there, we came up with a new small sign for our front sliding 

door. 

for those of you have been out to tomales looking for us, 

the photo we posted feb. 21 was a photoshopped proposal 

for our landlord.  a few color changes later (in order to

integrate it into the surroundings) and we'll be hanging 

our new sign by the end of the week.

the weekend report

saturday's marin store event attracted over 1500 people,

making it a very successful day for many of the vendors.

Much thanks to the staff, including tanya, lora and aaron.

It was great to see the form3 supporters out there also:

sonia, brad, michelle, max, gage, evan and others who

stopped by and had so many kind words about our work. 

i didn't get these two kids names, but they hung out

in our space, LOVING our new slant lounge chair!

we hung in there for most of the Oscar telecast. my

favorite moment: The weird lady who interrupted the 

director of short documentary subject.  that was not

only rude, my completely ineffective.  she came off

as a horrible person, leaving the director wondering 

when he would get a chance to finish his thoughts and

thank yous.  guess what?  he never got that chance.

well done, weird lady.

oscar night

chris has decided to help out at the william tell house in 

tomales by taking a weekend shift behind the bar.  The 

new owners, jim & stephanie, brought her in last night and

asked her to come back to help again this evening.  So 

that's where we'll both be for tonight's Oscar telecast. 

(there was a nice article by a.o. scott in today's NY times

about the cultural and artistic relevance of the Oscars 

that is worth reading.)

Our pick for best picture is NOT nominated in that particular

category, but hands down, we thought wes anderson's

brilliant effort behind Fantastic Mr. Fox was the best film 

we saw last year.  Inglorious Basterds, being a tarantino fan,

was a blast and i hope the Academy hands out best 

screenplay and best supporting actor for the efforts.  

we thought Up in the Air sucked ass and gets our vote 

for the least interesting film actually nominated for best 

picture since Crash won five years ago.   

(the photograph of mr. fox, above, was taken by chris on her

blackberry in the rohnert park cinema.)

final touches

yesterday we were putting the final touches on this oak 

plyform side table, made exclusively for the Marin Store 

Sample Sale today.  the drawer face and legs are made

of solid ash and complement the exposed plywood edge.

thanks and shout to Scarlett at spotlight on design for 

her post on the decarli house and kind words about 

our work. no doubt she has a GREAT eye and apparently 

LOVES form3!   How could she resist!?  We're AWESOME!