As a little pick-me-up, I bought a cheerful new lipstick at MAC recently, designed by Dutch wonder-designer Marcel Wanders. I liked the look of the lipstick tube itself, which resembles a turned wooden leg of a table.
Which leads me to the pleasing setup above, also from Meneer Wanders–the business-class table setting of KLM. Evidently, this has been a project of his for some time. It’s lovely, with the scalloped edges that instantly remind you that you’re not on US Airways.
Tags:airlines·Dutch·Dutch design·great design·KLM·Netherlands
Something about fall makes me want to be surrounded by piles of beautiful books. Books are the best way to dream about places to visit, aren’t they?
My fall list includes re-reading Alledaags, which I bought in the Netherlands this summer. It’s written by a Kiwi illustrator who put an image to each day of a year in Amsterdam. Check out the samples. It’s funny, clever, and true. What could be better?
For the end of design week, I wanted to share this great homemade-design blog I recently came across, Vlijtig. As previously mentioned in this post, one of the reasons I wanted to learn Dutch this year is because I love their aesthetic and wanted to be able to read Dutch design magazines.
I’m not there yet, and so, thank heavens for blogs like Vlijtig that help me make sense of it all.
Tags:Blogs·design·Dutch·Netherlands
When I talk about loving the Dutch design aesthetic, what I mean is a spectrum that includes the crazy modern stuff like the kind Droog creates. I actually have a set of these bikes straps to use in your house. I have no idea what I’ll use them for, mind you, but I just love the idea of taking something so practical and making it a design element on the wall. Plus, hello novelty!
As already mentioned in a previous post, I had a vision for my time at the Regina Coeli Language Instititute. (You can see a video of my daily Dutch commute, if you like.) I knew it was a unique opportunity, and I wanted a quiet respite for my time there. Most guidebooks that cover the [...]
Tags:Dutch·Netherlands
I had a vision for my time at the Regina Coeli Language Institute (a.k.a Dutch Princess School), and that vision involved biking to and from school, in order to give myself a physical break after a long, mentally challenging day. I admit that almost an Eat Pray Love-style cliche, but I don’t care. I’ll own that’s it’s something almost exactly like this European fantasy.
I searched the Google maps nearby towns looking for a B&B, and mapped out my route using Google street view. It looked like the total commute time by bike would be 30 minutes, 45 tops. After my freakout about how it would work and my test drive in Delft, I found out that the Netherlands really makes biking easy, no matter where you are.
Video of my daily ride after the jump.
If you read my previous post (How Zen Is Citizen M?), you probably want to know the answer to the following question:
OK, how was it staying in a hotel room with a toilet in the middle of the room?
But hold on a second–there’s more to the story of the Citizen M.
When I checked in to the Amsterdam branch of the hotel, it wasn’t a good first start. I had made a reservation for the previous week, but had to cancel it. Unfortunately, they canceled BOTH reservations, and had no record of me in their system when I showed up for second reservation. Things were shaping up to be a fail.
When I used to travel for a living, updating travel guidebooks, I would often think to myself: Why isn’t this making me happier? After all, for lots of people who don’t know better, being a travel writer is a dream job…in theory.
I realized that when you’re being paid to do something, it’s work. Period. It might not be anything as difficult as working in a coal mine, but it still is work. When I was in the Netherlands, rocketing from place to place, I would sit on the train, noticing the neat bicycle lanes that ran out across the flat fields into infinity. Where were people biking to on those paths?
Tags:Amsterdam·Holland·Netherlands
I’m a fan of the blog Travel 2.0. Troy talks about the intersection of social media and travel, which I appreciate. (We’ve posted before about why travel–and travel writing in particular–seems behind the social-media curve.)
Sometimes, though, there’s an extra chapter to the story after the blog post happens. Read his summary of a cool campaign KLM did involving free, personalized luggage tags.
We often comment on lazy travel writing on newelty, but every once in a while, we come across a great piece by a writer who seems dedicated to and knowledgeable about the subject matter. This month’s Condé Nast Traveler includes a great piece by Raphael Kadushin on the Boemen Route in the Netherlands–a bicycle trail [...]
