Take 5: Knitted Lights, Frequented Substacks, Pearl Phone Straps + More
Twice a month we’re inviting one of the Design Milk team members to share five personal favorites – an opportunity for each of us to reveal the sort of designs we love and appreciate in our own lives from a more personal perspective. Senior Contributing Editor Vy Yang joins this week for our Take 5 series.
1. Sangmin Oh
I’m fascinated by this artist/designer who creates the most unusual sculptures out of textiles. He is pushing the boundaries on what you can do with fabrics, manipulating them into different textures and freeform shapes. For this year’s Milan Design Week, he merged sculpture, lighting, and textile design together for his exhibition, Knitted Light, which definitely gives me “Stranger Things” vibes.
2. The Meaningful Modern Home: Soulful Architecture and Interiors by Celeste Robbins
This is one Phaidon’s newest releases which I was fortunate enough to preview. For a while now, I’ve noticed a shift from monochromatic spaces to ones with thoughtful layers of art, furniture, and curated pieces, like the ones in this book. I love that this book shows just how warm, inviting, and holistic today’s modern homes can be. If you’re looking for inspiration, the photography in this book is beautiful and captures the details of nine homes across the country.
3. Most Frequented Substacks
It seems like everyone’s getting on the Substack train and I am completely here for it. I love the more authentic voice everyone seems to be freeing on this platform; it reminds me of the olden (and golden) days of blogging, without constant ads and sponsorships influencing the writing. I personally subscribe to a few writers whose content I find valuable or curious enough to pay for. If you need a few recommendations, might I suggest Unsquare (by Design Milk’s very own founder, Jaime Derringer), House Call with Kate Arends (perfect for interior design enthusiasts), What I Put On Today (by Megan Alida Strachan, founder of Dorsey, who’s making lab-grown diamonds more popular than their traditionally mined diamonds), and A La Carte (by Ali Labelle; I love her Notes Of series which dissects thematic thinking through a monthly mood board).
4. Ceramics by Paula Atelier
I’m constantly on the hunt for cute room decor for my kids’ rooms and love these ceramic alphabets by Paula Atelier. I love how bulbous the shapes are (they remind me of donuts!) and they’re a fun alternative to the wooden name signs I typically see in nurseries.
5. Ossa Phone Accessories
This is a new-to-me brand that’s making phone accessories cool again. Make note, this is not your cheap phone case/strap that you’ll replace every few months. This is like jewelry for your phone. Ossa uses materials like natural gemstone beads and freshwater pearls to elevate your tech and keep them easily accessible on your body. Seeing as we use our phones every single day, the cost per wear with this accessory will work out to be mere cents. Well worth it to keep our most used devices close by in a fun and fashionable way.
