PROVOKE

verb

To stir up purposely; provide a needed stimulus

/ CECILIA POUPON / “Throughout her work, lighting seems harsh yet soft, as the colours are washed out and the white features become more apparent.” PITCH - PRESENT.

/ A Mesmerizing Marathon of Robert Frank's Movies / “They are jagged and elliptical. They subvert precepts of genre, story, and technique.” The New Yorker.

/ On Beauty: Parsifal / “The expressive power of the music is extraordinary, viscerally conveying pathos, decay, melancholy, and doom, but then rising to heights of shimmering celestial bliss, a kind of crystalline perfection for which we have come to long during endless passages of terrible ambiguity.” Aesop: The Fabulist.

/ 6 Wild Beauty Looks Inspired By Music / “Looks inspired by the way David Bowie used makeup and beauty to express his style.” The Cut.

/ Penguin's Modern Poet Series / “Exciting poetry capable of speaking deeply to, challenging, and exciting its readers is being written on a staggering scale.” Electric Literature.

PROVOKE

verb

To stir up purposely; provide a needed stimulus

/ Barozzi/Veiga Designed An Extension For Bündner Kuntsmuseum in Switzerland / “Here, the design strips away everything that is not structure, construction, and programmatic division, all united in a single whole.” This Is Paper.

/ Director of Helvetica Making Dieter Rams Doc / “If I see a situation I question it,” he says. “Not in a bad way, but in a curious way.” Wired.

/ Muslim Songstress Yuna Talks Breakups and Usher Collabs / “When you focus on something getting better in your life, you forget about everything else that was bringing you down.” Milk.

/ Earth Angel / “Shechet’s installation is a balancing act of respectful and radical.” The New Yorker.

/ Exploring the Concept of Beauty and its Fashion History / “Contemporary fashion and “anti-fashion” continues to challenge beauty standards and dissemble established notions of taste; but does this inevitably mean establishing new ones?” AnOtherMag.

Image.

PROVOKE

verb

To stir up purposely; provide a needed stimulus

/ The Most Famous Cloud in the World / “The man who conjures clouds indoors, shows the magic behind his temporary sculptures.” Nowness.

/ The Proust Questionnaire: From Literary Curio to Prestige Quiz / “We can surely recognize the everlasting unease of the great psychologist who, in his subtle turns of phrase, strived to reflect the most elusive nuances of thought no matter what.” The New Yorker.

/ A Photo Series, with Audience Participation / “Visually, his images observe the play of light and time passing, depicting sculptural paper as a weighty constant that brings meteorites to mind.” The New York Times.

/ On Working For Andy Warhol, Good Content & Ricky Martin / “It’s mildly addictive and it’s engaging on several levels. It engages you emotionally and it engages you intellectually. ” The New Potato.

/ Music For The Trees | Mix 015: Tsukasa Ito / “The story, where heaven and earth, cosmic and human compounds.” This Is Paper.

Image.

Are you familiar with the L.A.-based accessories line, Building Block? Inspired by the concept of returning to “square one” and emphasizing functionality over excess, it’s one of our go-to brands for remarkable, yet usable, bags, wallets, and accessories. We chatted with Nancy and Kimberly Wu, the design duo behind the brand, covering their current obsessions, methods for staying calm amidst chaos and their favorite products.

Kimberly

What are 3 products you can’t live without? 
A cast iron pan, tape measure and Yube brand chapstick.

Current book you’re reading, if not much of a reader, current song or album you’ve been listening to? 
10:04: A Novel by Ben Lerner

If you weren’t a designer, what other occupation could you see yourself in? 
Antiques dealer.

What keeps you stable during the chaos of your work? 
Tidying up at home as a means of distraction.

Where is your favorite place to pass the time or take a break?
Currently, a walk through our Chinatown neighborhood. Sometimes stopping to get a boba at 3 p.m.

Nancy

What are 3 products you can’t live without? 
Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate with Cornflakes, the Building Block coin dumpling and Vans Authentics.

Current book you’re reading, if not much of a reader, current song or album you’ve been listening to? 
The Importance of Being Iceland by Eileen Myles

If you weren’t a designer, what other occupation could you see yourself in? 
I’d work for Iwasaki Be-I, the biggest plastic food manufacturer in Japan. I'd love to make meticulous models of fake display food all day.

What keeps you stable during the chaos of your work? 
An early morning walk by myself before heading to work keeps my mind in check. Instead of letting emails or social media immediately dictate the pace of the day, it's nice to give myself 30 minutes of empty space to just let my mind wander and remember how to think.

Where is your favorite place to pass the time or take a break?
Swimming off of Goff Cove in Laguna Beach.

> See the Building Block Collection at Idun right here.