Interiors Magazine photoshoot

10 years ago

Interiors Magazine was just in my office for a photoshoot of the cardboard models of furniture that I make. The photos will appear in the October 2013 issue; no pictures of me :( - just of my work, but I am still happy with that. They took a lot of other photographs in the warehouse here, but they said that my office was the most fun. I'll bet they say that to everyone, but it was definitely fun for me. I like it when I get visitors at work, especially when they are from magazines!

Lars

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Comments (14)

sally2_gw
10 years ago
Cool! I hope I get to see the magazine. Is it on line?

Sally
Lars
Original Author
10 years ago
It is on line, and so you will be able to see it that way for free. I'll post another message in September, when it becomes available. There will also be photos from other parts of the warehouse, to show people working on the actual furniture, as opposed to the cardboard models that I make. We do in-house finishing, upholstery, and wiring (for lighting), and some chair frames are also made in house - especially the ones that are fully upholstered. We use local workrooms for the carved chair frames, case goods, and lighting, although I used to get glass from Italy. Now we get glass for chandeliers and wall sconces from New Jersey! I'm working on a floor lamp now that will have a completely different type of shade.

Lars
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Cathy, do you still have that DVD? Fortunately, I was able to make several copies of it, since it was not commercially released and never copy protected. Most furniture companies do not make full-scale cardboard models, which is one of the reasons that my work is considered unusual. I also met with people from Architectural Digest and they liked my work so much that they sent me a present! A lot of my designs have been published in AD as well, but part of that depends on whether we advertise in them or not. Right now we are advertising more in Interiors, and so that is why they are giving us more coverage. In the past few years, advertising rates in magazines have gone way down, and so it was easier for us to afford the ads. People do not buy printed media the way they used to, but they still buy furniture! I finished the swallows sculptures this week, but I had a tooth extracted and an implant put in on Tuesday, and that knocked me for a loop, and I missed three days of work. I'm back today, but I still feel week and will be on antibiotics through Monday. The sculptures will look better when they have the finish put on. Lars
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It's interesting, but not evidence of anything. It's a magazine readers' poll. People sent in returns to declare their intentions. Reminds me of The Literary Digest and their fatal mistakes in 1936. "Although it had polled 10 million individuals (about 2.4 million of these individuals responded, an astronomical sum for any survey),[3] it had surveyed firstly its own readers, a group with disposable incomes well above the national average of the time...." (wikipedia) . Their list of names was biased in favor of those with enough money for cars, phones and magazine subscriptions (during the 1930's!!). To show what a more scientific basis can produce: using a sample size of only 50,000 George Gallup accurately predicted the results of the 1936 Literary Digest poll. Goes to show that a more valid result is possible if the questions and methods are good to start with. A survey is more accurate than an assemblage of thousands who are self-interested and proud. And who put a stamp on it. Even a survey does not predict success in the real world: declared intentions never correspond to real reactions to new products.
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Haven't really subscribed to mags for years, but I have bought a number at check-out counter in the past two years, primarily the BHG bath-kitchen ones, and Renovation Style, and one called "Kitchen Trends." Often began reading them while waiting for DH in a store. Also bought the Consumer Reports mag at newstand, without paging through it. I like BH&G for its down-to-earth attitude, its placidity with paint and DIY. Triangulating between the posh mags and House Beautiful and the plebian ones helps me see the field better. I did a lot of reading of library copies of Kitchens and Baths and of kitchen remodel guidebooks. We have a fabulous local library system. Sometimes I go spend a couple hours in library reading latest copies of all those titles that others mention above. Our MPR public radio station sponsorships bring us Minnesota Monthly and its occasional companion Midwest Home, which covers the region's high end building industry primarily. This publication is helpful for showing what are the upcoming open houses, shows, etc. and what are the posh kitchens like, but it is also aimed well above my family's interests and budget and has some downright dumb designs in it sometimes. Portions are online--see link. I do know that a number of helpful images at beginning of project came from this mag--sometimes just a color scheme or a shade or something. Also like reading the pieces put out by local industries--the local co. tile mag, the Parade of Homes promos, etc. Thanks for leads to other online mags. I love to browse. Here is a link that might be useful: Midwest Home Magazine
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Hi Bnice. Everybody's right about the issue of a professional photographer. They have all the lights, all the lenses, all the assistants and--more important--all the photography experience that your local decorator with his pocket digital camera likely doesn't have. Besides, those decorators whose work ends up featured in national magazines are incredibly talented, something that a local designer may or may not be, and for good reason. There's usually not much need for brilliantly talented people in places like the town where I grew up, so local talent (in our case, Helen Morgan, Bobby Short, Donald O'Connor, Dick & Jerry van Dyke & Gene Hackman) tends to hit the road early on. That's why, if you look into the background of a lot of big-name designers over the years, you'll find more who grew up in tumble-down hovels in the middle of nowhere--like little Bobby Bray--than you will find kids who grew up in comfy middle-class homes, like Mario Buatta with his society-bandleader father. And even if they didn't grow up in poverty, there's a reason people like Mark Hampton & Billy Baldwin & Cole Porter didn't stay back home in Indiana. It's too bad, but that's the way it is. But it's not just the matter of the designers themselves, there's also the matter of the actual furnishings, as Lenam points out. In most shelter magazines, not only are all the contents of a room gleamingly new--unless, that is, they're priceless antiques--but often they don't even belong to the client, but are merely trucked in by the decorator for the day of the shoot. Some items may belong to the decorator (I've seen the identical antique chair featured in several rooms done by well-published but second-tier designer) or they may be rented from a prop house, or they may be on loan from a fancy-schmancy dealer for the publicity value of a listing in the Where-to-Find-it pages in the back of the magazine, or, if the items are not too valuable, they may be outright gifts to the homeowner. After all, an effiecient workroom can whip up a throw pillow out of a foam insert & a yard of a discontinued fabric in about 2O minutes. So the pictures you see may not reflect anything that has ever existed in the real world. Not, anyway for longer than 24 hours. Meaning that if you went back to that same beautiful house that you saw in the big deal magazine a few weeks after the photo shoot, chances are that many of those those unique pieces would be nowhere in sight. That's why your local stable of designers' rooms aren't quite up to the glossy perfect rooms you see in the sheleter rags. Of course, skeptic that I am, I always suspected that that was truew, but, like Joni at Cote de Texas, I finally got to find out for myself when, last spring, a magazine crew showed up to photograph my apartment. Except that I was the rare householder whose place didn't get messed around with, they used everything just as it really is in real life, so people reading the fall issue of O at Home saw pretty much what I see every single day, except, of course, for the perpetual mountain of shoes by my door this time of year. Oh, sure the OaH crew brought a few fresh flowers & they replaced the dead tree branches in my dining room--debris that I picked up in the street after a freak ice storm last spring--with some branches that had green leaves, but they didn't drag in any uppity limited-edition accessories or borrowed oriental rugs, and they didn't gussy up my sofa with a bunch of unnecessary throw pillows. Basically, it was Magnaverde Unplugged. Even so, having a wonderful photographer like Roland Bello behind the camera--instead of me--made all the difference. But all is not lost, no matter where you live. If you've got a big enough budget, don't think that you're restricted to fishing for small fry in your local talent pool. The big fish are out there, and if the bait's good enough, they're willing to travel. Regards, Magnaverde. Here is a link that might be useful: rolandbello.com
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annie1992
10 years ago
Lars, good for you!

I'm also looking forward to seeing those photos, I'll have to watch for them. I'm sure your office IS the most fun, BTW.

Annie
westsider40
10 years ago
There is no reason in the world that I should be proud of you, but I am! What you do is exciting, creative, artful, practical, a very real product. By dumb luck I frequent these forums and meet neat ppl. In real life, I'd be big time in awe of you. I am a sort of Sunday, lapsed oil painter and art is important to my life and my family's life. I guess that's the connection.

And who doesn't love fresh, creative furniture? So too cool for you.
mustangs81
10 years ago
You know you have a following here! I remember at a CF Get Together our entertainment was watching a Lars the actor video.
sally2_gw
10 years ago
Good. I'm looking forward to seeing it. And, yes, with my memory, no matter how excited I am for you about this, I'll forget by September, so a reminder will be good.

Sally
kitchendetective
10 years ago
Wonderful! I'll be looking forward to the mag.
mitchdesj
10 years ago
Interiors does such high quality photoshoots and it's a very select magazine, we are indeed very proud !!
I've linked it below in case someone would want to peruse it , I have it bookmarked in my favourites already.

Here is a link that might be useful: digital Interiors magazine
Lars
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for your kind comments - it is always nice to be appreciated!

I've attached a photo of a cardboard model of a chair that I made back in 2009. This was a very difficult model to make, especially since I had no help, and so I had to build cardboard scaffolding to hold pieces in place while I attached them. I had to make the back part three times before I got it to where I liked it, and it was very difficult to hold it in place while I secured it. The finished chair is in our showrooms now, but it is not selling as well as I would like. I've done other simpler chairs that sell much better, but I particularly like this one, and it is very comfortable to sit in.

Lars

This post was edited by publickman on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 14:19
annie1992
10 years ago
Lars, that is a very cool chair, I like it a lot. For some reason it reminds me of vintage furniture, back when it was well made and beautiful.

Annie
User
10 years ago
THAT'S CARDBOARD??? Nice !
dedtired
10 years ago
Yeah -- that's cardboard?? Do you have to put up a sign to keep people from sitting on it? Wow.

I never thought about the process that goes into designing furniture. This is very interesting. Can't wait to see the magazine photos.

Cool, Lars. Congrats.
Lars
Original Author
10 years ago
Annie, that chair design is based on an 18th Century chair from Sweden, but I updated it and change the proportions and revised some of the design elements to make it look better and be more comfortable. Our furniture is made the old fashioned way and is not mass produced, and so it has the quality of the antique furniture and in many cases surpasses the antique versions. However, it is also therefore very expensive, and we have a difficult time keeping our costs down, especially with chairs. With case goods and lighting, the items can be very expensive and still sell, but people still want bargains on dining chairs.

I do have a bit of a problem with people thinking they can sit in the cardboard chairs, and our top salesman from New York was here on Monday and tried to sit on one of my cardboard models. He also tried to put his briefcase on several of my cardboard tables, and I had to tell him that nothing in my office was real! He got very flustered, and it looked like I had deliberately set up booby traps! He did enjoy seeing the new tables I have been working on, however, even though I had already sent him photos.

In the forthcoming magazine, the article will go into detail about the design process, I think. They may or may not mention me, and I am only expecting a small photo to appear.

Lars
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
10 years ago
You may not realize what Lars have done is nearly impossible.

Curved three dimensional object is very difficult to make in cardboard.

Contoured three dimensional intersecting objects in cardboard is impossible to construct. It requires extraordinary craftsmanship because you cannot easily contour cardboard.

Amazing work Lars!

dcarch

Interiors Magazine photoshoot

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Interiors Magazine photoshoot

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