Atlanta-based Kelly Market profiled switchmodern's design savant Roy Otwell on her blog. Roy's everywhere these days with good reason. He and partner Doug Henderson are constantly searching the world for the best modern design, and they find it, procure it, and offer it all on switchmodern.

switchmodern doesn't sell kites. Yet. Now that we've seen London-based illustrator Daniel Frost's kites, we're rethinking. His playful designs are suitable for framing, if you happen to live in a windless cove or don't like togo outside. Frost recently had a 2-day show at SHFT Copenhagen Shop exhibiting his beautifully-crafted handmade kites. Whimsical characters populate The Big Kite Show—floating, parachuting, springing and rocketing through the gallery and adorning the walls. Let us know if you want a kite.

Attention airline hostages! Get your art fix at the SFO Museum while running from the gate you had to the gate you need a half-mile away. You won't get this kind of cultural buzz at EWR, LGA, JFK, ATL, CLT, or even LAS.Created in 1980, SFO Museum was the first cultural institution of its kind located in an international airport. An ever-changing schedule of exhibitions on a diverse range of subjects provides an educational and cultural experience for the nearly 30 million passengers who use the Airport annually. SFO Museum has become an integral part of the San Francisco International Airport, and its exhibitions are an established tradition enjoyed by frequent visitors from the San Francisco Bay Area and travelers from all over the world.

switchmodern loves Morris Lapidus (1902-2001). Idiosyncratic, baroque, and flamboyant, Lapidus knew his audience and never compromised his vision. After a career in retail interior design, his first large commission was the Miami Beach Sans Souci Hotel, followed by several transformative hotel commissions along Collins Avenue. In 1952, he landed the largest luxury hotel in Miami Beach, the Fontainebleau Hotel, which was followed the next year by the equally successful Eden Roc. In 2000 Lapidus was honored by the Cooper-Hewitt as an "American Original,"an award created especially for him. From seductive modern shops and private residences to iconic hotels and residential towers in New York, Miami Beach, the Caribbean, and beyond, this iconoclast proves that "too much is never enough." switchmodern hosted a book signing with Deborah Desilets, author of Morris Lapidus:An Architecture of Joy. Dennis Miller Associates' collection of Lapidus furniture are on display, along with a selection of the architect's watercolors.

SCENES FROM A PARTY AT SWITCH SHOWROOM IN ATLANTA

Left: the author, Deborah Desilets. Middle: switchmodern proprietor, Roy Otwell. Right: Morris Lapidus' watercolors

Roy Otwell and Bob Wethington saw it all as they scoured the 2,800 exhibitors ISO beautiful home furnishings, tabletop products, and accessories for switchmodern. We are thrilled that two of our lines were award winners.

Excellence in Product Design

Stelton won for its Pure Black Pure White knives forged from a single piece of stainless steel and coated in black matte titanium, and held on a single, white magnetic strip. A reinterpretation of the classic form, the judges liked its sleek, minimalistic high design.

Overall Excellence

Creative Danes representing Menu won for innovation in outdoor, dining and living products, presentation and technology. Menu's Scandinavian design originals boast clean lines with unexpected functionality to surprise and delight the user.

Modernism Week, the only such event in the country, is an exciting 9-day celebration of mid-century modern design, architecture, and culture. This design aesthetic, originated in the 1950s and 60s, was typified by clean, simple lines and celebrated elegant informality, which came to define desert modernism.

The Museum of the Moving Image, located in Queens, New York, reopened on January 15, 2011, after a major renovation and addition. Its striking new home, desigined by architect Thomas Leeser, features new facilities for interacting with and studying screen culture in all its forms. Since opening in 1988, the museum has advanced the public understanding and appreciation of the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media through its collection of 130,000 artifacts, the largest collection of its kind in the world. switchmodern attended the press preview and was awed by the clean, modern spaces and new venues for rotating exhibitions and the permanent archives. It's easy to get to from Manhattan and is surrounded by good restaurants.

Hmmm. Well, it looks more like a dark pink to us. Being from the South, we are familiar with the twining vines from the family Caprifoliaceae. Sure, there are 180 species, but we Southerners are more familiar with the white/yellow variety and its intoxicating nectar. And yet, we would never second guess the colorists at PANTONE. We were thrilled with last year's pick: Turquoise 15-5519.

PANTONE explains: "Honeysuckle is upbeat and dynamic when used on large areas like the entry area of a house or an apartment. It is an appetite and conversation stimulant when used on the dining room walls. In the kitchen, it adds a fun touch on the table in placemats and other linens (patterned or solid), colored glassware, candles and small appliances. Honeysuckle is a great color to cover up shabby kitchen cabinets, or, if that's too much of a color statement for you, try repainting knobs and drawer pulls."

switchmodern has an item that comes in honeysuckle. This piggy bank is cast from a real pig that died of natural causes. Designed by Harry Allen and manufactured by AREAWARE.

Bank in the Form of a Pig

Challenge: Design a jewel box of an ultra-low-footprint apartment in 420 square feet.

So we’re asking you to redesign a small space thinking about these core ideas:

• transforming space - use one space for work, play, sleep, guests
• digitize everything - photos, books, music
• from ownership to access - think Netflix, Zipcar, Airbnb, etc.
• only the essentials - cut down on extraneous stuff, leaving only what’s really necessary

Finest Materials and Craftsmanship
We at SWITCHMODERN are always ISO of great design, which includes all styles and periods. After all, the past informs the present, which is evident at the Morgan. The building envisioned by McKim embodies the Renaissance ideal of the unity of all the arts, integrating architecture, sculpture, and painting, and utilizing the finest materials and craftsmanship.

McKim created a majestic struc- ture in a classical style based upon villas of the Italian Renaissance. The exterior is constructed of Tennessee pink marble, the blocks set with such precision that virtually no mortar was used. A simple recessed portico is flanked by a pair of stone lionesses.	The multi-tiered library has re-installed, late 19th-century Persian rug of the type origin- ally in the room; and newly designed display cases that exhibit some of its medieval holdings and renowned collect- ions of rare books and literary, historical, and music manu- scripts.	The Study, or West Room, has been enriched by a more substantive display of works from the collection of the early 1900s.	New lighting in the Rotunda enhances the apse, ceiling, and lunettes that depict figures from classical anti- quity and literary epochs of the past.