ANNIE NGUYEN – Design Director, Los Angeles

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai'i, Annie Nguyen now lives and works in Los Angeles. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, she spent several years in marketing and advertising. Today, Annie works as a Design Director specialised in branding, identity, marketing strategy and product consulting. 

When she’s not working or writing about music for Space&Sound – a music and art collective that she co-created with some of her friends – she’s a hobbyist photographer. Annie’s photography is largely influenced by her passion for architecture, fashion and designer products, as you’ll notice when scrolling through her work below. 

Besides that, she’s currently working on a ‘dynamic connection channel’ called Since I Left You that she set up with some of her colleagues. The aim with this project is to create connections with people both living in Hawai'i and abroad, and to keep these conversations going. “This project is intended to give back to Hawai'i, my home, by providing stories of those who have moved away from the islands and what they are doing now”, explains Annie. 

We surely will hear a lot from her in the future, not least because Annie has some really exciting project releases coming up. So make sure to keep an eye out.
 

@annienguyen

annienguyen.net

spaceandsound.org

sinceileftyou.org

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The composition of images below is a personal selection of Annie's Favourite Places, her Daily Essentials and the things that inspire her.

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My favorite museum. The Tate Modern in London.

Yves Klein #blue #cobalto #art

Totokaelo, the cultishly adored Seattle-based retailer, is setting up shop in SoHo

Record player by Dieter Rams

5 Things You Must Do in Stockholm - via Condé Nast Traveler

Building Block - Los Angeles based company

Perfect pair: The Apartment by The Line opens a sister boutique in Los Angeles

Le Labo Santal 26 Candle - a home essential

The Apartment by The Line – Los Angeles

Antelope Canyon - 10 amazing places to see one day

Acne Studios Lark Oxford

The Stairway to Heaven, also known as the Haiku Stairs, is a series of 3,922 steps in Oahu, Hawaii on the Koolau Mountain Range

Melitta Baumeister Graduation Collection - via Thisispaper Magazine

The Apartment by The Line

Kafka on the Shore

Chemex Coffee Maker - My daily companion

Aesop Oscar Freire (São Paulo, Brazil)

Acne Studios, Eastern Columbia Building in Downtown Los Angeles, USA

Nike Rift Big Eyes Little Soles

Yves Klein - Lucio Fontana - Milan Paris 1957-1962 Exhibition Museo Del Novecento, Milan

Covent Garden - London. One of my favorite places.

LIQUID SPACES – Installations and Spatial Experiences

Liquid Spaces is one or favourite books among Gestalten’s publications for this season. Edited by Sofia Borges, Sven Ehmann and Robert Klanten, Liquid Spaces explores the impact of spatial and tangible experiences on human perception and the notion of lasting, sensual encounters. 

This discourse is becoming increasingly important as – in today’s hyper digitalised age – unforgettable experiences lay the foundation of a meaningful dialogue and relationship between artist and audience, museum and visitor or brand and consumer. 

“Surprising materials, colors, shapes, and surfaces provide the props, which alongside innovative smells, sounds, and lighting concepts come together in expansive, stage-like gestures with sculptural details.” 

Divided into four different sections – Geometric Spaces, Ephemeral Spaces, Theatrical Spaces and Immersive Spaces – the book intriguingly showcases the many different ways in which galleries, museums, temporary events, pop-up shops and flagships stores playfully experiment with the idea of crafting an impactful spatial experience. This said, diving into its 256 pages, you’ll find a wide spectrum of unconventional environments and extraordinary spaces created by artists, scenographers, and architects as well as both interior and exhibition designers.

Photographed by Ali Baïlon for GOODS WE LIKE

FIVE ELEPHANT – Specialty Coffee Roastery

During our last trip to Berlin, we had the chance to visit Five Elephant Coffee – a specialty coffee micro roastery nestled in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Truly passionate about quality, their goal is to source the best coffee in the world in a way that is both socially and environmentally responsible. With the aim to open up the ‘coffee conversation’, Five Elephant not only visit their partners at their farms, but foster a sustainable relationship and open dialogue with their farmers year-on-year. And if you have the chance to speak to one of the guys, then go for it; their passion for and knowledge about coffee is fascinating.

Currently, Five Elephant offers five different coffees, ranging from Idido (Ethiopia) – the coffee that got them hooked on specialty coffee -, Juliette Ab (Kenya), El Naranjal (Guatemala), Bifdu Gudina (Ethiopia) and Kamwangi Aa (Kenya).

The roastery also has a beautiful coffee and cake shop, which is definitely worth the visit the next time you’re in Berlin. And the smell of freshly roasted coffee only adds to its atmosphere. Make sure to enjoy a slice of their homemade cheesecake and a freshly brewed cup of coffee – sip by sip. Location: Reichenberger Strasse 101, 10999 Berlin

FREDERIK ROIJÉ – Guidelines Magazine Rack

Simply beautiful. Made from a powder-coated steel framework, ‘Guidelines’ is a beautifully designed magazine rack by Frederik Roijé. A nice-to- have interior design piece for any magazine lover, Guidelines allows you to display up to nine of your favourite magazines and covers in the most artful way.

Known for their creative and innovative approach to product and spatial design, Frederik Roijé specialises in furniture, lighting, interior and industrial design.

STELTON x SOMETHING DESIGN – Collar Coffee Set

‘Collar’ is a new brewing collection designed by Italian studio Something Design for Danish brand Stelton. 

Apparently, the objective was clear: to inject enjoyment into the ritual of coffee brewing. Although practical and functional in its purest sense, the collection – which consists of a coffee grinder, jar, milk jug and sugar bowl – does by no means lack design thinking and aesthetic consciousness. 

Inspired by both Scandinavian design and ‘cultural observations’, Collar will sit perfectly in any coffee and design lover’s home. Available from September.

ONEOFTHOSE – An Olfactory Design Project

oneofthose is an Italian fragrance brand with probably one of the most intriguing conceptual approaches towards perfume creation that we’ve come across so far. 

Founded by Alberto Borri, the Italian brand creates artistic fragrances based on the elements in the periodic table; think Oxygen, Helium and Sulphur for example. In collaboration with master perfumers such as Evelyne Boulanger, Antoine Lie and Nicolas Bonneville, oneofthose develop fragrances inspired by the origins of the cosmos. The result is a captivating collection of olfactive interpretations created to invoke a sense of human origin, cosmic memory and personal expression.

It is not only the brand’s underlying philosophy that feels unique, but also their packaging: the perfumes are sealed in a hermetic polystyrene shell, which must be broken in order to reach the bottle. 

2016 saw the release of Curium [96Cm] – the latest addition to the brand’s collection of fragrances. Curium is one of the earliest radioactive elements discovered; and is named after Pierre and Marie Curie, the scientists who discovered and isolated the element in 1944.
Evelyne Boulanger, the nose behind ‘Curium - Obsessive Caress’, explains that she tried to capture Marie Curie’s unique personality with this perfume: “I was inspired by a brilliant mind, strongly accurate yet vivid, joyful and imaginative. A creation which could be an enveloping force, a concentrate of emotions, able to push the boundaries of conventional thought…” What you can expect is a radiation of ambrette seeds and colourful traces of pepper, cinnamon and red berry (top note), contrasting with trails of iris and violet (middle note), and rounded off with notes of deep vetiver and bright musk (dry out). 

The Italian perfume house oneofthose marries family tradition with conceptual, innovative thinking, and is doing an impressive job in capturing the essence of the elements they intend to call upon.

AANDERSSON – Olov Bowl

Philadelphia based design concept AANDERSSON specialises in experimental approaches to ceramic design. Founded by Ian Anderson, the studio’s collections are generally defined by an intriguing interplay between the juxtaposition of both familiar and fundamental design elements and highly considered functional forms.

AANDERSSON’s Olov bowl is part of the deconstructions collection, which explores the impact of radical alteration on the ultimate functionality of traditional utilitarian forms. All pieces in the collection remain functional. Material: premium quality porcelain.

GAVIN COYLE – Companion Magazine Rack

‘Companion’ is magazine rack inspired by a dog fetching the paper. As such, this joyful interior design piece fits one rolled newspaper in its ‘snout’, with plenty of space for magazines in its body. Material: powder-coated, wire formed steel

Gavin Coyle Studio is a workshop based in London that designs and crafts products to be enjoyed, used and lived with. With a small team of skilled cabinetmakers, the studio aims to create timeless products that are unpretentious and quiet yet have an enduring presence in the home. The studio’s design philosophy is very much based around the ethos less is more, with products carefully designed to be long-lasting.

SAKHI – Organic Skincare Made from Nigella Oil

SAKHI is a new skincare brand from Copenhagen that formulates natural skin and hair remedies based on organic Nigella oil. Copenhagen based, and of Afghan-Persian origins, founder Farah Sakhi created a brand that fuses a contemporary Scandinavian approach to pure skincare with timeless Eastern traditions of healing and well-being derived from the bioactive Nigella Superseed. Beautifully conceptualised, Sakhi’s clean design and packaging only reinforce the brand’s philosophy. 

So what is it that makes Nigella oil a naturally efficacious skin remedy? First and foremost, Nigella oil is the pure, concentrated extract of the Nigella Sativa Superseed found in parts of North Africa, Southwest Asia and Southern Europe. The oil carries more than 100 chemical compounds and essential acids as well as proteins, minerals and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, and C. It is this unique combination of potent micronutrients that gives it its extraordinary anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties. 

Tried and tested, we are huge fans of Sakhi’s Face Oil – a unique blend of 11 carefully selected organic plant oils, ideal for all ages and skin types. Besides Sakhi’s signature pure, cold-pressed Nigella oil, this remedy is supercharged with nourishing fatty acids omega 3 and 6, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. As your daily dose of nourishing protection, it is both preventive and healing. Despite its richness, you’ll find it an easily absorbed, ‘dry’ blend formulated to provide moisture without that greasy feeling.