Having previewed the spring/summer 2010 range from decorated designer Billy Reid almost six months back, we figured it was proper time to give the current looks a little shine. As to be expected, their are some fine checked shirts and relaxed suiting options. Mr. Reid also continues his love affair with Southern foodways via a few playful graphic t-shirts.

Above is the Jonathan jacket, a new piece that blends cotton and linen in a trim blazer. For more of Spring/Summer 2010 from Billy Reid flip the page.

Built of inked walnut and stainless steel, Frank Cresencia’s “Splay Bench” is designed to explore the interplay between interior and exterior space in furniture. With that goal, Cresencia uses the wooden splats to essential expose the guts of the chair – the steel frame that forms its shape. In that shape, he creates a curving barrel with open ends which reveals the internal bend of the seat. It’s rather simple. Yet, through light and shadow could have the potential to tease out some complexity in the relationship between the two materials. (via Industrial Design Served and Curated).

More images of the “Splay Bench” follow.

A handsome bag shouldn’t always come at a handsome price.

Developed for Urban Outfitters, the Brothers Bray and Co. collection continues to bring affordable and quality luggage at moderate price points. The duo behind Billykirk’s latest offering is a duffle bag constructed of woven cotton. Leather accents finish the bag, which includes both carry handles and a removable shoulder strap for ease of transport. (via Acquire).

A military green oxford is a tad out of the norm, but the norm is par for the course of the Lodger Footwear shoe of the month program. The burnished finish adds character and a touch of brown, grey and tan, also offering preview of what’s to come in the fall ready to wear collection. The pattern is new for Lodger and developed on a classic English last.

Lovely curves and a fresh take on a British classic. The Russell Rolled Top oxford is available through the month of April.

More images follow.

Kolor continues to practice what they preach. The Japanese label, known for basing their collections around the three fundamentals of garment making, focus purely on using great materials and achieving their optimum fit. The strongest pieces in Kolor’s collections tend to be the knitwear and the blazers and that trend continues in the AW10 collection, with double breasted check blazers and shawl collared jumpers all making an appearance.

Take a look at the collection after the leap.

One of our favourite blogs out there, It’s Nice That, have just released the third issue of their magazine. It’s a logical extension to the site, collecting the their best features from the site and expanding on them into feature length interviews and features. As you’d expect from a design blog, it’s a handsome looking magazine and uses several tricks of the trade – the cover utilises foil blocking – to make it stand out from the usual newsstand fare. (It’s Nice That)

Take a leap to see spreads from the magazine.

So it’s been a few months since Church’s launched their retail site and it’s still as cumbersome to use as it ever has been. But enough whining, let’s look at these purdy shoes. Longwings are the shoe du jour right now on the interwebs, but we’re still in favour of a good ol’ English brogue – especially a pair of Church’s. The colour’s a great shade of tan (officially called ’sandalwood’) and they’re only gonna get better looking year on year. (Churchs)

As you can probably tell, this season we’re all about bright outerwear. While we enjoying being near monotone in our colour palette, all those light blues – be it chambray, denim or otherwise – need a little lift sometimes. And a coat is an easy quick fix to this problem. You can be as dull as you like in your outfit, but as long as you’ve got a coat like this you’ll be a bawse #norickross. (Oki-Ni)

01. Eisenhower Memorial / Frank Gehry

“Last year Frank Gehry won the design competition for the Eisenhower Memorial, which included six other firms (Perkins & Will, Krueck & Sexton, Rogers Marvel Architects, Moshe Safdie & Associates, Natoma Architects and PWP Landscape Architecture). After that, the firm was asked to produce three options for the members of the Eisenhower Memorial Commision to choose from, from which the final design was chosen a few days ago.” (archdaily)

02. Logorama’s Chaotic Critique of Corporate Rule

“When the French film Logorama won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, producer Nicolas Schmerkin remarked in his acceptance speech, ‘I’m the producer of the film, so I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film. And I have to assure them that no logos were harmed in the making of the project.’  It was a good joke, considering Schmerkin’s directors made use of fast food icon Ronald McDonald as the film’s antagonist, who sprays machine gun fire, curses, and takes hostages. ” (flowtv)

03. Fast Track Songlines For Type

“The new media landscape demanded ‘a new kind of typography’, declared Herb Lubalin before an international assembly of designers back in 1960. Television, though comparatively primitive at the time, required typefaces that could be read while in motion. Similarly, the speed at which advertisements flew by on cars, buses and trains signalled a need for typefaces that were easy to read at peak velocities. Lubalin’s prognostications were spot on in the 1960s, and they still resonate.” (eyemagazine)

04. 100 Years Of Bicycle Posters! (above)

“This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the two machines that have had a profound influence on us. It was roughly in 1872 that color lithography, which made colorful pictorial posters possible, came into popular use; it was also about 1872 that the modern bicycle evolved. It is the coincidence of these two inventions—the modern bicycle and the modern poster—converging and maturing at about the same time, that interested me. It is this founding and parallel growth, as evidenced by the bicycle posters, that this book illustrates.” (tracko)