Search

Friday Five with Max Lipsey

Max Lipsey is an American designer based in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.  After receiving a B.A. at New York Univeristy, he attended the Design Academy Eindhoven Bachelors program. Since 2008, his studio has been a personal platform to develop and self-produce his own designs, work with companies on mass production, and reach out to initiate group projects. “My personal work reflects my fascinations with nature, material, craft, history, and making, and to bring these fascinations into an object.” Let’s see what inspires Lipsey in this week’s Friday Five. 

1. Steel Fixie and Dutch Canals
There are not a lot of outdoor activities in the Netherlands, but riding a fixie along the arrow straight canals is truly great. Usually lush and green, and paralleled by a nice bike path. No hills, so no gears necessary!

2. Deyrolle, Paris
Deyrolle is a shop in Paris, maybe one of the most unique shops in the world. It’s kind of hidden from the street, and when you walk in, you feel like you’ve traveled back in time. Every corner is full of stuffed exotic animals, there are huge cabinets of insects, and I really dig the green walls. A surreal place.

3. Atelier Brancusi, Paris
Also a Paris highlight, the Atelier Brancusi. A free museum, recreating the workshop of Constantin Brancusi. On one side as you walk in, is a space clustered full of his sculptures. I’d only really ever seen one at a time, in a museum, but the arrangement of so many pieces in one place really gives another, much more vibrant impression, as all the forms play off each other. When you walk around the other side of the museum, maybe even more interesting, is an installation of all of his tools, works in progress, models.

4. Orvillecopter By Dutch Artist Bart Jansen
One of the weirdest, funny, and touching works of art I’ve ever seen. Bart Jansen turned his pet cat Orville into a remote control quadcopter. It seems a bit sick at first, but the cat really looks happy. The YouTube videos of Orville in flight are great.

5. Italian Breakfast
Milan during the Salone Mobile is great, but this may be the thing I look forward to most of all when I visit is a double espresso macchiato (doppio macchiato), freshly squeezed blood orange juice (spremuta), and cream filled croissant (brioche crema). All for five euros, and perfect every time.

Portrait of Max Lipsey by Matylda Krzykowski.

Marni Elyse Katz is a Contributing Editor at Design Milk. She lives in Boston where she contributes regularly to local publications and writes her own interior design blog, StyleCarrot.