Marni Katz

December's Designer Dailies focuses on a well-known favorite, contemporary furniture design company, Blu Dot. Its founders, John Christakos, Maurice Blanks, and Charles Lazor (who has since left), were college buddies who all appreciated architecture, art, and design, and all of whom were less than thrilled with the furnishings they could afford once they graduated. Rather than simply complaining, in 1997 they formed Blu Dot, with the goal of bringing good design to as many people as possible. Here's a slice of how they get that accomplished.

Artist Patrick Wilson, who lives and works in Los Angeles, explores mid-century modernism in his boxy abstract works. We're inspired by his color blocking combinations, as are the Hirschhorn and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which both own his work. Wilson is a self-described "slow motion action painter," who relies on intuition in the creative process. In terms of technique, he uses a drywall blade to drag layers of translucent and opaque coats of paint across the canvas to gradually build his architectural compositions. We used Colourlovers to create palettes for three of his works in this week's installment of CMYLK.

John and Wonhee Jeong Arndt of Studio Gorm met while studying in the masters program at the design academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. They set up their first studio in Rotterdam, though today, they are located in Eugene, Oregon. Let's see what inspires the pair who make simple, practical, and always beautiful products and environments, in this week's Friday Five.

Despite her gift for color, Maria Llado never imagined she'd become an interior designer. Hailing from Madrid, Llado studied a multitude of artistic disciplines, including advertising art, fine arts, and photography before enrolling in a course in interior design at St. Martin's in London. Her claim to fame? Woody Allen liked her work so much, he filmed some scenes of Vicky Cristina Barcelona in a villa she had decorated. For CMYLK this week, we created Colourlovers palettes for three rooms in a waterside home she did in Trasvia, Cantabria.

This week's Friday Five subject is Ran Lerner, who studied industrial design in Milan, but has been a New Yorker for over a dozen years now. Lerner is best known for the witty sensibility of the products he designs, including those for Umbra, Acme, Rosenthal, Kikkerland, Nambe, and others. He also believes in promoting eco-friendly manufacturing through the efficient use of material and low energy fabricating technologies. Let's see what makes him tick. (Yes, he designed the clock behind him.)

Two weeks ago I rounded up inspiration to up your curb appeal with 12 Brightly Colored Front Doors. Today, we're thinking that the color should come right on in. Here are 12 examples of bold doorways throughout the house, from inside the front door to the bedroom in shades of chartreuse, tomato red, cobalt, and even hot pink.

Raised and educated in New England, David Rasmussen was exposed to the region’s rich culture of fine furniture making from a young age. Rasmussen trained with furniture masters Wayne Marcoux and Dan Mosheim, from whom he learned composition and fabrication techniques. Later, he studied Danish, Ming Dynasty, and contemporary American studio furniture. Today, Rasmussen works out of his studio in Carbondale, Colorado. He concentrates on furniture and architectural built-ins, particularly custom pieces which he offers through artisan site collective CustomMadefor. However, for this month's Deconstruction, Rasmussen walks us through the process of creating his updated take on the wooden plate he calls the WUD.

Meet Wendy Downs of Moop, a Pittsburgh company that hand makes bags for men, women, and kids.

Kate Tucker is an Australian artist based in Melbourne who works mostly with painting and mixed media installation. She is inspired by the kaleidoscopic wonder of flora and fauna, which immediately makes sense upon viewing her lush, vibrant abstract pieces. For this week's CMYLK, we mocked up Colourlovers palettes of three acrylic works she created this year.

If you've stuffed a Christmas stocking in the last ten years, chances are you've used a product conceived by Knock Knock. You know them, those tongue-in-cheek sticky notes and pre-printed grocery list pads in perky colors. Berkeley, California native Jen Bilik, who founded the company in 2002, achieved her goal, which was to create witty, design-driven goodies. Let's check out her inspirations in this week's Friday Five, some of which should make you smile.

Holly Wick opened her eponymous shop, Holly's House exactly one year ago, motivated by the desire to bring fresh, new design to West London. Wick, who also runs an interior design consultancy, stocks heaps of fantastic items from established brands, including Moooi and Diamantini & Dominiconi, alongside indie talent from the likes of Phoebe Richardson and Andy Macgregor. Let's celebrate Wick's first year of success with a Design Store(y) so we can learn (and see) more.

This month, Destination Design travels to the world's first ever wholly submerged getaway, the Poseidon Undersea Resort, which will be located in a lagoon off a private island in Fiji. The property, which is relatively small compared to a similar but much larger project being proposed in Dubai, was developed by L. Bruce Jones, president of U.S. Submarines, Inc. The resort is comprised of 25 guest suites, spa, 100-seat restaurant, bar/lounge, fitness center, conference room/wedding chapel/theater, and of course, a dive shop. Not a diver? No problem. Guests descend via elevator from a pier.