Friday Five

Martin Yeeles, a graphic designer, is this week's Friday Five subject, and the co-founder and creative director of Boston-based stationery and gift company, Bob’s Your Uncle. He created all of the Bob’s Your Uncle line, which includes boldly contemporary greeting cards, gift wrap, place mats, file folders, dish towels, and more. In 1993, he and his wife, company co-founder and former shoe designer Michele Yeeles, moved to the States from their native England “just for a year or two,” and never left. In case you're not familiar with the saying, “Bob’s your uncle” is a British expression used to indicate that a given task is very simple. It was possibly inspired by Victorian Prime Minister, Robert Cecil, who appointed his nephew to a ministerial post. Translation: having Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success. Let's see where Bob, I mean, Martin, finds inspiration.

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.

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.)

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.

This week's installment of Friday Five highlights Antoine Roset, the great-great-grandson of the founder of French furniture house Ligne Roset (whose name was also Antoine Roset). Roset, who grew up in Lyon, now lives in New York, and as the Executive VP of Roset USA, oversees the company's North American division. As a lifelong witness to and key player in this long-standing family business (his father and uncle are the co-owners), Roset has spent more time than most absorbing good design. Let's see what he admires, shall we?

As a child with talents in drawing and math, Bruce Bolander heard the suggestion, “You should be an architect” so often that he took it to heart, graduating cum laude with a degree in architecture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1989. In Cal Poly’s workshop, he also learned to make elegant, one-of-a-kind furniture with steel and castoffs. While Bolander designs both residential and commercial structures, his Malibu-based firm s specializes in creative offices for film production and editing facilities. Let's see what inspires him in this week's Friday Five.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.