Damn, it's 11:45, and I've got a ton of stuff to do, but I can't NOT post about these awesome-looking minimalist alphabet blocks I just found at Stich, a Chicago contemporary design store.
They're designed by Jon Stevenson, and they have the clear, crisp graphics and sans-serif fonts of a true design snob, yet they're also just undeniably great-looking and easy to read. The 1.5 inch cubes are also good for early grasping. (Our pediatrician recommended this size to us, although we gave up; almost all the wooden blocks we saw were 2". As a result, the kid can't pick up anything. Just kidding, her motor skills are so freaky good, she's gonna be a surgeon, or at least an origami master. But I brag AND digress, two strikes.)
What's more, at $27, they're reasonably priced, too. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to break out my musical saw and start busking on the subway platform...let's see, $27, and if I get an average of $1.35 in tips/hr...
Minimalist alphabet blocks, $27 (I'll say it again for no reason: $27) at Stitch [stitchchicago.com, via coudal]
PS They also have cool calfskin stuffed toys--the hippo's my pick--but their lawyers made them say "six years and up" on all of them. Eh.
[PPS Mark from Sparkability writes in: "Take the age six suggestion seriously - the chemicals used in leather tannery do not even live on the same block as nice. I love this leather animal line (made by NY artist Sandy Vohr ), but the thought of somebody's little pooper putting one in their mouth has kept me away. Sandy Vohr also does her animals as bookends, however, and as long as your kidlet can't reach the shelf that they're on that might work in a little kid's room."
Fortunately, the kid-safe paints used on the blocks are "ready to taste," so chew away.]
OK, obviously I need those blocks, but now I'm all freaked out that our baby's favorite thing to chew on is our Eames lounge chair. Which is, of course, leather. Presumably tanned at some point, as leather tends to be. Thanks for the scary information!
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Here is a video of a musical saw playing subway musician (from www.SawLady.com ):
http://www.subwayguru.com/media/saw_lady_062904.mpg
[glad you got the reference. -ed]
They'd better be "ready to taste". We got these blocks last year and had to put them away because they chipped like crazy!
Excellent suggestion. I keep buying beautifully crafted modernist toys in the vain hope that my kid will quit paying attention to all his shiny, bleeping, ugly, plastic ones. He, of course, and quite reasonably, doesn't care a whit for my snotty design aesthetic.