Vladimir Kagan's Blog

KAGAN-U: A One Year Postgraduate Course in Design

Copyright Vladimir Kagan 2010

This is the only free University course that I know of. Classes are limited to ONE.

To qualify, applicants must have graduated with an Architecture, Industrial Design, or Furniture Design degree. (While I love interior designers, their educational qualifications may not meet our school's prerequisite.)

Applicants must have excellent computing skills. Specifically:

Knowledge of Mac Operating Systems

AutoCAD

Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

3D Modeling and Rendering Programs: Rhino, 3D Studio Max, and Sketch Up

Social Media Management--Including Blogging, Facebooking and Tweeting

Must be able to write specifications and be sophisticated enough to handle interpersonal client relations. 

Applicant must be able to create graphics for print projects, have library skills to take charge of archival drawings and designs. (This process will familiarize the applicant with an in-depth knowledge of furniture design.)

A college sport activity such as baseball, Lacrosse, can be an asset. This university wants a team player. 

College Design and Architecture majors have learned to focus on details. We will teach our student patience - an open mind - the importance of multitasking and a desire to see the job to fruition.

We guarantee a transition from academia to the real world of design and business.

Course curriculum includes:

1.     Nothing is cast in stone; never be dog headed about anything. Keep an open mind.

2.     Life must be flexible at all turns of the day, week or project; In a small multifaceted business, priorities can change by the day and sometimes…minute.

3.     Multitasking - New challenges are thrown in daily…we teach how to keep ALL the balls in the air.

4.     There is often more than “One Road to Mecca”. While your school projects taught you to focus on a single assignment, we will teach real life requirements with multi-solution to a given problem.

5.    We insist on drawing skills. Draw, Draw, Draw. Many students, who are electronically savvy, have forgotten the basic skill of drawing. 

A graduate of Kagan-U will walk away with more information and skills that he or she might learn in 4 years of Academia.

Reward: A door opener to a future career.

Applicant must provide own room and board…proximity to the upper east side of Manhattan is a definite asset.

Scholarship Fund: there is a small stipend....enough for a few beers or lipstick, but not enough to pay all expenses.

Next semester starts September 1st!

Send resume and samples of recent work as one PDF to [email protected]. Files exceeding 5MB will not be considered.

THE ROOM CLOSED TO WOMEN

Copyright Vladimir Kagan 2010

This article is addressed to my female audience. With Woman's Lib, there are very few doors closed to you these days. The Board Room, The exclusive Men's Clubs, Yacht Clubs, Even the White House is within reach. There is only one room that you are permanently barred from: the Men's Room. And that is a pity, as you are missing a great contribution to design: The Pissoir. Seldom has function and design been married so creatively. I take my hat off to the unsung designers that have applied their skills to this amazingly utilitarian devise. Ever since man has stopped relieving himself against the nearest tree, countless designers and manufacturers have devoted their talents and productivity to this appliance.

The utility completely dictates the design. It is seldom-decorative safe for an imprinted fly on the back of the porcelain to improve the aim. While the toilet is a simple utilitarian and ugly devise, modified only cosmetically, the pissoir is by contrast, a work of art.

I have been inspired by this creativity and photographed these hidden treasures for your enjoyment.

 





      
      

2010 STARS OF DESIGN at DCOTA

Copyright   2010

Vladimir Kagan

 

The Design Center of the Americas, affectionately known by its acronym: DCOTA is a veritable beehive of activity at beginning of January. For it's Winter Market it features a “virtual” Show House within its vast confines. It is the only show house, that I have seen, that isn't really a freestanding building. Instead, its sagacious owner, Charles Cohen, has constructed a building within a building to feature some of South Florida's brightest and talented designers. In typical Florida style, the rooms are vibrant and sparkling as opposed to their Northern counterparts, which are often more sedate. As always, in a show house, each designer's personality is boldly expressed as you wander through the labyrinth of interconnecting rooms and corridors. The Show house is open to the public until June 11th. Well worth a trip to South Florida especially if you're looking for an interior designer to do your home.


 

To add luster to this event, The DCOTA features an awards evening called Stars Of Design. The awards cover a broad range of the arts…no discipline is left out. This year the award for Interior Design was given to Sam Robin, Architecture to Max Strang, Photography: Robin Hill, Jewelry Design: Nicholas Varney. Art to Carlos Betancourt, Landscape Design & Architecture: Jeff Blakely and Graphic Design: Laura Paresky…. What brought me to this event was that I was to be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.



From Left: Charles Cohen (President and CEO of DCOTA), Ana Dinese Miranda (Friend of Art Honoree Carlos Betancourt), Max Stang (Architecture Honoree), Sam Robin (Interior Design Honoree), Vladimir Kagan (Lifetime Achievement Honoree), Laura Paresky Gould (Interior Design Honoree), Jeff Blakely (Landscape Architecture Honoree), Robin Hill (Photography Honoree).

Now starts my saga: I dutifully fly to Palm Beach on Monday night, where we have a winter hideaway. Emergency repairs were in progress in our cabana as we were plagued with the scourge of Florida: Termites. Tuesday was spent with the contractor reviewing progress and digging though the shambles of our possessions.  

You will NOT believe what happened!


In my calendar, the DCOTA event was to be on Wednesday.



Being anal about commitments, I called the marketing director of the DCOTA to confirm my expected time of arrival.…Unfortunately, I could only be connected with an assistant in the department, who promised to call back. That call finally came at 4:45 PM.



“The event starts at 5:30.... GREAT.... tomorrow? NO Today!!!!”





Turns out that originally the date was for Wednesday, but months ago it was changed to Tuesday. A stack of invitations had been mailed to my office clearly stating the date, but all I checked was that my name was spelled correctly!

What followed was chaos.



“No problem…I'll be there” was my feeble response. We quickly changed from casual shorts and T-shirt into presentable clothing and Erica and I dash off to Ft. Lauderdale. Traffic was horrendous… Thanks to the HOV lane, I was able to make good time…. we stayed in touch by cell…. Fortunately, I was scheduled to be the last person to be presented with the award. Careful calculations indicated each award would take 8 minutes (giving me 54 minutes for the drive.) I arrived, just three recipients away from my award!.…It was a near catastrophe, but I survived with bells on. My dilemma made for an amusing acceptance speech with my most profound design observation; All the ladies in their stiletto heals and revealing costumes were the highlight of the show.

 

Reward…a silver Tiffany bowl for my trophy shelf!


Receiving the Award

Fellow Honorees Max Strang and Laura Paresky Gould 

Honorees Sam Robin, Vladimir, and Robin Hill

Vladimir with a friend  

Erica Kagan, Vladimir, and Charles Cohen

A great After Party!

The talented Ashlee Harrison, Director of Marketing at DCOTA 

MOMENT OF LUXURY with BILL STUBBS

Copyright Vladimir Kagan 2010

Some five years ago, while doing an event for the International Home Furnishing Center in High Point, I met a designer from Houston Texas by the name of Bill Stubs. My other panelists were unmemorable, but Bill stood out a jovial good-natured chap. I had no clue how important he was in our profession. I Googled him and found:

Bill Stubbs has been involved in design, merchandising and marketing for more than 30 years. He is president of William W. Stubbs and Associates, an international interior design firm based in Houston, and the firm's projects include multi-million dollar estates in exotic locations, renovations of historical buildings, private homes, commercial multi-family properties and most recently, the interior design of a large corporate jet.

 

We chatted about this and that and found that soon he was going to host a PBS show on interior design called Moments of Luxury. I filed this tit-bit on my computer for future reference. Bill and I would infrequently meet in odd places and our camaraderie continued. The show was still in the planning stage but moving forward.

 

A few months ago, while we were in Europe, my office received a phone call from WLRI-PBS, Bill’s producers, that they wanted to interview Erica and me in our home the day after we returned from Europe. Erica goes into a tailspin with this kind of news, being the good housewife that she is. The fact that our apartment was in turmoil, as we had just remodeled it to make room for our Daughter Vanessa, husband Matt and three daughters to move in with us, might have had something to do with it! But I am the casual sort and figured a good opportunity should not be missed. I knew, that by filming segments of the apartment, it could be spruced up and no one would know the difference. By ten AM a team of eight cameramen, directors, gofers and scripter’s turned up. Our home became a TV studio. Bill showed up an hour later, jovial as ever. How he finds the time to do this between his thriving career that takes him monthly to clients in Russia, the oil-rich Stans and Asia…. but somehow he does and thrives on it.

 

The theme of the show is moments of luxury…this was hardly the time. More like Chaos reigns. It reminded me of when years earlier, we were being interviewed for the Lives of The Rich and Famous at a time when I was nearly going broke! We did eight hours of taping for what will be an eight minute segment…. fascinating. It airs on WLIW at various times and can be seen online at the PBS website here: http://watch.wliw.org/video/1380502093/

 

The question was naturally sprung, “What are your Moments of Luxury”? I struggled hard to be glib and sophisticated. I decided Nantucket had the right cache and my sailing was the best photo-op, though it is hardly a moment of luxury. It is trial by fire, with often rough seas, fluky winds, risk of capsizing, ranting by your fellow sailors trying to scream you down with their superior knowledge of the racing rules.

 

I could not confess that my “Moment of Luxury” was crawling into my soft padded bed at the end of the day, with my eiderdown duvet on top of me!

Again, you can see the segment online at:

http://watch.wliw.org/video/1380502093/

THIS TIME, I AM REALLY STEPPING ON THIN ICE!

Copyright Vladimir Kagan 2010

I was taught: if you want to get on in this world, never discuss politics, sex or religion! So here goes:

…I like President Obama!…I think that he is a decent man. Yes, he was groomed for the job in one of the most politically corrupt districts in America: Chicago. He is ambitious…(every politician is). Vain. (He has a right to be.) Driven. (That's what it takes to get thing done.) The rest of the rhetoric is B.S. I believe he has the ability to lead and squire us through the most difficult times in this country's history. Is he doing a good job? It's a tough new world out there. (…He's trying his best.) 

So, what's up? The enemy in the woodpile is Congress…A self centered, body of men and women. There they sit…elected for two or six years. Their purported job is to legislate a government for the people and by the people…. It is also one of the cushiest jobs in the country. The perks are endless: Free office space, staff, transportation, the best free healthcare insurance package in the world, full salary retirement after one term… (I'd like to be in the congress just for those perks) the list is endless! Small wonder, we can't get rid of them…they stay and stay and stay. They rig their electoral districts to assure the vote. They control their local political machines to perpetuate themselves. Money flows toward them from all sources: vested interests, local agendas, (not at all in tune with the best interest of the country)…. The Insurance lobby, the Bankers, the Medical Profession, the Legal Profession and of course, the Gun Lobby.  Foreign interest groups like Israel, Saudi Arabia and China. They all have their fingers in our pie. It is a wonder that anything gets done in the interest of the People. Even the best of legislation is filled with Pork in order to get the votes. Just ask Nancy Pelosi, she doles it out daily. 

All Legislators share one thing in common: A glib tongue. Listen to them and you might think you are hearing the Sermon on the Mount. 

Want good government? Start term-limits for the Congress.

Take the much touted Health Care Bill, now in closed-door conference between the congress and Senate, passed by the Democrats only Every Republican (save one brave soul…Senator Snow of Maine) voted against what started out as a reasonable concept to bring medical security to ALL the people of this country…They sat on their hands and did NOTHING…not even offer constructive advice on how to make this overdue concept a reality. This summer they riled the poorest and most needy in this country, to rally to their battle cry! This tactic is not new. Take the historic Boston Tea Party of 1773. A spontaneous act? Hell no, it was stirred up by the rivalry between two wealthy ship owners: Both from Nantucket - But it was billed as a patriotic act!

Don't even think that the Democrats are blameless…Not a by a long shot. In order to squeak the health bill through, countless addendums and special interest agendas were added to the bill. No one knows what the end result will be…certainly not what it started with. 

I have one equalizing solution. What's good for the Goose, is good for the Gander. What ever the Health package will be….Let it be ALL inclusive. Let every member of congress join Us the People, and be protected by the same coverage!.... Ha ha ha!!!