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Early in my creative career, I had the lucky chance to spend about 45 minutes alone with on my design heroes, Dieter Rams. After a lecture he gave at the Art Institute of Chicago about Braun and American Design, He was waiting to be picked up for dinner and I found myself by sheer luck to be waiting alone with him for a cab. I nervously struck up a conversation about his talk and career as a designer. From listening to his stories, I got this great sense how he so clearly sees the world and he felt that others didn't at times. We spoke about how he liked to swim everyday and the photos he shared of his home during the talk. He spoke about how he thought americans should strive to edit down their lives more to just the well-design essentials the way many europeans do. I walked away from our brief encounter feeling very inspired and fired up about my future. I hoped to acheive that level of design clarity that he embodied so well.  Since that day, I regularly think about Dieter's advice and ask myself "am I living a well-edited life?"

I finally picked up a copy of Tom Phifer's Monograph recently which quickly reminded me about how powerful a presence his quiet, yet well-resolved forms have in the environment.  I had the chance to meet Tom several years back when he was designing a new office for Steelcase, my client at the time.  I have followed his firm's work with admiration about their commitment to considering every design detail of their buildings and interiors. One of my favorite examples of this distinction is the Fisher Island House completed in 2009.