if this wasn't a fake (alright simulated) architecture blog, these folks would be the competition. design sponge is particularly smarmy.
"For example, Grace Bonney, 23, works for a public relations firm that represents Vitra and other design outfits, and she acknowledged that she writes about some of her clients' products on her blog, Design Sponge (designsponge.blogspot.com), without disclosing that she is paid to promote them."
digitalmediatree.com/schwartz should be there.
While it seems she is being misrepresented in the article, Grace Bonney's site embodies every reason I resist blogging.
According to blogger Steve Gilliard, that's the wave of the future--getting comped to promote stuff on your blog. This isn't a problem in the art world, because galleries don't know what blogs are yet.
ok slema its not schwartz its schwarz. except exactly half the time in group show invites and magazine listings. there are no commercial barriers in commerce, thats why artists have to put galleries in between us and the rest of the world. i remember that gilliard position and its not the last well hear of it. schwarz the fake architectural blog can play both sides in total comfort.
hardy-har-har...
wait a minute...i'm getting the sneaking suspicion that i've been cast as the bad blogger. boooo! they didn't tell me that when they said they wanted to do an article on me! man, maybe i shouldn't have been so wasted during that interview. it's no secret that the relationship between the print media and bloggers has been an uneasy one, you know, the usual complaints: we work fast, shoot from the hip, don't check facts and have no journalistic integrity. and as it turns out, i'm the example of all of these! and after reading the article, i'm starting to believe it! i don't want to read my own site!
so it turns out that being the assistant to someone who is paid to promote our clients is a serious conflict of interest for someone who runs a personal blog. with my big mouth, i would have been more than happy to talk about our clients and all the gossip i get at work, but my boss and i agree that i have a tendency to say things that she wouldn't want associated with our clients (whoops!). i don't know why, maybe it was all that bad-mouthing karim rashid.
Sorry bill I know that. can you let me say typo and more familiarity with "tz" - as "SchwarTz is the surname of a good friend?
Again, apologies. Really.
I certainly don't mind that she writes about what she knows, and most of what we know is through our work. As long as client relations are stated. And apparently she has stated her professional relationship to certain products on her site (but I haven't really looked). No, my reaction in more surface level: (everything is love love, adorable, cute cute, exclamation point exclamation point). It was guttural - sorry if I overstated.
(and I *was* trying to compliment your page - even if I don't know how to spell it. signed, elsma)
i did take it as a compliment. so no apology is necessicary. sorry for rattling your cage - i was just poking fun. i know there is a terrific blogger in you any way as evidenced by your great posts here. i think what puts me off about design sponge is the unironic career driven fashion immersion vibe. i worked for bergdorfs for over ten years and got a pretty good inside look at the design and fashion world. but it left me with fashion damage. what puts me off most is the underpinning of planned obsolescence. that little something that makes people dump their two year old stuff for new stuff. i think we should be dealing with classic designs that last for the life of the product and a product that is well made (a harris tweed jacket for instance) should last close to the life time of its owner. otherwise where is the material for the antiques road shows of the future ?
Well, as a friend likes to say "the root of 'news' is 'new'." And I guess 'trend spotting' is here to stay. It is uninformed critique that bothers me. I imagine much like the critique of some art critics. How can you judge a work when you cannot recognize the influence? Sure, you can react to it - I like it or I don't. That is everyone's right. But to be a 'critic' well, you should know the 'classics' in order to appreciate the new.
i feel bad about slamming these easy marks but i just had a chance to check in on apartment therapy. the dude maxwell who writes the page has a background in architecture going back to at least 1985 yet still cant weigh in with an opinion on PJ's work but does offer this personal aside. merely a vapid fence-sitter or full out dolt? on the pluss side are his nyc craigs list highlights of cool thrift furniture and frequent trade-news link clusters
that still leaves mocoloco, tree hugger and boing boing. all good resources and informative daily reads. landliving is new to me but gave a great first impression with a direct shot at dwell magazine's claim of being a "good modernist." dwell recently abandoned a popular "modernist fan" message board on their website and the magazine is now trending to a higher end clientele. out with the dead wood!
wow. you guys really hate me don't you?
i would like to say at least that i don't think im smarmy at all. the times is printing a retraction about the fact that i DO in fact talk about who i work for. the fact that i post 3 things about vitra out of over 300 posts doesn't make me smarmy. and it isn't feigned adolescence. i'm 23, so sue me if that's a sin.
i could rant on about it, but everyone's entitled to their opinion. i just couldn't happen to disagree with yours more and be, quite frankly, appalled at the anger with which you discuss my site. seriously, does it offend you that i love design and write about it? and because ive been lucky enough to land a pr job with a firm that represents ONE of the companies i love? seriously. ouch you guys, seriously.
if you think a 23 year old who loves design and loves to write about it is smarmy, you gotta lighten up some. it's a blog, no one forces you to read about it. and obviously it's not as terrible as you describe if the times found it worthy to discuss.
if you'd like more information on my job and the fact that i DONT get paid to promote these people at all, please contact me via designsponge@gmail.com. i don't get paid by vitra to post about them at all. and my boss would be happy to discuss that with you.
blog on.
design*sponge
Dear design*sponge:
I am sorry if these remarks come across as "hate." First, let me say that I think we all agree that any*one* posting about design is better than none. And I would have to say I hate very few things, actually I cant think of one (well, okay Bush, sardines, the sound of drills, but we are entitled to our opinions even though it is a very strong word). As I said above, I do not oppose people writing about what they know, and indeed most of us know what we do through our work experience. With regards to my guttural reaction to your site, I only oppose your lack of varying adjectives. I am happy to know about the NYT's retraction. I did see on your site that you acknowledge working for a PR firm that represents some of the things you post about. And Vitra - kudos - terrific client. I am a big fan of rolf fehlbaum.
and not that I would dare to speak for tom moody or bill, but really it seems to me we were edging our way around some bigger issues (trends, criticism, the future of blogging etc). Please don't take it so personally. We poke at others because we can laugh at ourselves.
you guys couldn't have been more off the mark with your "one-sentence-from-the-NYTimes" close-reading. she's always disclosed her occupation and who she works for. she uses glowing, and enthusiastic language because it's how she feels about design. she's smarter, funnier, and cuter than all of you. get lives.
hi design sponge. im afraid im going to have to stick with smarmy. and that opinion was formed well before the times article disclosure. did you read the rest of this thread ? the parts that werent about you ? or any of the other posts ive made here over the past little while? that might help provide context for you in understanding how we read media including d*s. rule one: never believe anything you read in the ny times. or at least take it with a few grains of salt. but back to you. no anger here. but we does call em how we seez dem. when you say you "love design", it sounds to me the same as "i love ice cream". duh, who doesnt. like ice cream can be separated from the rest of the world of foods and cows and vanilla beans and shit. look, what ever it is that got you the negative attention from the times is the same thing that got you the job offer in your comments feature. the industry doesnt care. so make your choice. get right with your pr career and blow off the detractors that see you as a soulless yuppie design ho or listen to them (me that is, pls address the others directly) and get a meaningful life together. your call. me dont care. peace out.
hello,
as an irregular reader of your blog, and a daily reader of design sponge, i must protest your unduly harsh treatment of her here. you say you formed your opinion of design sponge as "smarmy" before the times article...but where? i've never seen it. are you saying that you've posted comments to that effect before today? i'd like to hear how you formed such an opinion before you read this article. also - you "call them as you seez them"? (cute spelling btw, i love cleverness!) what on earth would make you see it that way? it's one thing to call names (like 'ho'? real classy.) also, your statement that whatever got her negative attention in the times is what got her the job offer is completely illogical, and you make no effort to link the two ideas other than the fact that you put them in the same sentence. you say you don't care, yet you insist on stringing insults together without actually making any valid points. either provide a link to back up your vague statements that will somehow provide this nebulous "context" for how you read media, or simply admit that you are jealous that yet another blogger is recieving national attention that you could only dream of.
lol.
bill, you're a trip.
thanks for giving me lots of laughs today. i needed em.
love,
your smarmy design*sponge
no charge. we work for free too.
Just jumping in here. This issue raised by Bill further up the thread would seem to be a more interesting thing to discuss than lasering in on his tone or whether he acts all friendly-like: i think what puts me off about design sponge is the unironic career driven fashion immersion vibe. i worked for bergdorfs for over ten years and got a pretty good inside look at the design and fashion world. but it left me with fashion damage. what puts me off most is the underpinning of planned obsolescence. that little something that makes people dump their two year old stuff for new stuff. i think we should be dealing with classic designs that last for the life of the product and a product that is well made (a harris tweed jacket for instance) should last close to the life time of its owner.
[crickets]
this discussion was picked up by tom moody on his blog page.
hello,
as an irregular reader of your blog, and a daily reader of design sponge, i must protest your unduly harsh treatment of her here. you say you formed your opinion of design sponge as "smarmy" before the times article...but where? i've never seen it. are you saying that you've posted comments to that effect before today? i'd like to hear how you formed such an opinion before you read this article. also - you "call them as you seez them"? (cute spelling btw, i love cleverness!) what on earth would make you see it that way? it's one thing to call names (like 'ho'? real classy.) also, your statement that whatever got her negative attention in the times is what got her the job offer is completely illogical, and you make no effort to link the two ideas other than the fact that you put them in the same sentence. you say you don't care, yet you insist on stringing insults together without actually making any valid points. either provide a link to back up your vague statements that will somehow provide this nebulous "context" for how you read media, or simply admit that you are jealous that yet another blogger is recieving national attention that you could only dream of.
- anonymous
ok, your protest has been noted
as a daily reader of yours and tom moody's blog, and a looker of design sponge I have to say I support your effort.
in my Bloglines Design-Sponge is in the same group of blogs as Funfurde, Gizmodo, Cool Hunting and We Make Money Not Art. None of these blogs I beleive has an a pr company behind... it does not matter if it's 1 post a month or 1 post in every 30 posts I believe those sponsored posts should be flagged up..
In Gizmodo despite being sponsored by a lot, you see a different insight that belongs to someone who knows what purpose a blog should serve.. Infact the whole "oh my god! oh my god!" attitude of design sponge makes it clear that you can easily expect an "oh my, I am soooo gonna buy this!" mark for a "sponsored post"
one blog came to my mind when I read about the article in times is a Penis Enlargement pill blog. thepill.blogs.com which renews itself periodically and comes to a new "it really works" conclusion by a devoted blogger every 8 months... sponsored by the company of course.
I don't think a blog at blogspot.com with the title "musings of a design junky" and no description of affiliation with a PR firm is ethically much different than thepill blog... oh and those pills did not work.
tom, selma, steve, turgan. thanks for your input. i think you guys each hit it on the head. grace was at least gracious in her final remarks (i guess) and we can only assume anonymous is an over proctective boyfriend or her mom or something. i have more thoughts on this subject, hope to get to them. rest assured there wont be links to prove anything to anyone.
i decided what im going to do is make some new posts concerning "selling out" and whether or not thats necessicarily a bad thing. since its been kicking around lately heres what philip johnson had to say : "I am a whore and I am paid very well for high-rise buildings." johnson got warhol and pop art early on. getting away with it seems to hinge on a heady balance of humor, transparency and ambition. warhol was successful, johnson i think less so.
They ARE flagged and it DOES say she does PR. Have you guys ever read her site? If you had, you'd see that.
A faithful *Sponge fan (he has always seen her acknowledge her clients)
more histrionics from anonymous. it seems to be directed at turgan's opinion "..I believe those sponsored posts should be flagged up.." so back tracking to d*s's first posts in august 2004 we find the following :
the post of 9/22/04 includes an initial flag as follows: "SHAMELESS SELF PROMO [utensilo*vitra] yeah i work for them, so what? you wanna start somethin? dorthea becker's chrome organizer is perfect. i don't care if it's cheating, i'm promoting it anyway. ha."
the two posts with vitra (linked) mentions on 9/27/04 are not flagged.
the 10/20/04 post on vitra's george nelson table clocks does not have a flag.
the vitra (linked) mention of 10/26/04 does not have a flag.
the 11/1/04 post has a flagged mention : "do check out the signage for the seattle public library...reminds me of vitra's logo....ahh...day job."
the 11/19/04 post on fake nelson clocks has a disconnected bonus flag : "KNOCK OFFS FOR EVERYONE [fake nelson clock*urbanoutfitters.com] yeah, i know this is sacrilegious, seeing as i work for the original one's manufacturer....but i'm poor and i like it!"
another flag on the 11/22/04 post on vitra's morrison corkseats : "...but if you have any questions you can email me (remember? day job?)."
and finally a flagged mention on 12/9/04 : "...not just because she came to our vitra party last night, which was a-mazing)."
i find this issue to be mostly a nonstarter which the anonymous commenter attempts to control with bluster and to the exclusion of addressing all the other points raised here.
I think it was two different hysterical anonymouses. I'm still confused as to who design sponge works for. Lockhart Steele's NY Times article says: "For example, Grace Bonney, 23, works for a public relations firm that represents Vitra and other design outfits, and she acknowledged that she writes about some of her clients' products on her blog, Design Sponge (designsponge.blogspot.com), without disclosing that she is paid to promote them." According to Bonney, the Times corrected that she does disclose the relationship (although based on some of the quotes you found I don't know why they would), but was the Times also wrong about who employs her? Is it Vitra or a PR firm hired by Vitra, presumably with other clients and products that can be flacked?
im going with: grace is working as an assistant to someone who has a pr firm that has vitra and others for clients. grace said she doesnt get paid to blog for vitra and that vitra is the only client that she has blogged. im just wondering if she can get us an employee discount on some prouve stuff. pleeeeeeease.
hahahahahahaha!
|
"For example, Grace Bonney, 23, works for a public relations firm that represents Vitra and other design outfits, and she acknowledged that she writes about some of her clients' products on her blog, Design Sponge (designsponge.blogspot.com), without disclosing that she is paid to promote them."
- bill 1-27-2005 4:54 pm
digitalmediatree.com/schwartz should be there.
While it seems she is being misrepresented in the article, Grace Bonney's site embodies every reason I resist blogging.
- selma 1-27-2005 9:12 pm [add a comment]
According to blogger Steve Gilliard, that's the wave of the future--getting comped to promote stuff on your blog. This isn't a problem in the art world, because galleries don't know what blogs are yet.
- tom moody 1-27-2005 10:08 pm [add a comment]
ok slema its not schwartz its schwarz. except exactly half the time in group show invites and magazine listings. there are no commercial barriers in commerce, thats why artists have to put galleries in between us and the rest of the world. i remember that gilliard position and its not the last well hear of it. schwarz the fake architectural blog can play both sides in total comfort.
- bill 1-28-2005 6:47 pm [add a comment]
hardy-har-har...
- bill 1-28-2005 6:53 pm [add a comment]
Sorry bill I know that. can you let me say typo and more familiarity with "tz" - as "SchwarTz is the surname of a good friend?
Again, apologies. Really.
I certainly don't mind that she writes about what she knows, and most of what we know is through our work. As long as client relations are stated. And apparently she has stated her professional relationship to certain products on her site (but I haven't really looked). No, my reaction in more surface level: (everything is love love, adorable, cute cute, exclamation point exclamation point). It was guttural - sorry if I overstated.
- selma 1-28-2005 6:55 pm [add a comment]
(and I *was* trying to compliment your page - even if I don't know how to spell it. signed, elsma)
- selma 1-28-2005 7:08 pm [add a comment]
i did take it as a compliment. so no apology is necessicary. sorry for rattling your cage - i was just poking fun. i know there is a terrific blogger in you any way as evidenced by your great posts here. i think what puts me off about design sponge is the unironic career driven fashion immersion vibe. i worked for bergdorfs for over ten years and got a pretty good inside look at the design and fashion world. but it left me with fashion damage. what puts me off most is the underpinning of planned obsolescence. that little something that makes people dump their two year old stuff for new stuff. i think we should be dealing with classic designs that last for the life of the product and a product that is well made (a harris tweed jacket for instance) should last close to the life time of its owner. otherwise where is the material for the antiques road shows of the future ?
- bill 1-28-2005 7:53 pm [add a comment]
Well, as a friend likes to say "the root of 'news' is 'new'." And I guess 'trend spotting' is here to stay. It is uninformed critique that bothers me. I imagine much like the critique of some art critics. How can you judge a work when you cannot recognize the influence? Sure, you can react to it - I like it or I don't. That is everyone's right. But to be a 'critic' well, you should know the 'classics' in order to appreciate the new.
- selma 1-28-2005 8:21 pm [add a comment]
i feel bad about slamming these easy marks but i just had a chance to check in on apartment therapy. the dude maxwell who writes the page has a background in architecture going back to at least 1985 yet still cant weigh in with an opinion on PJ's work but does offer this personal aside. merely a vapid fence-sitter or full out dolt? on the pluss side are his nyc craigs list highlights of cool thrift furniture and frequent trade-news link clusters
that still leaves mocoloco, tree hugger and boing boing. all good resources and informative daily reads. landliving is new to me but gave a great first impression with a direct shot at dwell magazine's claim of being a "good modernist." dwell recently abandoned a popular "modernist fan" message board on their website and the magazine is now trending to a higher end clientele. out with the dead wood!
- bill 1-30-2005 10:54 pm [add a comment]
wow. you guys really hate me don't you?
i would like to say at least that i don't think im smarmy at all. the times is printing a retraction about the fact that i DO in fact talk about who i work for. the fact that i post 3 things about vitra out of over 300 posts doesn't make me smarmy. and it isn't feigned adolescence. i'm 23, so sue me if that's a sin.
i could rant on about it, but everyone's entitled to their opinion. i just couldn't happen to disagree with yours more and be, quite frankly, appalled at the anger with which you discuss my site. seriously, does it offend you that i love design and write about it? and because ive been lucky enough to land a pr job with a firm that represents ONE of the companies i love? seriously. ouch you guys, seriously.
if you think a 23 year old who loves design and loves to write about it is smarmy, you gotta lighten up some. it's a blog, no one forces you to read about it. and obviously it's not as terrible as you describe if the times found it worthy to discuss.
if you'd like more information on my job and the fact that i DONT get paid to promote these people at all, please contact me via designsponge@gmail.com. i don't get paid by vitra to post about them at all. and my boss would be happy to discuss that with you.
blog on.
design*sponge
- design sponge (guest) 1-31-2005 8:58 pm [add a comment]
Dear design*sponge:
I am sorry if these remarks come across as "hate." First, let me say that I think we all agree that any*one* posting about design is better than none. And I would have to say I hate very few things, actually I cant think of one (well, okay Bush, sardines, the sound of drills, but we are entitled to our opinions even though it is a very strong word). As I said above, I do not oppose people writing about what they know, and indeed most of us know what we do through our work experience. With regards to my guttural reaction to your site, I only oppose your lack of varying adjectives. I am happy to know about the NYT's retraction. I did see on your site that you acknowledge working for a PR firm that represents some of the things you post about. And Vitra - kudos - terrific client. I am a big fan of rolf fehlbaum.
- selma 1-31-2005 9:23 pm [add a comment]
and not that I would dare to speak for tom moody or bill, but really it seems to me we were edging our way around some bigger issues (trends, criticism, the future of blogging etc). Please don't take it so personally. We poke at others because we can laugh at ourselves.
- selma 1-31-2005 9:37 pm [add a comment]
you guys couldn't have been more off the mark with your "one-sentence-from-the-NYTimes" close-reading. she's always disclosed her occupation and who she works for. she uses glowing, and enthusiastic language because it's how she feels about design. she's smarter, funnier, and cuter than all of you. get lives.
- design*sponge fan (guest) 1-31-2005 9:24 pm [add a comment]
hi design sponge. im afraid im going to have to stick with smarmy. and that opinion was formed well before the times article disclosure. did you read the rest of this thread ? the parts that werent about you ? or any of the other posts ive made here over the past little while? that might help provide context for you in understanding how we read media including d*s. rule one: never believe anything you read in the ny times. or at least take it with a few grains of salt. but back to you. no anger here. but we does call em how we seez dem. when you say you "love design", it sounds to me the same as "i love ice cream". duh, who doesnt. like ice cream can be separated from the rest of the world of foods and cows and vanilla beans and shit. look, what ever it is that got you the negative attention from the times is the same thing that got you the job offer in your comments feature. the industry doesnt care. so make your choice. get right with your pr career and blow off the detractors that see you as a soulless yuppie design ho or listen to them (me that is, pls address the others directly) and get a meaningful life together. your call. me dont care. peace out.
- bill 1-31-2005 10:32 pm [add a comment]
hello,
as an irregular reader of your blog, and a daily reader of design sponge, i must protest your unduly harsh treatment of her here. you say you formed your opinion of design sponge as "smarmy" before the times article...but where? i've never seen it. are you saying that you've posted comments to that effect before today? i'd like to hear how you formed such an opinion before you read this article. also - you "call them as you seez them"? (cute spelling btw, i love cleverness!) what on earth would make you see it that way? it's one thing to call names (like 'ho'? real classy.) also, your statement that whatever got her negative attention in the times is what got her the job offer is completely illogical, and you make no effort to link the two ideas other than the fact that you put them in the same sentence. you say you don't care, yet you insist on stringing insults together without actually making any valid points. either provide a link to back up your vague statements that will somehow provide this nebulous "context" for how you read media, or simply admit that you are jealous that yet another blogger is recieving national attention that you could only dream of.
- anonymous (guest) 2-01-2005 5:42 am [add a comment] [edit]
What's with the courtroom drama tone? Given the frequency and number of years that schwarz has been blogging on the subject of design it only stands to reason that he would have come across design sponge and formed an opinion of it before the times published it's article. To demand evidence of his having formed an opinion is ridiculous.
- steve 2-02-2005 6:20 pm [add a comment]
lol.
bill, you're a trip.
thanks for giving me lots of laughs today. i needed em.
love,
your smarmy design*sponge
- design*sponge (guest) 2-01-2005 12:21 am [add a comment]
no charge. we work for free too.
- bill 2-01-2005 12:27 am [add a comment]
Just jumping in here. This issue raised by Bill further up the thread would seem to be a more interesting thing to discuss than lasering in on his tone or whether he acts all friendly-like:
- tom moody 2-01-2005 6:25 am [add a comment]
[crickets]
- tom moody 2-01-2005 5:44 pm [add a comment]
this discussion was picked up by tom moody on his blog page.
- bill 2-02-2005 2:58 pm [add a comment]
ok, your protest has been noted
- bill 2-02-2005 3:05 pm [add a comment]
as a daily reader of yours and tom moody's blog, and a looker of design sponge I have to say I support your effort.
in my Bloglines Design-Sponge is in the same group of blogs as Funfurde, Gizmodo, Cool Hunting and We Make Money Not Art. None of these blogs I beleive has an a pr company behind... it does not matter if it's 1 post a month or 1 post in every 30 posts I believe those sponsored posts should be flagged up..
In Gizmodo despite being sponsored by a lot, you see a different insight that belongs to someone who knows what purpose a blog should serve.. Infact the whole "oh my god! oh my god!" attitude of design sponge makes it clear that you can easily expect an "oh my, I am soooo gonna buy this!" mark for a "sponsored post"
one blog came to my mind when I read about the article in times is a Penis Enlargement pill blog. thepill.blogs.com which renews itself periodically and comes to a new "it really works" conclusion by a devoted blogger every 8 months... sponsored by the company of course.
I don't think a blog at blogspot.com with the title "musings of a design junky" and no description of affiliation with a PR firm is ethically much different than thepill blog... oh and those pills did not work.
- turgan 2-02-2005 9:18 pm [add a comment]
tom, selma, steve, turgan. thanks for your input. i think you guys each hit it on the head. grace was at least gracious in her final remarks (i guess) and we can only assume anonymous is an over proctective boyfriend or her mom or something. i have more thoughts on this subject, hope to get to them. rest assured there wont be links to prove anything to anyone.
- bill 2-03-2005 2:15 am [add a comment]
i decided what im going to do is make some new posts concerning "selling out" and whether or not thats necessicarily a bad thing. since its been kicking around lately heres what philip johnson had to say : "I am a whore and I am paid very well for high-rise buildings." johnson got warhol and pop art early on. getting away with it seems to hinge on a heady balance of humor, transparency and ambition. warhol was successful, johnson i think less so.
- bill 2-03-2005 8:20 pm [add a comment]
does this count?
- selma 2-04-2005 4:44 am [add a comment]
im a sucker for marden. are there any museums that take on hyphenated corporate sponsored status the way stadiums do ? looks like brendon burn gut kicked off the marque altogether.
- bill 2-04-2005 7:41 pm [add a comment]
They ARE flagged and it DOES say she does PR. Have you guys ever read her site? If you had, you'd see that.
A faithful *Sponge fan (he has always seen her acknowledge her clients)
- anonymous (guest) 2-04-2005 12:55 am [add a comment]
more histrionics from anonymous. it seems to be directed at turgan's opinion "..I believe those sponsored posts should be flagged up.." so back tracking to d*s's first posts in august 2004 we find the following :
the post of 9/22/04 includes an initial flag as follows: "SHAMELESS SELF PROMO [utensilo*vitra] yeah i work for them, so what? you wanna start somethin? dorthea becker's chrome organizer is perfect. i don't care if it's cheating, i'm promoting it anyway. ha."
the two posts with vitra (linked) mentions on 9/27/04 are not flagged.
the 10/20/04 post on vitra's george nelson table clocks does not have a flag.
the vitra (linked) mention of 10/26/04 does not have a flag.
the 11/1/04 post has a flagged mention : "do check out the signage for the seattle public library...reminds me of vitra's logo....ahh...day job."
the 11/19/04 post on fake nelson clocks has a disconnected bonus flag : "KNOCK OFFS FOR EVERYONE [fake nelson clock*urbanoutfitters.com] yeah, i know this is sacrilegious, seeing as i work for the original one's manufacturer....but i'm poor and i like it!"
another flag on the 11/22/04 post on vitra's morrison corkseats : "...but if you have any questions you can email me (remember? day job?)."
and finally a flagged mention on 12/9/04 : "...not just because she came to our vitra party last night, which was a-mazing)."
i find this issue to be mostly a nonstarter which the anonymous commenter attempts to control with bluster and to the exclusion of addressing all the other points raised here.
- bill 2-04-2005 6:50 pm [add a comment]
I think it was two different hysterical anonymouses. I'm still confused as to who design sponge works for. Lockhart Steele's NY Times article says: "For example, Grace Bonney, 23, works for a public relations firm that represents Vitra and other design outfits, and she acknowledged that she writes about some of her clients' products on her blog, Design Sponge (designsponge.blogspot.com), without disclosing that she is paid to promote them." According to Bonney, the Times corrected that she does disclose the relationship (although based on some of the quotes you found I don't know why they would), but was the Times also wrong about who employs her? Is it Vitra or a PR firm hired by Vitra, presumably with other clients and products that can be flacked?
- tom moody 2-04-2005 7:07 pm [add a comment]
i work for a small pr firm that reps vitra.
them's the details.
i don't get paid by vitra at all. although i wish i did.
- design*sponge (guest) 2-08-2005 1:06 am [add a comment] [edit]
im going with: grace is working as an assistant to someone who has a pr firm that has vitra and others for clients. grace said she doesnt get paid to blog for vitra and that vitra is the only client that she has blogged. im just wondering if she can get us an employee discount on some prouve stuff. pleeeeeeease.
- bill 2-04-2005 9:17 pm [add a comment]
hahahahahahaha!
- just looking (guest) 4-30-2006 9:31 pm [add a comment]