a design smack down
Mar 3 2010

those pesky design names you’re too embarrassed to admit your don’t know

Tete a tete (noun)

A.  A term for a hair pulling fight that occurs predominately in females.  Similar to mano a mano in males.

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B.  A slang phrase used in the plastic surgery circles for breast implants.

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A small, curved sofa on which two people can face each other.

5944_tete-2ANSWER:  C

Etymology

French tête-à-tête (head-to-head)

[edit] Noun

Singular
tête-à-tête
Plural
tête-à-têtes

tête-à-tête (plural tête-à-têtes)

  1. A face-to-face meeting, or private conversation between two people, usually in an intimate setting; a head-to-head.
  2. A bench or sofa that allows two people to talk face-to-face
  3. 87d55bb5-9f70-404e-a521-aeb01be08450_400tetateterocker01

Mar 3 2010

Negative is Sexy?!?!

Global Views Trio (available @ Mortise & Tenon)

ultra sexy chaisse by Christopher Guy

Left Bank Art

sexy and moveable

What is Negative Space?

Negative space faces in a vase

Negative space in action: do you see a vase or two faces?

Image: ©2006 Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.

Negative space isn’t the place your mind retreats to when a painting isn’t going well. Negative space is the space between objects or parts of an object, or around it. Studying this can have a surprisingly positive effect on a painting.

In her book Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brain Betty Edwards uses a great Bugs Bunny analogy to explain negative space. Imagine Bugs Bunny speeding along and running through a door. What you’ll see in the cartoon is a door with a bunny-shaped hole in it. What’s left of the door is the negative space, that is the space around the object, in this case Bugs Bunny.

Is It a Vase or Two Faces?

The classic example of negative space or shapes is the brain-teaser where depending on how you look you see either a vase or two faces (as shown in the image above). It becomes very evident when the image is reversed.

courtesy of http://painting.about.com/