Design Dish: Lára Vukson

I am thrilled and honored to introduce you to Lára Vukson, formerly Gislason. Pinkergreen has been lucky to collaborate with Lára on previous projects and are looking forward to potential future collaborations with her. A Boston-based gal, with Icelandic roots, she is definitely one to watch. Lára has been selected to guest blog the week of October 6th— so keep an eye for her…

What's your job? What do you do?
I'm a freelance designer and photographer – Lára Vukson Creative Direction, Design + Photography.

What's been inspiring you lately?
I'm inspired by so many things. Great colleagues, travel, movies, magazines. I feel most inspired when I visit a new country or city…most recently, Reykjavík, Iceland, Italy and NYC. Every time I come back from a trip I just feel re-energized because of all the new things I've seen. Locally, I'm just in love with the new gallery for affordable art + photography on Newbury St. – Lumas. I'm a big fan of their artist, Beatrice Hug's, photographs.

Who's album is on repeat on your iPod?
Lately I've been listening to a lot of Feist, Arctic Monkeys, The Ting Tings, Taxpayer and The Figgs.

What are you reading?
The latest issues of Domino and Dwell Magazines and Independent People, by the Nobel Prize winning Icelandic author Halldór Laxness. It's quite heavy - a story about poverty in the Icelandic countryside in the early part of the last century, so I have to admit I've had a few breaks to read some trashy novels on the beach too. I also just finished Playing for Pizza while on our Italy trip/honeymoon. That was a good read while vacationing in Italy.

What are your Top 5 Bookmarked sites?
Etsy, Photojojo, B&H Photo, Communication Arts and a handful of photo rep's sites. I'm also a bit addicted to JCrew - I think it's something about the color palettes and I love the photo travel stories they've had for the last few seasons.

Been to any good gallery or museum exhibits lately?
Absolutely. I just went to Ólafur Eliasson's "Take Your Time" at MoMA. I also had the pleasure of taking in the art + culture week in Reykjavík when we were there a week before our wedding this spring. I saw a great glacier installation, paintings by Erró and even Björk live and in person taking in some art.

How do you unplug?
Oh, if only I had enough time...there are so many things I love to do. Right now, I spend a lot of time working on our "fixer upper". We're doing a lot of painting. It amazes me how much a new color can change a room. When we're not doing home renovations I love to try a new restaurant, knit, sew, run, be outside or hang out with our new puppy Bert. I also love to take photos. Even though it's part of my work, I find it relaxing.

Portrait of Lára shown above © Topher Cox.