I visited one of my favorite design stores in NY — The Conran Shop — for their annual pre-Christmas sale tonight. While I usually score some gifts at this event, I struck out this year (I just don't have enough modern design aficionados among my friends and family). Still it's always nice to see some design icons up close and decide if they measure up. For example, the Signal light (left) is AWESOME in every size and color and looks like it will look great pretty much forever. On the other hand, the Tolomeo lamps (center) looked ugly to me. I'm not under their trendy spell! But nothing could compare with the Crazy Triple Floor Lamp (right), which I had already dismissed as kind of '80s-rec-room-y, before I saw that there was no way to turn on each light seperately!!! What on earth is the point? Terrence Conran, did you personally approve this?

I didn't go home empty-handed. I bought a set of four Aino Aalto tumblers that I have coveted for a long time. They are perfect.