for the record: nikki of sikkin

Posted on | 27 September 2009 | No Comments

today's 'for the record' interviewee needs no introduction. a good friend of mine, and hands-down one of the most fascinating and talented people i've ever met, nikki of sikkin. thanks for participating, nikki! sidenote: in editing this, i compiled a list of 30+ things i need to see, eat, or google based on her answers, and i guarantee you'll do the same.

{image via sikkin}

01. favorite designer? hm, so many. naoto fukasawa, ellen lupton, who wrote thinking with type and others (designing with materials looks really interesting). khoi vinh, design director of nytimes.com, who also redesigned bobulate. for furniture, jasper morrison, jean prouvé, some of the bouroullec brothers' stuff. for textiles, hella jongerius.
02. favorite restaurant? chi-chi's in valencia. haha! sorry, jessica. but for the more sophisticated palette...there's a really good japanese place in little tokyo called izakaya honda-ya; really good fried chicken bits. also, absolutely phobulous in west hollywood. maison akira in pasadena. french market cafe on abbot kinney, where i'm always called mademoiselle.
03. currently playing on your ipod? lately by david gray
04. twenty-four hours to live: how would you spend your day? picnic at a park with my family.
05. favorite artist? marc johns
06. what/who inspires you most? anything innovative and clever. information and learning things most people would never take the time to learn. my dad. kids, some kids. idealism.
07. what is your typical day like? i never really plan my weekend. it's good because i like to take my time and relax, but bad because it's easy to be unproductive. i usually wake up early on weekends, thinking i should get started early, but because i want to do everything in one trip, i feel the need to plan my route. i call stores to check stock, etc. this takes up half my day, then i realize i haven't showered yet. by the time i get out, it's 4pm and the day is practically gone. the days when i'm most productive are when i don't touch my computer, which takes some discipline. but most of the time it's because i've overdosed and feel like throwing up, so i'm forced to do something non-computer-related. like make a notebook, a poster, sew something, read a book. but that's not a typical day. i wish it were though. it's what makes me feel the best.
08. favorite movie? a beautiful mind
09. favorite place to travel? walking around the neighborhood is always interesting because you meet and talk to random neighborhood people. i think i would want to buy so many little things in japan. i love the diversity in new york. discovering and reflecting upon the different, interesting ways of life in europe.
10. if you hadn't chosen your field, what alternative career would you be pursuing? i haven't really settled on a field yet, although what i do now is interior design. it was my way into design. but i've increasingly been fascinated by graphic design, and i don't know if i mean graphic design per se. it's just that graphic design seems to encompass everything that inspires me. innovation, information, technology, simplicity, products, making things, psychology, user friendliness. although on a smaller scale, recently, i've been catching myself wanting to work part time as one of those stop sign guys who help school kids cross the street. i wonder if you can bring stuff to pass the time while no one's crossing. as a child, i always wanted to be a brick layer. it's the sound the cement makes when moving it from trowel to trowel, and eventually the splat sound on the brick itself, that makes me want to try it.

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