Jessica Testa

Tabitha Myers

For Tabitha Myers, colonial decor is too often associated with austere halls, play-it-safe art and conservative neutrals. To her, colonial means bright, adventurous colors and and cheeky prints -- traditional pieces with rebellious twists.

Myers, a Chandler native, brought this eclectic vision of our founding fathers back to Phoenix after graduating from law school in Philadelphia.

Inside her one-bedroom apartment at Landmark Towers, she's combined the colonial culture of Philadelphia with the Midcentury modern history of Phoenix, blending eras to create a style so chic and signature that the DIY tastemakers of Apartment Therapy included her space in their Small Cool Contest.

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Katie Johnson

Video of Imerge performance at Emerge Exhibition

Last month, ASU hosted Emerge, a three-day, campus-wide event in which innovators in all fields of art and science collaborated efforts to redefine what it means to be human in an age shaped by technology.

And whether or not you attended the workshops, performances, and Digital Culture Festival, you can still participate in the interactive exhibition, Emerge: Redesigning the Future, now open at the ASU Art Museum.

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The first-ever Phoenix Urban Design Week begins on Monday, bringing together dozens of local creatives, academics and developers for discussions on how to save Phoenix from the downward spiral of urban sprawl.

Hosted by the Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory, the week's events will examine the history of Phoenix's design and propose ways for the city to activate its unused spaces and meet its full potential.

Urban Design Week may also be your last chance to hang out on the awesome eighth floor of the Security Building, as PURL is moving out in May.

There are plenty of events to catch throughout the week, but if you're strapped for time, don't miss these three:

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Photo by Timothy Boyd, design by Jon Ashcroft

PEDAL CRAFT PHX organizers Jon Ashcroft, Dorina Bustamante, Jonce Walker, Jeremy Stapleton, and Nicole Underwood at Kitchen Sink Studios.

​Local designers and bike enthusiasts Jon Ashcroft, Dorina Bustamante, Jonce Walker, Jeremy Stapleton, and Nicole Underwood know there's a very geeky and compositionally beautiful place where cycling and design meet. More >>

Modern Bear

If you ever find yourself struck by an idea while sitting poolside at the Arizona Biltmore, chances are you should pursue it. It worked for Irving Berlin, who composed "White Christmas" next to the pool, and it worked for Chris Bale and Travis Smith, who were on vacation when they dreamed up a business that could become the next Martha Stewart empire -- if Martha were a Bear, that is.

Launched on a Facebook page, Modern Bear is Smith and Bale's lifestyle media company that combines their two passions: the gay bear community and mid-century modern design.

The duo just released Modern Bear's first book, Guide for the Modern Bear, a cheeky handbook to navigating bear life. The book explores bear hangouts across the country and identifies the subculture's various characters and body types.

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Raven Cruz

​Earlier this month, the American Advertising Federation's Metro Phoenix branch announced this year's ADDY winners, which honor the best in local advertising campaigns.

One young ADDY winner caught our eye:

Raven Cruz, a 20-year-old senior at the Art Institute of Phoenix, won best in show in the student category for a trio of minimalist movie posters.

The posters were a passion project for the San Diego native, inspired by her love of dystopian science fiction and horror movies, "the kind that make you uneasy because they could actually happen," Cruz says.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/sminor/4112142477/

​If you've never been up to the rooftop patio or the eighth floor balcony of the Security Building, at 234 N. Central Ave. in downtown Phoenix, these next few months might hold your last chance.

The Phoenix Urban Research Lab, an arm of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, has occupied the seventh and eighth floors of the historic building since 2005, but come the end of May, those floors will be vacant ... for now.

PURL's Aaron Kimberlin says that yes, PURL is moving out of the Security Building, but had no comment on the future of  the lab.

Kimberlin is knee-deep in plans and details for April's Phoenix Urban Design Week, during which PURL will host lectures, debates, and discussions with local architects, urban planners, designers, and developers from April 9 through 13. 

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Nick Sherman

Typography fans are in for a treat: AIGA is hosting two events next week that celebrate the ol' printing press.

On Monday, AIGA's monthly FilmBar series offers a screening of Typeface, a 2009 documentary by Justine Nagan.

The film follows the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum (http://woodtype.org/), a Wisconsin museum and print shop struggling to stay open in a shaky rural economy and computerized design world. The museum explores traditional printing methods, bridging the old and new worlds as 20-something graphic design students visiting the museum meet 80-something retirees working in the shop.

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FLW Foundation

It must have been intimidating. Less than six weeks on the job and Sean Malone, CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, had to announce that he was installing solar panels at Taliesin West, making it one of the first structures in the National Register of Historic Places and on the National Historic Landmarks list to "go renewable."

Malone, modestly, shakes it off.

"To be able to be a visible example of environmental stewardship -- there aren't many historical landmarks that could do this," he says. "We can, and it's because of Frank Lloyd Wright's history of innovation and responsible use of resources."

Read all about the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum in this week's art review by New Times' Kathleen Vanesian. Find more about the push for energy at Taliesin West after the jump...

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photo by Claire Lawton

​Chris Bianco's mom used to take him to antique and thrift stores all the time when he was little to look for frames for his father's artwork. He hated it.More >>