As not-a-designer in a relationship with a very involved designer, the design world is always on display in our household. I make no claims of being an expert in the subject but I will admit that I know more than I probably should. I do know enough to have noticed a somewhat anti or post-design trend happening that pushes against balance and logic and carries an intellectually rich amateurism to it. You see it a lot coming from the ever ironic kids in school these days–and we’ve seen lots coming from Southern California, too. Content Is Relative is a name to add to the list, a design duo consisting of designers/artists Christine Jackson and Jesse Stecklow. We totally dig what they are doing and they very much are a new voice in the post-design/post-modern design conversation.

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Newcomers VIA are hoping to make some printed items soon. What do they need to do that? Monday! Help them out: they only need a little over $2K and they almost have that money, too. You can catch a video they did for promotion after the jump!

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What will we never get enough of in Southern California? Sunglasses. We love us some sunglasses. In such a sunny, warm climate, sunglasses are our refuge from the sometimes too bright brightness. We have l.a.Eyeworks, we have Freeway Sunglasses, we have Matsuda Sunglasses, and lots and lots more. It’s remarkable! The last maker–Matsuda–seems particularly special considering there is a new (“new”) sunglasses brand from Los Angeles that functions in a similar way: Masunaga, a Woodland Hills based optical maker founded in Fukui, Japan in 1905. The brand is recently relaunching itself and has a lot of sexy options for sun shading and more.

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Parallel Play is the clever name for a husband and wife design and illustration studio, the product of Angelenos Jay Doronio and Shannon Losorelli-Doronio. They’re super creatives who have worked on lots of familiar, local design projects like the Literary Los Angeles map and the Kienholz Before LACMA book and Echo Park Art Walk guides. Their work has an often local slant with an awareness and tendency to tie in their own design aesthetics, which always mashes different visuals together in an almost collage-like way. They are very playful in their approach to images.

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Everything is getting a little more shape in Los Angeles. Objects being made here are a composite of different forms and typically a collision of design ideologies. You see this in the work of Ben Medansky and in Shin Okuda’s Waka Waka furniture: Los Angeles’ current style obsession is taking a maximalist approach to minimalist items. Al Que Quiere is a furniture and object maker who we can slide into this mix, too. The brand was started by local Matthew Sullivan and the brand is seriously playful with what they make–and they make everything you’ve always wanted for your home.

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