Designer Recommended: Creative Strategist Naomi Piercey’s Five Favorite Things
Naomi Piercey has great taste in everything from watches to travel guides to cemeteries. Design by Barbara Cadorna.
Naomi Piercey, Strategy Partner at Coalesce (and our special projects editor!), confesses that most things at the top of her must-have list are items focused on utility and longevity. When she’s not creating brand books or conducting UX research for creative agency Coalesce, our partner in Creative Factor, she produces events with BBQ Films and Project Mayhem, two experiential event companies. In her downtime she tries to keep her attention offline, spending weekends cooking “off-recipe” soups; quilting; or tinkering on her camper van, Peggy.
Here, she shares four super-useful items she whole-heartedly recommends, and one that is focused on, well, the ultimate long-game.
1. Casio Digital “Vintage” Watch
This watch exudes old school cool. Image: MOMA
This watch garners more interest than anything I’ve ever worn. It’s from their “vintage” line, so it looks like it could have witnessed two terms of Reagan in the White House, but it works just like new. The MOMA store even sells it at their famously well-curated stores. It’s petitie for my unusually-small wrists, the fit doesn't need constant adjusting, and it’s easy to read. Curiously, it also hasn’t set off the TSA alarms whenever I accidentally wear it through the metal detector (not sure what that means for the materials of the watch or the safety of plane travel, but still). It really just comes down to this: I have other watches in the drawer. 99 percent of the time, I’m grabbing this one.
Purchase it now: $60 exact watch at MOMA
Purchase it now: $49 very similar version at Amazon
2. The New York Magazine print subscription
NY Mag…what happens when you curate the best stories of the week and feature them in print form. Image: New York Magazine
Are print magazines now rare collectibles? The work and care that goes into these booklets still feels special to me. I got a degree in magazine journalism in the year 2008 (pretty sure the University of Florida doesn’t offer that track anymore) and I remember studying why local magazines are such great examples of the medium: niche coverage, local expertise, specific voice. New York Mag is continuously one of the best local rags left. Besides the restaurant reviews and design inspiration, there’s always at least one sticky, odd-ball story that you probably wouldn’t have clicked to open online, but here it is, lying open in your hands on your subway commute home. You can still read it when you’re between stations and out of service. Wondrous. Plus, it comes in the mail like magic every two weeks.
Purchase it now: $70 for a year of print and digital subscription on nymag.com
3. Newhouse Olivia LED Clamp Lamp in White
Apartment lighting options can be bad; this is one soution. Image: Olivia Lamp
These are simple and brilliant little work ponies. I am very picky about lighting in our home (a gay friend recently joked to me that all overhead lighting is homophobic), so it was hard to find a bedside lamp I could live with. I purchased two of these –one to clip directly onto each side of my bed frame. In my opinion, a light by the bed without a gooseneck is just sculpture. A moveable arm gives you way more book-reading (not to mention mood-setting) directionality. They aren’t the most beautiful designer lamps, but their faux Scandinavian shape looks fresh and the power switch is toggle-free (read: silent)–something you wouldn’t think about until you are turning lights on and off in the middle of the night. The clip-on feature meant I could avoid drilling into our very ancient plaster and horsehair walls from 1900 (lessons have been learned).
Purchase it now: $22 for Olivia lamp on Amazon
4. Wildsam Field Guides
A travel guide that purposefully takes you off the beaten path. Image: Wildsam
I love a trip and I love a plan. Googling your way through a city before you go is one thing. But no one wants to do it while they are there. Wildsam makes some of the most thoughtful and well-researched guides on the planet. They are beautifully made, pocket-sized, and full of stuff you actually want to do. I wore out a copy of their Desert Southwest guide on my BART (Big Ass Road Trip) in 2021. It’s a small luxury that keeps you from falling down a rabbit hole of choices when all you want is one good tamale and the not-too-long hike with the nice views.
Purchase it now: $24 for one field guide from Wildsam
5. The Green-Wood Cemetery
This is a good place to work out creative block. Image: Greenwood Cemetary
What would you pay to get lost in a finely-manicured 500-acre forest full of winding trails, flowering shrubs, and some slightly famous ghosts? At the Green-Wood Cemetery, it’s completely free. I am so enchanted by this graveyard. It’s technically not a product you can buy (unless you are interested in securing a plot there), but it’s one of my top recommendations if you are visiting Brooklyn. The historical significance is epic, the scale is awe-inspiring, and the natural beauty is abundant. Utility and longevity–check and check.
Purchase it now: Starting at $21,000 for Single Graves (up to three burials) at Green-Wood.com
Free to the public during opening hours; $30 for an after-hours tour
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