SKAGGS

If, like us, you’re addicted to Hell’s Kitchen, Iron Chef, Top Chef, and you watch the Food Network religiously (we understand), then we’ve got a treat in store: a grilled chicken recipe by SKAGGS’ very own Joe Guzman. We’ve had so many requests for this during cookout season that we decided it deserves its very own one-off feature. Enjoy!

Serves a bunch of fairly hungry folks, and just a few VERY hungry folks.

For Brine:
3 Cups Water
2 Cups Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar or Spenda
2 Tablespoons Whole Black Peppercorns
4 Lemons halved
1 Head of Garlic Cut in Half
2 Standard Refrigerator Trays of Ice

For Marinade/Sauce:
1 Can Chipotle Chiles in Adobo
1 Bunch of Cilantro or Culantro Roughly Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic
1 Medium Onion Roughly Chopped
2 Tablespoons Ground Cumin
1 Tablespoon Chipotle Chili Powder
1 Packet of Goya Sazón con Achiote
Juice of 2 Limes
Salt + Pepper to taste

3 pounds skinless chicken breasts or thighs.

For Brine:
Combine all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil until salt and sugar are melted. Add Ice then cool in refrigerator.

For Marinade/Sauce:
Combine Chipotles, Onion, Cumin, Chili Powder, and Sazón in a Food Processor or Blender and process until smooth.
Then add the remaining ingredients until a paste forms. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside roughly 1/4 of the mixture to use for dipping/basting.

For Chicken:
Once Brine is cooled add chicken and allow to soak for at least a half hour and at most an hour and a half. Remove the chicken from the brine and rinse with cool water. Add the chicken to a Zip-top bag and cover with the Marinade. Place the chicken in the fridge and allow to marinate overnight.

Set up your grill for medium high heat and indirect cooking (for a charcoal grill, place all of the coals on one side of the grill, for a gas grill, light the flame on the side of the grill opposite the chicken). Cover the grill and grill the chicken until cooked through (internal temperature of 180). Then remove from grill and baste with reserved sauce, or set aside for dipping.

Serve with a cold Brooklyn Lager and enjoy.

Working with TOTO has not just been an education in Japanese bathroom equipment, but also a linguistic lesson in American English… a tap is a faucet, baths are tubs and sinks are lavatories. Also rocket is arugula, the hash key is the pound key, blades get dull not blunt, wellies are galoshes and try asking for a plaster; I could have bleed to death yesterday before someone figured out I meant a band-aid! …Fortunately, of course, I know most of this already from watching Sesame Street when I was wee!

To quote Oscar Wilde, “Americans are identical to the British in all respects except, of course, language.”

Googly-eyes spotted around on my travels around New York. Guerilla art, graffiti, whatever you wish to call it, the Googly-eye cru’s campaign is inoffensive and always makes me smile.

Welcome to the ramblings from an Intern and the City. My name is Jeni, I’m from from Scotland and I am priviledged to join the wonderful Skaggs team in New York for an internship. Over the new few weeks I shall share my diary of events and thoughts as an Intern, but also as a travel journal as a first-time visitor to New York with observations, restaurant reviews and general tales. Carrie Bradshaw I am not, I have neither her wardrobe nor column writing ability. But I do love to gush about Design. I am hugely passionate about Design, across the board- graphics, architecture, web, products, illustration, interaction, fashion, typograhy, exhibition… and all, perhaps, an obsessive level! I read too many Design blogs, subscribe to too many Design journals, spend too much jet-stetting to Design events and own the complete Borders Books creative section. I can bore anyone who takes me out for dinner about the font choice on the menu, I get frustrated with poor illustrative diagrams building flat-pack furniture and detest things that don’t work due to thoughtless product design. I like things that are well thought-out and user-centered*, functional, simple, with a touch of aesthetic elegance. Keep an eye on my blog posts over the course of my time here at Skaggs.

* my spelling is not wrong or right, it’s just British.

With the “Three ‘S’s” in mind (Style, Sophistication and Seduction) SKAGGS created a complete one-of-a-kind brand identity and attitude for Vanity Beauty Lounge in San Francisco, and brought that certain va-va-voom to the subsequent collateral and retail interior.

“For the logo, we started off by taking a serif typeface–Bodoni–then we refined the letters to reflect the Vanity Beauty Lounge ethos,” say Joe. “It’s all about sophistication, but we sexed it up a little. We used a capital letter “Y” and dropped the fulcrum down to the base level of the text. The logo has a balanced, confident and considered look that seems natural and effortless.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Summer’s here, and it’s a sizzler! Try to keep your cool as you check out our latest work with Vanity Beauty Lounge (the hottest new name in all things beauty) and read our uncensored interview with NYC style guru Manuel Norena. Oh, and join us in a little self-congratulation; it’s been an exceptional year for SKAGGS!

Read the June 2008 Newsletter.

Okay, confession time! We’re proud of our workplace, and we’re not shy about showing off. The SKAGGS New York H.Q. has joined the venerable ranks of the world’s grooviest agencies on This Ain’t No Disco, a collection of the world’s smartest, brightest and sexiest agency interiors. From Brazil to London, Disco provides a glimpse into an amazingly diverse array of environments on the creative cutting edge.

We’re eager to hear your comments and suggestions, though we’re hard-pressed to imagine anything that could improve on what we’ve got goin’ on already. (Jacuzzi? Pool table? Perpetually-stocked cocktail bar?)

Satisfy your curiosity and cast your vote at the Disco!

The biggest event of the New York Design calendar ICFF hit the city last week. The massive 145,000 net square foot show hosted work by the familiar faces of Vitra, Kartell, moooi, Tom Dixon… and many many others, including my favourite picks from Areaware, Inflate, Danish Crafts and Refined Sugar Studio.

It was also great to see student work showcased; including MFA’s IKEA sponsored chair project, which challenged students to re-purpose a basic chair based on specific assigned personalities. Fun work.

My highlight was the DesignBoom DesignMart. Giving up-and-coming designers the chance to show their wares, DesignBoom selected just 40 designers, each only allowed to bring 100 pieces, priced up to a maximum of 0. My personal favourites included Mixko’s butterfly felt rings which I adore and suckUK’s continuing humourous approach to products. See more photos from my snap-happy day on our photosite.

It’s that time of year again! Champagne bubbles, schmoozing, and (most importantly) endless opportunities to see the latest in contemporary design at ICFF — The International Contemporary Furniture Fair. For one week in May every year, New York is abuzz with the latest in furniture- and (increasingly) design-related accessories. Yes, it’s a tough job keeping on top of it all, but someone’s got to do it!

Read the May 2008 newsletter

The New Zealand brand Bloomsberry & Co have really done something different with their packaging and produced a range of vibrant eye-catching graphics. They also have a rather charming website.

Established only in 2001, the brand was set-up by Giles Barker, a Graphic Designer and his wife, a trained cook; a perfect match of good design and good ingredients.

Always appreciative of pretty colours and anything with sugar, these chocolate bars have got me hooked and determined to eat my way through the whole range – purely for the sake of design, of course.