Personally, I'm more of a believer in the culture of religion rather than the dogma, but, if you do want to get married in an actual house of worship, this is one of the more modern, private and architecturally unusual settings.
Since Bunker Arquitctura's site is under construction and I couldn't get more info on this chapel, the article below is courtesy of Wallpaper magazine and the accompanying photos were shot by Meg Inniss and one of the architect's brothers and graphic designer, Sebastian Suárez.
About it The owners of the colonial-era gardens in Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City, had built up a business offering wedding packages to young couples, and originally wanted an ersatz colonial-style chapel structure in which to host the ceremonies.
Happily, Bunker persuaded them otherwise, and set to work devising a modern, functional yet undeniably romantic setting for the events. Initial plans for a glass-walled building were opposed by the client, who claimed - quite reasonably - that it would heat up throughout the day and make ceremonies sweaty and unbearable. But Bunker stuck to their guns, explaining that their solution involved a latticework of opaque glass beams, arranged vertically and set apart from one another to create a 'veil' running around the entire structure that allows air to move freely. Above this sits a solid roof, its shape devised by the shearing, pinching and shifting of the original box-shaped volume, forming a simple yet elegant shallow pitch.
The end wall contains a cross set into the glass fins, while the floor is a humble white concrete slab (toned down from the original marble due to budget considerations). The structure replaces the canvas tent that used to be used for the ceremonies, yet retains an alluring air of impermanence and lightness.
Architects Esteban Suarez and Jorge Arteaga and graphic designer Sebastian Suarez, Esteban's brother, started Bunker Arquitectura in 2004 after finishing their studies in Mexico City. Named for their studio - a former bunker - they're currently working on a new residence in Mexico City and the urban planning for the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara.
Pabst Brewing Co., with a campaign from Seattle boutique Cole & Weber is rebranding the old malt liquor with a hip, urban style campaign. Outdoor, digital and print ads espouse what it calls "The Tales of Colt 45," with graphic-novel-type strips that show young drinkers enjoying alcohol-fueled adventures. And in a bold and brilliant (but controversial move), some of the creative appears to be drawn on brown paper bags, featuring the artwork of Jim Mahfood. You can see the artists' myspace page here.
Above: The bags feature artwork of graphic novelist Jim Mahfood.
The tag line "Works Every Time" is still a part of the campaign, but this time around you won't see Billy Dee Williams purring it as in the still pictured above. Above: art by jim mahfood.
When husband and wife designers, Noto Hirotsugu and Noto Miyo, add ribbons, chains, plastic, tags, buttons and more to screen printed line art to turn the clothes on your back into interactive art.
Above: talented husband and wife team, Noto-fusai ( * "Noto" is their last name. "Fu" means husband. "Sai" means wife. All together, Noto-Fusai stands for "Mr. and Mrs. Noto".)
And they call it "Shikisai"
What is shikisai? In their words:
Incorporating the interactivity,the mundanity, and the sense of fun, SHIKISAI is trying to explore the alternative possibilities of t-shirt design, through the use of black print on white surface.
The Products
The Reversi Shirt ( In Japan, Reversi is a very popular family game for children first to learn the hierarchical relationship.):
The Blinds Shirt:
The Shoelace Shirt:
The Faucet Shirt:
The Bathtub Plug Shirt:
The Tricycle Shirt:
The Shoulderbag Shirt:
The Umbrella Shirt:
The T-shirt Shirt:
And, at Design Tide in Tokyo 2006, they newly introduced a series of "shikisai dog T-shirts", which is a collaborated work with the San Francisco-based modern pet furniture company Everyday Studio.
after his sudden resignation from teaching history at high school, he learned design from the designers like Susan Kralovec (everyday studio), Aaron Lown (built new york), Ted Noten and Gijs Bakker(Droog Design). Now in japan, on his native land, he is looking firmly at what he want/can/should do. shikisai is his first project.
Noto-Fusai: wife (Noto Miyo)
graduated the same design school as her husband, KIDI parsons, she chose the career school to learn technical aspect of fashion, like pattern and sewing. at the same time she started her career as an assistant of the costume designer Anan Asuka, under whom she takes parts of accessory design, hair and makeup arrangement for models. the original pictures of shikisai t-shirts are all hand-drawn by her.
Where can you buy these fabulously creative shirts? Right here.
Disney & Annie Do it Again. Just released late yesterday from Disney Parks, a new fabulous series of images for the “Disney Dream Portrait Series” of celebrity photographs shot by Annie Leibovitz as Disney extends it's “Year of a Million Dreams” celebration throughout 2008.(All photos courtesy of the AP, Jan.28 and 29,2008)
Above: Supermodel Gisele Bundchen, left, is portrayed as Wendy Darling, beckoned by dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov as Peter Pan and actress Tina Fey as Tinker Bell(below), in a scene entitled "Where You Never Have to Grow Up," Above: Singers Jennifer Lopez, portrayed as Jasmine and husband Marc Anthony as Aladdin from Disney's "Aladdin," soar through the Arabian night in part two of a dream scene entitled "Where a Whole New World Awaits" Above: Actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg is portrayed as the Genie from Disney's "Aladdin," in part one of a dream scene entitled "Where a Whole New World Awaits" Above: Actress Jessica Biel is portrayed as Pocahontas in an image titled "Where Dreams Run Free"
I've long been a fan of the tongue-in-cheek creative design duo, Nicholas Lovegrove & Demian Repucci. Having posted their Concerto Table, their deliciously delightful New York Delft Collection plates and their fun and funky Fido bag on several social shopping sites as well as on my own lists at thisnext.com over the past 2 years, I was tickled to see their latest "ad" for their New York Delft Dinnerware.
New York Delft Tableware: The classic tradition of Dutch Delft craftsmanship hits the streets of New York City. Presenting the ‘New York Delft’ Porcelain dinnerware collection. Each place setting is made of fine porcelain and has five pieces; a dinner plate, side plate, soup bowl, cup and saucer. $100 five piece place setting cup and saucer is also sold separately for $20.
The Concerto Table (combo ipod docking station, desk and dinnertable) specs: Dimensions: 70”x58”x29” Electronics: Apple AV Connection Kit with remote control, compatible with all iPods Speakers: 2 x 50watt two-way speakers, 6.5’ x 1” Amplification: 130watt Materials: Finish plywood, poplar, stainless steel Finishes: Bright white or black high gloss enamel Price: $14000usd + shipping
The Fido Bag: Vinyl bag with nylon inner lining. Detachable 'head' bag for carrying keys, cards, phone or other valuables. Also in brown or black. And on sale right now.
They describe their work as follows: Lovegrove & Repucci’s work focuses on the emotional response and experiential relationships created through contact with the designed environment. Encompassing product and furniture design, brand design,interior and graphic design and fashion, we continue to produce provocative design solutions for our clients as well as for the Lovegrove & Repucci collection. You can purchase the above items here.
Be Kind Rewind, an exhibition of new work by Michel Gondry, opens at Deitch Projects on February 16, 2008, shortly before his identically titled film is released in theaters.
Be Kind Rewind is a film about two childhood friends living in Pasaic, New Jersey, trying to make ends meet. After one of the characters accidentally gets his brain magnetized by a local power plant, he visits the video store his and unknowingly erases all of the video tapes in the store’s inventory.
The characters decide to make their own homemade versions of popular films in a junkyard behind the store. These new “sweded” films—recreations using commonly available, everyday materials—prove to be more popular with the customers than the originals, making the two friends local celebrities.
For the exhibition, Michel Gondry will be recreating the video store in the gallery, complete with a back lot containing a variety of movie sets where visitors can make their own renditions of films. All videos created in the gallery can be viewed and rented in the store. About the project, Gondry states, “I don’t intend nor have the pretension to teach how to make films. Quite the contrary. I intend to prove that people can enjoy their time without being part of the commercial system and serving it. Ultimately, I am hoping to create a network of creativity and communication that is guaranteed to be free and independent from any commercial institution.”
Be Kind Rewind is Deitch Projects’ second exhibition with Michel Gondry. In September 2006, the gallery presented The Science of Sleep: An Exhibition of Sculpture and Creepy Pathological Little Gifts, which coincided with the release of his film by the same name. Deitch Projects’ involvement with Michel Gondry reflects the gallery’s interest in presenting projects of creative people working in fields related to fine art who approach their medium similarly to artists of painting and sculpture. Michel Gondry’s work is exhibited in the tradition of conceptual and performance art, not only as a commercial film.
Jack Black and Mos Def star in Be Kind Rewind, a unique comedy from Academy Award-winning writer/director Michel Gondry (Dave Chappelle's Block Party, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).
Black stars as a loveable loser stuck in a life that's too small for his big dreams. But when he unintentionally erases all the tapes in a video store where his best friend (Mos Def) works, he devises a plan to satisfy the store's few loyal customers by re-creating and re-filming every movie they decide to rent. Be Kind Rewind features a cast that also includes Danny Glover, Melonie Diaz and Mia Farrow. It is scheduled for a February 22, 2008 release.
I have removed the trailer from this post because the auto-start feature was making the blog take too long to load. But you can see it here.
The movies' official website is filled with fun bits about "sweding" and lots of interactive fun. They've even 'sweded' a myspace page for michel gondry:
So, if reading about and watching the trailer just aren't enough fun for you, you can 'swede yourself' on their site by picking from a movie genre and uploading your pic to the cover. Like so: Also, the site Film•Ick has a fun collection of Gondry's sketches for the film. See them here.
Addendum: despite being a great fan of some of Michel Gondry's work, I think this was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. I don't even recommend renting it.
Despite what's happening in the human housing market, birds just seem to be getting nicer and nicer places to live these days.
Above are just a few of the beautiful and unusual homes created for our feathered friends. Click on each pic above to be taken to details and purchase information.
ART LA, the New Los Angeles International Contemporary Art Fair, takes place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium ( Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401-3295), January 25 - 27 2008. The fair presents 60 top international and Los Angeles based galleries representing an informed cross-section of today's contemporary art trends and directions.
A partnership has been instituted between the fair and the 2008 edition selection committee to help select from the submitted applications. The exhibiting galleries at ART LA are an even balance of established blue chip and emerging galleries, all presenting the most progressive, international art work being produced today. 30 exhibitors hail from the immediate Los Angeles area, 30 are from the rest of the United States and abroad.
The fair is designed to spotlight the Los Angeles art scene, its prominence within current international artistic trends, while bringing influential international galleries and their artists work for the interested art patron and collector alike to enjoy. The finest examples of contemporary art work will be available for view and sale.
Public Fair Dates and Hours: Friday, January 25, 12 - 8pm Saturday, January 26, 12 - 8pm Sunday, January 27, 12 - 6pm •1-day pass $15 or 3-day pass $25 •Tickets are available for purchase at the box office during the run of the fair. Advanced tickets may be purchased on-line by clicking here.
What happens when you put fabulous architects, furniture designers, lighting designers, rug designers, artists, photographers and interior decorators under one roof? You get a stunning new hotel: Hotel Ralph Pucci. An LXR Hotel. Opening Spring 2008.
LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels has signed an exclusive deal with esteemed furniture design gallery owner Ralph Pucci to develop the first Hotel Ralph Pucci. The Georgetown Inn will undergo a transformation and debut as the new 96-room Hotel Ralph Pucci in Spring 2008, and be the first of its kind in a unique collaboration between a design visionary of Ralph Pucci’s reputation and a stable of highly-respected designers of furniture, lighting and rugs, along with noted photographers.
Above: The Facade of the Georgetown Inn before transformation to Hotel Pucci.
Ralph Pucci never set out to run the country's best modern furniture gallery,but a post-college foray into his parents' mannequin business led to a meeting with French design legend Andree Putman...and he was hooked. Every three months, Pucci fills his New York and L.A. showrooms with the work of international talent such as Putman, Patrick Naggar, Vladimir Kagan, Jens Risom and Paul Mathieu, among others.
Above: Ralph Pucci
Originally known for his innovative and visionary mannequin collaborations with world famous illustrators, fashion designers, pop artists and super models, Ralph Pucci later added furniture and art to his repertoire, representing design legends Andree Putman, Vladimir Kagan and Chris Lehrecke, building his business into the country’s leading modern furniture gallery. With the launch of the hotel, Pucci will be introducing his modern design vision and philosophy of discovering “the new and the next” in the heart of Georgetown.
“For the hotel design, every aspect of the hotel from the rooms to the public spaces will be custom-designed and reflect a new philosophy. The hotel will be elegant, modern and timeless,” said Ralph Pucci.
For this exclusive LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels Ralph Pucci property, Pucci has created the broad design concept and has selected architect/designers Pilar Proffitt and Robert Bristow to bring this vision to life. Proffitt and Bristow will design the facade, lobby, restaurant, guest rooms and baths, and will furnish these spaces and one floor of guest rooms.
Pucci has selected five of his artists to provide the furniture for each of the guest room floors. These designers include Robert Bristow's "warm minimalism”, Jens Risom's "mid-century modern," Patrick Naggar's "modern luxury," Paul Mathieu’s "sculptural elegance”, and Christophe Delcourt's "tomorrow’s classics”.
Hotel Architecture: We are aiming for a quiet architecture that reflects this spirit and provides a quiet backdrop for the furniture, photography and people that live in these spaces. --Robert Bristow and Pilar Proffitt
Featured Floors: Robert Bristow- Warm Minimalism:
Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Robert holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and Master of Architecture degree from Virginia Polytechnic. Upon receiving his Masters in Architecture, he landed a prized job as chief assistant in the office of the legendary Paul Rudolph, the father of Neo-Brutalism. Ironically, he moonlighted in another office, that of Aldo Rossi. Several years later, Robert moved to Boston to work in the architectural studio of Peter Forbes, one of the foremost practitioners of minimalist architecture.
While working in these offices, Robert set up his workshop and began crafting his own furniture ideas. The furniture he made attracted attention and was purchased outright by several high-end design stores in New York. As a high-end retail network evolved in the US, Europe and Asia, the furniture found it's way into some of the finest collections in the United States. Robert joined Ralph Pucci May of 2004.
Patrick Naggar- Modern Luxury:
Patrick Elie Naggar is a French artist, architect and designer who received his degree in Architecture (UPLCi) from the Ecole des Beaux Arts and a Masters degree in Urban Studies from the University of Paris. Naggar considers architecture as a central knowledge, encompassing interior design, furniture design a catalyst of the ideas, forms, plastic and artistic trends in order to create objects and spaces for our environment in the spirit of our times. Patrick joined Ralph Pucci in 1997.
One of the first designers to bring the traditional Scandinavian values of function and craftsmanship to the United States, Risom was part of a new vanguard that helped establish post-war America's leadership role in the world of modern furniture design and manufacturing.
Born in Copenhagen on May 8, 1916, Risom was highly influenced by his award-winning architect-father who encouraged Jens to pursue academic studies in business and contemporary design. After completing two years at the Business College of Niels Brock in Copenhagen, Risom worked briefly for Danish architect Ernst Kuhn and he created several furniture designs for Gustav Weinreich of A/S Normina in Copenhagen. Risom's early designs for Normina were shown at the Cabinetmakers Guild Exhibition in 1937. Jens Risom joined Ralph Pucci in 2005.
French born, Christophe Delcourt graduated Cours Florent, Paris in 1988, and in 1989 studied at the Theatre Ecole du Passage. With a keen interest in designing furniture and objects, Delcourt opened his first studio in the Marals area of Paris in 1998. Since then, he has designed for restaurants, hotels and boutiques and has exhibited furniture and lamps at Joyce Gallery in Paris. In 2001, Ralph Pucci International became the exclusive representative of Christophe Delcourt Designs.
French designer, Paul Mathieu, based both in New York and Aix-en-Provence, exhibits his signature style in his furniture collection for Ralph Pucci International.
Mathieu is a progressive designer who gained his reputation through both his international interrior design projects, as well, as, his product designs for companies such as Ecart.
An unmistakable benchmark is evident in the graceful and elegant modernism infused in Mathieu's work. His furniture combines the unassuming harmony of nature, blending sinuous curves with tailored geometry. Mathieu's designs combine richness and depth of woods with the comfort of upholstery and with detail. This results in a refined statement of clean, luxurious simplicity. Paul joined Ralph Pucci in 1999.
Art: All of the photographers work will be displayed on different floors in a collaboration with each of the distinctive designers in pairs presenting Jens Risom with Christopher Makos, Christophe Delcourt with Antoine Bootz, Robert Bristow with Paul Solberg, Paul Mathieu with Gail Leboff and Patrick Naggar with Diego Uchitel.
Christopher Makos studied architecture and worked as an apprentice with the artist, Man Ray, in Paris. Since the early 1970s, he has developed a unique style of boldly graphic photojournalism. He is the author of two books: White Trash (1977) and Warhol: A Personal Photographic Memoir (1988).
His works have appeared in magazines such as Rolling Stone and Esquire. He served as a contributing photographer to Warholís Interview magazine and was a close friend to Andy Warhol. Presently, Makos maintains an active photography studio in Manhattan, hosts an interview show, Makostyle, for television in New York, and exhibits his photographs, prints, and paintings widely throughout the United States and Europe. Paul Solberg: Paul studied Anthropology in Cape Town, South Africa, and worked on a land conservation project in Bophuthatswana. Solberg’s photographs have been published in Publisher’s Weekly, Ocean Drive, Elle, Home Miami, Lucky, and European publications, View of The Times, Vanidad, Alter Ego, among others.
Paul’s work has also been shown in New York and throughout Europe from: Ralph Pucci (New York), Young Gallery (Brussels), Flo Peter’s Gallery (Hamburg) and most recently at Paris Photo with Galerie Baudoin Lebon (Paris), and ARCO art fair in Madrid.
Antoine Bootz' talents earned him simultaneous success in both the fine art and commercial photography worlds. He has enjoyed many solo and group shows of his photography in his native Paris, France and his adopted home, New York City. At the same time he has had the opportunity to work on advertising campaigns and editorial projects for Calvin Klein, House & garden, La Redoute, and many other prestigious clients. He is repped by Judy Casey.
Gail LeBoff was born in Brooklyn New York and currently lives and works in Vermont and New York. She is the recent recipient of the prestigious Louis Tiffany Biennial Award. Her work has been exhibited extensively and is in many major collections such as the Harvard Museum, Norton Museum, and Brooklyn Museum." Gail Leboff's photographs are large-scale mysterious landscapes. They are quiet and mesmerizing. Whether of swans in a winter stream or birds in migration these images call you back again."
Argentinean born photographer Diego Uchitel moved from Buenos Aires to the United States after high school to attend film school and eventually found his true calling. He has been photographing the world's most beautiful subjects for twenty years. Uchitel is renowned for his elegantly arresting photographs. His work is often described as less photographic and more painterly. You can contact him via his rep, Jed Root.
Floor Coverings: Madeline Weinrib, a New York city based artist, has been designing carpets since 1998. She is the grand-daughter of Max Weinrib, the founder of ABC Carpet & Home. Weinrib studied fineart at Marymount College, New York, and has exhibited her work at New York's De chiara/Stewart Gallery and at Art in General. She has served on the faculty of City College in New York city, where she has taught drawing. Her paintings have been on view at Glenn horowitz Gallery in East Hampton, NY. Madeline joined Ralph Pucci in 2006.
Lighting: David Weeks originally from Athens, Georgia, attended the Rhode Island School of Design to study painting and sculpture and where he earned and MFA in 1990. Weeks moved to New York City where he worked as an associate to jeweler Ted Muehling in his Soho store. In 1996 he founded the Brooklyn based David Weeks Lighting studio. Since the studios inception, his product line has grown from desk lamps, sconces and ceiling fixtures to include floor lamps, elaborate chandeliers and mobiles. Merging industrial materials and organic forms, David Weeks lighting draw influence from eclectic sources such as mid-century European modernism, machine age industrial design and kinetic sculpture.
David Weeks designs are marked by an uncommon attention to detail and evocative materials: spun aluminium and steel, oxidized metals, porcelain shades and silk covered electrical cords. Especially notable are his large scale mobiles.
To add to the distinctive design elements on property, Ralph Pucci will also collaborate with menswear designer, TOMER to design all hotel uniforms, inspired by the jazz greats of the 1950’s. Additionally, Hotel Ralph Pucci will display the works of a different artist, rotating every 4 months, in the lobby of the property.
1 It's real, not a hoax. 2. Pretty much anyone who bought any diamond between 1/1/1994 and 3/31/2006 is eligible (consumers, resellers and direct buyers who purchased any diamonds or diamond jewelry for personal use or as gifts, for resale, and retail between January 1, 1994 and March 31, 2006) 3. And you will not get rich because so many people are eligible to file the claims For details and forms, go here. Consumers can file an online claim here.
Summary of the Settlement
De Beers is the largest supplier of rough diamonds in the world. Beginning in 2001, Plaintiffs in several states filed lawsuits against De Beers in state and federal courts alleging that De Beers unlawfully monopolized the supply of diamonds, conspired to fix, raise, and control diamond prices, and issued false and misleading advertising. De Beers denies it violated the law or did anything wrong.
The Settlement Agreement provides that $22.5 Million be distributed to the Direct Purchaser Class, and that $272.5 Million will be distributed to the Indirect Purchaser Class. De Beers also agrees to refrain from engaging in certain conduct that violates federal and state antitrust laws and submit to the jurisdiction of the Court to enforce the Settlement.
This is the second year that Delta Airlines has had an in flight move competition. (To read my post about last year's winner, go here.) This year's winner was announced at Park City, Utah during the 2008 Sundance film festival.
Vancouver filmmaker Robert Kirbyson was awarded the top prize for his film "Ctrl Z."(which starts Tony hale of Arrested Development fame). In addition to the trip to Sundance, Kirbyson receives a $10,000 cash award and a pair of round-trip tickets valid anywhere Delta flies worldwide.
All five finalists received a trip to Park City, Utah, the site of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, to attend the celebratory party - courtesy of Delta. The winning film was chosen from five films through audience balloting at delta.com and on Delta on Demand from Dec. 3, 2007 - Jan. 15, 2008.
Above: Actress Cheryl Hines Hosts Celebratory Party at SKY360 by Delta in Park City for Vancouver Filmmaker, Robert Kirbyson, during 2008 Sundance Film Festival
This year, nearly 150,000 passengers viewed the five finalist films in-flight on Delta on Demand, with an additional 200,000 viewings taking place at delta.com.
The four other finalist films included:
-- Slow" by Kurt Kuenne: a depiction of a traffic safety worker who is accidentally caught in the background of a newspaper photo drastically changing his life forever.
-- "Tales of a Mere Existence: Conversation" by Levni Yilmaz: how a simple trip to the video store can bring up everything that's wrong with your relationship.
-- "T'is the Season" by Bob Giovanelli: when a little girl goes to see Santa Claus, she is disappointed to find he is on a break. Fortunately for her, she stumbles on a somewhat unorthodox replacement.
-- "Morning Fall" by Edward McGinty: a mysterious man wakes up on the side of the road, injured and confused; Who is he? Where does he come from? And where will he end up when he can't find his way home? See all the finalist's movies here.
From the US Postal Service Press Release: In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.
You may have seen some of these watches on design sites, blogs or in designer watch stores, ever wonder how they work? I did. So, I did a little research and found more designs than I knew existed. Those available outside of the US seem to vary from those available here. For example, the Abacus 1 series on the Laco site has either the Abacus logo on the face or dashes or dots. Whereas the Abacus 1 series on the Questo site is far more minimal, and has little round divets or is completely plain.
Regardless of the style, all are available for purchase with prices ranging up to $245.00 USD.
The translation is clearly wonky, so forgive the random initial caps and screwed up prepositions.
The Designer: Above: The designer Roy Schäfer developed the ABACUS.
The conscientious reduction of the object to its central meaning. His love to old chronometers created the desire of a new interpretation of time by means of a watch. The ABACUS watch was developed on the basis of this idea of the designer Roy Schäfer (born 1967). He strictly followed the design principle "Reduce to the max." His impulse: “This process of making thoughts turn to products, gives me much pleasure and is the motor of the development of new items.”
Above left :The ABACUS logo on the stainless steel back of the watch. Above right: Unmistakable characteristic of the ABACUS 1: The ball-shaped crown.
How Does It Work?? The time is indicated by a very small metal ball placed on the face of the watch, which moves freely, depending on the wearer's movements. Nevertheless, whenever the watch is kept in a horizontal position, the ball moves "by magic" to the position that indicates the exact hour.
This is possible due to the fact that the device incorporates a high-grade quartz movement system, which, with the help of some magnets, moves the ball across the face of the watch. The face is quite resistant, too, since it's manufactured either from mineral or sapphire glass. Moreover, the device sports a stainless steel case, a high-quality leather strap and is also water resistant to a depth of 30 meters.
The classic product: the ABACUS 1 for women and men. Since this innovative watch appeared in the market in 1999, it can take pride in a permanently growing group of devotees. Meanwhile, there also is an ABACUS version for women, so that also women can enjoy the game of time. The ingenious packaging of the ABACUS enhances the individual character of this designer watch.
The ABACUS 1 impresses by its clear design in form and function. It has its own and special way of playing with the definition of time. With its high quality quartz movement and its typical optical features, it will become the distinctive companion on your time journey. Reliable, precise, and with an unmistakable individual standard.
The Abacus 1 Series as seen on the Laco site:
and the more minimal designs as seen on The Questo Design Site:
ABACUS 2. New design of the classical ABACUS idea.
A sophisticated design from dial to strap: The ABACUS 2 consequently continues what was begun in 1999 with the original ABACUS. A completely unique design for a watch which still is to find its match.
A Swiss quartz movement guarantees precision. The high-quality processing Made in Germany does not make any wish go unfulfilled in the game of time. The time dot is a symbol of the fixed status of the ball, whereas the free rolling of the ball on the dial describes the time space.
The Abacus 2 series :
The watch with the Abacus logo on the face is only available here.
Abacus 2, the details:
With this watch, nothing was left to chance: The ABACUS 2 convinces by its elaborate design. And, as another thing to be mentioned, by meticulous handicraft. The Swiss quality quartz movement and the ball on the dial are protected by a stainless steel case and a sapphire crystal. It is almost a matter of fact that the ABACUS is water resistant down to 20 meters.
•The strap buckle of the ABACUS 2 expresses the new ABACUS design. The belonging strap is made of soft, fine-grained calf leather
•The game with time: If the watch is held in horizontal position, a magnet makes the freely movable ball indicate the time.
•Form and quality also at the reverse side: The crown is countersunk and therefore invisible from above; the stainless steel back with the ABACUS logo is screwed on by hand.
•Elaborate even in the last corner: The ABACUS 2 is equipped with a patented strap fixation. The high-quality leather strap is fixed directly in the case.
And the Abacus TbtT series:
The TbtT Abacus series is made of stainless steel and comes with a silver, black or gold face.
In the past few weeks I've received an odd bogus e-mail about an exhibit at the Hirshorn and what multiple artists have done with one sheet of paper. And not just once. Today was the fourth time! So, clearly this is making the "e-mail rounds". But it's not true. Not a word of it.
I really feel the need to set this straight. There was never an exhibit of this type at the Hirshorn. And all that beautiful work is the art of one talented man, Denmark born Peter Callesen.
So, if you want to start spreading the word about his art, do so from here. And if you get that e-mail? Set the recipient straight.
A4 papercut Project By Peter Callesen.
About my paper works (in Peter's words): "My paper works have lately been based around an exploration of the relationship between two and three dimensionality. I find this materialization of a flat piece of paper into a 3D form almost as a magic process - or maybe one could call it obvious magic, because the process is obvious and the figures still stick to their origin, without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in most of the cuts. Some of the small paper cuts relate to a universe of fairy tales and romanticism, as for instance "Impenetrable Castle" inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier", in which a tin soldier falls in love with a paper ballerina, living in a paper castle. Other paper cuts are small dramas in which small figures are lost within and threatened by the huge powerful nature. Others again are turning the inside out, or letting the front and the back of the paper meet - dealing with impossibility, illusions, and reflections.
I find the A4 sheet of paper interesting to work with, because it probably still is the most common and consumed media and format for carrying information today, and in that sense it is something very loaded. This means that we rarely notice the actual materiality of the A4 paper. By removing all the information and starting from scratch using the blank white 80gsm A4 paper as a base for my creations, I feel that I have found a material which, on one hand, we all are able to relate to, and which on the other hand is non-loaded and neutral and therefore easier to fill with different meanings. The thin white paper also gives the paper sculptures a fragility which underlines the tragic and romantic theme of the works."
White Hand Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Little Erected Ruin, Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Little Erected Ruin (detail),2007 Half Way Through (detail),2006 On The Other Side, 2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue On The Other Side, 2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue On The Other Side (detail), 2006 Walking Snail,2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue The Short Distance Between Time and Shadow,2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Cradle,2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Cradle (detail),2006 Cradle (detail), 2006 Do Not Enter, 2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Do Not Enter (detail), 2006
Tower of Babel, 2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue
Down the River, 2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Down the River (detail),2005 Wedding Dress Without Bride 2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue All in All, 2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue All in All (detail),2006 Angel,2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Angel (detail),2006 Closet, 2006 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Closet (detail), 2006 Dead Bird, 2006 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Big wave moving towards a small castle made of sand, 2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Distant Wish 2006 Acid-free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Distant Wish (detail), 2006 Eismeer, 2006 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Eismeer (detail), 2006 Hunting, 2005 Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Hunting (detail), 2005 In the Beginning (Snake inside an egg),2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue In the Shadow of an Orchid,2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue In the Shadow of an Orchid (detail), 2005 Impenetrable Castle,2005 Impenetrable Castle (detail),2005 Looking back,2006 Acid free A4 115 gsm paper and glue Man Made of Woman,2005 Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Pandora's Box,2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Snowballs,2005 Acid free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Snowballs (detail),2005 Traces in Snow,2005 Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Traces in Snow (detail),2005 Bridge Over Troubled Water,2005 Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue Butterflies Trying To Escape Their Shadow,2005 Acid-free A4 80 gsm paper and glue
artist info: Peter Callesen
Ved Linden 4, 3. tv
DK-2300 København S
Denmark
This A4 (letter sized paper) project was but one. He has done many other larger and more intricate works that are amazing. This man deserves much credit- and sadly, that internet rumor is depriving him of it.
Updated, 6:45 p.m. | The actor Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday afternoon in an apartment in Manhattan, according to the New York City police. Signs pointed to a suicide or an accidental overdose, police sources said. Mr. Ledger was 28.
Amended: (At first, Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s deputy commissioner for public information, said that the apartment was owned by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, but later reversed himself and said that was not the case. In a phone interview, Annette Wolf, a representative of Ms. Olsen, said, “It is not her apartment,” adding, “She does not own the apartment. She has never owned the apartment. She and her sister have an apartment in New York City but they are not in this building.” An earlier version of this article reported the erroneous detail from the police.) Heath's Death Gets Weirder: Suicide at Mary Kate Olsen's? Updated, 5:28 p.m. | The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment in Manhattan inhabited by the actress Mary-Kate Olsen, according to the New York City police. Signs pointed to a suicide, police sources said. Mr. Ledger was 28. read the article here.
Actor Heath Ledger attends a special Cinema Society and Hogan hosted screening of "I'm Not There" at the Chelsea West Cinemas, in this Nov. 13, 2007, file photo in New York. A New York Police Department spokesman says the actor Heath Ledger has been found dead at a downtown Manhattan residence. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file) Heath Ledger Found Dead in NYC By TOM HAYS – 7 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence, and police said drugs may have been a factor. He was 28.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Ledger had an appointment for a massage at the Manhattan apartment believed to be his home. The housekeeper who went to let him know the masseuse had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.
The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," where he met his wife, actress Michelle Williams, in 2005. Ledger and Williams had lived in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda, until they split up last year.
Just a reminder Mac users, this years fabulous bundle deal from Mac Heist will expire in just over 24 hours. (from 9 am this morning). For those of you unfamiliar with this, it's a wonderful deal put together by the folks at MacHeist that benefits one of the following charities of your choice: At only $49.00, this includes a lot of useful apps (and some not so useful) that are worth a total of over $500.00 if purchased separately. You purchase it via their site and then receive all the activation codes and serial numbers instantly via e-mail. If you use any of the apps, it's a really good deal. I went for it.
Last Week, at the Optics Trade Fair, OPTI 2008 in Munich, Porsche Design revealed their latest spectacle collection. Prices are to be determined.
The new P8134 are new reading spectacles, minimally designed for high functionality. The frame colors range from light matte gold to matte titanium. Above: new readers from Porsche, the P8134
Porsche has had reading glasses before, the 8800 were introduced about a year ago and cost $250: Above: The older model of Porsche reading glasses, the P8801.
Above: Model P8126, now with burgundy frames
Also, models P8463 and P8464 are now combine plastic fronts with ultra lightweight aluminum used in automobile construction and come in new colors.
above: Model P8463 with new colors and materials
The sunglasses are immediately available in all Porsche Design stores and the reading spectacles are only available in certain specialized Porsche design stores.
Large leaning framed mirror, sink, basin,faucet and electrical lamp on top. All as one product with various finishes and colors. From Italy by Alta Marea.
Above: Ben Aronson's Closed Ramp, Westside Highway
There has been such an ongoing interest in a post I did months ago, called "Freeways & Overpasses; An Artist's Muse" that it's time for Freeways & Overpasses; Part II.
Clearly this subject matter continues to inspire artists all over the world, regardless of style, medium, or execution. I could seriously dedicate a blog to this subject alone, but for now, this second series will have to suffice.
By the way, these posts are my personal favorite posts to write and compile, but they take weeks, even months ... so I cannot do them as frequently as I'd like.
The following pieces are all beautiful and timeless. Both serving as a record of human technology, evolution and transportation as well as contemporary landscapes. The following works are glimpses of the world as it stands today, with freeways as 'escape routes' and overpasses as 'architecture'.
Because the last post was so well-received I have tried to include as many as I could find- within reason of course, in this one. Some of the following paintings are available, some are not, but all are worth admiring.
In the photorealism style:
The Paintings of Danny Heller: Above: "Suburbia Freeway #1" by Danny Heller Above: Danny Heller's "Suburbia Freeway #2" above: Danny Heller's "Nightscape #1"
The Work of Patricia Chidlaw: Above: Patricia Chidlaw's "Westbound Freight" And her "Railroad Bridge" and her "Overpass"
The Work of Anna Conti: Above: Anna Conti's "Steel Forest" Above: Anna Conti's "Metamorphosis"
The work of Stephen Dolmatch: Above: "Evening Westside Highway" Above: "Tilted Swirl" Above: Unknown title, Stephen Dolmatch Stephen Hicks' work: Above: Stephen Hicks' "16th and 10th ave". and above, his "Prospect & Washington"
Over half of those bird paintings have sold already- and the show hasn't even opened!
However, now you have an opportunity to own some of these Birds of The Sierra Madre paintings as prints, with the proceeds going directly to the birds, so to speak. (All proceeds go to El Triunfo).
Below is the first print in this series, David's Horned Guan:
above: The Horned Guan; below: detail of The Horned Guan
But here's something you won't see at the show, the interesting and beautiful process of David Tomb's paintings, which, even in their partially finished form are art.
A peek at the process behind David Tomb's Bird paintings: Project Room current project Fall 2007
Click on the images below to enlarge:
Don't miss the show!
David Tomb Birds of the Sierra Madre February 22 - March 22, 2008 Opening Reception: Friday, February 22, 6-8pm
Birds of the Sierra Madre This work is inspired on birding trips to Mexico: Chihuahua, San Blas, Jalisco, El Triunfo (Chiapas) and research from the California Academy of Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Occidental College, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.
David Tomb's site. Artist Contact Info: David Tomb 1240 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 tel. 415.695.0474
Gated, meticulously remodeled/expanded architectural home offering privacy and 360° views just minutes from the heart of Hollywood. Gourmet kitchen with Wolf & Sub Zero appliances, CaesarStone counters, and slate floors, adjacent a large dining area that opens out to head-on city views. Sizeable master suite with walk-in closet and bath with dual vanities, stone backsplash, steam shower, freestanding Grohe tub and Eco-smart fireplace. Professionally landscaped gardens, large grassy areas, and infinity pool & spa with underwater speakers. Additional features include: slate and concrete floors, 3-car garage, Control 4 home automation, whole-house sound, and integrated phone system.
The following Photography: Don Lewis (Click on each photo to enlarge)
Billy Rose + Blair Chang Executive Directors Architectural Division 310.650.2999 310.560.7320 info@roseandchang.com
Live in the Los Angeles area and want to see it in person? open house hours: OPEN SUNDAY JANUARY 20th, 1 - 4 OPEN TUESDAY JANUARY 22nd, 11 - 2 OPEN THURSDAY JANUARY 24th, 12 - 3
On February 1, 2008 adidas Originals and Diesel will enter a four-year product collaboration by introducing the first adidas Originals Denim by Diesel collection. Two male and female jeans models will be available exclusively at adidas Originals stores worldwide.
adidas Originals Spring/Summer 2008 - Introducing Originals Denim by Diesel
The Goods Boys:
Girls:
the 3 -stripe details:
The Pockets:
The front pockets maintain the Diesel brand angled snipe-like label and now have added adidas trefoil rivets.
The rear pockets have a subtle addition of the adidas three stripes.
And how will they be advertising this new co-branded product?
A quote from adidas:
The general concept behind the different campaign executions is the expression of “83 original ways to successfully waste your time” by presenting playful, inspiring ways to encourage open, uninhibited self-expression and celebrate originality. 83 inspirations is just a start to invite everybody to share ideas in adidas Originals stores, online and through events. Because staying open to others is what being unconstrained is all about.
The 10 Ads (click on each to enlarge):
adidas press release: On February 1, 2008 two iconic lifestyle brands, adidas Originals and Diesel will launch a landmark product collaboration – adidas Originals Denim by Diesel. The first denim collection to result from this four year relationship is a collectible line of extremely detailed, premium denim for true jeans lovers, designed in conjunction with the adidas Originals and the Diesel Creative Team, latter headed by Creative Director Wilbert Das. Two male and two female models presented in four different washes will be available exclusively at adidas Originals stores all around the world starting spring/summer 2008. Prices range from 160 Euro for the female adi-rohnary model up to 210 Euro for the male adi-viker model. Representing the long-term partnership of the two brands, the range is recognizable by the adidas Originals Trefoil and the Diesel co-branding.
adidas Originals and Diesel – two global brands that stand for authenticity, self-expression and creativity for the fashion forward - have come together in the spirit of unconstrained exploration and collaboration.
“I am an adidas fan myself and I am very excited about this project! It is the first time that Diesel creates a denim line with another lifestyle brand and we wanted to do it with adidas that shares with us the same fresh attitude and care for high quality and creativity” said Renzo Rosso, President of Diesel.
“This is the first time that we have entered into a collaboration of this kind with adidas Originals, and we would only do this with the right partner who brings our consumer something truly unique,” explained Hermann Deininger, CMO adidas Sport Style Division. Now when a consumer walks into one of our stores, we can offer them a complete look - from a track top to jeans to a pair of sneakers.”
The unconditional approach to individuality and expression shared by both brands is presented in the first Originals Denim by Diesel collection and the below the line campaign to celebrate both authenticity and originality.
This is your chance to win a thousand dollar purse for the price of postcard postage.
How this contest works:
You send them an original handbag design on this template by midnight of Monday, January 21, 2008. They will post all submissions on their site. Then, everyone votes for their favorite designs. The design with the most votes wins the handbag that started all this commotion. You know, the one designed by that famous Japanese artist who made being an otaku at least as cool as carrying a high-end French luxury purse?*
*
Above left : the design that started it all, Murakami's Louis Vuitton Alma Handbag. Above right : The actual Murakami fabric on the winning handbag. Click to enlarge
Your competition thus far:
You can submit as many entries as you wish
You can mail hardcopies to them at: Imprint Culture Lab 555 East Ocean Blvd, Suite 900 Long Beach, CA 90802
Or submit your design via email to: info@imprintlab.com Be sure to include your name and contact info with your submissions.
above: The Muon Speakers by Ross Lovegrove for KEF
When I grew up, in the seventies, you basically had few choices when it came to speakers. The average consumer deliberated between JBL or Kenwood while the audiophile went for Cambridge Soundworks, Harman Kardon or Bang & Olufsen. Besides wattage output, your biggest deciding factor was whether or not you wanted wood paneled speakers or all black.
Well, boy has that changed. Speakers are no longer even called "speakers". Now they are 'loudspeakers' or 'sound systems' or even referred to as 'audio output devices.' Made from stainless steel, glass, acrylic, ceramic and more, speakers of every shape and size are popping up. Whether they are floor standing, shelf-sitting, or wall mounted, there's no shortage of unusual designs from which to choose.
Technologically, they are far superior than decades ago. And rather than bog down this blog with technical specs, let me simply share with you some of the designs. Some beautiful, some ....butt ugly. And give you links to the manufacturers so you can drool over the details on your own time.
Let's start with one of the most blogged about speakers (myself included) that were an expected hit at this year's CES.
Loiminchay (a company known for making high end writing instruments- aka 'pens') Audio has emerged with new line of wood high end audio speakers, named after famous painters:
German Physiks: Above: Just some of the various speakers by German Physiks
The Purity- a hybrid electrostatic loudpeaker from Martin Logan: Above: Martin Logan's Purity loudpeaker in cherry. Gepetto (A hungarian design firm) has just released their new AiR1, a state of the art high end electrostatic loudspeaker:
It doesn't get much more bizarre than these gold nail rings from Bijules NYC. Bijules - Nail Ring (Gold). Comes in 2 sizes: Nail Ring or Pinkie Nail Ring. Each sold separately. The newest addition to the Family Jules Collection "Serpensive" will wrap themselves around your lil finger... adjustable and available in two sizes these serpent nail rings can be worn on one finger or four! price: 160$ a piece.
Well, the stars got a little screwed last night (not being able to garner accolades in person while clad in expensive clothes), and the City of Los Angeles lost millions of dollars (think about it, people.....Clothing stores, restaurants, make up, stylists, limo rentals, florists, all of them lost out on the usual business that accompanies these award ceremonies.) However, that doesn't mean that the following weren't completely deserved of attention and kudos.
So, a big congrats to the winners (denoted by a star) and all the fabulous nominees. It was an amazing year for movies.
Best Motion Picture - Drama
AtonementWorking Title Films Limited; Focus Features
Eastern PromisesKudos Pictures/Serendipity Point Films; Focus Features The Great DebatersHarpo Films; The Weinstein Company/MGM Michael ClaytonSamuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment a Mirage Enterprises/Section 8 Production; Warner Bros. Pictures No Country For Old MenA Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production; Miramax Films/Paramount Vantage There Will Be BloodA Joanne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production; Paramount Vantage/Miramax Films American GangsterImagine Entertainment/Scott Free Productions; Universal Pictures
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (France, United States) The Country of France and The Country of United States, A Kennedy/Marshall Company and Jon Kilik Production; Miramax Films 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days (Romania) The Country of Romania, Mobra Films; IFC Films
The Kite Runner (United States) The Country of United States, DreamWorks Pictures Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Paramount Classics Participant Productions Present a Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Parkes/Macdonald Production Distributed by Paramount Classics Lust, Caution (Taiwan) The Country of Taiwan, Mr. Yee Productions LLC; Focus Features Persepolis (France) The Country of France, 247 Films; Sony Pictures Classics
"Guaranteed" – Into The Wild Music & Lyrics By: Eddie Vedder "Despedida" – Love In The Time Of Cholera Music By: Shakira and Antonio Pinto, Lyrics By: Shakira "Grace Is Gone" – Grace Is Gone Music By: Clint Eastwood Lyrics By: Carole Bayer Sager
"That's How You Know" – Enchanted Music By: Alan Menken Lyrics By: Stephen Schwartz "Walk Hard" – Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story Music & Lyrics By: Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan
Best Television Series - Drama
Mad Men (AMC) Lionsgate Big Love (HBO) Anima Sola and Playtone Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
Damages (FX NETWORK) FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
House (FOX) Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Media Studios
The Tudors (SHOWTIME) Showtime Presents in association with Peace Arch Entertainment, Working Title, Reveille Productions Limited, An Ireland-Canada Co-Production
Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Drama
Glenn Close – Damages (FX NETWORK) Patricia Arquette – Medium (NBC)
Hugh Laurie – House (FOX) Bill Paxton – Big Love (HBO) Jonathan Rhys Meyers – The Tudors (SHOWTIME) Michael C. Hall – Dexter (SHOWTIME)
Best Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Extras (HBO) BBC and HBO Entertainment 30 Rock (NBC)Universal Media Studios in association with Broadway Video and Little Stranger Inc.
Californication (SHOWTIME)Showtime Presents in association with Aggressive Mediocrity, and Then…, Twilight Time Films
Entourage (HBO)Leverage and Closest to the Hole Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
Pushing Daisies (ABC)Living Dead Guy Productions, The Jinks/Cohen Company in association with Warner Bros. Television Best Performance by an Actress In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy
Best Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made for Television
Longford (HBO)A Granada Production in association with Channel 4 and HBO Films Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (HBO)A Wolf Films/Traveler’s Rest Production in association with HBO Films
What happens when you combine nice photos, good site design, edgy models, moody photography, american apparel t-shirts, underground attitude and the talents of many? Burn Suburbia is what happens.
The Company: The Concept: The Goods: (some of them) Above: Tokyo Above: Brooklyn Above: Phoenix (limited edition) Above: Guadalajara Above: London
Above: Newcastle (available for pre-order now)
The Attitude: Above: Justin Brown, the man behind Burn Suburbia
A few FAQs from Justin Brown: who? Burn SuburbiaTM- possibly the world's smallest t-shirt company. what? Our goal is to work with designers from all over the globe to create unique shirts that celebrate some aspect of their city or its culture. so far, we have designs representing europe, asia and the americas. Everything we sell is screen printed by hand on ridiculously soft american apparel shirts, made in los angeles. why? Because there's more to life than strip malls and warehouse clubs. where? We are based in phoenix, arizona, usa, but also have an "office" in wisconsin. it's a long story. when? Now and forever, my darling.
Barbershops have been 'hip' for sometime now. It's not a new idea to restore a barber shop to it's original condition complete with vintage chairs and retro art. But some take it further than others. Rudy's Barbershops is one of those.
With 16 locations, associations with Ace Hotels, contemporary artists like shephard fairey and kaws, music, designers and more, Rudy's is much more than a barbershop, it's a brand.
Above: A screen grab from their site menu Above: NY Graffiti Artist OJAS with his art installation for Rudy's
Click on the video below to watch a timelapse film of the installation.
http://www.neverstop.com/rudys/index.html
Below is an interesting article about the founders and the national growth and branding of Rudy's barbershops By Jade Chang for Metropolis Magazine ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Custom Cuts Rudy’s Barbershop–a West Coast mini-chain with national aspirations–may have a formula for growth that satisfies a new generation’s thirst for authenticity.
The biggest Rudy’s, at 5,000 square feet, the Silver Lake shop sometimes plays host to events planned by Neverstop, a cultural-branding agency also run by one of the owners of the barbershop chain. Siobhan Ridgway/courtesy Rudy’s Barbershop
Among a certain subset of stylish but frugal women, spotting a like-minded friend in a new top prompts an inevitable question: “H&M?” On the West Coast, when one of those friends (or their male counterparts) gets a new haircut, the question is often: “Rudy’s?” But while each H&M is more or less the same whether you’re in Malmö or Manhattan, each Rudy’s Barbershop hopes to be a social hub of its neighborhood, with dramatically different interiors that still manage to retain the essence of Rudy’s. Currently it’s a regional mini-chain with 14 shops in Seattle, Portland, and Los Angeles.
I got my first Rudy’s cut about seven years ago at its first L.A. outlet, in André Balazs’s Standard hotel, on Sunset. It was the price that lured me in—just $21 for a cut that, if the surroundings were any indication, would be more stylish than anything I could get at Fantastic Sams. And it was. The stylists in the narrow, gleaming white shop were as cool as the vintage barber chairs, and I walked out with a long tapered bob, a sleek hairdo that would have fit right in behind the velvet ropes at the neighboring Skybar.
Siobhan Ridgway; courtesy Rudy’s Barbershop
Eventually I grew tired of the Sunset Strip’s cosmos-and-convertibles atmosphere and headed east to a new Rudy’s out in the boho Silver Lake neighborhood. This one was located in a cavernous former auto repair shop and had a thrift-store vibe with warm woods, mismatched chairs, and a deliberately messy-headed clientele. My subtly sculpted tresses became more daring, my bangs inched upward, and I looked like I could be fronting my own indie band.
The California Rudy’s outposts are all lighter and brighter to reflect the sunny weather. Gleaming white subway tile fits with the Melrose design district. Siobhan Ridgway; courtesy Rudy’s Barbershop
But, like Goldilocks, I wasn’t quite satisfied. And then a new Rudy’s opened on Melrose, not far from my house, in an airy high-ceilinged space with a giant mural by street artist Eric Elms, done in the same modern palette of white, chocolate brown, and gray that dominates the shop. And my coif? A couple of visits and some concentrated growing resulted in my current long crop, with sideswept bangs and layers that make my hair miraculously wavy.
That’s the cut I sport when I meet two of the company’s three founders, Alex Calderwood and Wade Weigel, at the Rudy’s headquarters in Seattle, a buzzing second-story suite right around the corner from their first barbershop, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, once the heart of the city’s grunge-music scene. When I tell them it’s the handiwork of a Rudy’s stylist, neither one asks if I like the cut. Instead, they want to know if I enjoyed the experience, if I talked to other customers, if the vibe was good.
It’s obvious that what led Calderwood and Weigel into the business wasn’t an interest in hair. Rather, it was the idea of injecting new life into ritualized social interactions that intrigued them. “Wade used to fly back and forth from London and would see these barbers in Camden Market and Notting Hill where they’d just set up in the middle of the market and cut hair for the day,” Calderwood says. “And I used to live near Sig’s Barbershop downtown, this tiny old shop that’s never changed. I’d walk by it and think, ‘God, how cool would it be to buy that and get younger hairstylists to work there.’”
Weigel first suggested that they buy their own shop. Friends were skeptical, insisting that neither women nor the determinedly trendy would go to a barbershop, no matter how alluring the design. Fifteen years later, the pair—along with partner David Petersen, who deals with the hair side of things—run a business that will take in a projected $10 million in 2007 and estimate that they’ve done 3.5 million pixie cuts, faux-hawks, shags, and bobs.
Rudy’s is just one part of a three-pronged operation with such a large cast of characters that at one point Calderwood stops to draw a family tree. At the root of it is Neverstop, the marketing, branding, and event-planning firm that he started in 2000 with Nasir Rasheed. That venture grew out of the club nights that the two party promoters threw. “We were the first to really bring different kinds of people together in Seattle—drag queens, club freaks, hip-hoppers, but also suburban kids,” Rasheed says. Those nights led to their first job as self-styled “cultural engineers,” creating cool for the Gap under its visionary former CEO, Mickey Drexler. They’ve since gone on to do a Nike Air Force 1 shoe campaign in China, a pop-up store for the Luella Bartley installation of Target’s GO International line, and a series of events for Japanese clothing behemoth Uniqlo.
Illustrations, Dungjai Pungauthaikan
They work for giant corporations, but don’t call them sellouts. “Nike might be a global brand,” says Rasheed, who started as a DJ, “but they understand the significance of local culture more than most brands. Those are the people we work with. We always try to embed ourselves locally, to meet the influencers, the creatives, in each area. And they’re more likely to be drawn to things that reflect their culture.”
That experience is apparent in their next enterprise, Rudy’s Barbershops, which started in 1992. The third venture (but likely not their last) is Ace Atelier, a hotel-development project that started with the eight-year-old Ace Seattle and recently opened the Ace Portland, whose inviting lobby, communal bathrooms, and displays of local art made a splash in the hospitality industry. Unlike such hotel-management groups as Kimpton or Joie de Vivre, which develop a portfolio of boutique properties with different names and concepts, Ace plans to keep its brand moniker, ramping up quickly with new venues opening in New York, Minneapolis, and Palm Springs.
Weigel and Calderwood consider fabric samples for the upcoming Ace New York, which will also be home to the first East Coast Rudy’s in 2009. “It’s this weird army green,” Calderwood says. “It looks like a linen and has a drape to it. And then Wade’s boyfriend actually made this.” He pulls out a piece of macramé. “We’re obsessed with macramé and the natural fibers and colors of it. We wanted to use it in Portland, but finding old pieces is difficult. But we’re working on three hotels now, so it’ll show up somewhere.”
That organic attitude has yielded some of the most significant design decisions. The first Ace Hotel, in Seattle, had a previous life as a flophouse in the Belltown neighborhood. “We tried to work with the bones of the building as much as possible, including the shared bathrooms,” Calderwood says. “People weren’t really doing that with confidence, in a kind of clean, fresh way. Hotel-industry people tell us that was one of the things that really put us on the map. Through our naivete, we were able to make that work and achieve a relatively good price point.”
Ace Portland: Vintage finds and casual couches give the lobby a lived-in feel. A photo booth in the lobby and turntables in some of the rooms give patrons more ways to interact. courtesy Jeremy Pelley
The rooms at Ace Seattle and Portland start at $75 and max out at $250 for a deluxe room; there are also “band rooms” in Portland, with bunk beds that are an affordable $95. They hope to hit similar price points in New York, even in that city’s insane hotel market. These lower rates limit their ability to provide traditional hotel luxuries like fitness centers, yet the Ace properties manage to draw a well-heeled creative class. Nike, for example, often checks its visiting designers and executives into Ace Portland. In a world where money can buy anything, there is an increasing desire for the personal, a reaction against anonymous cookie-cutter experiences. The singular patina that places like the Chateau Marmont or the Chelsea Hotel have acquired through age and history, Ace attempts to create by design.
Ace Seattle Ace Atelier, the hotel branch of the operation, utilizes local design talent. The platform bed is by Mallet, Inc. courtesy Ace Hotel
Many of the signature Rudy’s elements also stem from the urge to personalize that has driven the success of social-networking sites like MySpace that allow its users to create their own page layouts. A peek at the original Capitol Hill shop makes it clear that their aesthetic was driven by that ethos even before they consciously applied it to subsequent Rudy’s and to the hotels. Here are the riot of concert posters and magazine tear sheets, the long row of mismatched old-school barber chairs, the quirky collection that might be more at home in a suburban rec-room basement; there a few dozen gilded trophies, the mural on the wall, and the eclectic assortment of hipsters, rockers, professionals, and art-school kids.
Designer Eric Hentz, who has worked on Rudy’s and Ace properties as well as Weigel’s bars and restaurants, says, “Alex and Wade like to strike a balance between a well-worn item and something constructed around that which sets it off. There’s a point and a counterpoint always going on: highly conceived new things contrasted with really worn or beat-up things.”
Weigel and Calderwood call it “nondesign design,” but it’s actually a belief in chance, faith that the perfect element will be waiting on eBay or by the side of the road and that the space they’re able to lease will be worth keeping alive. The most recent Rudy’s is in the gentrifying Seattle neighborhood of Ballard, which Weigel describes as “a very charming up-and-coming Scandinavian fishing community. When you hit about thirty or want to have a child, you move to Ballard.”
Cofounder Weigel had his eye on Ballard Hardware for years. Now the old hardware store is in a modern storefront down the street and Rudy’s has slipped into its rustic, masculine space. John Mark Sorum; courtesy Rudy’s Barbershop
The shadow of the old sign for Ballard Hardware, built in 1890, is still visible above the Rudy’s logo. “I’d spend hours going through it,” Weigel says, “because it was all this old stock. It had all these little cubbyholes, and it was always like, ‘What is that and what is it used for?’” Calderwood continues, “We deconstructed a lot of old shelving units. Where they kept nuts and bolts, we turned that into our retail cabinet. We left the old floors.” The ceilings are covered in salvaged wood that used to be the fire walls in an automotive garage Weigel bought. A “Superior finishing” sign atop the mirrors was found under blackberry bushes next to a dry cleaner.
The partners aren’t married to a particular aesthetic. Instead, they’re driven by the camaraderie engendered by spaces that feel warm, by the mixing of different types that occurs when some economic barriers are removed. They come by this interest in social interaction honestly, via a long history of promoting clubs and creating events, but it also happens to hit upon a generational desire for human interaction. Right now people want to find ways to be around other people. Happenings, a term last used in the 1970s, are in vogue again and urban living is being embraced.
Ace Portland: Vintage finds and casual couches give the lobby a lived-in feel. A photo booth in the lobby and turntables in some of the rooms give patrons more ways to interact. courtesy Lauren Coleman
The lobby at Ace Portland is not one of those overly mediated spaces you find in other design-driven hotels. Plate-glass windows provide a view of the street; a coffee shop on one end and a restaurant on the other draw locals, who camp out on the comfy low-slung couches grouped around a heavy oversize metal coffee table in a tableaux that looks like a living room. Hotel guests mingle with the Portlanders, downing Northwest-strength cups of coffee and looking at the photo-booth snaps they just took in the lobby. “We travel a lot all over the world,” Calderwood says. “You try to seek out those kinds of places, those social ambassadors, those local people, who can get under the skin of the community. It amazes me that in Portland every day there are those people sitting there in the lobby.”
“A lot of that is there’s no traditional hotel desk,” Weigel says. “At other hotels you have this desk looming over the lobby. You have all this staff sitting there watching you. One of our ideas was, let’s tuck this front desk away so you’re not feeling like somebody’s constantly watching.” The desk, hidden in an alcove by the elevator, was also a piece that they lucked into. “It was about to be thrown out from this factory we were working with,” Calderwood says. It was actually a bookshelf that they turned on end. “Originally, the desk was going to be this long desk, and then Wade said, ‘It feels weird.’” “It can be a buzz killer,” Weigel agrees.
Because of that experience, the hotel desk in the Ace New York will also be tucked away, and a similar mix of reasons to linger should lure locals into the lobby. “You need to provide a platform, a catalyst for exchange, some kind of interaction between the local and the out-of-town people,” Calderwood says. “We’re coming out of a cold design era, and people are craving something homey that feels more personal, going back to Mom’s house. That’s what’s drawn people to Rudy’s. Taking the hotel in that direction feels right—you want to be around warmth and happiness and a little imperfection.”
Imperfection that works, that feels authentically accidental, relies on a hands-on approach that will be harder for Calderwood and Weigel to replicate as they expand. The New York–based firm Roman and Williams is doing much of the Ace New York design work that the partners might once have handled. Other young firms will be hired to make design choices for Ace Palm Springs and Ace Minneapolis. Whether New York will embrace a strategy that worked so well on the West Coast remains to be seen. But if it does, Rudy’s and Ace might someday take their place in the pantheon of global brands—with a very local twist.
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The most comprehensive exhibition to date of this celebrated American artist, Keith Edmier 1991–2007, is on view in the galleries of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, from Saturday, October 20, through Sunday, February 3, 2008.
above: keith edmier
A highlight of the exhibition is the CCS commission Bremen Towne, a full-scale recreation of Edmier’s childhood home. “Edmier’s work is always at the edge of the acceptable boundaries of artistic virtues and taste,” writes curator Tom Eccles, CCS Bard executive director, in the book that accompanies the exhibition.
Concurrently with Keith Edmier 1991–2007, the CCS Bard Hessel Museum presents, Exhibitionism: An Exhibition of Exhibitions of Works from the Marieluise Hessel Collection.
This new installation of the Hessel Collection, curated by White Columns director Matthew Higgs, presents a series of exhibitions in each of the 16 galleries in the newly inaugurated Hessel Museum.
Below are images from Bard College's press release (click to enlarge)
And below are pics and a review from the NY Times of this very exhibit:
From left, Artist Keith Edmier's "Beverly Edmier, 1967" (1998), "Sunflower" (1996), and "A Dozen Roses" (1998) are part of the exhibition at Bard's Center for Curatorial Studies.
"With a title like an epitaph, sculptures like wax museum effigies, and a full-scale 1970s ranch-house interior, as quiet as a chapel, at its center, this career retrospective of work by Mr. Edmier, an artist who has been exhibiting in New York since 1993 and who was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, is one of the more bizarre solo shows to come along in a while. In it, exacting craftsmanship has the chill of the mortician’s art. Period kitsch and personal recollection are inseparable. Memory is both a truth serum and embalming medium." Read The Complete Review By Holland Cotter for the NY Times here.
Above: Keith building a replica of his childhood kitchen back in October, 2007 Above: the final installation as it appears in the show, jan. 2008
“Bremen Towne” She stands like a guardian spirit near the front door of “Bremen Towne,” the full-scale reproduction of the interior of Mr. Edmier’s childhood home commissioned by Bard for the show. It looks like a tour de force of e-bay nostalgia shopping. But the artist, using family photographs and memories as cues, made or revamped almost everything in it — from kitchen appliances, to curtains, to a carved wood figure of a hooded monk that stands like a memento mori in the middle of the living room. Characteristically, in its reconstructed version, the monk is also a portrait of the artist’s father. Photo: Chris Kendall
Above:Installation view of “Bremen Towne” (2006-07), Photo: Chris Kendall
Mr. Edmier was born in Chicago in 1967 and grew up nearby in suburban Tinley Park. He was a formidable sculptor when he was barely into his teens, cooking up clay models for masks and prosthetic devices inspired by horror and monster films. During high school he made contact with special-effects makeup artists.
In 1985, Mr. Edmier moved to Los Angeles to work on films, among them David Cronenberg’s remake of “The Fly.” He also enrolled at California Institute of the Arts, where he had a formative immersion in the neo-conceptualist and appropriation art being grouped under the label of post-modernism. His stay there was short — a year — but it directed his career goals from popular film to art and prompted a relocation to New York City in 1990.
Above: “Beverly Edmier, 1967” (1998), Photo: Andy Keate Above: detail of Beverly Edmier
The startling sculpture called “Beverly Edmier, 1967,” is another Madonna and Child image, one that takes Mr. Edmier even further back into his past. It’s a life-size figure, cast in translucent pink plastic, of his own pregnant mother carrying him as a fetus curled up in her transparent womb. Like much of Mr. Edmier’s art, it has many referential layers that connect it with larger histories.
Beverly’s seated pose echoes that of Abraham Lincoln, another Illinois resident, in the Lincoln Memorial. And she is dressed in a facsimile of the pink Chanel suit that Jacqueline Kennedy was wearing the day her husband was assassinated. Keith's resin study for "Beverly" (below) was just auctioned off last month
Artist
Keith Edmier
Title
Beverly Edmier (study)
Year
1998 -
Medium
acrylic on resin
Size
14 x 6.8 x 9.1 in. / 35.6 x 17.2 x 23.2 cm.
Edition
2/6
Sale Of
Christie's South Kensington: Thursday, December 13, 2007 [Lot 33] Post War & Contemporary Art
Above: “Jill Peters” (1997), Keith Edmeir
“Jill Peters” (1997) is a full-length portrait of Mr. Edmier’s grade-school sweetheart as a virginal ghost of true loves past. Cast in snow-white polyvinyl, wearing white clothes and a luxuriant pale platinum wig, and smiling as she casts her eyes upward, she is a prepubescent idol with a Farrah Fawcett ’do, St. Jill of Perpetual Uplift. Humbert Humbert would have knelt at her Earth Shoes-clad feet. Photo: Lamay Photo
He's Friends With Farrah...
In 1977, a pinup poster of the actress in a bathing suit was a national best seller; the pre-adolescent Mr. Edmier had one on his bedroom wall. In 1998, he introduced himself to his childhood muse.
above: Farrah and Keith working on their mutual sculptures of one another.
Before she had had any thoughts of acting, Ms. Fawcett had been an art student, specializing in sculpture, at the University of Texas in Austin. Mr. Edmier invited her to return to her initial avocation and collaborate with him on a project. She accepted and, working together in a California studio, they made nude portraits of each other.
Above: Detail of Keith Edmier's piece of Farrah from a memorial in a sculptural group called “Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, 2000.” above: backside of Keith's sculpture of Farrah.
Above: And this is Farrah's sculpture of Keith from the same sculptural grouping, Photo: Lamay Photo
The space between you and me (collab w/Farah Fawcett)
Year
2000 - 2001
Medium
color coupler print, mntd
Size
7.5 x 10.7 in. / 19 x 27.3 cm.
Edition
9/50
Misc.
Signed
Sale Of
Phillips, de Pury & Company New York: Saturday, April 8, 2006 [Lot 260] Saturday @ Phillips - Contemporary Art, 20-21st Century Design Art, Photographs, Jewelry
Not only does this animation for Zune-Arts feature Laika, a jack russell terrier that looks just like mine, but it was created by a very talented colleague of mine, Mr. Ro Rohitash!
Croatian creative agency Bruketa & Zinić have designed an annual report for food company Podravka that has to be baked in an oven before it can be read.
Well Done, the report, features blank pages printed with thermo-reactive ink that, after being wrapped in foil and cooked for 25 minutes, reveal text and images.
Here are details from Bruketa & Zinić:
Well Done, the annual report for food company you have to bake before use Empty pages become filled with content after being baked at 100°C for 25 minutes.
“Well done” created by Bruketa & Zinić is the new annual report for Podravka, the biggest food company in South-East Europe. It consists of two parts:
a big book containing numbers and a report of an independent auditor
a small booklet that is inserted inside the big one that contains the very heart of Podravka as a brand: great Podravka’s recipes.
To be able to cook like Podravka you need to be a precise cook. That is why the small Podravka booklet is printed in invisible, thermo-reactive ink. To be able to reveal Podravka’s secrets you need to cover the small booklet in aluminium foil and bake it at 100 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes.
If you are not precise, the booklet will burn, just as any overcooked meal. If you have successfully baked your sample of the annual report, the empty pages will become filled with text, and the illustrations with empty plates filled with food.
The annual report is printed on paper Conqueror Laid Brilliant White 120 g/m2, Munken Polar 130 g/m2 and Soporset 90 g/m2 and written with typography Thema by Nikola Djurek and Lexicon by Bram De Does.
The creative team of the project consists of Creative Directors Davor Bruketa & Nikola Zinić; Art directors Davor Bruketa, Nikola Zinić, Imelda Ramovi, Mirel Hadžijusufović; Copywriters Davor Bruketa, Nikola Zinić, Lana Cavar, Teo Tarabarić, Project manager Mirna Grzelj; Prepress: Danko Đurašin and editor Drenislav Zekić.
This is the seventh annual report for Podravka designed by Bruketa & Zinić OM. Those seven books won numerous awards worldwide such as London International Awards (Gold), Art Directors Club New York (Silver), Red Dot (Best of the Best), Cresta (Winner of Category), I.D. Annual Design Review (Best of Category), Type Directors Club (Typographic Excellence), Graphis (Gold) , Creativity (Gold) , Good Design (Graphics Award), HOW International Design Awards (Best of Show), Moscow International Advertising Festival (Gold), International Forum Communication Design (Design Award) and ARC Awards (Gold).
Bruketa & Zinić OM is a 60-people independent agency based in Zagreb, Croatia. It was established 10 years ago. The agency has been awarded for their projects by many prestigious contests and their work has been presented in many publications, books and exhibitions worldwide.
Addendum:
The Red Dot Design Award for Podravka’s Annual Report for 2006
The Red Dot Design Award is a competition that takes place every year in Essen, Germany. It is organized by the Design Zentrum Nordheim Westfalen, the world leading design institution. It is considered to be one of the most important competition of design in the world.
In the last five years, the Advertising Agency Bruketa&ŽinićOM, won 7 Red Dot Design Awards, mainly for the Podravka design projects. During his visit to Zagreb, 2 years ago, Vito Oražen, managing director of the Design centre Nordhein Westfalen, said for one Croatian newspapers: «Podravka, definitely, has the most recognizable design among Croatian companies. Podravka is known on almost all world markets. Podravka has won the RED DOT Award, which proves its quality in design more than anything.
The creative team of the Advertising Agency Bruketa & Žinić OM which prepared this annual report: creative directors, Davor Bruketa & Nikola Žinić, Art Directors, Imelda Ramović and Mirel Hadžijusufović, copywriters, Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žinić, Imelda Ramović and Mirel Hadžijusufović, the photographers Marin Topić and Domagoj Kunić, the project Manager Drenislav Žekić and the production of Boris Matešić from Osijek firm I. B. L.
In case you hadn't noticed, I've been posting the shortlist nominees for some of the categories for the fabulous Wallpaper* Design Awards all week. Now the winners have been announced and below are the results. Well, not only did they announce the winners to the Wallpaper* Design Awards last night, but they had a rockin' party to do so. This is the fourth year of the annual Wallpaper* Design Awards. The first awards were launched in the January/February issue of Wallpaper* in 2005.
The international design, fashion and lifestyle magazine, Wallpaper,* and headline partner Jaguar Cars have dramatically transformed the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street, London, into a spectacular venue to host a dinner and drinks party celebrating the nominees and winners.
This year the Design Awards are bigger and better than ever with 63 categories ranging from ‘Best City’ to ‘Best Stationery’ – a first peek at Tony Blair’s new graphic identity.
In true Wallpaper* style they’ve gone one step further than simply opening an envelope to reveal the winners. Instead, they’ve teamed-up with digital animators, Mainframe, to produce animations for each winner of the Judges’ Awards.
Below is the press release- straight from the ultra hip digital director of Wallpaper* magazine, Kay McMahon, to yours truly complete with some pics of the bash.
Tony Chambers, Wallpaper* editor-in-chief, says: “It is always a pleasure and a privilege to give the Wallpaper* stamp of approval to the experimentalists, innovators and dreamers of the past 12 months. From the $100 laptop to the €200,000 cashmere carpet, we’re celebrating great design wherever and however it appears. With the assistance of our panel of international judges (see their profiles above) – Tadao Ando, André Balazs, Wong Kar-Wai, Langlands & Bell, Patricia Urquiola and Donatella Versace – and with Jaguar once again as our associate, it has been a stellar year.”
Now, about that party:
Venue Wallpaper* and Jaguar have dramatically transformed the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street, London, into a spectacular venue to host a dinner and drinks party celebrating the nominees and winners. Production of the event was managed by My Beautiful City, headed up by Robin Scott-Lawson.
Guests 250 guests accepted invitations to the dinner. Guests included the winners and nominees of all categories, the international panel behind the Judges’ Awards, as well as fashion designers, architects, interior designers and friends of Wallpaper*.
Best cocktail menu: Cocktail 1 – Ten Fresh Martini Tanqueray No 10, lemon juice, gomme, shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass, garnished with lemon peel
Cocktail 2 – Rosie Ten Collins Tanqueray No 10, lime juice, elderflower cordial, apple juice, topped up with soda, built with ice into a cocktail glass, garnished with slivers of apple
Cocktail 3 – Red Heaven Wallpaper* Design Awards: Best cocktail A unique blend of chilli, cucumber, apple, sugar, lime juice and fresh mint added to Smirnoff Black, pomme verte and apple juice, shaken with ice and a secret ingredient
Goodie bag contents: Wallpaper* Design Awards issue Wallpaper* Los Angeles City Guide Jaguar pen and magazine Givenchy Rouge Interdit lipstick Prada Infusion d’Iris miniature TweezLight tweezers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My personal big thanks to Kay McMahon and the following people and companies who continue to support, encourage, promote and reward great design in all aspects:
“Out of this world” according to a report issued this morning by Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research. In fiscal year 2007, he estimates, Apple stores generated an average of nearly $4,500 in sales per square foot — a figure far higher than any other consumer electronics or luxury retailer. That’s nearly five times the productivity of Best Buy, for example, one of the most efficient consumer retail outlets, and nearly 12 times that of Saks. Only Tiffany & Company comes close, with sales of $2,750 per square foot. (see charts)
The findings were part of a follow-up to the in-depth report on Apple’s retail strategy that Bernstein Research issued a year ago. Since then, Apple has opened 20 new stores (total: more than 200) and reportedly has plans to expand to China, France, Germany and elsewhere.
Among the report’s other findings:
Mac sales per store grew 26 percent year-to-year in fiscal 2007. Apple’s brick and mortar stores sold an average of 8,000 Macs in 2007, or a “stunning” 21.4 per day.
Apple Stores boosted the company’s total revenue by at least $1.35 billion (5.6 percent) during the year, with gross margins of 42 percent (versus 34 percent for Apple overall)
Despite the high gross margins, the stores have somewhat lower profitability than the company overall because of high operating expenses. The average Apple Store has 40 full-time-equivalent employees, double the number four years earlier. All told, Sacconaghi estimates that the retail segment’s operating margin was 16.9 percent for the year, compared with 18.4 percent for Apple overall.
So, what's next to enter this market of luxury communication devices? The Porsche of cell phones. Or rather, the Porsche Cell phone. Below are pics and an in-depth is a review of this newly released collaboration between the Porsche Design Studio and Sagem Communication.
Reviewed by JULIAN PEH Photography AHMED ZULKAMAL
An instrument wrought out of aluminum and glass, the Porsche Design P'9521 phone is an intriguing new entrant to the burgeoning luxury mobile phone market.
A collaboration between Porsche Design and Sagem Communication, the phone’s features include a fingerprint scanner and accelerometer, a music player (with a 2GB memory card) and a 3.2-megapixel camera.
However, as we have observed in the past, companies attempting to break into this market often emphasize on build quality, materials and design, rather than engage in the more-features-is-better specifications war.
It is within this context that we shall review the Porsche Design P'9521.
The P'9521 is undoubtedly a striking phone. With its glossy mineral glass cover and brushed metal skin, it is instantly distinguishable from other clamshells.
As befits an established design house, Porsche Design did not choose to integrate cues from Porsche sports car design into their phones but adopted a futuristic yet minimalist design theme, consistent with its other products.
The phone is made rather thick and heavy for a clamshell, but these traits are a forgiveable trade-off, considering the company's innovative use of materials in the design of the phone.
The phone's casing is milled out of a solid aluminum block. The use of aluminum gives a unique sensation of quality to the phone – the hinges turn with satisfying mechanical resistance and the brushed aluminum has a texture that delights the fingers. The mineral glass used on the cover is simply gorgeous and possesses a sheen that plastic simply cannot replicate.
The only letdown in the phone's construction is the battery cover, which is a simple piece of rubber-coated plastic. For a phone that exhibits excellent build quality everywhere else, the design of the battery cover is somewhat incongruous and puzzling.
Start the phone, and an animation simulating the view from the cockpit of a speeding Porsche rolls on the phone's screen. The display utilizes AM-OLED technology and the colors are extremely vivid and the images sharp from all but the most extreme viewing angles.
The menu interface is beautifully designed, and its use of a light-on-dark color scheme and Porsche Design's trademark typography exudes functional elegance.
A unique feature of this phone is the fingerprint scanner located just under the display. The scanner can also be used to scroll through the menu like a vertical touchpad if one does not wish to use the keypad. The keypad itself is almost totally flat and the keys do not have much travel. However, this is something we got used to easily after a few hours of use.
The P'9521 boasts excellent sound quality for both voice calls and music.
Save for the fingerprint scanner, the Porsche Design P'9521 does not really contain any groundbreaking technical features. However, its elegant design and high build quality enables it to stand out in a sea of clamshell phones. A guaranteed conversation piece.
P´9521 The new P’9521 cell phone from Porsche Design blends purist style with the latest in communication technology from Sagem. Available from spring 2008 in North America. Not available in Korea and Japan. Specs below:
General functions - Photo/video camera: 3.2 Mpix, autofocus camera with flash and digital zoom - Screen rotates through 180 degrees - Sensitive touch/fingerprint reader [phone security, direct calls, menu navigation] - Dimensions: 91 x 48 x 18.4 mm - Weight: 139 g - Charging time: 3 hours - Communication time: 3 hours 30 minutes talk time/240 hours standby - MP3 playback: 7 hours - Phone materials: Mineral glass and aluminum Interface - Screen: AM-OLED 262,000 colors QVGA 320x240 pixels, 2.2" - Second screen: AM-OLED 65,000 colors 128x96 pixels, 1.15" Data transmission - Bluetooth: v1.2 with AADP, AVRCP & FTP profiles - USB: USB2.0, USB Data Cable Network standards - GSM: GSM-GPRS/EDGE: 900 – 1800 – 1900 MHz - Automatic frequency transfer Multimedia Messages: SMS / EMS / MMS - Email: e-mail on internet - Internet: Mini-Opera[tm] / browser WAP2.0 Video & photos - Camera: 3.2 megapixels - Autofocus Image formats: BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG - Zoom: digital [photo & video] - Flash - Video recording: MPEG4 - Video player: H264, 3GP, MPEG4 - Video streaming Music - Recording - Playback: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, stereohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif - Formats: iMelody 1.2, Midi, Wave, AMR NB [recorder and player] and WB [player] Background mode - Playlists: automatic, by theme/interpreter/most played/download date - Fast forward/rewind/play/pause - Visual effects: bar display, equalizer - Special FX sounds : 3D, reverb, chorus, flanger
As the Wallpaper Design Awards wind down (the winners will be announced thursday, the 10th) I share with you the shortlist for Best New Hotel Category with lots of fun additional pics.
1. The Bowery, New York, by Sean MacPherson and Eric Goode: Thanks to charmingly old-world styling by the owners, this is the first boutique hotel to pop up in the formerly gritty Bowery neighbourhood. The interior is all mahogany, worn-in leather and open fires, easily recalling elegant 18th-century living. With service to match the styling, the comfort and nostalgia of the Bowery put it way ahead of its rivals in the boutique market.
Christian Lacroix's second boutique jewel is a visual interpretation of Paris's seventh arrondissement. The history of the famously literary area has been transformed into a decorative scheme for 34 rooms in two adjoining buildings. Fantastical frescos adorn the walls and ceilings, while simple white fixtures and linens reinforce the contemporary luxury.
The long-awaited Fasano Rio de Janeiro has arrived on Ipanema Beach, along with the Fasano Al Mare, its centrepiece Italian seafood restaurant by Michelin award-winning chef Luca Guzzoni. Starck designed the building and its interiors with a surprisingly Brazilian flair, maintaining the sophistication of the São Paulo original, but with a nod to its new Rio environs.
The latest launch of Firmdale hotels is housed in a stunning Regency building built by John Nash. The 50 individually designed rooms and suites are among the largest in London; the Shooting Gallery, a private event room, is decorated in hand-painted jungle wallpaper by de Gournay; and the 18m basement pool has a ceiling covered in fibre-optic lights.
Consisting of nine suites in architect Claudio Nardi's former studio, a historic factory complex, Riva Lofts' emphasis is on detail. Each lofty, light-filled suite is a chic ensemble of heritage and modern pieces. Mies Van der Rohe armchairs cluster round tropical wood tables in the breakfast lounge, while the bedrooms boast unique, artist-designed touches.
More pics:
Don't forget to come back and visit on Thursday, January 10th when I post the winners of all the categories of the Wallpaper Design Awards(in conjunction with Jaguar).
There are so many amazing furniture designers out there I don't know how Wallpaper even managed to cut it down to 5 finalists for the Wallpaper Design Awards but they did, and here they are:
Alfredo Häberli: A unique ability to mix up a form-follows-function base with creative flair and a large dash of humour has made Zurich-based Alfredo Häberli sought after by a host of international clients. As well as designing the Camper store in Paris, and a line of men’s shoes, the versatile Häberli has this year launched new creations for Luceplan, Alias, Moroso and Kvadrat. Barber Osgerby: Jay Osgerby and Ed Barber are at the top of their game. Not only has this year seen them launch high-calibre products for Established & Sons, Cappellini, ClassiCon, Flos and more, their interior architecture firm Universal Design Studio, lauded for creating the furniture for the De La Warr Pavilion, is working on the retail space for the Battersea Power Station project.
Jaime Hayon: Jaime Hayon's flamboyant style has won over even hard-nosed minimalists, while his willingness to try his hand at most things has companies fighting to get him on board. His installation for Bisazza at the Milan Furniture Fair was the talk of the town, as were his products for BD Barcelona, his ceramics for Bosa and his complete overhaul of Lladró porcelain.
Marcel Wanders: Marcel Wanders' fame seems only to fuel his creativity. Taking over a huge space in the Zona Tortona during the Milan Furniture Fair, the Dutch designer blew everyone away with a magical installation. Part of the Wanders Wonders collection, the giant lamps and bells were mixed with elaborate rugs and cabinets. Equally splendid was his 'Skygarden' lamp for Flos.
Tokujin Yoshioka: An apprentice to Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake, Yoshioka set up on his own in 2000. He’s behind the Issey Miyake shop in Tokyo, as well as exhibition space for Miyake, Hermès, Muji and Peugeot. While his furniture for Driade is acclaimed, it was his design of Moroso’s showroom in Milan this year, incorporating work such as his 'Panna' chair, that got the cognoscenti going.
Below are the top ranked 100 global brands based on their worth/value. Please click on each table below (broken down by groups of ten) to enlarge and read: SOURCE: Interbrand and BusinessWeek
If you don't know who Charlotte Gainsbourg is by now, it's time you did. Good thing you found your way here.
Getting raves for her recent performance in I'm Not There, with an album (5:55) on many of best of 2007 lists and having already garnered a Cesar Award (the french equivalent to an Oscar), it's time you met this talented beauty.
Above: On the set of "I'm Not There" with director Todd Haynes.
Who is Charlotte Gainsbourg? Charlotte Gainsbourg (born July 21, 1971) is a French actress and singer. She was born in London, United Kingdom and raised in Paris, France. Her father is Serge Gainsbourg, and her mother is Jane Birkin. She made her motion picture début playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the 1984 film Paroles et musique. In 1986, she won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress" for L'effrontée, and in 2000 she won "Best Supporting Actress" for the film La Bûche. In 1994, she made her stage debut in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. Gainsbourg has sung the title song in three of her films and has released two albums. In 2004, she sang a duet with French pop star Étienne Daho on his single "If". She is married to the French actor and director Yvan Attal, and they have two children, Ben and Alice.
The video below was created during a photo shoot by Peter Lindbergh for Vogue Paris. Charlotte Gainsbourg wears items from Balenciaga’s Fall Winter 2006 collection, styled by Marie-Amélie Sauvé.
The music is the instrumental version of "The songs that we sing", taken from the latest album "5:55" by Charlotte Gainsbourg.
The album team includes Jean-Benoît Dunkel and Nicolas Godin, the two composers of Air; Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of Pulp; and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) as producer.
Below are the 5 private residences that made the Wallpaper shortlist for Best Home Design. The additional pics seen here are not available on the Wallpaper site.
1. The Bourellec Brothers Floating House: This experimental floating house (a studio for resident artists and authors invited by French art centre Cneai) proves the genre-swapping Bouroullecs are up for larger-scale architectural work. A collaboration with architects Jean-Marie Finot and Denis Daversin, the playful aluminium and wood structure, moored off an island in the Seine, can be reproduced to different scales. More Pics:
2. Ring House, Karuizawa, japan by TNA: When architects Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima (TNA) were asked to design a weekend house 185 miles from Tokyo, they came up with an ethereal, glass and wood mini-tower. Standing three storeys tall amid thick vegetation, it offers uninterrupted 360-degree views, its transparent skin flooded with light during the day and glowing at night when lit from within. More Pics:
3. St. Andrews Beach House, Australia by Sean Godsell: On Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, this retreat is right on the seashore. An outer skin of oxidised steel grating acts a brise-soleil, while the simple design incorporates an unusual feature requested by the client, who wanted to be in constant dialogue with the outdoors: the interior spaces are linked by an exterior veranda, so to move between them, one must exit the house. More pics:
4. Villa Chabrey, Chabrey, Switzerland by Geninasca Delefortrie: This low-lying, expansive house in Chabrey encompasses two bedrooms, a garage and an indoor pool in a single volume. Reminiscent of an agricultural building or a hangar, its material simplicity allows it to blend into the rural landscape. The external walls and roof are clad in thin slats of wood, and the roof oversails the walls to create a covered walkway. More pics:
5. Villa NM, New York State, US by UN Studio: These days, UN Studio is better known for its galleries than its houses, but this new Villa harks back to an earlier European project: Mobius House. Set on a sloping site in upstate New York, the house is an extruded box, with two protruding levels forming the upstairs bedrooms. Curved surfaces create cave-like spaces that break open into expansive walls of glass. More pics: More to come.
The Wallpaper Design Award Nominees Countdown Continues...
The Shortlist for Best Public Buildings are shown below with images not found on the wallpaper site. Winners will be announced soon, and of course, you'll hear about them right here.
First, the 5 nominees for Best Public Building Are:
1.Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Germany: Peter Zumthor's most recent work proves his ability with different construction methods and traditional craftsmanship. This simple chapel, in Mechernich, southern Germany, is created from layer upon layer of concrete, poured in stages by a team of local farmers over a timber, teepee-shaped frame, which was then burned out to create the final interior, its soot-darkened walls leading up to a skylight. More pics (click to enlarge, these are great):
2. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, US by Steven Holl Architects: Comprising five linked pavilions, the Bloch Building, an extension to Kansas City's NAMA, combines Holl's love of the sculpted form with his understanding of working in the public realm. Detailing inside and out is kept to a minimum and the building comes into its own at twilight, when the translucent walls glow from within to create a new beacon for the arts. More pics: Roland Halbe/Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Above: The exterior of the new Bloch Building Lobby Lens at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Mo. The New York architect Steven Holl designed the Bloch addition and renovated the museum for $200 million. The museum opened on June 9, 2007. Here's a link to a blog about the design and status of the Bloch Building.
3. New Museum, US by SANAA: The New Museum is New York's only museum devoted entirely to contemporary art and it owes its cutting-edge new home in the Bowery district to Tokyo-based architects SANAA. The seven-storey building was conceived as a composition of metal mesh-clad boxes, which softly shift off the main axis, creating a dynamic effect as the building rises. More Pics:
