An Animated Tribute To The Power Of Social Media

Wondering about the power of social media? Take a look at Dan Meth's Internet people.


An animated tribute to personalities, news clips, videos, and other things made world famous from having had exposure on the internet.

And since it was made over just over 6 months ago, there are plenty more than that.

Animated by Dan Meth, with music by Dan Meth and Micah Frank.
Find out more at:
methminute39.com

Calling Area Code 501: Levi's Red Tab Mobile Phone

Now, available at Colette, is Levi's ultra limited edition Red Tab mobile phone. It features an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth and a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash.



Extras include a 'premium' presentation box, a case for the handset, stereo hands free kit, a metal chain and if you like, customization with your name (up to 13 letters). Offered in a limited number of 100 only, it displays a tag of 550 euros ($870) and is being sold online at Colette.
Buy the limited edition at Colette.

If you don't want the limited edition sold at Colette, but still want a Levi's mobile phone, have no fear.. you can customize your own mobile Levi's phone and choose from either a white or black top, several different color metal bodies and from a variety of etchings for the front or back.


(as described on the Levi's site):
The Levi's® phone embraces mobile technology and enables you to connect, enjoy music, exchange images and videos whilst on the go.

The functional essence of the Levi's® brand's design philosophy is perfectly captured by the phone's compact design and sturdy riveted steel casing. A unique detachable chain provides a clever design solution that allows to you fasten your phone to your jeans, bags and more.




The Levi's® phone is offered in metallic silver, black and brown copper. Stylish feminine "shiny silver" and "shiny sand" editions, featuring a 'mirror' screen have also been created for the fashion forward.

specs:
Customisation
1 graphic theme
8 embedded ringtones
7 wallpapers

Music
MP3 Player
FM Radio
User Memory: 64MB
Expendable Memory: up to 2 GB (Micro SD)

Photo and Video
262 000 colours TFT screen - 220 x 176 pixels 1.8" pixels
2 megapixels camera with flash and zoom (x4)
Video player and recorder (MPEG4/H.263)

Connectivity
Stereo Bluetooth®
USB 2.0
Built-in Modem

Messages
SMS / MMS
Image formats supported: JPEG / GIF/ BMP
Sound formats supported: MP3 / WAV / MIDI
E-mail client

It is now available to customize here.

Diesel's Art Competition: A Wall Is Your Canvas

Diesel Wall is an international art contest that aims to bring intriguing/ inspiring/ insightful/ inciting contemporary ideas to giant urban canvases in city centres around the world.

A competition dedicated to young artists and designers, Diesel Wall offers them the opportunity to showcase their work on an extraordinary scale: monumental, freestanding vertical walls in the centres of world’s most important cities. The ultimate goal being to salvage what prominent precious public space is left.

This year the Diesel Wall art contest continues its tour around the world and reaches 4 new corners of the planet: Manchester (UK), Barcelona (Spain), Zurich (Switzerland) and NY (US).




See the flikr gallery photos of the walls here.

Diesel Wall will take your art, your power of dissuasion, your ability to disrupt, incite and intrigue, mystify and comment. Artworks - conceived for a specific Wall or for all four Walls - can use painting, photography, video, and performance, light, sound, text, experimental concepts including 3D, performance and show elements are also welcome.

From mid-April to June 2008 local juries will get together in order to select the Diesel Wall winners for each city and the winner will be announced June 10th, 2008.

The jury members for this year will include among others Bigas Luna, Peter Saville, Terry Jones, and Wilbert Das, Diesel's Creative Director, joining each judging panel in all four different countries. From May to July 2008, depending on each city's Diesel Wall timeline, winners will be announced both through the website and local events to then proceed with the setting-up of the winning installations on each Wall.


Any creative, inspired person from any country in the world can submit their designs for the chance to feature in this new edition of the project…and conquer a Wall! The artists will have total freedom in sending concepts: art is above all a means of unconstrained self-expression.

Learn more about it, see past winners and submit your art here.

New 2008 Red Dot Design Award Winners!

Today, the red dot design award, the origins of which go back to 1955, is one of the largest and most renowned design competitions worldwide. It consists of the individual disciplines “red dot award: product design”, “red dot award: communication design”, and “red dot award: design concepts”, which has been held annually in Singapore since 2005. In 2007 the competition recorded more than 7,000 entries from 60 nations.

Product Design 2008 entries showed the growing importance of high-quality design: after receiving 2,548 entries in 2007, the competition received the record number of 3,203 entries from a total of 51 countries. In the face of an overall further increase in design quality the international jury of 24 was able to award the “red dot” quality label for good design 676 times this year. Fifty products even received the “red dot: best of the best”, the highest award of the competition, for their pioneering design and special innovations.

The jury’s assessment criteria

The submitted products are evaluated according to the highest standards. The adjudication process follows a canon of strict criteria, which is constantly adapted to the latest findings in formal, technical, manufacturing, societal, industrial and ecological requirements. These criteria provide a guiding framework, which is filled in individually by each juror.

Degree of innovation

Is the product new in itself or does it supplement an existing product with a new, desirable quality?

Functionality

Does the product fulfil all requirements of handling, usability, safety, and maintenance, and does the manual explain its use in a comprehensible way?

Ergonomics

Is the product adapted appropriately to the physical and, if necessary, psychic conditions of the user?

Self-explanatory quality

What does the product convey about its purpose and use without knowing the manual? How distinct are product semantics and product graphics?

Formal quality

How logical is the constructive structure and the congruity of the formal composition? How is the form related to the function?

Ecological compatibility

Are materials, material costs, manufacturing technology and energy consumption in an appropriate proportion to the product utility? To what extent have disposal problems and recycling issues been considered?

Durability

Have the product’s material, formal, and non-material value been designed for a long life-span?

Symbolic and emotional content

What does the product offer the user beyond its immediate practical purpose in terms of sensual quality, possibilities of a playful use or emotional attachment?

Product periphery

How is the product as part of a system integrated into the system environment? How have packaging and disposal issues been solved?

In addition to expected winners like Apple's iphone and the Playstation3, there were several beautifully designed lesser known products. Because there were so many winners and so many categories, I'm posting pictures of my own personal favorites (because..hey, it's my blog) from each category below:

1. Living rooms and bedrooms
Furniture, furniture accessories, textiles, floorings, wallpaper and decorations

Above: Carpet Dia Moho hej! designed by Michal Kopanisyn

Above: The Wishbone Coat rack by Frost

Above: Camoflauge wall hooks by Frost

2. Kitchens
Kitchen furniture, kitchen equipment and accessories, professional kitchens

Above: Bodum toaster

3. Households
Domestic appliances and machines, glass, ceramics, porcelain, cutlery and utensils


Above: Tupperware's Stainless Steel Professional Grade Knives

Above: Nailclipper by AWGoeddert

4. Bathrooms
heatings, sanitary installations and air-conditioning
Bathroom furnishings, accessories, sanitary installations, heating and air-conditioning technology

Above: Sensa Mare bathroom collection by Hoesch

Above: Eva Solo Toilet Paper Holder

5. Lighting and lamps
Indoor and outdoor lighting, lighting systems and installations, lighting accessories

Above: the City Swan by Philip Lys

Above: Mercury Suspension light by Ross Lovegrove for Artemide

6. Gardens
Garden furniture and architecture, landscaping, garden equipment, tents, camping and accessories

Above: Eva Solo Ceramic birdbath

Above: outdoor planter designed by Ingo Fotzel for Eternit

7. Sport, games and leisure
Sports and fitness equipment, bicycles and biking accessories, sports clothes and shoes, saunas, solariums, massage equipment, games, musical instruments

Above: ID2 Adidas Silhouette Goggles

Above: Wilhelm Schimmel piano fortefabrik

8. Jewellery, fashion and lifestyle
Glasses, watches, bags, suitcases, luxury jewellery, fashion jewellery and accessories

Above: Zheus readers by WP

Above: Omega Fine Leather Collection

above left: Danish Design watch by S.WeiszUurwerken
above right: Mario Botta watch

9. Architecture and interior design
Town-planning, building technology, public design, temporary architecture, exhibition design, shop design, shop equipment, interior design, sales displays, building components, switches, timers, security technology, windows, doors, orientation systems and signage, micro-architecture

Above: concrete tiles by Oberhauser SchedlerBau

Above: Samsung Engineering

10. Offices
Office furniture, office equipment, furniture for reception halls and waiting rooms, office accessories

Above: Management P2 Collection by Bene


Above: Task chair by MeToo

Above: Kinzo's Air Desk

11. Industry and crafts
Machines, industrial plant and equipment, components, tools, technology, measuring and testing equipment

Above: Eton's emergency radio, designed by Whipsaw

Above: Pfaff Sewing Machine

12. Life science and medicine
Medical equipment and devices, laboratory technology and furniture, medical furniture and sanitary equipment, furnishings for rehabilitation centers and hospitals

Above: Health Care Bed by Huntleigh

13. Automobiles, transport and caravans
Automobiles and automotive accessories, automobile technology, navigation equipment, caravans, construction and commercial vehicles, buses, railway carriages, sports vehicles, motorbikes, boats, ships, aircraft, accessories and components

Above : The Skoda Fabia

Above: Bombardier's Ski-Doo

14. Entertainment technology
TVs, DVDs, digital cameras, MP3 players, camcorders, hi-fi systems, sound systems, projectors, accessories

Above: Metz Primus EinsPlus HDTV

Above: the Cubo Elements from Sonoro Audio

Above: Bose's computer music monitor

Above: Inno B2 Compact Barbie MP3 player

15. Communication
Mobile phones, telephones and accessories

Above: Tatung Tricom conference system

Above: Tatung Bluetooth phone

16. Computers
Computers, notebooks, servers, keyboards, modems, printers, scanners, monitors, peripheral devices and accessories

Above: The cha cha series by Nova Design

Above: the FlyBook by Dialogue Tech

This year the design experts for the first time honored 137 products, which stood out from the masses due to their extremely successful detail solutions, with an honorable mention. Such an honorable mention is to encourage companies and designers to further increase their investment in design and quality and continue on the path they have taken.

All award-winning and honourable mention-winning products will be presented in the “Design on stage – winners red dot award: product design 2008” exhibition from 24 June to 27 July 2008 in the Essen red dot design museum on the premises of the ‘Zeche Zollverein’ World Cultural Heritage Site. With 1,500 products on more than 4,000 square metres, the red dot design museum houses the largest permanent exhibition of contemporary design worldwide.
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Below are the observed trends in design within each individual category of the red dot competition.

Trendspots 2008 by Red Dot
In the era of globalisation, cueing in on countries’ cultural traditions can be of great benefit in achieving differentiation in the market. Preserving the distinct features of individual cultures by means of design is thus of great import. No wonder then that design – as the language of a society – is placing more emphasis than ever on mindful details that give a product an identity of origin. For example, the umbrellas stashed inside the doors of any Rolls-Royce give the luxury car its unique British allure. Likewise, innovative interpretations of Asian culinary culture in kitchenware have special appeal for many. This year’s awards demonstrate: Design revolves around people! Contemporary product design not only has to be aesthetically pleasing, it must also trigger emotions and make everyday life as comfortable as possible. The design concepts we see today give us a taste for what tomorrow’s products may look like: As the world continues to come together, we benefit from an incredible diversity and an undreamt abundance of inspirations for unlimited design possibilities.

1. Living rooms and bedrooms – New design dimensions lead to new interpretations
The future is here – in the “living rooms and bedrooms” category, designers are putting more emphasis on the selection of materials. Newest technologies and manufacturing methods allow for the use of innovative materials that open up a vast range of possibilities for future design. Among the new materials are shiny, metallic net structures which, particularly popular in textile surfaces, allow to minimise the quantity of materials and convey a sense of lightness and freshness. The design of this category is clearly inspired by the new technical possibilities. Completely new design dimensions are being explored and innovatively applied. Moreover, the quality in the category is high throughout, with designers daring to set new standards. The design vocabulary is expressive and diverse – from sculptural opulence to purism, everything is possible. The smallest details are highly functional and perfectly designed, while decorative elements are applied with great artistry to set accents. Intelligent interpretations and utmost comfort – with their concepts, designers are catering to an extremely refined target group. In particular, the designers from this category have mastered the great challenge of transmitting well thought-out complexity with simplicity.

2. Households – Design as a mirror of society
Design should not only make everyday life more beautiful, it should also make it easier! Only well-designed, refined, and functional products can hope to survive on the market. Moreover, in this era of globalisation, design also serves to reflect on the cultural diversity of our planet. This year’s designers from the “households” category paid particular attention to social and cultural aspects. The submissions come from all parts of the globe and many of the awarded products combine highquality, innovative design with traditional qualities. Whereas design conventionally sought to be as universal as possible, it now seeks to distinguish the identity of a culture. In this way, designers transmit tradition in an original but technically perfected way. The underlying idea then attains a completely new, exposed meaning and becomes a source of inspiration. User-friendly solutions and easy operability are among the top priorities. Together with high quality that is nevertheless reduced to the essentials, the products then capture the pulse of the time. Design as communicator – with their design vocabulary, designers appeal to all the senses, awaken emotions, and promote the enhancement of everyday life.

3. Gardens – The garden as tomorrow's living space
In the “gardens” category as well, wellness is increasingly becoming a main design consideration. On the whole, gardens are still a relatively new design field which designers are slowly discovering and appropriating. Following years of progress in technological garden tools, designers are now concentrating on outdoor furniture and lifestyle items. The notion of the garden is thus changing from a utilitarian space to a more intimate living space. Precipitated by global warming, people can be expected to spend more time outside. The selection and high-quality design of outdoor furniture opens completely new perspectives. Innovative materials resist all kinds of weather, allow for new structures, and offer highest user comfort. The garden then becomes an oasis of relaxation. Traditional products are questioned, reinterpreted, and given a new face. The products are designed from a universal perspective and for all generations. They are highly functional, aesthetic, and above all easy to use. The design of new garden tools tries to simplify work through functional solutions. The more complex the technology, the more sophisticated the design has to be. The designers combine minimal and appealing forms with ingenious-yet-simple technology. In all concepts, people, the users, take centre stage. The designers combine good ideas with consummate skill and set standards for tomorrow’s market.

4. Automobiles, transport and caravans – Visual identity creates trust in the brand
The designers in the “automobiles, transport and caravans” category clearly place emphasis on the visual identity of vehicles. The increased need for mobility of our global society is accompanied by the increased need for visual differentiation among producers. Distinct details here serve to shape brands and anchor their image in car culture and history. Casual elegance and dynamic contours pervade all vehicle classes, while sports cars retain their characteristic aggressive expressiveness. The manufacturers thereby remain true to their values with a pronounced design vocabulary. The complex mechanisation in the automobile sector has clearly made for an impressive athletic appearance. For manufacturers, highest quality for materials and processing is a matter of course, just as is the assumption of social and ecological responsibility. Efficiency and safety have utmost priority and technical possibilities are exploited where possible. However, designers are not only preoccupied with the exterior of cars: To no lesser degree, interior design shows for top comfort and user-friendliness. Proud design concepts appeal to the emotions of the target clientele and with small, carefully thought-out details, designers create trust in a brand and convince clients. A good example of such a detail is the umbrella integrated in the door frames of any British Rolls-Royce.

5. Entertainment technology - Discreet restraint for highest aesthetics
Design is becoming increasingly important in the electronics industry. The international competition is getting stronger and calls for highest quality. The submissions in the “entertainment technology” category show the high esteem which design holds not only in business but also in society. The products now come from all parts of the world and their consistently exceptional quality has elevated the design standard as a whole. In the past years, design seems to have been lowered a notch in favour of an emphasis on the technical achievements. This year, however, design presented itself more confident than ever: Highly developed technology is implemented with experimental and innovative fervour and expressed with impressive design solutions. People are once again the focus of interest. Some design concepts also demonstrate wit and humour to promote the playful usage of a very compacted technology. Functional and reduced design also allows for highest user value. Discreet restraint, a good material selection, and a clear design vocabulary provide a high-quality aesthetics. The designers are open for everything and offer creative and comprehensive solutions that often have high entertainment value. This year’s expert jury was impressed by the diversity and the internationality of the submissions. The Asian market continues to have a very strong presence, with Asian designers delivering striking concepts that inspire new possibilities.

6. Communication – The simpler the design, the more convincing the service
The technology in the “communication” category has reached a plateau, resulting in a renewed focus on appearances on the part of designers. Designers vie to outdo each other with small finesses and the level of quality is consistently high. Given the complex mechanisation of the products, the ultimate challenge lies in a clear design vocabulary. The simpler the design, the more convincing the service. Cell phones are more differentiated than ever, be it in regard to colour, form, or function, and designers cater to the most varying target groups with a seemingly unlimited product selection. With the race for the sleekest device apparently concluded, producers are now placing increased emphasis on user-friendliness and a solid form. This year’s submissions leave no doubt that international design has become one of the most important economic factors. As always, the customer is the centre of interest. Technology requires a good form, and this form must engage the emotions for the product to succeed on the market. Demands can be expected to continue rising steadily in the future; however, the market is prepared for this challenge.

7. Computers - Top performance in minimal space
The computer industry operates on the market with a clear design vocabulary. Here as well the principle is: The more complex the technology, the more purist the design. Ultra-light design solutions and a delicate design vocabulary convey a transcendental touch and suggest dynamism and mobility. At this point, all devices are multifunctional and blend well into a modern-purist lifestyle. Integrative concepts offer numerous interfaces and individual components are visually finetuned to each other. The designers present future-oriented design concepts with minimal use of materials. With considerably increased demands placed on the computer sector within the last years, the design quality is now oriented toward the technical comfort of the devices. On the whole, the submissions showed an increased awareness for design. In particular the Chinese market is establishing its autonomy more and more on an international level. The designers have confidence in presenting their creative design variants, which increasingly cater to the modern lifestyle and which embody both mobility and success.


Be sure to see the 2009 Red Dot Award Winners here!

The Lost Art of Disney: 250 Original Cels Found

A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mis-laid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago.

Disney said that the art — cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches — was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed to the opening of the film “Sleeping Beauty.” The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and traveled to 16 other stores throughout Japan.


Above: Lella Smith, Director of Disney's Animation Research Library

“Walt wanted to explain every element of the animation process, so he chose artwork from all phases of production and a number of films,” said Lella Smith, creative director of the Disney Animation Research Library in Burbank, Calif., which preserves the studio’s artwork. “But the primary focus was ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ ”


Above: Cels with background from the Disney animated film “Sleeping Beauty” (1959).

After the department store tour, Disney donated the artwork to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. But the material was not considered a good fit for its permanent collection, so the museum gave the pieces to Chiba University to enhance the study of the visual arts. Chiba’s academic focus was on science, engineering and medicine, however, and the Disney art was consigned to a janitor’s closet and forgotten until it was found by chance four years ago. Although the artwork suffered some damage because of dampness, the rarest pieces were sealed in frames, which protected them somewhat.

Although most of the art is from that film, the collection also includes rare set-ups (cel and background combinations) from two Oscar-winning Silly Symphony cartoons: “Flowers and Trees” (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon and the first film to win the Academy Award for animated short film, and the landmark short “Three Little Pigs” (1933).


Above: Artwork from the Oscar-winning “Flowers and Trees” (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon.

Although most of the art is from that film, the collection also includes rare set-ups (cel and background combinations) from two Oscar-winning Silly Symphony cartoons: “Flowers and Trees” (1932), the first Technicolor cartoon and the first film to win the Academy Award for animated short film, and the landmark short “Three Little Pigs” (1933).

“The ‘Flowers and Trees’ set-up is an extremely important piece,” Ms. Smith said in an interview at her office in the library. She said other highlights included two backgrounds from the “Nutcracker Suite” and “Rite of Spring” sequences in the 1940 film “Fantasia.”



Among other striking works is a sequence of images by the designer Eyvind Earle that show how he created the stylized forest backgrounds for “Sleeping Beauty.” The delicate clusters of leaves and intricately textured bark on the trees reflect Mr. Earle’s interest in 15th-century French manuscripts and the painting of Van Eyck, and foreshadow his later serigraphs.


Above: A concept painting for “Sleeping Beauty” by the American artist and illustrator Eyvind Earle (1916-2000).

After the department store tour, Disney donated the artwork to the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. But the material was not considered a good fit for its permanent collection, so the museum gave the pieces to Chiba University to enhance the study of the visual arts.

Chiba’s academic focus was on science, engineering and medicine, however, and the Disney art was consigned to a janitor’s closet and forgotten until it was found by chance four years ago. Although the artwork suffered some damage because of dampness, the rarest pieces were sealed in frames, which protected them somewhat.


Above: A cel setup scene from "Sleeping Beauty," 1959.

Among other striking works is a sequence of images by the designer Eyvind Earle that show how he created the stylized forest backgrounds for “Sleeping Beauty.” The delicate clusters of leaves and intricately textured bark on the trees reflect Mr. Earle’s interest in 15th-century French manuscripts and in the painting of Van Eyck and foreshadow his later serigraphs.

After a year of restoration work by technicians at Disney’s Animation Research Library, some 200 works went on tour in Japan, along with 350 additional pieces lent by the studio in an exhibition titled “The Art of Disney.” The show toured seven museums around the country in 2006 and 2007, including the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art. At the end of its run, Chiba University offered to return the artwork to Disney.


Above: A cel and background set-up from “Sleeping Beauty.”

Disney said that the art — cels, backgrounds, preliminary paintings and storyboard sketches — was part of a collection that was handpicked by Walt Disney himself. It was sent to Japan in 1960 for a touring exhibition timed for the opening of the film “Sleeping Beauty.” The exhibition opened at Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo in May of that year and traveled to 16 other stores throughout Japan.

In a statement Chiba University’s president, Toyoki Kozai, said, “The response to the exhibit gave us a new appreciation for the historical and artistic value of these works.”

Because the university was concerned about keeping them in good condition for the next generation, he said, it “concluded that entrusting them to Disney would be the best route to take.”

In return, Disney is giving Chiba University high-resolution digital copies of the artworks and $1 million for scholarships. But both sides said the deal should not be viewed as a sale.

In 1960 little value was placed on artwork from animated films, and cels were sold at Disneyland for a few dollars apiece. Today animation art is prized by collectors, and a top-quality Earle background from “Sleeping Beauty” might sell for $20,000 to $30,000. Given the rarity of some of the pieces, it is hard to assign a dollar value to the collection over all, because nothing comparable has been offered for sale.


Above: Concept art for "Sleeping Beauty", by Eyvind Earle

“Walt wanted to explain every element of the animation process, so he chose artwork from all phases of production and a number of films,” said Lella Smith, creative director of the Disney Animation Research Library in Burbank, Calif., which preserves the studio’s artwork. “But the primary focus was ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ ”

“There is no way to put a price on these works — they represent our artistic heritage,” Ms. Smith, of Disney, said. “That said, their value as archival materials for study and research is very high.” She added that when the works were discovered, they did not have much commercial value because of years of accumulated damage from mold.

Mr. Kozai said that Chiba University would channel the donated money into its overall educational programs and into research on art and animation and what he called “the sound growth of children.”


Above: A cell setup of Jimmy Cricket from the 1940 film "Pinocchio."

After a year of restoration work by technicians at Disney’s Animation Research Library and a touring exhibition, Chiba University offered to return the artwork to Disney. In return, Disney is giving the university high-resolution digital copies of the artworks and $1 million for scholarships. “There is no way to put a price on these works — they represent our artistic heritage,” Ms. Smith, of Disney, said. “That said, their value as archival materials for study and research is very high."

source: NY Times, article by Charles Solomon, Photos courtesy of Disney


Above: Earle at Disney Studios with his work in the 1950's

Related links for you:
Want to buy an Eyvind Earle Gigclée from Sleeping Beauty? Go here.
New Evyvind Earle site coming soon.
Purchase Disney's Sleeping Beauty on DVD here.
Buy Disney Animation cels from Sleeping Beauty here.

addendum: TOKYO — Exciting news not only for Disney fans but also for art and animation aficionados is "The Art of Disney" exhibition, which will be held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in Koto Ward from July 15 to Sept 24.

At the exhibition, 350 selected items of original artwork from Disney's Animation Research Library (ARL) and 200 items of Disney artwork from 45 years ago that were discovered last year in the faculty of engineering at Chiba University will be displayed. It will be the biggest-ever exhibition of Disney animation art.

Is Your Client Reluctant To Embrace New Media?

Today's NY Times has an article by tech writer, David Pogue titled Are You Taking Advantage of Web 2.0?



While it's a very good article (albeit the term 'new media' is really more apt than his use of the term Web 2.0) it may be a little myopic and a touch obvious.

I'd like to add a little insight, if I may.

Given that I've been an Advertising Creative/Art Director for many large ad agencies and clients for over 20 years, and am one of the few over 35 who understand the importance of consumer generated content and new media (and how it works), I feel Pogue's is a good article to share with hesitant clients.

While he writes about the fact that 'Web 2.0' is a good forum for more human, less structured, often funny communications that can introduce to people to previously unknown companies, (like his example of Willitblend.com), or give a humane and credible face to more corporate companies, he didn't mention it is as a part of a larger marketing plan.

I agree that allowing the public to create mash-ups and fun multimedia content will create trust, goodwill and positive attention. Of course clients get nervous about the potential downside of public forums and blogs. The fear of negative or potentially slanderous comments often keeps them from embracing avenues like You Tube, My Space and Facebook, but, as he pointed out in his own example, consumer generated content can easily be moderated nowadays.

If I may add a few things from personal experience, I've noticed how many large ad agencies do realize the importance of "Web 2.0" or advertising on new media, but don't go about incorporating it properly. Several are quickly trying to staff up their 'interactive departments' and scrambling to hire 'Interactive' Creative Directors. While this is admirable and necessary, they limit themselves to looking at those who have designed many 'hot' websites or won a bunch of Webbys, without realizing that understanding media and marketing credible messages to consumers isn't a new idea, it's just changed forums.

Sure, it requires manpower, technological resources and the spending of money, but that's always been advertising/PR. Yes, one must hire someone who knows the terminology, the intimidating acronymns, the glut of web apps and the functionality of the wireless world, but it's still marketing and it still requires well designed and easily comprehensible and navigatable, targeted communication to make a real and long term impact. Since most clients, and still many consumers, are not completely web savvy, just having a cool site or fun podcasts, favorable comments on social networks, hot videos on You Tube and a Facebook or My Space page is not enough, but it IS essential and should be included in any media plan nowadays.

The very same ad agencies who used to call me in for freelance to work on tv and print ad campaigns or new business pitches are now turning to young hot web designers for their interactive communications without realizing that, although talented at designing flash sites, online animation and cool or funny videos, they often lack an understanding of the big picture of marketing or are too myopic in their understanding of a comprehensive marketing plan. That 'talked about' video on You Tube may get their website a lot of hits and make a company instantly popular, but it must be considered in conjunction with other communications to build a brand that isn't just a flash in the pan. After all, no one is more fickle than a consumer and with the immediacy of online communications, a brand can be hot one week only to 'cool off' in a month.

To wit, many of the large ad agencies are losing work to the new crop of places that call themselves 'interactive' agencies or 'new media' agencies. Microsites for popular and prestigious clients like BMW aren't being designed by the ad agency of record, but instead are being 'farmed out' to these boutique companies filled with talented tech savvy 20 somethings.

While embracing Web 2.0 (or new media) as part of their marketing or PR plan may give a company a more humane, likable and credible image- especially to a younger demographic, the rest of that company's communications to the public, be it via 'old school' forums like magazine, newspaper and television advertising, must also be considered in conjunction with Web 2.0 to fully make a lasting impact.

It behooves any advertising agency to understand the importance of consumer generated content within these new forums as an essential PART of their overall communications for their clients. They need to start by educating their present creatives and clients at to how it works (and it does work) or else they will lose more and more future business to those companies who do embrace Web 2.0 (as defined by David Pogue).

And they can start by reading his article.

Uber Luxe: Luxuriator's Diamond & 18k Glasses and Sunglasses

LUXURIATOR was founded and created in 2004 by Los Angeles based eye wear & jewelry designer Franco Vahe. Franco designed the first pair of diamond-studded Luxuriator sunglasses for a celebrity-friend in Los Angeles, where the brand has evolved into an exclusive and highly fashionable must-have jewelry accessory and trademark.


Above: Franco Vahe with Paris Hilton, sporting a pair of his Luxuriator Shades

The Luxuriator Collection is a modern classic luxury brand of handcrafted diamond sunglasses, with a fashion forward blend of hand set pave or micro pave VS grade, G and F color diamonds set in 18K white, yellow, rose or gun metal gold. Hand engraved and enameled versions are also offered. All temples are made of solid buffalo horn and exotic leathers, combined with top of the line optics. The unique diamond rings on each side are a design trademark created exclusively by Franco Vahe.


Above: the Uno 21, their least expensive model at $5,000.00

The collection consists of 2 main styles; Luxuriator Uno, a single bridge chassis and Luxuriator Due, a double bridge chassis. Each frame style can be made with any of the hundreds of lens shapes available and custom tinted to a clients request. Both styles and all lenses can be made with a clients eyeglass prescription.



Above: The most expensive pair they sell. At $65,000.00, the Due 24 has a 2.0 carat canary diamond and 132 handset pave diamonds, making the total carat weight 3.45.

In April of 2007, Luxuriator launched it's impressive collection worldwide at Basel World.
As time progresses, they claim they are committed to designing new styles and concepts using new materials and new technology combining precious metals and diamonds.

At the moment they seem to have 9 stock models that sell for an average of $7,000.00- $8,000.00 dollars. But they make amazingly unusual custom frames as well.








Buy a pair and you'll be keeping company with the likes of the following celebs, who own one or more pairs; Jamie Foxx, Beyonce, Paula Abdul, Paul McCartney, Pharell Williams, Paris Hilton, Usher, Sharon Stone, Denzel Washington, Sting, Oprah Winfrey and more.

For more information email: info@luxuriatorcollection.com
Telephone: 818.760-8493 or 800.448.2411
Go here to find a dealer near you.

Where's Manish Arora Going After India's Fashion Week? Disneyland!

Above: Designer Manish Arora & his collection at India's Fashion Week

Okay, not really. Besides, he's already been there from the looks of his latest collection.

Fashion week in New Delhi had some drama (the wardrobe malfunction on a Belgian model during the showing of Rajesh Pratap Singh's collection) and some truly amazing clothes. One of the more unusual...okay, bizarre... collections was that of designer Manish Arora with futuristic warrior headgear on models sporting Disney icons clad in crystal, embellishing dresses, scarves and more.



Manish Arora's 'Ultra Man Meets Lichtenstein' collection at the Delhi fashion week had people talking. Known for his irreverent designs, colorful patterns and unusual runway accoutrements, Arora's most recent collection incorporates Goofy, Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Pop Art and lots of knee and shoulder pads.



The Disney cartoon characters clad in armor and the work of Japanese artist Keiichi Tanaami were rendered on silk, velvet and brocade dresses inspired by Japanese samurais, gladiators and medieval knights.. and to me, personally, Ultra Man.



Arora's models walked the ramp wearing lion masks and metallic armor shields, shoulder and knee pads, most embellished with Swarovski crystals.





"For me, fashion is glamorous and happy and shiny - that's why I show all this," the designer told reporters after the show.



"My clothes always have a sense of humor and Walt Disney provided that for me."



The majority of the collection lacked the Disney characters, but certainly didn't lack stopping power. Take a look at some of the collection:












And of course, Ultra Man:


Around 80 designers showcased autumn and winter collections on the runway or in stalls at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week.

Designer duo Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna took inspiration from city life for their 'Lost in the Urban Maze' collection - the grid lines of the city mimicked in sleek suits and dresses in various shades of brown and blue.

Creative designs were not the only thing that made news at the fashion week on Friday. The shoulder drape of a Belgian model slipped sideways during designer Rajesh Pratap Singh's show, exposing her breast for a second. Photographers clicked away but most in the audience remained oblivious to the slip-up.



Clothes coming undone on the ramp are nothing new to the fashion world, but in India it sent newspaper editors and TV producers into a feeding frenzy. Some TV channels repeatedly broadcast the footage, blurring out the model's breast, while newspapers published reports with photographs of the model.

See Manish Arora's site here.

Laurina Paperina's How To Kill The Artists

Meet Laura Scottini (aka Laurina Paperina), an italian artist with a wonderfully wicked sense of humor.

Her collection of drawings, installation and videos in the exhibit "How To Kill The Artists" is a hilarous and purposely ironic twist in which contemporary artists and cartoonists are being attacked by objects of their own creation, most of which brought them great wealth and or fame. I have gone to to trouble to locate images of the original pieces of art which Laurina references because some of you may not be familiar with the artists or the works.

The Installation:




Now, to better understand the following drawings, I have attached the artist's originals below Laurina's drawings/paintings so you can fully appreciate the satire.


Above: Paperina's painting with all the 'artists' from her collection

Above: Paperina's Jeff Koons Vs His Dog

above: Koons' Balloon Puppy

Above: Paperina's Keith Haring's Dog.

Above : keith haring's famous dog icon

Above: Paperina's Joseph Beuys Eaten By Wolf.

Above: Joseph Beuys and Coyote, performance piece

Above: Paperina's Pollock

Above: Jackson Pollock at work

Above : Paperina's David Shrigley

Above: David Shrigley's photo "severed hand"

Above: Paperina's Cattalan Does Not Surf

Above: Maurizio Cattelan's Charlie Don't Surf

Above: Barry McGee (aka Twist)

Above: Barry McGee Sprayed

Above: Graffiti artist Barry McGee (aka Twist) at work

Above: Paperina's Murakami Vs DOB

Above: Takeshi Murakami's DOB

Above: Paperina's Warhol Vs. Marilyn

Above: Andy Warhol's Marilyn screenprint

Above: Paperina's Frida Kahlo

Above: Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait as the Little Deer

Above: Paperina's Basquiat Vs. His Monster

Above: Jean Michel Basquiat, untitled

Above: Although not ready for download quite yet, she has animated videos which will be available for viewing on her site.

More about the artist:

Laurina Paperina (in english "Little Laura - Little Duck")
1980, Born in Rovereto. She lives and works between Mori (Trento, Italy) and Duck Land
2005, Academy of Fine Arts, Verona, Italy
1999, Art Institute, Rovereto (Trento), Italy

The artists' statement (in italian followed by english):

Io gioco con l'arte.
Il mio lavoro è un'elaborazione ironica della contemporaneità e sulle identità che la compongono. Elaborazione che nasce sintetizzando un linguaggio dove diversità e contraddizione si compenetrano e dove l'influenza dalla cultura di internet e della tv, dei fumetti e dei video games, della fantascienza e dei cartoons, generano un complesso insieme di elementi che si trasformano in un apparente caos ma lasciano intravedere delle forme riconoscibili.
I personaggi che popolano i miei lavori sono dunque ironia dipinta e sono frutto della mia fantasia, sono forme dinamiche e colori sgargianti di una sorta di "virtual reality" simile ad un video games dove la finzione e l'apparenza giocano simulando la realtà.
In sintesi il mio lavoro è un gioco ironico sulle sue esperienze che non ha un fine ben preciso se non quello di rappresentare le diversità di pensiero e come queste possano coesistere,
come se ogni elemento fosse un frammento indispensabile di un puzzle.

[I'm sorry...my english isn't good !!!]

I play with art. My work is an ironic elaboration of contemporaneity and the elements which are part of it. It is an elaboration stemming from a language sysnthesis where diversity and contradiction are intertwined and where the influence of internet culture, TV, comic strips, video games, sci-fi and cartoons are generating a complex set of elements, which, although turning into an apparent chaos, are letting themselves be seen in recognizable forms.
Characters populating my works are "painted irony": they are the fruits of my fantasy, dynamic forms and flamboyant colors of some sort of virtual reality resembling a video game where fiction and appearance interplay and simulate reality.
In sum, my work is an ironic game on my experiences, which has no specific purpose but to represent divergencies of thought and the way such divergencies may coexist, as though each element were an indespensable fragment of a jigsaw-puzzle.

Visit her site and see much of her other work.

Product Pick Of The Week: Mirabilia Range Hoods

The MIRABILIA line of kitchen hoods from Falmec.


above: the Manhattan

The line is composed of two versions, Oval or Rectangular. Made of decorated glass and with a light, it's more than a hood for your range or stove, it's a functional design element that provides light as well as ventilation.


above: the Comet

above: the Elektra

above: the Zebra

above: the Natura Gold

above: the Ice

Both designs are available in plain white frosted glass as seen below:



All the designs have very easy access to changing the bulbs:

as well as nicely designed electronic control panels:



Falmec S.p.A.
Via dell'Artigianato, 42
31029 Vittorio Veneto TV - ITALIA
Telefono 0438 5025 - Fax 0438 501531

Go here to purchase or for more information.

Moleskine Notebooks Get Even More Hip With 'Engrave Your Book'

Engrave your book sells a series of artist designed laser engraved Moleskine notebooks or gives you the option to design your own, making the favorite notebook of artists and designers that much more hip.



Below are some selections from their artist series:





..and some examples of custom covers:





Choose from a wonderful series of artist designed covers or upload your art or photo and make your own!
Click here.

And they do the same with laptops, check out Engrave your tech.

Is It A "W"? A New Ian Schrager Hotel? Nope, It's Motel 6

Motel 6 Hips Up With a New "Phoenix" Prototype Hotel with rooms designed by Priestman Goode and exterior designed by Boka Powell.

Phoenix Design Combines Modern Style, Functionality and Value

Motel 6, known for offering a clean, comfortable room for the lowest price of any national chain, is reinventing the economy lodging experience with the announcement of its first new prototype in 12 years. Accor North America, one of the nation’s largest hotel owner/operators and the parent company of Motel 6, today unveiled the Motel 6 “Phoenix” prototype.



The Phoenix prototype, named after the mythical bird symbolizing rebirth and renewal, signifies the reinvention of Motel 6 and the re-establishing of its position as the uncontested leader in price value in the economy segment. True to the spirit of Motel 6, the new design is simple, functional and straight to the point.

Priestman Goode of London designed the room (after winning a competition and with input from guests and franchisees) to optimize the use of space by combining multiple functions into a single piece of furniture to provide modern functionality.



Major features of the Phoenix prototype include a new building exterior designed by BOKA Powell,(who designed accor's headquarters in texas) a spacious lobby with a new 24-hour food and beverage vending market place, and a modern guestroom design that features bright accent colors. The room includes ambient lighting, wood-effect flooring rather than carpet, and a 32-inch flat-screen TV. The flat screen TV is displayed on the entertainment unit which conceals the door-less wardrobe behind it, thus combining two needs into one unit.



Also included on the entertainment unit is a cubby for personal items and a multi-media panel allowing guests to plug in their mp3 players, CD players and laptop computers – this feature allows guests to listen to their favorite tunes or use the flat-screen TV as their computer monitor while enjoying Wi-Fi internet access in their room. The room also features pedestal beds with a new taupe-colored coverlet and pillow-top platform mattress.



Above: The “table for two” is situated in the corner of the room with a design that encourages and allows for interaction between guests, whether during meals, discussions or games.



Above: The bathroom features double doors, black granite counter top with a vessel/raised sink and a walk-in shower that includes a molded seat for comfort and convenience. The bathroom features a large vanity area with a bright decorative towel cubby on the wall that adds extra accent lighting.

Upon entering the room the guest is greeted by a short corridor, leading into the open space of the room. The bathroom is situated off of the entrance corridor, and for added privacy all of its elements are separate from the rest of the room. The feel of the bedroom is bright and airy due in large part to the minimal furniture that, by design, seems to float in the space. The pedestal bed allows for storage of luggage under the bed and allows for easy cleaning access and visibility.

“This design embodies the heart of Motel 6 – it’s no-frills, uncomplicated and efficient with a new modern edge,” said Jim Amorosia, president and COO of Motel 6 and Studio 6. “The Phoenix prototype offers the best of both worlds - an upscale feel at the lowest price of any national chain.”


Above: Boka Powell's offices for Accor's headquarters in Texas.

After a design competition, the Phoenix prototype design by Priestman Goode was chosen based on input from franchisees and guests. The first Phoenix prototype will be a corporate-owned location, and construction will begin in the latter half of 2008. The new prototype will be available to franchisees in the summer of 2009. Future plans call for many current Motel 6 corporate properties to be retrofitted with elements of the new prototype.
Motel 6 rooms over the years:


Visit the Motel 6 site here

Peeps As Pop Culture: The Peep Show II Winners & More

Above: Janet Galore's Jesus of Peeps, 2007

The Washington Post's Sunday Source recently held their second Annual Peep Show contest (Peep Show II), asking for submissions of Peep® Dioramas. Last year's contest inspired over 350 entries. This year, they received over 800!



Peeps, the chick-shaped sugar coated marshmallow easter chicks (and now bunnies, tulips and more) made by Just Born, Inc. clearly inspire the artfully inclined each spring .... myself included.

As a matter of fact, just last week I created an Easter Card with an image of a Peep on it (but no mention of the Peep name) and was selling it on Zazzle, making me a lousy 20 cents on each card sold, when I received a message from Zazzle, via the Peeps peeps that I had infringed on copyright trademarks.



Above: My easter card that violated the Peeps policies

After carefully reading both Zazzle's policies as well as those of Just Born, Inc., I wrote to them expressing my disappointment that a simple little innocent card, (which did not use their photography or brand name) which was giving them free advertising, had threatened them enough to request that Zazzle pull it for their site. I mused that I might even blog about the incident.

Well, less than 24 hours later, a legal representative from Just Born, Inc. called me at home to personally to explain why Just Born, Inc felt I had infringed upon their trademark rights. He had actually looked at my blog as well as my personal site and clearly did not wish me to blog about my ex'peep'ience with Just Born. Bottom line? I was making royalties off of a product which contained an image of a Peep. When I questioned them as to whether or not including a legal line on the card (such as "Peeps and the Peep shape are registered trademarks of Just Born, Inc.") would allow me to sell it in the Zazzle marketplace, the trademark lawyer made it clear that if they're not making the money off of it, I certainly can't. Okay, that makes sense... so I suggested, half in jest, he forward my card to their licensing department and ask if they want a cut.

Now keep in mind, it's not like I was selling any more than ...oh, maybe FIVE of these cards and one t-shirt.

Anyhow, I digress. The point of this was the "Peepspiration" people feel around Easter as Just Born products line the shelves of drug stores and convenience stores, and to share the sugary fruits of their labor with you-- complete with peep puns and lots of pop culture references.

And yes, Just Born, Inc. approved of the Washington Post's contest and even provided the winner with a Peeps prize pack. The winner also received a $100 American Express gift check. The Four runners-up received a $50 American Express gift check and a Peeps prize pack.

Washington Post's 2008 Peep Show II winner and top 4 finalists:

this year's winner:

Winner: The Tomb of King Peepankhamun
Laura Sillers, 22, of Potomac heard about the Peeps Diorama Contest 48 hours before the Sunday deadline. Undaunted, she began work Friday night and whipped up the most arresting diorama of the bunch. The torches are piped-in Christmas lights. Even the hieroglyphics are steeped in Peeps imagery. And notice the mummy Peep staggering out of the walls of the tomb.

The other four finalists:
1.Peep Art

Finalist: "The name is a pun, and the concept itself is the pun," explains Ilana Greenstein, 31, of Alexandria, an operations officer for the CIA who made the diorama with Jane Dokko, 30, of Washington. Their creation exudes the austerity of a museum, but within the mounted frames it's colorful chaos. And let's not forget: Admiring the exhibit are Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick themselves.
Jane Dokko, 30, Washington, and Ilana Greenstein, 31, Alexandria

2. Nightmare in Pink

Finalist: The dark horse of our contest was Arlington resident Peter Byer's abstract creation, which seems inspired by Maurice Sendak, Lewis Carroll and Edward Gorey. It's a twisted funhouse of pastel dread, so vivid you can almost hear the vicious hiss of the demon feline bearing down on the sleeping Peep. Note: The bedposts are crayons, and the slippers and vases are made of Sculpey.
Peter Byer, 40, Arlington

3. U2 Peep-D

Finalist: This diorama -- by Kate Baylor, 25, Ethan Fried, 27, and Heather Cabral, 27, all of Washington; and Stephanie Montgomery, 27, and Ann Barrett, 23, both of Arlington -- depicts the experience of watching the concert film "U2 3D" in a theater. Notice Bono's glasses, headband and "One" bracelet, the Edge's knit (rather: felt) cap and the enthused Peep fan
Kate Baylor, 25, Washington
Stephanie Montgomery, 27, Arlington
Ethan Fried, 27, Washington
Ann Barrett, 23, Arlington
Heather Cabral, 27, Washington

4. Thrilla in Manila

Finalist: Last year, a video of a few hundred jumpsuited inmates dancing gracefully and accurately to "Thriller" made the Internet rounds. Sam Chin, 27, of Burtonsville and his friends made it into a diorama with Peeps in orange jumpsuits crooking their arms like Jacko and the zombies did a quarter-century ago.
Ronald Lloveras, 28, Washington
Sam Chin, 27, Burtonsville
Muriel Chin, 28, Burtonsville
Farrah Fojas, 28, Fort Washington
Brian Martinez, 27, Elkridge
Cristina Martinez, 28, Elkridge
Leah Naranja, 27, Oxon Hill

see all 37 finalists here.

Below is last years' Peep Show 1 (2007) winner from the Sunday Source's Peeps Diorama Contest in 2007.

"Peeps Are a Girl's Best Friend"


See a gallery of the 2007 entries here.

In addition to this newspaper sponsored Peep Show II contest, there are many imaginative and artsy Peep images floating around cyberspace, here are a few of my personal favorites :

Janet Galore's Jesus of Peeps

494 marshmallow Peeps™in a wood frame, 4.5 ft tall x 3.5 ft wide

Janet Galore, with special thanks to Stafford Squier and Ron Haringa for help with the frame
An R- rated "peep" show:

Unfortunately I don't know who to credit for the above peep art
Peep Marilyn:

Above: Karyn Zupke created a photo-collage "Marilyn" last year as an art project at her children's school. This time she ran into an artistic challenge: Andy Warhol's iconic "Marilyn" has five colors but Peeps come in only four. (editor's note: now peeps come in green as well) She Peepsevered, however; all the yellow Peeps in Marilyn's face are face-down except for one, with its one Peep eye looking out — acting as the starlet's mole.

The Last Peepster

Above: Diane Walker's a professional photographer who created this for the Seattle Times 2006 Peep contest


above: Daniel Levitt's Peep Kimono.


above: The Peep bikini top and bottom (I'm sorry, I do not know who to credit)

And Happy Easter!

All the peep edible and officially licensed products.
Visit The Just Born site
Official Peeps Site.

Rollout's Custom & Artist Series Wallpapers

ROLLOUT is a creative studio that designs and digitally prints custom wallpapers by the square foot. They recruit community-based artists, photographers, industrial designers and cutting edge graphic artists/designers to create amazingly original wall coverings, many seen in hip stores and offices like Worth clothing and Microsoft's Zune.

Above left; JONATHAN NODRICK (President, Creative Director) and right; ANITA MODHA (CEO, Director of Marketing & Communications)

As described on their site:

ROLLOUT was born out of the need for graphic expression in the interior design industry. Gone are the days of slick minimalism. We embrace texture, expression, emotion and color, filling the gaping hole left by modernism.

Below are some of their custom designs:




Above: as seen in Vancouver's Moustache & Darling



Above: The dressing rooms in Worth have the same wallpaper as the rest of the store, but in cream on white as opposed to silver on black.

Above: A custom callalily design for a private residence

In addition to designing custom wallpapers, they have "stock" designer and artist papers that you can choose from. They can print these papers to fit your space. Please contact them for a quote.

Some of their fabulous artist series wall coverings:
Please click on each image below to enlarge so you can see the detail!












Their premium, latex-based inkjet wallcoverings come in 36’’ wide rolls that they digitally print to any square footage. This allows ROLLOUT to minimize waste – and your costs. ROLLOUT delivers ready-to-hang wallpaper, developed to your precise specifications, to your project site.


Above: You can order a sample book with five of their designs for $25

Above: Or this cool skull shirt based on one of their custom wallpapers.
For more info on the t-shirt or sample book, e-mail them here.

Now, it's true, with wall coverings like these it's very difficult to hang art on the walls. But then again, with wall coverings like these, who needs art?

ROLLOUT Custom Wallpaper
#301-321 Railway Street
Vancouver BC Canada V6A 1A4
Office (604) 681.3780
Cell (604) 258.8072

GENERAL INFO
info@rollout.ca

SALES & MEDIA
anita@rollout.ca

TECHNICAL INFORMATION
jon@rollout.ca

Visit their site here.

Stern's Marilyn & Lindsay: Side By Side

Above: Bert Stern's Famous shots of Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Photographer Bert Stern may best be known as the photographer who shot Marilyn Monroe's famous last sitting, a collection of vulnerable and beautiful shots of the actress, taken at the Bel Air hotel in 1962. The photographs are arguably the most famous images ever captured of America's most famous actress. Six weeks after she had posed, Monroe was found dead of an apparent barbiturate overdose.


Above: the cover of the Feb. 2008 Issue of New York Magazine with Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn

As most anyone alive now already knows, New York Magazine's Feb 2008 issue features Lindsay Lohan recreating the shoot now known as "Marilyn's Last Sitting", again shot by photographer Bert Stern. The shots are fabulous (Stern hasn't lost his touch in the past 46 years) and I wanted to show you them side by side because it's a great comparison.


Above left, Lindsay Lohan by Bert Stern, 2008 and above right, marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern, 1962


In the following shots, the original Marilyn shots are followed by the recent Lindsay Lohan images (in case you can't tell which is which!)




















Photographs by Bert Stern For New York Magazine
Styling by Elizabeth Stewart and George Kotsiopoulos/Margaret Maldonado Agency; Hair by Andy Lecompte for Sunsilk/Solo Artists; Makeup by Paul Starr for Chanel/Magnet LA; Diamond rope necklaces and diamond ring by Martin Katz; Loose crystals by Swarovski; Pearl necklaces and pearl earrings by Mikimoto; Pearl ring by Chanel Fine Jewelry; Sheets by Chez M'Lain; Vintage veil and scarves by The Way We Wore, Los Angeles; Nude chiffon flowers by Jennifer Behr; Panties by Eres

And some behind the scenes shots for you from the New York magazine shoot:






Relevant links for you:
New York Magazine's Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe
Bert Stern


Original Bert Stern photos from the Marilyn Shoot for sale here.
And here.

Buy a book of Marilyn's Last Sitting here.

Another Twist On Toile: Modern Toile Wall Tiles

Awhile back I did a post on "Twisted Toile", modern takes on the traditional french toile as now found in wallpapers, linens and more. Then just the other day I came across a wonderful addition to the world of trendy toile; some fabulous ceramic wall tiles from Saint Honoré Wallcoverings. The french store also carries wallpaper and like hundreds of other online boutiques, trendy wall decals.

The Munchausen collection of ceramic wall tiles have the look and feel of traditional toile from afar and yet, close up, reveal that they sport such popular contemporary imagery as animals, skulls, birds and asian elements.

"MUNCHAUSEN presents a collection that plays on the notion of frieze, fresco, with the idea of redrawing a toile de Jouy transposed to the anachronistic details on the tiles. Also, their series "Palm Springs" perfect for holiday features superb playmates at the edge of pools sumptuous villas."

Below are the four different takes on toile:




Above: toile de jouy 1




Above: toile de jouy 2




Above: toile de jouy 3




Above: Palm Springs Toile (available in blue or green)

In addition to the Munchausen collection of tiles, Saint Honoré Wall Coverings has three tile collections by french fashion designer Yvan Mispelaere:


Above: Big bang

Above: Peep show

Above: Splash

They also carry some tiles by Claude Closky and Studio Up! as well as a beautiful line of wallcoverings and a large selection of vinyl wall decals.

Contact info:
Saint Honoré Wallcoverings
Tel : + 33 (0) 6 20 61 37 64
Email : info@sainthonorewallcoverings.com

See the many other items that incorporate modern toile here: Twisted Toile.

Avatars Dress Better Than We Do: Paying For Clothes That Don't Exist

I came across the wonderful article in UK's Telegraph by Alison Taylor and have reprinted it here for your injoyment (and info) with added visuals and links:

Virtual Vogue: Second Life Wardrobes

Who pays real money for unreal clothes? Enough people to make digital dressing-up big business. But is virtual fashion just another teenage craze or is it the end of clothes shopping as we know it? Alison Taylor investigates.

After much wardrobe searching, I plump for my DKNY ivory satin coat, skinny Raven jeans and vintage polka-dot blouse to meet Brad -that's Brad Pitt - at the log cabin. It might be snowing outside, but there's a roaring fire to keep us warm. It's been a busy few days refurbishing my pad (bling-bling meets kitsch boutique), catching up with all my fashion-loving friends and shopping. Recent purchases include a chic wool beret (again DKNY), a Heidi Klum clover pendant and - my favourite - a gorgeous vintage caramel leather mac.


Above: Amy Winehouse and some outfits from stardoll.com

Sadly this is not me speaking, it's my MeDoll; my web alter ego or avatar on Stardoll.com, a virtual world of shopping and dressing-up. Stardoll receives more than six million visitors every month from across the globe, 94 per cent of whom are teen and tween girls who log on to restyle digital versions of celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Amy Winehouse and even the esteemed editor of American Vogue, Anna Wintour. The average user age might have gone up after Stardoll was mentioned in Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue, encouraging readers to 'play celebrity stylist' in lieu of this year's awards ceremonies. 'No Golden Globes? No red carpets? No problem. Get your celebrity fashion fix and help more than 100 of Hollywood's best dressed get prepped for the Big Night at Stardoll.com.' And why not? I defy any woman not to smile as she drags a pair of garish shorts and silly sunglasses on to a David Hasselhoff doll.

If they register and sign up for an account, Stardoll members can also create MeDolls, which they usually design in their own likeness, choosing from a variety of virtual faces, skin tones, hairstyles, lip shapes and eye colours. They can dress their MeDolls in a dazzling array of Stardoll brands available in the on-site Starplaza mall - real-life brands such as DKNY, Ugg, Hilary Duff's Stuff by Duff and Heidi Klum's jewellery range, as well as invented ones such as the goth-style Fallen Angel and girly Pretty in Pink. There's even a vintage shop, Star Bazaar, for second-hand fans. 'You can dress yourself up and be anyone!' says Jessica, 17, a long-time user from Norwich. 'It's just fantastic. There's a craze going on right now where everyone has to have blue hair. It's bizarre. Of course no one has blue hair in real life but it shows you can be so creative and be whoever you want to be. You're allowed to have blue hair [on Stardoll].'

Above: Faith Hill and her wardrobe on stardoll.com

Stardoll's popularity is staggering - there are currently slightly more than 14 million members, with about 25,000 new people joining daily. But it started off in 2001, as the website Liisa's Paperdoll Heaven, the hobby of a retired Scandinavian factory worker inspired by the paper dolls that first appeared in the mid-19th century. Such was the appetite for contemporary virtual 'dolling' that by 2005 the venture capitalists were knocking and the site was reborn as Stardoll - with added Stardollars, a virtual currency all of its own.

Registering gives the user 25 Stardollars to buy their MeDoll a better wardrobe at the Starplaza or improvements to their on-site 'suite'. But like real dollars in real plazas they don't go far. So why not - for £4.49 a month - become a Superstar, guaranteeing you 50 Stardollars to spend every week? According to Jessica, that will currently buy you just one pair of virtual limited -edition pink Ugg boots. 'They don't sell them [on the site] any more so there are massive bidding wars for them. People are paying, like, 50 Stardollars for them. It's crazy.'

On the phone from Sweden Mattias Miksche, the chief executive of Stardoll, won't say how many Stardoll users are Superstars or what their monthly spend is, but points out that 'rigid filters are in place so that users can't spend stupid amounts'. The British limit is £6 per week, making the maximum spend over four weeks, including membership, £28.49. Pretty steep for clothes that you will never put on your back and Ugg boots that you'll never put on your feet.


Above: Alicia Keyes and wardrobe on stardoll.com

Jessica, who's got an online wardrobe stocked with in-demand items that she will eventually sell and make Stardollar profit on, is still trying to puzzle the whole thing out. 'Although Stardoll is a lot about creativity, it's very heavily based onfashion, too,' she says. 'I think people just want to look fashionable and, if they don't have the money to buy those clothes in real life, they can buy and wear them on Stardoll.'

Stardoll may be aimed at the teen and pre-teen market but it is just one of a growing number of fashion-focused web worlds becoming popular with users of all ages, whether you want to live out your footwear fantasies in pink Uggs, socialise with fellow fashion enthusiasts on the latest 'style networking' sites or even do something as practical as virtually 'trying on' real clothes before you buy them for real.

Indulging the style whims of self-created 'webselves', or avatars, and spending real money on virtual clothes, is a particularly strange concept for the uninitiated. 'I think it's extraordinary spending real dollars in virtual worlds,' says Ann Mack, the director of trend- spotting at JWT, the advertising powerhouse in New York. 'But it's a "psycho-graphic" rather than a demographic, a certain mindset - people who feel very comfortable playing with their identities both online and offline and people looking for an escape from their daily lives.'


Above: the virtual world for alter egos, Second Life.

SecondLife.com, created in 2003, is probably the best-known virtual world, with more than ten million members whose avatars inhabit a place with its own stock exchange, estate agents, holiday destinations and relationships. Again, fashion has a huge presence, with virtual malls stocked with'home-grown' fashion brands and retailers as well as real-world brands. Lacoste recently sponsored an avatar modelling contest. New Look ran a clothing design competition. Giorgio Armani's silver-haired avatar made an appearance at the opening of his own shop. 'Finally I can be two places at once,' he said. Calvin Klein launched a virtual version of its fragrance ckIN2U (consumers who want a sniff of the real thing are able to click through to the fragrance's website and request a real- world sample). There are enthusiastic Second Life fashion bloggers, too, and even a fashion magazine, Secondstyle.com.


Above: the cover of Second Style, a virtual fashion mag for second lifers

For Second Life punters, it's an opportunity to experiment with a new look or identity (and to look your best at all times, unlike in the real world). For brands, it's a marketing opportunity. Nigel Morris at Isobar, the company that helped Adidas open in Second Life, thinks brands should experiment with digital environments: 'We feel virtual worlds are part of a new trend in relation to community and the notion of identity and how people see themselves on the web.'

But Mack is not sure how successful this will be long-term.'There was a lot of talk of brand getting in on it, but that was at the height,' she says. 'If you go to Second Life now, many brands are sitting there stagnant. Unless you spend a lot of time updating the clothes and the stores, it feels old very quickly.' It's like deciding to devote time to creating a Second Life persona and being bothered to live out a cyber life -you've got to have the time and inclination.

Style networking sites such as osoyou.com and fashionspace.com are more firmly entrenched in the real world. These are web forums where fashion-lovers congregate, check out celebrity fashion looks and swap style tips. Osoyou.com is Britain's first site to combine social networking (as on Facebook) and online shopping - so as well as picking up tips from other members on where to buy a good biker jacket, surfers can click through to popular fashion 'e-tailers' such as my-wardrobe.com or high-street names such as M&S, Oasis and Karen Millen, and buy one. Or you can put your finds to one side for another time.

Osoyou.com launched in autumn 2007 and now has 250,000 visitors to the site. Typical members are women between 20 and 40 with a habit for online shopping. Osoyou.com's founder Dawn Bebe (who was the launch director of Grazia magazine) says, 'Our figures show they typically shop at work, during their lunch break, or at 4pm,when we are clearly the equivalent of a KitKat break - more expensive but fewer calories!'

Women account for just under half of all internet users, spending between two and four hours per day browsing (mostly during workhours, prompting Bebe to coin the term 'cyberskivers').And online shopping figures continue to rise (clothing sales went up by 28 per cent in 2007, according to the IMRG Capgemini sales index). Bebe's research shows that more women are turning on their laptops again when they get home, with the intention of better organising their lives. 'That's how women rationalise their usage,' she says.

Jess Markwood, 22, a hotel receptionist from Cornwall, has been logging on to Osoyou.com for a couple of months.'I save the clothes I like, sort of a fantasy wardrobe,' she says,'and then buy when I can afford it.' Or not.'Sometimes that satiates my shopping need, because when I go back I'm more critical. I'm less impulsive than I'd be in a shop.'


Above: My Virtual Model (mvm.com) allows you to brand yourself as a supermodel and even upload your own face.

Even the frustration of not being able to try before you buy when shopping online is potentially at an end. The website My Virtual Model (mvm.com) is a system that enables you to create something like Stardoll's MeDoll, a lifelike virtual model of you based on an uploaded digital photograph and your real-life measurements. The idea is that you can use it to help you to shop more practically, with your virtual self'trying on' the clothes you like to see if they fit, suit or go with those blue shoes you quite fancy, too. The software is already up and running on H&M's website.

So do these advances mean the end of shopping as we know it?'[Technology] will never replace the high street or girlie shopping trips,' says Bebe. 'But it will provide a parallel experience online.'

Back on Stardoll, Jessica is already an old hand at using her virtual self to inform her real-life fashion decisions. After successfully customising a virtual skirt 'with lots of pins and badges', she's been applying the same trick to the hats and bags in her wardrobe. 'It's hard to imagine yourself in real life in all sorts of clothes, but with this you can try things on and think, "Oh, that looks really good. I'll see how it goes,"' she says. 'It really expands your creativity and how you express yourself. Because that's what clothes are all about.'
source: The Telegraph

Can Imbibing Save The Planet? 10 New Green Vodkas

Okay, so maybe getting drinking eco-alcohol products won't really save the planet, but it certainly won't hurt it. Given the new and growing awareness of the importance of utilizing sustainable techonologies and renewable resources and packaging, several companies are coming out with "green" spirits, here are some planet-friendly Vodkas for you.
1. Vodka 360:




They include an agreement to offset 100 percent of the company’s energy and carbon use; bottling the vodka in containers composed of 85 percent recycled glass; using 100 percent recycled paper and cardboard for labels, packaging and promotional materials; using grains grown in Kansas and Missouri to reduce the need to transport ingredients to the distillery; and donating money to environmental organizations.

There are even paper coasters for 360 that bear the brand’s logo on one side and these instructions on the other: “Join the greening of America and soak this coaster in water for a couple of hours. Place the card in a pot of soil and cover lightly. Keep moist and in a week or so you’ll have sprouts of cosmos and marigolds. Enjoy your flowers.”
Read more here.



2. Square One Organic Vodka:
(information from their site)
Upon moving to Marin County in Northern California, Square One Organic Vodka founder Allison Evanow found inspiration in the community’s embrace of the land, from protected public fields to abundant local organic farmers’ markets. And she was thrilled by how the community created by the Saturday morning farmers’ market was also a friendly platform for raising greater environmental issues. This led the spirits industry veteran to wonder, “Why not put the ethos of the farmer’s market into a glass?” Indeed why not create a luxury spirit that leaves a light footprint on the earth yet makes a big splash [so to speak] among cocktail cognoscenti?


Above: Allison Evanow with her organic vodka

Vodkas are prized for their purity, so the idea of an organic vodka was both viable and exciting… Thus Allison set out to create the greenest clear spirit yet. And she started at…square one, with the purest ingredients she could find: pristine spring water from the Teton mountains and organically certified North Dakota-grown rye.The ingredients are so pure that Square One obviates the need for multiple distillation, emerging through a single pass in the distiller with its unique flavor profile intact.



But Allison wasn’t content to focus only on what’s in the bottle – the packaging had to reflect Square One’s philosophy of eco-conscious sophistication. That’s why the distinct square bottle is not frosted [a process that calls for some serious chemicals!] and the label is now printed on paper made from bamboo, bagasse and cotton, all sustainably grown and renewable fiber sources. And once the bottle is empty the label easily peels off so the bottle can enjoy a second life as a vase or other container.

Finally, while we at Square One embrace the square, we’re also happy to come full circle: Because the rye byproduct from our vodka-making process is organic and minimally processed, it is packed with protein and fiber, thus making it ideal for sale as feed to an organic dairy farm.We did not intend to sell off our “waste” but are now thrilled to be a vital link in the cradle-to-cradle process of growing grain, feeding cattle, and creating the best martinis you’ve ever tried!
Learn more here.

3. Purus Vodka:



Even Anheuser-Busch has gotten into the green game with their Purus Vodka. The premium organic vodka retails at $35 a bottle, which is recyclable and wrapped in a “tree-free paper” label with safe soy-based inks, water-based adhesives, and an environmentally sustainable cork closure. It’s made from crystalline Alpine water, locally harvested 100% organic Italian wheat and cultivated without pesticides or commercial fertilizers at a 3^rd generation family-owned distillery.




On the site you can even enter your info to plant a tree in the “Purus Forest.” While this is the first vodka brand created and marketed specifically by Anheuser Busch, their Stone Mill pale ale and Wild Hop lagers are both organic beers.
learn more (and plant a tree) here.

4. UK5 Organic Vodka:



UK5 Vodka is world's first Organic Vodka made from 100% rye. The actual organic farm in which the Rye is produced is located in Germany has been organic for over 30 years. There are many unique points when talking about UK5 Organic Vodka with the most important being we are the world's only non filtered Vodka. The result is UK5 is an extremely smooth distillate. Most people believe filtering is good for the product and the fact is they are correct. But that is due to all the impurities that exist in conventional Vodkas. As a result they must be extracted from the liquid before people can drink the product. Filtering extracts all the impurities but it also takes out all the flavors and essences of the Vodka. After all, it is impossible to take out the bad without taking out the good.


UK5 Organic Vodka uses only the worlds purest water and the world's finest organic grain which has a denser cell structure perfect for making premium vodka. Conventional vodka is made from grain sprayed on average at least 7 times with chemicals; these chemicals which are found in our water supply and food chain, are feared to cause human cancers, interfere with our hormones and our human nervous system. In 1998, UK companies used 50,000 tons of grain, grown using artificial chemicals in the production of Gin and Vodka.
Learn more here.

5. Lotus Vodka:


Developed by San Francisco-based Delicious Brands, White Lotus is a proprietary blend of the finest vodka, natural flavors and secret ingredients targeted to sophisticated, health-conscious consumers between the ages of 25 and 40. This vodka was specifically created for the on-sale market to pair with fresh fruit juices for healthier, better-tasting cocktails. White Lotus packaging is environmentally friendly: The label is printed directly on the bottle and the cases are made in part from recycled cardboard.


Now available in two flavors, white lotus or blue lotus, new flavors will be available soon.
Learn more here.

6. Rain Vodka:

Rain is handmade from scratch in small batches at Buffalo Trace Distillery. Every step in making Rain is designed for enjoying the ultimate vodka taste experience. Rain vodka is distilled exclusively from 100 percent organic white corn, creating a superior taste profile. The vodka undergoes an extensive 20-day production technique that includes cold-water sweet mash fermentation, seven distinct distillations and a polishing stage that adds pure limestone water.



Tasting Notes
Rain is made from organically grown white corn. Smells of pear drop, moss and hay in the first sniffing; aeration allows the aroma to deepen, especially the appealing earthy moss/wet soil perfume. Palate entry is feather-light; at mid-palate there’s a firm but satiny taste of sweet grain. Aftertaste is grainy. Delicious and delicate.
SUPERB (90-95)/Highly Recommended
--Wine Enthusiast Magazine
learn more here.

7. VeeV Vodka:


VeeV is a high-end, high-proof liqueur make from the South American açaí berry, which contains antioxidants. An alternative to vodka in cocktails, its taste is slightly sweet with accents of dark berries, cherry, and chocolate. The spirit is available from Southern Wine & Spirits in 750 and 50 ml bottles.


For every bottle sold, VeeV donates $1 to help protect and replenish the Amazonian Rainforest through partners Rainforest Action Network and Sambazon’s Sustainable Açaí Project. This helps to offset the carbon output of VeeV’s day-to-day activities.

VeeV’s support of the Sustainable Açaí Project directly benefits the farming communities that harvest the Açaí berries, promotes organic certification, and ensures that Açaí is “wild harvested” to preserve the surrounding flora and protect biodiversity. The donation to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) protects the world’s forests by promoting the alignment of corporate and governmental policies into with conservation efforts.

VeeV Vodka has Açaí in it, one of those so-called "superfoods."learn more here.

8. Reyka Vodka



Reyka has been blogged about a lot although it's probably the least "green" of the bunch. Claiming to be the world’s first green vodka- it's made from glacial water and distilled using sustainable and clean energy from geothermal heat.



The Fab people over at NOTCOT did a nice encompassing feature on it. In addition to it being 'green', they have a fun feature where each day the bottle is packaged with a different foil neck wrapper depending upon the nature and icelandic surrounding of the day! learn more here.

Other vodkas worth noting for their conservation efforts are:

9. Snow Leopard Vodka
gives 15% of their profits to save the beautiful Snow Leopard.



10. Death's Door Spirits are herbicide and pesticide free and sustainably grown on washington island and sourced as local as possible.

If you haven't already, be sure to read my post about high-end vodkas with stunning bottle designs, Premium Vodka Distillers, Drunk With Design.

And be sure to see the post on wild, unusual and flavored vodkas here.

Blog Those Butts Off. Literally.The Walkstation; Computer +Treadmill

Being a blogger, or any job that keeps one 'tied to the computer', is a very sedentary lifestyle for the most part. Big butts, hemorrhoids and a lack of a social life can be some of the side effects. But now, with the advent of the Walkstation, a collaboration between The Mayo Clinic's Dr. James Levine and respected office furniture manufacturer, Steelcase, bloggers and computer geeks can actually get a work out while typing away.

Above: Dr. James Levine with his Walkstation

The Walkstation is the fully integrated combination of an electric height-adjustable worksurface with an exclusively engineered, low speed commercial grade treadmill. And it’s the first product in the entirely new FitWork™ category of products from Details designed to bring healthy habits to sedentary workers while they are actually working

Five years ago, Details, a subsidiary of the office-furniture manufacturer Steelcase, introduced a height-adjustable desk that allows people to stand while they work. Taking the concept a step further, the company recently unveiled the Walkstation, a height-adjustable desk connected to a treadmill. Office employees can now conduct meetings or peck away on their keyboards while using a specially designed treadmill that tops out at 2 miles per hour. The goal, says Details president Bud Klipa, is not to replace a trip to the gym, but to promote movement in the sedentary office environment, in turn creating a healthier workforce.The company developed the product in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic’s Dr. James Levine, who studies energy expended during routine daily activities. The curved desk comes in five different sizes, with a height-adjustment range of 241¼4'' to 52''. Priced at about $4,000, it is only available commercially.



The treadmill plugs in to a standard 110-volt outlet and features a noise-reducing belt, a high-torque motor designed for low speeds over long durations, a safety key, and a console that displays pace, time, distance, and calories burned. Klipa says first-time users are often surprised they can work while walking. “People tend to look at it and scratch their heads at first,” he says. “There really isn’t anything else like it on the market.”


Treadmill

Display console shows speed, calories burned, time and distance. Console may be visible or stored

2.0 mph maximum motor

High torque motor to withstand the rigors of slow speeds and possible higher weights for long periods of time

Whisper quiet for the office environment

Uses 3-8 amps depending on walking speed

Series 7 Height-AdjusTable Worksurface

• Height adjustment on the treadmill key pad
• Worksurface proportioned for limited reach
• Urethane High Profile edge spans entire front edge

Details, A Steelcase Company, Grand Rapids, Mich

Learn all about it here.

Funky Find Of The Week: Anke Weiss' working sterling silver security tags

Extra ID jewellery by Dutch designer Anke Weiss imitates the security tags attached to items of clothing in shops to prevent them from being stolen. The pieces are made from sterling silver and include actual security alarm parts.



Source: Dezeen

Designer Anke Weiss also makes one of my favorite rugs, the snow-angel rug. Made of sheepskin, it has a snow angel shaved within it:


To see more of Dutch Designer Anke Weiss' work, visit his site.

Hip, Luxurious & Really Remote: Posada de Mike Rapu Is Now Open

Located on mythical Easter Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, explora en Rapa Nui –Posada de Mike Rapu– is now open.




Around for only a few months, it's already one of the hottest and hippest destinations. A luxury hotel in a remote and beautiful location that offers guests some very interesting tours; choose between 5 or more different explorations that are selected according to climatic conditions, guests’ preferences, length and difficulty.





The group size maximum is 8 people, along with a bilingual guide who brings along all necessary equipment.

Important facts:
•All rooms have air conditioning.
•The nearest hospital is 5 hours away in Santiago.
•They do not offer horseback riding or scuba diving.

the climate:
With an excellent climate year-round, the average temperature is 21ºC (69.8ºF), with temperatures of 28ºC (82.4 ºF) during summer (January—February) and 14ºC (57.2 ºF) to 22ºC (71.6 ºF) in winter (June—August).





According to a nice in-depth review on hotelchatter.com:

"The hotel is set high up on a mound towards the south side of the island, a few kilometers away from the town. It's built to blend in, with spacious, rounded architecture, large stone walls and pillars of volcanic rock, wooden roofs and a covered bar and breakfast area. Rough and ready yet still reeking style, from its unpainted wooden furniture and bumpy walls to its unkempt grassy surroundings and stepping-stone paths.

There are only 30 rooms, all comfortable, complete and gorgeous. Huge, full-length windows from which you can watch the sun rise over the ocean. Waterfall showers and baths the size of swimming pools.

...the WiFi's dodgy and there's no tv, the rates are high but this price includes all food, drink, tours and transfers: 3 nights in a double room costs US$1,794 or US$2,334 per person, depending on room. From July 2008, rates rise to US$2,097 or US$2,730."

The hotel is located on a hill in the Te Miro Oone sector, on 9.6 hectares of land that faces the sea. The hotel is situated in the southwestern zone of the island, 5.6 km from Hanga Roa – the only town on the island – and it acts as a base for exploring this attractive and mysterious island, home to a culture whose origins and evolution remain unexplained.



Volcanic rock, native to the island and always used by the island’s inhabitants in construction, and wood from the mainland are the principal materials.



The hotel has 30 guestrooms that spread out from central areas that house reception, living areas, a bar, kitchen and services. Next to the common areas is the Casa de Baños Hare Vai, with a pool, massage salon and open-air Jacuzzis.





How do you get there? Fly to Santiago via an international flight. From Santiago, travelers must take a 5-hour flight to Easter Island. You can also arrive to Easter Island flying from Tahiti (Papeete). The flight takes 5 hours. explora staff will greet and transfer guests to explora en Rapa Nui.

Go here for booking, rates and more information.

It's A Pantone Party! More Pantone Inspired Products

A ways back I showed you some of the fun products that are either made by Pantone or inspired by the Pantone Matching System (PMS colors, the universal numerical system for matching color inks).

After scouring the net, there are a few more new products from Pantone Universe as well as some unusual piece of art, shoes and more inspired by pantone. Check these out.

Brand new!! Pantone eyewear!




With several new collections that include optical metal, optical semi-rimless, sun metal, sun acetate, and sun sport all are customizable with ArmOne (removable pantone color temple arms).


Arm One lets you pick your own color arms for the glasses!






See all the eyewear collections here.

Pantone paints for home office and more:

Need to find the perfect shade of paint for your design project or home? Simply scroll through Pantone's virtual palette and immerse yourself in over 3,000 designer paint colors to select the one you desire. Whether searching by PANTONE® number or by color family, you can fins a sahde to match anything and everything you want.


Pantone Matched Carpeting: Now that your paint is perfect, then how about carpet?
The Mohawk Group has partnered with Pantone to provide quality carpet in pantone shades:

Dowload a pdf about Mohawk Carpets here.

Pantone Stationery products:

Pantone notebooks, card cases and more. Available here.

The Pantone Flight Stool:
The amazing British design team, Barber Osgerby, pays tribute to Pantone by producing a multi-dimensional chip!

These birch stools from Isokon Plus are available in a range of colors from the warmer end of the spectrum--Yellow, Pink, Red and Orange.

Above: The Stools at a London exhibit

Lawrence Herbert, founder and innovator of the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® will sign 20 of this limited edition... 50 total!
Get them while they’re still available!

Above: From Sakai designs comes the Yoko single sofa. Initially designed for Tokyo nightclubs and cafes, it is now available in six limited edition pantone colors.
Buy it here.

Pantone Sheepskin Rugs!

The patagonian sheep skin rugs dyed in 3 pantone shades come in cool blues (pantone Rug I) and warm reds and yellows (pantone Rug II). Made in Argentina by the Gerscovich Brothers, produced by Sundayland and are available for purchase here.

Colorcalm™ “Skies,” the first in a series of unique, color DVD’s produced by Atmos in association with Pantone, Inc. enhances your surroundings and improves your well-being.

It is a continuous display of clouds with 28 color backgrounds and audio variations. It is designed to soothe your senses.

jetBlue Airways will have a Colorcalm channel on their fleets with DVD capaibilities. From the first of the year through the end of March, you can control your environment, even in the air! See and Buy Colorcalm here.

Pantone Flash drives:
Express your personality and store your creations in style. These durable, aluminum design thumb drives allow you to store your digital photos, music files, business documents, and more on an ultra-small Hi-speed USB flash drive.

Available in 14 PANTONE Colors, these compact and portable external drives are Mac and PC compatible and feature a lifetime warranty and downloadable security software.
For corporate orders requiring company logo engraving, please call us at 888-PANTONE (726-8663) Get them here.

Pantone Toys:
The japanese toy company, Medicom, produced a series of Pantone Kubricks in various colors and styles...if you can find them:



See what's available here at Yellow Spiral.
Or Rotofugi.
Or the Medicom store.

Pantone Russian Nesting Dolls:
Still looking for a manufacturer are designer Yar Rassadin's totally cool Pantone Matryoshka (the russian nesting dolls):



Pantone tea mugs, coffee mugs, espresso cups and dinnerware:

Choose from ten different mug colors here.

Buy the dinnerware and mugs here.




Buy the 4 pantone espresso cups or 4 tea mugs here.


Suck UK's My Cuppa has been a popular product in the UK and is catching on here in the US. Available in tea or coffee styles, the clever cup has pantone chips representing different degrees of brews:


Buy them here.


UNIQLO's pantone Cashmere Sweaters and T-shirts:


the PANTONE Cashmere Collection, is offered in 20 official PANTONE Colors and comes in three styles, including a crewneck, Henley-neck and v-neck.

Last fall, in conjunction with the UNIQLO London store opening in November, UNIQLO has teamed up with Pantone, world-renowned authority on color, for the second time, for a special collection of PANTONE-inspired cashmere. The PANTONE Color Collection of 100% cashmere sweaters offers two styles for men including a crewneck and a cardigan, and for women there is a deep v-neck. All styles are offered in a palette of 20 official PANTONE Colors. The PANTONE Cashmere Collection sweaters will retail at the affordable price of $129.50 and will be sold exclusively at the UNIQLO New York Flagship, the UT store, and UNIQLO Japan. UNIQLO’s first collaboration with Pantone was the launch of a line of PANTONE T-shirts earlier this year.


Even better, get 20% off your sweater here!

Above: The pantone T-shirts and their fun packaging

Knit Caps:
Pantone Universe and CA4LA in Japan present some of the hottest caps in the most trend worthy colors. Available at CA4LA stores in Japan

soon available here!

Nike's Pantone Dunks:
Need some kicks to match your sweater and Tees? Nike quietly release a series of Dunks inspired by Pantone color chips. The colors released include this Paradise Aqua, Flamingo Pink, a University Blue, a Pine Green and a Red version. These are amazing with the color-blocking, cool pantone chips insole and the gum outsole:



Buy them here.

The Gopher is an innovative golf accessory designed to provide a single convenient location for your golf ball, divot repair tool, ball marker and two tees. The compact body is made of durable plastic and can be molded in any pantone color!

Order it here.

Softbank's Pantone Phones in japan:

Company most commonly known as Vodafone (but Softbank in Japan) has released a line of Technicolor mobile phones. Offered: are the SoftBank 812SH Sharp: in different shades, based on the Pantone color chart.

see them here.

Mango and Pantone, the PANTONE bag:




This fabulous bag comes in 12 tones for 7 days a week: sand, yellow, chewing gum, chocolate, emerald, pink, green, magenta, peach, azure, steel, jeans.
Buy your Mango pantone bag here!

Pantone Art:
Daniel Eatock's Pantone Pen prints:

Daniel Eatock sets his latest pen print experiment in the second ALSO* commission of The Aram Gallery.

Curator Daniel Charny describes the work:

Eatock’s predictive construct removes the artist’s hand from the pen, reverses the role of the paper, and allows its characteristics and positioning to become the most influential aspect of the work. Balanced on their nibs each of a set of 288 felt tip pens releases ink that expands into the layers of a ream of paper, making each layer of this multi-print different. This predicted variety is translated into a gambling tension for the consumer that chooses to purchase an unknown result on an unseen layer.

Dimensions: SRA1 640 x 900mm Edition Size: 73 original prints

The artist's site.

Appleblueseagreen's Pantone Chips on Canvas:


from AppleBlueSeaGreen.

Associate Art Director Jamie Prokell for Blueprint, the shelter magazine that tried to bring the Martha Stewart lifestyle to a younger market( and ceased regular publication with its January/February 2008 issue) created this fabulous pantone wrapping paper for a baby shower:

I wish it were available for purchase!

A Pantone Manet masterpiece:
Tim Fraser Brown created a reproduction of Édouard Manet's 'Bar at the Folies Bergere' made entirely of old Pantone chips.
Over 5,000 unused chips were painstakingly colour matched and and stuck down over four long nights, and acted as centre piece for a boozey party in their design studio.





The best kept secret?
The previous collection of pantone bags, backpacks, passport holders, travel kits and more (see below) are all on clearance now!






In addition to all this fun stuff, Pantone has many books, tools and even a social network.
Check them out at the following links:
Pantone
Pantone Colorstrology
Pantone Universe
And if there are any pantone related items I missed (and yes, there are a few) see them over at my favorite site, NOTCOT


UPDATE: More new collaborations available here.
And the Gap Pantone Pop Up Shop here.

Lights That Will Turn You On. And Vice Versa.

From Droog Design to Martin Guixé, I've found several unsual and beautiful ways to add light to your home. Above are 30 examples, click on each picture for more information.

See more of my over 70 lamps, lightshades and links on Lighten Up! The Best Lighting Out There list at ThisNext.

Product Pick Of The Week: Demarkersvan Lace Fence

Lace Fence designed by the young Dutch firm Demakersvan and produced by IDFence in Bangalore, India, the craftily patterned fencing has sparked interest with art gallery owners, retailers, and architecture firms, not to mention design blogs.



Made from a high-end flexible metal fabric, in addition to being a functional fence its design prevents climbing and can enhance the surroundings.



for more info contact their sales office at info@lacefence.eu
credits: Lace Fence 'product of the month' Architectural record
material: metal fabric, coated steel wire.
photos courtesy of DEMAKERSVAN

Levi's 501 Project Connects With Consumers

This online design project , a component of Levi's and Bravo's Project Runway co-op marketing plan, was an inventive promotion that ended up exceeding Levi's expectations.

The Jan. 23 episode of Project Runway, according to the Nielsen Co., drew 3.2 million viewers, including 410,000 women ages 18 to 24.

Levi's was the first brand partner on the show to drive viewers to a separate online contest focused on a challenge that would resonate with target consumers.

The site received 500 submissions in three days. Sharon Greenwood, Avenue A/Razorfish's creative director on the campaign said " In all, it attracted more than 20,000 registrants — two-thirds women — and 2,500 designs".

The contest was promoted with ads on some online fashion blogs, some gossip blogs and social shopping network sites.

Greenwood's team also incorporated a feature allowing designers to embed their submissions on their own Web pages, blogs and social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

This placed a 'badge" with a Levi's logo and invitations for viewers to vote on the design at Levi's "Project Runway" site.

See an example of the "badge" below:

The feature put the badge before about 30,000 viewers, about half of whom clicked through to Levi's "Project Runway" site, Greenwood said.

In the weeks following the "Project Runway" episode, Levi's nontraditional styles, normally not among its top sellers, took over the top 10 women's styles on its retail site.

By the way, the winners were announced last month and here they are :
First Place:

Above: The first place winner, Jehan.
His/her design will be produced and sold by the Levi’s® brand and sold on levi.com, plus a $501 gift certificate on levi.com.

Levi’s says..."Love the turn back cuff on the sleeve. Cool asymmetrical opening and nice clean tailor details. This design reinvents the trucker jacket with a feminine flare."

Second place winner:

Submitted by Sharpietattoo. Description: Girly pleating gives a softer appeal to this military-inspired dress. Along with Levi’s buttons and rivets, the dress also has the hand pockets from the Trucker Jacket. Gold bodice stitching and a 50’s inspired neckline keep the hip look classic and clean. Zip back, with a functional back button.

Levi’s says...

This is a classy, vintage 50s look, with flattering neckline. Like the back seaming, reminiscent of a trucker vest. The buttons really tie this product back to the 501® Jean in a fresh contemporary way.

Third place winner:

Submitted by Claire
Description: The GOLD RUSH DRESS, comes in dark blue denim with gold metallic top stitched flat felled seams, OR light blue denim with silver metallic topstitching. The Levi's Button lace-up bodice can be worn with the attached modesty panel under the lacing, or flip the panel back under and show some skin.

Levi’s says...
The gold trim and modesty panel are lovely. Really like how this brings the heritage of the Levi's Brand to a flirty new fit.

Second place winner, sharpietattoo, gets a $501 gift certificate for levi.com, and third place winner, Claire gets a $250 gift certificate for levi.com.

So, Congratulations to not only the winners, but also Avenue A/Razorfish, Levi's and Bravo!

The Polish Pavilion Building Design For Shanghai's 2010 Expo

Above: First prize in the competition for concept architectural design of the Polish Pavilion for EXPO 2010 in Shanghai


The victorious design entry for the Polish Pavilion in Shanghai's 2010 Expo is an unusual building resembling a giant paper cut out. To learn more about the contest, the jurors and the rewards, please go here.


Designed by a team of architects which is made up of Wojciech Kakowski, Natalia Paszkowska, and Marcin Mostafa, they describe the winning design as such:

Due to the nature of the exhibition the object must also aesthetically characterise its country of origin, forming a recognisable and stylistically strong cultural landmark. In our basic proposition the essential theme for cultural communication is that of the folklore cut-out. The subject will be presented in a contemporary architectural design. The design will fulfill two goals. Firstly we hope to avoid literal traditionalism and the mechanical repetition of canonical forms. The design of the object is intended to link with tradition, but also to be contemporary, a stylised reinterpretation, creatively connecting to today and inspired by the past, yet not followed it rigidly.

Secondly, a major concern is that the pavilion is a self contained structure, in a purely architectural sense: a calling card of Polish architectural achievement. It must be an attraction and an object which is distinguishable externally, among the backdrop of the other EXPO buildings in daytime – also being lit up outside – at night, it must also make a strong impression internally, by an interwoven design so that the sunlight forms space beneath vaulted arches. The shape of the mass, with many acute surfaces, on one hand fulfills and suggests a folded cut-out card, while on the other hand creates a geometrically interesting interior, which is also an elastic space, that can be creatively divided into interior sections, divided into functional areas for expositions, concerts and domestic needs.

Above: the design team


Above: the totally cool entry ticket, designed in keeping with the look of the pavilion.


Above: Two of the three members of the design team with their winning entry.



Above: the pavilion as it would appear lit at night

To see more sketches, elevations and learn more about the design process, go here. Congratulations guys! It's beautiful. I can't wait to see it in person.You can congratulate them too. Right here.

M•A•C & Fafi's Colorful Collaboration

In the US we are all aware of M•A•C Cosmetics. Highly publicized has been their latest collaboration, a line of make up products, scarves, t-shirts, dolls and makeup cases by French artist Fafi.



But who the heck is Fafi?


Above: french artist Fafi and below, her profile from her own site:

Born and raised in Toulouse France, Fafi's strong presence in the graffiti and fine arts scene was first witnessed on her hometown walls in 1994. Back then, as she was painting and hustling, her sexy, funny, and sometimes aggressive girl characters made the whole world look and help kick-start a whole new graphic language; by exploring feminity through stereotypes,and using it to her advantage, she drew enormous attention and thus started to travel the world with thousands of Fafinettes in her brushes and paint cans. Europe, USA, Japan, Hong-Kong, the planet is a playground. And it's only started.

Soon enough Sony would ask her to design a six-character toy set for the Time Capsules collection, an almost natural move for her three-dimensional measures. Other successful figurines would follow, as well as numerous expositions and collaborations with Colette, Adidas, LeSportSac, Coca-Cola and countless press stories in the most prestigious magazines (ie. Vogue, Elle, The Face, XLR8R, Yen etc...).

The animation world started to eyeblink her vision in Mark Ronson video featuring a Fafi-ed Lily Allen. Her multi-faceted work was all documented in her books GIRLS ROCK (2003) and LOVE AND FAFINESS 2006), both being also succesful prints in museum libraries and selected shops.

As for 2007, Fafi entered a new phase. Having become a mother and moving to Paris made her introduce a new depth to her creations. Now not only the Fafinettes are fly girls, they also run a whole universe of creatures, homes and vehicles. It's called The Carmine Vault. It's a dreamy and peculiar place.

Not only are the products' packaging fun to look at and like little art collectibles, but the colors are nice and springlike without being too bold.
See many of them below.




Highly sought after in particular seem to be her little figurines, Eriko, Monoka and Ermine, which sell for 9$ a piece:



The M•A•C FAFI microsite is not only filled with the whimsical product line but is a delight to click through, with lots of multimedia and interactive fun:





Below are some examples of Fafi's sketches for M•A•C:



Read an interview with the MAC creative director about the collaboration here.




The Artist's site.

The MAC Fafi shopping site.

The Mobile Chanel Art Exhibit

About The Show:

Luxury brand Chanel has launched an exhibition called Mobile Art in Hong Kong's Central district February 26, 2008, which will be travelling around the globe over the next two years.


Above: Housed in a futuristic pavilion resembling a spaceship designed by Zaha Hadid, the exhibition shows artist interpretations of the iconic Chanel quilted 2.55 handbag.

Artists and photographers such as Araki, Loris Cecchini and Michael Lim will present their work alongside Yoko Ono’s interactive Wish Tree, where you can write down your desires on rice paper. After Hong Kong, the exhibition will move to Tokyo, before hitting New York, London, Moscow and Paris.

About The Concept:



the press release:

MOBILE ART is a traveling exhibition devised as a three-dimensional film and presented in a futuristic pavilion specially created by the architect Zaha Hadid.

The creative concept of MOBILE ART is the result of an aesthetic experiment conducted over the last two years in which the values and visual language of CHANEL confronted those of some twenty contemporary artists from all geographic and generational origins.

Invited to visit Mademoiselle Chanel's Parisian apartment, rue Cambon, and the workshops where the CHANEL handbags are made, these artists were given complete freedom to create artworks inspired by the elements that create the identity of CHANEL's emblematic accessory, the quilted bag.

All means of expression currently being used in contemporary art will be represented: installation, sculpture, photography, video, sound etc...

MOBILE ART is not so much an exhibition to be visited as a landscape to wander through in a completely new way: to experience the artists' installations, visitors equipped with a MP3 player must let themselves be guided mentally and physically by a soundtrack created by the label "Soundwalk" in collaboration with each of the artists. This soundtrack mixes the original music of a diverse range of artists with voice and ambient sound effects.

MOBILE ART is above all a new form of artistic expression, an unique experience, combining architecture, art, sound creation and fashion.

For more information, please visit www.chanel-mobileart.com

VENUE:
Star Ferry Car Park – Central, Hong Kong

EXHIBITION PERIOD:
27 February – 5 April, 2008
(Venue closed on 12 & 13 March)

SOUNDWALK:
Approximately 35 minutes
Available in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, French and Korean

About the Container (aka The Chanel Pavilion):



Chanel commissioned around 20 artists, including Yoko Ono and the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki, to produce works for the show loosely based on its famous bag.



The artists were taken to Coco Chanel's Paris apartment and shown how the bags were made. The resulting works include sound installations, sculpture and video.

The moving art gallery, designed by the award-winning British architect Zaha Hadid, who is designing London's Olympic Aquatics Centre, is currently parked on a rooftop next to Hong Kong's famous harbour.





But it will be painstakingly taken apart and rebuilt in a few weeks' time, when the exhibition, which ends April 5, moves to Tokyo on the second leg of a two-year world tour that will take it to New York, London, Moscow and Paris.

The 180-ton pavilion was built in Yorkshire in northern England. It was shipped to Hong Kong -- piece by piece -- in more than 50 cargo containers.



A team of builders spent four weeks rebuilding the pavilion in its new harbourside location, and it will take another 20 days to ship the 700 individual pieces that make up the building from Hong Kong to Tokyo.

When Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel got together to realize their dream of a traveling museum, they named Fabrice Bousteau, editor-in-chief of Beaux Arts magazine, as the curator.


above: Fabrice Bousteau, Zaha Hadid, Karl Lagerfeld discussing the building in July of 2007

Visitors are encouraged to wear headphones to listen to music specifically designed to enhance the artwork.

Fabrice Bousteau, Curator of Mobile Art Exhibition said "This exhibition is totally new because it was conceived like a real landscape and a 3-dimensional film which comes to life with visitors and with headphones."

Bousteau says the exhibit is intended to be experimental -- and to move art away from the more traditional museum setting.

Fabrice Bousteau said "Mobile Art in my view is an expression of utopia and the future. It's a completely weird architectural project because it's the first building in the world which will travel, which will circulate and which is nomadic."

About the Art:


The artists were told to base their creation on the best-selling Chanel quilt bag, called 2.55 after its month and year of issue.


After the French artist Sophie Calle received Chanel's commission, she advertised in a Japanese magazine in the fall of 2006 seeking an artist to carry out her project. She wanted to stop passersby, tell them to empty their bags, and offer to buy both contents and carrier. Soju Tao signed up, and the result of this collaboration will be shown at the exhibition.

The artworks inside include a giant sculpture of a black Chanel handbag that encases a video. By Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury:




above: Staff stand next to Crystal Custom Commando 2007-2008 by Sylvie Fleury as part of a global art exhibition unveiled by top fashion brand Chanel in Hong Kong.

There's also a work featuring two stuffed pigs next to encased Chanel handbags. It's called "Jesus Love and 2 Handbags" and it's by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye.


above: A photographer takes a photo of Jesus and Chanel Bags by Wim Delvoye.

Araki, known for his erotic photographs, will put up a slide show "The Dance of the Seven Veils," depicting the image of a young woman untangling herself of Chanel bag chains transposed against languid, close-up shots of poisonous flowers. Music by Fumio Yasuda and vocals by Aki accompany the exhibit.

Paying homage to Coco Chanel, founder of the fashion house, South Korea's Lee Bul builds a plastic sculpture, lit from the inside, and crowned with hundreds of re-assembled bags and chains.


above: A woman walks past an artwork called "Untitled 2008" by French artist Daniel Buren

Visitors will be guided through the tunnels in the exhibition hall with an iPod presentation by Stephan Crasneanscki, a French photographer and sound artist who works under the title Soundwalk.

Subodh Gupta has a video installation in two parts called "All Things Are Inside," reflections on people in transit and their aspirations, such as the life of an Indian laborer who returns from prosperous Dubai where he packed gifts.

Near the end of the tunnel lies Ono's "Wish Tree," where visitors may write a wish on a piece of rice paper and tie it to the branches of a tree, which will be collected and sent to the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, Iceland, a tribute to Lennon based on his peace anthem, "Imagine."

Ono, a veteran at mixing social, political and corporal elements into her performances, will participate alongside Tabaimo, a 32-year-old Japanese video artist who exhibited her "Doll House" installation at the 2007 Venice Biennale.

Japanese artist Tabaimo designed a black hole with graphic animation. It's her interpretation of unlocking the secrets hidden inside a handbag.


Above: Tabiamo's piece in the exhibit

Personal fantasies and visions of the world are celebrated in the work of photographic duo Pierre & Gilles. Italian Loris Cecchini, on the other hand, distorts reality physically and visually - from cinema chairs that crumble into themselves to optical illusions of people climbing up buildings.

Other artists at the show include the U.S. photographer Stephen Shore of Andy Warhol's The Factory fame, whose images highlight social issues; fellow American David Levinthal; Russia's Blue Noses; Sylvie Fleury of Switzerland; Y.Z. Kami from Iran; and Argentina's Leandro Erlich.

Mobile Art is at Star Ferry Car Park, 9 Edinburgh Place, Central, Hong Kong.
For information and tickets, go here.

Macbook Air Goes Luxe: 24k Gold & Swarovski Crystal

I couldn't help but notice the draw my post on the 24k gold plated macbook has received over the past few months, so I can only imagine how the Blingophile's will feel about Bling My Things' 24k gold plated, Swarovski Crystal encrusted Macbook Air by master 'crystallizer' Ayano Kimura.


While it defeats the purpose of the computers' being the world's thinnest or lightest, I'm betting that many don't care.

Want to see all things gold plated? Go here.
All things Blinged? Go here.
Real diamond encrusted? Go here.

Ca Ca Ca Boom dee ay.... It's Time For CA Boom 5!

As CABoom moves into their fifth year, the california architecture and design show is growing and getting very popular. Below are stats as to how the show has grown over the past few years:

Past CA Boom Stats for the past four years:

•CA Boom 4 - March 2007 over 8500 attendees, 120 exhibitors, 15 homes, 10 prefab exhibitors, 15 first timers, 75 unique media outlets & 100 registered journalists.

•CA Boom 3 - March 2006 over 7500 attendees, 100 exhibitors, 15 homes, 10 prefab exhibitors, 15 first timers, 60 unique media outlets & 90 registered journalists.

•CA Boom 2 - July 2004 just under 5000 attendees, 70 exhibitors, 15 homes, 50 panelists & moderators, 47 unique media outlets & 81 registered journalists.

•CA Boom 1 - Aug 2003 - 4200 attendees, 50 exhibitors, 15 homes, 30 speakers
And this year promises to be bigger and better than ever.

When: Friday, March 14 to Sunday, March 16, 2008
Where: Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport 3021 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, 90405

Friday is Trade Day - 11am to 5pm
Friday Night Event- open to all ($50)
Friday: 7:30pm to 10:30pm



Main Hall Exhibits ($20)
Sat 11:00am to 6:00pm & Sun 11am to 5:00pm



Design & Architecture Tours ($75)
Fri, Sat, & Sun: Departures 11:15am to 2:30pm (includes shuttles, same day or return visit to exhibits)

This year's architecture tours:

PREFAB DEBUT from Jennifer Siegal
Santa Monica Prefab 001 by Office of Mobile Design
Beach Cities Tour - Sunday

TOUR DEBUT - Seen in LA Magazine
Neil Denari Architects
Westside Tour - Saturday

GRAYmatter Architecture
Pacific Palisades Tour - Friday

CUSTOM PREFAB DEBUT
Residence for a Briard
by Sander Architects
Westside Tour - Saturday

Who attends CA Boom?



60% Design Trade / 40% Design Savvy Consumers

Architects, Interior Designers & Hospitality Designers

Residential & Commercial Developers

Contemporary Gift & Furnishing Retailers

Lifestyle & Design Trade Media

Entrepreneurs

Savvy Design Consumers

What's In The Show?

* Building Accessories
* Doors/Windows
* Home Accessory, Tabletop & Gifts
* Indoor/Outdoor Living
* Int'l Design Brands
* Lighting
* Modern Kitchen and Bath
* Modern Parenting
* Modern Prefab
* National/Regional Design Mfr
* Rugs
* Solar/Renewable Energy
* Studio Furniture, Studio Art & Design Art
* Surfaces, Finishes & Floor Covering
* Dealers/Retailers

Click here to see the list of exhibitors.

Buy your tickets here!

PSST! you can save $4 on your tickets if you enter any of the following three discount codes blik or upcoming or movemodern

Noel Cruz: Improving Dolls. One Face At A Time.

Above: artist Noel Cruz repaints the Keira Knightly doll so now it actually resembles the actress


Most likely the majority of you are not doll shopping. And you probably can't name the last celebrity doll or action figure you purchased (unless, of course, you have a tween female at home for whom you've bought the Hannah Montana or Hilary Duff dolls).

Personally, I don't own any dolls, but that doesn't mean I'm not aware of what's out there, nor am I ignorant about how often the likenesses to celebrities fail to impress. Below are a few dolls on the market from Mattel, Play Along, and more that are made in celebrity likenesses. Most of them, not all.. look nothing like the celebrity:


Above left: Mattel's Barbie and Hilary Duff doll (they look pretty similar to me...I can't tell them apart) Above right : 2007 Cher doll by Mattel, a pretty good likeness


Above: the 1999 Britney Spears Doll and the new Hannah Montana Doll by Play Along

Above: The Ashley Tisdale Doll, released just last month (pre or post nose job, I can't even tell)

Initially, I intended to blog about the limited edition Karl Lagerfeld doll (already sold out at the ultra hip french store Colette) when I came upon the work of Noel Cruz.


Above: the limited edition Karl Lagerfeld doll


Above: Also found by accident but worth a mention is this hilarous, one-of-a-kind, Britney "Shears" doll that sold on ebay for $182.00

Now, quite by accident- which is the way I find many of my most interesting posts, I came upon Noel's gallery on Deviant Art that showed off his amazing repainted doll faces. I simply couldn't get enough as I saw how he immensely improved upon such popular tween idols as Kiera Knightly and more. His ability to turn an unrecognizable cast doll face into a celebrity likeness that is unmistakable is really compelling and impressive.

An artist, he also has many graphite portraits, but these are not nearly as impressive as his repainted doll faces.


above: a self portrait by the artist.


CELEBRITY DOLLS
Some examples of his work on pop culture and actor dolls:

above: repainted Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman Doll

above: repainted Kirsten Dunst Doll

above: repainted Uma Turman Doll

above: repainted Nicole Kidman Doll

above: repainted Tobey Maguire Doll

Clearly I'm not the only one who thinks his dolls are impressive, they sell for an average of $650 a piece on ebay.

The text below is from Noel's own site:

An artist who thoroughly appreciates the beauty of faces, Noel Cruz started doing portraits at a very young age. Self-taught for several years, he studied the works of numerous artists in his native country, the Philippines.

Gradually overtime, his natural talent grew and developed. He began taking commissions at 16, and has done countless portraits since. Charcoal, graphite, pastel, and acrylics are his media of choice.

Noel holds a degree in Communications with emphasis on video editing and digital imaging, and has shot and edited documentaries for California State University Bakersfield, where he graduated.

Repainting dolls happened by accident when he was looking for a Gene doll to add to his wife's collection. He stumbled upon several Gene dolls repainted to resemble different likenesses. This became an inspiration for him to project his painting talents onto Gene, which became the beginning of another facet of artistic outlet for him. Much to his delight, he discovered that painting a doll's face is very much like painting on canvas or paper, but with the extra challenge of working on a three-dimensional surface as well as a different surface texture.

Noel has naturally transmitted onto his repaints his love of celebrities, many of which he has painted or drawn before. In addition, he constantly strives to add diversity to his work by working on other comparable-size dolls such as Tyler, Sydney, Franklin Mint dolls, etc.

MUSICIAN DOLLS
Below are some of his repainted musician dolls:

above: repainted Madonna Doll

above: repainted Christina Aguilera Doll

above: repainted Cher Doll
As a seller on ebay withover 400 transactions to date, Noel's ebay profile reads:

My wife has been a passionate doll collector for years now. While scouring the internet for dolls to add to my wife's collection, we accidentally stumbled upon repainted Gene dolls by different artists. I was awe-stricken! As an artist myself, I became inspired and challenged to give this fresh form of art a try. I have been involved in illustrated arts and painting portraits for many years and I thought maybe this would be a unique experience for me. At first I was hesitant to "deface" her dolls. But as it turned out, as I drew from my years of drawing and painting faces, and with my wife's encouragement, new personalities were created out of her dolls, and of course the rest is history.

With my long appreciation of celebrities, I enjoy repainting dolls. When I first started repainting in 2001, I mostly repainted Gene dolls. As the market became more diverse and other 16-inch fashion dolls were introduced, I slowly branched out into repainting these dolls, specifically the 16-inch dolls produced by Robert Tonner. It always amazes me how these dolls serve as a three-dimensional canvas in bringing to life faces of different personalities and character. Occasionally, I would repaint Gene and the Tonner dolls from my own imagination and ideal of beauty. Both are very satisfying for me.I am therefore happy to offer here my one-of-a-kind creations that I sincerely hope you can enjoy and appreciate.

above: repainted Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara Doll

above: repainted Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins Doll

Visit the artists site.
or contact him here: noeling61@yahoo.com

•OR, If you like dolls, but also are a serious fashionista ...read about Mooqla here.


A little background on celebrity dolls courtesy of About.com:
Why Do People Collect Celebrity Dolls?

People collect celebrity dolls for a variety of reasons. Some collectors are drawn to the dolls because they are fans of the celebrity the doll portrays or of the television show or movie that featured the person. For instance, some collectors of Wizard of Oz memorabilia collect Judy Garland dolls (although they do not collect any other type of doll). Some doll collectors specialize in the many versions of the Shirley Temple doll throughout the years (often because they were a fan of Shirley and her movies as a child). Other collectors of celebrity dolls aren't doll collectors at all, but collectors of movie memorabilia including movie-related celebrity dolls. Finally, doll collectors may simply like a doll, and collect the doll although they are not particularly drawn to the celebrity that the doll represents (for instance, a collector of composition dolls from the 1930s would most likely have some Shirley Temple dolls in their collection, even if they are not a "fan" of Shirley Temple).

How Long Have Celebrity Dolls Been Produced?

Celebrity dolls have been in production for a very long time. In the 1840s, several famous ballerinas were featured as paper dolls. Also in the 1800s, various military heroes were portrayed as dolls/figures. Things really heated up in the early 1900s with the advent of the silent films. The John Bunny doll (a silent film star) was one of the first produced in 1914 by Louis Amberg & Sons. The first Charlie Chaplin doll was produced in 1915. The composition Baby Peggy doll was a HUGE success in 1923, also produced by the Amberg company. The Shirley Temple doll by Ideal was a phenomena in the 1930s--first produced in 1934, millions of the composition Shirley dolls were produced (and, variations of the Shirley doll are being produced to this day, generally in porcelain or vinyl). After Shirley, companies like Madame Alexander and Ideal produced MANY different celebrity dolls, including Sonja Henie, Jane Withers and Deanna Durbin.

Other relevant links:
Tonner Doll Company
Gene Dolls Marshall Collection/Ashton Drake
Gene Dolls UK
Tyler Wentworth dolls
Joe's List
Play Along dolls

Books on Celebrity Dolls:
• The Encyclopedia of Celebrity Dolls by John Axe. Cumberland, Md.: Hobby House Press, Inc., 1983. This book is out-of print
• Collectors Guide to Celebrity Doll by David Spurgeon (Paperback)
• Celebrity Dolls Price Guideby Michele Kart (Paperback published November 2001)

Books That Include Information on Celebrity Dolls:
• Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood by Gary Cross: Harvard University Press, 1997.
• A Celebration of American Dolls: From the Collections of the Strong Museumby Dorothy McGonagle: Hobby House Press, Inc., 1997.
• Collector's Encyclopedia of American Composition Dolls, 1900-1950 by Ursula Mertz.: Collector Books, 1999.
• Shirley Temple Dolls and Fashions: A Collector's Guide to the World's Darling by Edward R. Pardella: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1992.
• Shirley Temple Dolls and Collectibles by Patricia R.Smith.: Collector Books, 1977.

Funky Find Of The Week: Green-form's Relax Planter

Stefan Stauffacher designed this fun outdoor cement planter for Green-form named Relax. 74 inches in length and 30" wide and 5" tall, it weighs 36 pounds.

Just click on the above picture to purchase.
Wanna see more cool stuff for the outdoors? Take a look at my list of items here

Saul Bass Inspires YouTubers, Designers & More

Above: Designer Saul Bass (1920-1996) and some of his famous work

For those of you who are unfamiliar with designer Saul Bass (and shame on you!), let me start by introducing you to one of his most famous title sequences:



The site Not Coming To A Theater Near You has a wonderful feature on all of Saul Bass' title design sequences.



Saul Bass has always been heralded as an amazing designer. He worked with directors like Otto Preminger and Alfred Hitchcock repeatedly and was and is highly regarded as one of the best graphic designers of all time.

Now, some very clever and creative folks have been making their own versions of Saul Bass' famous graphics and sharing them on youtube. Here is one that was brought to my attention by the hip folks at NOTCOT.

"If Star Wars was filmed two decades earlier and Saul Bass did the opening title sequence, it "might" look like this...

This was part of a school project. The song is "Machine" by the Buddy Rich Band off the album Big Swing Face (1967). Note: I'm aware of the errors in the video (spelling, Max Rebo), but I chose to leave them because the video is still enjoyable. This was just for fun and NOT a serious artistic endeavor! Oh, and you MUST watch the video response by brooksy362436. Brilliant!"

--YouTuber Bhilmers, age 36, USA

So, of course, I then had to see the video response by You Tuber Brooksy362436 (Daniel, age 33, UK):

"The original video is utterly fantastic, but since it has been made there have been huge technical advancements. Now the video can be remade exactly how the author intended it all those weeks ago. "

So, now that I got the Saul Bass bug, I did a little more surfing and found some fun posts and items. The blog, Focus Pull, has a great post on 10 contemporary movie posters that were inspired by Saul Bass. See them here.


Above: Before The Devil Knows You're Dead movie poster clearly influenced by Saul Bass' movie posters for Anatomy Of A Murder and Man With The Golden Arm


Feeling inspired?
Try creating some Saul bass work of your own, especially now that you can download the "Hitchcock" font in Mac postscript or Windows designed by Matt Terich and available from Typographica here.




Learn more and see more about Saul Bass:
Saul Bass on Wikipedia
Saul Bass bio at Design Museum
Saul Bass Logos and trademarks
Saul Bass on the web

Art Vespa 2008 Competition Winners Announced

Last week the 2007/8 Art Vespa Competition competition in South Africa came to an end.

The interactive email campaign, created by Vespa South Africa and advertising partner, Guerrilla Marketing, invited art directors and designers to embellish the two-wheeler with their concepts. Best of all, participants have the chance to drive home on a brand new Vespa LX.

The top three designs, judged by international designer Francesco Maffe from Piaggio, Italy, will be on display at the Design Indaba Expo from 23 February 2008.

The winners were announced on 25 February at 3pm.

Rory Allan from Ripe Design has won the 2008 Art Vespa competition with his ice cream design and will soon be zipping through the city on his deliciously personalised Vespa LX.

Allan submitted more than one design, but it was his striking Ice Cream creation that caught the eye of Francesco Maffe, international designer for Piaggio Italy, and judge of Art Vespa. The design took him three hours to complete.When asked what motivated him to enter, Allan replied “Our creative director presented the competition to all the creatives at Ripe Design and urged us to enter. It's an out of the ordinary canvas for designers that got my creative juices flowing almost immediately.”

The inspiration for his design was South Africa's hot summer afternoons. “I sat down and thought of why it's great to own a Vespa. The first thing that popped into my mind was the wind blowing through your hair on a sweltering afternoon. Almost as refreshing as an ice cream.”

To Allan, Vespa is synonymous with carefree living, summer holidays and good times with those who are important in your life. “It symbolises a laid-back lifestyle, where life is about more than work. It's about experiencing and being part of the world. And ice cream of course.”

First place winner Rory Allen of Ripe Design:



Second place winner Hazel Davies from Momentum, McCann:


Third place winner Mandi Brest from Penguin International:

A record number of 252 entries were received for the 2008 competition, a 40% increase from last year. Watch out for the 2009 competition later this year. You too could become part of the la dolce vita lifestyle and scoot around on your own Art Vespa in the near future.

For more information, go to www.vespa.co.za.

Comenius Roethlisberger's Sweetest Invitation

Above: Artist Comenius Roethlisberger, b. 1971




There seems to be no end to artists combining fashionista with drugs. In addition to Tobias Wong and Big Game's Commentary on society's obsession with wealth and debauchery, provocative Swiss artist Comenius Roethlisberger has recently been exhibiting his latest commentary on luxury and society, “Dearest constellation, sweetest invitation” at Colette in France as well as at the Saatchi Galleries. The installation merges famous logos of big luxury brands with sugar powder and cocaine, all presented in clear polyester resin boxes, lit from below.

“chanel” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“dior” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“D&G” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“Gucci” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“Versace” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“YSL” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“Lamborghini” cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP

“911 GT2″ cocaine, sugar, polyster resin (45cm x 35cm x 12cm) edition 1 + 1AP


Visit the artist's site.

A Modern Home: From Concept to Tour

Way back in Sept. of 2006, ultra hip MoCo Loco Meta:MoCo, posted a blurb about a redo/enlargement of a family home in Southern California by Neil Denari Architects of Los Angeles:

+ NMDA, Neil M. Denari Architects' Alan Family House renovation / extension project. “The family has asked that 1,000 sf be added to the site in addition to the existing 1,000 sf house. They have also asked that the architecture serve to articulate their identity as a ‘family brand’ that is unique to their unit.”. See Current Projects> Alan Family House.

Curbed, a fabulous online site about Los Angeles neighborhoods and surroundings, then shared these conceptual renderings with their readers:




The Alan Voo house was actually completed in 2007 and below are the actual photos below (you'll see they made a good call and toned down the 'bright' colors a bit) and even take a tour through the home at this year's CA Boom show.

ALAN-VOO HOUSE
The AlanVoo house by NEIL M. DENARI ARCHITECTS
LOS ANGELES, CA, COMPLETED in 2007
(the text and images below are from the architecture firm's site)






The clients for this house renovation / extension, a couple with three daughters, are a creative, democratic unit. The father directs film trailers, the mother is a graphic designer and illustrator, while the high school / middle school / elementary school aged daughters are all immersed in their own versions of their parents visual cultures. The family have asked that 1,000 sf be added to the site in addition to the existing 1,000 sf house.



The scheme leaves half of the house for the daughter’s bedrooms and incorporates the other half plus new extensions in front and back into a public zone and a private bedroom for the parents. This strategy amounts to a new 16 ft wide linear house being inserted into the existing house. Multi-toned, bright colors accentuate the new pieces which suggests a graphic expression representative of the family’s interests.



NMDA - Neil Denari Architects
12615 Washington Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90066
310 390 3033
http://www.nmda-inc.com

De Maria's Unique Lampshades: Art To Read By

de Maria's is made up of two dutch artists: photographer Roos Jooren and textile specialist Diana Maria. Roos and Diana merge their talents together to collaborate on various projects. The electric combination has inspired the artists to create objects outside their own area of expertise.

The two of them have studied at the The Royal Art Academy, The Hague, The Netherlands. The result of this collaboration formed de Maria's whom have created many fabulous unique lamps for commercial or personal lighting.

Above left: photographer Roos Jooren as a child, right: textile designer Diana Maria de Vroet as a child

With both a permanent collection and limited editions, they incorporate embroidery and unique materials as well tasteful, beautifully composed, sexy ethereal photographic imagery by Roos Jooren .

Looking great both off and illuminated, the lamps serve as art in addition to their obvious function.


Above: their latest addition to their line, the Amaranthe, with embroidery on the inside.

Below are more examples of their products:



Some examples of the shades off and on:






Maybe you have already spotted their work at the Bijenkorf? (For fans outside the Netherlands: this is the biggest Dutch department store.) They can be found in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.





Above is one of two of their lamps available at Bijenkorf, the lamps are called "Bloom" (below left) and "Leaves" (below right).

The lampshades are a limited edition. Each lampshade comes with a certificate so you are sure it's handmade by Roos en Diana.
Would you like more information about de Maria's?
Or more information about their lampshades?

Roos Jooren & Diana Maria
Cartesiusstraat 137 J
2562 SE Den Haag
The Netherlands
info@demarias.nl

Imprint Culture Lab Handbag Design Contest Results

Well, the handbag design competition from Imprint Culture Lab is over and I'm proud to announce that one of the two grand prize winners is my talented friend and artist, Scott Rench.

Imprint Handbag Design Contest Results
After tallying the nearly 10,000 votes, we now have the pleasure of announcing the following winning designs.
Prizes for each winner are:
- Grand Prize: Louis Vuitton LV Murakami Neverfull Handbag
- Judges’ pick: Louis Vuitton LV Murakami Neverfull Folio
- Honorable mention: $20 Starbucks giftcard

Above: Grand Prize Winner Scott Rench (Chicago, IL)

Above: Grand Prize Winner Irene Cheng (Cerritos, CA)
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Judge's Pick:

Entry #50 (left): Manoj Nath (Haryana, INDIA)
Entry #76 (right): Christina Conway (San Diego, CA)

Entry #75 (left): Irene Teng
Entry #39 (middle): Ruqayya Ahmad (Redondo Beach, CA)
Entry #98 (right): Nicole Zambolla (Davis, CA)