The ISA 120 Luxury Yacht Really Floats My Boat




The ISA 120 really is one of a kind. The sophisticated looking and technologically advanced yacht was built in the 45,000 square foot International Shipyard in Ancona, Italy. It is a streamlined, slim design with 3 decks and spacious, well-designed interiors. The ISA 120 has avant-garde propulsion and stabilization systems, and truly exceptional performance in addition to its stunning looks.

Jason Higgins' Hog Shop. Pearls For Swine.


above: Blogworthy cookie cutters, Fetal bites are shaped like embryos.


Hogmalion & Company is the fun and twisted wit of one man, Jason Higgins. Self described as embracing a Trinitarian philosophy, bowing down to Amy Goodman, John Waters, and the late, great Mr. Whipple (1916-2007), his online store has products to match his obviously sick, but sophisticated sense of humor. Playing on politics and pop culture, The Hog Shop offers gifts guaranteed to make cynics smile.

ArchiTech's Future Perfect: Mid-Century Modern Design Drawings



above: Henry P. Glass, Wacker Plaza Lobby - View From Entrance
Pencil on tracing paper, 1955, 16 x 21 inche
s

ArchiTech is a historically comprehensive commercial gallery of architectural art, in Chicago's River North gallery district. Their recent show, Future Perfect: Mid-Century Modern Design Drawings opened January 9 and ends this weekend on May 30, 2009.



The majority of the works in the exhibition are those of late Chicagoan architect and designer, Henry P. Glass (for which the gallery also serves as the representative of the estate) but the show also includes a few works by Vincent Raney, Bertrand Goldberg and R.G. Martelet.

David Jameson, the gallery owner, describes the exhibit as follows:
Mid 20th Century Modernism's most flamboyant designers. Industrial and architectural drawings from post-war to post-moon landing.

Utopian visions were nothing new to America's architects and designers after World War II. However, triggered by an explosion of affordable real estate and hopeful consumerism, manufacturers of the post-war era followed an entirely different design approach. This new philosophy of sensuous shapes envisioned furniture, lamps and radios as almost living beings that could run out to the buyers' car.

Henry P. Glass was perfectly suited to this new visual language. Freed from his Nazi prison camp, he began his design career in America with drawings that practically walked off the paper and into production.

Television and tourism helped transform the new reality away from wartime into the future and that's where we wanted to live. Bertrand Goldberg created theaters, hospitals and apartment buildings that could have come from colonies on the Moon.

In the era when a man's vehicle could resemble his rocket ship to get there, Ron Martelet drew speedboats that could transform into their own transport trailers. His Jet-Skis of the 60s looked to be straight out of "Goldfinger."

What began as atomic nightmares transformed into space age dreams in "Techni"-colors that were no longer army drab but instead, pink, aqua and hues never before classified. Mid-Century Modernism was something completely different.

Here are some drawings from the gallery exhibit. Please click on the images to enlarge:


above: Henry P. Glass, Kling Studios Lobby
Pencil on tracing paper, 1946, 18 x 23 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Kling Studios Director's Office
Pencil on tracing paper, 1946, 18 x 23 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Hotel Flamboyant Typical Cottage,
Graphite on Paper, 1949, 21 x 42 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Hotel Flamboyant
dimensions unknown


above: Henry P. Glass, Design for Hairpin Chair
Pastel and ink on toned paper, Circa 1940s, 9 1/2 x 15 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, DH1 Laminated Plywood Chair
Prismacolor on paper collage, 1966, 10 1/4 x 12 inches


above: 1958 Chair, Graphite on tracing paper, 1958
11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Night Table Lamp
Graphite on tracing paper, Circa 1949, 16 x 13 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Desk Lamp
Graphite on tracing paper, Circa 1949, 16 x 13 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Swingline Desk and Armchair
Pastel and colored pencil on tracing paper, 1949, 16 x 13 inches


above: Henry P. Glass, Eastern Knitters Sales Room
Watercolor and collage on toned paper with shaped mat, 1946, 20 1/2 x 30 inches


above: Vincent Raney, Detail of Theatre for Los Banos
Pencil on drafting linen, 1947, 15 x 16 inches


above: R.G. Martelet, Detail of Design B (Boat/Trailer Combination)
Prismacolor and chalk on toned paper, 1961, 16 x 30 inches


above: Bertrand Goldberg, Architect; Henry Gould, Delineator, San Diego Theater, La Jolla Marker on artist's board, 1969, 12 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches

click here to see more of David's notes on the Exhibition:


above: ArchiTech Gallery Owner David Jameson, photo by Jay King

ArchiTech Gallery

730 North Franklin Street
suite 200
Chicago, IL, USA
60654

Making Wit Of Waste And Light Of Weight: Wendy Gold's Art de Toilette




In 2007, I wrote a post about Wendy Gold's witty bathroom scales. As did many a design and trend blogger. Since then, Art de Toilette (which consists of her bathroom seats and covers in addition to scales), has grown and evolved, and the design of the bathroom scales changed as well, so it was time to do an updated post on her products.

Many a mommy blogger has mentioned her scale for pregnant women (shown later in this post) and you may have seen some of her other scales at various boutiques and galleries, but her special custom toilet seats are really worth a look.


In 2001, professional artist and graphic designer, Wendy Gold launched her toilet seat line with a high profile art opening in San Francisco. Since then she's been commissioned by art collectors, hotels, restaurants and businesses worldwide. Gracing art de toilette™ seats are such famous buttocks as Jack Nicholson, Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day and Fred Segal. They make great unique gifts and commemorative items - even celeb Sean Penn has commissioned the seats as gifts for Jude Law and John Travolta.

Wendy's seats are hand made and one of a kind and she'll work with you to come up with the concept and design. Contact her for pricing and more information.

To date Wendy has sold over 200 toilets seats and covers. Here are some examples (courtesy of Wendy):














Wendy expanded her line of bathroom art to include eight custom-designed bathroom scales in 2003. The line now contains ten (three of which have no numbers) and can be found at select boutiques and gyms across the country. The 'Bun In The Oven' scale, designed to put some levity in the sometimes harrowing weight gain of pregnancy, seems to be one of her most popular and is the first scale shown below.

Bun In The Oven:

Affirmation Station:

Bittersweet:

Down For The Carb Count:

The Confessional:

The Moment Of Truth:

Ignorance Is Bliss:

Shrine To Sweet And Salty:

Willpower:

Work It:


Prices for the bathroom scales are $95.00 USD. You can buy them online here.

Some of the other online stores that carry her scales include:
Jennifer Kaufmann
Uncommon Goods

Wendy holds a bachelor of arts from San Francisco State University and runs art de toilette™ from her studio with her dog "slim" as her chief creative consultant. Visit her design site here.

Art de Toilette

Modern Mementos Of Macabre Moments in History By Boym




Boym Partners has a different idea of a souvenir than you may be used to. No romantic recollections reproduced in miniature, no glorification of heroes on porcelain plates, no picturesque renditions captured in snow globes.

Instead they have created tabletop architectural miniatures of tragic sites, blueprints of buildings that were the subject of murders, bomb threats and other disasters, and miniature half-built skyscrapers in bright colors interrupted during their construction due to lack of funding. They even have a birdhouse fashioned after the Unabomber's cabin hideaway in Montana.

Since 1998, Boym has chosen to honor buildings as symbols of political or human catastrophe rather than for brilliant form or important client. Hence, their best-known work, Buildings Of Disaster. Made from a specially bonded metal, each architectural miniature cast monument is made in a limited edition of 500.

Initially, it was Boym Partners' innovative three year project, Souvenirs of the End of the Century, a mail-order catalog that went out in November 1988, that spawned their ' Buildings Of Disaster', which is the best selling independent design project of all time.

Described by Creative Director Constantin Boym:
"The end of a century has always been a special moment in human history. While we no longer expect the world to come to an end, we all still share a particular mood of introspection, a desire to look back and to draw comparisons, and a sense of closure and faint hope. Above all, the end of the century is about memory. We think that souvenirs are important cultural objects which can store and communicate memories, emotions and desires. Buildings of Disaster are miniature replicas of famous structures where some tragic or terrible events happened to take place. Some of these buildings may have been prized architectural landmarks, others, non-descript, anonymous structures. But disaster changes everything. The images of burning or exploded buildings make a different, populist history of architecture, one based on emotional involvement rather than on scholarly appreciation. In our media-saturated time, the world disasters stand as people's measure of history, and the sites of tragic events often become involuntary tourist destinations."


above: Once they've sold out, they're gone (as is the case with The Twin Towers Monument, The Texas School Book Depository, the site of President Kennedy's assassination, November 1963) and the Unabomber's cabin. But they continue to add to the collection.

Linda Hale writes:
The Buildings of Disaster project emerged as a response to the end of the tumultuous 20th century. Boym drew inspiration from media repetition, as did Andy Warhol in his own disaster series. Boym acknowledges “one common precedent” but says, “My buildings are commentary not so much on disaster, but on the reflection on the disaster. They have a different sensibility.” The list began with Chernobyl, the Texas School Book Depository, the Watergate complex, and the Unabomber Cabin. A miniature Oklahoma City federal building, its center cratered by a bomb blast, was the first to freeze-frame the impact of terrorism. After Sept. 11, Boym sculpted the Twin Towers scarred by attack, but standing, and a gouged Pentagon. Proceeds went to relief funds. (source)

At present, on their site, the series is consisting of these models:

















At Design Miami 2007, Constantin and Laurene Boym showed a limited edition 24k gold plated version of their Buildings of Disaster in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the infamous architectural model collection:




You can purchase some of these Buildings of Disaster (including other editions not shown here) online at Velocity Art and Design or at Unica home or at New York Gifts or Minima and finally, but most costly, at MOSS online.

But that's not the only way Boym is immortalizing disasters. It may not be as glamorous as Princess Diana's tragic accident or as perversely fascinating as Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch debacle, but today's economic situation is certainly a tragedy that affects all. Boym has created a new series of souvenirs, Recession Souvenirs to be exact, that capture the building of skyscrapers interrupted due to lack of funds, one of the first causualties of the worldwide recession.

Recession Souvenirs: Interrupted Skyscrapers

The collection includes Burj al Alam in Dubai, The Russia Tower in Moscow (planned to be the largest tower in Europe), the Busan Lotte Tower in Korea (designed as the world's tallest hotel), Herzog & de Meuron's Condo Tower in New York at 56 Leonard, and the controversial Cheesegrater Tower intended for the heart of London.



Price is $95.00 USD each, limited number. Available here until sold out.


Bitter Blueprints:

Yet another way Boym has chosen to capture historical calamaties is by printing up digitally offset blueprints of venues such as The Bundy Residence (the scene of the murder of OJ Simpson's ex-wife Nicole) and the Oklahoma City Building. These can be purchased framed in black metal or if you buy four, in a special collector's portfolio.

8.5" x 11" digitally offset blueprints signed and produced in a limited number of 500 each.










They've even recently introduced a limited edition birdhouse based on the Unabomber's Lincoln, Montana shack.

The Unabirdhouse:


Buy the Unabird House here.

The real thing is a macabre memento of its own:

Above: the actual unabomber's cabin after being removed from Montana (photo by Richard Barnes) Check out a video of the real cabin here.



above: Boym Partners; Constantin and Laurene Leon Boym

About Boym Partners, Inc:
Boym Partners Inc was founded in New York in 1986 by Russian born Constantin Boym. In 1989 he earned a Masters degree in Design from Domus University in Milan, and then became a registered U.S. architect in 1988. Laurene Leon Boym has been a part of Boym Partners since 1995. Prior to that she was a Designer in Residence at The Cooper Hewitt in 1993. In 1992 she founded AWID (Association of Women Industrial Designers) and she presently teaches in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

In 2008, the Boym Partners were Finalists in the Product Design Category, National Design Awards, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. Their work is published, sold and exhibited worldwide and is in many museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, NYC.


See all their work and shop their online store here.