Champagne Cooler With Branches To Hold The Bubbly. The Enchanting Tree for Perrier Jouet Champagne by Tord Boontje.

As part of its artistic heritage, Perrier-Jouët continues its tradition of supporting and collaborating with artists and designers. This year the brand unveiled "The Enchanting Tree", a creation that reinvents the gesture of champagne.



Six participants can pluck a flute of Perrier-Jouët’s Belle Epoque cuvee from the tree designed by Tord Boontje. At its base, an ice bucket preserves the champagne’s coolness. Perrier-Jouët and Tord Boontje collaboration is rooted in a shared appreciation of Nature, Art Nouveau & craftsmanship.



Inspired by Nature as an inexhaustible source of inspiration, the designer has reinterpreted nature light-heartedly to create a fairytale in honour of spring, with floral forms flowing through a golden hand-worked tree.




With his hand-worked metal branches, the leaves soldered one by one, the anemones lacquered in white; Tord Boontje has reinvented the tasting ritual to create a decidedly Perrier-Jouët moment.





In 1902, a spray of Japanese anemones designed by Emile Gallé heralded the emergence of an artistic movement, Art Nouveau, symbolic of a yearning to which Perrier-Jouët has always remained true:


Inspired by those iconic swirling anemones, Tord Boontje designed a fluid and flowing tree, a plant sculpture with anemones and champagne flutes for blossoms. Suspended in mid-air in order to maintain the coolness of the champagne, they bathe the golden branches in light, reflecting the pearly drops of water on the ice bucket below. A refined and resolutely modern Perrier-Jouët creation, lending a hint of the sublime to the tasting of a Belle Epoque cuvée.



Tord Boontje, an artist born in 1968 in the Netherlands, studied industrial design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven (1986-1991) then at the Royal College of Art in London (1992-1994), before founding his own design studio in 1996 in London. He draws inspiration from nature and incessantly explores the relationship between nature and technology: the association with Perrier-Jouët was thus a marriage made in heaven. "My ideas come to me while strolling in the forest and observing the way light and nature interact" explains the designer, who refuses to link modernism and minimalism.

Perrier Jouet

photos courtesy of Perrier Jouet, The Wine Sleuth  and Cocorosa

Ross Lovegrove Designs This Year's Traditional Saber and Champagne Case For Mumm.

In the past I shared with you designer Patrick Jouin's specially designed versions of Champagne House G.H. Mumm's traditional Cordon Rouge Case and Saber for 2011 and 2010. The companies' ceremonial Saber is a sword used to expel the cork and an accompanying case is designed to bold both the Saber and the Champagne.



This year, G.H. MUMM enlisted industrial designer Ross Lovegrove for the annual task. By entrusting the internationally renowned designer with the task of creating a sabre, G.H.MUMM has brought a modern touch to this great tradition. A gamble that has paid off handsomely, combining two worlds: that of a Champagne House constantly looking to innovate and that of a designer recognised as a leader of 21st century aesthetics.



"It's one of those magical acts that is so poly-sensorial and culturally enriching that as a designer one is naturally drawn to the cult of the object"- Ross Lovegrove for G.H.MUMM.

THE SABER:





The G.H.MUMM sabre is a true product of Ross Lovegrove’s world: an approach in which beauty and intelligence unite, where energy is transformed into an object with clean-cut lines. Stainless steel was the designer’s material of choice precisely because of its modernity and because it is as timeless as champagne itself". Curved at the pommel, the line then straightens towards the tip, where the signatures of the House and the artist are engraved. Designed for both left- and right-handed use, the G.H.MUMM sabre offers the perfect balance between weight and mass."

THE DELUXE CASE:




The lines of the Deluxe Case are beautifully sculpted, a prestigious casket designed exclusively by the artist to house both the sabre and a magnum of G.H.MUMM Cordon Rouge. In white polyurethane lacquer, embellished by the touch of red that is a G.H.MUMM hallmark, it is a clean-cut case, a metaphor for an age marked by innovation and discovery, style and freedom of expression". Personally signed by the designer, G.H.MUMM's Deluxe Case illustrates Ross Lovegrove's desire to create objects of timeless beauty."



This video was created in collaboration with GH.Mumm, John Ross studio and Ross Lovegrove. It beautifully documents Ross’ vision from sketch to finished object and the wonderful act of the sabrage:



Ross Lovegrove
G.H. Mumm

The Egg Nog Project - A Kitschy Collection of Cartons From All Over The Country.

Seattle, Washington based Graphic Designer Madeleine Eiche began her fascination with Egg Nog cartons when she was working at a New York Coffee Shop back in 2002.  The kitschy packaging of Canastota's Egg Nog, coupled with her love of pop-art and her fondness for dairy products, inspired Madeline to begin an on-going collection of store bought egg nog cartons from all over the country.

She says "The peculiarities of the packaging range from festive to banal, minimal to unappetizing, and each seem to be printed with complete disregard for color alignment. It is precisely these things that make for such compelling kitsch."


above: the carton that started it all, Dairy Fresh, Canastota, New York

The majority of the cartons are so ugly, I'd hesitate to even call them 'kitsch.' However when viewed together they certainly represent the annual tradition as well as a facet of retail packaging category in sore need of redesign, with a few exceptions.

Guers Dairy, Pottsville, Pennsylvania:


Marcus Dairy, Danbury, Connecticut:


Derle Farms, Jamaica, New York:


Guida-Seibert Dairy, New Britain, Connecticut:


Dairyworld Foods, Vancouver, British Columbia CANADA:


Lucerne Foods, Pleasanton, California (2):



Faith Dairy, Tacoma, Washington:


Umpqua Dairy, Roseburg, Oregon:


Elmhurst Dairy, Roxbury, New York:


Wengerts Dairy for Swiss Premium, Lebanon, Pennsylvania:


Dean's Dairy, Sharpsville, Pennsylvania (2):



Crowley Foods, Binghamton, New York:


Giant, Landover, Maryland:


Tuscan Brand, Franklin, Massachusetts:


Schneider's Dairy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:


Parmalat Dairy, Toronto, Ontario CANADA:


Mountain Dairy Inter-American Products, Cincinnati, Ohio:


Swiss Premium Dairy, Lebanon, Pennsylvania:


Smith Dairy, Orrville, Ohio (2):



America's Choice, Montvale, New Jersey:


Wilcox Farms, Roy, Washington (2):



Turkey Hill Dairy, Conestoga, Pennsylvania:


Rockview Farms, Downey, California:


Lehigh Valley Dairy, Lansdale, Pennsylvania:


Horizon Organic, Boulder, Colorado:


Garelick Farms, Franklin, Massachusetts:


Organic Valley, La Farge, Wisconsin:


Southern Comfort, Lynnfield, Massachusetts:


Southern Comfort (Vanilla), Chelsea, Massachusetts:


Trader Joe's, Monrovia, California:


Silk, Boulder, Colorado:


Originally from Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania, Madeleine Eiche is a graphic designer whose other collections include push puppets and floaty pens. Find her work at eiche.co.uk.

Photos by Justin Gollmer.

The Egg Nog Project