Burberry World Live - Film, Music and Digital Weather - Launches in Taipei.

To celebrate the opening of their nearly 15,000 square foot flagship store in Taiwan (shown above), Burberry World Live, a 360 immersive experience, began in Taipei on 26 April 2012.



Christopher Bailey designed a custom cylindrical space that brought to life the Burberry worlds of British Heritage, Fashion, Music and Weather to celebrate the opening of the Burberry Taiwan flagship store at Taipei 101.





Combining an eight part 360 degree film, a live musical performance and digital weather experience, Burberry World Live will tour cities globally including London, Hong Kong and Chicago later this year.

This multi sensory experience is the first to blur the physical and digital dimensions of the brand.

Burberry

Flight BA2012 - Pop-Up Venue Features British Airways Great Britons' Art, Film and Food.

above: Pascal Anson and Tracey Emin with the Dove, inspiration for a special art decorated aircraft for British Airways

FLIGHT BA2012 SET TO POP UP!

British Airways will launch an exclusive airline themed pop-up venue – ‘Flight BA2012’, celebrating the best in British talent in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Open on select weekdays from April 4 to 17, the three-in-one art gallery, cinema and dining lounge will showcase the works of the BA Great Britons who were mentored by Richard E. Grant, Tracey Emin and Heston Blumenthal.


above: Richard E Grant, Tracey Emin and Heston Blumenthal launch the BA Great Britons Heroes programme (Getty Images)

Artist-designer Pascal Anson, screenwriter Prasanna Purwanarajah and Michelin-star chef Simon Hulstone beat hundreds of incredible entries to be selected as British Airways Great Britons 2012 and will have their work featured in the pop-up venue. Purwanarajah, Anson and Hulstone have created Olympic Games themed film, art and food respectively- a short-film named Boy, ‘Dove’ artwork livery for the celebratory aircraft and a bold British menu.

The airline-themed venue, hosted in East London, has been exclusively designed to recreate a premium flying experience and will offer guests a sneak preview of the Great Britons works before they are rolled out on flights beginning this month.

ART:


Flight BA2012 includes artwork from artist-designer Pascal Anson from Brighton, who was mentored by Tracey Emin on his ‘Dove’ design for a range of celebratory aircraft displayed in the gallery.



above: Pascal Anson and Tracey Emin look over Dove artwork (Pic: Nick Morrish/BA)

above: Dove drawings by Pascal Anson (courtesy of the artist)


FILM:


It also features short film ‘BOY’ starring Timothy Spall, written by screenwriter Prasanna Purwanarajah under the mentorship of Richard E. Grant, which will be screened in the cinema.


Trailer for 'BOY':



DINING / FOOD:


Guests will also be able to sample a bold British menu created by Michelin-star chef Simon Hulstone, who has produced an Olympic Games inspired menu under the guidance of Heston Blumenthal. (Unfortunately, tickets to the Flight BA2012 dining lounge are already sold out).



above: Not your normal airline food - Simon Hulstone's Fish Pie is a work of art (photo courtesy of Jim Wileman, British Airways)

above: Simon Hulstone at work

above: Heston Blumenthal and Simon Hulstone devised the Olympic-themed menu

Frank van der Post, British Airways managing director of brands and customer experience, said: “We wanted to bring the flying experience to the public, allowing guests to preview our in-flight entertainment, celebratory aircraft livery and on-board menus in anticipation of the London 2012 Games. This is going to be an exciting year for the capital and this is just the very start of our take-off!”

• Flight BA2012 is located at 3-10 Shoreditch High St, East London, E1 6PG.

• For £50, guests will receive entry to the gallery and screening room, plus a welcome glass of champagne, sit down three course menu with amuse bouche, and tea, coffee and petit four. (This dining experience is no longer available /sold out)

• Flight BA2012 will be open on April; 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17 only and closed for Easter and at the weekend

• The first scheduled flight for ‘The Dove’ will be in early April

• Short film BOY will be shown on all long-haul flights from April

• Simon’s menu will be available on long-haul flights departing London Heathrow between July and September (excluding certain routes such as India and Japan).

• The airline worked with LOCOG, BAFTA, the Fat Duck Experimental team and the Royal Academy of Arts on the BA Great Britons programme


British Airways is the official airline of the London 2012 Games.

information and images courtesy of British Airways and Getty Images

From Guinness Consumption to Irish Ancestry. Eight Awesome St. Patrick's Day Infographics.

Below are Saint Patrick's Day related infographics from eight different sources summing up everything from Guinness Beer consumption to the luck of the Irish. Enjoy!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Barf Bags to Boarding Passes, EVA Air and Sanrio Brand the Heck Out of Hello Kitty Air.

If United Airlines turned the skies "friendly", then EVA Air has now made them "cute." Taiwan's second-largest carrier, EVA Air, and Japan's Sanrio, have collaborated for the second time to bring us Hello Kitty branded air travel. The two companies launched the first generation of Hello Kitty jets in 2005, but that fleet was disbanded in 2009, after its licensing agreement expired.

Remembering Eva Zeisel 1906-2012. Her Life and Her Work.

The world lost a legend on December 30th when Eva Zeisel died at the age of 105. In honor of her passing, I am reprinting a post I wrote on her amazing life and work in April of 2010.


above: Eva Zeisel, 2009, photos courtesy of Talisman Photo

103 year old Eva Zeisel continues to amaze. The Hungarian born designer just doesn't stop. In addition to being an enormous talent, she has a life story as interesting as her work.

She was born Eva Amalia Stricker on November 13th to Alexander and Laura Polanyi Stricker. At the age of 17 she enrolled in the Royal Academy Of Fine Arts, intent on becoming a painter, but was convinced by her mother to try a trade at which she could earn money. She then began apprenticing as a potter. In 1925, she started her own pottery on her family estate. In 1927 she moved to Hamburg Germany, where she worked at Hansa Kunstkeramic for 6 months.

In 1932, she visited Russia for the first time. She worked at the Lomonosov Manufactory designing dinnerware and at the Artistic Laboratory of the Lomonosov State Porcelain Factory (the former Imperial Porcelain Factory) in Leningrad.



By 1935 she was the artistic director of the Glass and China Industries in Moscow, Russia. It was soon after, in 1936, that the talented Stricker was falsely accused of being part of a conspiracy to kill Josef Stalin and imprisoned in Russia for 16 months, 12 of which were spent in solitary confinement.

Upon her 1937 release from prison (without explanation), she was put on a train to Vienna where she was met by relatives. In 1938 she married her second husband, Hans Zeisel in England (her first marriage was to physicist Alexander Weissberg and was dissolved). Soon after marrying Zeisel, they both moved to new York.

In 1939, she created the first department of ceramic arts industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where she taught until 1952.


above: Eva Zeisel in 1940 with student work at Pratt. Image courtesy of Pratt.
above image courtesy of Eva Zeisel Archives

She then went on to design iconic pieces for Chantal, Sears, Red Wing Pottery, Hall China Company, Watt Pottery, H. Heisey and more. You can still find many of her vintage pieces at the Orange Chicken Gallery.

At the impressive age of 103, she is still actively designing. She has current collections of ceramics and silk-screened prints for Klein Reid, Classic Century ceramics and One O One earthenware for Royal Stafford, the re-issued Granit collection for Design Within Reach, pens, pen holder and card holder designs for Acme, hand blown glassware collections for Gumps , glassware, aluminum and more for Nambé, exclusive China pieces for various galleries, and a furniture line, and most recently a collection of three Tibetan wool rugs for The Rug Company.



above photos courtesy of Talisman photo and the Brooklyn Museum

Eve Zeisel Glassware for Gumps:


Exclusives for the Neue gallerie:
Fine bone china Baby feeder:

Porcelain painted Icebox pitchers:


Eva Zeisel for Royal Stafford


A coffee set she designed in 1940:

One O One:


Eva Zeisel for Klein Reid:



Eva Zeisel for Nambé:




Eva Zeisel Glassware for Bombay Sapphire:


Designed in early 2001, the Centennial Set consists of six impressively scaled celebratory goblets inspired by Eva's martini glass designed exclusively for the Bombay Sapphire's promotional campaign. Individually hand-blown by master craftsmen, these elegant works of art are made of the highest quality glass.

Eva Zeisel Originals (furniture and more):





Eva Zeisel for Design Within Reach:

Granit tableware:


Eve Zeisel For The Rug Company:

Fish and Lacy X:



Her work is included in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including MoMA, the Met and the V&A. In 2005, she was awarded the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York.

The Wall Street Journal has a nice little interview with Eva Zeisel here.

Special thanks to the Eva Zeisel forum for additional information and links.

Eva Zeisel Books, Dinnerware and More