It will arrive at your door on Oct. 26th (but be aware, you must sign for it)
Click here to pre-order yours now!
Finally! Pre-Order Leopard Right Now!
It will arrive at your door on Oct. 26th (but be aware, you must sign for it)
Click here to pre-order yours now!
Funky Find Of The Week: The 'Kisses' Urinal
Design: Meike van Schijndel for Bathroom Mania.
'Kisses!' is the first Bathroom Mania! product that is for sale. The urinal is engineered to European standards; please review the specifications to ensure the urinal can be installed at your location.
Two variants are available: a top- and a wall-inlet. Check to see which variant meets your wishes best.
Worldwide delivery has started and the first owners all say: Kisses looks fantastic.
Material: Ceramic.
Colours: Red, White and Salmon.
Dimensions: +/- 380x415x600mm (wxdxh)
Inlet: EU 35mm, back- and top inlet available.
Outlet: 50mm, outlet will be inside the urinal and can be connected to both a back- as well as a bottom-siphon.
Buy it here.
Immortalizing Celebrity Screw-Ups in Embroidery: The Art Of Maria E. Piñeres
above: Lindsay Lohan's 2007 mugshot in embroidery
The description of her embroidered mug shots show, "A Rogue's Gallery" below is from the gallery's website:
With her signature medium of stitched needlepoint images, Maria E. Piñeres confronts media-saturated contemporary culture’s favorite guilty-or-not-guilty pleasure: the celebrity mug shot.
Celebrity culture exists today almost completely without boundaries. In adversity to the tightly controlled studio system generated publicity of Hollywood’s golden era, nothing today is off-limits. There is hardly any distinction between public and private - and the more private, stark, and embarrassingly real, the better. In the 1940’s and 50’s, readers of Confidential and other such scandal sheets collectively gasped a joyfully naughty, voyeuristic breath and eagerly wrung their hands at the novel site of police-file mug shots of Robert Mitchum and Frank Sinatra. The publication of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon (1958) furthered the airing of Hollywood’s dirty laundry into a cultish pastime and created an outlet for a scandal-loving subculture. Today, especially given the access-all-areas manner of internet-disseminated information, such images are commonplace.
Above: Mel Gibson
above: Robert Downey Jr., 2005
above: Lizzie Grubman, 2005
In A Rogue’s Gallery, Maria E. Piñeres captures an eerily doll-like Michael Jackson and a seemingly helpless Lizzie Grubman among many others. All are depicted in the police station after the initial brush with the law, yet before the indignant publicist denials and the ensuing round of post-release talk show appearances. In her new work, PIÑERES goes one step further from her previous series. Homespun grandmotherly needlework, already turned on its ear, is taken into the world of stars which have crashed and burned, darkly glowing through the atmosphere, onto the decidedly non-lunar surface of central booking.
above: Sid Vicious, 2005
above: Nick Nolte, 2005
Both the dazed Nick Nolte and snarling Sid Vicious (shown above) are given true VIP treatment: vertical diptychs featuring kaleidoscopic serial imagery of their respective mug shots with hallucinogenic multicolored backgrounds—a conscious mirror image of the windmills of her iconic subjects’ addled minds. We see a variety of emotions in these faces, rather then blank slates: guilt or embarrassment sometimes, but, more often, defiance, smugness, sweetness and, most often, rebelliousness.
above: Hugh Grant, 2005
above: Bobby Brown, 2005
above: Bobby Brown II, 2005
above: Macaulay Culkin, 2004-2005
This is Piñeres’ second one-person exhibition in New York. Her work has been shown in one-person and group exhibitions at DCKT Contemporary and, recently, in group shows at both Sara Meltzer Gallery and John Connelly Presents.
above: Little Kim
above: Eminem, 2004
above: Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day, 2005
above: Vince Vaughn, 2005
See her website here.
Contact:
Walter Maciel
Walter Maciel Gallery
2642 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90034
310.839.1840
walter@waltermacielgallery.com
you can view a pdf of the artists resumé here.
1,200 Marketers Can’t Be Wrong:
The Future Is in Consumer Behavior
From the New York Times
Consumer behavior as a route to effective marketing was a central focus of the largest gathering ever of an influential trade organization.
The 1,200 people who attended the 97th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers, held here from Thursday through yesterday, heard speaker after speaker address the growing popularity of what is known as behavioral targeting, as opposed to basing pitches on consumer attitudes, opinions or perceptions.
The ability of new media to monitor what consumers are doing — like keeping track of which Web sites they visit — is fueling the interest in behavioral targeting. Several speakers also described how they were using traditional media to more precisely aim advertising at consumers based on behavior, through steps like tailored television commercials.
The Microsoft Corporation is investing in “well-targeted advertising,” said Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive, “as aggressively as we’ve ever invested in anything.” Its acquisitions include the $6 billion purchase in August of aQuantive, a leader in online advertising.
“What’s the joke about the egg and bacon breakfast, ‘Who’s more committed, the pig or the chicken?’” he added. “We’re the pig at the breakfast; we’re committed to the future of digital advertising.”
Rather than fearing the arrival of technology companies like Microsoft into the ad business, Mr. Ballmer said, marketers ought to realize “there’s an exciting future for all of us.”
“The more we know about customer behavior, the more every ad is relevant,” he added, and relevance improves the chances that a consumer will pay attention to an ad.
For example, as more TV sets are “fed with intelligent signals that come over the Internet,” Mr. Ballmer said, advertisers will be able to deliver personalized marketing messages based on online searches. The fact that his wife has been searching online for tile for their beach house could lead to a commercial for Italian tile turning up amid the beer and car spots as they watch TV sports together on a Sunday afternoon, he said.
A commercial like that would not typically be expected during a Seahawks game, he added, “but it’s in context — not in the context of the show, but in the context of her behavior.”
Roger W. Adams, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Home Depot, described how his company regarded its Web site as “a learning laboratory” as it spent more time and money “on understanding our customer better.”
One finding was that “the underlying component of the emotional connection to the brand is the power of ‘I did it,’” he added, “as the ownership of your home becomes very personal because you created something” after buying materials for do-it-yourself projects at a Home Depot store.
“We’re experimenting with a lot of behavioral targeting, online and offline,” Mr. Adams said in an interview after his speech, in moving away from a “one size fits all” approach using ads in mass media like TV and print.
As a retailer, he added, Home Depot has the advantage of access to “individual customer purchase history” as it seeks to customize ads.
“There are different messages in different media for different consumers,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s incredibly complex, but that’s the way it is.”
For instance, he said, Home Depot has achieved positive returns by segmenting its campaigns for the Hispanic market, creating ads for “acculturated Hispanics” — those who are second- or third-generation Americans — that differ from ads for consumers who almost always speak Spanish.
Robert C. Lachky, executive vice president for global industry development and chief creative officer at Anheuser-Busch, discussed in an interview how his company, like Home Depot, is segmenting its customers.
Anheuser-Busch is taking “a bit of a deeper dive,” he added, going beyond factors like age, gender and ethnicity to aim at customers through “use occasions.”
For example, a beer drinker might order a domestic light beer while watching a baseball game at a sports bar and a full-flavor import while on a date at a nice restaurant.
Anheuser-Busch sought to tap into the power of the Internet this year with an ambitious online project that offered entertainment programming at a Web site named bud.tv. But visitor traffic fell far below initial predictions, and the content is being rethought.
The programming “had nothing to do with our brands,” Mr. Lachky said during his speech. “Branded content is what the consumer wants, and it’s what we’ll use that space for.”
For example, a video clip called “Swear Jar,” which was recently added to the Web site (and is shown below), shows how a company’s employees start to enthusiastically lace their conversations with obscenities after learning that the money being collected every time they curse will go to “buy something for the office, like a case of Bud Light.”
The previous highest turnout for the association’s annual conference was last year, when nearly 1,000 people attended. The sharp gains since 2002, when attendance bottomed out at around 250, followed a change in leadership at the association, which has 400 member companies, and the recruitment of widely known speakers from giant companies.
•
This year, the roster also included Wendy Clark, senior vice president for advertising at AT&T; James R. Stengel, global marketing officer at Procter & Gamble; and Al Gore.
Mr. Gore spoke on Saturday, a day after he learned he would share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on raising awareness about climate change. But his speech was not about global warming, politics or the awards he has received, which include an Emmy and an Oscar.
Rather, Mr. Gore, who was greeted with a standing ovation, wore his hat as the chairman and co-founder, with Joel Hyatt, of Current TV, a cable network and Web sites (current.tv and current.com) that offer younger viewers the chance to create programming and commercials.
Mr. Gore played for the audience examples of Current TV programs and “V-Cams,” or viewer-created advertising messages, for sponsors like L’Oréal, Sony, T-Mobile and Toyota.
Mr. Gore was invited months ago to address the conference, which carried the theme “Transforming the Marketing Landscape.”
Still, said Robert D. Liodice, president and chief executive of the association, it was Mr. Gore’s choice to stick with his speech, titled “Consumer-Generated Media: The New Marketing Paradigm,” rather than discuss global warming or the Nobel Prize. The four questions Mr. Gore answered after his remarks were also limited to marketing.
Denise Saffren:
Original Art Buckles
Original Art Buckles
I am so happy to have found Denise Saffren and her beautifully cast and equally cheeky belt buckles. With both wit and talent, she has managed to create some very fine and very fun functional pieces of art.
She casts in everything from solid sterling silver to white bronze and brass. Some of her pieces have inlays of stone or glass and she does custom work as well.
Her belt buckle designs vary from tattoo and seventies inspired imagery (you know..... mud flap girls, trucks, skulls, flaming hearts, vegas , etc) and has the requisite new age imagery (fairies and mermaids) to my personal favorite....the "chastity' belt buckle.
Just take a look:
From her own site:
Denise Saffren is a professional sculptor in the corporate world.
Welcome to her escape.
In 2000, having little time to create anything bigger than a buckle, she decided to start her own buckle line. In 2001, her first series of buckles were created for her company All-Ready Design. As the buckles began to sell, she decided that this would be the perfect way to feed her own creative yearnings, on her own terms and on her own time.
Since then she has created over 20 buckles for her own line and various custom buckles for Singer/Songwriter Alana Davis, Lukaro Hair Salon in Beverly Hills, Tsunami Sushi, and Delicious Vinyl. Many celebrities own her buckles...P!nk, Linda Perry, Gina Gershon, Jorja Fox, Paul Stanley, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kid Rock and Kat Von D from Miami Ink. Denise has donated many buckles to Heal the Bay, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Hudson River Foundation, among other charities. As of 2006, she started to brand her buckles with her own name and signature, DENISE.
Before now, you could only buy her buckles either by bumping into her on the street or at Firefly on Abbot Kinney in Venice,CA, Ragg Mopp on Sunset Blvd. in Silver Lake or at the Abbot Kinney Street Festival where she has been a staple for 6 years.
New designs are always on the horizon, so please sign the mailing list or check back often for her latest creations. Coming Soon! New and matching pendants for some of her favorite buckles! Plus new buckles.
you can reach the artist at her e-mail: info@denisesaffren.com
Buy them here.
Shedding New Light On MoMA'S Art
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
* Sector: Public space
* Location: New York , New York
* Architect/Specifier: Yoshio Tanaguchi and KPF
* Product(s): Solar Control Internal Roller Shades and Skylight Systems Custom Skylight Systems
With its long-awaited, much-talked-about expansion, the Museum of Modern Art in New York got an interior as artfully grand as the masterworks that hang in it. Created by architect Yoshio Tanaguchi with support from the firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), MoMA's design balances indoor spaces with memorable external views of the sculpture garden and the city beyond.
To keep the inside suitable for art viewing while allowing for both light to come in and visitors to look out, the designer used a specially designed system of glass, mullions, and solar shades. And, the architects created openings that temper and control the light going into and out of the museum galleries and educational spaces, especially on the light-soaked upper level.
Tanaguchi and KPF worked carefully to "conceal the details" of glass, mullions, and fabric that frame these views, in order to retain an unfussy look. The large spans of glass sit inside the slenderest metal mullions and contain highly functional, integrated shading systems that provide light control.
This dual-shade system -- custom-engineered by Hunter Douglas Contract-- uses white, translucent fabric to moderate light entering the building during the day; at night, blackout fabric prevents light pollution from bothering the museum's neighbors. In short, from both inside and out, the view is first-rate. It’s a New York icon, reborn.
Description of the project from Hunter Douglas's Project Portfolio
The expansion of MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has been widely acclaimed for its elegant sense of space. Architectural Record called it "a monumentally scaled, serene series of cubiform volumes and slabs [that] seems to have evolved naturally out of the institution's own architectural unconscious."
Created by architect Yoshio Tanaguchi with support from the firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), MoMA's design balances pure internal spaces with striking external views. Using a specially designed system of glass, mullions, and solar shades, the architects created openings that temper and control the light going into and out of the museum's galleries and educational spaces, especially on the upper level.
In his architectural statement, Tanaguchi says the MoMA project is "an opportunity [for the museum] to regenerate itself and to express what is current in the areas of modernism." In this project, he and KPF connected an "ideal environment" for art (the museum galleries) with the surrounding physical elements of nature (the sculpture garden) and the city environment. This connection makes the views into and out of the museum one of the more important elements in the design.
According to one of their main design principles, KPF and Tanaguchi worked carefully to "conceal the details" of glass, mullions, and fabric that frame these views. The large spans of glass sit inside the slenderest metal mullions and contain highly functional, integrated shading systems that provide light control. This dual-shade system -- custom-engineered by Hunter Douglas -- uses white, translucent fabric to moderate light entering the building during the day; at night, blackout fabric prevents light pollution from bothering the museum's neighbors.
According to Stephen Rustow, Senior Associate Principal at KPF, specially selected operating mechanisms and fiberglass shading fabrics allowed the architects to continue the clean, flat planes of the walls across both windows and skylights.
Tanaguchi says "one of architecture's most critical tasks is to establish a relationship between a particular site and its environment." Defining the views between the museum and its environment expresses architecturally the MoMA's role as an exhibitor and educator of Modern Art.
Meet Andrea Branzi & His Portali Collection
I quite accidentally came across this amazing collection of limited edition ceramic vases for SUPEREGO by the famous italian architect Andrea Branzi. Each piece is designed to hold flowers but is much more than that. Small sculptures and unique art that interacts with the organic flowers within them.
Take a look at some of my favorites:
Buy one here before they're all gone!
About the Artist:
Andrea Branzi, architect and designer, born in Florence in 1938, where he graduated in 1967, lives and works in Milano.
From 1964 to 1974 he was a partner of Archizoom Associati, first vanguard group internationally known, whose projects are preserved at Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione in Parma and at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Since 1967 he works in the fields of industrial and research design, architecture, urban planning, education and cultural promotion. He is also a Professor at the Third Faculty of Architecture and Industrial Design of Politecnico di Milano.
Since the beginning Andrea Branzi’s work has dealt with urban planning, architecture and design, meant as professional activities integrated and engaged in the production of innovation.
In this sense there has always been a close relation between project and research, meant as activities engaged to foster knowledge and critical reflection about design and its historical context. Since the birth of the radical movement (his graduation thesis is preserved at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris), to his present educational and research activities about the models of weak urbanisation.
His archive is preserved at Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione in Parma (Italy), while the photographic archive of Archizoom Associati is at Centre Georges Pompidou
To read more about the artist, click here.
The Classic Nelson Platform Bench Gets A Modern Makeover
above: The Classic George Nelson Platform Bench manufactured by Herman Miller and originally designed in 1946
Forgive me George, because I will forever be a fan of your slat bench, the Nelson Platform Bench, as it's formally known.
However, Simply Italian's maple and stainless steel legged slat bench is clearly an hommage to yours with a few proportion and material differences. (manufactured by Cumin).
And they did a pretty darn nice job.
Below: Simply Italian's Modern Bench
Buy Simply Italian's bench here.
Buy the classic Nelson Platform Bench Here.
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