If It's Hip, It's Here (Archives)

Found My Dream House In Brazil. On A Golf Course. And I Don't Even Play Golf. The MP Quinta Da Baronesa.

This gorgeous residential home by Arthur Casas Studio located in São Paulo, Brazil was designed for a family of four (a young couple with children 5 and 8 years old). The only design requirements from the owners were that the home incorporate a view of the upscale Quinta da Baroneza golf course and lots of light.

Italian brand Gucci's Creative Director Frida Giannini and renowned Japanese Manga artist, Hirohiko Araki, have collaborated to create special store window displays featuring the Japanese artist's illustrations and Gucci's 2013 Cruise Collection.

Araki says ‘Frida’s beautiful cruise collection with its strong colours and graphic designs set my mind racing the moment she showed it to me. From there the characters and storylines came into being so naturally. It was very stimulating to work together on this project.’

Araki has created an exclusive Manga (Japanese comic strip), inspired by the collection and a story that will bring the windows of Gucci's worldwide direct store network to life in January and February. The story is also featured in Japan's SPUR Magazine.

Some sites and blogs are confusing this collaboration with Gucci's previous first collaboration with the Japanese artist in 2011 and posting the wrong illustrations and window displays. Araki worked with the Gucci brand in September 2011 when they collaborated with Spur for an exhibit of Gucci’s 90 year anniversary that featured Araki’s illustrations. Because the exhibit was only featured in Gucci’s Shinjuku store, this time around, the partnership is on a global stage.

Entitled “Jolyne, Fly High with Gucci,” Araki's Manga tells the adventure of Jolyne Cujoh, a student who inherits a keepsake from her mother’s Gucci collection. Propelled by the mystery behind her vintage treasure, she embarks on a journey that transcends time. Echoing the sensual color palette and graphic undertones of Giannini's Cruise collection with symbolic references to the House's iconic Flora pattern that has been reinterpreted in a number of the collection’s signature pieces, Araki's extraordinary technique gives a three dimensional effect to his characters.

Spur Magazine of Japan reports:
The illustrative story entitled Jolyne, Fly High with Gucci, tells the story of Jolyne Cujoh, a student who inherits a vintage treasure from her mother’s Gucci collection. Inspired by the mystery behind the piece, she embarks on a journey that transcends time. The result is a stunning collection of art. Heavily influenced by the cruise collection, expect to see Gucci’s historic flora pattern strongly referenced. As Giannini has noted, ‘I am quite sure his window installations will stop people in their tracks in cities around the world as they immerse themselves in the fabulous fantasy world he has created.’

Images of Gucci Manga Window Displays (courtesy of SPUR Magazine):

The Booken Is A Table, A Shelf and a Library In One.

At this year's IMM Cologne, Italian furniture design company Lema collaborated with Raw Edges designers Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay who founded their studio in 2007 with the aim of creating soulful and yet, ironic, objects (such as this unusual commissioned piece, to create a unique piece.

Lema, who has long created shelving systems and bookcases for the home has been closely following the evolution of market and consumer needs, especially given the evolution of the library in a modern world that is increasingly oriented towards paperbacks and e-books. Yael and Shay have worked on the concept of the book as an object and as material, which transforms its function and reinvents itself. From these two companies comes a new collaborative effort: The Booken, which is simultaneously a table, shelf and library.

"We were inspired by the fact that people do not re-read the novels that are so often on the shelves," says Raw Edges. "Most books are usually read once and not re-read, and then we thought, why not use the volumes as if they have a plan? Of course you can always remove the book and read it, but at the same time the books take on a new role. "

And that is why the designers chose the name Booken. In English, the suffix 'en' applies in furnishing the material names to identify those with which objects are made. Following this concept, the book becomes the constituent material.

The essence of Booken is captured in two parallel tracks supported by legs on which rest several wooden slats that echo the classic form of the bookmark. The books are literally "hanging" transforming the library from a vertical element to a horizontal element.

"For us it was definitely a challenge from the conceptual point of view," says Angelo Meroni, chairman of Lema. "But at the same time a fun and cool project that brings us closer to a different audience giving us, after collaborating with young designers like Nendo and Giopato & Coombes, a way to look at the future of design and creativity in the field of furniture."

Raw Edges Design Studio
Lema

source: Archiportale