Happy New Year! Here’s a selection of our favourite New Year cards from designers, including this confusing one from Barcelona Madrid designers Luzinterruptus. Meanwhile Happy New Year from us, thanks for reading and best wishes for 2010. (more…)
Whether you’ll be welcoming 2010 in a chalet in the Swiss Alps, New York’s Times Square, the comfort of your own home, a flair-fueled gathering at the local T.G.I. Friday’s, or the disco/art museum/pet shop that you manage on Second Life, we at UnBeige wish you good cheer and great design. We were told that sending a bottle of champagne to each and every UnBeige reader was “cost-prohibitive” (among other adjectives), and so we’ve put together a selection of favorite festive images from the holiday cards that landed in our virtual and actual mailboxes this season. Enjoy!
From Howard Greenberg Gallery: Dan Weiner‘s “New Years Eve – Times Square,” c. 1956.
From Friends of the High Line: a vintage wine coneflower planted along the High Line and photographed by Anastasia Courtney.
From—you guessed it—New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
From M Z Wallace, our favorite purveyor of handbags and accessories (and consistently delicious graphic design).
At left, from Printed Matter, Jack Pierson‘s “Slow,” 2009, and at right, season’s greetings from The Architect’s Newspaper.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
 | Let me guess…. one of your resolutions is to spend less in 2010. Allow us to help! (Or not….) Today’s the last day to take an extra 20% off sale items at Sephora! This lust dusters trio from Benefit is just $8 after the discount! Just enter code EXTRA at checkout. Get a free bottle of makeup remover (a $21 value) when you spend $35 at Benefit Cosmetics! (Can you tell we like Benefit over here?) Enter code QUICKNYE at checkout. Valid today only! Save an extra 20% on sale items at Manhattanite Take an extra 20% sale items at Banana Republic, for 3 days only! Enter code BREXTRA20 at checkout (online only). Take an extra 50% off select separates at The Outnet! Select Calvin Klein underwear is 25% off at Bloomingdale’s now through January 3rd! Plus, today’s the last day to shop the after Christmas sales! Take 25% off Body by Victoria bras at Victoria’s Secret, and get free shipping on orders over $50 with code 50FREE. |
When designers and artists team up to multiply their talents, the end result is sometimes greater than the sum of its creative parts. To celebrate the collaborations done right, we’ve listed five standouts from 2009 below.
Ace Hotel New York Uniforms
Drawing on a few different tried-and-true brands, the uniforms for the latest Ace Hotel include exclusively-designed drab green monochrome Chucks by Converse along with custom-fitted shirts and utilitarian shirt-dress housekeeping uniforms by Newark-based L. Gambert, each handcrafted from patterning to production and overseen by second- and third-generation family artisans.
FTC 3L Slick x Burton
Commemorating a 25-year-long relationship, the FTC 3L Slick is the upshot of a recent collaboration between San Francisco-based skate label FTC and snowboarding expert Burton. The smoke-patterned zipper detailing and interior lining lay the frame for waterproof zippers and a breathable Dryride Durashell three-layer coated fabric exterior, while the insulated yet lightweight constructions keeps the jacket suitable for a multitude of activities.
Brooks x Dan Funderburgh: Team Pro Alpe d’Huez Saddle
Brooklyn-based artist, wallpaper designer and bike enthusiast Dan Funderburgh applied his talents to the Team Pro Alpe d’Huez, a seasonal edition bike seat from Brooks England. The handsome result of the collaboration between the venerable saddle maker and Funderburgh, it features his hand-hammered, topographic impression of the Alpe d’Huez—a legendary climb in the Tour de France that includes 21 hairpin turns and an average gradient of 8.1 percent over 13.1 kilometers.
The Laundress x Le Labo Detergent
Combining the captivating aroma of Le Labo‘s Rose 31 perfume with The Laundress‘ outstanding eco-friendly detergent, this joint creation elevates “the clothing care experience to a heightened sophistication.” The Laundress’ biodegradable, non-toxic detergent makes an ideal base for Le Labo’s award-winning fragrance Rose 31. All-purpose, the formula suits both hand and machine washing, while the scent works for both men and women with its Centifolia rose aroma (i.e. not your Grandma’s rose) with hints of spice and cedar.
Karl Lagerfeld x Dom Perignon Bol Seine
As the guest of Dom Perignon at a Versailles dinner, Ami had the chance to learn about the ways the centuries-old brand ties in with French royal history—a heritage the chapagne house playfully embraced with the recreation of a goblet in the shape of a breast. Riffing on the original used by Marie Antionette (and said to be the forerunner to the modern chamagne coupe), Karl Lagerfeld interpreted it with Claudia Schiffer’s breast and clean, minimal lines.
To conclude our review of the last year, here are the five most read stories from Dezeen in December 2009, starting with our roundup of the top ten Dubai projects. (more…)
“Isn’t it trivializing and demeaning to make someone look wise, noble (which is easy to do), or even conventionally beautiful when the thing itself is so much more complicated, contradictory, and therefore, fascinating?”
–Richard Avedon
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
 | It might just be my inner Vegas showgirl talking, but when I think New Year’s beauty, I imagine sparkles, sequins, glitter, metallics — the works. But the truth is, when you’re already planning on blinging yourself out head-to-toe with sequin pumps, a brocade dress, and a sparkly headband (not to mention some statement jewelry), piling on full-blown stage-worthy makeup can end up taking your look from dazzling to just plain drag queen. My advice? You can still have countdown-festive makeup that twinkles without taking it overboard. Bright blue nail polish, foiled eyeshadow, and shimmery versions of your favorite blush are great ways to add impact and shine to your NYE look without overpowering your outfit. For more fun ways to beautify yourself on the last night of 2009, check the slideshow! |
Sent to CR recently: Faber’s 2010 catalogue and the illustrated short story collection, We Are The Friction, both proudly wearing their stats on their sleeves…
In CR’s January issue, Michael Johnson wrote about designer Nicholas Feltron’s latest Annual Report, which divulged every mile he had travelled in the course of 2008, how many emails he’d sent and received, what he’d eaten, even each and every type of music he’d listened to.
In an equally self-centred feat of statistics compilation, Christopher Doyle’s Identity Guidelines also showed that anything and everything about one’s life – particularly that of an information designer – could be run through the old graphs and pie-charts mill.
So the technique was already familiar when we saw the new Faber & Faber catalogue (which includes details from how many crates were used to move the company to its new London office, to the amount of tea and coffee consumed once at said new office) and the cover of an interesting new publication which pairs up a series of fiction writers (and a few songwriters) with some great illustrators.
And, intriguingly, We Are The Friction promises “two horse deaths”; a whopping “six instances of the ocean”; and even “one sentient muffin”.
Rather than coming across as self-absorbed, the technique as used on WATF’s cover impies that, within the 136 pages, there really is something for everyone.
WATF is the second book edited, designed and published by Sing Statistics and is available at singstatistics.co.uk for £12.
All spreads from We Are The Friction
I dislike scraping snow off of windshields, because I can never reach that spot in the middle without leaning against the snow-covered car and eventually winding up with melting snowflakes on my lap in the driver’s seat. So here’s a why-didn’t-I-think-of-that life hack from One Man’s Blog: Before a snow storm, throw a tarp–or heck, an artfully-slit garbage bag–across your windshield. Before putting it on, deploy the wipers and turn them off mid-way, so you can use the arms to secure the cover. In the photo above, it looks like he’s also drawn the edges of the tarp inside the car and shut the door on them to hold it in place. Clever!
Before this writer bids you adieu and will see you in another decade, we thought we’d do another year end list (but always just the best of the best, we continue to promise you). First up comes former Sun Times critic, brilliant photographer, and general well-connected, man-about-town, Lee Bey, and his overview of Chicago architecture from 2000-2009, as he guest blogs for NPR affiliate WBEZ. If you live here, it’s incredible to look back and see how much happened in just these few short years (Millennium Park, IIT’s upgrades, the Trump Building) but also how much came down or never happened at all (among the most high-profile: The Robert Taylor Homes and the Chicago Spire, respectively). Even if you don’t live here, it’s probably a familiar template most anyone can see repeated nearly everywhere. Second, the LA Times‘ Christopher Hawthorne has filed his picks for the paper’s Faces to Watch in 2010 feature, and there are some surprises therein. Notably, his selection of Ray LaHood (preparing to spend billions of government funds on national projects like high-speed rail) and his pick of Mexico City-based Michel Rojkind and UK-based Thomas Heatherwick as the next possible big names in architecture. So while you read up on both the past and future, we wish you all a very happy New Year’s and here’s to hoping 2010 has lots more we can share with you. Thanks for all your support.
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