Hasta La Ideas

We love a sale, and with the exception of a Chado Ralph Rucci sample sale (which exist only in our wildest dreams) and the annual Moss blow-out, our favorites take place at the handful of Philippe Starck-designed Taschen bookstores scattered around the globe. And Taschen warehouse sale time is again upon us, having started yesterday at most of the European outposts. The stateside sales (at the Taschen emporiums in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and New York) begin today—which our trusty Pentagram calendar tells us is Friday—and run through Sunday, offering beautiful books of “art, anthropology, and aphrodesia” at 50% to 75% off their retail prices. Come early and wear your game face, because we may look sweet, but we will totally jump you for the last discounted display copy of Package Design Now!. Can’t get to a Taschen store? Check out the just-posted sale offerings online.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

  VintageJapanese cakemolds found via Handmade Charlotte and you can buy them here in this shop…

Illustrating the outstanding moments of when design connected with her everyday life, Debbie Millman‘s quirky book “Look Both Ways” offers readers a lighthearted look at the design aficionado’s past. An industry veteran, Millman’s extensive career spans hosting the weekly radio show “Design Matters” to presiding over the AIGA and the Masters Program in Branding Arts at the School of Visual Arts.

Organized as a series of short stories, the book of “typographic poetry” easily entertains. Providing humorous observations on her journey through life, Millman includes curious comments on everything from the overall romanticism of brands to the Big Bang Theory or the day Martha Stewart gave her audience a roll of toilet paper as a gift.

Her energetic biography poses intriguing questions among astute observations on design, branding and the relationships we all have with them. Her brilliant essays fundamentally compel and engage in a refreshing manner.

“Look Both Ways” is available from Amazon For $25.

More images after the jump.

Pairing quintessential images next to some more startling ones of life in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, London’s Whitechapel Gallery unveils a host of photographs from these three simultaneously similar yet utterly different nations in their current exhibition “Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.”

Featuring 300 works from over 70 photographers, the thematically arranged exhibition offers a glimpse of the people and customs comprising these historically spiritual but oft-times turbulent countries. The works fall collectively under five categories: The Family, The Portrait, The Body Politic, The Performance and The Street.

Some of the unsettling photos from the exhibit revolve around the time period of when Bangladesh fought for its independence from Pakistan. Using extremely violent methods, Pakistani president Yahya Khan had many civilians killed, expressly shown in one picture of what appears to be a marble sculpture among rocks but is actually a “dismembered head of an intellectual killed 14 December 1971 by local collaborators of Pakistani army.” (below, left)

From the past to the present, photographers such as Nandini Muthiah, Rashid Talukder, Munem Wasif, Mohammad Arif Ali, Rashid Rana, Dayanita Singh and more beautifully capture the essence of each nation.

More images after the jump.

Where Three Dreams Cross

21 January – 11 April 2010

Whitechapel Gallery

77-82 Whitechapel High Street

London E1 7QX map

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