Hasta La Ideas

The American cowboy has a lot of gear to wrangle, from horse harnesses and saddles to pistol holsters and belts. All of that stuff needs to be tough, which is why leather is the material of choice. And stitching up the thicknesses required calls for a particularly bad-ass machine, one that uses mechanical principles different from the standard needle-pierce sewing machine.

Thus we have the Campbell Lockstitch Sewing Machine, a “needle & awl” machine designed in the 1880s and still in use today (albeit with an electric motor added) to process heavy leather:

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Fendi handbags customized by artists Richard Prince (top) and KAWS (bottom) for Christie’s Green Auction: Bid to Save the Earth.

Earth Day is still a few weeks away, but Christie’s got the planet-saving off to an early start on Tuesday. The auction house partnered with Runway to Green to hold A Bid to Save the Earth, an auction and fashion show extravaganza that raised $1.4 million to benefit Conservation International, Oceana, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Central Park Conservancy. Although it’s too late to enter the paddle battle for lots such as the opportunity to spend a day with President Bill Clinton (one of the sale’s top lots, that went for $100,000), the companion online auction is open through Thursday, April 7. We’ve got our eye on the Fendi baguettes customized by artists including KAWS, Damien Hirst (who created one spin-art version and another covered in rows of candy-colored LSD dots), Andisheh Avini, and Enoc Perez. Richard Prince picked up a marker and jotted a corny joke on his canvas and leather version, while Tom Sachs went for pyro-chic and torched his baguette into oblivion. If it’s fashionable experiences you’re in the market for, bid on runway show tickets and shopping sprees from the likes of Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, and Vera Wang or splurge on meet and greets with Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, and John McEnroe, whose one-hour tennis lesson has already reached $26,000.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

“Last Monday, our Brazilian friend Claudia offered to drive us to the airport…until she realized that Monday was her “car-free day.” Cars in São Paulo have to stay off the road one day a week, a regulation that was introduced to reduce the city’s heavy traffic. Even the city’s own mayor uses a helicopter in order to be on time for his meetings. Of course it’s a pity that we lost our ride to the airport but somehow we appreciated the sustainable sound of this solution to reduce heavy traffic in a city where traffic is a monster. That is, until our friend explained that this “sustainable idea” resulted in most people buying two cars allowing them to (again) drive all week long. It’s not easy being green.”
–Observations on São Paulo, on our way to Argentina

Two designers, six months and a dozen countries.

São Paulo’s traffic rule is just one the everyday discoveries for the It’s Not Easy Being Green project, an initiative by two designers exploring sustainability in materials and design around the world.

A year ago, Aart van Bezooyen and Paula Raché decided to embark on a unique project focusing on sustainability in materials and design. Instead of the usual desk research we started planning a creative journey around the world. After a lot of thinking and pinpointing countries to visit, it was time to get an around-the-world ticket and to start writing friends and colleagues for local contacts and country information.

Today, It’s Not Easy Being Green is an official event for the Hamburg European Green Capital 2011 program that started March 1st 2011. Over the course of 184 days, Aart and Paula are offering inspiring lectures and materials workshops to explore the practice of sustainability by meeting, discussing and working with local creative youth and professionals. “In previous workshops we experienced that many designers find it hard to put sustainability into practice,” explains Paula. Aart adds: “We planned this six month ‘out of office’ [tour] to document existing examples and hear people’s experiences from a firsthand account.”

Instead of offering quick answers, this project is more about raising questions and creating awareness with the help of great people, places and things along the way. During the journey we’ll conduct explorative research focused on sustainability. For instance, at the Delft University of Technology we focused on local (natural) materials. At University of the Arts Bremen we focused on bioplastics. We will also explore the status quo of sustainable packaging design and design management education overseas.

First Impressions From Curitiba, Brazil. March 5-17, 2011

On March 4th, we traveled from Rio de Janeiro to Curitiba by bus. What should have been a 12-hour bus trip turned into an 18-hour experience due to heavy traffic surrounding the Carnaval holidays. During Carnaval, thousands of people travel in two directions: while one half travels to Rio de Janeiro to party at the biggest street festival in the world, the other half escapes to the coast to relax—it seems we were caught somewhere in the middle.

Curitiba’s Skyscrapers vs. Parks

Curitiba is the 8th largest city in Brazil and often recognized as the most sustainable city in Brazil. Before our journey we read articles about the city’s recycling programs and world-famous bus system that allows almost everyone to get anywhere with public transport. The city also has many parks and forests to enjoy on foot or bicycle. In other words, the city serves as an example of green urban planning.

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Here are some pictures of 6a Architects‘ exhibition design for Wim Crouwel – A Graphic Odyssey, on show at the Design Museum in London.

Original sketches, posters, catalogues and archive photography plus film and video are displayed along a 20 meter-long white table.

The show presents work spanning 60 years of the Dutch graphic designer’s career including the identity he created for the Stedelijk Museum from 1967 onwards, the New Alphabet typeface from 1967 and Dutch postal stamps that were in circulation 1976–2002.

The exhibition continues until 3 July.

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Here are some more details from the architects:

Wim Crouwel A graphic odyssey Design Museum

The Design Museum celebrates the prolific career of the Dutch graphic designer Wim Crouwel in this his first UK retrospective. Regarded as one of the leading designers of the twentieth century, Crouwel embraced a new modernity to produce typographic designs that captured the essence of the emerging computer and space age of the early 1960s. This exhibition, spanning over 60 years, will cover Crouwelʼs rigorous design approach and key moments in his career including his work for design practice ʻTotal Designʼ, the identity for the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, as well as his iconic poster, print, typography and lesser known exhibition design. The exhibition will also highlight Crouwelʼs rigorous design approach exploring his innovative use of grid-based layouts and typographic systems to produce consistently striking asymmetric visuals.

Original sketches, posters, catalogues and archive photography will be on display alongside films and audio commentary. In addition to celebrating Crouwelʼs career this exhibition will also explore his legacy and influence on contemporary graphic design with commentary from leading industry figures including Peter Saville and Stefan Sagmeister.

Designed by 6a Architects, in collaboration with graphic designers Spin, the exhibition creates a subtle backdrop to Crouwelʼs vivid works. The gallery was stripped back and opened up, allowing a twenty-metre long white table into the space. Exhibits are arranged across its surface, a figurative white page to the exhibitsʼ colourful intensity. Visitors move around, through and in-between its openings, reminiscent of Crouwelʼs fondness for three dimensional space in a two dimensional design. Crouwelʼs own commentaries explain the works, punctuated with striking portraits of the designer across the decades. The simple, paired down design reveals Crouwelʼs surprising tactility, a digital designer working in the analogue age.

Exhibition Design by 6a Architects. Exhibition graphics by Spin.

See also:

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South London Gallery extension by 6A Architects	Raven Row by 6a Architects	More Exhibitions

From toothpaste to x-rays, typography’s new creative shapes

As common as alphabet soup or as involved as Craig Ward‘s plant-cell letterforms, “The 3D Type Book” proves how exciting syllabary can be when it comes off the page. The book features over 160 designers and 300 projects, all compiled by London multidisciplinary studio FL@33.

Apart from a brief foreword by Andrew Byrom, the reference book relies on strong imagery (over 1,300 photos in total) to show the wildly creative variety of works inspired by the shape of letters. Byrom—whose “Interiors” furniture font is also featured— says of the impressive breadth of ingenious ideas, this is not simply “Helvetica rendered in pebbles, neckties, venetian blinds, socks or cheese.” Stunningly inventive works like “Typeface in Skin” by Dutch designer Thijs Verbeek are a good example of Byrom’s positioning of the phenomenon as really “a reaction to the limitations and constraints of unexpected materials and processes that help shape—or often force—the outcome.”

Other standouts include the transgenic (DNA-mixing) “Typosperma” project (above) from self-proclaimed “typoholic” Oded Ezer; Sean Martindale’s eco-focused “Nature” concept; and the colorful “Medicine Capsule Alphabet” by Simone Stecher.

Many lettering projects are self-initiated, but the publishing industry often taps designers to add visual appeal to otherwise dry text. For their 2009 design issue, Independent Magazine enlisted Australian design group Rinzen, who integrated script into a chair for their cover. HunterGatherer‘s work has graced the front of both New York and The New York Times magazines with sculptural works deceptively constructed from wood.

“The 3D Type Book” sells online from Laurence King and Amazon.