Hasta La Ideas The Adventures of Star Wars Figurines in Nature Archives

May 02

Opportunity: International Wool Awareness Campaign Lacks Industrial Design Partner

Posted in: Uncategorized

Wool is a wonder material with a broad range of characteristics: It’s hypoallergenic, it doesn’t retain odor, it can insulate from either cold or heat, it’s fire-resistant, it can absorb or repel water depending on how it’s treated, it can be dyed many colors, and it can even be used for sound insulation, shock absorption and dampening, which is why you’ll find it on everything from piano hammers to industrial machine mounts. It grows on an animal with an even temperament that survives on common grass, and it’s sustainable; shave a sheep in summer and it can have its full coat back in autumn.

Despite all that—and more, according to Rob Achten of Icebreaker—the wool industry faces stiff competition from the synthetic fiber industry, which is why a five-year global initiative called the Campaign for Wool was launched in the UK, with the backing of Prince Charles himself. Now in its third year, the campaign creates global exhibits on the importance of wool; Australia’s “Wool Modern” exhibition will move to the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney this Thursday, and will remain there until June. Future events will be held in France, Italy, China, New Zealand, the U.S., and other countries yet to be announced.

What caught our eye is that while wool’s properties make it ideal for much more than clothing, the campaign’s exhibits thus far seem to focus primarily on fashion, with the occasional rug thrown in. “Wool Modern,” for example, displays the work of dozens of high-end fashion designers ranging from Alexander McQueen to Vivienne Westwood. But there’s not a single high-profile ID firm on the exhibitor list. Even a casual browsing of Etsy will show amateur craftspeople producing wool goods ranging from wallets to iPad sleeves to raw sheets being sold and in past years on Core77 we’ve seen felt integrated into laptop surfaces, furniture, messenger bags and sexy items like Graf & Lantz’s Quiver wine carrier.

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May 02

The Dark Knight Rises Final Trailer

Posted in: dark knight, gary oldman, morgan freeman, rises

Après les images et le trailer #1, voici la mise en ligne du final trailer du film de Christopher Nolan : “The Dark Knight Rises” mettant en scène Christian Bale, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman et Morgan Freeman. Prévu dans les salles pour le 20 juillet.

Previously on Fubiz

May 02

Busyman Bicycles

Posted in: handbuilt

Hand crafted leather saddles from a fashion design professor turned bespoke upholsterer

Known to the cycling community as one of the premier bespoke bicycle upholsterers around, Australia’s Busyman Bicycles shines through custom craftsmanship in an industry salivating for specialized components. As the brains and braun behind the one man operation, Mick Peel turns regular old saddles into custom masterpieces by hand upholstering with traditional tools and a level of knowhow only earned through years of tinkering. His precise, and often intricate designs extend from classic perforations to perfectly mainicured letters and logos.

With a BA and MA in fashion desgin, nearly twenty years of lecturing on the subject and a sizable stint as head of the fashion design program at Melbourne’s RMIT University, Peel’s experience with elaborate pattern making and knowledge of functional design made for the perfect pathway into the world of custom saddle making. And as if his educational experience weren’t enough, Peel also did a fair amount of graphic design for Adidas Australia in the 1990s and has dabbled in furniture design here and there as well.

Regardless of the discipline at hand, Peel feels his knack for design comes from simply doing. “I do design by making. My knowledge of materials and techniques and the memory accumulated in my hands through crafting have become very much my tools and method of designing. In my practice designing and making are not separate things.”

As one would imagine working with a wide range of saddle designs means finding just the right materials to get the job done. As Peel points out, each leather has it’s own different characteristics and properties. Sheep is extremely soft and easily stretched but can be quite fragile, whereas cow leather is generally more balanced in terms of mold-ability, strength and durability. “My favourite material is definitely vegetable tanned, full grain kangaroo skin. It moulds more easily than cow skin and performs much better in both tensile strength and abrasion resistance. I will always choose kangaroo if it meets the specifications of the job at hand.”

While the expertly crafted saddles are Peel’s specialty, he also dabbles in crafting custom handlebar tape and other specialized bicycle components. For a closer look at Peel’s handy work see the slideshow below and keep an eye on the often updated Busyman Bicycles blog.

May 02

Dezeen Music Project: Sleeping Problems by Shitwave

Posted in: Dezeen Music Project, Do not show on the Homepage

Having too many analogue synths to play with isn’t conducive to a good night’s sleep – that’s what Shitwave discovered when making this track, aptly titled Sleeping Problems, which manages to be catchy as well as rhythmically experimental.

There’s also a music video for the track that you can watch here.

About Dezeen Music Project | More tracks | Submit your track

May 02

Designing the Festival of Britain, 1951

Posted in: Uncategorized

Page from ‘A Specimen of Display Letters designed for the Festival of Britain 1951’, designed for the Typographical Panel of the Festival of Britain 1951 for distribution to architects and designers, particularly for the titling of buildings and laid out in Egyptian type cut by Figgins, Thorne and Austin, 1815-25. (© Design Archives, Brighton)

In her new book The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People, Harriet Atkinson examines the role that this series of country-wide events in 1951 had on shaping the post-war landscape, and how much of it was achieved by architects and designers…

Festival Guide-Catalogue covers designed by Abram Games and published by HMSO

The new book includes images sourced from the Design Archives in Brighton and the publishers, IB Tauris, recently posted a selection of printed maps, guides, signage and photographs which were used during the Festival. With its centrepiece at the South Bank in London, the fact the the Festival was a national experience, with events and exhibitions up and down the country, is often overlooked.

A ‘constellation of events’ across the nation. Map drawn by Eric Fraser showing nationwide Festival events, including exhibitions and arts festivals

Atkinson’s book addresses this issue, examining the different sites for the Festival, from the exhibition of architecture at Poplar, east London, to the exhibition of industrial power in Glasgow, via the various land and sea-travelling shows which appeared in cities and towns such as Bath, Norwich, Llanwrst, Dumfries and Inverness.

Plan of Exhibition of Industrial Power, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

“The festival was a showcase of Britain’s finest architecture, technology, design, fashion, science, arts, manufacturing and creative industries to convince the war-ravaged nation that the future was not so bleak and that they were entering the age of modernity,” say the publishers. “Indeed, the festival was the last great British propaganda exhibition; by the end of the 1950s the majority of people would have access to a television and this, alongside radio, would become the ubiquitous medium for mass communication in Britain.”

Page from ‘Festival of Britain: The Use of Standardized Lettering in Street and Transport Signs; laid out in Gill Bold Condensed. (© Design Archives, Brighton)

More details on The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People (£17.99) are at ibtauris.com. The blog post for the book is at theibtaurisblog.com (all caption information is taken from the post).

Page from ‘A Specimen of Display Letters designed for the Festival of Briain 1951’. (© Design Archives, Brighton)

Magnified version of Michael Ayrton’s painting, ‘The Four Elements’, fitted into the bow of a ship, Shipbuilding section, the Glasgow Exhibition of Heavy Industry. Enlarged 600 times, Festival literature claimed it was the ‘world’s largest photograph’. (© Design Archives, Brighton)

May 02

Imperialist Tendencies, Part 4: The Real Design Imperialism

Posted in: Strategy & Research

I’ll begin my fourth and final installment of my long essay addressing the debate on “design imperialism” by admitting that it doesn’t take much effort to find something about globalization to be incensed about. Starbucks is pricing your favorite coffee shop out of the neighborhood; riots in Indonesia were triggered by the Asian financial crisis. Apple imposes its corporate values to the worldwide availability of adult content on their application platform**; Coke and Pepsi logos have been painted onto remote pristine mountain ranges.

Or perhaps you prefer to take the profit-at-any-cost argument to the next level. You can cite Nestle’s aggressive sale of milk-powder in markets where doing so is likely to inhibit the lactation of mothers; Facebook and Google endlessly exploring and re-defining privacy in their race to monetize you through new services; Monsanto’s development and apparent halting of sterile seeds to force farmers to make repeat purchases every year; the very visible suicide rate of Foxconn factory workers in China (most likely some of you will be reading this on a Foxconn assembled device); companies that are benefitting from the sale of monitoring equipment in countries like Syria or Egypt; and accusations of racism in the advertising of Unilever’s Fair & Lovely Skin Whitening creams. (For a good background on the latter read this paper.) Make no mistake—governments***, BigCorps, organisations, agencies need watching, need to be held to account, and in many markets there are players that hold a disproportionate amount of power.

But as consumers, employers and employees, I, you, we, they are complicit in this relationship in the products we make and consume, as well as in the lifestyles we aspire to and the moment-to-moment decisions we make in how the products we buy are used. Sure, we demand privacy, but we are willing to let personal ethics slide when a photo worthy situation presents itself. We have grown used to free e-mail, but (momentarily) rally against our e-mail being read by an algorithm so that Google can serve us more contextualized advertising. We roll up to a remote mountain village and mutter expletives at being woken by a ringtone—but get the jitters at the mere thought of giving up our own connectivity. We complain of global warming and then jet-off to another conference that espouses amongst other things sustainable living. We are highly vocal about the price of new electronics but vote with our wallets when it comes to disposing of them in an slightly-more-costly but environmentally less impactful manner. Or we fly half-way around the world to conduct business but not track every source of income that enables that business to occur, the many different players in global network that allows us to get there, stay there, communicate with collaborators and loved ones while we are there.

* * *

I conduct a fair amount of community facing activities—from spending time in universities to doing talks around the world, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share and learn from the intellect in the room. But on occasion the assumptions behind the questions miss the mark to the point where a step back is necessary. There are a number of misconceptions about consumers in highly income/resource constrained (or “poor”) communities that seem to repeat themselves with a depressing regularity and is often directed from passionate minds with a particular, accusatory venom:

Consumers on low levels of income are incapable of making rational or “right” choices for themselves

These same consumers are duty bound only to make rational choices (“rational” as in on things that have an immediate benefit to their current socio-economic situation, as defined by the person making the argument)

Any time a consumer makes an “irrational” choice the “fault” lies with the company providing the products

Companies that target consumers in countries with very low levels of income are inherently evil

Let’s go through each in turn:

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May 02

Unitasker Wednesday: Cupcake Corer

Posted in: Uncategorized

All Unitasker Wednesday posts are jokes — we don’t want you to buy these items, we want you to laugh at their ridiculousness. Enjoy!

This week’s selection sincerely leaves me asking a lot of questions. What horrible event could have possibly happened to someone to make him want to punish cupcakes and those who love to eat them? Why would anyone want there to be LESS cupcake? A cupcake is not an oil field — why would anyone drill into a cupcake? What lurks in the hearts of those who want to ruin (RUIN!!) cupcakes with the Cuisipro Cupcake Corer:

Okay, maybe (but it’s a very unlikely maybe) I’m a bit biased against the Cupcake Corer because I don’t like frosting. (Except for cream cheese frosting, which I’ll tolerate on a red velvet cupcake.) But even people who like all types of frosting still like the cake element of the cupcake. No one would order a cupcake in a bakery and ask the clerk to, “hold the cupcake.” It’s not as if frosting lovers are looking for ways for there to be more frosting in a cupcake, because all they have to do is pile even more on top.

On the plus side, this thing is relatively inexpensive, cleans easily in the dishwasher, and doesn’t take up space. However, a multipurpose melon baller (which I use to core apples, make cheese ball appetizers, scoop seeds out of bell peppers and jalapenos, and more) could ruin a cupcake in the same way — and you probably already own one of those.

I simply don’t get it. Cupcakes should not be mutilated! Give us the entire cupcake!

Thanks to readers Michele and Stella who sent us this cupcake violater.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

May 02

The Gentry Man

Posted in: gentry, lifestyle, men

The civilized guide to mid-century manliness

Compiled from the 22 issues and six years that constituted the life of “Gentry” magazine, “The Gentry Man” aims to highlight the best of the culturally impactful magazine’s lifespan. The collection is billed as “A Guide for the Civilized Male”, much of its content applicable to men then and now. Moreover, the book is a snapshot of mid-century manliness, showing the perceived ideals of a generation of post-war men searching for guidance in peacetime. Uniting the content is Gentry’s phenomenally creative layout, which changes vastly with from page to page.

The basis for Gentry’s invented persona can be attributed to William Segal, the self-made millionaire who started the publication in 1951. Building off of his success in industry publications “American Fabrics” and “Men’s Reporter”, Segal began Gentry for a very specific kind of man.

Editor Hal Rubenstein describes “The Gentry Man” in the book’s intro: “On the weekends, playing host at his spruced-up to the manor born country house, he’d sport tea dust-colored (that’s green, by the way) Japanese linen Bermuda shorts, mix a shakerful of cocktails with his secret ingredient (applejack), whip up a beef goulash, and regale guests about driving the family up for a stay at the stately and still-popular Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, New York, in his sleek new 1953 Ford Sunliner convertible. He openly lusted for a painting by Paul Klee, had unapologetic fantasies about bull-fighting, confessed to yearning to learn more about Eastern philosophy—especially after reading an excerpt of Hesse’s Siddhartha.”

The fashion advocated in the publication has everything to do with “intelligently executed affluence.” Bold sartorial choices are categorized under “new approaches”, which introduce changing tastes and looks for social circumstances from resort beaches to formal engagements. Advice focuses on cut and appearance as much as it does on patterns and textiles, which were enjoying a rare revolution at the time. Among the stranger spreads is one dedicated entirely to straw hats, which were popularized by beach-bound gents of the era.

Tidbits from the book range from instructions on cooking particular cuts of meat, a guide to spirits of the world and how to achieve checkmate in seven moves. Mixologists can appreciate some of the vintage drinks, from the aggressive “The Exterminator” to the daintier “Buckingham” and “Champagne Fraisette Savoy Plaza” cocktails. An “Alphabet of Uncommon Sense” doles out advice compiled from aphorisms by Oscar Wilde while a simple list of “Do’s and Dont’s” keeps you from committing social faux pas.

Seen as a historical document, the magazine lends insight into the aspirations of the age. One article asks six designers to envision their car of the future. Many of the proposals have been realized today—including combination and key-less locks, rubberized interiors for washing and adjustable seats—while others have not: the ambitious designer Howard Ketcham adamantly called for a nuclear sports car.

While aspects of “The Gentry Man” will come off as stodgy to a contemporary audience, the magazine was meant to be a “thoroughly subversive manifesto.” Men of adventure and self-improvement were the intended audience, and Gentry counted presidents and diplomats among its dedicated readers.

The Gentry Man is available from Harper Design through Amazon. Find more images of the book in our slideshow .

May 02

Casa Finisterra Mexico

Posted in: archi, Casa, casa finisterra, Finisterra

Situé au Mexique dans la péninsule de Basse-Californie, Casa Finisterra est le nom de cette villa absolument magnifique. Pensée par Steven Harris Architects, ce lieu et cette résidence de luxe actuellement à louer se dévoile dans une série de photographies.