Hasta La Ideas

There’s an interesting collateral detail in Richard Sandomir’s NYT account of The Players’ Tribune’s impressive rookie year. When site editor-at-large David Ortiz’s  March 26 bylined essay “The Dirt” was added to the Derek Jeter digital portal, it hit the Red Sox paper of record in the gut:

Within a half-hour of Ortiz’s post being published, the Boston Globe rushed onto its website a similar article, the product of an interview Ortiz gave March 11 to one of its reporters, Bob Hohler. That piece had been held since last week so it could be the centerpiece of the Globe’s Major League Baseball preview April 5.

“When he [Hohler] filed it, we were wary,” said Joseph Sullivan, the Globe’s sports editor. “I worried about ESPN or Yahoo or the Boston Herald somehow doing a similar story. But I didn’t think about The Players’ Tribune.”

Sullivan added: “Thursday night was not a good night for me.”

The Ortiz item, which despite the byline was molded from a recorded interview, was the organic and largely unexpected byproduct of a site producer connecting recently with Big Papi at Red Sox training camp. According to site editorial director Gary Hoenig, Jeter, per usual, reviewed the Ortiz item before publication and asked questions.

In the Tribune piece, there’s also this passage, which in the wake of the Globe rug-pull may serve a few to fuel a few theories:

In 2013, I came off the DL and started hot. My first 20 games I was hitting like .400. And the reporter with the red jheri curl from the Boston Globe comes into the locker room says, “You’re from the Dominican. You’re older. You fit the profile of a steroid user. Don’t you think you’re a prime suspect?”

He’s saying this with a straight face. I had taken like 70 at-bats. Anybody can get hot and hit .400 with 70 at-bats. I was stunned. I’m like, I’m Dominican? I fit the profile? Are you kidding me?

I wanted to kill this guy. But you can’t react. That’s what they want. They want you to get angry so they can bury you. So I just smiled at him and asked for his address.

“Why do you want my address?” he said.

“Because I just got tested two days ago.” I said. “I’ll mail you the f****ing results.”

This is a reporter from my own city coming to my locker and telling me I’m too good, that I must be on some shit.

Ortiz is referring here not to Hohler but rather Dan Shaughnessy, who – per the second image above – has responded today with an eviscerating “Open Letter.” Read the rest of Sandomir’s article here.

Mike Dargas est un peintre allemand né à Cologne en 1983. L’artiste réalise des oeuvres hyper réalistes totalement hallucinantes. Inspirés par Dali ou encore Caravaggio, ces travaux de peintures à l’huile sont proches de la perfection à tel point que nous pourrions facilement les confondre avec des photographies. Découvrez une sélection de ces portraits dans l’article.

This guest post is by Andrea Marvan

As the sun starts to set over San Diego’s Mission Bay area, the first day of Y20 AIGA Conference is coming to an end. Participants head over the reception for cocktails and I look at the breathtaking view trying to allow everything to sink in. While I’ve always appreciated good design and I have an arts and communication background, I’m not a graphic designer and at times I worried my knowledge of design wouldn’t be up-to-date for the conference. But the AIGA talented group of designers shares a universal value: the passion for what they do and a strong sense of community. You don’t have to be in the industry to understand that.

Under the theme of Velocity, professionals from the design industry met at the at The Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice on the beautiful campus of the University of San Diego, to discuss how to thrive in an accelerating landscape. The mix of presenters and their styles was for sure an eclectic one: from bold and colourful to elegant and sober.

I got there bright and early and at 8:00 am the vibe was already energizing and thrilling. Janine had donated copies of the magazine and I got excited when I overhead people saying “Oh look, there is UPPERCASE” as they opened their goodie bags.

The day began with highly dynamic Mexican designers Jorge Gutierrez and Sandra Equihua, creators of the movie Book of Life, who spoke about the importance of sticking to your guns and learning to say no—which I will elaborate more on a later post.

Following the explosive Gutierrez–Equihua team was Michael Bierut, partner in the New York office of the international design consultancy Pentagram. He began his talk by saying “Are you ready to see some black and white geometric shapes?” I thought he was being funny for following such a colourful act by the Mexican duo. He was being serious, yet his elegant, clean and crisp work was far from boring, it was exquisite. With a very clever sense of humour, a dynamic composition and an incredible creative branding strategy his team was able to say so much with so little: “A 49 square grid can do anything for us”. It certainly did.

Mid morning lead to Julia Zeltser’s talk. She is the founding partner and creative director at Hyperakt, and provided valuable insight on community engagement and working for the non-for profit sector. She closed by saying, “We need to stay flexible, current and relevant to participate in the future. I hope you stay flexible and nimble.”

After lunch I found the unexpected, as I was not expecting to cry at a design conference! Designer and documentary maker Justin Skeesuck brought tears to our eyes and got a standing ovation when he spoke on how, due to a progressive neurological disorder, he had to redesign his life and use his creativity to adapt to literarily everything: from day-to-day situations to crossing the Pyrenees in a wheelchair.

And last but not least, Sharon Werner, founder of Werner Design Werks and a previous UPPERCASE contributor closed the afternoon session with an inspiring talk on collaboration and on how a small team can achieve wonders when they follow three simple steps: “we listen, we talk, we design.”

Each and one of these professionals of the industry have a very unique perspective, style and approach to design. Their client portfolio covers a wide range, from fashion moguls to non-for-profit organizations, but they all do the same for their clients: they provide fun and creative solutions.

As the day ended with a competition (Pixels of Fury, where 3 contestants had to design a poster in 20 minutes in front of a live audience), I left inspired, motivated and ready to come tomorrow for more

A sloped section of roof joins this timber-clad extension by Melbourne studio Julie Firkin Architects to the adjacent weatherboard house (+ slideshow).

Fenwick Street House was designed by Julie Firkin Architects to extend the existing house for a family of five in Melbourne’s Clifton Hill neighbourhood. The new two-storey addition occupies an irregularly shaped plot to the rear of the property and contains a kitchen, dining area and master bedroom suite.

An arrangement of angular and overlapping volumes accommodate a series of interconnected rooms, which offer different-shaped spaces within a limited footprint.

“The clients wanted a warm, familial atmosphere, expressed through natural materials and a variety of spaces from generous to small and cosy,” Firkin told Dezeen.

The use of natural materials begins with the wooden cladding for exterior, where unpainted Australian silvertop ash applied in vertical strips distinguishes the new structure from the old building.

“The cladding is sympathetic with the original weatherboards but the shiplap profile has a more contemporary aesthetic,” Firkin pointed out.

The extension ascends diagonally from the rear of the original house at an angle that mirrors the pitch of its hipped roof. This is designed to accentuate the transition from the single-storey structure to the two-storey addition.

The sloping roofline follows the angle of the staircase below and creates a dining area that is entirely glazed on one side and features an angular clerestory window on the other.

On the upper storey, the area containing the master bedroom cantilevers towards the garden and provides shade to the ground floor living areas during the summer.

Coloured filters applied to the windows on this level feature abstract shapes designed by the artist Jethro Harcourt, who is also the client’s brother. The decorations prevent the bedroom from overlooking the gardens of neighbouring properties.

Wood is the predominant material used for the interior, including the treads of an open-riser staircase – flanked by a glass balustrade to minimise its visual presence in the dining area.

White surfaces and pale concrete complement the wood and form a subtle palette that is punctuated by coloured details, including the window treatments in the kitchen and bedroom.

A lounge area in the existing house has been renovated by adding a new window bench, which projects out towards the garden and is fronted by windows that swing open upwards.

Similar windows lining the kitchen can be raised to enhance the connection between this space and the garden, while a sliding glass door from the dining room opens onto a large wooden deck.

Photography is by Christine Francis.

The post Triangular void connects a two-storey timber
extension to a Melbourne bungalow appeared first on Dezeen.

Zim & Zou est un duo français basé en Lorraine et spécialisé dans le paper art. Voici une campagne de print initiée par l’agence Ogilvy pour le compte de la marque d’informatique IBM. Les oeuvres en papier ont été photographiées par Fabrice Fouillet.