A crossover between a drone and a donut (I wonder why the word why they missed on the opportunity of calling it a dronut), the Cleo is a drone that’s designed specifically for indoor use. Unlike most drones that require to be flown in an open, empty space, preferably away from obstacles, the Cleo has no such problem. The dronut (I’m just going ahead and using the term) boasts of an indoor-friendly design, featuring a thick, protective outer rim, and a single propeller unit with two propellers spinning in opposite directions. Cleo’s relatively monolithic design fits in a pocket without needing to be disassembled or folded, and there’s nothing externally fragile that you have to protect, like a propeller arm. The Cleo is easy and safe to grip, and can literally be grabbed in mid-air. Its small size also makes it an incredibly portable drone that quite literally fits in most jacket pockets.
Cleo comes with an in-built HD camera, and a battery life of 12-15 minutes, a pretty impressive feat for a drone its size. Made to be used indoors, Cleo definitely has consumer applications, but the designers and developers also see Cleo being used for security, surveillance, and 3D mapping indoors too. Future iterations of Cleo may even feature obstacle avoidance and indoor navigation systems, making it perfect for the security industry.
The first major exhibition of fashion by French designer Thierry Mugler, presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, examines his visions for “metamorphoses, superheroines and cyborgs”.
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime includes 150 dramatic ensembles created by the French fashion house. Photography by Nicolas Ruel
Made between 1977 and 2014, the pieces demonstrate the creative prowess of the house of Thierry Mugler, which is credited with revolutionising the fashion industry, and particularly haute couture, with its theatrical designs.
The exhibition marks the first comprehensive retrospective of his work, bringing together garments, accessories and costumes alongside photography, video and archival sketches.
The exhibition marks the first major retrospective of works by Mugler, ranging from 1977 to 2014. Photograph by Nicolas Ruel
“People have offered to exhibit my work a number of times, but the idea of simply looking back has never interested me,” Thierry Mugler, who now goes by Manfred, said in a statement. “There is no future without a past, so I hope that this exhibition will inspire in its visitors a new creative future.”
Mugler is known for his structural garments, and innovative use of unusual materials like glass, chrome car parts and LEDs lights.
His outfits often feature exaggerated and powerful – yet feminine – silhouettes, and are celebrated for their imagination and transformative qualities.
Many of the garments appear futuristic, and are made from unusual materials. Photograph by Nicolas Ruel
“Metamorphoses, superheroines and cyborgs inhabit the work of this designer who perceived early on, and with considerable humour, the coming transhumanist revolutions,” said MMFA director general and chief curator Nathalie Bondil.
“His sleek, elegant creatures, his dangerous seductresses, populate a world of glamour at the edges of reality.”
Mugler’s creations often featured daring silhouettes, like this outfit from his Les Insectes spring/summer 1997 collection. Photograph by Patrice Stable
The Parisian house of Thierry Mugler was set up by its namesake in 1973. Its rise coincided with the supermodel era, and figures like Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista were all photographed in Mugler designs.
However, parent company Clarins – which bought the brand in 1997 – closed it down in 2003 following significant losses.
Theatrical designs like La Chimère gown from the fall/winter 1997-1998 collection, shown here on Yasmin Le Bon, feature in the exhibition. Photograph by Alan Strutt
After a reboot, Italian-Japanese designer Nicola Formichetti served as the brand’s creative director from 2010 to 2013, before British designer David Koma took the helm.
In the run-up to the MMFA exhibition, vintage Mugler designs have reappeared on several celebrities, including Cardi B – who wore a piece from his 1995-96 couture collection to the 2019 Grammy Awards – and Kim Kardashian at various recent events.
Mugler’s clothes continually appear in pop culture, such as this outfit from fall/winter 1995-1996, worn by Lady Gaga in her Telephone music video
But his garments have continually cropped up in popular culture for many years: Demi Moore’s black dress in 1993 movie Indecent Proposal; costumes for Beyoncé’s 2009 I Am… World Tour; Lady Gaga’s black-and-white ensemble in the 2010 music video for Telephone.
Mugler also directed and designed the costumes for George Michael’s Too Funky music video in 1992, and worked on outfits for David Bowie.
Emma Sjöberg wore this look in George Michael’s Too Funky music video, which Mugler directed and designed the costumes for. Photograph by Patrice Stable
On the catwalk, his dramatic clothes appeared in stark contrast to those of his minimalist peers, like Calvin Klein and Helmut Lang.
“Thierry Mugler not only left his mark on his era, he revolutionised fashion with his creations in sculptural forms that are both futuristic and elegant,” exhibition curator Thierry-Maxime Loriot. “He staged the most spectacular fashion shows and breathed new life into haute couture, notably through the use of new materials such as metal, latex and faux fur.”
“His distinctive style transcended trends, and continues to influence a new generation of couturiers,” he added.
The MMFA exhibition is divided into six “acts”, each with a different theme or focus. Photograph by Nicolas Ruel
Mugler collaborated with the museum team on the showcase, which is divided into six “acts”.
One gallery will be dedicated to Mugler’s collaboration with photographer Helmut Newton, which resulted in imagery that amplifies the clothing’s otherworldly appearance. Photos by Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Goude, Guy Bourdin, David LaChapelle and many more will also be on show across the exhibition.
The exhibition’s the Metamorphosis gallery will incorporate visual imagery and special effects by Rodeo FX. Photograph by Nicolas Ruel
The Futuristic and Fembot Couture section will feature a layout created by German designer Philipp Fürhofer, while the Metamorphosis gallery will incorporate visual imagery and special effects by studio Rodeo FX.
Five crystal chandeliers by Dutch designer Tord Boontje will hang above the Belle de jour and Belle de nuit area.
Dutch designer Tord Boontje created the chandeliers that hang over the show’s Belle de jour and Belle de nuit section. Photograph by Nicolas Ruel
Thierry Mugler: Couturissime will run until 8 September 2019, before embarking on an international tour that will include tenures at the Kunsthal Rotterdam (12 October 2019 – 8 March 2020) and at the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung in Munich (3 April – 30 August 2020).
CityLab recently put out a call for people’s favorite public transportation seat covers, and the results couldn’t be more, um, colorful? We all know the feeling of turning the corner entering one of those large tour busses, speculating which pattern will damage your eyesight for the duration of your trip. Or the feeling of visiting a new city wondering if the public transit system will feature plastic or fabric seats. If glistening plastic seats pull up, you breathe a sigh of relief. If worn out fabric ones do, you sigh, knowing you’d rather stand than risk it. We all love to hate public transportation seating covers, and for good reason too.
Yeah, they’re all absolutely hideous, but at the same time, how can you really hate these musty, grimy, gum-stained beauties? Sure light-up disco floors and repurposed Blockbuster signs also bring about a strange sense of nostalgia, but where else can you experience this wave of emotion on a daily basis other than public transportation seating overs? Maybe they’re only beautiful in ironic terms, but that’s still beauty in our eyes.
See some of the submissions below and make sure to include your own in the original thread or our comments section. We’d love to hate what your city has to offer:
I’m looking for examples of any unique, characterful fabrics used on public transport for @CityLab. Any ideas? London is an obvious one. pic.twitter.com/iKJShGoKem
After a little over 70 years, Vitra is doing a special reissue of Ray and Charles Eames’ iconic radio design, but bringing it back with a slight modern twist. The Eames Radio, if you look at it, looks quite like the icon of a radio. It’s perhaps the most natural design ever, featuring a use of geometry, proportion, and just pure sense, to make something so clear and so beautiful, it looks stunning even after 70 years. Vitra’s reissue takes that design and puts a modern spin on it. The radio still comes with a molded plywood exterior, an antenna, and a matrix of circular holes that serve as the speaker grille. It still comes with two rotary knobs, but also packs four extra control buttons and an LCD display that’s equally vintage and modern. With the Eames signature on the bottom left, the Vitra Eames Radio pays tribute to an icon of product design, created by two of product design’s most revered names. In honor of how special the original design is, Vitra is limiting their production/reissue to just 999 pieces.
In the heart of the design-centric city of Copenhagen lies SPACE10, a research lab that occupies an old fish grocer with its 27-person team of designers and researchers. The company is best known for its work as an independent research and design lab supported by IKEA, where they are responsible for strategizing solutions for future societal changes (think rapid urbanization or the natural resource scarcity we’re facing in the near future).
Instead of making incremental changes to IKEA’s business (like the conglomerate’s proposed subscription service model), SPACE10 explores the world at at large, discovering insights along the way that can benefit IKEA’s bigger picture. In addition to extensive research, SPACE10 invites creatives and specialists from around the world to work with them, as well as hosts events to bring the design community together.
SPACE10 recently went through an interior refresh with the help of Copenhagen-based design and architecture studio, Spacon & X. The new set-up includes a fabrication laboratory and tech studio in the basement, a new test kitchen, an event space and gallery on the ground floor, and a new office design upstairs.
The new office layout and airy framed walls allow employees to switch from a more open meeting layout to a private office through the use of acoustic panels made from recycled plastic. Since research hasn’t really proved which office format is best, SPACE10 and Spacon & X merged the best of both worlds into one. The ground floor now acts as a more informal meeting place to socialize and interact with colleagues and even the general public.
‘If fewer panels are used, making a team more open to the rest of the office, the steel frame still suggests a barrier to guide spatial flow within the interior. And if a week of collaborative focus is needed, a team can attach more panelling to the framework. By providing privacy and sound absorption, the solution means that those inside don’t get distracted – or distract others outside.’ —Kevin Curran, Program Lead at SPACE10 and head of the redesign of SPACE10
SPACE10 was already open to the public, but they wanted to push things further, so they will be welcoming the public throughout the week, through events and public spaces within the workspace.
Test kitchen!
One of those spaces is a new experimental food space where visitors can taste the latest results from the lab’s test kitchen. The test kitchen is for culinary research only, so this is some real off the menu stuff right here.
SPACE10’s ground floor gallery, another public space, will be opening soon on March 8th. The gallery will feature SPACE10’s own work along with the work of other artists and designers focused on sustainable living.
Gallery space
And last but not least, see photos of the updated fabrication space below, it’s pretty sweet.
If you’re keen on checking out Space10 for yourself, check out their events calendar here.
The winners of the AHEAD Global awards discuss their projects in this movie filmed by Dezeen for the hotel awards programme at the London prize-giving ceremony.
Alila Yangshuo was named the Ultimate Winner of the AHEAD Global awards
Alila Yangshuo, a hotel built by Beijing studio Vector Architects in a disused sugar mill in China’s mountainous Yangshuo County, was named the Ultimate Winner at the awards ceremony.
The project was celebrated by the judges for its treatment of the heritage of the site.
“Alila Yangshuo shows that brands really can still do it, that heritage can be celebrated, and that designers can really pull off a great guest experience,” said Guy Dittrich, editor-at-large of Sleeper Magazine and host of the London ceremony.
Alila Yangshuo is a conversion of a disused sugar mill in China’s Yangshuo County into a resort hotel
The AHEAD Global awards represent the finale of a programme of eight regional events held over two years in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. The winners of those previous events were pitted against each other to determine the best recently opened hotels.
“What we’re looking for with the AHEAD Global awards are projects that create an atmosphere, an experience for the guests that will live in their memory,” said Dittrich in the video, which Dezeen filmed at the Ham Yard Hotel ceremony.
1898 The Post won the Urban Hotel – Conversion category at the AHEAD Global awards
The Urban Hotel – Conversion category was won by 1898 The Post, a conversion of a historic post office building in Ghent, Belgium.
Geraldine Dohogne, interior designer at Zannier Hotels Interiors, explains that the project was intended to recreate the atmosphere of the building as it would have been in its former days.
“It’s the revival of an old post office that has been empty for years,” she explained to Dezeen. “In transforming it into a hotel, we tried to give a whole sense of the building from the period in which it was constructed.”
1898 The Post is a conversion of a historic post office building in Ghent, Belgium
Luxury hospitality operator Belmond won two awards at the ceremony. The Belmond Simplon-Orient Express, a renovated train that travels between London and Venice, won the award for best suite.
While the Belmond Eagle Island Lodge, which features twelve tented guest rooms raised on stilts over the wetlands of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, won in the Lodges & Tented Camps category.
The Belmond Simplon-Orient Express was named best suite
“With the Belmond Simplon-Orient Express, we recently installed three suites for the first time on this historic train,” explained Celia Geyer, senior vice president of design at Belmond.
The three Grand Suites feature free-flowing champagne, in-cabin dining, marble en-suite bathrooms and bespoke interiors that pay homage to the art-deco history of the train. “They’re such detailed pieces of design,” said Geyer. “Every single square millimetre counts.”
The hotel is a renovated train that travels between London and Venice
According to Geyer, the Belmond Eagle Island Lodge was designed to have a minimal impact on its natural surroundings.
“It’s a very difficult place to build,” she said. “It was designed so that it could actually be removed and leave the landscape completely untouched.”
The Belmond Eagle Island Lodge was awarded in the Lodges & Tented Camps category
11 Howard, a renovation of a former Holiday Inn in Soho, New York, was one of the big successes of the night, taking home the awards for the Hotel Renovation & Restoration and Restaurant categories.
Signe Bindslev Henriksen and Peter Bundgaard Rützou, co-founders of Space Copenhagen and designers of the hotel’s interiors alongside Anda Andrei Design, told Dezeen that being awarded for their work on the project was validating.
“Feeling that there’s a certain response and resonance in what we do makes you really happy and proud,” said Henriksen.
“When your work is recognised by your peers and your colleagues in the industry, it just feels absolutely amazing,” added Rützou.
11 Howard won the Hotel Renovation & Restoration and Restaurant categories
Geyer, who also sat on the judging panel for the AHEAD Global awards, emphasised that the winning properties demonstrated the expanding role of the hotelier in today’s hospitality industry.
“The future for hotel design is all about experiences,” she said. “We’re moving in a space where hospitality is blurring with other worlds.”
“One thing that I can take away from these awards is that my bucket list is getting very long.”
This movie was produced by Dezeen for AHEAD. It was filmed at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. Images are courtesy of AHEAD.
It’s 3AM, and I’m in the studio working on a project deadline due in a few days. The scene is stereotypical; all the lights are off, and we are working by the cold glow of our monitors. We want to finish early so that we have more time to practice our presentation and make sure we’re prepped for the review. As I pause for a minute and rub my eyes to get the exhaustion out, I look up and see my colleagues toiling away. The three of us exchange a look, and without words, we say to each other “we’ve got this”. I look back and think to myself: what the fuck are we doing here? I know that tomorrow when we come in, we’re going to have to redo half of this work anyway because it was created under duress and exhaustion.
Every creative I’ve ever met, without any exception, knows exactly what this sensation feels like, but none of us want to admit it’s a bad thing. There are so many things wrong with studio culture, the design process, and the concept of “crunch time”. It’s especially baffling to think that most industrial designers today probably use the term “human centered” more than “well rested”. Tell me: what exactly is human centered about completely disregarding biological limitations and just “powering through”?
Staying hours in the studio is a terrible idea. Our brains are only capable of performing at peak capacity for so many hours of the day, and we need to rest to keep our cognitive abilities up for problem solving and “a-ha” moments—not slogging away just to deliver a sub par idea. Good design comes from well thought-out ideas. The creative process is not linear—it’s a weird, meandering path with many dead ends and multiple amazing moments—but that journey must have moments of pause, reflection, and simply doing nothing. How many designers can honestly say that they do this? I know I am still guilty of “powering through” only to realize it would have taken me half as long if I had simply taken a break.
Oddly enough, I find that many designers are poor time managers, but time management is such a critical part of delivery on any project and goes so far in helping to mitigate long hours in the office. We could segue into a whole conversation about time tabling here, but I’ll simply say this: nobody gets their timetable right the first time. It takes at least 6 months to get a rough, realistic idea of how long it takes you to do certain tasks.
“The creative process is an amorphous, wonderful and beautiful thing.”
Taking the time to realistically schedule work out and charge accordingly can also be good for your livelihood. A few years ago, I was experimenting with a design for a high performance vehicle, and about halfway through the design cycle, I hit a major roadblock. I was completely unable to figure out how to blend some of the surfaces without compromising the performance factors the engineer had set for the project. Nothing was working, I lost my temper after 30 minutes and I decided that the best thing to do was step away and take my mind off the project entirely. So, I headed to a store and tried on shoes for about 2 hours (there’s nothing wrong with a little retail therapy). As I was walking back to the studio, my mind refreshed and relaxed. Excited about the shoes I had bought, everything suddenly clicked, and I immediately knew how to solve the issue back at work. By the time I returned to the office, we were finished in minutes. A problem that I had assumed was going to delay the project by a few days ended up becoming a moment that helped us complete the project ahead of schedule—all because of a well-timed break.
That experience was almost celestial for me. I finally realized that I can’t be a human-centered designer if I can’t design for the center of this human. Today, my work style has been described by my peers as chaotic and hard to follow (read: I get up from my workstation a lot), but I have never missed a deadline, and I have only experienced “crunch time” a total of 6 times since that experience, for reasons outside of my own control.
So what is my point? What am I trying to get at? The creative process is an amorphous, wonderful and beautiful thing. Like a vision in your peripherals, you are aware of how it feels when it hits you, but you can never quite describe it. So then why is it when it comes to our work we try to brute force our way to the goal? There is value in stopping. Sometimes the greatest ideas come to us when we aren’t looking for them at all.
Take a look back at the last hundred years of dental care, from the invention of nylon toothbrushes in the 1930s, to the fluoride toothpastes first first marketed in the 1950s, to the rise of braces in popularity in the 1970s…(Read…)
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
