Hasta La Ideas

American colour company Pantone has chosen “universal favourite” Classic Blue, or Pantone 19-4052, as its colour of the year for 2020.

Announced 4 December, the Classic Blue colour is described by Pantone as “a reassuring presence instilling calm, confidence and connection”.

“Associated with the return of another day, this universal favourite is comfortably embraced,” it added.

While this year’s colour Living Coral was an “animating and life-affirming”, 2020’s shade “brings a sense of peace and tranquillity to the human spirit, offering refuge,” according to the company.

The cobalt blue hue is also said to be associated with communication, introspection and clarity. Other benefits of the hue include aiding concentration and helping to re-centre thoughts, particularly in light of technology’s accelerating developments.

“A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone Color Institute.

“We are living in a time that requires trust and faith,” she added. “It is this kind of constancy and confidence that is expressed by Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue, a solid and dependable blue hue we can always rely on.”

Pantone was founded in the 1950s as the printing company in New York but is now based in Carlstadt, New Jersey. Since 2000, it has chosen a colour of the year decided from trend-forecasting research performed by the Pantone Color Institute.

The annual colour, which is announced each December, is chosen based on “what is taking place in our global culture at a moment in time”.

According to Pantone, Classic Blue is already being used in fashion, interior design, textiles and graphic design.

Interiors making the most of its soothing benefits are a Paris home by Anne-Laure Dubois, a Los Angeles nail salon, and an apartment in Porto, Portugal by Fala Atelier.

Last year, the peachy shade called Living Coral was chosen and offered a striking addition to bathrooms, kitchens and lounges. A zesty shade of green called Greenery was selected in 2017, while in 2016 Pantone picked two soft colours – a baby blue and dusty pink.

Other annual colours include the purply pink Radiant Orchid announced for 2014, and the bright orange Tangerine Tango in 2012.

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German designers Elmgreen and Dragset have installed a sculpture that looks like an U-shaped swimming pool outside the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Unveiled as part of this year’s Miami design week events, the 20-foot-high (six-metre-high) Bent Pool comprises a matte-white lacquered rim that resembles a pool’s edge and a turquoise interior meant to convey the basin.

With Miami and Miami Beach among a number of coastal cities threatened by rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis and already prone to flooding, Elmgreen and Dragset created the surreal sculpture to raise awareness about the region’s changing landscape in the face of the climate crisis.

“Miami Beach is an area that has seen a rise in extreme weather and flooding; its landscape is in flux,” Elmgreen and Dragset said.

“Bent Pool encourages us to think about how we normally interact with our surroundings: how accessible or inaccessible they appear.”

Other elements that aid a realistic appearance, despite the warped shape, are circular lights that glow at night, a stainless steel ladder and a turquoise diving board.

“Identified by details such as its ladder, its diving board and pool lamps, the abstracted object can easily be recognised as a swimming pool even though its bowed shape prevents it from carrying water,” the studio added.

Curved pieces of aluminium were used to create the unusual structure, with the two ends resting atop a concrete plinth. “Bent Pool is shaped like an inverted “U” and stands upright on a two-tier plinth,” the studio said. “The pool seems to have somehow been lifted out of the ground and stretched into a curved form.”

The archway at the sculpture’s centre also forms a narrow opening designed to accommodate only one individual at a time.

Simple geometric forms, prefabricated objects and vibrant imagery taken from Pop Art and conceptualism informed the design, however, the studio constructed all of the sculpture’s individual pieces.

“The work draws on the minimalist reductive tradition and use of geometric forms, as much as it does on Pop Art and conceptualism’s use of ready-made objects and imagery,” the designers added. “Yet, on closer inspection, one will discover that this is not an altered ready-made, but a carefully crafted object.”

Bent Pool is the final piece in a series of permanent site-specific works of public art commissioned by Miami’s Art in Public Places Program to be installed on the grounds of the city’s convention centre. Collectively the six permanent installations comprise the largest public art project placed on a single site in the United States.

The permanent installation was unveiled to coincide with Miami art week, which comprises Art Basel and Design Miami events. As part of the activities, artist Leandro Erlich created a sand-covered traffic jam on Miami beach to similarly raise awareness about climate change.

Elmgreen and Dragset was establised by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset in 1995. Its offices are located in Berlin. The duo has previously installed commissioned art in notable locations around the world, including Powerless Structures Fig. 101 located in London’s Trafalgar Square and Van Gogh’s Ear in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza.

Photography is by Robin Hill.

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Justice’s IRIS: A Space Opera is a filmic transformation of their adored live performances of Woman Worldwide. This unique performance series was conceptualized explicitly for cinema, using special access, angles, and effects for a more expansive experience. While it was originally shown to a limited number of audiences in select cities, the cinematic release now hits DVD, streaming, and, in this set, VHS. It comes complete with a tape, hoodie, USB card that carries the movie, an enamel badge, and an IRIS poster. The package is available for pre-order now but ships starting 10 January. Price is in Euros.

Handmade in Japan by a master milliner that studied hat-making under legendary designer Jean Barthet, this natural-hued wool cap comes equipped with antimicrobial features and a unique softness—afforded by a process that uses untreated material exclusively. The resulting fit is looser and more unstructured but far more comfortable. FEIT worked closely with the milliner through each step of the process.

Shattering the archaic approach to plaster/fiberglass cast-building for fractures, Cast21 believes it has a much better alternative to traditional casts. Practically a standard for decades now, plaster-casts are required to sit on your body for months at an end, and considering they aren’t really water-resistant (and your limbs remain 100% enclosed), they begin working up a stench over the months of not being able to wash them. Given their impenetrable nature, casts cause great discomfort over the weeks and anyone who’s worn one will tell you what a pain it is when your skin begins itching and there’s no way to reach in there for a satisfying scratch.

Chicago-based startup Cast21, however, has a much more elegant solution. Designed as a sleeve that fits over any hand, Cast21’s cast takes shape around your hand once it’s filled with a patented gel that hardens over time. Doctors select a sleeve-size based on whether the patient is a child or a fully-grown adult. The sleeve is slipped on, and filled with a patented mixture of resins that become a malleable gel after a while. The doctor can then adjust the gel to perfectly hug the limb, giving it the support it needs. Patients can even choose between gel-colors, opting for combinations and gradients, breaking the stigma that casts need to look horribly clinical. The resins harden through an exothermic reaction, providing soothing heat to the limb as the cast begins to take shape. The outer sleeve itself has a crisscrossed design (almost resembling a pear protector) that allows it to remain breathable while still providing a robust structure around the broken limb. Cast21’s casts are completely waterproof, which means you can shower or even swim in them and their partially-open design even allows you to satisfy an itch, were you to have one! Plus, it provides a decent canvas for scrawling messages on too!

Cast21’s gel-casts are currently limited only to ‘distal radial fractures’ or DR fractures that occur around the wrist. They’re working to develop different sleeves for other parts of the body, while they hope that the technology replaces traditional casts that look, feel, and smell atrocious. The Cast21’s solution has widespread applications, especially for military, outdoor, and first-aid use, since the resin and sleeve are relatively easy to carry around and administer on-site, rather than having to travel to a nearby hospital.

Designer: Cast21