Hasta La Ideas

In the fifth and final part of today’s collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and Forward Festival, Fredrik Öst explains how his creative agency Snask ended up acquiring a rock band.

“At half-past four at an afterparty, this singer sold his own band to me for $2,500,” Öst said in the talk, which took place at Forward Festival in April 2017.

“The day after, he called me up and said he didn’t want to sell it anymore. I said, ‘I have your signature in blood’.”

Öst said that his creative agency Snask, which he co-founded with Magnus Berg and Erik Kockum in 2007, strives to “challenge the industry by doing things differently”.

Since acquiring the band, the agency now hosts lectures that combine live performances with design advice. The creative agency’s office also features its own bar, which serves its own beer.

Snask is slang for both “sweets” and “filth” in Swedish, he revealed.

“Dare to be bold” 

The creative agency’s work includes a stop-motion movie for a Stockholm opera house, a hand-brewed beer for drinking in the shower before a night out with Pang Pang Brewery, and rebranding North Korea as “Love Korea” to “create a common feeling of belonging.”

Öst structured his talk as a “setlist” of ideas and concepts that guide the agencies work. These include slogans such as “brand yourself”, “dare to be bold” and “don’t mix rock ‘n’ roll with the professional”.

About Forward Festival

Based in Vienna and founded in 2014, Forward Festival runs conferences for creatives in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. The conference, the centrepiece of the festival, is accompanied by various side events, such as workshops, live art sessions and networking events.

Past speakers at the festival include Oliviero Toscani, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Kate Moross, Erik Spiekermann, David Carson and MoMA New York. The next edition of the festival will take place on 8-9 October 2020..

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

The post “Don’t mix rock ‘n’ roll with the professional” says Snask founder at Forward Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

In the fourth part of today’s collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and Forward Festival, artist and designer Sarah Illenberger discusses how she makes illustrations from everyday objects.

“I have difficulties explaining to people what I do because I illustrate, but I don’t draw,” Illenberger said at Forward Festival in 2017. “I design illustrations.”

People often think her illustrations are made using photoshop or CGI, Illenberger said. But, in fact, she uses real objects, often in unusual ways.

“I have a democratic way of approaching materials”

Illenberger has created dinosaurs out of door handles and made a desert landscape from handmade brooms for an Hermès store window installation.

She has designed geometric fruit sculptures made of foam for a Fruit of the Loom pop-up store, and created dresses made from vegetables and salads.

“I have a democratic way of approaching materials,” she told the audience at the festival.

While her creations often end up having to be thrown away after they’ve served their purpose, which she finds frustrating, Illenberger explains that the digital era has led to an increase in the demand for physical installations.

“It probably leads back to the fact that these installations are always photographed on mobile phones, and then spread all over the world,” she said.

About Forward Festival

Based in Vienna and founded in 2014, Forward Festival runs conferences for creatives in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. The conference, the centrepiece of the festival, is accompanied by various side events, such as workshops, live art sessions and networking events.

Past speakers at the festival include Oliviero Toscani, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Kate Moross, Erik Spiekermann, David Carson and MoMA New York. The next edition of the festival will take place on 8-9 October 2020.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

The post “I illustrate but I don’t draw” says artist Sarah Illlenberger at Forward Festival appeared first on Dezeen.

This week Nike announcing that their forthcoming women’s Air Force 1 LX and Air Max 98 LX, which launch this Spring, “conceal mystery colorways underneath a white upper layer made of [a breathable, synthetic] textile.”

“That layer offers a creative function: Wearers can peel back as much — or as little — material for a one-of-a-kind design. (The shoe packaging provides additional details to guide the creative process.) Both styles will be available with two distinct premium lower layers.”

Speaking of color, they also announced a Tie Dye variant of their Adapt BB 2.0 kicks, which launch tomorrow in China. They’ll (supposedly) make it to the U.S. this summer.

Also coming out this Spring is the aptly-named Vibrant Pack option for five of their Air Max models:

Finally, and also coming out this Spring are their new Flywire Alphina 5000’s with one muted and one bolder colorway:

Industrial facilities, warehouses and food processing factories have a common problem: There are doorways to the outdoor loading areas that need to be sealed against dust, insects, birds or the elements, but workers driving forklifts or pushing pallet jacks need to get through them hundreds of times a day.

Since time is money, conventional doors are out; it would take too long for a worker to hop off of their rig to open and close the door each time. Since money is money, automated doors are out.

What’s needed is a door that a pallet jack or forklift can push through without damaging it, and that doesn’t cost a fortune. Over the years, three low-tech approaches have been developed.

The first is vinyl strip curtains. These do an acceptable job of providing a seal, yet are easily parted by folks hauling loads.

Image: Ideal Warehouse Innovations, Inc.

Image: Ideal Warehouse Innovations, Inc.

They have the advantage of being transparent, so workers can see if there’s an obstruction on the other side.

Image: Bird B Gone

Installation is straightforward, and individual strips can easily be replaced if damaged.

Image: Ideal Warehouse Innovations, Inc.

The second approach uses “impact doors” with bi-swinging hinges. These doors have protective polypropylene sheets that are bolted to the inner edge of the door’s face, initially sticking out the wrong way, then folded over and bolted to the other edge of the door. If this description is confusing, the photo below will make it crystal clear.

Image: Traffic Doors and More

This wave profile effectively turns the flat sheet into a flexible bumper. It’s a brilliantly simple and cost-effective idea.

Image: Vortex Doors

And of course, it can be scaled up to the height of whatever’s slamming into it.

Image: The Australian Trellis Door Co.

One disadvantage to the impact door method is that it doesn’t offer the visibility of vinyl strip curtains. So the third approach borrows from the first two: Swinging vinyl doors with impact plates at the bottom.

Image: Traffic Doors and More

With this design, the impact plates can be left flat; they don’t need to offer the same level of protection to the flimsy vinyl as they do to a solid door.

Image: Discount Commercial Doors

The fourth approach is the simplest-looking, yet the most complicated from a materials perspective. Here aluminum tubing, rubber extrusions, ABS facing and foam insulation are all combined to make a flexible door:

Image: L.K. Goodwin Co.

That’s way too complicated for my tastes, and seems to provide the worst visibility out of all of four approaches. However, this design has apparently been around since 1952, so what the hell do I know.

In the second part of today’s collaboration between Virtual Design Festival and Forward Festival, Erik Spiekermann shares seven propositions for designers to remember.

“I was looking forward to, for once, speaking in German,” the type designer and author jokingly began his talk in Vienna at Forward Festival in 2017.

Spiekermann‘s lecture looked at the things he has learnt from his long career, including his first rule: “Don’t work with a***holes.”

Among Spiekermann’s most well-known accomplishments are two typefaces, FF Meta and ITC Officina, that are considered modern classics.

The German designer has also created branding for Audi, Bosch and VW, and his practice is behind the visual identity for German railway company Deutsche Bahn.

“If you ever take the train in Germany, everything you read was designed by us,” Spiekermann said in the lecture.

“Everyone asks me the same question”

A regular on the lecture scene, he explained that he always gets the same questions and that he hates being called a “creative,” as he thinks everyone is creative.

“Everyone who interviews me asks the same question: ‘what does creativity mean to you?’ You know, the c-word. Boring, boring. And ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ Boring, boring,” he said.

In 2018, Spiekermann worked with five students from around the world to revive five unfinished fonts from the Bauhaus school that had been “lost to history”.

In his talk, he shared his tips for people who are just starting out in the design industry: “What advice would I give aspiring designers? Think. That’s the best thing you can ever do. And read.”

About Forward Festival

Based in Vienna and founded in 2014, Forward Festival runs conferences for creatives in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. The conference, the centrepiece of the festival, is accompanied by various side events, such as workshops, live art sessions and networking events.

Past speakers at the festival include Oliviero Toscani, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, Kate Moross, Erik Spiekermann, David Carson and MoMA New York. The next edition of the festival will take place on 8-9 October 2020.

About Virtual Design Festival

Virtual Design Festival, the world’s first digital design festival, runs from 15 April to 30 June 2020. It is a platform that will bring the architecture and design world together to celebrate the culture and commerce of our industry, and explore how it can adapt and respond to extraordinary circumstances.

VDF will host a rolling programme of online talks, lectures, movies, product launches and more, complementing and supporting fairs and festivals around the world that have had to be postponed or cancelled and it will provide a platform for design businesses, so they can, in turn, support their supply chains.

The post “Don’t work with a***holes,” says Erik Spiekermann at Forward Festival appeared first on Dezeen.