Hasta La Ideas

Photographer Skye Parrot’s path from political science to indie magazine publisher

As the daughter of an art photographer, it never occurred to Skye Parrott to take up
photography as a career herself. Though she grew up around cameras, Parrott thought she was going to major in political science. “I thought I was going to law school.”

Instead, Parrott went to Paris. After a few internships and a stint as managing editor at Self Service magazine, her
outlook changed and she began working as Nan Goldin’s Paris studio manager. The legendary
chronicler of New York subculture acted as both an artistic and a business mentor to
Parrott. After two years of running her studio in Paris, Parrott moved back to the United
States and managed Goldin’s New York studio while launching her own career.

“Having the chance to work with someone that influential was amazing,” Parrott says. “It changed my work a lot, and helped me find my own voice.” Following the advice of an ex who encouraged her to work through her own influences to get “what’s yours,” she explains that how she “really needed to just do
my version of Nan Goldin again and again until I got to the other side.”

The other side happens to be an astoundingly successful artistic and commercial career
back in Parrott’s hometown of New York—”the center of everything,” as she says. In addition to campaigns for the likes of A.P.C., Nike and Pamela Love, she’s shot editorial work for almost every edition of Vogue as well as for Lula and other European publications.

Her photo exhibition “First Love, Last Rites” opened last year to widespread acclaim. A documentation of the year that she spent struggling with two damaged love affairs—one with a boy, one with heroin—the wistful series deals with misplaced yearning and the subjectivity of memory.

Parrot reflects that one of the best aspects about First Love was that it mixed her personal and commercial work styles. “I like pictures that are found, rather than
made, and that have an emotion. Even if it’s a staged moment, it’s a true moment. Even though I work with digital cameras, I don’t like digital to look digital. There’s definitely a nostalgia to my aesthetic.”

One of Parrott’s most exciting ongoing projects is the bi-annual arts, fashion and
culture magazine Dossier, which she founded with a childhood friend. “We
thought we were going to a ‘zine. But once we started putting out the call for
contributions, we started getting this amazing content. There was no way we could put it
out in newsprint with 500 printed copies,” Parrott said.

Some of that content included Zac Posen’s first-ever styled story—Posen is an old schoolmate of Dossier’s co-founder and editor Katherine Krause—and an
unpublished portfolio by the photographer David Armstrong, whom Parrott met while she
was working for Goldin. “We grew up in New York, which helped,” she says. “We
reached out to anyone amazing that we knew for the first issue, because we didn’t know
if there would ever be a second one.” They funded the magazine with contributions from
friends and family, and set it loose. “A lot of people were very generous when we hadn’t
done anything. They had faith that whatever we were going to make would be cool.”

Now on its seventh issue, Dossier—which means “file” in French—gives its widely varied contributors a space in which to exercise absolute creative freedom. In
order to keep that freedom, the magazine’s small staff keeps their day jobs and work for
free out of Parrott’s house. And in the fall, they’ll work around the magazine’s newest,
and smallest, staff member. “I’m not as busy as I used to be. I was excited to finish
up ‘First Love, Last Rites’ and get to work on another creative project, but then I got
pregnant,” Parrott explains. “That’s totally the definition of a personal project.”

How one software maverick is pioneering the future of digital publishing

by Meghan Killeen

Digital design prodigy Mike Matas combines the ease of navigating the physical world to create lifelike interfaces that feel so unobtrusive you hardly notice you’re using complex technology. Motivated by the desire to do things on a computer more like in reality, Matas set out to create virtual interfaces driven by touch. “If you want to do something [on a computer] you should just be able to reach out your hand and do it, no buttons, and no user interface required,” concludes Matas.

Near the end of high school, Matas along with genius coder Wil Shipley founded the proprietary software company Delicious Monster, creators of Delicious Library, a media cataloging application for Mac OS X. The system enables users to visually categorize their multimedia library by placing photo-realistic icons of the products on a simulated bookshelf. Extending the library theme, Delicious Library also offers barcode scanning capabilities via the Mac webcam software, iSight, and allows interloan connections with friends.

The ingenuity and authenticity of Delicious Library earned it the coveted Apple Design Awards “Best Mac OS X User Experience” (2005) and “Best OS X Leopard Application” (2007), catapulting Matas’ design talents into the spotlight. He reflects, “It was a pretty radical departure from what most software looked like at that time and people reacted very positively to it.”

At the mere age of 19, Matas captured the attention of Apple and was invited to join the company’s Human Interface team. Anticipating the design of Apple’s desktop computer operating system, Matas quickly discovered that he would instead be working on an innovative, covert project—the iPhone. “Working on the original iPhone was a lot of fun because it was a completely new product where nothing was off limits,” states Matas. Capitalizing on its multi-touch conventions, Matas went on to design interfaces for the iPhone’s interactive maps and camera applications, including the iPhone’s phosphorescent green battery screen.

After just four years with Apple, Matas left in 2009 to partner with friend and fellow Apple alum, Kimon Tsinteris. They launched Push Pop Press, a publishing company offering dynamic digital solutions without the fuss of labor intensive and pricey programming. Approached by publishing firm Melcher Media, Matas began to develop the first full-length interactive book for iPad, “Our Choice,” the sequel to Al Gore’s cautionary environmental tale “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Matas demoed the digitized book at the recent TED conference, highlighting its specialized pinch-and-place navigation, culminating in a mind-blowing demonstration of Matas powering an animated windmill on the screen with his breath. “You can navigate the entire book this way, without any extra computer interface to stumble over and distraction from the content. The technology disappears and you can get lost in the content,” explains Matas.

Push Pop’s watershed title release is as revolutionary as it is rudimentary, bringing a human touch to touch-screen technology. Matas’ eye for design and interaction is also revealed through his stunning photography. Armed with a backpack full of lenses, Matas captures lush images of nature and documents his globetrotting travels through beautifully rendered time-lapse videos. His photo talent also graces the food blog he runs with his girlfriend, called My Cooking Diary.

Balancing functionality and emotion are key elements for pioneering the future of digital publishing, however, Matas also predicts its potential. “I think digital publishing is going to look less and less like a scanned printed book under glass and more like its own thing that was born to be digital.”

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

Spanish artist-designer pushes the boundaries in striking form

Finding inspiration through observation, award-winning Spanish creative Jaime Hayon survives on a steady stream of design collaborations and consultancy gigs, all the while pushing the boundaries between art and design.

Native to Madrid, Hayon spent his University years studying industrial design in both his hometown and Paris. Although Hayon excelled in his studies, he never felt too connected to the traditional and logical design curriculum. Rather than subscribing to a specific category, Hayon felt compelled to lend his designs a unique touch and take risks.

Hayon explains, “At a certain moment I was absolutely not interested in [traditional design], so I went through a different road. I was more interested in underground art, it opened my mind to see things differently.” This urge to create holds deep roots in his adolescence spent in Madrid where he immersed himself in skateboard and graffiti cultures, expanding the already whimsical imagination that is ever-present in his work today.

In 1997, after finishing his studies Hayon took his bold creativity to Fabrica, a communication research centre/talent incubator/studio. Here he quickly established himself and after just one year he found himself head of the design department, overseeing projects varying from retail and restaurant design and exhibition conception to product and graphic design. Eight years later Hayon felt the urge once again find a new outlet for his creativity, this time branching out and developing his own collection of designer toys, ceramics, furniture, and eventually interior design and installation along with founding Hayon Studio. His quirky creations were then exhibited in galleries throughout London, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Paris and Kuala Lumpur, establishing himself as a major player in the new wave of creators transcending the line between art and design.

Gaining further exposure through solo exhibitions at London’s Aram Gallery and Milan’s Salone de Mobile, Hayon emerged as a mind to be sought after, eventually leading to positions in consultancy and design for a diverse list of clients designing furniture, lighting, textiles, vases, and ceramic objects. Included in this list is Spanish porcelain manufacturer Lladró, where for five years Hayon has held an ongoing position as Artistic Advisor. Thanks to his influence and encouragement Lladró has taken their company in a whole new direction, encouraging fellow designers to create new objects inspired by the Lladró’s traditional pieces.

Impressed with his clean design and adventurous mind Hayon was brought on as premiere designer for Bisazza Bagno‘s debut collection of bathroom fixtures. “We first studied the weak points of existing bathroom collections. I’ve always thought they lacked beauty and identity. They often are too clinical and technical,” Hayon explained to Cool Hunting. By utilizing a combination of high quality materials such as lacquered wood, beveled mirrors, marble, and glass he achieved an elegant and distinctive look within an innovative modular system.

The design process was not easy, as Hayon describes, “It was all about dreaming about options…during almost 3 years of work, I made infinite sketches and went through a very dynamic prototyping process. We worked intensely to achieve a collection that, I believe, is expressive of style, quality and personality.” Hayon has also collaborated with Bisazza on numerous of other projects showcasing his unique use of mixed mosaics and materials, including their interior decoration home collection and the Jet Set plane.

From one project to the next, Hayon avoids stagnancy is every aspect of life and design. Most recently, premium Danish furniture brand Republic of Fritz Hansen brought Hayon on to design a new sofa. Named for the Danish word for embrace, FAVN is the result of a creative dialogue between designer and company. Launched during ICFF in NYC last month, FAVN sports a contemporary design that blends textiles and aesthetic perfectly to fit in alongside decade old designs that Fritz Hansen is known for. Hayon describes his sofa as being “based on a shell. A shell being hard on the outside, soft and welcoming on the inside…a form that embraces you, something really organic.”

The shell-like design of FAVN is a nod to such influential designs as the Egg and Swan by Arne Jacobsen. However, Hayon’s pension for bright colors and fresh extroverted design is obvious as well in FAVN. The experimental dialogue which brought about FAVN presents a delicate balance of flamboyant Spanish taste and clean Danish design. FAVN will be available through Republic of Fritz Hansen stores and dealers in early September 2011.

Hayon has collaborated with other such reputable names as Bennetton, Metalarte, Artquitect Edition, Coca-Cola, Adidas, and Camper. He continues to keep busy pushing limits of design well into his career as has from the start. With the definition of design in a constant flux Hayon excels in the void. “Today I don’t know my definition of design, but I do know it’s a very interesting moment for design, because there is more acceptance, it’s more hybrid.”

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

A designer, artist, marketer and cultural catalyst finds inspiration in sound and pattern

by Meghan Killeen

In a corporate world of sales and strategies, marketing maverick Ivy Ross opts instead to chart success with an approach that has pioneered paradigm shifts in advertising. From spearheading covert creative operations for Mattel to stirring up merchandising mojo for Gap’s iconic ‘Black Magic, Black Pants’ ad campaign, Ross fuels concepts through ‘mental grazing’; a term coined by Ross to describe a creative diet of inspiration and rumination. “I believe that, just like a computer doesn’t give us output without input, we as creative people need to take new information in before we can generate something unique.”

To innovate change in marketing methodology, Ross turned to her own experience as a jeweler. Influenced by her father—an industrial designer who worked for the famed Raymond Loewy—Ross began to notice geometric patterns in lighting fixtures; an acute awareness, which later translated into many of her custom, crafted pieces. “[My father] taught me to how look at things and see them for beyond what they appear to be.”

Initially attracted to fashion, Ross attended the Fashion Institute of Technology where she majored in Art and minored in Psychology. “I loved studying where society and fashion was going and figuring out the materials and the details that would be right for the times,” reflects Ross. Drawn to the versatility of accessories, Ross created eclectic jewelry designs that explored new ideas in jewelry-making, such as using interwoven threads of iridescent Tantalum to create a fabric-like effect. Ross’ designs quickly garnished attention, including that of a Bergdorf Goodman jewelry buyer who presented Ross with a $60,000 purchase order on the spot for one of her designs, financing her burgeoning jewelry business and leading to the eventual placement of her work as a part of the permanent collections of 12 international museums, including London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York City.

Ross’ early entrepreneurial spirit and design savvy laid the foundation for her transition into the mass-market retail world as a brand development innovator spurning a fast-track career that included such formidable titles as Vice President of Design for Bausch & Lomb and President of Calvin Klein’s Men’s Accessories division. Channeling such diversified interests as sound vibration and quantum physics along with her own artistic leanings, Ross began to infuse her corporate roles with a creative sensibility and vision indicating that “often in companies we spend all of our time ‘anniversary-ing’ the realities versus thinking about the possibilities.”

In 2001, Ross began to create a new toy as Senior VP of Product Design and Development for the Girls Division of Mattel. For the toy to be compelling, the creative team behind it had to be equally dynamic. Inspired by the clandestine Skunkworks project of Lockheed Martin fame, Ross created a new species of guerrilla ideation called ‘Project Platypus’; a befitting moniker based on a creature that is described as “an uncommon mix of different species.” Ross assembled a 12 member team with varying skill sets from different departments and brought in outside speakers such as an improv comedian and a Jungian analyst. The team met during off hours in a separate studio space. Ross also experimented with sound vibrations, by playing music that vibrated at a custom frequency to induce heightened states of creativity during the meetings. “I find that if we can all be on the same wavelength, you can spiral to new ideas together a lot quicker,” states Ross.

Ross continues to turn corporate culture on its head as the current Creative Catalyst at Gap, Inc. following her position as the EVP of Marketing for Gap.

Ross will be speaking at Brand ManageCamp Conference in Las Vegas October 4-5 2011.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.

Playful minimalism in the work of a well-rounded Spanish designer

Spanish designer JM Ferrero recently sat down during ICFF to discuss his singular vision in the areas of lighting, furniture, interior design and textiles. With a miniature version of his first lamp pinned to his sweater, I quickly learned that Ferrero (who’s helmed his own studio since 2003) might be serious about his work but he always adds a touch of underlying humor. His thoughtful approach even comes through in the naming of his atelier. Called estudi{H}ac, the silent “H” isn’t pronounced in Spanish, but without it the word doesn’t make sense. Ferrero chalks this up to the way he designs, weaving important design details into the overall scheme to the point they’re unnoticeable.

The industrious designer calls what he does “bespoke projects,” because no matter the client or field he’s working within, he customizes every design and experience. Rather than repeat work, he instead chooses to work with a new set of challenges for each project. But he does of course have some tendencies. Repeating patterns show up often, such as in the Tea collection he designed for the family-run furniture brand Sancal. Following the molecular structure of tea, Ferrero plays with the hexagonal quilted pattern in a series of chairs, couches and wall coverings—which can also double as a headboard.

His understanding of textile design stems from earlier work he did after graduating from college. Ferrero, originally from Valencia, moved to Barcelona and first worked with renowned designer Oscar Tusquets before joining the team at textile design firm Manterol, where he developed graphics and packaging. This experience not only laid the foundation for a keen interest in fabrics, but the packaging and graphic design side seemingly aided to his overall ability to design a concept from top to bottom. For SIE7E Jewels Gallery, Ferrero designed the jewelry brand’s boutique, website and most recently a collection of small home accessories using the reconfigured “7” he conceived.

The collection spans desk caddies to serving trays and includes a shoe horn, an object with personal meaning for Ferrero. A slight shoe fanatic (he wore leather Paul Smith oxfords with playful socks when we met), Ferrero takes photos of his feet in front of meaningful places around the world during his travels, which hang on the wall of his studio and serve as a conversational starting point for explaining his design inspiration. For example, the Tea collection reflects how much he enjoyed the afternoon tea experience during his years living in London.

One of his favorite countries to spend time in is Japan. Designing colorfully simple indoor and outdoor furniture along with conceptual bath fixtures that express the Japanese lifestyle, Ferrero also won Toyota Japan’s competition to design the interior of a new car. Honing in on the fact that for many, a car is an extension of their personality, his approach was to allow customers to personalize the car’s interior using a mix-and-match assortment of upholstery choices and colors. This has led estudi{H}ac a permanent place as a collaborator on interiors with Toyota’s European Studio.

While his first lamp, dubbed “Sister Lamp” was a playful nod to ’60s nuns with their oversized caps as the shade and a long rosary as the chain, his most recent lighting project for Vondom is a slightly glossier concept. Initially conceiving a collection of giant pot planters ideal for upscale hotel patios, when Ferrero presented the plans to Valencia-based Vondom they noticed a drawing where he had turned the shape upside down into a floor lamp, and commissioned the young designer to continue the series.

For Valencia’s new gastro bar, Cuina al Quadrat, Ferrero designed a space centered around the woven baskets women carry to the local food market—a symbol of the restaurant’s desire to deliver a high-quality menu at a reasonable price. The warm earth tones present an inviting environment, and the simple decor of plants and fruits allow the food to speak for itself.

Sincere and extremely hopeful for the future of Spanish design, JM Ferrero’s estudi{H}ac demonstrates the wide range of potential one studio can possess when focused on exploring new materials, styles and projects.

The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.