Hasta La Ideas

Icelandic artist and director Harald Haraldsson turned a wall of bookshelves into a fractured and futuristic backdrop for this music video (+ movie).

Harald Haraldssen created the music video for the single Love With You by Icelandic electronic music producer B.G. Baarregaard and singer Briem.

Moving beams of light are projected onto Random bookshelves from MDF Italia, creating a three-dimensional kinetic landscape as the camera pans across.

The singer’s face appears to break into pieces as the camera moves, creating a distorted collage effect.

“The video visualises the song’s arc by using colours, camera movement and a slowly intensified motion of the actors, reaching the song’s climax as the two lovers approach each other,” says Haraldsson.

Haraldsson holds a master’s degree in engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology and is the founder of Wonwei, a creative technology firm working with the advertising industry.

We previously featured a music video for pop star Ellie Goulding with LED wands and lasers by designer Moritz Waldemeyer.

Above: on set at the video shoot

Other bookshelves we’ve published lately include a three-storey bookcase that spans the height of a house and shelves that spin round to form a circle or a grid.

See all our stories about music »
See all our stories about bookcases »

Here’s some information from the designer:

Icelandic Artist Harald Haraldsson creates a music video from empty bookshelves

Featuring the music of Reykjavik-based house music duo Baarregaard & Briem, visual artist Harald Haraldsson releases a music video to the song “Love With You” using empty bookshelves as a dynamic canvas for video projection.

The video was shot over the course of one night, using Random bookshelves from MDF Italia as a projection surface, emphasizing the sharp geometry of the well known bookshelf design. Using custom software, Haraldsson controlled the minimal visual effects through delaying color channels and generating slowly rotating lines that break upon the edges of the bookshelves.

The video visualises the song’s arc by using colors, camera movement, and a slowly intensified motion of the actors, reaching the song’s climax as the two lovers approach each other.

This is Haraldsson’s first venture into music videos, having until now created interactive installations and directed commercials, with one of his projects featuring giant industrial robots – in line with Haraldsson’s technical approach to visual arts.

About the music:

Baarregaard & Briem is the musical collaboration between the Reykjavik-based producer B.G. Baarregaard and singer/actor Alexander Briem. “Love With You” is their second output, released through the independent Icelandic electronic music label Imola Nights.

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by Harald Haraldsson appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: different modular elements stack up to make these pendant lamps by Croatian design studio Grupa (+ movie).

The mix and match lamps by Grupa are called ILI-ILI, which means “either-or”.

There are six modular elements to be combined in various ways.

Each module, made from powder-coated aluminium, is available in blue, green, yellow or grey,& in three shades of each colour.

Grupa was founded in Zagreb in 2006 by Filip Despot, Tihana Taraba and Ivana Pavic.

Similar products we’ve featured recently include stackable vessels made from marble, cut glass and 3D printed resin and a set of stackable lamps made from wood and recycled glass.

We’ve also featured lots of hanging lamps on Dezeen, such as a lamp made from ten metres of coiled electrical cord and another made from concrete and wood.

See all our stories about lamps »
See all our stories about design »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

The Studio Grupa is well-known Croatian design trio consisting of Tihana Taraba, Ivana Pavic and Filip Despot. They have presented several products over the last few years, presenting exceptionally good design with reasonable prices, thus creating original yet affordable designer products.

Grupa has a new product, series of lamps named ILI-ILI (EITHER-OR) which brings a completely new concept of the DIY approach to the Croatian lighting-fixtures market, i.e. design hanging fixtures, considering that their project enables the buyer to mix and match both shapes and colors. The designers created a concept based on six fundamental modular elements, different dimensions and diameters that can be mutually paired and combined, thus providing unlimited possibilities.

As the designers explain in their own words: “It’s possible to assemble six different elements through the simple act of linking them together, hence creating various lighting fixtures. The forms are adjusted according to dimensions, so they fit each other, while the elements are mutually connected with carrying clasps.”

In addition to matching and pairing various elements it’s also possible to combine several colour modules. The designers selected a spectrum of blue, green, yellow, and grey, through three shades of each. As the very photos illustrate, the color shades and their mutual combinations, with the six abovementioned forms, offer solutions that can be applied and used in various situations. The final choice of the product’s elements can lean towards either one colour or be complemented in a multi-coloured combination, always varying in form and shape.

This innovative approach towards the flexibility of the product and one’s own choice, along with the constant possibility of upgrading or changing, already known to the international market, conceptually aims at a wide spectrum of application and provides the user with a product that’s all but run-of-the-mill and boring.

“With the help of a recognisable manufacturing technique of metallurgy grinding and the traditional manufacturing art, the product is handmade from aluminium and powder coated in twelve different matte shades. Combining the traditional production technique with contemporary design opens up the possibility for users to design their own ideal combination, the choices are extensive, and as the name of the product states, it’s possible to mix and match them EITHER this way OR that.”

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by Grupa appeared first on Dezeen.

Random snippets of news headlines are harvested from the internet, muddled up and printed using a traditional wooden letterpress in this movie by the Out of Print team.

Out of Print was organised by designer and illustrator Roma Levin, designer James Cuddy, digital maker Danilo Di Cuia and a team of students from Goldsmiths, University of London.

The installation first asked visitors to choose a selection of news sources. An algorithm then selected words from headlines in those publications and combined them with trending data from social networks to generate random headlines, which visitors scrolled through until they found one that resonated with them.

This was then sent to the @outofprintevent Twitter account to be queued for printing on a traditional wood-block letterpress using a font developed especially for the installation. Visitors could then buy the posters for £10 each or leave them on display for others to enjoy.

The app throws up intriguing combinations as “NATO need to rethink thinking”, “Prada do like crisps” and “Kate has a nuclear war”. “Some of them are quite obscure, some of them are quite funny, some of them are quite profound,” Levin told Dezeen.

“Essentially what the app does is read ten news sources at the same time. What it emulates is the bombardment from so many sources of information we consume and that by trying to consume ever more we end up actually understanding less,” he explained.

Above: listen to Roma Levin explain the Out of Print installation

The Out of Print project was first shown at 4 Cromwell Place in the Brompton Design District during the London Design Festival. See all our coverage of the London Design Festival 2012.

Here’s some more information from the Out of Print organisers:

The invention of the printing press is the finest example of how a shift in technology can change the way we communicate. In the 21st century, digital technology has become the defining force shaping society; changing the way we live, interact and consume information.

But with the growth of digital media we are now faced with unprecedented levels of data. We find ourselves at a saturation point. By attempting to consume ever more, we end up understanding less.

In this context, we find news and media redefined to fit our shortened attention spans. How do we make sense of all the information we consume and not get lost in the process? Through the use of traditional printing techniques we explore this question.

By using live online news feeds we are building a digital application that generates seemingly random headlines; these will then be printed using a custom-built letterpress. The prints will form a growing collection exhibited as part of the installation.

Both the print process and the software can produce unexpected results. The distortions and juxtapositions in language create headlines that are profound and confusing in equal measure. This notion is not unlike our evolving relationship with digital media today.

Roma Levin is a Russian born designer and illustrator with a cross- disciplinary approach. Since graduating from Goldsmiths University and London College of Communication, Roma has worked in Moscow and London for a wide range of clients ranging from Tate to Sir Bryan Ferry.

James Cuddy is a designer with an interest in the intersect between tangible and digital objects. A graduate of Goldsmiths College, James has since worked with agencies in London and Barcelona and for forward thinking clients such as the Whitechapel and the V&A.

Danilo Di Cuia is a digital maker from Matera, Italy. He started programming before knowing anything about computer science and has worked on the web since owning his first dial-up modem. After studying graphic design and new media in Milan and San Francisco, he now works for small and big international clients, mostly nice people.

The build of the printing press is being led by a team from Goldsmiths College Design BA:

Hefin Jones
Andrea Mourdjis Monika Patel
Candyce Dryburgh
Verity Nichols
Daisy Saul
Katinka Schaaf

Out of Print is kindly supported by Goldsmiths College, AlchemyAPI and GF Smith Paper.

The post Out of Print by Roma Levin, James Cuddy,
Danilo Di Cuia and Goldsmiths students appeared first on Dezeen.

Earlier this year Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti transformed three Baroque houses in Ljubljana into an apartment block with a secret courtyard, which is featured in this third movie from our series about the studio’s work.

Located in the city’s historic centre, the three buildings had most recently been used as the offices and bookshop of a publishing company, before OFIS Arhitekti were brought on to combine the spaces and create twelve new apartments.

Providing daylight for each apartment proved difficult so the architects added glass elevations around the existing courtyard, which they then converted from a storage area for air conditioning units into a small garden for residents.

“Since the court is very narrow and enclosed from all sides, the main concern was to provide as much light as possible to become a form of internal garden,” said the architects.

Behind the glass, rows of arches with stone pillars provide traces of the original architecture, while the street-facing elevations are restored to their original condition.

The movie was produced by Carniolus and follows one about an Alpine holiday hut and another about a social housing block inspired by hayracks.

Other projects by OFIS Arhitekti on Dezeen include student housing inspired by wooden baskets and an apartment with staggered floors.

See all our stories about OFIS Arhitekti »

Photography is by Tomaz Gregoric and Jan Celeda.

Above: level 1 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: level 2 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: attic level 1 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: attic level 2 plan – click above to see larger image

Above: north section – click above to see larger image

Above: south section – click above to see larger image

Above: east section – click above to see larger image

Above: west section – click above to see larger image

Above: sun diagram – click above to see larger image

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by OFIS Arhitekti appeared first on Dezeen.

Film studio Carniolus has produced a series of movies to document the architecture of Slovenian practice OFIS Arhitekti and the first gives a tour of the 6×11 Alpine Hut, a holiday home in Slovenia’s Triglav National Park.

Completed in 2009, the house was designed by OFIS Arhitekti in line with a set of plans for a traditional Slovenian hut that had already been granted permission on the site. The architects designed a contemporary version with the same dimensions, roof pitch and materials, meaning a new construction permit was not required.

The house is used as an alpine retreat for a family, so the architects added three bedrooms and a sauna on the top floor, as well as a large living and dining room on the ground floor that opens out to a sheltered veranda.

See more photographs of 6×11 Alpine Hut in our earlier story.

See all our stories about OFIS Arhitekti »

Photography is by Tomaz Gregoric.

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by OFIS Arhitekti appeared first on Dezeen.