The Nike iD Experience is about taking interactive design to the next level – an approach to a completely hands-on design process inspired by the ubiquitous alphabet letters found on refrigerators! You know, the little letters that eventually form words? With an array of handcasted polyurethane pieces that make up the Nike SB Dunk Hi, it’s up to the viewers to create their own masterpiece.
“To be sure, the marvelous paintings by Balthus of the twelve-year-old Thérèse [Blanchard], dreamily gazing at the viewer with her white panties showing (Thérèse with Cat, 1937), or the painting reproduced in the catalog of the nude Laurence Bataille (daughter of Georges Bataille) stretched back, cat-like, in a chair, while a sinister-looking person draws the curtains to throw light on her naked form (The Room, 1952–1954), are unsettling, but not because of anything pornographic….What is disturbing about Balthus’s pictures of girls is not just the age of his models, but the atmosphere, which is creepy, full of dread and latent violence, and yet extraordinarily beautiful. Girls are trapped in angular, often torturous poses in tight gloomy spaces. There is something in Balthus’s art of those claustrophobic Victorian novels about children locked up in dark attics.”
The 2014 Brit Awards statue was unveiled today – this year’s punk-inspired black-and-white creation was made by hat designer Philip Treacy.
Treacy, who was helped in his early career by the late, great Isabella Blow and has gone on to make hats for everyone from Alexander McQueen to Lady Gaga, as well as Kate Middleton and the Harry Potter films, said in a statement: “Music has always been my inspiration and I’m fortunate to have worked with some of the music industry’s greatest artists. My inspiration for the trophy comes from a uniquely British genre of music, Punk.”
The fourth creative to design a statue since 2011 (when it was decided the traditional trophy would be replaced with a different design each year, a programme initiated by Music), Treacy’s is the most inventive to date – partly because he is the first to alter its form. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, artists Damien Hirst and Sir Peter Blake all merely decorated the surface:
Hirst’s spot design looked striking but featured the same pattern he has used in more than 1,300 paintings. Westwood’s Union Jack design captured the Britannia theme, but the words ‘stop climate change’, while worthy in intent, did little to capture the spirit of the awards or British music in general.
Blake also used red, white and blue for his trophy, which had the word BRIT running vertically along it. His patriotic design again captured the ‘British-ness’ of the awards and referenced his iconic pop art work, featuring motifs he has used throughout the years, but like Westwood and Hirst’s, it didn’t feel particularly daring.
Treacy’s, however, is dramatically different, referencing an iconic era in UK music without the use of red, white and blue and capturing its creator’s work and style.
Voici l’étonnant travail du collectif allemand Deskriptiv. Utilisant un dispositif complexe de programmation, il nous offre ici avec la série « Limm » un véritable éloge à l’art digital sous forme filaire faisant penser à des cartes des vents. Des visuels incroyables à découvrir dans la suite de l’article.
Deborah Solomon‘s new book, American Mirror (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), reveals that Norman Rockwell wrestled with severe depression and was consumed by a sense of inadequacy, but today let’s focus on the turkey—specifically, the plump bird in Rockwell’s Freedom from Want. An image of the oil painting, part of a series illustrating President Franklin Roosevelt’s four freedoms, appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1943. The work is on view through January 27 at the Art Institute of Chicago as part of “Art and Appetite,” an exhibition that explores the tasty tradition of food and drink in American art. The museum cooked up this video with chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia that begins with Rockwell and ends with helpful tips on dressing your Thanksgiving turkey.
Back for its fifth go-round, the Prix Pictet has announced the eleven photographers shortlisted for the purse of 100,000 Swiss francs (approximately $110,000, at current exchange). The entry-by-nomination international photography competition sponsored by Swiss bank Pictet & Cie seeks to promote sustainability, and this year’s theme is consumption. Selected for the shortlist by a jury that includes previous winner Luc Delahaye, architect Wang Shu, curator Elisabeth Sussman, and Martin Roth, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum, are: Adam Bartos, Motoyuki Daifu, Rineke Dijkstra, Hong Hao, Mishka Henner, Juan Fernando Herrán, Boris Mikhailov, Abraham Oghobase, Michael Schmidt, Allan Sekula (who passed away in August at the age of 62), and Laurie Simmons. continued…
Combining cyber architecture with interactive technology and sensory experiences, the Tuiteratura installation reflects the collaborative spirit of social networks and proposes engagement between the public and the installation itself. Excerpts from famous literary pieces dance across the screen alongside user submitted Tweets using the hashtag #tuiteratura. In person, users can leave their own mark by using physical motions to control an interactive keyboard, further contributing to the exhibit’s content.
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (What the tech? was originally posted on Yanko Design)
On a quiet afternoon at the Whitney Museum of American Art, we had the opportunity to meet with Swatch Creative Director, Carlo Giordanetti. While exploring the Robert Indiana exhibition, Giordanetti shared his process of collaborating with contemporary artists, and finding inspiration in…
Two hundred and eighty eight editions of the new American Illustration Annual have handmade covers, created by 45 different artists and illustrators. Overseen by creative director Richard Turley, the project saw much ink, a lot of paint and several naked men…
Cover by Matt Dorfman
As the creative director of Bloomberg Businessweek, Turley is used to tight deadlines. But having a single weekend to realise his aim of creating over 200 unique editions of the latest American Illustration Annual must have been quite the challenge.
But from the film of the event, shown at the bottom of this post, it looks like it went like a breeze: illustrators are sat and stood here and there, drawing and painting, even drilling into various copies of AI32. According to Turley, the idea for the project was about taking a relatively small run of books and seeing if they could be made into “an event” to support this year’s Annual.
Working from the theme of ‘nakedness’ – and the idea that competitions facilitate a kind of ‘self-exposure’ – Turley says he invited several male life models on site, which the illustrators would then be able to work with should they choose to do so. The life drawing would also provide a central thread which would hold the covers together.
“To be judged by your peers (or anyone) is fairly unpleasant,” says Turley, “the idea of exhibiting your work, your ‘self’. Out of that tenuous thought; naked men felt far more interesting to see than naked women.
“When we did the event we had life models. Some used them, most didn’t. Quite a few people came to the event with a fairly fixed idea of what they were going to do, which was fine. Some used the human form, some didn’t. We were asking people to give their time and their work for free, and that sort of generosity isn’t best repaid by forcing people to draw naked men. In fact if I learnt anything from this, I learnt you can’t force people to draw naked men. (Though perhaps I’ll bank that idea for another project).”
Around twenty artists each created three or more editions over two days from a studio space set up in New York, while others, including Paula Scher and Bob Gill, contributed single editions. Peter Arkle, for example, drew himself naked (twice) over ten books. Shown below are a selection of images of the artists at work, plus several of the finished covers.
Cover by Marcellus Hall
Cover by Al Murphy
Above, editions of the American Illustration Annual ready to be worked on. Monica Ramos, below, adds detail to one of her copies.
Of the paper used on the cover, Turley says that they had wanted something off-white and that would work with a range of materials. “We were lucky with the cover stock,” he says. “Complete accident. For some reason, for me, off-white paper = expensive. Plus, it’s not passive. You see the paper, acknowledge it, rather than it only being a vehicle for the work.
“I wanted these books to feel hefty and valuable, to be proper pieces of serious design. Then to have people deface the cover. Violate this precious object. A lot of the artists loved the paper. It seemed to take whatever medium you threw at it very well.”
Below, Monica Ramos adds some fine detail to one of her covers.
Chris Feczko (above) works on one of his books. He also produced the edition shown, below.
Ellen Weinstein (above) with four of her covers – a fifth is shown, below.
Peter Arkle working away, below, and a finished cover below that.
Serge Bloch produced the following two covers in his batch – and his materials he used on the day are shown below that.
And here are some more of the finished covers:
Cover by Al Murphy
Cover by Deanne Cheuk
Covers by Edel Rodriquez
Covers by Franca Barone
Cover by Judy Chung
Cover by Jenn Steffey
Cover by Jon Burgerman
Back cover by Jungyeon Roh
Cover by Matt Dorfman
Cover by Pablo Delcan
Cover by Richard Turley
Cover by Jordan Awan
Cover by You Byun
The artists and illustrators who worked on the covers project were Peter Arkle, Jordan Awan, Rose Bake, Marian Bantjes, Franca Barone, Nicholas Blechman, Serge Bloch, Mirko Borsche, Ethan Buller, Jon Burgerman, You Byun, André Carrilho, Deanne Cheuk, Judy Chung, Jennifer Daniel, Pablo Delcán, Matt Dorfman, Arem Duplessis, Chris Feczko, Ed Fella, Adrian Forrow, Bob Gill, Carin Goldberg, Steven Guarnaccia, Marcellus Hall, Scott King, Nora Krug, Tim Lahan, Pearce Marchbank Studio, Al Murphy, Victo Ngai, Other Means, m/m Paris, Monica Ramos, Rand Renfrow, Edel Rodriguez, Jungyeon Roh, Laurie Rosenwald, Jonny Ruzzo, Paula Scher, Chris Sharp, Tamara Shopsin, Jenn Steffey, Ellen Weinstein and Paul Windle.
According Mark Heflin, editor and director of AI-AP, the books will be sent out to those who purchased an advance discount copy of the AI32 book earlier this year (the receipient will not know what edition they have until they open the package). Subsequent orders will be fulfilled with the print edition which has a cover created by Jon Han.
More covers at americanillustration.tumblr.com. The American Illustration site is at ai-ap.com, where the regular printed edition of the book is also available ($45).
Le photographe suisse Olaf Breuning, basé à New York et à Zurich s’est récemment intéressé à l’utilisation de bombes de fumées colorées pour composer des visuels d’une incroyable beauté. Déjà auteur de nombreux clichés d’une grande beauté, découvrez ces images dans la suite de l’article.
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“To be sure, the marvelous paintings by Balthus of the twelve-year-old Thérèse [Blanchard], dreamily gazing at the viewer with her white panties showing (Thérèse with Cat, 1937), or the painting reproduced in 
