Alexis Bittar Updates Astor Jewels for St. Regis

Jewelry designer Alexis Bittar, whose cozy Upper East Side shop we adore for its mix of taxidermied wildlife and ever-more-exquisite cuff bracelets, is on a roll. Last year, the wizard of Lucite took home the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Accessory Designer of the Year award, made a splash with ads featuring Joan Collins, and opened a trio of boutiques outside of New York (in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago). His latest project is a hospitable collaboration: St. Regis Hotels tapped Bittar to help celebrate the opening of the brand’s twenty-first luxe property—a beachfront resort in Puerto Rico where the butlers “specialize in poolside rituals” (sign us up!)—with a jewelry collection. He took his inspiration from the legendary baubles of Caroline Astor, the socialite mother of St. Regis founder John Jacob Astor IV, and created a necklace, earrings, and brooch (at right). The hand-carved and hand-painted pieces, which range in price from $310 to $490 and are available at Bittar’s stores, mix the designer’s signature Lucite with crystals and pearls. Meanwhile, we’re looking forward to his next round of print ads, which we hear were shot by artist Jack Pierson.

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Friday Photo: Marina Abramovic Is on Fire


(Photos: Diane Bondareff)

Don’t you dare call it a dessert. Artist Marina Abramovic has transformed the good ‘ol Baked Alaska into “a multisensory culinary intervention” now thrilling more adventurous diners at New York’s Park Avenue, the AvroKO-designed restaurant that overhauls everything from its menu and wine list to its interiors and name with the seasons. Executive chef Kevin Lasko (at far left) collaborated on the food experience, “Volcano Flambé,” which includes an exclusive take-away collection of Abramovic’s Spirit Cooking Menus, a recorded reading by the artist guiding diners (who use the headphones and digital audio device placed at their seats in wintry bleached-wood boxes) through the experience of the dish through sound, and the decadent dessert itself, set ablaze as it is served. We hear that the fiery treat is a journey through sensory contrasts: hot and cold, soft and hard, dark and light, sweet and savory. The project came about thanks to Creative Time, and the organization hopes that restaurant patrons have an appetite for more artist-chef collaborations. Janine Antoni, Paul Ramirez Jonas, and Michael Rakowitz will debut their delicious works, also whipped up with Lasko, later this year. Meanwhile, Abramovic’s Volcano Flambé will be available at Park Avenue Winter through March 20. And the best part? You don’t even have to stare her down for the last bite.

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Hillier Wing of RMJM Files Suit Against Parent Company Over Unpaid Bills and Siphoned Cash

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All of the issues plaguing the mega-architectural firm RMJM, which we reported on back in early November, seem to have now made their way over here to the States. The Star-Ledger is reporting that the Princeton, New Jersey-based wing of the firm, formerly known as Hillier Architecture before they merged with RMJM in 2007, thus creating one of the largest architecture companies in the world, has filed suit against their parent company, citing a breach of contract and hundreds of thousands of dollars “in unpaid bonuses and shares that were due in January 2009.” Furthermore, the paper reports that the suit claims that “RMJM was siphoning off millions of dollars from its Hillier subsidiary.” Certainly doesn’t seem at all like a very friendly collaborative environment, and likely not the news RMJM wants added to all the press they received late last year about all the layoffs, staff exits and starchitect Will Alsop not yet landing any jobs for them. From their camp, they’ve denied any wrong-doing, telling the paper that “the firm had faced financial issues but called allegations of asset-stripping ‘both outrageous and utterly untrue.’”

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CES Goes Gaga for Polaroid’s New Grey Label Line

Gone are the spokesmodels, pitchmen, and muses. Now they’re all “creative directors” with a piece of the financial action. And so it was that the recently reborn Polaroid brand returned to the Consumer Electronics Show with pop star Lady Gaga, its creative director, in tow. Friday saw the launch of Polaroid Grey Label, a new line of products that the company describes as reflecting “Polaroid’s long-standing tradition of innovation tracing back to founder Dr. Edwin Land and Lady Gaga’s mission to deliver products that enable creativity for all, celebrate artistry, and make sharing instantaneous across the physical and digital.”

Inaugurating the line are an instant digital camera and mobile printer that use Zink Imaging’s zero ink technology as well as sunglasses fitted with a built-in camera and lenses that double as LCD screens on which the wearer can display favorite images. “I consider myself to be a visionary, not just a songwriter and a singer. I am an artist,” said Gaga, in a statement issued by the company. “I brought my vision and love of fashion, technology, and obsession with the future into all of my work with Polaroid.” The industrial design brains behind the products is San Francisco-based Ammunition, led by Apple veteran Robert Brunner. “[Gaga] and her team are very respectful of what we do, there’s a lot of mutual respect,” he told PC Magazine. “There’s always a risk in pairing with celebrities because we don’t want to be that guy in the background making stuff at somebody’s whim. But working with Gaga has turned out to be exciting and fun.”

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Feeling Anti-Calendar? Welcome 2011 with The Open Daybook

Does the thought of a traditional calendar leave you feeling oppressed and anxious? Do you long for a highly creative way to keep track of passing days and in a more enduring format? Then toss that “Epic Sunsets 2011″ wall calendar and “Kittens! Kittens! Kittens!” desk diary in favor of The Open Daybook (Mark Batty Publisher), a new hardcover book of days that can function as a perpetual calendar, chunky desk planner, sketchbook, journal, or just a fun addition to your coffee table. Over the course of a year, editor David P. Earle gave 371 creative people—including Leanne Shapton, David Rakoff, Miranda July, and Tim Barber—24 hours to come up with a piece of art for a particular day of the year. Their contributions are artfully arranged on 365 pages that feature the month and day (in a range of fonts, languages, and formats) along with ample white space for your own jottings, doodles, or pressing engagements. “Curating this book was a bit like making a mix tape,” writes Earle in the book’s introduction. “I wanted each month to have a rhythm composed of similarities and differences….A wide variety of artists and styles seemed to be the best way to evoke the multiplicity of moods, impressions, and associations that make up the experience of a single year.” And with The Open Daybook by your side, there’s no telling what 2011 (or any year!) might bring. We’re already looking forward to May 19, which features Sara Strahan‘s photograph of legumes assembled into letters that spell “Today is an auspicious day for lentils.”

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UK’s Design Council Launches Project to Combat Bike Theft

Despite all the hurdles this year, from becoming a semi-independent non-profit to their recent plans to join forces with the equally struggling Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the UK’s Design Council is already proving that these recent changes aren’t going to affect their getting quality design-based civic work done. Following their great, high-profile moves earlier this year with designs for safer pint glasses for bars and commissioning Ben de Lisi to design for them a better hospital gown, the Design Council is now looking how to combat bike theft in England. Joining up with a number of universities and government agencies, the organization is pushing forward on a project set up back in 2004 called the Bikeoff Research Initiative, which was established to promote safer biking and to curb theft. The first update is the Council’s launch of this survey, which they’re asking cyclists in the UK to fill out in hopes of getting an idea of how bike theft happens, where it happens, and from there they’ll be able to start thinking of ideas on how to stop it. Nice to see that, after a strong start in 2010, followed by some rough patches there in the middle, that the Design Council is ending the year on a strong note. Judging from earlier projects, we can’t wait to see what’s born out of it.

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Marcel Wanders Designs Cosmetics for M·A·C

Stocking stuffer alert! Dutch designer Marcel Wanders has brought his witty brand of antique futurism to cosmetics in a collaboration with M·A·C. The Estée Lauder-owned brand recently introduced M·A·C and Marcel Wanders, a limited-edition collection that includes mascara, lip glosses, lipsticks, and makeup brushes in high-gloss black casings that echo the balusterial curves Wanders has deployed in interior design projects such as Miami’s Mondrian South Beach. Those who favor his faceted pieces for Kartell will want to snap up a mirrored compact of “sheer mystery powder” (pictured at right), whose scrollwork flourishes are echoed in a glam tapestry clutch that ties with silk ribbons. Meanwhile, we hear that the collection’s top seller is a $30 wearable metal pendant that flips open to reveal a solid version of M·A·C’s sweetened floral scent, Air of Style.

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Contest #03: CLOSED

contest_closed

Thanks so much for all the submissions- we’ll be selecting the winner soon. Stay tuned!

(Original post content)

PRIZE:
CBC Thunderbolt Radio-Canada Small Kit Bag from Red Canoe.

DATE:
Ends October 20th 2010 11:59 pm EST sharp!

HOW:
Submit a link of an example of the coolest media player you’ve ever seen… could be any type from any era.
Think MP3 players, laptops, netbooks, smart phones, tablets, record players, radios, TV’s, DVD players, gramophones, campfires, etc…

The winner will get their link published to DesignPorn’s main site, giving you full credit for the find.

To submit an entry please post your link as a comment to this post.

Around the Design World in 180 Words: Collaboration Edition

  • Ready your dwelling, because Heath Ceramics and House Industries—two of our favorite creative companies—are teaming up on a new line of house number tiles. Get a sneak peek at Heath House Numbers and snap up a prototype digit or two tomorrow afternoon, when Heath opens their splendid Los Angeles HQ for a holiday shopping bash.

  • HP has launched DesignByMany, a new online community that allows designers to collaborate through a variety of challenges. The site is helmed by David Fano, founder of design technology consultancy CASE and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture. The first challenge, which runs through December 17, involves tweaking Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House.

  • PUMA.Creative and Miam’s Bass Museum of Art have announced a three-year partnership as part of the launch of the Creative Caribbean Network, an initiative dedicated to promoting the work of Caribbean artists. Expect exhibitions, performances, educational activities, and other live events at the Bass Museum over the next three years. First up: an exhibition of the work of Isaac Julien that is on view through March 6.

    New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

  • Longtime ‘Office’ Employees Marilyn and John Neuhart Talk Eames

    It’s been another long week, so let’s start off gently this morning, shall we? To support the book The Story of Eames Furniture written by longtime Eames Office employees Marilyn and John Neuhart, its publisher, Gestalten, has released this video, interviewing the pair. If you have 16 minutes to spare, it’s great to hear them speak about the Eames’ and see some of the behind the scenes photos from the book. Here goes:

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