Both powerhouses in their own right, English designer Tom Dixon and German sporting brand Adidas do many things well in significantly separate spaces, rarely crossing over. However, to explore…
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Advertorial Content: As the days tick away until this year’s Milan Design Week, running 9-13 April 2013, we’re looking forward to our Designer Master Classes and a slew of other design events to be held at );…
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Are you a graphic design junkie? A devotee of New Order? A fan of Henri Fantin-Latour? Or simply a lover of roses? If you answered yes to any (or all) of these questions, then Supreme has the sneakers for you. Among its freshly released spring covetables are three styles of Vans–the SK8-Hi, the Chukka, and the Era–splashed with original album artwork from New Order’s 1983 album Power, Corruption, & Lies, for which Peter Saville deftly selected Fantin-Latour’s 1890 “A Basket of Roses” (in the collection of the National Gallery in London) and appended the modern wink of a color code in the upper right corner.
“When I heard the title Power, Corruption, and Lies, the first thing that came to mind was the dark side of the Renaissance,” said Saville in a recent interview. His viewing of the 1981-82 BBC series The Borgias sent him on a hunt for sinister images. “I went to look for a Machiavellian prince in various museums, and I found some, but a corrupt despot was painfully literal when confronted with it.” On his way out of the National Gallery, Saville stopped to purchase some postcards, including one of Fantin-Latour’s drowsy bouquet. “There was a kind of elegant kitsch to it. I always liked that style and I still do–it’s my mother’s living room.” He later decided to deploy the image as “a foil to the literal meaning of the [album] title but a perfect cypher. It was charming, seductive, and apparently innocent, and in that sense, a more insidious evocation of corrupt strategies.”
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(Photos courtesy the Luxe Project by moo.com)
We’re declaring March Stefan Sagmeister month! The designer’s “Happy Show” opens Wednesday in Los Angeles at MOCA Pacific Design Center (he’ll speak on “Design and Happiness” tomorrow evening in West Hollywood), and on the other side of the country, New York’s Jewish Museum offers up a room full of jaw-dropping, typographical whimsy in “Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh,” the first exhibition of Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh‘s recently launched design firm. Between readying museum shows, the designing duo found time to whip up some new business cards for you–and all profits go to New York’s Coalition for the Homeless.
Now to muster the courage required to give the cards to others. True to their provocative nature, Sagmeister and Walsh have created something that is half graphic design, half social experiment. The seven sets of seven cards in their “Halftone Satisfaction” series are printed with bold sentiments that range from the flattering (“It’s a delight to be around someone who loves with they do.”) to the vicious (“You are a waste of time.”). Lest you vituperate someone (“Fuck you. Eat shit.”) you had meant to compliment (“Your eyes are lovely.”), the back of each card is printed with a mood-matched pattern, from solid white through gradations of dots and finally, solid black. “It’s a test of what kind of person you are and what kind of people you meet,” says Sagmeister, “what cards would you give out and why?” Sagmeister & Walsh’s motivations for creating the cards are easier to explain: they are a limited-edition collection for the Luxe Project, a moo.com initiative that gives 100% of net proceeds to the designer’s charity of choice.
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A judge has nixed the NYC “soda ban”–due to take effect Tuesday, it would have banned 16-ounce containers of sugary drinks that have more than 25 calories per ounce–but an appeal is in the works, and Mayor Bloomberg isn’t the only one looking to change the way we look at fizzy beverages. SodaStream is shaking up the market with its DIY take (slogan: “If you love the bubbles, set them free”). Founded in 1903 with the introduction of “an apparatus for aerating liquids,” the Israel-based company recently teamed up with Yves Behar and his team at Fuseproject to design the Source, a sleek home soda maker. “The design of Source was a process of elimination,” says Behar, who also worked on the packaging, naming, and graphic design of the compostable soda pods. Yaron Kopel, SodaStream’s chief innovation and design officer, made time during his recent trip to NYC to answer our questions about soda, the Fuseproject collaboration, and what’s next for the company.
First things first, what is your favorite beverage?
SodaStream Ginger Ale.
How do you describe SodaStream to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
SodaStream allows you to make carbonated water–which can become cola, fizzy juice, you name it–from home, in an instant. We have become so accustomed to the everyday consumption of bottled soda that its impact has been rendered mostly invisible. From an environmental perspective, when we consume and toss out plastic soda bottles, we’re doing damage. That plastic ends up forgotten, in landfills, in oceans. With SodaStream, consumers can enjoy their bubbles without any environmental impact. In essence, SodaStream takes what was once a passive, environmentally damaging practice–purchasing and enjoying soda–and has made it simple, active and environmentally sound.
What led you to seek out Yves Behar/Fuseproject, and what did you ask them to do?
Yves is among the finest industrial designers in the world. He is an innovator in sustainable design. Yves was tasked with reducing complexity and waste and creating a simple and beautiful object for the kitchen that keeps with 21st Century values. The result is SodaStream Source. Realizing that world-class design is a prerequisite to securing space on the countertop, SodaStream Source combines outstanding design with best-in-class engineering to improve functionality and ease-of-use. Its refined mechanics make the entire top surface responsive to touch. A new Snap-Lock mechanism makes the process quick, easy and intuitive, while an LED display provides instant visual feedback on the level of carbonation.
How was the process of working with Yves?
Yves and I worked together 24/7 for nine months to bring Source to fruition. It was a collaborative process. We shared a similar vision and joint desire to reduce and refine the user experience. Nothing about Yves’ work is redundant–every design attribute has a purpose. The finished product is a beautifully pared back design delivering the luxury of sparkling water, sodas, and bubbly beverages in one iconic minimal piece for the modern kitchen.
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After founding fair trade rug company Node, illustrator Chris Haughton merged his art and craft sensibilities to conceive “18×18”, a collection of 18 fair trade rugs created in collaboration with 18 artists and designers launching exclusively at London’s Design Museum Shop. Haughton commissioned rug designs from the creatives he…
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To celebrate the 50th anniversary of legendary auto maker Lamborghini, Swiss bicycle maker BMC created a limited edition, full carbon road bike inspired by the Italian flair and precision of the Lamborghini Aventador. Having collaborated once before, the two companies, each known for forging their own paths in their…
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by Vivianne Lapointe Last month we traveled to Honolulu to join the bursting community of artists that migrates there every February as part of Pow Wow Hawaii. The exciting event founded by Jasper Wong has turned into a month-long art festival with so much happening that it could hardly be…
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As avid travelers, finding a single bag for all situations almost always ends in compromise, leaving us with an arsenal of luggage clogging up our closets. So when our friends at Tumi approached us to create our ideal, all-purpose bag we jumped at the chance. Having collaborated with Tumi…
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It is both surreal and disturbing to watch people–Very Important People, no less–stagger around an art fair carrying unwieldy cardboard boxes, but such was the scene at yesterday’s Armory Show preview, where a rapidly shrinking tower of the colorful crates made famous by Andy Warhol was there for the taking. And take they did. The flurry of grabbing, folding, and foreign accents was apropos, as this was “Babel (Brillo Stockholm Type)” (2013) by Charles Lutz. The work was commissioned for the fair by Eric Shiner, director of the Andy Warhol Museum. He also curated the special “Armory Focus: USA” section of the fair, which includes Gagosian Gallery, making its Armory debut with a booth wallpapered in Warhol–the man, the myth, the camouflage.
This outbreak of Brillo Box fever is not an isolated incident. Belgian furniture brand Quinze & Milan has inked the appropriate licensing paperwork with the Andy Warhol Foundation to produce the Andy Warhol Brillo Box pouf (at left), a cushy foam cube screen-printed with the Brillo logo. The stool-sculptures will be unveiled next month at MOST in Milan, but the online retailer Fab is now taking pre-orders at $425 a pop.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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