Focus sur l’artiste finlandais Pietari Posti qui a récemment imaginé une série d’illustrations très réussie réalisée pour un guide de shopping de la ville d’Istanbul. Colorées, joviales et d’une grande qualité, ces créations sont à découvrir sur son portfolio et en images dans la suite de l’article.
by Veronica Menendez Heather Schultz and Juan Lujan were inspired by the people of Dikokore (pronounced “dee-ko-ko-ray”), while living and working near the village in the nation of Benin. Working in realms spanning education, gender development, environmental awareness, creativity and art, after arriving…
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This year Cool Hunting was fortunate enough to have the artist Clay Ketter as our companion at London’s Frieze Art Fair. Ketter is well known for his post-minimalist work…
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Non ditelo a nessuno ma la replica della DCM Dining chair la trovate su VEGA.
News: interior designer Christopher Jenner has been appointed creative director of rail company Eurostar, stepping into shoes vacated by Philippe Starck who designed the firm’s train interiors, lounges and staff uniforms a decade ago.
Christopher Jenner has been taken on board to work on new and existing design projects for Eurostar, the company that runs the high-speed passenger trains that link the UK to mainland Europe, as it prepares to launch a new fleet of trains.
“This partnership gives me the opportunity to bring my design skills to a wide range of customer touch points,” said Jenner. “Travel plays such an important part in our lives, and this collaboration with Eurostar will allow me to further elevate the customer experience.”
Starck was previously tasked with redesigning the train interiors, terminals, check-in lounges, signage, staff uniforms, cutlery and food for the company in 2001 and continued to work with the firm as a consultant until 2005.
Jenner designed a conceptual Eurostar cabin in February 2012, which featured individual seats covered in quilted yellow fabric, plus a combination of hardwood and carbon-fibre surfaces.
Main image of Eurostar trains is courtesy of Shutterstock.
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as creative director appeared first on Dezeen.
Dutch Design Week 2013: the aluminium structures of these cabinets by Rotterdam studio Minale-Maeda poke through their plywood skins to create a coloured grid on the inside and dashed patterns on the outside.
The Wrong Colour Furniture System by Minale-Maeda has a structure made of anodised aluminium, with teeth in the bars that bite into the plywood panels and secure them in place once slotted together.
Each bar is colour-coded in cyan, magenta and yellow according to its orientation. The ends of the bars pierce the plywood panels where they are attached, creating a distinctive grid pattern on the outside with vertical cyan dashes and horizontal magenta ones.
The yellow components are only visible behind the legs and inside the cabinets, framing each module with a yellow square.
“The name Wrong Colour comes from the idea that it is like an X-ray of a piece of furniture, processed with imaging technologies like in baggage scanners to highlight differences in densities between materials and better separate them when they overlap,” Minale-Maeda told Dezeen. “It follows the idea that the project is about transparency in production and construction, and the colours are crucial in highlighting the separate elements.”
“The other reason to have three different colours is that they serve as a guide in the assembly of the piece, because each plane has a separate colour so it aids in picking the right parts for each panel and later in assembling the panels into a box,” they added.
The modular units can be stacked in different configurations and can be ordered with or without doors direct from the designers. “There is great flexibility in materials and colours that we are experimenting with, so custom schemes is one direction we are developing and the other is having a greater variety of module sizes,” they said.
Wrong Colour Furniture System was nominated for the Dutch Design Awards and is on show alongside the other shortlisted projects as part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven until Sunday.
“Many influences converge in this piece of furniture, including those of Rietveld, Mondriaan and Japanese culture,” commented the selection committee. “It is a modular system turned inside out in an interesting way.”
Naples-born Mario Minale and Tokyo-born Kuniko Maeda founded their studio in 2006 after graduating together from the Design Academy Eindhoven. They often highlight the method of construction a key aesthetic component in their work and past projects include plywood furniture joined with 3D-printed connectors and a collection that can be downloaded and produced locally.
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by Minale-Maeda appeared first on Dezeen.
Whether we value the utility, appreciate the form-factor or gravitate toward the less common—we love a wagon. Oftentimes, and especially in the US, wagons are not built with driving performance in mind. Fortunately, Mercedes-Benz sees enough of a market to justify selling…
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Scandinavian architects Guise designed this retail space in Stockholm as a blank canvas for any fashion brand to display their garments against (+ slideshow).
Guise designed the white interior of the D&V Multibrand Store to provide a neutral background for different retailers.
Powder-coated steel pillars have perforated corners to accommodate a flexible steel shelving system and also allow clothes to be hung directly from the holes.
The pillars are arranged in staggered lines and spread throughout the store, grouped for garments designed by different clothing labels.
Central display units are made of asymmetrical stacks of angled boxes, which each flare outward from their bases to create more surface area on top for folded items.
“We used a floor area of 40 by 40 centimetres, equivalent to one folded shirt,” said the designers. “This area was designed to grow into a table with a surface for seven shirts. This was repeated until the table offered an area for 20 shirts.”
Oak-clad storage boxes line the edges of the shop and the cash register covered with toughened glass. All pieces of furniture were custom made for the store.
Guise have also designed custom-made furniture for this Stockholm shoe retailer.
Photography is by Brendan Austin.
Here is some more information from the architects:
We used a floor area of 40×40 cm, equivalent to one folded shirt, this area were designed to grow to a table for 7 shirts. This logical course of action was repeated until the table offered an area for 20 shirts. The final shape is a result of this commercial rationality, making a 20 times profit in display area.
Being asked not to have any specific garments or brand in mind the space was designed as a neutral space similar to a warehouse. White and with no branded features, hence the empty photos.
We designed a L-shaped beam with a perforation along the corner. Shelves were custom designed to fit the perforated pillars. The beams were distributed asymmetrical around the store, like a forest of pillars where clothes can hung or be placed according to every new items needs.
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by Guise appeared first on Dezeen.
Dutch Design Week 2013: a team of ten Eindhoven architecture, design and advertising studios have been brought together as a “virtual” studio to design a new open-source identity for the Dutch city.
Variations of the “raw and rough” logo have been given to local businesses to adopt and design studios have been encouraged to create their own interpretations.
“We did something really unique we think,” said Peter Kentie, managing director of the city’s marketing organisation Eindhoven365, which commissioned the logo. “We started up something called the Virtual Design Agency and we picked the best of the best of the Eindhoven region – graphic and motion designers, fashion designers, architects, typographers – and we put them together as a new company to create the identity.”
Both the logo and the process of procuring it are intended to reflect the energy and creativity of Eindhoven, which has burgeoning creative and technology industries and which was named the world’s most “Intelligent Community of the Year” in 2011.
“Eindhoven is a city in development,” said Kentie. “The task originally was to create a marketing brand for the city but what we also did was take the opportunity to rebrand the logo, the identity of the city council, of the city itself.”
Graphic designers Raw Color, architect Marc Maurer and creative agency Scherpontwerp were among the studios selected to contribute to the project.
“Eindhoven as a city is about working together,” Marc Koppen of Scherpontwerp told Dezeen. “Everyone knows each other, works together, talks about the projects together. That’s why we came up with the idea of trying to work with many agencies, not just one.”
Koppen added that the open-source nature of the logo reflected the spirit of multi-disciplinary collaboration in the city. “That’s also the theory about the city, that everyone is involved and works together, working on it and with it,” he said. “If you want to do it in your own way, then it’s possible.”
After initial discussions between the ten studios Scherpontwerp, Edhv and Eric de Haas were asked to take the concept ideas forward together. They worked on the project from their separate office spaces, forming the Virtual Design Agency, with designers from the earlier stage acting as consultants.
Together the group came up with a simple grid of lines to create the logo, which comprises three thick zig-zag shapes spaced on top of each other to form an abstract letter E.
“The idea is about energy,” said Koppen. “We tried to find a way to visualise the energy of the city and what people often say about Eindhoven is that it’s a really raw and rough city.”
The grid behind the logo means the angular sections can be filled in different colours and shades, adapting it for companies or sectors across the city. A red graphic on a white background is used for the starting point as the city’s historic colours.
The team also created a font called Eindhoven to accompany the logo, formed in a similar style but without sticking to the grid. “[The font and logo] have the same kind of edginess,” Kentie said. “The typography also gives you the feeling that its not completely finished, like a work in progress.”
The identity was completed in June and has already been applied to civic vehicles, signage around the city and even T-shirts for runners competing in the Eindhoven marathon. Eindhoven365 have given the graphics to local businesses to customise and use as part of their own branding.
“With the energy symbol you can do everything,” Koppen told us. “You can load it with images, make it 3D or 2D, change the colours. You can really build it up with a lot of different pieces and angles. We show it now in a really basic way but underneath there’s the structure that you can use to transform it and everyone can do that in their own way.”
Eindhoven is currently hosting this year’s Dutch Design Week, where Daan Roosegaarde has unveiled an installation consisting of hundreds of wireless LED crystals and Iris van Herpen scooped the top prize at the Dutch Design Awards.
Read the full interview with Scherpontwerp’s Marc Koppen below:
Dan Howarth: Tell me about the origins of the project.
Marc Koppen: We started about one and a half years ago I think and we were asked by Eindhoven to give a short presentation on the city as the designer with ten different companies. They chose three companies to do the job, that was a little bit strange in the beginning because you have your own style of course. We had to find a new way of working together on such a huge project and we are three totally different design agencies. It was a little bit strange in the beginning, but after half a year it started to take off a little bit, it was great.
Dan Howarth: Which other design agencies did you work with?
Marc Koppen: One of the design agencies is called Edhv and the other is Eric de Haas. Most of the time we don’t physically work together, we aren’t in the same room but we try to discuss the work. We make our own work for the city then we bring it back together, to the group and discuss it.
Dan Howarth: Did you work with graphic designers and architects as well?
Marc Koppen: In the beginning it was really a big selection. There were artists, architects, photographers, colour designers, graphic designers and we all worked together on the decisions, but in the end it was really necessary to get the work done so they chose to do the work with graphic designers. But right now, at the moment we are still inviting people to work with us. Raw Color are advising us on the colours, we are still working with a lot of different agencies.
Dan Howarth: And they are all based in Eindhoven?
Marc Koppen: No, one is based in Amsterdam I believe, but they are all originally designers from Eindhoven. They moved to different cities but they are from Eindhoven.
Dan Howarth: Do you think this is the first time that so many agencies have come together to work on a project like this?
Marc Koppen: I’m not sure but coming from the briefing in the beginning we discussed that Eindhoven as a city is about making and working together, taking on different project together. Years ago, for example I worked in Amsterdam and there the agencies are really working for themselves. You don’t often talk with other designers or you’re not supposed to meet with the clients of other designers so its nice to work in Eindhoven, it’s really an open structure. Everyone knows each other, works together, talks about the projects together and thats why we came up with the idea of trying to work with many agencies, not just one. It won’t be the first time but I don’t know about another case.
Dan Howarth: So the logo is designed to reflect the fact that Eindhoven is a place where people collaborate.
Marc Koppen: Yeah we started that discussion very early on when we came together to talk about a vision for the city. They came up with the idea to work together, they chose three agencies to coordinate it and do the basic design work. But they are still asking us to talk with a lot of people about it and get a lot of people involved. It was their idea to do it this way yes.
Dan Howarth: So are you still operating under the title of Virtual Design Agency?
Marc Koppen: Yes because it’s the closest idea to what it is! We [each] have our own workspace, we are not sitting together. It was a little strange in the beginning.
Dan Howarth: How did you come up with the coloured zig-zags of the logo?
Marc Koppen: We tried to find a way to visualise the energy of the city. What people often say about Eindhoven is that it’s a really raw and rough city. For example if you take a look at Utrecht or Amsterdam, or The Hague, or Maastricht, they’re cultivated in a certain way and they have a history. Eindhoven is really a rough city where a lot of work has to be done. It’s called the City of Light because [electronics giant] Philips started their lighting company here. So we had to find a visual way to transform the energy and that all started with energy and lighting. That’s the really basic idea about it.
Dan Howarth: The city is encouraging local businesses to use and adapt the identity. Was the idea to have an open-source logo?
Marc Koppen: Yes sure, that’s also the theory about the city, that everyone is involved and works together, working on it and with it. If you want to do it in your own way, then it’s possible. The basics are done but now we have to translate it to other people. So we have to find a way of inspiring other people because we cannot write a book about how to use it, it would be too difficult, everything is possible, but we have to inspire other designers to use it in the right way. We’re working on it right now. That’s a really nice process.
Dan Howarth: What parts of the design allow it to be adapted?
Marc Koppen: The typography is our own. We call it the Eindhoven and you can work with it as a typeface. With the energy symbol you can do everything, you can load it with images, make it 3D or 2D, to change the colours. There’s a really nice grid underneath it so you can really build it up with a lot of different pieces and angles. We show it now in a really basic way but underneath there’s another structure that you can use to transform it so everyone can do that in their own way.
Dan Howarth: Are red and white the colours of the city?
Marc Koppen: Yes, they are really the colours of Eindhoven and we thought about changing it, but the fact that it has to stand for energy and have a rough edge to it. When you see it with other logos, its a little bit rough, its not really “nice”. We have to stand for that energy and the raw hard red does that.
The post Open-source visual identity for Eindhoven
by Virtual Design Agency appeared first on Dezeen.
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