Hasta La Ideas

(Photo courtesy Grace Hawthorne)

It’s TED time, and among the attractions at TEDActive, the parallel event taking place this week in Palm Springs, is “Paper-Punk-a-thon” (pictured), a 25-foot-long installation by Paper Punk founder Grace Hawthorne. We asked the ReadyMade veteran–an entrepreneur, artist, author, and educator who heads up the Creative Gym course at Stanford’s d.school–to tell us more about the interactive project as it unfolds.

What is a “Paper-Punk-a-Thon”?
An all-you-can-fold buffet of Paper Punk shapes. Attendees feast on a limitless assortment of shapes, patterns, and colors, and fold to their heart’s content.

What did you create for the installation?
I made three large anchor panels out of hollow paper blocks to kick things off. Attendees are populating the other nine smaller provided panels with paper block creation that expresses an assigned word.

How have TEDActive attendees responded to your installation?
Enthusiastically! They get to make something with their hands and share it with each other by putting it up on this progressive/collaborative wall. Some of their creations have blown me away.
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Welcome words by Ralph Wiegmann (iF design’s Managing Director) at the reception.

Gianluca Armento (Brand Director of Cassina) explaining the importance of their archive

Over the course of three posts, we take a look at the highlights of the second edition of the Munich Creative Business Week (MCBW), which took place from February 16–24, 2013.

“Die Neue Sammlung,” an impressive museum run by the Free State of Bavaria, houses the largest collection of industrial and product designs in the world. We found it difficult to concentrate on curator Corinna Rösner’s introductory remarks about the museum as we walked by amazing products that most of us only know from design history classes. During our 20-minute walk, it felt like we are traveling through time, passing by Gerrit Rietveld’s chairs, Richard Sapper’s TV and AIBO dogs. Suddenly, we found ourselves in front of a huge paternoster system featuring the “secret archive of Cassina” with a dozen items from the Italian manufacturer, which has been archiving products and prototypes since the 1930s. Gianluca Armento (Brand Director of Cassina) elaborated on the importance of an archive and how it can help brand management. As a company, you need to keep track of your history in order to make strategies for the future.

The “Refuge Tonneau” reconstructed by Cassina

Basic kitchen inside the Refuge Tonneau

The exhibition also features the so-called “Refuge Tonneau,” designed by Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret in 1938, during the threatening early years of World War II. The space-shuttle like mountain shelter has been reconstructed by Cassina for the exhibition to demonstrate that design is not only about objects but also about vision and ideas.

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X marks the spot. The identity for the new event was created by Base New York.

The Bloomberg Administration has been busy pumping up the NYC tech scene and fashion industry, and now it’s focusing on design of all disciplines with NYCxDESIGN, a collaboration among the City Council, Mayor’s Office, City agencies, and a steering committee of 33 design stars ranging from MoMA’s Paola Antonelli to AIGA/NY President Willy Wong. The inaugural twelve-day event, smartly sandwiched between Frieze and ICFF, kicks off on May 10 with happenings that will showcase NYC designers and more, from design-centric institutions and retailers to curators and educators, with the goal of driving economic development.

According to the Center for an Urban Future, NYC is home to more design firms than any other city (L.A. comes in a rather distant second), and the May event will seek to attract even more designers and manufacturers to the city, generate new sales and export opportunities for local designers, and increase design-based tourism. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is setting her sights even higher. “NYCxDesign will help demonstrate that New York City is the design capital of the world,” she said in a statement. London, Milan, and Paris–consider yourself warned.

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The speaker line-up for this year’s 99U conference—which we helped co-found with Behance in 2009—was announced earlier today. The conference, set to be held on 2-3 May 2013, will feature talks by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, TaskRabbit founder Leah Busque, Hosain Rahman of Jawbone and returning speaker Charlie Todd…

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Times Square is awash in hearts this month. Tracey Emin‘s “I Promise To Love You” neonworks are now playing nightly on screens throughout the NYC hub in what is the largest coordinated effort in history by Times Square sign operators. And today the Times Square Alliance debuts Situ Studio‘s “Heartwalk,” the winner of its annual Valentine Heart Design competition, conducted this year in collaboration with Design Trust for Public Space.

The designers at Brooklyn-based Situ Studio looked to the collective experience of Hurricane Sandy as inspiration for their installation, made from hundreds of boards salvaged from storm-ravaged boardwalks in areas such as the Rockaways and Atlantic City. The heart-shaped enclosure, located opposite the TKTS booth, is illuminated from within. Visitors can prowl the perimeter and peek through the slats or step inside, through a flattened area at the base. “We were interested in creating a room within the city–a public space that was simultaneously interior and exterior,” says Situ Studio partner Bradley Samuels. “‘Heartwalk’ is a reflection on the things that bind us together, ephemeral and permanent.”

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