Hasta La Ideas

Dutch brand agency THEY have commissioned designers including Eindhoven collective La Bolleur (above) and Amsterdam designers Tjep. (below) to design bottles for their own brand of champagne.

Above: Zarb special edition by Tjep
Top: Zarb special edition – Rocket by La Bolleur

Called Zarb, a French colloquialism meaning ‘bizarre’, the brand has a pop-up shop in Amsterdam until January where the bottle designs are on display.

Above: Zarb special edition by Aarsman & Sola

Here’s some more information from THEY:

THEY UNVEIL NEW DESIGNS FOR OWN-BRAND CHAMPAGNE

THEY, the Amsterdam-based communications agency, introduce the latest collection of designer bottles for Zarb, their own-brand champagne. Following the successful launch of the champagne in the Netherlands in 2009, Zarb has also been introduced in Belgium, France, Asia, the United States and beyond.

Above: Zarb special edition – Fire extinguisher

For the new collection, THEY (Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year 2009) are again working together with international pioneers such as deep sea photographer David Shale, underwater photographer Zena Holloway and renowned costume designer Vin Burnham.

Above: Zarb special edition by Edhv

The new collection was officially launched at the opening of a pop-up store in Amsterdam’s trendy ‘Nine-Streets’ district. Divers surfaced from the canal and delivered the collection to the store, which will be open from 15 December until the beginning of January.

Above: Zarb special edition – Dress

Zarb is a unique combination of traditional champagne with an unconventional look. The brand owes its name to French slang – ‘zarb’ means ‘bizarre’. Following 2009’s Skin Collection with photography by Cornelie Tollens, the new collection Deep Black: The Underwater Exploration has taken the wonders of the underwater world as its inspiration.

Above: Zarb special edition by Miktor & Molf

The first new bottle in the collection is a journey through the eyes of deep sea photographer David Shale. He has taken pictures down to depths of 5000 metres in order to show us a marvellous world that we have never seen before.

Above: Zarb special edition – Life by Cedric Laquieze

Zarb designed the bottle as an adventure into the unknown, modelled on the magnificent creatures of the deep.

Above: Zarb special edition by Cedric Laquieze

For the second bottle, we swim from the depths up to the surface, where angelic mermaids can be found. Zarb’s design was brought to life by photos from London-based underwater photographer and director Zena Holloway.

Above: Zarb special edition – Fragile

She has previously worked for famous names such as Vogue, Nike and Mastercard and has also won several international awards.

Above: Zarb special edition – Feathers

In addition to the three new designs, selected artists and designers have been commissioned to create special edition magnums.

Above: Zarb new collection – Octopus by David Shale

The costume / product / brand / packaging designers include

• Tjep
• EDHV
• La Bolleur
• Champagne Valentine
• Crabsalad
• Miktor & Molf
• Cedric Laquieze Deux d’Amsterdam
• Hans Aarsman & Claudia Sola Nepco
• Pinky & Lennart Hansje van Halem

Above: Zarb new collection – Angel by Zena Holloway

Zarb is made in the Marne valley using grapes from the vineyards of the Baron family. Zarb is a modern champagne with an elegant bouquet with notes of apple, peach and pear.

Above: Zarb new collection – Surface by Zena Holloway and Vin Burnham

The palette is balanced with aromas of wine and fruit, carried by a perfect structure. Zarb champagne is owned by THEY and stands on its own as a business in its own right.

THEY are a group of nice people in Amsterdam who form an international communications agency. THEY love to make brands grow. Some of the clients THEY work with are AEGoN, Vodafone, CoffeeCompany en Max Havelaar

THEY challenge anybody to a game of ping pong.

See also:

.

Black Box by Marc Newson for Dom Pérignon	Water-shaped bottles by Xiaoli Wen	Waater bottle by Tjep

In this short interview we conducted as part of our Food and Design report for luxury kitchen appliances brand Scholtès, German designer Gitta Gschwendtner talks about her conceptual Drawer Kitchen, which integrates kitchen furniture with domestic storage.

Can’t see the movie? Click here

Watch all our movies »

The interview is one of ten we made in Milan earlier this year to accompany the report. See all the interviews here.

Food and Design is a major trends investigation into the cross-over between the worlds of food and design. It was commissioned by luxury kitchen appliances brand Scholtès.

See also:

.

Philippe Starck on food	Dezeen’s top ten: food	See the full report

Goat milk caramel sauce blended with Macallan scotch for delicious drizzling

When the San Francisco confectioner Happy Goat brought their deliciously artisinal caramels to the NYC Food Fair earlier this year, all it took was one bite before we were hooked. Using locally-sourced, free-range goat milk and Madagascan bourbon vanilla beans, founder Michael Winnike and a few friends mix up each batch in traditional copper pots for an addictive treat that is naturally lower in fat. Also, because goat milk is low-lactose and the closest in nature to mother’s milk, the caramels are also easier on the lactose intolerant.

After a few months of enjoying the caramels on a pretty regular basis, we wondered what they would taste like with a little Scotch mixed in—because, who wouldn’t want that? We connected Winnike with our friends at The Macallan, who were happy to help craft what has become one of the richest, most complex caramel sauces we’ve ever tasted.

The limited-edition jar sells exclusively from our Cool Hunting for Gap pop up shop for $19 each. After experimenting with the sauce on a few different foods, we recommend adding it to a cappucino, dipping apples in it or drizzling over any dessert in need of a little extra zing.

Pittsburgh’s take-out dining concept serves food from countries in conflict with the U.S.

by Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi

Who thought international disputes could leave a sweet, mouthwatering aftertaste? Well the minds behind Conflict Kitchen—Jon Rubin, Dawn Weleski and John Pena see the savory in skirmish, intending to whet palettes and satisfy appetites while educating the city of Pittsburgh on the tenets of conflict. A truly novel (and tasty) installation, the experiment is a take-out restaurant meets public art project, serving food from countries that the United States is at loggerheads with, although overt combat is not a prerequisite.

For Conflict Kitchen, food serves as the main cultural communicator—a “seduction for engagement [that] opens up a space of conviviality and comfort for people,” as Rubin puts it. However, the initiative goes beyond comestibles, intending to spur conversations about the social contexts of the conflicts within these nations. Rubin envisioned a space that “could not only add some culinary diversity to the city, but, more importantly, could create a public platform for a more empathic discussion about the places and cultures that many people are not familiar with outside of the relatively narrow and polarizing lens of the mainstream media.”

Currently called “Bolani Pazi,” today’s iteration of Conflict Kitchen looks to Afghanistan, but the country rotates every four months and I had the chance to check it out when it was representing Iran. Taking on the name Kubideh Kitchen in reference to the staple Persian dish, the restaurant served kubideh—ground beef duly spiced with turmeric and cinnamon, garnished with aromatic basil and mint, and served atop freshly baked barbari bread. “We like to work with simple street food; something that you could make and get easily regardless of your social position within a culture,” says Rubin. “The draw of our food has opened up a curiosity amongst our customers that leads to conversations about politics that might not happen otherwise.”

Conversations really did spill forth from each bite of the kubideh, as the meals at the concept come wrapped in paper printed with opinions and facts about each culture, in this case with bits about the importance of tea and the sui generis New Year custom of Nowuz. Just the other day I shared an extra kubideh wrapper with a close friend of mixed Persian heritage who was both enamored and touched by the words and efforts of Conflict Kitchen, exclaiming excitedly that she was going to share this with her mother. That, like the heady thinking behind it, goes far deeper than the meal itself.

An interview with the lensman behind “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking”

The lead lensman and photo editor behind the forthcoming book “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking,” photographer Ryan Matthew Smith captures food and drink with a keen eye for composition, detail and delectability. In a recent interview with Feature Shoot, Smith discusses the making of the 2,400-page tome and his contribution to making the book renowned chef Ferran Adrià says “will change the way we understand the kitchen.”

From compositing several individual exposures for one enticing cutaway shot of hamburgers on a grill to shooting a lineup of eggs with a 308 sniper rifle at 6200 frames per second, Smith masterfully executed and edited the cookbook’s selection of images down from the 1,400 he shot. Smith explains that while he had little studio experience before beginning the project, his extensive portfolio of architecture- and nature-focused photos helped prepare him and that “having a strong artistic sense towards photography in general can easily transfer through any of the disciplines from advertising all the way to fine art.”

Smith primarily used a Canon 5D Mark II with zoom and macro lenses to create “minimalist, high contrast imagery that really pops off the page.” The small team of food stylists and cooks were generally led by chef Maxime Bilet, who Smith says “endlessly contributed cool photo ideas and did excellent styling on the food plating shots,” as well as played an instrumental role in the production and engineering of the cross sectional photos.

Building the sets, shooting (and sometimes reshooting) the food and finally editing the photos was a three year process in total, Smith says. The upshot—a meticulously photographed book that demonstrates the full art form of cooking. “Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking” will sell online starting 14 March 2011.