Hasta La Ideas

Two weeks ago, you might recall, we posted about Jeff Koons and his lawyers going after the small, San Francisco-based store and gallery Park Life after somehow discovering that they were selling bookends that looked like balloon-animal dogs. Apparently it was deemed too close to one of Koons’ own pieces, perhaps even one of his most famous, the “Balloon Dog” sculpture. Though the store hadn’t manufactured the bookends, they seemed to become the main, little guy target in the legal advance, at least with the press. Now the NY Times has gotten ahold of the story and reporter Kate Taylor has dug into it. While there isn’t much more new information about the case, other than some word on how Park Life is looking into protecting itself and how the product’s creator, the Canadian company Imm-Living, has also been issued similar cease-and-desist demands, Taylor talked to a number of copyright and intellectual property gurus about how they see the issue. Here’s a bit:

Experts said that given the objects’ differences and that Mr. Koons’s sculpture was based on an object in the public domain, he might have difficulty proving that the bookends violated a copyright. Robert W. Clarida, an intellectual-property lawyer, said that in such a case a judge would probably instruct a jury to filter out the characteristics of balloon dogs in general and focus on what was distinctive about Mr. Koons’s version; if Imm-Living didn’t specifically copy that, it wouldn’t have violated Mr. Koons’s rights.

Taylor also provides some additional backstory on Koons’ own famous legal battles, being sued several times and settling “for an undisclosed amount” in the late-80s, after being accused of copying other artists’ pieces.

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As we reported back in 2007, when Smart Design helped redesign New York’s taxi branding, that period also mark the launch of the city’s Taxi of Tomorrow project, which was on the hunt for a more efficient, safer and comfortable cab. Just over a year ago, the project unveiled its three finalists, developed by Karsan, Nissan and Ford. Writer and new GOOD editor Allison Arieff doesn’t have terribly high hopes that whoever wins the commission to build these thousands of redesigned cars for hire, and filed this great report for the NY Times entitled “All Tomorrow’s Taxis,” discussing the competition but also what really needs to be fixed with these ubiquitous people movers. Alongside her piece, she and the paper asked designer/illustrator Steven M. Johnson to come up with and sketch out his own ideas. They run the gamut from absurd (like the Taxi Hotel and the “Pay What You Can Afford” model) to those slightly more practical, like giving cabs wrap-around bumpers outside the entire car. Like Arieff, we’re not expecting a total, heart-warming transformation in the city’s fleet, no matter which of the three gets picked, but it’s nice to dream, isn’t it?

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Since the bottom dropped out of both the economy and Dubai, we haven’t heard anything about David Fisher and his Dynamic Architecture since 2008. The whole project, as you might recall in this investigative rant we felt compelled to write, felt more than a bit suspicious. Not that it wasn’t a nifty idea, buildings that were forever rotating, each floor independently, but it was perhaps a bit too futuristic, too fast. The Homeostatic Facade System, however, seems perfectly amazing and well-paced. Designed by New York-based Decker Yeadon, it’s an advancement in automatically adjusting, building-sized shades that help keep temperatures balanced within a structure. You’ve seen this implemented in any number of buildings, and can even have it installed in your house, but what sets this system apart is that it uses nanotechnology, making its shifts from letting sun in to blocking it out almost look entirely organic. Sure, it isn’t an ever-rotating building, but it feels a bit like a glimpse into a more immediate obtainable future.

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Could architecture be perhaps the most merit-focused profession out there? Somehow bucking trends and ignoring every other aspect of a person’s make up to solely focus on pure talent? Earlier this year, we passed along historian Edward Tenner‘s piece in the Atlantic that attempted to prove that the business of building is the least ageist career imaginable, with I.M. Pei and Oscar Neimeyer still hard at work in their 90s and 100s, respectively, and Frank Gehry regularly celebrated at his comparatively-youthful 81. Now Slate’s resident critic, Witold Rybczynski, is adding shortness to the characteristics of famous architects that no one seems to care much about. While he calls out the stats that, on average, tall people earn more money in their lifetimes, he puts up against that the fact that many of the modern era’s most famous building designers have been below average on the height scale, including Daniel Libeskind, Robert A.M. Stern and the aforementioned Pei, all of whom are apparently only 5’4″ (Slate includes a handy chart, ranking several of their heights). While Rybczynski does posit that perhaps these architects are building large towers in able to somehow compensate for where they rank on the human-average height scale, it’s perhaps another example of how architecture is the place to be. Particularly if you happen to be old and short.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Our pals/owners at mediabistro have just launched a new service that might be of interest to those in the ad game (or who recently binged on a DVR’s worth of Man Men episodes and are too lazy to build a time machine, but still want to work in the field). In collaboration with the Miami Ad School, they’ve launched Creative Pro, a monthly subscription offering with video tutorials, portfolio critiques, and live webcasts (their first is free, next week, entitled “Building Your Own Creative Industry,” hosted by the two fellas from Lucky Viral Branded Content). If you’re already in the business and looking to move up or out, or you’re trying to break in, it’s apt to be a worthwhile step, with experts set to come in from places like Strawberry Frog, Ogilvy, and McCann Erickson, among lots more. So there’s our sales pitch. If you want to learn how to say all of that in just a tag line or a thirty second commercial, we’ve provided you with a source. You’re welcome.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.