Hasta La Ideas

Artist Bert Gilbert’s crafty take on a titillating accessory

London-based multidisciplinary artist Bert Gilbert marries DIY with a touch of S&M to create Paper Nipple Tassles—a crafty take on the ubiquitous burlesque accessory. Promising “more fun than you thought possible with paper,” the simple cut-outs are clearly aimed at adding amusement to all kinds of creative activities. Simply cut along the dotted line, apply some “tit tape” and you’re ready for a little lighthearted action.

The Central St. Martins grad originally made the tassels as part of a paper party pack for London’s luxury lingerie shop Coco de Mer, which commissioned Gilbert for her unique tongue-in-cheek outlook on subversive design—a perspective that has garnered her clients spanning Marilyn Manson to Vans. Whether creating products or working in illustration or conceptual art, Gilbert successfully reinvents the traditional with a thoughtfully playful spin on modern design.

Available in five different styles, the Paper Nipple Tassles sell online and in store from London’s Luna & Curious shop, as well as from Gilbert’s own online shop Bert Industries for around £8 a set.

London studio Logical Art has created a series of papery necklaces with delicate cut-out patterns (+ movie).

They may look fragile, but the Air Tattoos are made of a tough paper-like material that’s waterproof and resistant to tearing.

Each one was developed from a hand drawing and simply clips around the neck by slotting one end through the other.

The designers are now raising money for production in exchange for pre-orders through crowd-funding platform Kickstarter.

Logical Art are the designers behind the Empty Memory USB necklaces that were among the bestselling products at our pop-up shop The Temporium in December. Take a look at them here.

See more stories about jewellery on Dezeen here and check out our Pinterest board on the topic here.

Here’s some more information from Logical Art:

Air Tattoo – A new body decoration concept.

London based design studio Logical Art has launched a new project Air Tattoo on the famous crowd funding website – Kickstarter.

Air Tattoo is a collection of wearable art pieces for decorating body and clothes. It enables you to wear a beautiful delicate “drawing” as a piece of paper jewellery. the patterns came from the original drawings of logical art designers.

The material is a special eco-friendly paper. It keeps all the great quality of normal paper (soft texture, light weight, beautiful tension), yet it is very strong. It is light, comfortable, and perfectly fit to your body (neck and shoulders) with our smart fitting design. It is also water-resistant/tear-resistant material, strong enough to wear, even for rainy days. It enables you to wear air tattoo multiple times. The texture is like a leather-piece which has its own quality of volume, like leather. The more you wear, the more leather-like looking it will be.

The idea behind this project is to convert delicate hand-drawn patterns into an air-like “tattoo”. It is something that can decorate the surface of both body and clothes.

The process of this project is very closely related to the “hand” and “craft” element, which gives a intimate feeling of the art work; yet in the same time the production process and material chosen comes with very practical industrial thinking, allowing the beautiful “wearable art” to be provided with a relative low price tag in fashion industry.

Logical Art is a London based Design Studio founded by product designers Hanhsi Chen & Yoo-Kyung Shin after their graduation from Royal College of Art in London. Their design ranges from daily objects, personal accessories to furniture and lighting. Logical Art is especially intrigued by the collision of art and design, thus aiming to blend the concept of art, sculpture and painting into quality products with reasonable price.

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Logical Art appeared first on Dezeen.

Alternative approaches to the letterpress arts

Based out Detroit’s “Ponyride” studios, Brian Christopher Baker and his company, Stukenborg Press, are at the forefront of the ongoing letterpress resurgence. His prints embrace non-traditional materials—specifically, geometrical arrangements of dice that he uses to create intricate patterns. As a contract for The New York Times Magazine, Baker blanketed the publication’s iconic gothic “T” with a layer of red 5s and 2s. We recently toured Baker’s studio courtesy of the Re:View Gallery and Buick to learn about Stukenborg and the world of letterpress design.

Baker’s penchant for unexpected type materials doesn’t stop at dice. He admits that students of his “Alternatives to Type” class have pressed everything from bunion cushions to foodstuffs. “If you can get it stuck down and type high, you can make a small edition of anything,” explains Baker. This open-ended approach gives his creations new level of complexity that goes beyond typical letterpress prints.

The result of years collecting type from various resources, the designer’s collection of type wraps around his studio in trays upon trays of metal and woodblock sets. His main machine was salvaged from the basement of Manhattan’s National Academy of Art. “The janitor said it had been down there for 25 years,” explains Baker. “It’s a champ machine. It took me about three months to get it up and running because it was caked with all kinds of weird stuff.”

For unavailable materials, Baker also sources type from a nearby foundry, and he admits that CNC machining and laser etching have created entirely new opportunities for letterpress designers. The fusion of materials and know-how becomes apparent when Baker pulls a print—the thunderous roll and cracking of colliding pieces demonstrating the nostalgic appeal of the letterpress process.

Contemplating on the state of contemporary letterpress, Baker says, “It’s definitely a defunct form of production, but there are a lot of folks doing it—although it’s small enough that everyone knows each other.” While most letterpress production in recent years has stuck to simple stationery, Baker’s multi-layered poster prints show the true potential of the genre.

Prints by Stukenborg Press can be found at their Etsy shop. See more images of the studio in our slideshow
.

Images by James Thorne

Architect Frank Gehry filled a stage with crumpled paper for a recent production of the Mozart opera Don Giovanni (+ slideshow).

The performances took place at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the venue designed by Gehry that opened back in 2003.

White platforms were scattered amongst the scrunched-up lengths of paper and could be moved around to create a huge staircase at the centre of the stage.

The orchestra surrounded the performance from the back rather than the front, bringing the audience closer to the action.

The production was the first in a trilogy of operas written by Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte that the LA Philharmomic is staging over three years and the other two will reportedly feature set designs by architects Zaha Hadid and Jean Nouvel.

Frank Gehry also recently designed a theatre in New York, which you can see here.

Other architects to have designed stage sets include OMA and John Pawson.

See all our stories about set design »

Photography is by Autumn de Wilde.

Here are the full details of the show from the organisers:

The Los Angeles Philharmonic have revealed the complete creative team and full cast for Don Giovanni, the first installment of an ambitious three-year Mozart/Da Ponte opera project presented at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Joining Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Frank Gehry are Kate and Laura Mulleavy, founders of fashion house Rodarte, and acclaimed director Christopher Alden. One of the most celebrated young interpreters of the role, Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien will lead an international cast as Don Giovanni, sharing the stage with equally notable soloists.

Three of the greatest operas ever written were collaborations between librettist Lorenzo da Ponte and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte. Over the next three years, the LA Phil will present the trilogy (one opera each season), each conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Set designs will be created by three of the most influential architects of our time, and each architect will work with leading fashion designers to create a unique and distinctive visual setting for each of these timeless masterpieces. Each complete opera performance will be a Walt Disney Concert Hall first.

In a fitting beginning, Don Giovanni brings together an acclaimed, Los Angeles-based team. Architect Frank Gehry returns to Walt Disney Concert Hall – the landmark building of his own design that not only transformed Los Angeles, but is now one of the most recognized architectural structures in America – to create an environment uniquely imagined for this auditorium.

“This is an inspiring opportunity to work with my friends at the Los Angeles Philharmonic. This is a project very close to Gustavo Dudamel’s heart. He knows the music like the back of his hand, and has a unique vision that I find very exciting,” says Gehry. “Kate and Laura’s work reminds me of my early days – it is free and fearless and not precious.”

Gehry envisions a set that he describes as a “moving still-life on the stage” that works in concert with the costumes and supports the music of Don Giovanni. Gehry’s modifications will place the orchestra upstage on raised lifts approximately three and a half feet above the action taking place downstage. The choir benches will be removed to allow space for the orchestra. This layout aims to create a unified ensemble between the orchestra and soloists, with a focus on the action at the front of the stage, creating intimacy between the soloists and audience. This configuration has recently been tested in a rehearsal with Gustavo Dudamel and Yasuhisa Toyota, the chief acoustician who collaborated with Gehry and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to develop Walt Disney Concert Hall’s visual and acoustic designs.

California natives, Kate and Laura Mulleavy- the creative force behind the internationally recognized fashion house Rodarte- make their operatic costume debut. Founded in Los Angeles in 2005, Rodarte is the winner of the Cooper Hewitt 2010 National Design Award for fashion and the designers and creators of the ballet costumes for the Academy Award winning film, Black Swan. Admirers of Gustavo Dudamel and Frank Gehry, Kate and Laura are honored to be a part of the Don Giovanni creative team. “Frank Gehry is an incredible artist and brilliant innovator whose unparalleled vision has redefined the modern landscape. We are great admirers of Gustavo Dudamel’s masterful and inspired direction,” says Kate and Laura. “Opera has always been a part of us; our grandmother was from Rome and studied it as a young girl. To be a part of the legacy of Don Giovanni is an amazing opportunity. Working with Frank Gehry in the concert hall that he designed, alongside Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is a dream.” Kate and Laura’s ambition is to create a timeless context for Mozart’s characters, bringing together tradition and their unique point of view.

Director Christopher Alden belongs to a generation of modernist directors known for his use of contemporary imagery and, on occasion, minimalist visual style. He has an eye for bold theatrical gestures that are dramatically effective and his approach to stagecraft is driven by a desire to reveal how powerfully opera stories can resonate with modern experience. Alden has said that “however fascinating the era in which an opera was composed may be, I have a primary responsibility to the world we live in now.” Christopher Alden replaces Paul Curran, who had to step down from the production due to scheduling issues.

Le nozze di Figaro, the second installment of the LA Phil’s Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy, will be performed in May 2013, and the trilogy will conclude with a production of Così fan tutte in May 2014.

The post Don Giovanni set design
by Frank Gehry appeared first on Dezeen.

Reader Rachel submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I know you are huge fan of David Allen and after years of “almost” using his GTD system I finally bought the book [Getting Things Done] and am working my way through it. As I prepare for my two day “gather, process and route,” I find myself with some clutter related questions. First some background points:

1. My husband is in the army, so i like to keep everything as modular and portable as possible, 2. I am currently prepping for a move, so I am currently in down-size mode, and 3. I love using my computer.

Okay, now for my questions: David talks a lot about the proper supplies and having a general reference file. I’m kind of resistant to the idea of investing in paper file folders and filing cabinets when there is so much technology and digital recording available that doesn’t take up near the amount of space. What have you found to be the best capture system for your files? Digital or old school?

I would like to start by saying that you’re right in pointing out that I have enormous respect for David Allen. He is able to communicate his ideas about information organizing and productivity better than anyone else writing on these subjects today. This art of communication is a true talent and it is rare. Most importantly it is extremely helpful for those of us looking for guidance and sanity as we work and live. If anyone reading this hasn’t read his books, I strongly recommend them.

That being said (i.e. I’ll stop being an exhuberent fangirl for a moment), I don’t use the GTD system exactly as he prescribes. It’s not that I think his system is flawed or bad or wrong; it just doesn’t completely work for me and my preferences. And, at least in my personal experience, I’ve found that this is the case for most GTD enthusiasts. We gobble up all we can from his advice and then put our spin on it so it will be something we benefit from and use over the longterm.

If you’re like me, a good amount of the information you collect likely comes to you already in digital form or can easily be scanned and/or digitized (images, emails, PDFs, calendar appointments, etc.). To take these out of a digital form during the processing and organizing phases would be a waste of time and resources, and Allen doesn’t advocate you print these out, either. The most important thing to do is to capture this information in a way so you can reliably process, review, and do all the things you need to do to get things done.

I use a couple plugins for my Mac-based email program Mail that are created by the company InDev: Act-On (which let lets you apply rules to incoming messages) and MailTags (which color codes emails with tags). These are nice for adapting GTD processing and organizing actions, as well as helping to creation action items. Even if you didn’t use the GTD system, these are great plug-ins for email management. I incorporate these plugins to work with my personal email filing system, which I’ve outlined in detail in Unclutter Your Life in One Week. In short, I use Archive, Project Folders, and Read Me folders. The Archive folder is where all messages go after I schedule the work on my calendar or in my project management system. The Project Folders are where I stash project-related information until I can move the email to the Archive folder (e.g. where I put Ask Unclutterer emails until I review them and decide which one I will select for the week’s column). And the Read Me folder is for long emails or emails containing links to articles, typically sent from friends or family, that don’t require immediate attention and that I can read in full the next time I’m standing in a line or waiting on hold. Once I read the Read Me emails, they are moved to the Archive folder.

People who use Outlook as their email client might benefit from a GTD-themed add-in from NetCentrics. And, if you’re a Gmail user, I’ve heard good things about using the ActiveInbox plug-in. (A good ActiveInbox tutorial can be found in the article “ActiveInbox Turns Your Gmail Labels Into an Effective GTD System” on Lifehacker.)

As far as my personal to-do list (action items) and calendar, I do keep these in paper form. I like the physical actions of writing and greatly enjoy crossing things off lists. For the past six months, I’ve been using an Arc customizable notebook from Staples for the list and calendar. I’ve tried to do it all digitally, but I always seem to come back to the paper items for these two things. Comfort is a powerful creature. For work, I keep everything in Basecamp so everyone on staff and our clients can see important dates, to-do items, as well as communicate with each other. It’s ridiculously simple to use, which oddly is why some people don’t like to use it. There are hundreds of digital to-do list and calendar programs on the market and a few are probably already installed on your computer — just find one you love and will use and review.

In regards to other digital paperwork (the general reference stuff), I have set up my Evernote account to mirror the GTD workflow. Everything digital is dumped into it and it syncs with all my handheld devices and can be accessed anywhere in the world there is an internet connection. I also back it up to my desktop and back my laptop up to an external hard drive and again to Backblaze (I’m a wee bit maniacal about backing up my data). I save all my documents locally in a document management program (DevonThink), which I’ve discussed recently in “What tools should I use to digitize my paper piles.” If Evernote and DevonThink aren’t your style, check out OmniFocus for Mac and I know many of our readers use OneNote who have the MicroSoft Office Suite (be sure to check out the free, downloadable templates from MicroSoft to save yourself time).

Thank you, Rachel, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope I was able to help you in your pursuit to get things done and adopting Allen’s GTD system for your digital needs. Also be sure to check the comments for even more advice from our readers. I know we have numerous GTD enthusiasts who read the site and are active in our comments section.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

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