Hasta La Ideas

Awesome stuff from London-based, Owen Gildersleeve.

From Owen’s site: He graduated from The University of Brighton in 2008, and has since worked for a range of international clients. His work explores both 2D and 3D styles, and he finds great enjoyment in experimenting with new materials and techniques.

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pWe’re excited to hear about any new train projects in the rail-challenged U.S., and right now the most public one we’ve got is the A HREF=”http://www.xtrainvegas.com/” X-Train to Vegas/A. The luxe, 100% private-financed train is destined to launch in late 2011 and will ferry passengers from L.A. to Vegas and back amidst bar cars, gambling cars and dining cars./p

pOne disturbing thing we found: On the X-Train website’s “Photo Gallery” section purportedly showing the train, the below image is presented and labeled a “rendering:”/p

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pFolks, that is in fact an actual photograph–of the Blue Train, South Africa’s fabled luxury hotel on wheels. A HREF=”http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16928394/” Here’s a link to a 2007 article/A on the Blue Train featuring the photo in question. /p

pThe photo is the only one on the X-Train website that doesn’t feature the stamp of X-Train designers A HREF=”http://csdarchitecture.com/” Carpenter Sellers Del Gatto Architects/A so hopefully it wound up on the website by mistake./pa href=”http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/the_vegasla_x-train_sounds_cool_so_why_use_another_trains_photo_16553.asp”(more…)/a
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With the Olympus PEN E-PL1, you can take your photography to new places. Compact like a point-and-shoot, it packs an SLR-quality sensor, HD video recording, and eye-popping in-camera filters. Its Live Guide makes experimenting with depth-of-field and shutter speeds easier than ever. (Check out CH’s review and field test of the EPL1’s predecessor, the E-P1.)

What would you do with this much camera in the palm of your hand? Direct a digital film? Document an expedition? Olympus offers the chance —and $5,000 to make it happen—with its “PEN Your Story Challenge.”

Voters on YouTube will nominate the top 20 video proposals. From this group, judges from Olympus and the YouTube community will select six finalists. They’ll receive their own E-PL1 and $5,000 for their projects.

Once the finalists have uploaded their completed projects to YouTube, voters and Olympus judges will crown the Grand Prize winner, who’ll win a trip to New York City and an invitation to the US Open on Olympus Day. The winner’s project will be showcased at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

To enter, submit a video proposal on how you’ll unleash the E-PL1’s innovative features to www.youtube.com/getolympus. There, you’ll find tips on producing your submission from Erik Beck of Indy Mogul. More details can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and at getolympus.com. The contest is open to US and Canadian residents.

by Russ Lowe

Recently put to the test at a German Black Metal show, my Dita frames held up to the frenzy of elbows and foot stomping, returned to me with only a torqued arm that I easily snapped back into place. After wearing them for eight years, I finally realized why they are so coveted outside of their sleek silhouettes.

The episode resulted in a refreshing phone conversation with Dita co-founder John Juniper about good snow, his three-decade friendship with co-founder Jeff Solorio, and his proudest moment since launching the line. Below we discuss their newest arrivals (including the chunky Insider shades, aviator style Condor, and stately Grandmaster-Three) and where the brand is headed in the future.

Dita began out of a childhood friendship?

Yeah, Jeff and I have been friends since kindergarten and kind of ended up in the same place as we got older, with similar interests design-wise, so it was just a natural collaboration. It’s been great.

How did your common interests in design end up applied to optics?

Surfing and snowboarding had been a big part of things for us, and we identified a need in the market from it, and ran with it. It started with a few female board sports athletes we knew that were just frustrated with the lack of options out there. [They wanted] sunglasses that performed, but that they could wear anytime.

How did the first few concept frames from the mid-’90s compare to your current collection?

Even then the frames we were interested in making pulled from more classic shapes from the past—an oversized scale, iconic designs from the ’50s and some ’80s punk rock influences.

How did you leap from progressive action sports optics for women to a more fashion-focused approach?

It kind of just happened because of the sort of stuff Jeff and I were interested in. A lot of our friends in L.A. had good taste, and we listened to the feedback we kept getting.

Actually, we started off producing our initial frame style in 250-unit batches, and celebrities like Jonathan Davis (Korn) and the Olsen twins started wearing them. Boutiques started placing orders, things got pretty hot after that, and we were forced to expand, introduce better designs and find better manufacturing in Japan.

Rad problem. Since Ashley and Mary Kate, how have celebrity endorsements continued to impact your business, and your design perspective?

We’ve been lucky to have a lot of people fall in love with our product, and just show up in the press wearing them. We haven’t had to peddle it too hard. From Brad Pitt to LeBron James (who wears the Grand Master in almost every press conference), it’s been pretty cool to see. It’s really rewarding.

Years back, I was out hearing some music, and John Lee Hooker came out on stage wearing a pair of High Balls. That was kind of it for me. Like, this little full-circle moment where I sat there and just realized what was going on, and what we’d created. It was pretty cool. Even cooler was that they weren’t given to him.

Assuming your drive is to keep making your brand better based on incremental progress, where do you go from here?

Well, it’s tougher than ever to stand out today. There’s just so much great stuff out there, and kids can pump out a sketch on their laptop and connect with a factory somewhere and all of a sudden it’s our competition.

We’re interested in continuing to work with top designers around the world, and investigate channels that keep an exclusive edge so Dita continues to be an experience and a culture, as well as just well-made eyewear.

In many ways, we’re sticking with what’s worked since day one: Minimal to zero logos, refining classic shapes in optics like the circle—just pushing toward pieces that will have as much contrast in the market as possible.

The frames are available from the company’s retail store Dita Legends or by visiting their stores in West Hollywood, Newport Beach and Tokyo.