Hasta La Ideas

cok cok cabinet – play with less to create more

If this distinctively staggered group of attractive individuals appears a bit more colorful (and color-coordinated) than the typical Annie Leibovitz-snapped celebrity scrum, it’s because the subjects aren’t famous actors or directors, and this only looks like a Vanity Fair cover try. It’s actually an ad from Benjamin Moore’s new campaign, which touts the venerable paint company’s high standing in the design community. “According to a recent survey, nearly 80% of the design community recommends Benjamin Moore over any other paint,” notes the ad, referencing a finding from a company survey of “3,000 design and painting professionals.” The statistic hovers below Mark Seliger‘s photograph of Moore fans including interior designers Celerie Kemble, Jamie Drake, and Amy Lau and architect Vladimir Topouzanov (a nod to the Canadian market). All are participants in the company’s “Experts Exchange,” a Facebook initiative aimed at uniting design pros and consumers. Developed by Cramer-Krasselt/New York, the $15 million campaign is betting big on new media. “We’re creating a Facebook on steroids program,” said Benjamin Moore marketing manager Nick Harris in a press release. If all goes according to plan, the campaign “will stir consumer fans to meet up with paint and style experts and aficionados for an online cocktail party of conversation about decorating with paint and color.”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A helping of bread crumbs has fourteen times more sodium than potato chips? Good Magazine helps answer such questions with a surprising look at the salt levels in some of America’s favorite eats in an infographic by Next Generation Food. As expected, fast food burgers rank among the worst offenders—three of the four included are loaded with around 1,500mg of salt—but canned soups like chicken noodle and cream of mushroom don’t lag far behind, hovering around 1,000mg per serving. More worrying, the average American consumes 4,500 mg of sodium daily, over double the recommended amount.

While the infographic looks beautiful (click above for a larger view), the figures don’t, and the FDA plans to evaluate thousands of processed and packaged food items, placing caps on how much sodium they can legally contain.

Practically an encyclopedia, Classic and Modern Fabrics provides a complete guide to the world of textiles with 834 high quality color scans of over 600 fabrics, each accompanied by a brief history and detailed description of its uses.

Authored by textile designer Janet Wilson, this heavy tome seemingly documents every fabric ever created—from the common to the obscure. The alphabetized guide provides valuable insight on frequently used fabrics with an inexhaustible scholasticism, such as the over 25 types of velvet identified and explained down to each minute detail.

The book comes out stateside 1 May 2010 and can be pre-ordered from Amazon or purchased online from publishers Thames & Hudson.

With much of her art focused on African diaspora and the female form, Kenyan-born, Brooklyn-based artist Wangechi Mutu transformed the Deutsche Guggenheim into a cocoon-like setting to aptly display the new works in her upcoming solo show, “My Dirty Little Heaven.” Named “Artist of the Year 2010” by the Deutsche Bank Global Art Advisory Council, Mutu’s works are often as complex as the themes that surround them.

Mutu’s background as a trained sculptor is apparent—her bold collages and poignant site-specific installations are layered with found photos blended together to create body parts, flowers, cars, glitter, fur, and paint. Using duct tape and gray felt blankets she created a backdrop for the exhibit that feels both protective and dilapidated, referencing the pieced-together housing found in shanty towns, places Mutu feels are extremely impoverished yet bursting with creativity. She relays that her exhibition is an homage to these towns, where the people are tenacious and are “actually quite ingenious because they’re still alive despite the conditions they live in.”

Earning an MFA from Yale University, Mutu is as insightful about cultural affairs as she is artistic techniques, making for a highly intelligent and well-composed exhibition. Her collages vary in size from large Mylar works to pieces made on a postcard, each thoroughly conceived and undoubtedly portraying her interest in creating a “human economy.”

“My Dirty Little Heaven” opens 30 April and runs through 13 June 2010.