Hasta La Ideas

Adobe’s David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager of digital media, speaks at Adobe MAX on Monday in Los Angeles. (Photo: Adobe/David Zentz Photography/Novus Select)

Adobe is bidding adieu to packaged software, the company announced Monday at its Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles. As part of an expansion of the Creative Cloud subscription model launched in May 2012, Adobe will not release any further versions of its CS applications, although it will continue to sell and support CS6. Instead, it’s betting big on the cloud. “We believe that Creative Cloud will have a larger impact on the creative world than anything else we’ve done over the past three decades,” explained David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager of digital media, in a Monday keynote during which he unveiled a more integrated, collaboration-minded line of Adobe “CC” applications.

Many of the new features require access to Creative Cloud. “‘CC’ represents the next generation of Adobe apps,” he said. “Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, InDesign CC, and all of the other apps will continue to run on your desktop, whether you’re connected to the Internet or not…but the apps will increasingly be part of a larger creative process centered on Creative Cloud.” The major update will be available in June. Adobe exited the first quarter of 2013 with 479,000 Creative Cloud subscribers and expects to reach 1.25 million by the end of the year.

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Wisconsin’s Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum is the only museum dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type. Admission is free, thanks in part to the all-volunteer staff, and the collection includes 1.5 million pieces of wood type and more than 1,000 styles and sizes of patterns. In addition to a 145-foot wall of wood type–the world’s largest–the museum even has its own Matthew Carter-designed typeface, Carter Latin Wide. “I’m not a printer, least of all a letterpress printer,” the famed typographer has said of first foray into wood type. “But I tried to think like one and imagine a typeface that allowed me to print something in a way that I could not otherwise do.”

The museum recently moved into a new home in Two Rivers, and the race is on to reopening day, planned for this summer. According to director Jim Moran, Hamilton desperately needs funding–and an army of volunteers–to physically move millions of pieces of type, plates, presses, tools, and raw materials. Enter letterpress-loving Neenah Paper, which has launched a “Help Save Hamilton” campaign that will donate to the museum all money raised from a series of limited-edition prints. First up is “Form & Function” (above), designed by Two Paperdolls. “I scanned the back of some wood type to achieve an authentic texture,” says Jennifer James of the Philadelphia-based studio, “and adorned the letterforms with ornaments you might find in an ‘old school’ letterpress shop.”

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• Another Armory Week Arts Week is upon NYC, which will play host to a whopping ten art fairs. Unable to resist a good centennial, a Friday afternoon panel at the Armory Show on Pier 94 considers the 1913 original (commemorated in a fetching set of postage stamps), “bringing new facts and controversies to light and dispelling popular myths and misconceptions around the show’s reception by the public and critics alike.” Robert Storr will moderate the discussion among Marilyn Kushner, Francis Naumann, and Gail Stavitsky.

• Once you’ve loaded up on art, you’ll need more walls. May we suggest the Palm Springs home that John Lautner designed for Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores? It’s on the market for for $50 million. Your Kapoor would look divine in the shadow of the curved copper roof.

• Condé Nast has led a $20 million funding round for indie fashion marketplace farfetch. “This investment underlines our commitment to extend the scope of our activities and back great entrepreneurs,” said James Bilefield, president of Condé Nast International Digital, in a statement issued Monday. “It follows the recent news of our involvement with the e-commerce businesses Monoqi and Renesim in Germany.” Also participating in the fundraising were existing investors Advent Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and e.ventures.

• Ever wonder about that tiny text at the bottom of a movie poster? Ben Schott recently took to The New York Times op-ed page to breaks down the billing block.

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Tracey Emin‘s “I Promise To Love You” neonworks now playing on screens throughout Times Square a project for which s[edition] served as curatorial partner. (Photo: Ka-Man Tse)

Would art lovers pay up to download a Damien Hirst? So pondered the art and tech worlds in November 2011, when London-based s[edition] opened its digital doors on the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach–having convinced artists such as Hirst, Tracey Emin, Bill Viola, and Shepard Fairey to create original works for a new breed of online gallery. The answer is, apparently, yes.

Founders Harry Blain and Robert Norton have seen the iDevice-wielding masses embrace the concept of collecting art in a digital format and are making inroads into museum collections, placing pieces with the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Norway’s Stavanger Art Museum, and creating digital editions in partnership with the Serpentine Gallery and the ICA London. The company is also to thank for the love-themed works by Emin that are now lighting up Times Square on a nightly basis. While in NYC to feel the love, Norton made time to answer our seven questions about how s[edition] works, a new initiative to seek out fresh talents, advice for fellow entrepreneurs, and the artwork he would most like to have on his wall–or screen.

1. How do you describe s[edition] to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
s[edition] works with world leading artists who wish to see their work collected in a digital medium. The online platform offers contemporary art enthusiasts the opportunity to buy original art, at affordable prices. The art is sold as digital limited editions to be viewed on TVs, iPads, iPhones, and digital screens. s[edition] members can browse and acquire works to start their own collection, follow artists, and send limited editions as gifts to friends.

2. s[edition] has been in business for just over a year. How would you characterize the reaction from collectors?
The feedback from our collectors has been fantastic. The prices are very affordable which means we have opened up an entirely new market for collecting digital art. We have an active audience of 400,000 digital art enthusiasts, collectors, and fans.

3. Can collectors resell works they have purchased on s[edition]?
Collectors can resell their editions through an open marketplace after edition runs have sold out. We have found that some collectors will never want to sell their edition while others trade continually.

4. Do you plan to expand the star-studded s[edition] roster to include emerging artists?
This year, we have plans to launch the s[edition] Open Platform, a separate section on the website, where emerging and established artists will be able to submit their art for consideration and be selected by world renowned artists and curators to sell their works online. By opening our platform, we provide these artists with a gateway to a global audience of art enthusiasts. It also enables us to search out new talent. Artists who are interested should email us at info@seditionart.com
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art is continuing its multimedia push with 82nd & Fifth, a new web series that will highlight 100 works of art from the Met collection. Each episode includes “Watch,” a two-minute audio and visual essay with a curator and a work of art from the Met collection that changed the way he or she sees the world; and “Explore,” an interactive feature that invites visitors to get closer to the work of art on their own. Among the first episodes is “Modern Living,” in which decorative arts curator Amelia Peck discusses the living room of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Little House. Watch the first six episodes of 82nd & Fifth here, and stay tuned for new episodes to be posted in pairs every Wednesday for the rest of the year.

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