2x4 goes subversive

Click on the image to watch an "apple" profile.

This was a reaction from the studio 2x4 in NYC when receiving the national design award from the Copper Hewitt.

From the Washington Post:

A protest by design leading to a war of words

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts

Tuesday, July 18, 2006; Page C03

A handful of designers snubbed Laura Bush last week when she hosted a breakfast for the winners of the National Design Awards. Five honorees in the graphic design category skipped the July 10 gathering and sent the first lady a letter saying they were "compelled to respectfully decline." Their beef? Good design means "words and images must be used responsibly, especially when the matters articulated are of vital importance to the life of our nation" -- and they felt the Bush administration had "seriously harmed" political discourse.

"Dear Mrs. Bush:

As American designers, we strongly believe our government should support the design profession and applaud the White House sponsorship of the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. And as finalists and recipients of the National Design Award in Communication Design we are deeply honored to be selected for this recognition. However, we find ourselves compelled to respectfully decline your invitation to visit the White House on July 10th.

Graphic designers are intimately engaged in the construction of language, both visual and verbal. And while our work often dissects, rearranges, rethinks, questions and plays with language, it is our fundamental belief, and a central tenet of "good" design, that words and images must be used responsibly, especially when the matters articulated are of vital importance to the life of our nation.

We understand that politics often involves high rhetoric and the shading of language for political ends. However it is our belief that the current administration of George W. Bush has used the mass communication of words and images in ways that have seriously harmed the political discourse in America. We therefore feel it would be inconsistent with those values previously stated to accept an award celebrating language and communication, from a representative of an administration that has engaged in a prolonged assault on meaning.

While we have diverse political beliefs, we are united in our rejection of these policies. Through the wide-scale distortion of words (from "Healthy Forests" to "Mission Accomplished") and both the manipulation of media (the photo op) and its suppression (the hidden war casualties), the Bush administration has demonstrated disdain for the responsible use of mass media, language and the intelligence of the American people."

Florence Broadhurst

Florence Broadhurst was a world-renowned wallpaper and
textile designer. she combined hints of the orient with europe’s
1930s-style modernism. her patterns, with shiny surface and
sophisticated, very vibrant motifs are extremely elegant.
she fused english floral patterns with splashes and swirls,
bamboo and willow, kangaroos and peacocks... now, almost 20 years later, the opulent patterns are
the subject of growing international interest.
a carefully restored archive (by david and helen lennie,
CEOs of ‘signature prints’, who hold the copyright licence to
reproduce broadhurst’s designs) , a recent film-biography
and a previous exhibition in sydney’s powerhouse museum
helped the revival of broadhurst’s work.
this means that you can see her designs everywhere,
from fashion designers marc jacob’s clothing to
stella mc cartney’s collections.

Doodles

Campaign for Samaritans, based around the idea that doodles are a way of expressing inner thoughts. Created by Lunar BBDO, illustrated by Billie Jean.

Banksy youall

Contemporary subversion at its best.
Click on the image for an awesome little documentary movie on his work.

One picture a day for Noah K

Type as object

I thank Monsieur for thanking Alex Gopher for being a predecesor of Thomas Broome' work.

words as 3d surface

"modernmantras' by the swedish artist Thomas Broome. click for more.

Victorian hippie.

I like to couple Devendra B with two stories at a time.
Chanteuse Cibelle has featured Devendra in her new video from her current album “The Shine Of Dried Electric Leaves”. Video directed by Tom Haines.

the beard, the hippie, and the man.

I found an article that talks about fashion compliance in terms of authorship and hierarchy. Power subversion is once again blamed to bring chaos to the reign of high enlighted fashion priests. Maybe hipsters are trying to say the rest of the world "stop following the man!". The time for hippies re-insurgence is now. (Specially when there is a man to be followed).

"And then, beards were back

Think of how hipsters have suddenly started looking like Paul Bunyan. Think about how the grizzled, bearded look now affected by half of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn this winter was only a short time ago derided as an affectation of gay bears, a small minority of hyper-masculine men who affect potbellies, clodhoppers and lavish chin whiskers.

We are talking full shrubs here, not mangy soul patches, the kind of beards that gay bears once seemed to be the only ones to flaunt.

Is it because atavism runs deep in fashion that the style abruptly leaped across the population boundaries and has now made a startling appearance among the ranks of cool young men, mostly straight?

In the late summer of last year, one spotted a scant few beards around town; then, come autumn, whole blocks of Manhattan's Lower East Side were crawling with guys who looked like the musician Devendra Banhart, who in turn seemed to have copped his look from Peter Orlovsky, the poet lover for three decades of Allen Ginsberg, the late literary genius who, after his first visit to India, affected a beard woolier than anything you'd see on a mud-daubed sadhu.

By this past holiday season, whether at clubs and bars like Supreme Trading or Black Betty in Brooklyn, the bearded hipster-mullah-hippie look had proliferated to the point where one could barely distinguish musicians from the local Hasidim."

those obsesive artists

The creative process through the eyes of Mark Okon.
Click on the image (all around this blog) to find in depth content.

"Bring the war home"

Revolution in 1969. The weather underground is a documentary on the guerrilla US movement. It is amazingly interesting when taking into account the foreign state on war and power, besides that mug shot is definetly hot.

CitizenK magazine & Eva Mendez

flowing narrative

Magnificent design of the website and collection books for Clara Collins.
The transition of images can be animated so the experience of the "product" is just as magical as the fashion elements.
Beautiful brand experience.

Visual Languages

Mostar design is the work of Olivier Gourvat. This is one of the designers that I deeply respect for being able to consummate a vision in tangible print matter. He has a very specific style: I think is perfect to translate technological processes.

Sinchronized coffee drinking at Chanel

Lagerfeld is one of those perfectionist that make the idea of fashion burdensome. I think the man is a genius, but humanity is not. Here you can see how people are subjugated by beauty to the point of craziness. Oh Paris...so dramatic.

Lost in oriental space

Interview with Bernhard Willhelm—a German, in the midst of orientalis maximus not understood in other blog. The woman in the black skirt said "Comme des Garcons" but it feels totally like Willhelm.



"I'd bet most successful people are driven by that fear of laziness. I read that Bill Clinton could schmooze for twenty hours straight, but left alone in his office he'd literally do nothing and fall into a depression. There's only success or failure to you?

Definitely. That's what it's about, I guess, because a person is in many dark places when he's alone. Sometimes I don't like anything, when everything is bad. I'm quite chaotic, but with a team I'm forced to come to a point everyday. It's impossible otherwise.

Since you've just come back from Japan, you can answer this for me. Why are all the best designers big in Japan?

The Japanese have two stages in life, a sort of extended teenager one and later, when they have to work. What I'm doing is for the young people. They want to go crazy. They're freer in spirit, more into what the clothes are about and not so bothered about status symbols. The Japanese are very supportive of young designers. The mindset is all about wearing something first."

Tsumori Chisato

A beautiful editorial featuring mainly the work of fashion designer
Tsumori Chisato. Source

Mixing.

When I was around 6 years old I decided that all the perfumes and colognes from my mother and father would be better mixed . So I became a mixer of fragrances; unsuccessfully at the beginning but better with time.
Sharing already shared information from a magazine then posted here.

P.S. If you are in Florence, do try to visit Lorenzo Villoresi as well (although his fragrances are available in NYC, the experience of visiting his studio is quite something.) If you like Comme des Garcons spicy-incensy fragrances, you might also find his very appealing.Moreover, I have a few articles from French magazines which run suggestions given by the top perfumers in the industry. Here is one excerpt:
"The Rules of Successful Layering according to French ELLE magazine
The safest way to do it is with citrus notes. They blend easily with floral, woodsy and even ambery fragrances. Such combinations enable you to associate two different 'scent worlds' and prevent either of the two fragrances being redundant.
COMBOS PUBLISHED IN FRENCH ELLE (21 July 2003)

Unisex:
Kenzo Flower + YSL M7
Adds floral notes to the muskiness of M7; turns it into a feminine scent
Light:
L'Artisan Navegar + Annick Goutal Des Lys
Lightens the ambery notes of Navegar and adds a fresh note to them
Fresh:
Sisley Eau de Campagne + Kiehl's Cucumber Spray
Two green scents together. Creates a very soft, summery perfume.
Daring:
Chanel Cuir de Russie + Shiseido Féminité du Bois
Creates a very rich and sensual fragrance."

Feliz 2007

the knife

The Knife is one of those groups that have grown on me. The melodies have a very foreign feel, yet the music is pretty much into the familiar computer generated sound ...those goofy Swedes, Always doing wonders to push candy music into the collective unconscious: the dark side of goofiness is what works for me. "The Knife is Olof Dreijer and Karin Dreijer Andersson. They are based in Stockholm, Sweden and have made music together since 1999, released on their own label Rabid Records." An surprise! "Marble House" has two video versions.

video # 1
video#2

I cut your nails and comb your hair
I carry you down the stairs
I wanted to see right through from the other side
I wanted to walk a trail with no end in sight

The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be

You close my eyes and soothe my ears
You heal my wounds and dry my tears
On the inside of this marble house I grow
And the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too

The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be

Now where's your shoulder
What is it's name
What's your scent
Say it again
If it goes faster can you still follow me
It must be safe when it's on TV

I raise my hands to heaven of curiosity
I don't know what to ask for
What has it got for me?
The others say we're hiding
It's as forward as can be
Some things I do for money
Some things I do for free

Folklife on the Mississippi

The Black Keys once again managed to deliver blood in my veins in 2006: they embodied one of the aspects of America that I love, keeping feelings alive through blues harmonic tradition.

a chick with total allure

My favorite model in 2006. As a woman I don't find all pretty girls really outstanding in other aspects other than having good genes. This girl is one of those exceptions where the genes are not the total effect on attraction...and is in that "imperfect" condition where I find the most thruthful beauty; mostly because of attitude and a powerful sense of own femininity and those wise sad eyes...yeah...girl crush.


-Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

She doesn't have Gemma's angelic looks or Gisele's endless legs, so just what does Irina Lazareanu have? Her provenance, for starters. The saga of one of 2006's most talked-about models began when Kate Moss handpicked Lazareanu, the onetime drummer for Babyshambles, from Pete Doherty's posse to model in the issue of Paris Vogue that Moss was guest-editing. And then there are those bangs. Stroll Manhattan's Lower East Side and you'll spot as many Irina 'dos as you'll see Geordon-and-Greg K. bowl cuts on boys. It doesn't hurt that Karl Lagerfeld has taken to calling her a muse, either.- SOURCE

Flying Studies

postmodern klimt

Image courtesy of Mr. Face Hunter.

love for sale

"SYNOPSIS

Imagine a movie that, for the first time ever, pulls the curtain back to reveal a small group of individuals you've probably never heard of, but who undoubtedly changed your mind and your behavior… THE ALCHEMISTS is a surprisingly personal exploration of some of the most influential advertising giants of the last century, and the communication they created which rocked our culture. Inspired by the social movements of their time and driven by the need to communicate some greater truth, these artists and writers despised mediocrity and the status quo of the advertising industry and brought a revolutionary spirit to their work"

Self Service

2006 best magazine.

ClaudiaRosaLukas AW 06/07

One of my favorite designers stikes again: Claudia Rosa Lukas!

Sex in the 80s

Duran Duran - Girls on Film
Uploaded by Razorbuzz

haunting image

NYC fashion beings through the eyes of the Scott AKA the sartorialist. My favorite image of this ending year.

Fashion images

men, war & peace

An awesome exhibition featuring the photo work of:
david lachapelle / james nachtwey / helmut newton
2 december, 2006 - 30 may, 2007
helmut newton foundation, berlin, germany

haunting song

"Listening to ‘Awake Like Sleep’ is like getting lost inside a dream. One you remember after you wake, long after. Greg Weeks’ latest record is a strange, dark journey through a haze of mellotron and Moog-soaked melodies, guided along by Weeks’s quiet, understated voice. Its tone betrays the melancholy of its creator, which should surprise no one who has had the fortune of hearing his previous efforts, 1998’s ‘Fire in the Arms of the Sun’ and 2000’s ‘Bleecker Station’ EP. While the move away from the acoustic guitar-based constructions of those records may quiet the Nick Drake comparisons, the new sonic explorations of ‘Awake Like Sleep’ reveal the depth of Weeks’s songwriting talent. Unexpected details - a pensive flute solo, a few falling piano chords, a pregnant pause - command complete attention, dream-like."

Edlo Kawa

pink

The adicolor campaign is pretty well known withing creatives, the only "color" of the series that keeps resonating in my head is this one: absurd, creppy and totally pink. The song is so digestable though, maybe is all that peptobismol aesthetic.

Kitsch architechture

"Chairman Wu realized that Guzhen’s icon should be universally recognizable. Thus the colossal 833-foot luminaire is not a funky torchiere or Song antique but “the world’s only architecture shaped like a huge Western classical oil lamp,” as promotional material describes it. Scheduled for completion in time for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the $38 million Century Giant Lamp Tower will stretch 430,560 square feet over 48 floors, with an immense glass chimney on which an array of images will be projected at night from inside. With an observation deck at its crown, the building has a base that will contain shops, restaurants, and a museum to document “humanity’s quest for light against darkness.”

Read more from METROPOLIS.

I think the building is totally weird for its very direct inspiration. If you ask me I'd actually prefer a shoe than a lamp as a building. Oh global world...already making us uncomfortable with aesthetic choices.

On Kitsch: "Theodor Adorno perceived this in terms of what he called the "culture industry," where the art is controlled and formulated by the needs of the market and given to a passive population which accepts it — what is marketed is art that is non-challenging and formally incoherent, but which serves its purpose of giving the audience leisure and something to watch. It helps serve the oppression of the population by capitalism by distracting them from their alienation. Contrarily, art (not kitsch) for Adorno is supposed to be subjective, challenging, and oriented against the oppressiveness of the power structure. He claimed that kitsch is parody of catharsis, and a parody of aesthetic experience."

But we have to remember that not all individuals in a population are artists or even care about aesthetic choices...otherwise how can you explain public spaces in America (read Malls).

Spoof

After the DOVE campaign on real beauty this new came up. Not very attractive, but again that is the whole point, making us think in levels of attractiveness: how simple we are.

London lights

Public spaces and light: something that does not happen in the states - specially the public spaces unless they are comercial locales-.Click on the image to see "Volume at the Victoria and Albert Museum".The documentation feels fashionable.

Old folks through the eyes of the young

Cite Design

saint etienne design biennale, france
22 november - 3 december 2006
http://www.citedudesign.com

'eden adn' examines the theme of how humanity uses,manipulates and improves nature by incorporating genetically
modified organisms ('gmo') into the design process.

design collective 'front' have imagined animals as design creators - here featured their 'wallpaper by rats' work. Rats have gnawed on rolls of wallpaper. the holes make a repetitive pattern that shows part of the old wallpaper.

New Math

Slow song

Mike & Chris

ridicusly defined images

"By combining powerful 3d tools and techniques appropriated from the visual effects field, possibilites arise of new imagery and animation that are truly novel and unprecedented. Applications of these new techniques can range from experiencing stunningly large prints in fine art gallery installations, providing a substitute to live-action shooting in feature film backgrounds, and enriching a national park visitor’s understanding and interpretation, to name a few."

Diane Arbus

Hairy Nicole

This is the first time Nicole Kidman looks interesting to me: based on Diane Arbus work.

Creative review -now online-

Genital talent

The whole trend of flashing your genitals in front of cameras has become the latest "accidental" habit in the life of celebrities. I'm not opposed to girls actually making profit of their bodies. Of course I prefer them making the profit rather than an abusive "manager". What gets my attention is how now famous female figures are using genitals as tool of publicity. but does it mean actually that they are bending sex roles, empowering females, or even helping with the obscure levels of misogyny on popular culture?

From ABC news:

"Spears is the latest star to give people a glimpse of what's usually covered up, a trend that asks the question: What value, if any, does culture place on modesty today?

On Nov. 22, cameras caught Spears, the recently separated pop star and mother of two, in a leopard-print minidress so short it revealed her underwear.Two days later, Spears was photographed getting out of a car in a hiked-up miniskirt. This time, her underwear was nowhere to be found.According to a celebrity blogger, Spears' up-skirt shots are no mistake — they're a classic cry for attention."She wants the picture taken. She wants the publicity. She wants people talking about her," Hilton said of Spears. "That's what people love to see more than anything. Why do you think celebrity sex tapes sell so well?"

From Private Parts to Puking

The photos, which spread virally across the Internet, gained Spears entry to a club ruled by repeat flashers Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Cameras have caught Lohan panty-less four times over the last two months. "You'd think she'd either wear pants or panties, or be more careful about how she exits a car," blogger Hilton said. "Four times. That's no accident. That's deliberate." "The rash of celebrities flashing their nether regions worries Peter Post, director of the Emily Post Institute of etiquette and manners. "My concern is the impressionability of young people," he said. "I think that some young people are going to say, 'Wow, if Britney Spears and Paris Hilton can do that, I wonder if I can do that.'"

Post points out that even if celebrity flashers are putting themselves in compromising situations on purpose, it's troubling that they have to bare so much to get a little media attention."

Pan's Labyrinth

Click on the image to watch the trailer