design:related - Karen's inspirations

Creative Director of Tokidoki, Simone Legno

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 16:18:53 GMT

This video by KarmaLoop gives a quick glimpse into the products and creativity behind the Tokidoki brand and its co-founder and Creative Director Simone Legno. The Tokidoki brand which means “sometimes” in Japanese, was started by the Italian artist Simone Legno (now residing in LA), with Pooneh Mohajer Arnold (Hard Candy co-founder) and Ivan Arnold.

(I have a little Tokidoki cactus pup (like the image above) decorating my workspace...I love blind boxed vinyl toys). Now I am looking forward to the release of Captain Coco from the Tokidoki Cocommando line of vinyl toys.

Alexander Girard (1907-1993), Timeless Designs Revived

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:35:57 GMT

Earlier this year I saw the colorful Alexander Girard Alphabet Blocks created by House Industries (a beautiful collaboration between them and the Alexander Girard estate).

Truthfully, I had no idea who Alexander Girard was...

Then today while flipping through the summer catalog for FLOR, I came across their new La Fonda Del Sol line of interchangeable floor tiles, based on Girard’s extensive design work for the restaurant of the same name (which was in the Time-Life Building from 1961-1971).*

“Like all great designers, Alexander Girard never forgot that his work must be ultimately practical - he just made sure to imbue his designs with a whole lot of sophisticated yet fun boldness. We humbly aim for the same at FLOR. Our La Fonda del Sol™ area rug collection captures the whimsy and vibrancy of Alexander Girard's folk art designs while remaining infinitely flexible and practical FLOR.” —FLOR

(above photos of rugs from Flor. The following La Fonda Del Sol sets are shown above, in the order they appear: Azul, Mandarina, Verde, and Pequeno)

This was enough for me to head to Wikipedia and look up other resources on this great talent.

Maximo is another company that has been creating products based on Girard’s designs, including bags, tables and pillows.

Here are some fun Alexander Girard wooden doll figurines manufactured by Vitra.

The SFMOMA had an exhibition on Alexander Girard last year.

Even Todd Oldham has a short video essay on the versatile designer (below):

*coincidentally a modern version of the restaurant La Fonda Del Sol is scheduled to open in the MetLife building in NY sometime this fall. The designated designer for the project is Adam Tihany. In response to the original restaurant’s aesthetics established by Girard, Tihany says “It was very sophisticated for its time, but what worked then, doesn’t work now. Tastes have changed. Golden suns? So don’t expect an homage to Girard in Tihany’s scheme for the street-side bar-lounge and raised dining room. “But if you know, you might see a trail. The pattern of the terrazzo floor hints of the tile he used on the counters. And that pink appears in the upholstery pattern.” (quote pulled from the Insatiable Critic)

Animated ad from United: aired during Olympics

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:59:30 GMT

This animated commercial for United aired during the Beijing Olympics opening, and is my favorite ad to air during the show so far. "Sea Orchestra" is a collaboration between the artist Ree Treweek and Jannes Hendrikz (Shy the Sun associated with The Black Heart Gang). The music was played by the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra, with Robert Redford as the voice actor. This animation is just one commercial in a series of artistic ads aimed to change the public’s perception of United Airlines’ brand.

“The warm ads show business travelers’ success stories using traditional hand-drawn animation rather than today’s computer-generated images. They are set to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, United’s theme for 20 years.” —from a USA TODAY article back in 2004.

Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:17:00 GMT

As a perfect companion to Mike Perry’s Hand Job: A Catalog of Type, a year later Princeton Architectural Press publishes Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns. The hand-drawn pattern collection seen in Over & Over spans the work of 50 talented designers / artists (plus Mike Perry himself). Below is a small sampling of the work found inside: Deanne Cheuk

Damien Correll

Gina and Matt

August Heffner

Jeremyville

Blake E. Marquis

Yuko Shimizu

Yokoland

"I Amsterdam" Large Public Sculpture Letters

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:11:18 GMT

Observing people interact with the giant “I amsterdam” letters was a highlight of my brief visit to Amsterdam last month. The public sculpture letters are in coordination with Amsterdam’s current motto and city marketing campaign. The letters travel throughout the city.

Current location: Museumplein (Museum Square), right in front of the Rijks Museum.

The advertising agency, KesselsKramer created the “I amsterdam” concept. (the agency’s website looks awful at first glance---but refresh the page to possibly change your point of view---or just find it purely annoying. to find real information on the agency, it may be best to refer to their soon-to-be published (in English) book, 2Kilo.)

UPPERCASE Going Old School

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:00:36 GMT

Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed many great photos of ephemera reminiscent of childhood education being posted to UPPERCASE’s flickr pages. (below is just a small sampling)

Their “Old School” theme is in preparation for what sounds to be a fun exhibition coming this fall.

“The "Old School" theme will celebrate the aesthetics of twentieth century education through an art exhibition and companion book, as well as curated objects. It is inspired by vintage flash cards, old desks, biology class, science fairs, crayons, card catalogs, textbooks, class photos, teachers, yearbooks, lunchboxes, gym class, maps, lockers, report cards, film strips, recess, spelling, chalk... and the list goes on!...”

The exhibition which will also be documented in a book available in the fall, includes a grand list of participants including Linzie Hunter, Frank Chimero, Mark Gervais, Julia Rothman, and numerous others.

update: Linzie Hunter has just posted the above poster which is part of Uppercase’s show. She also has “Old School” flickr, including some nice Letraset finds.

Thoughts on Democracy @ The Wolfsonian

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:35:48 GMT

If I get the chance to go home, I really want to see the new exhibition at the Wolfsonian titled “Thoughts on Democracy.” The show which opened on July 5th will run through December 7, 2008.

“The Thoughts on Democracy exhibition is comprised of posters created by 60 leading contemporary artists and designers, invited by The Wolfsonian to create a new graphic design inspired by American illustrator Norman Rockwell's “Four Freedoms” posters of 1943, which were recently gifted to the museum by Leonard A. Lauder. Some of the participating artists involved in the project are Neville Brody, Seymour Chwast, Wim Crouwel, Elliott Earls, Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner, Paula Scher, Francesco Vezzoli, Chip Kidd, and Italo Lupi, among others...” —The Wolfsonian

Here are some examples from the show:

by Winterhouse

by The Map Office

by Kate Spade

by Ellen Lupton

by R.O. Blechman

The posters can be viewed as small thumbnails on a recent Wolfsonian brochure. And ofcourse there is flickr (where I found all images seen here).

But one my favorite part of the Wolfsonian’s advertising campaign is seeing a giant Elliott Earls poster plastered to a wall (right next to Nordstrom) in Aventura mall.

For the exhibition Chip Kidd designed four posters for a series with the tagline “Freedom isn’t free, this is abuse of the Freedom of Want.” They can all be seen on his blog Good is Dead.

Paul Scher also designed four posters which are described in detail on Pentagram’s blog.

And for a bit more reading, Rockwell’s Four Freedoms poster series is part of the American Treasures of the Library of Congress

credit for the top poster Want: designed by Daniel Arsham.

Such Subtle Beauty / inside the Hammerpress Studio

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:40:00 GMT

Such Subtle Beauty - Hammerpress Profile

Anthony from Double Wide Films goes behind the scenes with the founder of Hammerpress, Brady Vest.

I first came across the lovely paper products from Hammerpress at Little Otsu about a year ago. Last month I saw their notebooks at the Moma design store.

The Kansas City letterpress shop was founded in 1994. Hammerpress is also a full service design studio.

Penguin Books Great Ideas Series, Volume III (Green)

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:50:57 GMT

I’ve loved the design of Penguin UK's Great Ideas series, and the cover designs for volume III look like they keep in line with my high expectations. I’m interested to know more about the designer's approach to conceptualizing each cover in the series. I read that “each is set in a manner suggestive of the lettering or typography of the time of the work’s first publication.”*

Taking this further, does every cover in the series reference a specific classic design from the past? For example, the cover for The Fastidious Assasins by Albert Camus instantly recalls Alvin Lustig's design for The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles. Alistair Hall gives a little more insight on this.

Old Penguin style conventions are used on a few covers in the new volume—which I love with the tactile touch of debossed type and uncoated stock. It would be fascinating to see each new cover design up against the historical graphics that influenced them .

Below is in regards to the first volume of Great Ideas from 2004:

“Editorial Director Simon Winder came up with Great Ideas as a way of introducing a different readership to key texts that have helped civilization. Art Director Jim Stoddart handed responsibility for the design to David Pearson, who decided to let the flavour of each individual text influence the look of its cover.”*

Volume III in the Great Ideas series will be published on August 7, 2008. David Pearson, Phil Baines, Catherine Dixon and Alistair Hall contributed cover designs to the latest volume (I discovered AlistairH's Flickr photos via Kottke).

Credits for covers shown here:

Cover design for Walter Benjamin / The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by David Pearson.
Cover design for George Orwell/Books v. Cigarettes by David Pearson.
Cover design for The Fastidious Assassins by David Pearson.

*taken from Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005, by Phil Baines

Marion Bataille's ABC3D Alphabet Pop-Up Book

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:26:38 GMT

If you missed the viral You Tube video showing the intricate pop-ups for Roaring Brook Press' ABC3D designed by French book designer Marion Bataille, a higher quality video has been added to LookyBook (see below). I thought this book was amazing the first time around, but the presentation is even better here. The 4-letter lenticular cover is quite flat on a computer monitor...But the book is only available for pre-order and will not be released until October 14, 2008.