Raphael Saadiq//Staying In Love

Piece by selfburning

Piece from selfburning on Vimeo.

Joint project with an artist Igor Skaletsky and a drummer Evgeniy Labich. Stop motion animation is based on photos representing every stage of making collage. Parts of the drummer’s live performance are arranged and mixed in one track.

:: BBC :: Philippe Starck's Design For Life ::

Episode 1: http://www.vimeo.com/6604817

Episode 2: http://www.vimeo.com/6942733

Episode 3: http://www.vimeo.com/6944872

Episode 4: http://www.vimeo.com/6924360

Episode 5: http://www.vimeo.com/7088473

Episode 6: http://www.vimeo.com/7232828


Watch them soon, before they're removed from vimeo!

Gil Scott-Heron// Originals BBC

Studio ISO50

http://studio.iso50.com

How do you build a chocolate brand

OPTIMAL DESIGN | The (Art) Vault wins AA award!

renderings courtesy of Oppenheim Architecture+Design

© 2009 Oppenheim Architecture+Design

| project | Art Vault & Valuables Services (The Vault) |
| design by | Oppenheim Architecture | Project Architect: Chad Oppenheim | Project Designer: Gianpaolo Pietri |
| location | Miami, FL, USA |
| typology | Art Storage Facility |
| scope | 140,000 square feet |
| date of estimated completion | 2011 |
| website | www.oppenoffice.com |

It was just announced today that the (Art) Vault has been awarded an American Architecture Award for 2009. This 11-story monolith packs 140,000 square feet of the most-highly secured and luxurious storage space you will find in the market of storage spaces.  Art services company Artemundi &Co. call it the Art Vault and Valuables Service (but industry insiders refer to it as The Vault).  The program includes a conservation laboratory, showrooms, a sculpture garden (located on the roof), a helipad (for emergency evacuation and those looking to make a grand entrance). The coup de gras, however, is a state of the art mechanized parking tower, which will house rare collectible cars.

The exterior facade of the building (a.k.a. the boxes) will serve as an important public art installation welcoming visitors traveling on I95 into the city of Miami.  The panels will be commissioned to both emerging and established artists on a rotating basis so as to project a facade that is always changing, always showcasing the latest talent, and beloved masters. This prototype will be unlike any other storage facility in North America.

With that said, I am particularly proud of this award having served as project designer for The Vault under the direction of Chad Oppenheim while working in his studio in Miami.  For almost a year I was solely responsible for all design work as well as production drawings for the project, with Chad dropping in every now and then to keep me in line and offer his extremely valuable insights, ideas, concepts, sketches, etc.

For me at the time, this project was a useful study in blurring the line between maximum efficiency and optimal beauty.  The most important question we had to answer was how to challenge established parameters for traditional storage facilities, mainly large swaths of solid, and therefore blank, surfaces on the facades.  You could say that the entire design process was centered on how to solve this problem in the most efficient, yet elegant way. After countless hours, days, and even weeks of coming up with quick-fire solutions (last tally was up to over 50 variations), the final result was to break up the massive exterior surface area into smaller modules determined by a grid where the modules are divisible by five. After determining the size of the ‘canvases’, it was matter of pushing (in) and/or pulling (out) the smaller modules so the facade would read more like a series boxes stacked on top of one another, much like would exist inside a storage unit.  So the facade became a metaphor of the activities that were going on in the interior of the building.

Although it is my understanding that the project is on hold for the moment, it would be a special addition to the city of Miami and its emerging skyline. So without further a due, here are some images to fill the appetites of all you design-lovers out there.

OPTIMAL DESIGN | The (Art) Vault wins AA Award | the Optimalists
URL: http://theoptimalblog.com/2009/11/optimal-design-the-art-vault-wins-aa-award/

Robes of the Earth

Robert Mars

Graffurniture By Luis Alicandu

I have to say, If placed wrong in ones interior these could make your house resemble something from Dr. Seuss. But given just the right placement and consideration, wow.

Philippe Stark

Design for Life from design on Vimeo.

If you love design, if you love creativity like I loooove design and loooove creativity the you may really dig this film. Not art for art sake, but design. Design for the people, not for the critics is the bottom line.

MWM X ALMOND X CORDUROY

Portland, Maine Artists KATE CLEAVES and MATT W. MOORE have come together to create CONVERGENCE – an ultimate collaboration series (Now showing at CORDUROY GALLERY). The five month endeavor to create a completely blended, completely unique series of paintings has lead both Moore and Cleaves down a path neither of them has been down before - resulting in work unlike anything either of them has ever produced. When viewed separately, both artists seem to go about painting in a very different manner: Moore often works with non-objective shapes and geometry, with hard lines and strong brushstrokes, and the occasional area of representation – Cleaves generally works with a narrative and imagery inspired by nature, blended colors, and soft brushstrokes. Both artists share a passion for pattern, sacred geometry and eye-popping color – making the perfect common ground to blend their different techniques together.

The end result was the perfect balance with an aura of seamlessness between the two styles. From day one, it has been a true collaboration – literally working on the same piece at the same time – almost in some sort of call and response dance via color and shape. The artists met a few times a week for five months to work together on the series. The layers are almost endless, and every piece has transformed a multitude of times. As weeks and layers went by, Moore and Cleaves still worked side by side, but would switch off and take turns with the pieces that they worked on. The whole process had a very natural flow to it – nothing was planned ahead of time, but everything unfolded exactly as it should have. Space, nature, and symbols of consciousness and the underlying perfect beauty of the universe are all part of the inspirations for the visual aspects and compositions found in this unique series of paintings. The two also collaborated on a 5 window Mural directly on the glass at Corduroy in the days leading up to the Opening Reception. Enjoy!

THE CONVERGENCE WINDOW MURAL WAS PRODUCED IN 2 DAYS DIRECTLY ON THE GLASS USING THE SAME MATERIALS FROM THE PAINTING SERIES.

THE CONVERGENCE OPENING RECEPTION WAS A GREAT PARTY – BIG THANKS TO CORDUROY & DJ BOONDOCKS & SANTOS & ALLAGASH BEER.

- MWM X ALMOND X CORDUROY - ALMOND SURFBOARDS BY MATT W. MOORE – PRESS PACKS & INFO SOON!

Please CONTACT MWM for Press Packs & Artwork related questions. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Paul Smith Pinafore Trainers

Formfantasma: The Molding Tradition

The Flux chair, design by Flux.

Flux chair from flux chairs on Vimeo.

Flux @ 100% Design Rotterdam from flux chairs on Vimeo.

Moroso + Stephen Burks

A fantastic collection of striking colours, patterns and weaves enriched a series of products made in Africa by local artisans and designed by some of the leading African artists such as Fathi Hassan, Soly Cisse and architect David Adjaye, but also by european designers such as Patricia Urquiola and Philippe Bestenheider.
Bibi Seck and Ayse Birsel present a weaved rocking chair and the large armchair Madame Dakar, Stephen Burks created a series of low tables and chairs in colourful plastic weaving.
Urquiola signs a bench made of weaved coloured plastic strings and Rift, an upholstered armchair. Bestenheider designed Binta, a bold upholstered seater dressed with a variety of fabrics with combining vivid colours and patterns.
Loads of stunning pictures at the link in the title.

Dwele's MJ Tribute

One of the best tributes I've seen so far. Organic and heart felt. The moment feels so private and ultimately fun. Well done.

Robobird

Twenty-first-century robotics has a way to go before it catches up with 20th-century science fiction. But a German technology company has come up with a robotic penguin that Isaac Asimov himself would have admired.
Festo’s penguins — “autonomous underwater vehicles” — look, act, and move like real penguins. (They also have dolphinlike sonar capabilities and the ability to swim backward.) And if these birds fail to impress, check out Festo’s new line of bionic air penguins: flying robots that move like sea creatures and look like shiny dirigibles.

H&M Ad (great title huh?)

I wish I did this.

HOTEL DISTRITO CAPITAL, MÉXICO DF

ARQUITECTURA: Diámetro Arquitectos

DISEÑO INTERIOR: Joseph Dirand

ARTE: Thomas Glassford (Lámpara)

ANTIGÜEDADES: Claudia Fernández

DISEÑO: Pablo Rovalo