Finally the Final Samples!
I just returned from Hanoi – and am delighted to say that the company, that produces the bamboo bases for Punch’n'Cuddle, has finally managed to create flawless samples! It has been proofed very good to currently live in such close proximity to Vietnam, as I was able to pop over there regularly in the past two months. Showing your face makes such a difference to phone conversations or emails, because suddenly you are not just a virtual customer anymore, but someone who can come by for a visit any time – without the “safety” of a 12 hour expensive flight in between. My regular visits were not only speeding up the (so far ridiculously slow) process tremendously, but also led to a way clearer communication and a much better working commitment. Et voila – suddenly it was all very easy!
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Marveland Show in London
This coming Saturday starts the “Design in Marveland” Show – a Christmas exhibition and Pop-up Shop dedicated to the creative genius of children. Curators Hina Thibaud and Olivia Decaris created an exhibition that will show both, design pieces developed exclusively by children in workshops, as well as selling designs created by established designers (perfect as Christmas gifts). I am participating with two different products: Punch’n'Cuddle and the newly designed Marblofon - a modular wooden toy instrument that combines a marble run with a Xylophone.
True to the ideal that creativity is in abundance in the minds of children, Marveland will launch with an exhibition featuring the works of both, established designers and creative children side-by-side, indiscriminate of age or experience. The openings of Marveland will be a fresh take on the traditional gallery opening, being that children, as well as a child-like creative processes, will be the priority.
For the Kids’ Opening on 4. December from 12pm to 4pm there will also a family of real reindeers present and a lot of design workshops for kids happening – so don’t miss it!
The show goes on from 4.-20. December, with another Opening for “Grown-Ups” on 8. December from 6pm to 9pm.
Location: The Garage, 1 North Terrace, London SW3 2B
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ลอยกระทง Loi Krathong
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I just returned from the »Loi Krathong« light festival in Sukhothai (North Thailand). »Loi« means »to float« and a »krathong« is traditionally a lantern made from a section of a banana tree trunk. Many Thais believe that floating a raft lantern during the full moon light in November will bring them good luck and float off their »bad karma«, plus they do it to honor and thank the Goddess of Water.
Some people also put a bit of money into their krathongs (who says that water goddesses are not bribable?!) – so I have witnessed countless times how people fished other peoples’ floating lanterns out of the water, almost immediately after they were launched, to take the money or to re-sell it (very sustainable thinking, I guess). But no worries, apparently it does not matter if this spiritual gesture is interrupted in such a crude way, because as soon as it hits the water, the good luck is activated and the »bad karma« floats off. Pheeeew!
Therefore I am actually very excited to see what my close future has on offer for me, as I’ve even designed my own krathong that I launched in one of the lakes in the historical park of the city. The very sweet people at the nice Sabaidee Guesthouse, where we were staying, gave us a DIY Krathong Lesson, which was actually great fun. So, above you find the step by step instruction manual.
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Hanoi’s Phone Number Grafitti
Just returned from Hanoi to take care of our Punch’n'Cuddle production and got reminded that I was going to post this already after my last visit (but somehow it had dropped out of my mind): All over the city you’ll find phone numbers stencilled on the walls of houses. It’s the only kind of graffiti you’ll see here and it makes the city look like one giant Robert Rauschenberg painting. The numbers are advertisements for local handymen – the guy who will fix your washing mashine, unclog your drain or repair your motorbike.
But these phone numbers were a thorn in the eye of the authorities, so they wanted to get rid of them. As one Hanoi resident told me, the authorities cleverly decreed: every phone number that is advertised this way will be disconnected. Unfortunately, the Hanoi handymen were even cleverer: they started putting up the numbers of their competitors in the hope of driving them out of business that way. The Hanoi officials have meanwhile given in and given up…
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Thai Colours of the Day
In Thai tradition, there is an astrological rule (which has influence from Hindu mythology) that assigns one particular color to each day of the week. The color assigned is based on the color of the God who protects the day. For example, the God of Sunday is Surya which has a red color. These colors of the day are also the traditional Thai birthday colors.
Once I knew this, I started to notice all those “color coded people”, dressing accordingly to the color of the respective day. If you, for example, wear a green shirt on Wednesday, people will notice and might even comment on you wearing the “right” color. What a great concept – if you follow this tradition you never have to confront the awkward question of “what to wear today?” after just having managed to crawl out of bed in the morning (unless you mainly wear black as I do, which makes things even more easy).
But, having said all that, these days – due to the recent “red & yellow shirts” events – on Mondays and Sundays it will now usually be avoided to dress in this colour coded way, unless you want to send a political message. By the way, whereas the “yellow shirts” chose their colour in regard to the king’s birthday colour in order to show their solidarity with him (he was born on a Monday), the “red shirts” apparently did not take the birthday colours into account, but chose red rather for it being the colour of revolution.
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Heading for the Sun!
I am about to catch the plane to Bangkok, where I was invited to teach as a visiting lecturer in the product design department of Raffles International College for one term. So, the studio is all wrapped up, my bag is packed and I am looking forward to trade in the crappy cold London weather against Thai sunshine.
The Punch’n'Cuddle prototypes are also in delightful expectations, as I will be living in very close proximity to the Vietnamese company that will produce the Punch’n'Cuddle bamboo bases. Unfortunately, the process of getting the production going was very slow in the past months, so I am positive that, being able to fly to Hanoi regularly and show my face, will speed up this process and finally we will be able to launch Punch’n'Cuddle® in the beginning of 2011. Sawasdee!
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Hot off the Press!
Today the sixth issue of London based Palladium magazine has been published internationally. It’s a lifestyle magazine for men, but not the usual blueprint of what you might think of now. Fortunately it is miles away from Loaded, FHM or the like, as it focuses on intelligent content and a clear and eye-friendly layout. All in all I think it has a nice twist and quality to it – their claim being “because the modern man has moved on”. I am the editor in charge of their design section now, and this issue features a four page article about “Conscious Design” – please watch out for it in magazine stores and hotels, I’d be curious to hear your comments.
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Coffee & Friends in London
Apartamento Magazine and DesignMarketo invited me amongst other international designers to design coffee related objects for their FoodMarketo event. The Dancing Goat Berries that I created, will be on show and in fact on sale during the Coffee & Friends event in Brompton Quarter during the London Design Festival. The doors will open tomorrow morning at 10:00 with a fresh smell of delicious coffee. For the whole week you will be able to recharge your batteries in this pop-up coffee shop, while getting some coffee fortune telling, or just having a chat or reading the new Apartamento Magazine.
On Thursday, 23rd September, will be a Private View from 19:00 to 22:00 (address see above, only 5 minutes walk from South Kensington tube station).
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One night in Brooklyn
Be aware, that if you go and meet a friend in his Brooklyn studio late at night for a chat & drink, you might end up spending the whole night working with him on the re-design of a project that needs to be put into the MoMa for a press preview the following morning. This happened to me when I visited my dear friend Adam last night in his studio. When I arrived he was about to assemble an adjustable table for an artist performance in MoMa’s PS1 museum – but it soon became clear that it just did not work the way he thought it would.
So, we spent literally the whole night completely re-designing this piece and just managed in time to load it onto the truck and deliver it one hour before the press preview started. The curator wasn’t as delighted as we were, but despite being in a sleepwalking mode today, Adam and I are very proud to have managed to get this done within such a short time. And – actually it was a way more memorable and bonding experience than just hanging out, chatting & drinking… in fact I should consider spending my nights like this more often!
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Book Publication @ Corraini
I am very delighted to announce the publication of my first book! In collaboration with the wonderful Italian publishing company Corraini, Diego Paccagnella (from Lago) and I have managed just in time to finish the book “Lago Appartamento – A Living Show Room”, which was presented last week during the Milan Design Week in the Corraini HQ in Zona Tortona.
The 160 page book features not only a break down of new concepts for showing & selling design products in the newly developed Lago Appartamentos, but also a big number of interviews that I conducted: Various interesting people from the design world are having their say about the paradigm change that we are currently facing and point out the values that are important from their point of view.
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Milan Madness 2010
Allora, finally my exhibits are on their way to Milan and I will follow them this coming Monday, moving into the new Lago Appartamento in Via Brera 30 for the duration of the Milan Design Week (showing & working for Lago). I have just checked some of the countless exhibitions online and stumbled upon this impossible map which shows the vast number of exhibitions that are presented as part of the Interni off-shows in town.
Particularly from my point of view as a blogger, who will report from the festival for the design blog Core77, I feel that the sheer size of the festival is getting out of control. When everybody and their grandmother think that they have to be present in the world’s hugest international design event, it leads not only to the downfall of the festival’s manageability, but also to a constant reduction of the overall quality! Maybe it is time to remember the phrase “Small is Beautiful” ?!
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The majority of independent artists or designers who work in their own studio usually get cold feet (and hands and noses and…) once the leafs have fallen from the trees. They then either enter a kind of hibernation mode, only visiting their studio as less as possible until spring time. Or they are surrounded by energy wasting electronic heaters – as well as wearing gloves, scarfs and ice bear furs while working.
But now there is another solution! I have discovered it just recently and it does not only keep you warm but also makes you happy and enhances your fitness. And all this for just a single payment of twenty quit: Get a trampoline! Since I have it in my studio, I am not just able to fight the cold in a fun way, but can also save the gym – since jumping around on one of those little bouncy tools is even recommended by the NASA (so I even prepare for space travel). Can you say that about your electrical heater? So, turn it off (gives you dry skin anyway), start to bounce and get hot & happy!
Filed under: DIY, London, Non-Intentional Design | Leave a Comment
Good Design™ Award for Huggy
I am delighted to announce that the armchair Huggy, which I designed for the furniture company Lago, was awarded with the prestigious Good Design Award in the Chicago Athenaeum last week!
Founded in Chicago in 1950 by architects Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., GOOD DESIGN bestows international recognition upon the world’s most prominent designers and manufacturers for advancing new, visionary, and innovative product concepts, invention and originality, and for stretching the envelope beyond what is considered ordinary product and consumer design.
A big THANK YOU to the jury!
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Your Vote Counts!
Two Shoot the Stylist! products got nominated for the People’s Design Award at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York – many thanks! But now it is time to vote for them, and therefore I need your help! Please vote for Huggy and Punch’n'Cuddle before 6:00 p.m. EST on October 20, 2009 by following the links. The winner will be announced live at the National Design Awards gala in New York City on October 22. So, fingers crossed and thanks a lot for your support!
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Sunny Side Up!
The coming weekend (5.-7. September) sees the launch of our surrealistic fried egg boat at the Venice Art Biennale where in the guise of giant houseflies we will cruise the canals and transform reality. With Sunny Side Up! we are promoting positive thinking and (metaphorically) proof that it is indeed a wonderful thing to just “ride the waves” and hook up with perfect strangers in beautifully surreal situations (after all, what else can an ordinary house fly do but create a buzz).
The boat will be launched on Saturday, 5. September on the Venice Arsenal around 11:00. So if you are lucky enough to be in Venice and up for a surreal buzz, come and have a look – the yoke’s on you. Join us for a ride on the “Flied Egg Boat”!
Filed under: Exhibition, Street Art | 1 Comment
