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I’ve mentioned previously that I believe in the statement ‘What Goes Around Comes Around’. Well, I believe in it so much that I decided to get a WGACA tattoo. I got the font Soraya (by Jakob Nylund) through the great Copenhagen Bitchslap Magazine.
What Goes Around Comes Around ftw
I’m a firm believer in this statement, and that’s why I love the following ad by Big Ant International for Global Coalition for Peace. Great example how the form strengthens the message! Simple yet brilliant. Maybe that’s why they won the Gold Pensil for Design at the One Show Design Awards?
via Molblog
I love it when great brands come together and create something new! And I love it even more when it concerns a product that I absolutely adore. I’m talking about a co-creation between two true Italian brands, namely Fiat and DIESEL.
The new Fiat 500 has been redesigned by Renzo Rosso, DIESEL’s designer. He gave the sport version of the Fiat 500 a typical look with DIESEL logo rims, special buffers and mirrors. The inside interior is partly in denim, with a funny detail being DIESEL’s typical 5th pocket on the two seats. And of course the car is available in different colours: DIESEL green, black and brown. Interested in this limited edition (10,000)? For around €15,000 you can order it online…
I recently stumbled upon a link to a very cool website called this ain’t no disco. Anyone who has had something to do with ad agencies know that their offices generally are a reflection of the creative nature of the business. This ain’t a disco gives you a peek in some of these offices, which according to the website are ” environments to nurture creativity, fun, frolics and damn right posing”. Do you work at such a place? You can actually add your own agency here. The picture below is a Dutch office called UXUS.
UXUS Office in Amsterdam
I love old LPs and am collecting them for quite some time already. And since a few months, I can even listen to them when I got a new LP-player :-) I don’t only collect LPs for the great music or that wonderful scratchy sound, but also because of the great design of the sleeves. In one of the first student-house where I lived, I even painted the toilet gold and covered the entire walls with old records!
This week, I saw another initiative in a newspaper on how to be creative with LPs, or more exactly, the sleeves. The idea is simple: take a sleeve, take a face and obscure or augment any part of your body with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion. The result is often strikingly good or just plain hilarious. I included a sleeveface of John Lennon which shows how simple it can be, but how cool the result is. You can visit the official website or check their facebook page for more great examples. Inspired and don’t know how to make your own sleeveface? Check this video.
There are quite some Dutch models that are known around the (fashion) world, of which Doutzen Kroes is the most successful one at the moment. Dutch designers however somehow have a harder time establishing themselves. Of course there are the famous Viktor & Rolf, Spijkers en Spijkers and Jan Taminiou, and promising talents like Claes Iversen (actually Danish but living in Amsterdam) and Daryl van der Wouw. The past years, the fashion scene in the Netherlands have been working hard to profile itself amongst the much more well know scenes in Paris, Milan, London and New York. A wonderful example is the Amsterdam International Fashion Week, founded in 2004, which is presented as a young and directional alternative to the world’s more traditional fashion weeks. They had a great list of designers, with Claes Iversen being my personal favourite (since my stay in Copenhagen, I have a soft spot for danish design in all it’s forms).
Great models, designers and initiatives, but where does this leave us on the worldwide fashion map? Yesterday it was announced that my university (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen) will start a study called ‘Dutch Fashion in a Globalised World’. Anneke Smelik, the main researched stated the following about what they will be investigating with this first, national fashion research: “We’ll be looking at fashion and identity, on both a individual and group level, the realisation and meaning of certain brands and at the economy involving fashion and clothing in and around the Netherlands”. It sure sounds like a interesting research, of which the results will only be available in 2011 – this is when the research will be finished. I hope by then it won’t be yesterday’s news, like everything in fashion :-)
Even when the title doesn’t ring a bell, you too have probably seen the Egg chair. This wonderful piece of design will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this year. When you think of an egg, you think of cocooning and that’s exactly what this chair enables. Many critics state that design is only about the looks and not about the usability. However, this chair is pure design and it is wonderfully comfortable as well!
The chair was created in 1958 by Arne Jacobsen and manufactured by Fritz Hansen, and was first introduced at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Copenhagen. Arne Jacobsen was asked to fully decorate and design the hotel. Today however, only room no. 606 still contains the original Arne Jacobsen pieces. To me personally, the Egg chair is the quintessential of design: beautifully shaped, comfortable, stylish and timelessly beautiful!
To celebrate it’s 50th birthday, Fritz Hansen launches a limited edition of 999 pieces with chocolate-coloured leather with a bronze foot. I want one :-) For those who can actually afford one, they will be available from February ‘08. For those like me who can’t, you can dream away with some great Egg chair ads from the ’50s.
Düsseldorf, a city on my list for cities in Germany I still wanted to visit (just München and Dresden left now). It’s only one and a half hour away from where I study, yet I had never been there. Since I wanted to meet up with friends from abroad, I had a very good reason to go there.
It’s already been two weeks ago since I visited the city, but it still worth a post. Düsseldorf is a small city (around 500,000 inhabitants) which makes it quite charming. It is known for good shopping, especially at the very expensive Kö (Königsallee) with lots of luxury shops. Don’t forget to bring your credit card though. Since the weather was wonderful, we spent some time at the promenade having some drinks and enjoying the panorama on the Rhein.
Besides the lovely Altstadt (old town) there is, to my surprise, some great modern architecture as well. I went up the Rheinturm (communication tower) where I had a great view on Düsseldorf and especially the area called Media Port/Mediahafen. My favourite buildings were the Landtag and the Zollhof Gebäude (pictures). For more pictures of interesting buildings in that area in Düsseldorf, click here. Of course we also explored the nightlife a little bit, but we mostly stayed at local pubs. Here we tried what was told a local specialty, namely a shot with Tabasco in it. I can highly recommend a visit to Düsseldorf, but this shot is something I advise you to pass.
Last month I read an article about the Fiat 500 and their plans to relaunch a new version of my favourite car, the Fiat 500! In May 2006 they launched a special website, 500 days before the new car would come out. Suddenly they changed the release date to 4th of July, which was yesterday. Some pictures of the new Fiat 500 were leaked to the Internet, so I already had an impression of how the new Fiat 500 would look. I’m still more of a fan of the original version which I would love to own one day :-)
When my neighbours in Copenhagen one day got all their cars out of the garage, this beautiful Fiat 500 showed up. I just HAD to take a picture of it!
A post on Molblog pointed out to a video which is a collection of facts and figures which are interesting and even amazing many times. It addresses how the world changed and keeps on doing so. The design is a great example of how good and useful design can make the messages even more powerful. Definitely worth a few minutes of your attention!
(Shift Happens 2.0 by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod, design by XPLANE)
