Freeload: Pocketknife's FADER Holiday Mix, Live From The Peppermint Palace

Word to my man Skooby a.k.a. Pocketknife for getting us this Holiday Cheer!



Direct link to Mp3.

Tracklisiting:
Pocketknife's FADER MAGAZINE Holiday Mix -- Live From the Peppermint Palace

The Knife, "Reindeer"
Treacherous Three, "X-Mas Rap (X-Rated Version)"
Ying Yang Twins, "Ho! Ho!"
The Who, "Christmas (Hockney Peacockney Edit)"
Sufjan Stevens, "Put the Lights on the Tree (Pocketknife's Radioshack Remix)"
Hall and Oates, "Jingle Bell Rock"
Tittsworth, "Titts'mas Time (2007 Edit)"
Vince Guaraldi, "Linus & Lucy (Pocketknife's Hark, the Holler Remix)"
Luke, "Ho Hoe Hoes"
The Beach Boys, "Little Saint Nick"
Ringo Starr, "Come On Christmas, Christmas Come On"
Material, Nona Hendryx "It's A Holiday"
Bruce Springsteen, "Santa Claus Is Comin To Town"
The Muppets, "Christmas Is Coming (Pocketknife's Stackin Ha'pennies Remix)"
Slumber Party, "J.C. Is Born (Pocketknife's Little Town Remix)"
Belle & Sebastian, "Santa Claus, Go Straight To The Ghetto (James Brown cover)"
DJ Nephet, "Jingle Juke"
Was (Not Was), "Christmas Time in the Motor City (Hockney Peacockney Edit)"

Martha Stewart's Blueprint Magazine closes after a little over 1 year.

Some Content to Appear on Web, in 'Weddings'.

Read more on AdAge.

New Issue of XXMagazine launched!

Issue No. 2 features:
Avantika Bawa
Elasticbrand
Faye Driscoll
Johnson

THURSDAY 25 OCTOBER 2007 6:30–9:00PM: Crouwel/Vignelli

Wim Crouwel.



Massimo Vignelli.

A rare opportunity to see and hear these godfathers of modernist graphic design and corporate identity.

From Aiga.org:
Wim Crouwel, Dutch graphic designer, exhibition designer, museum director and educator, established his first freelance design practice in Amsterdam in 1954. In 1963 he became one of the five founding partners of Total Design, so called because it was the first multidisciplinary design studios in the Netherlands. During the sixties and the seventies he was responsible for many of the posters, catalogues, and exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. From 1985-1993, Wim was director of the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. In 1967 he launched his New Alphabet within the Quadrat-Print series of journals published by Pieter Brattinga and his printing firm Steendrukkerij De Jong. This radical typographic experiment proposed new letterforms as a response to new technology. It was commissioned by Olivetti for a new typewriter font and although completed it was not released at the time due to changes in technology. The basis of all Wim's work is a strong underlying grid system, his typefaces being a logical extension of this grid. Within the last two years The Foundry in London has digitalized and marketed four of Wim's typefaces.

Massimo Vignelli, Italian designer of graphic and corporate identity programs, publications, architectural graphics, exhibitions, furniture and products of all kinds, has lived and worked in New York for the past four decades. Massimo studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano from 1950 to 1953 and later trained at the Universita di Architetttura in Venice. His first professional position was as a designer of glassware for Venini, and from 1958 to 1960 he taught design at the Institute of Design, Chicago, while his wife, Lella Vignelli worked for architects, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. In 1960, the couple returned to Milan and founded the Lella and Massimo Vignelli Office for Design and Architecture. Four years later, Massimo began creating graphics for the Container Corporation of America, and designed its new logo. In 1965, with Bob Noorda and Jay Doblin he founded Unimark International, a design consultancy originally based in Milan. Soon after, The Vignellis moved to the U.S. and in 1966 Unimark established a New York office, specializing in corporate identity. In 1971, Vignelli Associates was established and subsequently designed corporate identity programs for Knoll, American Airlines, Bloomingdales, Xerox, Lancia, Cinzano, and Ford Motors. Massimo also turned his attention to designing furniture for Sunar, Rosenthal, Morphos and Knoll, including the Handkerchief Chair and Paper Clip table for Knoll. Some of the most well-known work of the Vignellis includes directional signage for the New York and Washington, D.C. subway systems.

Alice Twemlow is the chair of a new MFA program in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts, which launches in the fall of 2008. Alice writes about design for publications including Design Issues, Design Observer, Good, Eye, I.D., New York Magazine, Paper, Print, The Architect’s Newspaper, and Varoom. She is the author of What is Graphic Design For? (Rotovision, 2006), StyleCity New York (Thames & Hudson, 2005) and has contributed essays to Jonathan Barnbrook’s monograph, Barnbrook Bible (Booth Clibborn, 2007), Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Allworth Press, 2007), ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING (Design Institute, 2006), and Why Not Associates 2 (Thames & Husdon, 2004). She has directed several design conferences, including “Voice: AIGA National Design Conference 2002," and “Being Here: Craft and Locality in Graphic Design,” held in Berlin in 2004, and co-directed “Looking Closer: AIGA Conference on Design History and Criticism.” Alice has an MA in Design History from the program run by the Royal College of Art and the V&A Museum in London, where she is currently a PhD candidate.

TIME AND PLACE

Thursday 25 October 2007 6:30–9:00PM
Tishman Auditorium
The New School
66 West 12th Street
Between Fifth and Sixth Avenues

6:30—7:00PM Check-in & admission
7:00—8:30PM Presentation
8:30—9:00PM Reception

"A whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink

I read this interesting excerpt on How Magazine's website this morning:

You've said that in the emerging economy, the smartest thing someone can do is to be a designer and tell their children to be designers. Why is design a great career move these days?
Because the working world that you and I live in is very different from the one that our parents prepared us for. When I was a kid—and I grew up in a middle-class family, in the middle of America, in the middle of the 1970s—parents told their kids to become doctors, lawyers, accountants or engineers. Those jobs were the pathway to a happy and prosperous life. But that's not true anymore. The economy that's emerging today confers the greatest rewards on a different kind of person with a different kind of mind. It rewards not "left-brain" knowledge workers, but "right-brain" creators and empathizers. The future belongs to those kinds of folks—artists, inventors, caregivers and, yes, designers.

We've heard about this left-brain/right-brain division before. How does it apply here?
The best metaphor to describe what's going on in work and business today is right inside our heads. The structure of our brains reveals a lot about the contours of our times. Our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere is logical, linear and sequential. It works like a computer. The right side is holistic, artistic and big-picture. Of course, we use both sides of our brain for most things. But the sorts of abilities characteristic of the left hemisphere are becoming less valuable. And the sorts of abilities characteristic of the right hemisphere are becoming more valuable.

Why is this shift happening?
Three big, unstoppable forces. What I call the three A's—abundance, Asia and automation.

Rem Koolhaas Designs a Death Star for the UAE

[From Wired]



The proposed Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre in the UAE bears a striking resemblance to the Death Star. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Reinier de Graaf as part of their collaboration with OMA, the sphere holds a convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices and retail space.

Incubate Design in CA Illustration Annual

Check out my friends at Incubate Design and their bad-ass design chops, if you haven't already. They will be featured in the upcoming Communication Arts Illustration Annual which hits the stands in June.

New Shift Mag for May '07 - Cover by Jeremyville

The latest issue of Shift magazine has the fun cover by Jeremyville above. Jeremyville says "What most influences me is the little child inside me." An animator, cartoonist, illustrator, product designer, published author, fine artist, toy designer, clothing designer based in Sydney, Jeremyville is here! With the new book "Jeremyville Sessions" and Shift cover, enjoy his interview.

Check out Shift & Jeremyville.

Seung Pyo Hong in "And Fork: 100 Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Good Designs"

Check out And Fork: 100 Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Good Designs for fellow Cranbrook alum (3d, 2002) Seung Pyo Hong (3d, 2002). Furthermore, Seung's piece "Masked Citizen X prototype 02" is mentioned in Domus Magazine no. 902 (April issue).

Also see On the Cutting Edge of Design on & Fork at the BusinessWeek website..

At samsungexhibition.com Seung explains:
My name is Seung Pyo Hong, who is an Industrial Designer. I have designed for a car manufacturer, design consulting firms and an online game company. Nowadays I am maintaining my career as a freelance designer specializing in consumer products including electronics. I am also teaching product design at some universities in Seoul.

I would like to describe my characteristics. Basically, I am a very easy-going and laid back person. I love taking photos of people around me (but do not like to be pictured). Sometimes I feel I am a bit anti-social but I never hesitate when it comes to discussing about design issues. My favorite sketch tools are Post-it and Sharpie. At work I always wear indigo blue T-shirts which I refer to as a “school uniform.” I only drink Americano with one packet of Equal and a bit of half and half. I like three-door hatch typed cars, especially VW Golf. I am addicted to watching the movement of heavy equipments like an excavator in huge manufacturing facilities. And, I also like the actor Kevin Bacon.

One thing I have to mention is that I am running a design project group with my partner, Jackson Hong. We have been friends for a long time and studied design discipline together in Seoul and the US. People tell us we are very similar in many ways, but in terms of design perspective, we are the opposite. I mostly play the professional and academic role in the mainstream design industry, but Jackson works for the Korean contemporary art scene. While I work as an industrial designer who mainly thinks of consumer’s satisfaction through market research and design process, Jackson Hong explores unusual desires in the relationship between everyday objects and their users by inventing products with unusual functions ranging from electronic devices to furniture, which mainstream design industries have not given attention to.

Although the direction of our objectives is different, our partnership has always been successful. I guess our characteristic differences have actually made an interesting synergy. Recently, we had a group exhibition named “UPSET” last June at a venue called ONEANDJ Gallery in Seoul. We unveiled some experimental art pieces. Below is one show item called “Masked Citizen X,” an electronic facial prosthetic for anti-social people.


Masked Citizen X 02 Prototype 01 - An anti-communication device 2006 / ABS plastic, Aluminum, Stainless steel / 33 x 79 x 80 (H x W x D Cm)

Since I have a background in design, most of my writings on this blog will handle design issues. As a design commentator, I will analyze the electronic devices on the IFA show in Berlin and interpretate their design stories from a cultural perspective to a more detailed user perspective through my very personal point of view.

Recognition for the illustration work of Robert Meganck

Designer/Illustrator Robert Meganck –a Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate of '75– is getting wide recognition with four illustrations accepted into Communication Arts 2007 Illustration Annual ans well as four accepted into the Society of Illustrators 29th Annual Exhibition in NY.

2007 Illustration Annual
Communication Arts
St. Supery Wine Label/ St. Supery Vineyard / digital
Brooklyn Boy/ Barksdale Theatre / poster / digital
On a Wire / Fram Vegas CD cover / digital

Society of Illustrators 49th Annual Exhibition, New York.
Illustrators 49
Brooklyn Boy/ Barksdale Theatre / poster / digital
Intimate Apparel/ Barksdale Theatre / poster / digital
Not a Creature was Stirring/ CDI / Digital
Swimming Upstream/ CFA magazine / Digital

Christie Wright & Scripps 63rd Ceramics Annual in Art Ltd. Magazine

Ofcourse, I'm proud to share with you the work of my wife and business partner, Christie Wright. Her "Ceramic Cell Phones", –which she designed and created at the European Ceramic Work Center in Den Bosch, The Netherlands– are built by hand from many tiny ceramic and wire parts. The body and the parts were developed using rapid prototyping technology as well as dripping clay. The body shape was based on a yet to be released typeface by yours truly.

This month's Art ltd., West Coast Art & Design has a great feature on the Scripps 63rd Ceramics Annual with a photo of Christie's Black "Ceramic Cell Phone". (She has a black and a white phone in the exhibition and has made different models, of which you can see examples on her website.)

Also see this previous post. And the Art ltd. website.

JDK Featured in Fast Company Magazine

JDK is a very interesting firm to me, because they work on brands in every dimension; identity research, concept development, graphic design, product design etc. They are located off the beaten track up in Burlington, VT and are most well known for their X-Box and Burton branding. Another very interesting conceptual piece that is featured in the Fast Company Magazine article, is their Do-It-Yourself shoe, created for Patagonia.

The Artist's Guide to Making Money

An exciting, decidedly eccentric, relentlessly well-crafted, and not without hope of being lucrative venture — The Artist's Guide series. The Artist's Guide is a topic-driven art journal produced
by Matt Cassity and Sam Spratlin.

This is a book/magazine full of inspiring, self-deprecating, insightful, intelligent and humorous creative discourse. Buy it for the words, buy it for the pictures... or both! Not by a Cranbrook grad, but the team behind "The Artist's Guide" certainly deserve your support for this exciting creative endeavor.