2Modern Design Talk - Modern Furniture & Design Blog

Hi.

We all humanize our computers and operating systems on a daily basis, even as we speak I'm trying to coax my little laptop into working a little faster for me. The folks at Multitouch Barcelona created an awesome video showing "the little man in the box" with Hi: a real Human Interface. Pretty awesome stuff... make sure to watch it to the end.

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.

I found this over at Polaine.com. I took a class that Andy Polaine taught back in my post-grad days at COFA and he is a bad-ass when it comes to interactive design. I still look to his site to stay on top of the cool things happening in the field.

--sdotg--

Cross-Dressing in the Park

I can't get enough of the Public's Shakespeare in the Park print campaign in all its 90 degree typography glory! This print campaign is all over NYC for the annual free performances presented by The Public Theater at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.

This year’s plays include a raucous production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night starring Anne Hathaway, opening tonight, and Euripides’s tragedy The Bacchae, with a score by Philip Glass, coming in August.

As usual the two plays are largely unrelated, but one thing they have in common this year is transvestism: lead characters in both plays don drag, hence the campaign tagline “Cross-Dressing in the Park.” The posters feature a Greek sculpture accessorized with a Shakespearean rose and mustachioed with a fine calligraphic line. Designed by Paula Scher and Lisa Kitschenberg, the campaign uses elements of the Public’s refreshed identity and complements our campaign for last summer’s productions of Hamlet and Hair.

This years campaign for Twelfth Night and The Bacchae:

Last years campaign for Hamlet and Hair:

I'm not promoting theft or vandalism in anyway... BUT if someone could get me one of these original posters there would be a nice reward for them!

via

--sdotg--

Bathtub IV

I've just spent 4 days in NYC to get a little relaxation and inspiration time... and it worked! I was introduced to the AMAZING  and SUPER inspirational work of Keith Loutit.

Keith is a Sydney based photographer that creates short films using stop-motion and time-lapse footage. The coolest part about the imagery is that he uses a tilt-shift lens that makes everything seem like its a miniature model...but it's not! These images are of life size thing at real places with real people. Such an amazing idea and executed so well.. I can't stop watching his videos!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Make sure to check out the HD version of this here.

Learn more about Keith and see his other videos here.
Also, thanks to JVH from WhichDateWorks on showing me this and for facilitating my NYC inspiration search!

--sdotg--

The Long Haul

New promotional video from the awesome Sylvain Dumais. I've watched it a few times and there is A LOT going on in this stop-motion clip but its made so seamlessly that you don't realize it. Great job by all on this!

The Long Haul
Print and motion commit to a long life together in a movie made from 4000 great pictures and...

3 x pimped out stills cameras
2000 square feet of studio
11 x Obama lovers
2 x Producers with whips
450 kg of props
360 degrees of dolly track
15 hours of makeup
1 x clip on rat tail
2 x actors standing still for 22 hrs
1 x grown woman wearing a child sized dragon outfit
1 x 72 hr work work day
1 x "Bapapa" song

While on set a great idea was formed. Dumais Studio and Full Serve Productions were to come together to work on a creative.

Sylvain had the great idea of trying to show the elements of a production come together in a stop motion piece. But we needed a story. Several meetings and hundred of emails later, The Long Haul was hatched.

The concept was to show the stages of an evolving relationship and the passing of trends, focusing on sending a message that,in the end, a good relationship lasts. The pivotal point was to communicate our interest in developing long standing relationships with our clients and that weʼre not just a flash in the pan.

via

--sdotg--

2009 Movie Extravaganza Post!

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a blast ringing in the new year... if not then this post will definitely fix that.

FIRST- The rumors on the interwebs have proven true. Thet are filming a real life version of "Where the Wild Things Are." Three cool facts that make this a little bit more exciting are:
1. They aren't using CGI but actual puppets and "wild thing" suits.
2. Driected by Spike Jonze
3. Screenplay written by Dave Eggers.

I know... you guys are probably muttering under your breath that I am a quack and this is all Grade A Bologna.
Exhibit A-C

(pics via imdb.com)

SECOND - Gary Hustwit, the guy who brought us the awesome documentaries on Wilco & Helvetica, has made another bad ass doco on object design called Objectified. So, for this 2009 Movie Extravaganza post I present to you the newly released trailer for the film.

--sdotg--

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

2009 will certainly go down as a very memorable one, to say the least. I think there will be a lot of reflection on what exactly transpired over this past year. There is no need to rehash it all, the Media does a great job at keeping us up to date with every detail possible.

I guess the one thing that I can decipher from all of this is this...if you are in a position of power, and your decisions impact several people, then make sure that you are acting with other people's best interest in mind. Make sure that your integrity is in check and that you are as concerned with other people's well-being as your own.

CEO's, Politicians, Hedge Fund Managers (Ponzi Scheme Operators), Teachers, Parents, etc...we all inherently know right from wrong. We all know when we are looking to 'just get ours', regardless of the end result of our actions on others.

I am sure I am preaching to the choir...as most of the people that are the root cause of some of these current global concerns will likely never read this, let alone have it sink in. Maybe if we start giving more attention to the people that are doing good things for people, doing the right or selfless thing when no one is even watching, then things will start to change in a positive direction. I hope that good behavior is rewarded and bad behavior isn't in 2009. That is my wish.

I sincerely hope that all of you out there have a very Happy, Healthy (and Conscious) New Year!

Greg

Tate Modern Unveils TH: 2058.

The year is 2058 in London, a city under attack.  After months of raining things begin to grow to overpower the people below and Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern has housed some 200 metal blue and yellow bunk beds in anticipation of people coming in to seek shelter.

Fast backward to November 2008 at London's Tate Modern Museum's Unilever Series presenting French artist and sculptor Dominique Gonzalez-Forester 's installation in Turbine Hall, TH:  2058.

The things growing are a giant reproduction of Louis Bourgeois' spider sculpture jumbled up with an Alexander Calder mobile, Henry Moore's sheep, Claus Oldenburg's apple, and Maurizio Cattelan's cat skeleton in style of a Tyrannosaurus Rex among others all mushrooming out of control while in the background a giant screen projects images from The Last Film made up of excerpts from the experimental films of Chris Marker and Peter Watkins, and the science fiction of George Lucas and Nicolas Roeg. Scenes of shelter and archives are drawn from Richard Fleischer's Soylent Green and Alain Resnais's Toute la mémoire du monde, alongside sequences of urban expectation from Peter Weir's The Last Wave, the apocalyptic explosion of Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point and the dystopian vision of a world without books in François Truffaut's adaptation of Fahrenheit 451.

Each of the beds holds a copy of a classic sci-fi novel or some other scary out of world text.

Miss Gonzalez-Foerster said she had taken the 2005 London bombings and the Blitz as inspiration, adding that the global financial meltdown gives the piece added resonance: "We are in intense turbulence. Fasten your seatbelts."

I'll say.

TH:  2058 runs through April 13, 2009.  For text by Gonzalez-Foerster and curator, Jessica Morgan, about the installation see the museum's website.

via the Telegraph.

Beautiful Losers

While surfing through the interwebs I came across an awesome typography-rich poster.  After further examination I realized it is for a new film called Beautiful Losers.

The Poster:

The Film:

BEAUTIFUL LOSERS celebrates the spirit behind  one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation        

In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of likeminded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the "establishment" art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture.

Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories. It speaks to themes of what happens when the outside becomes "in" as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today's youth.

You can check out the trailer here, the screening information here and find out about the artists here.

--sdotg--

From the Past, to the Future, and to the Past Again.

I was asked what I would like to write about, what kind of things interest me. The first thing that jumped to mind was Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie, Blade Runner. It is a perfect image of the mixture of future and past design, described sometimes as a retrofitted future. Its dark vision of the future year 2019, expertly stays linked to the past. 

From the poetic first-person narration, the moral ambivalent hero, to the femme fatale, it has all the earmarks of a classic Film Noir. But those elements also brilliantly shared the screen with life-like human replicants, sky-driven cars, and the threat of acid rain. 

From the 1940s look of Sean Young’s Rachael, to Harrison Ford’s mood and speaking manner as Deckard, to J. F. Sebastian toys, that strangely evoked toys that were already collectibles by the time of the movie’s creation. 

 

Last month, Japanese fashion designer Junko Shimada presented her fall/winter 2008/2009 collection, which was greatly influenced by the movie. While thoroughly modern in gold and silver fabrics, it still evoked 1950’s fashions with the ratted bouffant hair, the strong shoulders, and peplum jackets. It also seems that designers Christian Lacroix, Yves Saint Laurent, Monique Lhuillier, and Balenciaga were influenced by Blade Runner for their fall ready-to-wear collections.

       

I still have not seen the 25^th Anniversary Director’s Cut; therefore, to me this movie is perfect as it is. I think this movie is a great example for the future of design. Truly great design does not go out of style. It just needs to be seen in a new light and appreciated anew.

Once is not enough...

This little ad for Banc de Sang ( by minnim ) is pretty damn original and to the point ! 

Check out the ad here.

Thanks YTD

--sdotg--