This winter, stripes are in!

This is obviously more of a musing than a design-related post. The constant melting and then freezing again of icebergs creates some pretty amazing stripe patterns.

Link: Revealed: The Antarctic iceberg that looks like a giant humbug | the Daily Mail

CG

A P[lace] of Beauty

Architects; Wojciech Kakowski, Natalia Paszkowska, and Marcin Mostafa have won the design competition to create the Polish Pavilion for Shanghai's EXPO 2010. The design reinterprets traditional Polish folk art elements in a contemporary way. Hopefully, the structure doesn't outshine all that which it houses.

CG

Justen Ladda

Justen Ladda did some really neat installations in the '80's that play a lot with light and perspective. 

Link: installations index new

CG

Googled Birthday: Brittany Hull

Today marks the anniversary of Brit's entrance to the world. We're celebrating by standing outside, watching a crane hover precariously over our office holding a two-ton air conditioning unit.

Happy Birthday Brittany!! 

-em

battery-powered packaging

Every NXT shaving product carries an LED in its base that lights up the gel inside, similar to a lava lamp. The lights last for about a year and don't start working until they're on a shelf, because of a rolling switch that turns them off when they're not set upright. The products will sell for around $5 each and will start lighting up the shelves at Target this month.

-em

What makes us different! East vs. West

Understanding Asian vs. Western cultures...

These icons were designed by Liu Young who was born in China and educated in Germany.

Blue -> Westerner

Red -> Asian

Queue when waiting

Upset Stomach

Sundays on the road

The Boss

The Child

Me

Weather & Mood

Opinion

Party

Anger

Punctuality
Contacts
Definition of Beauty

Handling Problems

In the Restaurant

Transportation

3 Meals a Day
Travelling

Way of Life

What's Trendy

RW

When in Doubt, Go with Van Gogh

For those prone to "designer's block", this interesting item from the latest issue of BusinessWeek may provide a solution...

PA

To give their products cachet, marketers spend millions on celebrity endorsements. They might do better with the Mona Lisa, concludes a study conducted by the University of Georgia. In three separate surveys, researchers showed hundreds of subjects identical products—silverware, bathroom fixtures, and soap dispensers. Some were packaged or promoted using reproductions of paintings by Van Gogh, Vermeer, or William Turner. Others just used photos of similar settings (including one of actress Scarlett Johansson in her film role as Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring).

The result: People rated the items packaged with works of art as more "luxurious." It didn't matter if a painting was unfamiliar or unrelated to the product. A soap dispenser bearing a print of Turner's Burning of the Houses of Parliament won out over one decorated with a photo. Sorry, Scarlett. The real Girl with a Pearl Earring works better.

best-case scenario

London-based Levitate Architects designed a bookcase that replaces a staircase; simultaneously solving small-space issues and allowing easier access for the, er ... vertically challenged.

-Em

don't slip

Stefan Sagmeister has a show in Soho related to the books we were looking at yesterday, 20 Things I Have Learned in my Life So Far. The exhibit includes 7,200 bananas on the largest wall of the gallery, highlighting one of the twenty, "self confidence produces fine results." Bananas were mailed as invitations to the opening. It's been on view for 3 weeks and will close tomorrow.

Since the giant inflatable monkey flanking the banana wall can't eat them (poor little monkey), this certainly begs the question -- is this an enormous waste of perfectly good bananas or a sculpture that will avoid the eventual landfill and become compost? It's a slippery slope. 

-em

Prada '08

A collaboration between Prada and LA artist James Jean, this wallpaper is hanging in the Soho Epicenter store at 17 X 200 feet. Here are some sections of it, and a long jpeg of the entire mural. You can see more at.. prada.com under wallpaper (ss 08).
Brian

Pepsi Raw

It's hard to speak with your tongue in your cheek. No good can come from me saying anything further.

Link: http://dieline.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/pepsi-raw.html

CG