Where's my scribble??

"Clever advertising campaign for the School of Visual Arts encourages people everywhere to “think” by giving them a place to write down their ideas."


Having drawn on many napkins myself during my student days and knowing that my boyfriend has (on more than on occasion) shown the builders working on the renovation of his country house a drawing on a napkin from his architect, I think these napkins should be in all design professional's natural habitats i.e. bars and cafes.


And the toilet paper design is much better than the puppies and sea shells manufacturers insist on printing these days.

via toxel

Periodic Table of Typefaces

"The Periodic Table of Typefaces is obviously in the style of all the thousands of over-sized Periodic Table of Elements posters hanging in schools and homes around the world. This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today.

As with traditional periodic tables, this table presents the subject matter grouped categorically. The Table of Typefaces groups by families and classes of typefaces: san-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed.

Each cell of the table lists the typeface and a one or two character "symbol" , the designer, year designed and a ranking of 1 through 100.

Ranking was determined by statistically sorting and combining lists and opinions from the the sites listed below. The final overall ranking was achieved depending on how many lists the particular typeface was presented on and it's ranking on the lists (if the particular source list used a ranking system; some did not, in which case just the typeface's presence on the list boosted it's overall score.) After averaging the typefaces appearances and rankings a composite score was given and the list was sorted on a spreadsheet then finally given an overall score of 1 through 100 based on it's final resting position.

Unfortunately, the typefaces could not be sorted exactly numerically on the table while at the same time keeping them in groups of families and classes. It had to be one or the other. Of course it COULD have been done but I would have had to seriously sacrifice aesthetics of the overall design (i.e. it wouldn't have come out looking AT ALL like a traditional periodic table.) However, upon close inspection, you find that at least the typefaces are ordered within their family/class groupings." by Squidspot

via Why Me Design

I need. I want.

1. Lap Counter


"The Lap Counter is a plastic tray and a neat kitchen facility, which gives you the mobility to peel, chop, slice fruits and vegetables almost anywhere in the house. It’s ergonomically shaped to fit the lap of the sitting person and it’s molded for both a container and a working surface. It will barely sit on your drying rack or fit in your washing machine, so it’s better thinking in the direction of assembling different modules, but besides that the Lap Counter is a brilliant facility for your prep cooking comfort." by Toman Kral

... because peeling potatoes is really boring

2. Bullet Bracelet

Bracelet made out of bullet casings by Tex Astali

... because I like looking like a scary designer and wearing head to toe black just isn't intimidating enough anymore.

3. Soil Lamp



"Free and environmentally friendly energy forever and ever. The lamp runs on mud. The metabolism of biological life produces enough electricity to keep a LED lamp burning. The mud is enclosed in various cells. These cells contain copper and zinc that conduct the electricity. The more cells there are, the more electricity the generate. This technique offers a wealth of possibilities. The only thing the lamp needs is a splash of water every now and then." by mariekestaps

... because I hate power cords and I like sleeping with the lights on. plus I am curious to know the scalability of this product, for example is it possible to have a street light that plugs directly into the ground?

4. Lazarus Wine


Grown and cultivated by the blind.

... because I am a sucker for packaging and this one is niiiiiice.

5. A Magic Wand
One that works as a TV remote. Brillant!

Ready Made Art - Plastic Bags 1

"In the early morning Thursday 5 March, 80 plastic shopping bags were reused by Luzinterruptus to lit ended floating in the wind in The Prado Museum.

The intervention was called ´A Cloud of Bags visit The Prado´and it was a success thanks to the wind that blew through the city on this particular day.

The installation was rather ephemeral we thought that before dawn it would have been dismantled by the Cleaning Service who are always ready to leave everything spik and span and enable everybody to enjoy such a magnificent building. We hope that as we always mention the components of the intervention were recycle.

Despite its short duration we kept our memories have been im mortalized by Gustavo Sanabria's photos.

Time of installation : 1 hour 20 minutes.
Damages: none
Exhibition time: 4 hours."

via luzinterruptus

Performing Landscape

Recently I was brainstorming on an ideas competition for the Arts Center in Melbourne and exploring the possibility of integrating performing arts opportunities in public space - that the urban landscape can do more to facilitate performing arts than just allowing for enough hardscape space for the Spiegeltent to set up every year. I wondered if there were ways that the Arts Center could engage with the public on a more personal, one to one, basis and with children to ensure that the instituion stays relevant for the next generation. One of the ideas was "performing space", where all the elements in the landscape could be used for "performing", whether that be music, dance, theatre etc. For example, I wanted to redesign the standard green Melbourne street bench into a xylophone that children could play with. The closest realised project that I found in a precedent search was "Railings" by Greyworld, a standard looking railing in London which plays the Girl from Ipanema when you run a stick along them.

Sadly, the project architects I was collaborating with didn't want to hear about such minor details as the street furniture (or for that matter, the landscape) and the ideas were never communicated to the client but it got me thinking generally about how to extend the functions of street furniture, which is a standard public amenity that is installed all over the city. Then I came across this "bouncing bench" project by Bruno Taylor which I would love to specify for the next playground I am designing if its in production by then.



And playful fencing to keep the children in :) via Inhabitat

via pixelsumo

The Geometry of Geology

A recent post midnight and champagne conversation on the post modern nature of Melbourne's design culture had me thinking about design motifs. Geology was my least favourite subject at school, but I found this image really interesting as a possible way into a design process. Can the geology of the site be reflected in the designed landscape in three dimensional form? i.e. not just inform how deep the footings need to be and what type of plants will survive.

via bldgblog

Musical Down Pipes

Aesthetically, I have always hated down pipes on facades - like pit lids, they always seem to be an afterthough which wasn't thought through... Atypical of this, the Funnel Wall in Kunsthofpassage in Dresden, Germany plays music when it rains.

via bloomacious

Investment Banker In Formaldehyde

Living in London, it is impossible to avoid the (hyper)reality of the Global Credit Crunch, every day there are new record breaking statistics on just how bad the situation is - the number of jobs lost, the number of homes repossessed, the falling pound... its seems to be never ending. I can't work out if it really is that dire or if there are just a lot of Indian nationals working in the London media these days. At least I no longer see bankers in expensive suits going home on the tube carrying boxes of their belongings. Which leads me to the best piece of humor I have come across in reference to our current troubled times.

Damien Hirst sets new auction record with ‘Investment Banker in Formaldehyde’

A piece of art by Damien Hirst has set the new record for a single item at auction. The piece entitled ‘Oh Shit’ fetched £2.3bn after frantic bidding by an anonymous investor. The work, which features a Merrill Lynch employee suspended in a tank of formaldehyde secured the highest price yet paid for a single piece of banking history.

It was believed that it was purchased for a private exhibit, and is unlikely to be put on display to the public or auditors, in the immediate future. ‘Pay Day’, a piece comprised of empty envelopes and which was expected to make between 4,000 to 5,000 people happy, eventually went to administrators Price Waterhouse Coopers for well over the asking price.

Art critic Mathias Van-Leer praised Hirst for his courageous decision to sell all these works from his Financial Meltdown period. ‘It is a remarkable that Damien has been able to command these sort of prices,’ he said, ‘especially as we are seeing a lot of similar pieces suddenly coming onto the market.’

The success of the Hirst auction is in contrast to the fortunes of artists and brothers Jake and Dinos Lehman who were unable to find a buyer for their latest work, ‘White Elephant’. This has led some art experts to claim that the market will be unlikely to secure the same sort of money for other historic banking institutions, and some predict that the bubble will burst sooner rather than later. Daily Telegraph art critic Mark Walker-Brice is one of the sceptical voices; ‘I mean we’ve seen this all before, haven’t we? I mean, this is just Northern Rock Bank Clerk, given a transatlantic sheen and passed off as the next big thing.’

Meanwhile, Hirst’s agent said he was delighted at the amount raised by the sale of his latest work. ‘Although we’re a bit worried about where he should deposit the cheque.'

via NewsBiscuit

One Day Poem Pavilion

I have been having an "interesting" time recently with the concept of canopies and shade structures on a project in the Middle East. We suggested 'em > the client wanted 'em > we designed 'em > the client doesn't want 'em anymore > somebody found the shadow studies and realised that we don't actually need 'em > but now the boss wants 'em... just great... anyway, the One Day Poem Pavilion by Jiyeon Sung is an amazing project that tracks the sunlight with a moving poem. These is a time lapse video too. I wonder if this can be made to work on a very large scale.

Psychoanalyst Puppets

Some props to help those of us who over analyze everything and talk to ourselves to get through the day.

"Go nuts with this wacky pack of puppets! You ll get Freud (the father of psychoanalysis), his daughter Anna Freud (a noted child therapist in Britain), Carl Jung (king of the collective unconscious ) and a red chaise lounge so the shrinks can take turns shrinking each other. You and your friends can debate psychological theory, reenact the friendship and breakup of Freud and Jung, and just turn psychoanalytical theory on its head! The box converts to a puppet theater."

available from uncommon goods via boing boing

working together in isolation

Recently I have been working on a project where there are too many designers with very different ideas, none of whom are willing to come to a compromise and merge the ideas into one working concept. This wouldn't be a problem except the client wants a landscape to cut a red ribbon in front of next september and the contractor is already on site pouring concrete (!!).

The inspiration of this chair - the folded sketch, a child’s game where you draw one part of a character not knowing how the previous or next person will draw theirs - may be the only way forward...

via Notcot

ORDOS 100

Project Statement:

"The scope of the project is to Develop 100 hundred villas in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China, for the Client, Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd. FAKE Design, Ai Wei Wei studio in Beijing, has developed the masterplan for the 100 parcels of land and will curate the project, while Herzog and de Meuron have selected the 100 architects to participate. The collection of 100 Architects hail from 27 countries around the globe. The project has been divided into 2 phases. The first phase is the development of 28 parcels while the second phase will develop the remaining 72. Each architect is responsible for a 1000 square meter Villa."

Sounds like a great project.

Reminds me of another great project that was almost too incredible to be true which I came across in a WWILF moment in Paul's library - Commune by the Great Wall "a private collection of contemporary architecture designed by 12 Asian architects. It was exhibited at the 2002 la Biennale di Venezia and awarded a special prize. Commune by the Great Wall was named “A New Architectural Wonder of China” by Business Week in 2005."

More information at ORDOS100
via inhabitat

WOrld BOttle

interesting use of the statistical correlation between homelessness and alcohol abuse...

For the love of statistics....

... and for my friends who need pictures and diagrams to be able to understand numbers - you know who you are...

Tis the Season...

I pronounce the Silly Season... OPEN ~

Hannes Broecker - Drink Away The ArtExhibition in Dresden, Germany

"Forget about wandering through an art gallery and wondering if you’re the only one who has no idea what anything means. Hannes Broecker has brilliantly invited the cultural elite to grab a glass at an exhibition in Dresden, Germany, and drink away the art. Regardless of what we do or do not understand about art, we can all agree, it stimulates our senses. Broecker has aroused our sense of taste (not to mention eliminated the need of elbowing our way to the bar) by hanging flat, glass containers with a variety of cocktails in the exhibition space. As the night progressed, the levels of the multi-coloured infusions diminished. By the end of the event, the art, itself, ran dry, and empty drinking glasses were returned to where they were originally placed. By Andrew J Wiener."

via Coolhunter

‘under-construction sites’

"Fulton Fence is installed on the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway in Manhattan, New York and can be viewed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The project is on of the three interventions that make the pilot Re:Construction public art program organized by the Downtown Alliance and the LMCC.

Project Description

Accents of orange and yellow plastic construction meshes, industrial caution lights, safety signage and the chain-link fencing that universally signify construction-in-progress will be collaged into a vibrant op-art mural bounding the water main retrofitting on Fulton Street. These treatments will be affixed in segments following the 10-foot long section frames of chain-link fencing that currently encircle the construction site. At the time of installation the team will establish a primary linear pattern along the line of the fence that combines 30 or more of these modules. As these modules get moved around by the contractors due to on-going construction needs, these new arrangements will create unpredictable patterns conveying the very history of the construction as it progresses.

As part of the piece, the team will continually be building a web-based project, which will become the location of an online intervention that seeks to parallel the construction of the physical site with the construction of a ‘space’ within the Internet. This digital destination takes the form of a continually scrolling web page as both an organizational tool and analog of strolling down the perimeter of the project on Fulton Street. Just as the physical installation weaves elements of vernacular construction materials into the frame of the fence, the website will embed media driven ‘interventions’: process documentation, location information, online widget mash-ups, and mobile downloads among others.

These two explorations – one architectural, the other online – seek to re-define ‘under-construction sites’ as expressive spaces in a city of ongoing transformation."

Fulton Fence . net

Cracks at the Tate

Would have loved to be there for the briefing meeting for the engineer who made this happen... Maybe Gehry should use the "But, your honor, its art!!" defense for the Stata Center case.

Doris Salcedo Shibboleth

Doris Salcedo’s Shibboleth is the first work to intervene directly in the fabric of the Turbine Hall. Rather than fill this iconic space with a conventional sculpture or installation, Salcedo has created a subterranean chasm that stretches the length of the Turbine Hall. The concrete walls of the crevice are ruptured by a steel mesh fence, creating a tension between these elements that resist yet depend on one another. By making the floor the principal focus of her project, Salcedo dramatically shifts our perception of the Turbine Hall’s architecture, subtly subverting its claims to monumentality and grandeur. Shibboleth asks questions about the interaction of sculpture and space, about architecture and the values it enshrines, and about the shaky ideological foundations on which Western notions of modernity are built.

In particular, Salcedo is addressing a long legacy of racism and colonialism that underlies the modern world. A ‘shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.

‘The history of racism’, Salcedo writes, ‘runs parallel to the history of modernity, and is its untold dark side’. For hundreds of years, Western ideas of progress and prosperity have been underpinned by colonial exploitation and the withdrawal of basic rights from others. Our own time, Salcedo is keen to remind us, remains defined by the existence of a huge socially excluded underclass, in Western as well as post-colonial societies.

In breaking open the floor of the museum, Salcedo is exposing a fracture in modernity itself. Her work encourages us to confront uncomfortable truths about our history and about ourselves with absolute candidness, and without self-deception.

more here...

that's very nanna of you

The Art of Botanical Illustration

A couple of christmas' ago, the hostess of the Orphan's Christmas Lunch I went to confessed that she was obsessed with sugar tongs and a particular collection of Royal Copenhagen china Given she was 27 and working at one of australia's best private contemporary art galleries, with a personal specialty in neon art, all the guest had a laugh at her very nanna-esque obsession. Well, time to confess, mine is botanical illustration. I find the illustrations much more expressive, beautiful and representative than any photograph. The Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne have curated an interesting collection here.

The Story of My Life

Two Dilbert's that sum things up...

Dematerializing Samples

A granite paving sample fell on my friend and co-worker Jooyeon's foot yesterday and bruised her. I don't think it she was using it for the purposes that the sample was issued, in fact I think she was using it to stabilize a book that she was photographing because she couldn't be bothered scanning, so maybe its the sample's way protesting its abuse. (I have been reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). But the incident got me wondering if there was a better way to manage the millions of paving samples that we receive constantly - I request new ones for every project because its simply too hard to find the ones I want in the existing sample collection. And voila ~ the interior designers have already come up with a way of doing this...

"In 2002 the Chattanooga-based sustainable-design-services company Tricycle launched an alternative sampling option for the interiors industry; manufacturers outsource the process to the company, which produces and delivers extremely realistic paper samples—called SIMs—to specifiers instead of actual carpet slabs. The idea quickly took off and has become widely implemented (and widely imitated) in the industry. Tricycle estimates that in four years its service has saved about 26,000 gallons of oil and kept more than 155,000 pounds of waste out of landfills.

At this year’s NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, Tricycle launched a significant expansion of the program, called Tryk. Previously the company could only cre­ate samples of tufted carpet, but Tryk works with woven carpet as well as wall-coverings and fabrics. It also allows for different scales and larger sizes—and the image quality is improved. “We continue to move toward a more photorealistic image,” says Michael Hendrix, Tricycle’s creative director and chief brand officer. “If you could see an image from three years ago, the tufts looked flatter. We’ve been able to improve the perception of volume in the overall look.”

The company is also launching a new Web platform, which will be fully functional by January. “It’s more robust,” Hendrix says. “It’s giving more features to the user, and it’s actually better integrated with the business practices of manufac­turers.” The end result is an even more efficient, easy-to-use, and realistic tool for designers to sample materials—without wasting them."

Via Metropolis Mag