Bad at Sports » Design

Review: Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst

Martine Syms — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:42:43 +0000

Photo by Charlotte Cheetham © Manystuff

Manystuff is a blog, edited by the mostly anonymous Charlotte Cheetham, that offers a “daily selection” of graphic design. Manystuff has a devout, international following of 5,000+ visitors a day, they regularly organize design exhibitions and recently began publishing a magazine. Manystuff #1 is actually the second issue. Manystuff #0, More Real Than Fiction was released in 2008, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on it, so it remains less real to me.

Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst states its case modestly. The objective is to “fix a laboratory of experiments and meditations released from formal and theoretical prejudices.” One Possible Catalyst is not for those seeking a practical treatise about running your own studio or how to do-it-yourself, nor those looking for a barrage of striking images to consume. It comes as a refreshing counterpoint to the glut of design thinking, design within reach, and design sponging that currently abounds. One Possible Catalyst is for serious thinking about Design. Read it when you’re feeling cynical, but not when you’re feeling sleepy.

(Contributors were asked to diverge from the following three themes:)

Photo by Charlotte Cheetham © Manystuff

Less is more
This way of life has become a cliché and/or vice versa. Less is More is an argument for minimal graphic design that features an essay on the public notice by Rob Giampietro, a collection of business cards from Christian Brandt and a historical survey by Olivier Marcellin. Succinctly, “Use of a sans-serif and a uniform background.”

Support Graphic Design
Support Graphic Design is a catalog of structures used to hold posters and other designed objects, including outdoor benches from EventArchitectuur, billboards from Experimental Jetset, and a mobile bookshop from Robin Gadde. I was struck by the beauty and economy of the mobile bookshop, a succession of plywood sheets with rectangle cut outs for shelves.

Transmission
The headline asks “What about intergenerational relations between designers?” I often wonder if it’s even possible to establish intergenerational relationships outside of an institution. Sometimes I lament that the only way I’ll be able to meet so-and-so is to go to X school or secure another internship with no pay but lots of prestige. Although One Possible Catalyst provides no alternatives, it does offer a series of texts pairing educators with students and employers with interns that contemplate the role of generational exchange within the field.

Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst features contributions from Christian Brandt, Lorena Cardenas, Change is good, David Conte, Pinar Demirdag, Neil Donnelly, Laurent Fétis, Kees de Klein, Wayne Daly, Bear Demen, EventArchitectuur, Experimental Jetset, Robin Gadde &team, Rob Giampietro, Hannes Gloor & Stefan Jandl, Catherine Guiral & David Cluzeau, Arnaud Daffos, Vincent Lalanne, Aurélie Guérinet, Rikard Heberling, Hey Ho, Hyoun Youl Joe, Julia, Konst & Teknik, Sacha Leopold, Olivier Marcellin, Fanette Mellier, Pipi Parade, Please Let Me Design, Thibaut Robin, Grégoire Romanet, Mathias Schweizer, Maki Suzuki (Åbäke), Pierre Vanni, Karen Willey, and Ivor Williams.

It is available now at Manystuff.

Design Miami/Basel: The Blog

Christopher — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:29:27 +0000

Design Miami/Basel: The Blog

This is the week the design world heads to Basel, Switzerland for Design Miami/Basel which opened in Basel, Switzerland Tuesday, a day ahead of Art Basel is closer then ever before if your curious about the design worlds activities. This year they are starting their own blog, the cleverly titled Design Miami/Basel Blog.

Posting images, quotes, news and other updates from participants in the fair like designers and gallery owners for fans and journalists alike. They even went as far as publicizing a RSS feed so nice to see someone is listening to the youthful techie in the group since the larger art world seems allergic to RSS feeds on a whole.

Drainspotting Blog Goes Print

Christopher — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:00:22 +0000

Remo Camerota’s blog of Japanese manholes is now availiable in coffee table print form for everyone to see the bizarre imagery unpluged. Camerota has collected images of the striking manhole covers from all over Japan that were created as part of Japan’s 20 year beautification program that included multiple foundries and pitted once city against another to stand out the most with their covers.

From happy crabs, dinosaurs, cherry blossoms, skyscrapers & little red ridding hood there is little that has not been depicted on these covers.

New Take On Old Design by “#1″ Brazilian Designer Sergio Bergocce

Christopher — Sat, 22 May 2010 07:00:43 +0000

I ran across Brazilian Designer Sergio Bergocce’s take on the age old problem of bathroom signage a which I always considered to be a great visual trope to play with since is so universal/human and yet not obvious how to simplify visually unlike running or age.

Sergio Bergocce’s take I thought was both fresh and humorous while in step with the current trend of re-imagining 80′s themes of color & shape that seem to be coming back in style. Thought you all would like to see.

Designing The Greatest Apartment In 344sqft

Christopher — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 07:20:03 +0000

Hong Kong Architect Gary Chang took his 344sqft apartment and turned it into the ultimate 24 themed space all in 1 room.

[flashvideo file=http://badatsports.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ultimateapartment.flv /]

Flowchart to Pick the Typeface You Need

Christopher — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 04:04:42 +0000

From the good people at Dataviz comes a massive flowchart to help pick that typeface you are in need of for any project.

Q&A with Volume Gallery, A Roving Venue for Contemporary American Design

Claudine Isé — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:47:46 +0000

Jonathan Nesci, THE NEW, 2010

Last weekend I checked out Volume Gallery‘s debut presentation, an exhibition of limited edition furniture pieces by designer Jonathan Nesci titled THE NEW. The show was held for three days only at Andrew Rafacz Gallery. Nesci, whose design firm Hale is based in Chicago and Scottsburg, Indiana, finds inspiration in the idiosyncratic details of urban infrastructure: the angle of street curbs, the unobtrusive design and placement of electrical meters, the base of a street light. The limited edition pieces comprising THE NEW also reference minimalist sculpture: a day bed and side chair are named after Sol Lewitt, a wall-mounted aluminum plate bookcase that self-consciously evokes a Donald Judd sculpture is called the Reference Shelf.

Nesci favors industrial materials like metal and concrete, coated in a matte white finish that draws in surrounding light. My favorite piece was the Standard Table: a concrete disc that appeared to float within a circular bed of powder-coated aluminum and steel. In the picture above, its pale grey tabletop appears chalky white — an example of the way that Nesci’s pieces suck up light and transform hard-edged materials into objects that appear light-weight and almost ethereal. I also loved the smart, streamlined Seattle Planter, a combination planter/umbrella stand, which ingeniously re-uses dripping rainwater to nourish the plants in its base (the piece was designed with rain-soaked regions in mind, natch).

Jonathan Nesci, Standard Table. Powder-coated spun aluminum, concrete, steel.

Jonathan Nesci. Seattle Planter. Wax-polished aluminum plate.

Appropriately, Sam Vinz and Claire Warner, the co-founders of Volume Gallery, chose a white cube-like gallery space to showcase Nesci’s editions. Future iterations of Volume will likely look very different. I asked Vinz and Warner if they could answer a few questions about their new endeavor, and they kindly agreed. Check out Volume’s website for information on the next show, an exhibition of new editions by Felicia Ferrone that will take place sometime next Fall.

CI: Tell me a little bit about both of your backgrounds. You worked at Wright Auctions for a time?

Claire Warner: I graduated with a BA in Art History from Denison University, with an emphasis in Decorative Arts, spent several years at Wright Auction in Chicago as a specialist and appraiser in 20th century and contemporary design. While at Wright, I had the opportunity to help organize exhibitions by contemporary designers such as Arik Levy and Martino Gamper. Also spent time working at Luminaire, Chicago.

Sam Vinz: I graduated with a BA in Art History from UW-Madison with an emphasis in 20th century European architecture. In 2008 I completed my MA in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute in London, and I wrote my dissertation on an analysis of the contemporary design market. I have worked at Phillips de Pury, Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery, Wright Auction, and Chase Art Companies.

Claire Warner and Sam Vinz of Volume Gallery

CI: Why did you want to start Volume Gallery?

CW: We saw a void in the market for contemporary American design and the lack of support for emerging contemporary designers.

SV: Exactly, by allowing these designers to push the boundaries of what is often thought of ‘design’ they are able to be more creative with their output – in ways beyond that of the standard industrial/commercial design constructs that exist in the US today.

CI: Volume Gallery is not just about exhibiting design — it’s about partnering with designers to create limited editions specifically for Volume. Can you explain what that process entails?

CW: We work with the designer to provide the best platform for their design- to utilize our experience in the design market to amplify their voice as a designer.

SV: It involves various things – at the end of the day, we want these pieces in collectors homes – but at the same time we want the pieces to be approachable to younger/new collectors. This means, from a production standpoint, coming up with various levels of accessibility with the pieces that we produce. To accomplish these levels involves going through various designs with the designer and picking pieces that will do two things – most importantly, tell a story and present a collection, secondly – fulfill these different levels of accessibility.

CI: Volume Gallery isn’t based in a single space – as you’ve put it on your website, it’s event-based, and the location changes with every project. Can you tell us why you decided to follow this type of fluid and roving format as opposed to the traditional showroom style of exhibiting design objects?

CW: Each space needs to be conducive to the designer/ or designs. Not every piece will work in a white box gallery setting. By providing a different space for each show- we hope to place the piece in their appropriate context. We also feel creating more of an event adds to the interest- pulling different groups from different walks of life and introducing them to design.

SV: Also, it is a continuation of the idea of telling a story. For the Nesci show, it made sense for his pieces to be shown in a white-box setting. In the future we are planning on keeping it fresh by challenging the ideas of how design is seen.

Jonathan Nesci, Sol Bed. powder-coated aluminum bar and perforated steel sheet, Spinneybeck leather.

Jonathan Nesci, Reference Shelf. Wax polished aluminum plate.

CI: Can you tell us about some of your upcoming projects with designers, and what form those projects and events will take?

CW: The next event will be in the fall with designer Felicia Ferrone. We start working with the designer this week- so the space and context of the event has yet to be determined.

Felicia Ferrone, Revolution Wine/Water and Liqueur Glasses.

A Historical Look at Olympic Pictograms

Christopher — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:49 +0000

The New York Times takes a look with Designer Steven Heller at the pictograms of the Olympics over the years. Some are works of art, others just work your patience.

Underfull Table Cloth by Kristine Bjaadal

Christopher — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:14:18 +0000

It seems the big talk coming out of the 2010 Stockholm Furniture Fair is the “Underfull Table Cloth” by Norwegian designer Kristine Bjaadal’s simple damask pattern table cloth with a twist.

Built into the table cloth is a layer with a separate pattern and absorption level so that when a colored liquid is spilled the hidden design (in this case a butterfly pattern) shows through in line with the spill mark. The item is looking for a production agreement but the possibilities are endless and it’s pretty original for a product over 2000 years old.

REVIEW: Apartamento Magazine

Martine Syms — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:05:57 +0000

Apartamento Magazine #4

Apartamento Magazine, a bi-annual interiors journal, began in 2008, but seemed like folklore to most stateside bibliophiles, as it was incredibly hard to find. They had no known US stockist. Issue #1 was totally and completely sold out forever within months of its release. Post Poetics had Issues #2 & #3 for a while and I would frequently look at the page, tempting myself to buy the magazine, but the $30 international shipping permanently deterred me.

The first time I held Apartamento in my hands was just two months ago. A friend let me borrow a few of the past issues. It was as gorgeous in person as it looked in the photos I’d seen online. Thanks to art direction from designer Omar Sosa of Folch Studio and photographer Nacho Alegre, Apartamento is an object of immense beauty.

Interview with renowned designer Enzo Mari

Issue #4 features watercolors of artist studios (Julian Schnabel, Jeff Koons, Kiki Smith) by Grillo Demo, an interview with CFDA award winning jewelry designer Philip Crangi’s about his New York factory, an essay by Chloe Sevigny about her “70s preppy Connecticut” apartment, a photo tour of Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore’s Northhampton home, and a kids supplement curated by Reference Library’s Andy Beach with contributions from Geoff McFetridge, Enzo Mari, and more.

With the tagline “an everyday life interiors magazine,” I was expecting Apartamento to be a sneak peek into regular, real normal, everyday interiors. My tiny apartment, a bus driver’s home, the tenants who have lived in the same building for over 30 years. Apartamento is kind of like that, except if those things looked ten times better.

Issue #4 is OUT NOW and available worldwide through Bruil.

Bad at Sports » Design

Review: Manystuff #1, One Possible Catalyst

Related Posts

Design Miami/Basel: The Blog

Related Posts

Drainspotting Blog Goes Print

Related Posts

New Take On Old Design by “#1″ Brazilian Designer Sergio Bergocce

Related Posts

Designing The Greatest Apartment In 344sqft

Related Posts

Flowchart to Pick the Typeface You Need

Related Posts

Q&A with Volume Gallery, A Roving Venue for Contemporary American Design

Related Posts

A Historical Look at Olympic Pictograms

Related Posts

Underfull Table Cloth by Kristine Bjaadal

Related Posts

REVIEW: Apartamento Magazine

Related Posts