its his and hers.

POSTCARD: coffee for two

2010-05-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

The High Line park, 10th Ave. & 16th St.
Jo Stafford and Tommy Dorsey, "Manhattan serenade"

PICTURE SHOW: 70 million by Hold your Horses

2010-04-28T23:19:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this is going to blow up if it hasn't already made the internet blogging rounds. The Hold Your Horses! 70 million music video is probably the quirkiest crash course in art history ever. The French-American group of seven reenact and recreate some of the world's most iconic paintings and artworks a la creative DIY approach. From Magritte to Rembrandt to Delacroix to Klimt, the song is as peppy and fun as it is playing name that painting throughout the video. Personal favorite: Jacques-Louis David's Death of Marat.

POSTCARD: spandex world

2010-04-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

Spandex World, Fashion Ave. & 38th St. // Ozo, "dreaming"

OVERHEARD: Erik Spiekermann

2010-04-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

From a roundup of how 25 artists and designers overcome "creative block" at ISO50, February 2010:

"Look up stuff, go through your old projects, but avoid Google — it takes too long to find anything useful…"

–Erik Spiekermann, typographer

Read Spiekermann's full advice and other remedies for creative roadblocks here.

And view some of the legendary works by Spiekermann here.

PICTURE SHOW: Tord Boontje's Moleskin

2010-04-25T19:13:00.000-07:00

I love Tord Boontje's whimsical paper cutouts. They are fascinatingly intricate. He's a hotshot in contemporary design, and I am completely taken by all his works, from the paper light fixtures I always see at the MoMA store to his crystal pieces for Swarovski. I'm especially drawn to how his designs are so seemingly delicate, and his thoroughly modern and seemingly simple/minimalist aesthetic. That, and he's from the Netherlands but based in London; I want to be him.

Boontje was part of Moleskin's Detour project, which features video bits showing inspirational notebooks filled in with sketches and ideas by über cool artists and designers from New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul, and Tokyo. Take a peek into Boontje's world and creative mind below.

Detour Exhibition - Tord Boontje from Moleskine ® on Vimeo.

So pretty it kind of blew my mind.

ON HER MIND MONDAY: Fantastic Man & The Gentlewoman

2010-04-21T12:40:00.000-07:00

[images from RBPMfanzine]

I just read the other day that Fantastic Man--the Dutch "fashion magazine for men who hate fashion magazines"--will be launching a sister title to their brand, The Gentlewoman. Planned for a launch this spring, the magazine promises to be "Fantastic Man's fierce companion," an announcement that caused a gaggle of delight in the fashion blogosphere.

Since its launch in 2006, Fantastic Man has been as widely read by men and women alike for its original spin on fashion journalism. More anti-fashion magazine than "anti-fashion," as it so proclaimed, the tome still plucked its duds from the same pool of high fashion designers, but in its graphic design and editorial treatments, Fantastic Man was the bourgeois' rebellion against conventions of the standard men's fashion magazine.

Their covers mimic the style of old-fashioned, high-brow titles such as Harper's while featuring current-day style icons such as Stefano Pilati, Tom Ford, and Ewan McGregor. Pages are printed in black and white on newsprint, and self-consciously set in Times New Roman. Use of the conventionally ugly duckling typeface is updated with a tasteful cascading of image and text that brings a tamed edginess (for lack of a better word) mirroring today's stylish and, shall we say, fantastic man: simple, sophisticate, and with a dash of irreverence and humor. Past editorial features have ranged from spreads on pajama separates as daywear to the gender-bending style of "lesbian looks," men's fashions circuitously inspired by menswear-inspired womenswear.

Fantastic Man is a gorgeous and entertaining read on its own merits, but you have to consider that the bar for men's fashion magazines has been lying pretty low in recent years. Esquire, Details and GQ more or less speak to a generation of glorified, aged frat boys and conspciously tacky metrosexuals, while titles like Men's Vogue have left little wiggle room around the WASPy lifestyle it extolls, consequently stuttering to reach an audience that cares.

So, with The Gentlewoman, I wonder if its publishers will be able to scrap enough original content to make the publication a uniquely different enterprise within the oversaturated market of womens fashion magazines (and blogs, no less). With its introduction several years after the successful launch of Fantastic Man, it will have an established brand and a dedicated readership to fall onto. But opting for Futura, a rounded sans-serif type (as seen in a preview spread from Fantastic Man's current issue) already suggests that The Gentlewoman's style and content may not be as clever or witty a counterpart. I'm a bit skeptical, but I'll just have to wait and see when the magazine hits newsstands this spring.

In the meantime, I am mildly amused at their cheeky take on the sweater--categorized not by the cut of the yarns but the shape of the brassieres with which they are paired--and much less so with a spread on clutch purses, which seems pretty standard and typical.

"round" and "ridiculous"

"up" and "profile"

"ritzy," "fierce," and "pussy"

[scans graciously borrowed from coute que coute]

POSTCARD: see the sky about to rain

2010-04-14T00:41:00.000-07:00

roof deck, Dia: Chelsea, 22nd St. & 11th Ave.

Neil Young, "see the sky about to rain"

WISH LIST: summer dresses from Harvey Faircloth

2010-04-09T15:53:00.000-07:00

It is now April, which means springtime in the city is now in full bloom. The sight of sunshine, daffodils, and the first peeks of toes and sandals everywhere make me want to go on a huge shopping bonanza for dresses and other sunny accoutrements... at least in theory. I actually like the idea of shopping more than the act, which can be a frustrating and tiresome strain on my patience (the line for dressing rooms is oft just as bad as waiting in line for the ladies' room). Thankfully, for both my wallet and my sanity, the Internet remedies this by satiating my love for window shopping, regardless of weather and crowds of people. The latest feast for my eyes comes from Harvey Faircloth the new clothing line by Katie Hatch, Abby Clawson Low, and Mara Papa.

This is all so cute I might barf sprinkled cupcakes, but it's like 71 degrees outside so just let me be obnoxiously giddy about this for a day or two. More storyboard-like catalog images after the jump.

POSTCARD: night for day for night

2010-04-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

Infinite Light, Laurent Grasso. Hunter College, Lexington Ave. & 68th St.
Henry Mancini, "moon river cha cha"

facsimiles of the internet age

2010-04-07T15:15:00.000-07:00

I once worked an awful freelance editing job that happened, almost entirely, via fax. No, this was not in 1985 (because I was born in 1985). In fact, this was in 2008! Twice a week, I would wait by appointment beside a decrepit old machine given to me on loan, and manually feed it pages of white printer paper--one at a time. Yes, it was horrible, and enough for me to wish complete and immediate obsolescence of the fax machine. But then, I spotted these playful takes on the facsimile cover sheet over at Hi+Low the other day, and thought, oh, how nice, someone is trying to make this horribly mundane and outdated form of communication a little more pleasant.

Designed last summer for an exhibit at the Drawing Center in SoHo, the fax sheets appropriate cover images of other well-known objects--a "HELLO" nametag, a marbelized composition notebook, a postcard, and so forth--to add a visual element of pop to the standard bland office memo and letterhead.

I know there's not much to say about this other than "cuuuute," but, c'mon, they are. Sending correspondence these days is so convenient and nearly instantaneous that's its hard not to dismiss anything that brings pause to an already outdated as anything but twee affectation. But design is not just about efficiency--it's about creating a pleasant experience, too. And I think if I had been greeted with my reams of poorly scanned manuscripts with a note like this, I may have grumbled a little less.

OVERHEARD: Antoine Saint-Exupery

2010-04-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."

--Antoine Saint Exupery, French writer and aviator

POSTCARD: double negative

2010-03-31T23:18:00.000-07:00

Double Negative, Michael Heizer / Overton, Nevada

Magnetic Fields, "two characters in search of a country song"

BACKSTORY: So-en magazine

2010-03-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

Like most city dwellers, I find alone time a rare luxury. So whenever I have a day to myself at long last, I wake up early, slip on my navy military-style coat, knot my grey checkered scarf around my neck, and set off for a stroll in the city. I'll usually pick up a coffee and browse design stores, but I almost always inevitably end up at the Kinokuniya bookstore by Bryant Park for its selection of Japanese and foreign fashion and art magazines. However, one magazine that's not readily at hand is So-en, Japan's first fashion magazine.

Published by Japan's leading fashion and art institute, Bunka Fashion College in Shinjuku, Tokyo, So-en was first published in 1936 and continues to churn out up-to-the-minute industry news along with avant-garde and cutting-edge editorials that include designs by the college's talented students.

Bunka Fashion College was originally founded in 1919 by the tailor, Isaburo Namiki, as a dressmaking school for young women and has since flourished, doling out icons ranging from Kenzo Takada and Yohji Yamamoto to Junya Watanabe and Tsumori Chisato.

So-en is, needless to say, similarly prolific in its aesthetics. The cover, with its oversize kanji type conveys an uphold of traditions under an über-modern guise, an attitude that saturates the overall Japanese culture. Along the same thread, even though its attachment to the Bunka institution gives it caché as the country's unyielding voice in fashion, So-en's impact beyond Japan is felt very minimally, if at all; its publisher, the college, seems to purposefully keep it within an insulated environment while its content is composed of the radical extreme. Perhaps it's another case where reverence is derived from limited accessibility?

Either way, it'd be nice to see more of it on the web and in a bookstore beyond Japanese soil.

POSTCARD: printed matter

2010-03-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

"peanut butter motherfucker" // Printed Matter, 22nd St. & 10th Ave.

Maximum Joy, "do it today"

TWO CENTS: yay or neigh?

2010-03-18T04:34:00.000-07:00

In the past few years, I have noticed an increasingly masochistic trend in the stylings of women's shoes in high fashion. As a gal who prefers flats and loafers to most any other type of accoutrement, I have to say that this disjunction between form and function quite bothers me.
Now, theatricality may well be a legitimate function for these shoes, and yes, the clic-clac trot of a woman clad in high heels has always been somewhat reminiscient of horseshoes on cobblestone, but really, one must draw the line somewhere.

I rest my case.

POSTCARD: pizza party

2010-03-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

my kitchen // Personal and the Pizzas, "I don't wanna be no personal pizza"

LOOK-ALIKE: phenomenological perspectives, Ron Gilad + Fred Sandback

2010-03-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Fred Sandback, corner piece, 1969

Fred Sandback, untitled (sculptural study, two part vertical construction), 1986

Ron Gilad, birth of a chair, 2009

birth of a chair (detail)

READING ROOM: Frank O'Hara - meditations in an emergency

2010-03-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

I am the least difficult of men. All I want is boundless love.

Even trees understand me! Good heavens, I lie under them, too, don’t I? I’m just like a pile of leaves.

However, I have never clogged myself with the praises of pastoral life, nor with nostalgia for an innocent past of perverted acts in pastures. No.

One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes–I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless i know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.

It is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass. Do they know what they’re missing? Uh huh.

[words: from Frank O'Hara's Meditations in an Emergency]

[images: by German photographer Thomas Struth]

POSTCARD: in case you didn't notice, this is Simon's.

2010-03-03T01:05:00.000-08:00

Simon's Industrial Supply Co., Manhattan & Driggs Aves.
Velvet Underground, "Sunday morning"

ON HER MIND MONDAY: Oliver Munday

2010-03-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

Today I've browsing through the portfolio of graphic designer Oliver Munday, whose illustrations in the Times have caught my eye several times in the past few months.

A recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art and honoree of the esteemed STEP 100 Design annual (for this cool 3-D typography project, in case you were wondering, consisting of plastic toy army men, melted and melded), Oliver must be, deductive reasoning tells me, only a mere few years older than me. And yet he's already got a great portfolio of work up his website. Check out a few more of his pieces after the jump.

Clean and modern and current without bearing the usual flashy pomposity of many young designers our age, these illustrations are really great. Also, I don't know if this is the stuff of art direction or what, but, aside from the clever witticisms (or cynicisms, I guess, depending on how you see it) of these images, I love the way in which they've been incorporated into the text of these pages.

BACKSTORY: Saul Steinberg

2010-02-26T18:57:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Ralph Caplan, columnist for the AIGA: Voice and design writer, consultant, and teacher of over fifty years. A writerly type with a curious eye even at young age, he explained that numbers were not his friends, least of all in the classroom. As a child, Caplan loved to pass time during arithmetic hour by crafting stories around numbers ("5 was always the hero. 2 was a woman. 8 was an older woman. 7 was a wise guy. 9 was a con man.") in secret, lest anyone might think he was crazy for doing so. Years later, a New Yorker cover by illustrator Saul Steinberg featuring two numerals--5 and 2--sitting down for a drink would assure him that he was quite alright.

Amused by Ralph's anecdote, I was curious to know more about Saul Steinberg and looked him up as soon as I got home. I hadn't realized that Steinberg, as the New Yorker's resident illustrator of over sixty years, was the man behind so many covers and drawings I've always loved but never bothered to look further into. Aside from his behemoth collection of illustrative work for the weekly, Steinberg worked in a variety of other mediums, including painting, sculpture, and collage. Check out a few of my favorites after the jump.

Fingerprint Landscape, 1950.

graphite and ink on paper, 14 1/2 x 11 1/8"

Girl in Bathtub, 1949.

gelatin silver print, 12 3/4 x 11 1/4"

Graph Paper Architecture, 1954.

ink and collage on paper, 14 1/2 x 11 1/8"

View of the World from 9th Avenue, 1976.

ink, pencil, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, 28 x 19"

cover drawing for The New Yorker, 29 March 1976.

Main Street--Small Town, section of The Americans mural, American Pavilion, Brussels World Fair, 1958.

collage, mixed media, and enlarged photographs, approx. 10 x 20'

[all images from Saul Steinberg Foundation]

READING ROOM:The Diary of Anais Nin, Vols. I-VI, 1st. ed.

2010-02-26T14:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I stopped by the Meeker Flea Market to see what it was all about. Judging from the banners hanging outside of the warehouse it inhabits at Meeker and Leonard and its horribly hack branding job, the bar was set pretty low. My preconceptions were pretty right, for the most part. But, nestled in a bookshelf of a vintage furniture seller's booth, I unearthed a gem of a find: the complete set of Anais Nin's diaries, volumes one through six -- in, I think, its first edition by HBJ (1966).

Though I'm heaps behind in reading as it is, I couldn't resist when I laid eyes on these beauties. I'd been long been curious to read these diaries since a friend of mine had shared this quote of hers--"We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection"--so I am excited to add these to my summer reading list.

POSTCARD: throw some cheese

2010-02-24T00:39:00.000-08:00

Dia: Chelsea, 22nd St. & 11th Ave. // Po' Boy, "throw some cheese"

PICTURE SHOW: The Fairies - anytime at all

2010-02-19T04:49:00.000-08:00

I love the framing and flip-book like composition of this video and the matte, two-color images of the stripe-adorned girl upon the zebra. It is all about stripes. If I could tear this video apart into stills and compile it into a lookbook (or had the patience to), I would. Anyway, hooray! The weekend starts here.

POSTCARD: medallion hunting

2010-02-17T23:59:00.000-08:00

somewhere in San Bernadino County, CA // Girls, "big bad mean motherfucker"

POSTCARD: empire state of mind

2010-02-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

Kent Ave. & Grand St. // (obviously)

PICTURE SHOW: Alexis Malbert's tapetronic music

2010-02-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

If video killed the radio star, then the internet has killed the DJ star. Today, anyone with a laptop, iPod, and sizable amount of geeky tech skills can become a mixmaster if they so desire. Records are easily amassed with a bit torrent and a little scavenging; mixing beats become as simple as downloading a computer program. Online remix culture has proliferated at such bacterial rates that CurrentTV, back in 2008, coined an obnoxious term for the genre of bedroom electronica remixes posted in the blogosphere the world over: bloghouse. In theory, I celebrate that the internet has lowered barriers to entry for many cultural and educational resources. But the truth of the matter is, not everyone that can be a DJ should be a DJ. A good deal of the remixes found on hype machine are fucking horrible. I hesitate to say it, but anything that comes too easy is worth a lot less.

Anyway, all of this is just to say that I am kind of an inarticulate misanthrope when it comes to the Internet and the chaotic way it has changed the way we consume and share media with one other. It is a long and tangential aside from what I actually meant to post, which is this video of French "DJ" Alexis Malbert's "tapetronic" experiments.

tapetronic demo video, 2009

I put "tapetronic" in quotation marks because that is the name of his project, and I put "DJ" in quotation marks because I still do not know how I feel about this whole schtick.
Malbert tinkers with thrift store ephemera--old rotary telephones, Sony Walkmens, cassette tapes--to create newfangled noisemakers that, when manipulated by hand as a traditional DJ would with a vinyl record, produce the sound of squeaky tapefuzz whicky-whicky. Other gadgets gleek electronic sounds at the rotation of a dial, or press of a button. It all sounds and looks pretty cool, but something about the preciousness of this acutely 80's fetish is bothersome. I realize my value for the more tactile nature of DJ culture from days of yore makes me a hypocritical, fetishistic Luddite of some kind, but so be it. I appreciate Malbert's playful and inventive return to the analog, but from a visual perspective, it's a little too throwback for my liking (his website, after it began to load, also almost gave me a seizure).

PICTURE SHOW: Before Sunrise

2010-02-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

Snowy days are great for catching up on long neglected Netflix queues. I'm a sucker for rewatching favorite films and scenes over and over again, including this one from Before Sunrise. The tension of inexpressible love between young Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke's characters is like pure angst, and pure bliss. And this song is like, so 90s.

POSTCARD: yep, this is real.

2010-02-10T01:01:00.000-08:00

Aliso Beach, CA // Best Coast, "sun was high (so was I)"

WISH LIST: Underfull tablecloth by Kristine Bjaadal

2010-02-09T19:13:00.000-08:00

[image from Kristine Bjaadal]

I enjoy minimalist designs enough but my aesthetic usually leans more towards slightly left of center as opposed to stark simplicity. That somewhat explains why I'm so taken by the Underfull tablecloth by Kristine Bjaadal, a 29-year-old designer from Oslo, Norway.

The cloth, with its white floral damask pattern, appears to be nothing beyond the ordinary, but when deep-staining liquids like red wine (or even coffee) is spilled on it a whimsical butterfly motif reveals itself.

I'm fascinated by the science behind the fabric that allows for this chemical process to occur (Bjaadal is still mum about that). Nonetheless, she explains that with every "accidental spill" a story is formed which instills sentimental value in this tablecloth, an otherwise inane everyday design object. But while I appreciate the visual and conceptual approach, I have to wonder about the issue of hygiene, as many who have previewed the cloth have done also; what happens to the beautiful layers of "stories" and "sentimentality" when the Underfull needs to be washed?

I guess I'll just have to see when it's finally out of its prototype stage. Check out Bjaadal's page for a quick video demo.

OVERHEARD: Dave Hickey

2010-02-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

In an interview from the Believer, November 2007:

"People don’t make literature, architecture, and art—the culture makes those things. We make books, buildings, and objects. We do our crummy little shit, and the culture assigns value to it."
--Dave Hickey, professor, art and cultural critic

Read the full piece here. [image from UNLV]

LOOK-ALIKE: CB2 + George Nelson

2010-02-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

My friend has a desk from CB2 that seriously looks just like George Nelson's 1958 Swag Leg desk. The slightly altered sculptural base, sloping silhouette, and slim proportions are completely reminiscent of Nelson's design. The splayed leg design was started by Nelson and is now widely used, but CB2 replaces them with a boxy base frame, which I guess gives it a more contemporary spin.

Swag Leg desk by George Nelson [image from Design Within Reach.]

Swoop desk by CB2 [image from CB2.]

5 QUESTIONS: Steven Heller

2010-02-03T09:48:00.000-08:00

[image from designworklife]

This week, we touch base with Steven Heller, art director, journalist, critic, author, editor, teacher, and graphic designer extraordinaire. We don't know how he does it all, but he was kind enough to squeeze in some time from his busy schedule to answer a few of our burning questions. Heller mentions his latest projects, current favorite reads, and shares an image from his desktop that's been on his mind lately. Check it out after the cut.
How did you first get into graphic design?
I turned left when I should have turned right. So, it was an accident. I stumbled into an underground newspaper that needed a layout person and I guess I never left.

It's a known fact that you love your comics. Which ones are you into lately?
None. I'm currently reading "Tried By War," about how Abe Lincoln prosecuted the Civil War. I think it could be a comic book, but it wouldn't be very comic. He had major troubles with everyone. I can't imagine waking up each day to that kind of pressure. But now, you've added to my pressure over what comic books to read.

One of the many things you have come to be known for over the years is your unmatched publishing prolificacy. What's the official count on the number of books you've put out, to date, and what projects are you working on right now?
There are about 130. They grow like fungus. Right now I'm finishing up a biography on Alvin Lustig, a book on designer and illustrator sketchbooks (with Lita Talarico), a book on the work of SVA genius Kevin O'Callaghan titled Monumental because he makes monumental exhibits, a book called POP: How Graphic Design Influences Popular Culture, and a revised edition of Becoming A Graphic Designer.
I'm also working on a book called Scripts (with Louise Fili), a sketchbook on type (with Lita), a book called 100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design (with Veronique Vienne), and a book called I HEART DESIGN (with just me).

Wow. Do you ever get a chance to sleep?
Sure, don't you?

Send us one image of something (anything: a book, a movie still, an object, a person) that has caught your interest lately, and explain why.
I keep weird things on my desktop. The enclosed ad is one of them. And I don't think I have to say any more about it. Do you?

POSTCARD: sequins on a Saturday night

2010-02-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

somewhere in Echo Park // Donna Summer, "I feel love"

WISH LIST: necklaces by Confetti System

2010-02-02T08:03:00.000-08:00

I am not one for jewelry--my laziness, or minimalism, you might euphemize, considers nail polish and a freshly trimmed set of bangs accessory enough--but I am really drawn to these necklaces by Confetti System. I was familiar with their installations but was not aware they also made jewelry, until I caught sight of these at Maryam Nassir Zadeh's boutique of impeccably beautiful things. More pictures after the jump.

From top to bottom:

(a) knot necklace, $190

(b) double strand necklace, $190

All necklaces and images from Maryam Nassir Zadeh, 123 Norfolk Street, New York, NY 10002.

ON HIS MIND MONDAY: Leidy Churchman

2010-02-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

I am convinced that T Magazine can (mostly) do no wrong, so I've been keeping an eye on their Nifty 50 profiles on up-and-comers/movers and shakers/rising stars/those that they have deemed worthy of their attention and a write-up basically. Of these, transgender artist Leidy Churchman's unassuming nature and queer-driven sensibility really caught my eye.

Tuttle Raft, 2007, oil on wood, bells and dowell

Churchman has a fascinating way of blending blocks of bold and sometimes diluted colors with the grainy texture of the wood he uses as a canvas. His works, as T Mag described, definitely recall those of Alex Katz and David Hockney. And like Hockney, he has an interesting way of presenting subtlety and erotic subtext. Although unlike Hockney's pool boys, the eroticism in Churchman's portraits of men–along with their brightly painted and blatantly exposed genitals–is not immediately noticeable and rather comes as a second thought. And don't get me wrong, I enjoy Hockney enough, but I appreciate Churchman's different approach. He asserts his queerness in an honest "it is what it is" kind of manner, but does so quietly, gently prodding one to pause and think for just a few seconds more.

I just find it refreshing that he isn't going for shock value in his works. And I appreciate T Mag's gesture to separate Churchman as "different," but isn't it ironic that "different" nowadays means that it's no longer hip to be ironic–that possibly a sincere approach to the creative process is now back in vogue?

Hug, 2007, Oil on wood

All paintings and images are from Horton Gallery, 504 W. 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011

Visit Churchman's website to see more works.

sprucing things up a bit, werkin' out the kinks

2010-02-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

In order to make this blog more readable, and make sense to more than its authorial bodies (of which there are a mere two), its his and hers will be transitioning to a more welcoming editorial format. Some recurring features you can expect from our blog, starting... today!:

LAST WEEK / An aggregation of posts from the past week. Every Sunday.
ON MY MIND MONDAY / A weekly post of thoughts on current goings-on, trends in visual culture, etc.; a somewhat "timely" piece ("timely" being used in a fairly liberal sense). Every Monday (duh), switching off between myself and Dix.
POSTCARD / A personal photo snapshot of something seen in our day-to-day -- a public piece of visual culture, an urban observation, a friend, a moment -- along with a song associated with the memory.
OUT AND ABOUT / Recap of an exhibit, launch party, or other design/art event attended.
TWO CENTS / Commentary on something that seems to be making the rounds in the art/design blogosphere. Our meager two cents added to the pile o' chunk change.
5 QUESTIONS / A short snappy e-mail interview with influential people in the art/design community. Aiming for every Wednesday.
WISH LIST / Self-explanatory consumerist smut.
READING ROOM / Books pertaining to visual culture; featuring more than reviewing.
LOOK-ALIKE / Visual connections between past and present things, a side-by-side comparison of how something may have been inspired or ripped-off an earlier idea. A fashion trend, a building, whatever.
PICTURE SHOW / Video post on anything interesting or applicable to general discussion. Weekly.
BACKSTORY / Short historical briefs on random things we like. Every Friday.
OVERHEARD / Spotlight on a noteworthy or thought-provoking quote from a talk, interview, or piece of writing pertaining to visual culture.

Thoughts? Comments? Always appreciated, here and elsewhere.

Generic "no brand" fashion

2010-01-30T22:48:00.000-08:00

It's strange how the look of generic is now perceived as highbrow design, as is obvious in retailers like Japanese retailer Muji. Since its inception, the company has crafted an appeal with the idea of minimalist home furnishings and clothing under the concept of the "no brand."

While Muji has a logo out of necessity for its storefront, use of it elsewhere is purposely omitted in their wide range of products. And interestingly from that, their "no brand" motto has just as famously made it a well-regarded brand in and of itself; it's anti-design design without logos–unlike other brands–but in doing so, the look of brandlessness has become a mark of the brand in itself. However, it's funny to think that not everything displayed at Muji is actually simplistic (ie. Naoto Fukasawa's wall-mounted disc player), but Kenya Hara's projected idea of simplicity can still captivate shoppers.

T-Shirtism: Experimental Jetset and the typographic graphic tee

2010-01-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

The use of words as a main, even primary, component of a visual art piece like Seth Carnes' "i heart poetics" installation seems, to me, yet another marker of the growing use of typography as a consciously used visual tool beyond esoteric graphic design circles. It's kind of strange, really; while the explosion of screen-driven media threatens to diminish the use of language with images, images and graphics seem to exhibit a growing fetish for typography more than ever--particularly, with Helvetica. American Apparel sells tee-shirts featuring letters of the alphabet. CB2 sells pillows with inane, random words set in its type. And in 2007, Gary Hustwit's documentary on the typeface, made to celebrate its 50th anniversary, was pretty damn popular.

But before each of these, there was this famous tee-shirt designed by Dutch design studio Experimental Jetset in 2001.
Though basic and simple in appearance, the idea behind this shirt was actually quite conceptual. Taking the notion of the classic band tee-shirt and abstracting it to as archetypical and minimal a form as possible, the studio sought to inject self-referentiality into their design. A band shirt that comments on band shirts, this tee invokes the most famous band in the history of rock--the Beatles--without including their band logo, any rock 'n roll imagery, or faces of the members. By listing the names of its four band members in as generic and neutral a type as possible, Experimental Jetset's design omits the figurative and the representational, abstracting imagery through text.

The tee was so popular, but Experimental Jetset wanted to make clear that the tee was not about the Beatles as much as the idea, so they followed it up with versions for the Rolling Stones and the Ramones.

In subverting iconic imagery, their use and alignment of text became an iconic image in itself. And, since it was so easy to make, it was copied by a lot of people, who took the liberty to replace the names of band members with whatever four (or five, or six) nouns they so pleased.

I wonder if typographic tees are something we will look back at in a few years and say, "Ohmygosh, that's so 00's," just as logo tees were, like, you know, so 90s.

Seth Carnes and "i heart poetics"

2010-01-28T19:56:00.000-08:00

I adore Ettore Sottsass’s Valentine red typewriter. I have always been extremely drawn to the geometry of its design and its implied passion. It’s interesting to compare his aesthetic approach to the Valentine and that of his unconventional furniture pieces that followed with the founding of the 1980s group Memphis. Inspired by a Bob Dylan song on a fateful evening, the collective churned out rebellious designs in vivid colors, irregular shapes, and slick glossy patterns. Sottsass described the pieces as a visual opulence; that no one “should put only Memphis around: It’s like eating only cake.” However, between the Valentine and Memphis, I feel that Sottsass never lost his taste for boldness and the color red.

I have to say, though, Sottsass’s Valentine typewriter reminds me of contemporary artist Seth Carnes’s i heart poetics project; a spin on traditional magnetic poetry often associated with refrigerator décor.

Carnes’s project, which is part performance art, consists of him creating magnetic strips of random words from a typewriter, and viewers (participants) are encouraged to arrange the words to their liking on to an enormous steel tablet as a poem. Carnes may not create his participatory poetry piece on Sottsass' famous typewriter, but he fashions valentines out of them nonetheless.

For a glance at Carnes and his project, check out this video from his website.

Ettore Sottsass "Valentine" typewriter for Olivetti, 1969

2010-01-27T16:12:00.000-08:00

It is curious to think that Fornasetti and his atelier were painstakingly producing those serialized plate designs by hand in the 1950s and 60s, at a time when the post-war, Italian mass-produced design filled with color and geometry was starting to explode around them. Though I am well aware that design history does not lend itself to neatly defined linear movements, is difficult for me to imagine these two contrasting aesthetics occurring at the same time. Because when I think of Italy in the 60s, I'm not inclined to imagine plates like Fornasetti's. What comes to mind is Ettore Sottsass' iconic "Valentine" typewriter.

First designed for Olivetti in 1969, the beauty of this Valentine has stolen the hearts of many a design enthusiast and writer over the years. Long before Steve Jobs and his band of cohorts at Apple branded their line of color iMacs in 1998, Sottsass brought this analog office machine into the realm of pop. Often referred to as the "anti-machine machine," the Valentine, with its burst of red and clean lines, brought a visual element of play to work. Machine-like toys may be designed all the time (think: legos, tinker toys, erector sets), but Sottsass designed a toy-like machine.

More eye candy below. Check out this neat video by Emeco to learn more about Sottsass' work.

POSTCARD: dirty old town

2010-01-27T01:10:00.000-08:00

New Star Market, 14th St. & Minna, San Francisco, CA

Pogues, "dirty old town"

Piero Fornasetti's plates of Lina Cavalieri

2010-01-26T20:30:00.000-08:00

While Bruce High Quality Foundation's works are laden with ironic references and subtext, they still stem from a reverential sincerity for the art history/theory canon. They do want to have their cake and eat it too; they rebel against the institution, but this rebellion is what makes them art stars within the institution to begin with. But I do sympathize with them in that everything has been seemingly done, and, given that, how does one go about doing something important in relation?

I was most drawn to that BHQF image of the plates shielding the faces, which to me seemed an interesting visual counterpoint to the signature porcelain dishes by the mid-century designer Piero Fornasetti.

Stamped with the face of Lina Cavalieri, a 19^th-century Italian opera star who was well known for her beauty, the black-and-white plates (and ties, wallpaper, furniture, etc.) by Fornasetti have perhaps immortalized that attribute. Though these plates are arguably Fornasetti's most well-known designs, he also went on to make ties, wallpaper, furniture, and more featuring Cavalieri's face.

Hundreds of variations on Cavalieri’s face have been produced–her with a moustache, another with a masquerade mask–and it’s fascinating to think that Cavalieri is possibly even more of a visual object now than she may have been during her lifetime. It's said that he once stumbled upon an image of her while flipping through a magazine one day, and, just like that, decided to feature her on all of his designs. It’s hard not to question whether or not Fornasetti may have been ironic in his designs. But he certainly had a sense of humor, and he was surely having fun.

Bruce High Quality Foundation University

2010-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I went to see the Bruce High Quality Foundation University installation at the Susan Inglett gallery in Chelsea. I really wanted to go home and nap after a nice and leisurely brunch in Jackson Heights, but the art collective Bruce High Quality Foundation had been covered so many times in the past few months, I had to go see what the hype was all about before its closing day.

Founded by a fictional benefactor, Bruce High Quality, the Bruce High Quality Foundation is a New York City-based art collective whose name and mission is an institutional critique of the art school, patronage, and the workings of the industry. BHQF consists of four (or six? the number is disputed) twenty-something male grads of Cooper Union who, in anti-Warholian fashion, refuse to unveil their true identities to the celebrity-mongering art press. This is presumably so that their art can "speak for itself," but it's also to rid the limitations of being branded to a particular aesthetic or genre in the early stages of an individual art career.

BHQF is known for matching boyishly callow visuals with conceptually sophisticated rhetoric. The group's latest prankster project is the BHQF University: an unaccredited, free institution where "students are teachers are administrators are staff.” The corresponding show at the Inglett gallery featured chalkboards adorned with tchotchkes and phrases such as "in the future, everyone will be a foundation" and "what happens in the artworld stays in the artworld." Comical visual tropes--a noose nuzzled in a neck massager, a cigarette in a pencil sharpener, desks and chairs made from chunks of drywall, for example--were charmingly irreverent, yet other parts required references and the backstory to be fully understood.

Which is fair game to them. In a September 2009 interview with Art in America, members of BHQF explain how they see theory/art history as a medium in which to craft, likening it to tangible material such as wood or plaster. "There is always this constant fear of what art history is," they say. "Everything's been done, so how are you going to do something important in relation to that? It's been important for us to think of art history as a material, as more stuff to work with, whether it's to honor or to disparage it." With all the fictional and comical elements mixed in with serious conceptual statements like these, it's hard to know when the BHQF are joking and when they're not--which is part of the enduring appeal. My thoughts on BHQF end up all circular-like, finally surfacing into a few main questions:

Is Bruce High Quality a real guy? Obviously, no (as this audition tape from Jeffrey Deitch's Artstar reality television show makes clear).

Is BHQFU a real school? Maybe. They apparently have studios in Bed-Stuy/Bushwick, weekly workshops in Tribeca, and list real Gmail addresses that actually reply to silly queries about their fictional/maybe not fictional courses (I know, because I sent an email, and got a reply).

Does that mean they really care about changing the institution, rather than just hypocritically bitching about it? I do not know. I am planning to go to one of their meetups and find out.

Do they want us to laugh or do they want us to think? Both, I think.

Is it still possible to be fight the man and still be a successful artist in economic times like these? Can you have your cake and eat it too? I guess so. They made it to Miami ArtBasel and even sold a ton of stuff.

Hello !

2010-01-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

its his and hers is a new blog between two pals, one guy and one gal, tying together any and all of the various things in the wide breach of "visual culture," from film, graphic design, and architecture to interior decoration, fashion and photography. In what will be a telephone game-like dialogue or tag-team of thoughts between said guy and said gal, each post will be loosely associated with a subject, however pertinent or tangential, provoked by something from the last.

Writings will consist of casual banter on the objective appearance of things (its). The subjective reactions that follow (his, hers) and link these things will be part of an experiment to see whether any palpable narrative is able to surface in the fragmented communicative transmissions of the internet.

In other words, this is a two-player activity of productive self-indulgence; we'll be blogging about things we like, why we like 'em, and what they remind us of. This is a froofy introduction to an otherwise simple blog that will be written in an otherwise readable and casual way. Please stay.