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It’s funny, but there’s been almost as much written about the Objectified logo, created by British graphic designer Michael C. Place of Build, as has been written about the film itself. Michael has just posted a piece about the design on his smart new blog, and included dozens of images of the different variations of the logo as it evolved (click the images to magnify).
Categories: Design News, Musings
0A new book of the work of Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, entitled Objets Dessins Maquettes is available now (at least in Europe).
We happened to be in the Bouroullec’s Paris studio while the brothers were working with the book’s graphic designers, ericandmarie, and we filmed the meeting, so you might see some of it in the film. And check out ericandmarie’s site for a nice video they produced for the Bouroullecs’ 2004 show at MOCA Los Angeles.
Categories: Design News, Production Stills
0The always incisive Design Observer will celebrate its five year anniversary this week with a party in New York City, Wednesday, November 5. The party will take place at Element (the beautiful 19th century bank building that became the Jasper Johns studio), located at 225 East Houston Street. It’s open and free with the password (that would be: Design Observer).
7pm-9pm: Cocktail hour. Meet Design Observer authors and contributors.
9pm-2am: DJs Kevin Smith, Debbie Millman, and myself… spinning whatever the hell we think will sound good through a 36,000 watt sound system. I am not kidding. I may have to break out the Mister Rogers record again…
It’s the night after Election Day… so I hope we’re celebrating. VOTE!
-Gary
Categories: Design News
0What happens when you put a hot dog, a pole-dancing doll, a Philippe Starck juicer, a Gaussian gun, a Tickle-Me Elmo, lots of marbles, and a mechanical Chinese duck together in eight locations around the world? IDEO’s global Rube Goldberg machine:
Categories: Design News
0A few stills from our filming at Smart Design, New York.
Dan Formosa and Davin Stowell with Smart Design’s Flip Mino video camera
Bicycle grip meets vegetable peeler… the inspiration for their OXO Good Grips designs
The Not-so-good Grips… dozens of trial designs
Categories: Production Stills
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In non-Objectified news: I’m currently producing the first ever authorized DVD release of Andy Warhol’s films: 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. The DVD includes 13 of Warhol’s classic screen tests, including Nico, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, and more, paired with new soundtracks by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips (the original screen tests are silent… you can watch them that way too). Warhol made over 500 of these four-minute screen test films, and I think they’re some of his most subtly brilliant work.
I’ve been collaborating with the folks at the Warhol Museum to produce the DVD, it’s been an amazing project to work on. I also did a little filming as part of it, interviewing Dean & Britta about the new soundtracks and shooting some behind the scenes stuff. That footage will be included in the DVD extras. And this Friday the screen tests will be projected with a live soundtrack by Dean & Britta at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh. They’ll be touring the live event across the US and Europe early next year.
Plexifilm has just made the DVDs available for pre-order, in a normal edition and a deluxe limited edition that includes a gelatin silver print of the screen test star of your choice. That’s Jane Holzer, above. I wonder what kind of toothbrush she’s using?
Cheers,
– Gary
ps – Watch the trailer.
Categories: Musings
0Design world notes:
– Helvetica is still in the running for the People’s Design Award, please take a minute and vote!
– The Chicago Sun-Times profiles Charles A. Harrison, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum this week.
– Lots of events surrounding National Design Week across the country, find out what’s happening in your city
– The Guardian reviews Design Museum London director Deyan Sudjic’s new book The Language of Things
Categories: Design News
0It’s not enough to make a well-designed product. The product also has to make well-designed sounds. Science Daily looks at industrial designer Elif Özcan Vieira’s PhD thesis on the subject:
I’m a huge believer in this theory; there’s not enough thought put into how we interact with objects sonically. When we were filming Chris Bangle and got to drive around the new BMW X6, I actually commented on how beautiful its fasten-your-seatbelt alarm chime was. Yes, I know those alarm chimes are supposed to be annoying in order to force you to buckle up. But can’t they be pleasantly annoying?
Speaking of sound design, I’m obsessing over Bloom, Brian Eno’s new iPhone application. [Available in the iTunes App Store.] “Part instrument, part composition and part artwork,” Bloom is a generative ambient music synthesizer (you can make pretty sounds with it). It’s addictive, and it’s especially amazing when you plug your iPhone into your stereo system and crank it up. Best four bucks I’ve spent in a while.
[Thanks to Joshua Simmons for the Science Daily story.]
Categories: Design News, Musings
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There was plenty of chatter today surrounding Apple’s announcement of new MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops, which feature a one-piece body carved from a single block of solid aluminum and sport multi-touch trackpads (sort of like the iPhone). John Gruber has several items on Daring Fireball, Engadget got one dirty, and Gizmodo did a side-by-side comparison with the previous incarnations.
Apple also released a video featuring design director and Objectified cast member Jonathan Ive explaining the new design, along with some nice footage of metal gettin’ cut up. And if you chug a beer every time someone says “fit and finish”, you’ll be slightly drunk.
Categories: Design News
0Sustainability isn’t just sort of a glamorous process of using recycled materials to design something that may or may not be the color green. It’s about redesigning every single aspect of a company’s process, from sourcing materials to designing to production to shipping, and then eventually designing a way for those products to be disposed of responsibly. That’s a mammoth task, so it’s no wonder that designers and manufacturers are finding it so difficult.
Categories: Quotes
