conferences

Why and how does color motivate, trouble, persuade, and feed our spirits? How does Pantone decide upon the “color of the year” and does it involve alcohol—a mimosa, say, or a Bombay Sapphire martini—and/or a dartboard? Why do we feel giddy when walking by the Farrow & Ball emporium that is soon to open a few blocks from UnBeige HQ (hint: paint colors like “Dead Salmon,” “Mouse’s Back,” and “Clunch”)? Answers to these questions and many more are on the agenda at Print magazine’s first ever Color Conference, a three-day confab that kicks off on October 4 at the Art Directors Club in New York. Among the creative thinkers and experts in visual culture scheduled to “reveal their passion for color, their processes, and their ideas on how color connects us all” are Leatrice Eiseman of the Pantone Color Institute, Pentagram’s Eddie Opara, and Cooper-Hewitt director Bill Moggridge, whose tireless engagement with the design community leads us to believe that he has managed to transform his ground-breaking GRiD Compass laptop into some sort of time machine that allows him to be in many places at once. Registration is now open, so sign up for the conference here by September 15 to save $30 on the $595 registration fee. And whatever you do, don’t wear beige.

Dwell on Design is back. The West Coast weekend of modern design events—from seminars and discussions to exhibits and self-guided tours of modern homes—kicks off on Friday in Los Angeles with a keynote address by William McDonough. The architect, designer, and author will describe how Cradle to Cradle thinking about design, architecture, and industry can create a future that is “more good” rather than “less bad.” Also part of McDonough’s discussion of the future of dwelling: the non-profit Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. Other featured presentations at Dwell on Design will focus on landscape design, sustainability, and what it’s like to live in an Airstream (we’re thinking more good and less bad?). On Sunday, Architecture for Humanity will cap off the three-day confab with a regeneration-themed Pecha Kucha. Ready to seize this opportunity to donate your heartbeat to a good cause and meet Ed Begley Jr.? Tickets are available here. Enter code DWELLUNBEIGE83 to receive $15 off Conference Plus and $15 off Exhibition Plus tickets.

What do get when you combine six design world stars who have collectively held senior positions at more than 35 leading publications, one amazing moderator, and the delightful destination of Portland, Maine? ABSTRACT, a conference on the future of design in media to be presented by AIGA Maine on Friday, June 10. Alice Twemlow, chair of the unstoppable MFA Design Criticism program at the School of Visual Arts, will guide the day of in-depth, highly visual, and interactive sessions led by names you know: Gael Towey, Luke Hayman, Florian Bachleda, Arem Duplessis, Dirk Barnett, and Scott “The iPad Whisperer” Dadich. Come for the business-focused discussion of design as a driver of innovation (and revenue), stay for the practicum on launching an iPad publication. Ready to register? We’ve finagled a $100 discount for UnBeige readers: simply enter the code unbeige2011 at checkout. Think of it as our Memorial Day gift to you.

Motion graphics by Erick Fletes

Positioned between intrepid polar photographer Paul Nicklen (who killed it with his snapshots of adorable polar bears and tales of befriending a leopard seal) and one-man band Bobby McFerrin, architect Thomas Heatherwick was one of the highlights of this year’s TED Conference, held earlier this year in Long Beach, California as you may recall. The founder of London-based Heatherwick Studio followed the usual TED talk format of “here are a few really cool things I’m working on.” With his charming Dickensian air and otherworldly projects, Heatherwick dazzled the crowd with a video of his studio’s innovative bridge that can be raised by curling back onto itself rather than breaking in two. “We liked the fact the two furthest bits of it would end up kissing each other,” he said, as video footage showed the bridge contort into a backbend and roll into a tight circle. Heatherwick’s firm is now at work on redesigning London buses and a Malaysian housing development topped by a giant rainforest. Meanwhile, today the TEDsters posted this video of his talk for all to delight in:

Earlier this year, you might recall, that after years of failed attempts, Architect Barbie finally became a reality, as Mattel decided to give the famous doll her long-awaited degree in architecture for the product’s annual “I Can Be” series. How much did this decision please the American Institute of Architects? Well, beyond being hired on as consultants for Architect Barbie, they even went so far as to include her in two separate events within their annual national convention, which was held this past weekend in New Orleans. One, entitled simply “Barbie I Can Be…Architect,” which perhaps isn’t the finest grammatical structure (up next for Barbe: English major), invited the Barbie target audience, girls 7 to 9 years old, to come to attend a 45-minute workshop with a practicing female architect. Not only would they be introduced to the profession with a quick primer on the job, but they walked out with a complimentary Architect Barbie just for showing up. For the second event, the AIA has asked its members to design Barbie’s new Dream House. Barbie herself has laid out the ground rules of the competition on the AIA’s site, demanding things like that the “living and dining areas…are open and connected allowing for mingling and easy entertaining from one room to the other” and that the “kitchen should be functional and fabulous with top-of-the-line appliances.” We also loved the first sentence of the contest’s introduction: “Two important things to know: Barbie loves to PLAY and have FUN.” Duly noted. If you’re an AIA member and would like to participate, here are all the details. You have until today to put you name in and then until June 27th to submit your final Dream House designs. Later this summer, the AIA will open the competition up to public voting and a winner will be announced on August 2nd.

The notorious no-show David Carson has done it again. Despite being the winner of nearly 200 top design awards, designer of the infamous RayGun magazine, and a client list that would make any designer drool, it’s no secret that when you hire or ask the famous Carson to come speak, there’s a good chance he just might never show up. You might recall our reporting from when he did this back in 2007, when he agreed to appear on Debbie Millman‘s “Design Matters” show only to never show up, which landed him some sharp (and funny) criticism from both Millman and the internet at large. Now in New Zealand recently, Carson was hired to come speak to two groups in the cities of Wellington and Auckland, where attendees would be paying $300 apiece for the opportunity to hear him speak. He was to be flown business class, put up in likely very nice hotels, and paid $10,000 per appearance. Only trick, of course, is that he never showed up and now the event’s organizer, Gary Hewlett, is out $35,000. Hewlett has promised that he has “lawyer in the US who are ready to act” in getting the money refunded from Carson. Here’s a bit:

Mr Carson postponed in February, then again in March, claiming he had lost his passport. However, Mr Hewlett doesn’t believe him.

“He was judging a set of awards in northern Spain over the weekend he was supposed to be in New Zealand,” Mr Hewlett says. “So how that happened I don’t know.”

For further reading, to get a sense of how regular a thing this seems to be for Carson, we recommend scanning the comments on this story about his New Zealand no-show from 3 News. A dozen notes about no-shows across the world and even an alleged drunken appearance at one lecture that he did decide to show up for.

Cancel your RSVP to that V.I. Lenin birthday bash and reserve your May 4th for this year’s D-Crit conference, a half-day public forum organized by graduating students of the MFA Design Criticism Department at the School of Visual Arts in New York. Moderating the confab will be BBC director, producer, and interviewer Adam Harrison Levy, and the keynote speaker is journalist and murketer Rob Walker. Then come the fast n’ fascinating thesis presentations (10 minutes each), including Sarah Cox‘s look at resident-led urban design initiatives in Detroit, Kim Birks on playground design, and Amelie Znidaric‘s “Listen to Your Chair: Design and the Art of Storytelling,” which is sure to keep attendees glued to their plush red SVA Theatre seats. Come for the new contributions to the design discourse, stay for the panel discussion. Design minds including Paola Antonelli (MoMA), Linda Tischler (Fast Company), and John Seabrook (The New Yorker) will join Levy and Walker on stage to debate the future of design criticism. Seats are filling fast, so hurry up and register here. We hear that there are Walker Design-designed Baggu bags and other limited-edition treats in store for those who arrive early.

Both of your intrepid UnBeige editors are traveling this late-week, so things might get a bit quieter than usual. But rest easy: things will resume as normal come Monday. In the interim, here’s a piece that will valuably eat up nearly 40 minutes of your morning and has been making all the rounds of late. It’s Mike Monteiro, design director and co-founder of Mule Design Studio, talking at the San Francisco chapter of CreativeMornings about getting money out of clients when you’re a designer. Well, it’s about more than just that, but it’s great and you’ll love every minute. That’s all you need know before watching.

Still haven’t made the journey to Bartlesville, Oklahoma to check out Frank Lloyd Wright‘s “prairie skyscraper“? Let us add yet another reason: a symposium devoted to architect Bruce Goff, the subject of an exhibition on view through May 1 at the Price Tower Arts Center, nestled in the base of the aforementioned Wright masterpiece. The day-long confab (free of charge and open to the public) is set for Saturday, April 23, at the Bartlesville Public Library and will explore Goff’s architecture, teaching philosophy, and legacy through a series of presentations by historians, architects, and museum professionals. The theory-flavored morning begins with a look at creativity and the organic architecture of Goff, and then Sidney K. Robinson, associate professor emeritus of art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a faculty member at Taliesin, will compare Goff’s thinking with that of Frank Lloyd Wright through three points of comparison: music, waterfalls, and their plans for the Heurtley House site in Oak Park, Illinois. Later talks will focus on Goff’s paintings and his relationship to the modern organic interior. After lunch, things take a turn for the practical. Attendees will get a peek at the making of three-dimensional animations of Goff’s projects, his teaching methods, as well as the technology used to recreate the architect’s work for the current Price Tower exhibition, “Bruce Goff: A Creative Mind.”

Artists, critics, curators, and art historians like to talk, just not always to each other. The Contemporary Project at the University of Southern California, a multi-year initiative to create new dialogues between the academy and the art world, is doing its part to enhance communication with a conversational conference scheduled for next Saturday, March 26 at USC’s Tutor Campus Center. The day-long event will focus on the challenge of communicating across the practical and professional divides. Speakers and interlocutors such as Artforum editor-in-chief Michelle Kuo, artist and professor Andrea Fraser, LACMA curator Franklin Sirmans, and critic Elizabeth Lebovici will wrestle with the question of how various art world players can speak to (rather than past) one another in the context of studio visits, crits, seminars, critical writing, and curating. Admission is free and a full schedule of the day is here. The organizers have entitled this third event in the Contemporary Conversations series “Can We Talk?”—so keep an eye out for Joan Rivers (or is that Maurizio Cattelan in a convincing Rivers mask?) critiquing attendees’ wardrobe choices on the way in.