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Wednesday Jul 01, 2009

Debbie Millman Assumes AIGA Presidency

In probing interviews, she reminds the world just how much design matters. She wrote the book on how to think like a great graphic designer. And now, it's official: UnBeige favorite Debbie Millman is the president of AIGA. She replaces outgoing president Sean Adams, who will remain involved in an ex officio role. Millman's three-year term begins today, as do those of four other newly elected AIGA board members: Julie Beeler (Second Story Interactive Studios), AIGA treasurer Zia Khan (Lucid Partners), James Koval (VSA Partners), and Angela Shen-Hsieh (Visual i|o). Additionally, three board members will begin positions to finish the incomplete terms of former directors: Shelley Evenson (Carnegie Mellon University), Louise Sandhaus (California Institute of the Arts), and Lynda Weinman (lynda.com). They'll all be working toward AIGA's new mandate—"to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool, and vital cultural force"—as the organization approaches its centennial in 2014. Check out the below video from last month's AIGA Leadership Retreat in Portland, where Adams passed the baton to Millman. Note that the baton was metaphorical, but were it literal, it would be one well-designed baton.

Tuesday Jun 30, 2009

Design Museum's Deyan Sudjic Pops Up on The Sound of Young America

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After this writer's wife introduced him to the work of radio/podcasting genius Jesse Thorne, we've been completely enamored with every piece of programing under the umbrella of his Maximum Fun empire (most specifically the Jordan Jesse, Go! program, which is indescribable and indescribably fun). So it was a beautiful thing to see this writer's worlds colliding as Thorne recently dipped his journalistic toes into the design world in this interview with Design Museum director, Deyan Sudjic. Per usual with his Sound of Young America interviews, it's both a loose conversation, but a very informative one none the less. Listen and enjoy:

The Sound of Young America

Monday Jun 29, 2009

Chip Kidd Feeds Gloria Vanderbilt's Obsession

obsessioncover.jpgYou may recall that last week, in the throes of our summer-long case of Frank Lloyd Wright fever, we alluded to Gloria Vanderbilt's new novel, Obsession (Ecco), the tale of a Wright-like architect and his steamy life away from the drawing board. Aside from the Wright angle (and Frank himself detested nothing more) of the "erotic tale," we detected a distinct mastery in the book's cover, and we can now confirm that yup, it's a Kidd! Graphic designer, writer, and budding rock star Chip Kidd designed the stunning cover and elegant interiors of Obsession, creating a cool foil for the hot plot that Joyce Carol Oates described as "a remarkable tapestry of human passion." Interestingly, the mannequin heads, photographed by Geoff Spear, are from Vanderbilt's own collection—and yet they could totally pass for the haughty aunts of the moonfaced Eishi Takaoka sculpture on the Kidd-designed cover of Kafka on the Shore! Read on for the first page of Obsession.

continued...

Monday Jun 08, 2009

Remembering Fleur Cowles, Woman of Flair

flair mag.jpg

Flair was a commercial bomb. Backed by the wealthy husband of its founding editor, the magazine lost millions before folding after a year. That was almost 60 years ago, yet Flair—all twelve issues of it—remains influential and highly coveted for the unique blend of art, literature, fashion, and design that it wrapped in an innovative and expensively produced package. It was the Visionaire of 1950. To thank for that is Fleur Cowles (née Florence Freidman), who died on Friday at—as best anyone can tell—age 101.

Cowles' post-Flair life included, by her own description, stints as "an American president's personal representative, decorated by six governments; as a writer of thirteen books and contributor to six others; as a painter, with fifty-one one-man exhibitions throughout the world; patron of the arts and sciences, irrepressible traveller and, more importantly, friend-gatherer." But it was for her magazine, which featured works by the likes of W.H. Auden and Salvador Dali, that she will be remembered. That, too, is by design. "I want Flair magazine to be considered my obit. And that's what I want to be remembered by forever," she told the Associated Press in 1996. "Nevermind any other thing I may have done. It's Flair that really reflects me."

continued...

Friday Jun 05, 2009

Tracey Ullman Takes On the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards

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A fun, quick interview/piece for the NY Times with everyone's favorite British mimic, Tracey Ullman, about her love of clothing design and preparing to host the upcoming Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards on the 15th of this month. We had no idea she was so well schooled in the world of looks, but apparently she's a regular clothes horse and is somewhat buddy-buddy with the top designers, including Diane Von Furstenberg, who invited Ullman to host the annual event. Here's a bit:

The crowd can be tough, as Simon Doonan of Barneys New York can attest after insulting Andre Leon Talley's turban last year. But Ms. Ullman was not yet sure if she would be taking aim at designers who might be in the room. She was more tempted, she said, by exploring how those designers familiar with the fading era of New York society are adapting to the modern world of invented celebrities.

"You can imagine," Ms. Ullman said, "Oscar de la Rentabeing shown a picture of Lauren Conrad, and saying, 'Oh, if only we can get her to hold our purse!'"

Wednesday Jun 03, 2009

Furniture Designer Sam Maloof Dies at 93

sam_maloof.jpgFurniture designer and craftsman Sam Maloof died late last month at the age of 93. A self-taught and self-described "woodworker," Maloof handcrafted sculptural furniture that was a humane foil to minimalist architecture of the post-World War II era. Henry Dreyfuss was an early fan. In 1951, the industrial designer commissioned Maloof to furnish his home and office in Pasadena, notes Maloof's New York Times obituary.

"I was working out of a one-car garage," Mr. Maloof told The New York Times in 2001. "I didn't have power tools—nothing. He called and said, 'You don't know who I am, but I know who you are.' I just about collapsed." Mr. Maloof designed and made 25 pieces for Dreyfuss, for a grand total of $1,800.
In ensuing years, Maloof turned down lucrative offers to mass produce his furniture. He preferred to work freehand with a bandsaw and was a stickler for both craftsmanship and joinery. He made furniture that was free of nails and metal hardware. According to the Los Angeles Times, Maloof once tested the strength of the joints for a set of chairs by dropping a prototype from the roof of his garage onto his driveway. The joints survived. "There's a lot of work being done today that doesn't have any soul in it," Maloof said. "The technique may be the utmost perfection, yet it is lifeless. It doesn't have a soul. I hope my furniture has a soul to it."

Tuesday Jun 02, 2009

Failing Repeatedly with Paula Scher

0602scherfail.jpg

Want to learn how design idol and Pentagram partner Paula Scher functions with failure and compare it to how you yourself deal with it (read: alcohol, sobbing, and collecting those porcelain figurines you find in Parade Magazine -- at least that's the way we operate), you'll feel momentarily happy to learn that Scher was recently speaking to Psychology Today about just that. It's a bevy of interesting thoughts and quotes, with the designer's launching point being that familiar "you have to fail to succeed" mantra, but going off in some unique directions, like working with younger people who are failing in an effort to rebel against your work and how difficult it is to encourage that. She even talks a little about Randy Newman, which this writer is on record for having said he doesn't particularly care for the his work, but even that we let slide because the interview (and that section) is captivating. Well worth reading if you can take a break from your alcohol, sobs, and Parade browsing for just five minutes.

Friday May 22, 2009

Architect Arthur Erickson Dies at 84

(Rick Eglinton).jpgCanadian architect Arthur Erickson—best known for designing Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Vancouver's Robson Square, and Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto—died Wednesday in Vancouver at the age of 84. Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne sums up the contradictions that characterized Erickson's five-decade career: "He was a dedicated, widely traveled scholar of architectural history who found himself strangely out of step with the post-modern movement of the 1970s and '80s, which sought to reassert the value of historic styles," writes Hawthorne in today's LAT obituary of the Vancouver-born architect. "He was a fierce critic of the dehumanizing effects of what we now call globalization whose biggest projects—the sleek, mirrored-glass California Plaza certainly among them—can be faceless and alienating." And then there was his predilection for adding concrete to a part of the world where gray was already in abundance. Adds Hawthorne, "he was a Vancouver architect whose buildings tend to look terrible in the rain."

continued...

Thursday May 14, 2009

Milton Glaser Launches New Website

(Milton Glaser).bmpGraphic design legend Milton Glaser has alerted us to the launch of his new website, MiltonGlaserWorks.com. An e-commerce-enabled companion to the designer's online home base, MiltonGlaser.com, the new site offers signed editions of Glaser's books and other works, including posters and a new range of giclée prints of assorted musicians and William Shakespeare. We'll take this collotype/silkscreen, "Mookie," which Glaser describes as "a loving portrait of a monstrous rabbit." Whether or not your budget allows for the acquisition of a signed "Beethoven with Eggplants" silkscreen, Glaser fans should be on the lookout for screenings of the documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight. Directed by Wendy Keys, the film has been making the festival rounds and premieres next Friday at New York's Cinema Village. We've posted the trailer after the jump.

continued...

Wednesday May 06, 2009

Philippe de Montebello Testifies at Brooke Astor Money Swindling Trial

0206replacemont.jpg

Former Metropolitan Museum of Art head honcho Philippe de Montebello showed up in an usual place this week, in a New York courtroom testifying as part of the ongoing legal battle surrounding the fortune of deceased socialite Brooke Astor. If you haven't been following the tabloids, the basic gist of the fight is over whether or not Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, swindled every dime he could from his mother before her passing in 2007, the question being whether or not she had her full mental capacities at the time he was having her change her will and hand him bundles of money. de Montebello was called to talk about an instance in 2004 when he had lunch with Astor to prove that she had already begun losing her facilities, saying that she did not recognize him at all, despite having constantly donated to the Met in the decades prior:

"She was basically looking at me and saying, 'Who are you?'" de Montebello testified.

Also introduced into evidence was a thank-you letter Astor sent to de Montebello in January 2001. She signed it, in a very shaky hand, "As always, your very devoted Brooke."

Below that, Astor scribbled, "My hand is awful -- hardly can hold a pen!!"

The note is potentially important evidence against [possible accomplice Francis Morrissey], who is charged with forging Astor's signature on a March 2004 will update that benefited Marshall.


Previously

Peter Blake Feels Ignored by the Tate Once More

Jonathan Ive Says Product Design Too Distant and Doesn't Want to Talk About UK

Let Daniel Libeskind's Wisdom Enlighten You

Michel Gondry Begins Selling Handmade Creations on His Site

Eisenhower Memorial Could Reinvent Our Thoughts About Memorials and Frank Gehry

Jonathan Ive, Betty Woodman Among RISD Honorary Degree Recipients

Andrew Wagner Named Editor-in-Chief of ReadyMade

Frank Gehry Psychoanalyzes Architecture for Michael Eisner

Richard Serra to Receive Honorary Degree from Pratt Institute

A 21st Century WPA? Shepard Fairey Is Game

Shepard Fairey Goes to Huffington Post to Plead His Case Against the AP

Hanging Around with Kurt Andersen and Family

Gehry Gives Up on Atlantic Yards

Robert A.M. Stern Gets Into the 'Women in Design and Architecture' Conversation

Unquenchable Joe Zee 'Could Drink 3 to 5 Liters of Water a Day'

Is Damien Hirst One of the 100 Most Influential People in the World?

Catching Back Up with John Morefield, the '5 Cent Architect'

Wynn Interior Designer Roger Thomas Awarded 'Design Icon', Lands a Feature Profile in Architectural Digest

The Associated Press Fights Back Against Shepard Fairey's Suit

Larry Gagosian the Magnificent

Christopher Hawthorne Returns with More 'Frank Gehry on Frank Gehry'

Alex Katz, J. Crew Model

Frank Gehry Enters His 81st Year in a Bit of a Slump

Kit Hinrichs Retrospective Opens at Art Center College of Design

Tomorrow: Shepard Fairey Speaks!

Joseph Ungoco Leaves Zink for Fashion Site WhatsWear.com

Donna Karan Approached Fall Collection with 'Consciousness' Intact

Shepard Fairey's Bad Week: Copyright Infringement and Arrested in Boston

Norman Foster Likely to Lose 'Lord' Title

Architectural Digest Remembers John Updike

Philippe Starck Talks Strange Tangents and Product Design

A Wedding Night at the Museum

Artist Andrew Wyeth Dies at 91

Architect Jan Kaplicky Passes Away

Barbie Designer, Jack Ryan, Revealed as 'A Full-Blown Seventies-Style Swinger'

Zaha Hadid Talks Archigram on BBC 4

Season Five of Design Matters Begins with All-Star Lineup, Big Developments

John Maeda and Ross Lovegrove Take a Look Back at Their Careers at Design Miami

British Museum's Neil MacGregor Named 'Briton of the Year'

U.N. Logo Designer Oliver Lincoln Lundquist Passes Away

Tucker Designer and Author Philip S. Egan Passes Away

John Maeda Names All-Time Greatest Design Object; You Probably Have One!

Annie Leibovitz on the Ones Who Got Away

Why David Sedaris Loves Tokyo

MoMA Design Curator Mildred Constantine Passes Away

Thom Mayne Talks Music with KCRW

Edward Leida Launches Website, Will Guest Art Direct NYT 'On Language' Column

At SVA Dot Dot Dot Lecture, Gary Hustwit Advocates Elliptical Interviewing

On 60 Minutes, Morley Safer Asks Julian Schnabel 'Were You a Doper?'

Jeff Koons Makes a Surprising Turn as an Actor in Milk

Sydney Opera House Architect Jorn Utzon Dies, But Controversy and Troubles Continue

Some Innovation and Design Advice for the President-Elect

Inspired by Marx Brothers Film, Daniel Libeskind Designs Malls for Living

If Nicolai Ouroussoff Loves Buffalo So Much, Why Did He Forget to Mention Louise Bethune?

Getting to Know Ada Louise Huxtable

George Lois Blasts Esquire for Electronic Cover (and Then Some)

Holy Japanimation, Batman, It's Chip Kidd's New Book!

The Passing of CBS' Lou Dorfsman

TDC Prez Charlie Nix Seeks Marathon Sponsors from A to Z

Candy Pratts Price on Style.com and Substance: 'We Run It Like a Magazine'

The Clash's 'London Calling' Designer, Ray Lowry, Passes Away

The Rise and Fall of William McDonough and the Greening Industry

Friday Photo: Isaac Mizrahi, Renaissance Man, Takes to the Stage

Get to Know Joel Bergman, the Man Behind the Vegas Strip

A Taste of Philippe de Montebello

What Philippe de Montebello Means to the World

Jeff Koons Loses Custody Battle in Human Rights Court

Le Corbusier: The Man, the Myth...the Sex-Starved?

Waterford Crystal's History Made Clear

Former Martha Stewart CEO Susan Lyne Has Brand New Bag

Andrew Todd Tries to Lose Friends and Alienate People with Honesty and Candor

Barneys' Simon Doonan and Top Design's Jonathan Adler Tie the Knot

Harvard Law School to Honor Christo and Jeanne-Claude as 'Great Negotiators'

Si Newhouse: Extreme Zoom!

MoMA's Glen Lowry Not Pleased with Ouroussoff's Idea of What Happened with Koolhaas at the Museum

John Maeda Finishes His Prep Before Taking Over at RISD

The Secretive Story Behind Robert A.M. Stern's Hiring

Hyvästi, Marimekko Co-Founder Riitta Immonen

Art Historian Michael Baxandall Dead at 74

Cuddle Up with Karl Lagerfeld

The Emotional Side of Jean Nouvel

Profiles of Designers Off the Beaten Path: John Peterson and Lebbeus Woods

Charlie Rose Talks Car Design

Arthur Erickson, Legal Architect or Tricky Designer?

Adrian Smith on Making Things Taller in the UAE

'Bird's Nest' Designer Ai Weiwei Didn't Even Like the Olympics' Opening Ceremonies

Sartorialist Falls into Gap Ads

Legendary Car Designer Andrea Pininfarina Dies in Scooter Accident

Alice Rawsthorn Gets Mean with Philippe Starck

Albert Speer Jr., Like Father Like Son in Olympic Design?

KAWS for Celebration

Getting to Know Mark T. Smith, the US' Official Olympic Designer

Zaha Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld Continue Their Space-Age Love Affair

A Conversation with Ai Weiwei, the Disappointed "Bird's Nest" Designer

Pharrell Williams Tries Chair Design, Gives Eames Classic Surrealist Twist

The Tao of Comics

Chip Kidd's Artbreak to Play Joe's Pub

From Spider-Man to Ayn Rand: A Closer Look at Steve Ditko

Brad Pitt Names Child After Obscure 19th Century Designer

Si Newhouse Has Eye for Kerning

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