Cool Hunting
| 01 September 2005view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Boston Globe: Design Blogs
by Josh Rubin
Josh Rubin, the fellow behind www.Coolhunting.com, actually does live in New York, which retains its design-capital status even in the blogger age. He agrees with Pikus that a central effect of the design blogosphere has been to organize more information than was ever before possible.
''Prior to creating my website, any of these references were either bookmarked in my browser or torn out of magazines or kept in a large folder or were pictures taken on a street. . . . It was all very disorganized. I originally created the site as a way to keep it all together, create a database, and have a personal reference. I never promoted it; it kind of grew as a word of mouth."
--Jason Damas
skinnyCorp, 6 Questions
by Ami Kealoha
Chicago-based skinnyCorp is the parent company of the ever-popular Threadless, the t-shirt company that produces winning designs chosen by online reader polls. Fusing interactivity, cutting-edge design, and entrepreneurial savvy, the site has made college dropouts out of the core team, president Jake Nickell, 25, vice-president Jacob Dehart, 23, and creative director, Jeffrey Kalmikoff, 26, (pictured above, from L-R). With seven active urls, four in development, and one slated for resurrection, the prolific team just doesn't quit. Here, in edition number four of our interviews with Semi-Permanent speakers, the trio discusses the future skinnyCorp helicopter, being nice to designers, and the perfect tee.
Groupe 16sur20 on Style.com
by Josh Rubin
Groupe 16sur20, the fashion cooperative headed by James and Gwendolyn Jurney (proprietors of the high-end custom men's and women’s line Seize sur Vingt), is the first men's shop on style.com. The on-line shop features a selection of items from the co-op's brands, including: Obedient Sons, Troglodyte Homunculus, Seize sur Vingt, United Boroughs of New York and Seize sur Vice (their collaboration with Vice magazine). Their shop on Shop will be available for the month of September.
If you happen to be in NYC and aren't familiar with the Groupe 16sur20 shop at 267 Elizabeth Street, head on over and check it out. In addition to finding innovative fashion and art in an ever changing space, you'll also get to see a vintage car. Rotated periodically, the black Ferrari 308 GT (above) is the latest installation.
Gold Legos
by Josh Rubin
The Lego turns 50 this year and to celebrate they've produced a bunch of "gold" bricks as a free gift with purchase of over $50. They've also produced a nice little anniversary site with a historical overview of their products. Seems like something Ken Courtney would do, though he'd use real gold.
Hurricane Relief
by Josh Rubin
Our contributor Parker's last post to his personal blog is daunting-- he returned home to New Orleans shortly before Katrina hit. We heard from him today and fortunately he and his family are ok. Here's his message:
... please let people know that their donated money will go to saving lives. People appear to still be stranded and in desperate need of airlifts. There is no drinkable water; it's feared that people are dying of dehydration and heat stroke and that the threat of disease is imminent. You've probably heard just as much, if not more, about what's going on as I have. But, yes, it seems it really is that bad and the news seems to get worse by the day.
Please click here to donate to the American Red Cross Hurricane Relief Fund.
Sonic Fabric
by Ami Kealoha
Sonic Fabric is Brooklyn-based artist Alyce Santoro's venture that weaves textiles from recycled audio cassette tapes recorded with sounds she considers sacred. The fabric emits a melange of sound when swiped with the head from a tape player and can double as a musical instrument, like when Jon Fishman of Phish wore Santoro's "Sonic Rhythm Dress" and gloves fitted with tape heads in concert. Partly inspired by Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags printed with blessings activated by blowing winds, Santoro sells silkscreened flags, an over-the-shoulder Monk/Messenger bag, swatches, and flags made with the custom sound collage from Fishman's dress on the Sonic Fabric site. You can peruse her other work, including the Silence Dress (pictured above), which is "black sonic fabric with black velvet patch of silence" on her personal site. In the future, look out for sonic fabric handbags that she's currently having produced at a women's craft co-op in Nepal.
