Cool Hunting
Action Man is the British take on GI Joe, and was first introduced in 1966, hence Action Man 4040 at the Blink Gallery in Soho, London. The exhibition begins today, 16 May 2006, but I managed to get in for an early look.
It has been put together by designer-toy magazine Clutter, with a little bit of help from makers Hasbro, and features 40 different figures that have been customized, bastardized and abused by artists and designers from all over the world. Monsterism creator Pete Fowler and James Jarvis, the designer behind Amos Toys, to name just a couple. A few of the efforts may or may not be a comment on Action Man's military heritage, as they variously show him in a coffin, dressed to look like Mahatma Gandhi and holding a protest banner that says "Inaction Man". Others respect his roots, decking him out in the kind of heavy-duty hardware beloved of toy fan-boys, but it's worth a look even if you're not a collector and simply played with Action Man when you were a kid, like I did.
Action Man 4040 runs for a fortnight at the Blink Gallery, and then each of the figures will be auctioned for charity.
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With British t-shirt company T-Book's tessellating expressions of love and the German Puma designer Peter Schmid's high and low-tops, these may be the most romantic kicks out there. Laser-burnt with T-Book's clever, M.C. Escher-esque "Don't Kiss Goodbye" (pictured left, click either image for detail) or with their "I Love You" repeating script pattern (pictured right), the process takes about an hour for each pair....
Kicking off today, the London Design Festival is a two-week extravaganza with a bewildering array of shows, exhibitions, seminars and general hobnobbing, big names, young talent, highly commercial offerings, as well as work which is so conceptual we’re not really sure if it’s even design. As we reported earlier this week Icon Magazine published a guide, but to make it even easier, here are...
After countless magazine articles, acclaimed annual events, and a spate of new boutiques, Brooklyn is fast cementing its status as a design capital. "From A to B and Back Again" is the latest celebration of all that the borough has to offer, featuring limited editions and prototypes by well-known designers including KleinReid, Jason Miller, redstr/collective, Scrapile, and The Design Can. Among the many highlights...
The most talked about exhibition during the Salone del Mobile was that by Maarten Baas. Set within the chaotic mess of a working auto garage in the Zona Tortona, the show covered works to date, along with a preview of new collections for Contrasts Gallery and Established & Sons Limited. The choice of space initially felt to me like a commentary on the hyper-produced...
Staged in an immaculate, white gabled space in the Navigli neighborhood in Milan, Studio Job recently previewed their latest monumental work in conjunction with the Eindhoven-based designhuis. The installation, called Farm, draws inspiration from traditional farming economies of the Dutch lowlands, and is composed of twenty-four cast bronze objects and six pieces of Palissander wood furniture. Continuing the leitmotif developed in last year's Homework...
While the Italians were rightfully celebrating their design legacy at the Triennale with an exhibition called "What is Italian Design?," I find it worth noting that once again, Dutch design was proving to be the most radical, poetic, soul-searching work at the Salone del Mobile. On the last day of the fair, I doubled back to the Zona Tortona to see “reCollections,” an exhibition...
The Pharos Project
Hank and Matlok
Neon Shoes
Radio Village Nomade
Ghostly Swim: Interview with Sam Valenti
Creative Index
Interview with Maarten Baas
A Paper Tiger
Von Totebags and T-Shirts
