Cool Hunting
| 02 January 2008view entries from: this week | this month | view previous day | view next day |
Popdeck x Cool Hunting Skateboard Design Contest
by Tim Yu
It's time we tap into the CH talent pool again (that means you!), this time for a skateboard design contest with our new friends over at Popdeck. The Threadless of skateboard design, Popdeck is a website that allows users submit and vote on designs with the winner getting a cash prize and their entry made into a limited-edition board.
Since we're a bit obsessive compulsive ourselves and enjoy design that manifests elements of the orderly disorder, we decided to go with the theme of OCD. Interpret it anyway you'd like, but keep in mind that designs will be assessed both based on this concept as well as originality. The contest will run for three weeks, giving you plenty of time to think up your best. In addition to having their design made into a board, the winner will get $200 cash, a free board and be entered into Cool Hunting Hall of Fame.
Hop on over to Popdeck, make an account, enter the "Cool Hunting Contest" and start drafting your design now. Of the top five rated designs, we'll choose our favorite from the finalists. We're looking forward to the entries.
Spring Court U.S.A.
by Tim Yu
Spring Court, the iconic French tennis shoes, have been available stateside through select stores and boutiques for some time now, but the recent launch of their U.S. website makes it easier to find retailers and to determine if it's worth the trip.
For the SS08 collection, which debuted along with the site, Spring Court stays true to its history of simple but functional design, using only high-quality materials such as Egyptian Cotton and a natural rubber sole that features ventilation channels. Some new looks include neon, metallics and new colorways on traditional cuts. Check out the whole collection on the new website.
Torso Tees
by Lost At E Minor
Torso is an Australia-based t-shirt label that selectively invites talented print and t-shirt designers to produce their visions with eight colors, special inks and top quality t-shirt stock. The designs are also offered up as free wallpapers should your desktop need some sprucing up for the New Year.
Mapplethorpe: Polaroids
by Ami Kealoha
I happened upon this new book of Robert Mapplethorpe's early Polaroids around the same time I read Ryan McGinley's recent interview of Jack Walls (Mapplethorpe's long-term boyfriend). Both the collection of black-and-white photographs and the interview are as great for their content as they are for insights into an era not usually glimpsed elsewhere. McGinley's involvement is like the exclamation mark highlighting how relevant Mapplethorpe's work is currently.
The slip-covered monograph itself touches on the themes—flowers, women, homosexuality—that Mapplethorpe would later become known for, but also includes a range of intimate still-lifes and portraits that lend depth to the artist's vision. Photos of telephones, children, shoes, friends (several of Patti Smith), lovers (presumably) and self-portraits all bear Mapplethorpe's elegant compostion and his ability to create a powerful yet "artless" image. As he's quoted in the accompanying essay, referring to the intense feeling of looking at sealed pornography at a newstand, "I thought if I could somehow bring that element into art, if I could retain that feeling, I would be doing something that was uniquely my own."
Pick it up from Prestel or Amazon.
The book anticipates an exhibit of the Polaroids at the Whitney that opens 3 May 2008 and runs through 7 September 2008.
Skinover Gloves
by Lost At E Minor
With her collection of Skinover gloves, Rotterdam-based artist and sculptor Silvia B has taken a somewhat natural approach to the task of keeping hands warm —warts and all.
