Shepard Fairey: Obama Posters

by Jacob Resneck

Though the name may not hold as much clout as Kennedy, Shepard Fairey has apparently made his choice for the next President of the United States.

Throwing his weight and talent behind the junior senator from Illinois, the illustrator has produced two striking posters with the man's likeness and main slogans. He's offering the 24" x 36" silkscreens for $50 a pop on his website with an aim to get its iconic image across the nation in time for Super Tuesday (5 February) and beyond. Proceeds will go to a larger, statewide (California) poster campaign. Limited to an edition of 350, they'll be available this Wednesday, 30 January 2008. UPDATE: They are, of course, sold out.

Note: This does not constitute an endorsement by this writer or CH, we just think Fairey lending his unabashedly propagandistic work to a historic moment makes it all the more momentous.

Donkervoort Cars 30th Anniversary

by Jacob Resneck

Anyone serious about race cars knows Donkervoort is synonymous with high-performance roadsters. This Lelystad-based Dutch automaker uses Audi engines in its custom racers—one of which holds the lap record for a street-legal car in Germany. Bottom line: You can't get a faster street legal car.

This year Donkervoort will celebrate its 30th anniversary of auto production with a new version of a classic. It was in 1978 that it rolled out its S7 (pictured below), which (like all Donkelvoorts through 1996) used Ford engines. Flash forward three decades, the D8 270S (pictured above right) is a direct relative to the very car that broke the lap record in 2004.

Melissa Winter '08

by Phuong-Cac Nguyen

Brazil's plastic footwear company Melissa, whose latest new collaboration was with none other than the Grande Dame of British fashion, Vivienne Westwood, is keeping it coming with some other exciting models in its upcoming Winter 2008 collection that deserve spotlights. It's proof in the plastic that the mania for their candy-scented shoes—much of them done in partnership with major designers—will once again go unrivaled.

Melissa Joy + Alexandre Herchcovitch
Alexandre Herchcovitch's Melissa shoes last season were super feminine, with pointy toes and elevated soles. This time around he reverts to his tendency to turn his women androgynous with a sexy wing-tip in brilliant colors and a slight shimmer—must-haves.

Melissa Characters
Taking cues from popular characters from childhood, this fun line includes Le Petit Prince who gets a pointy flat for winter. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first-ever Disney character, stars on a special Ultragirl model that will first be sold at Colette in Paris before hitting Brazil.

Melissa Ultragirl + J. Maskrey
This crystal-studded shoe proved to be so popular that it's been brought back in a darker color called "smoke."

You can find Melissa throughout Brazil, and internationally at Colette and Le Bon Marche in France, Harvey Nichols and Dover Street Market in London, Beams in Japan, and Opening Ceremony in New York and Noodle Stories in Los Angeles.

Also on Cool Hunting: Galeria Melissa, São Paulo Fashion Week Winter 2008, Melissa Spring/Summer '08

Three New Stadiums

by Tim Yu

In the era of starchitecture, few projects pose more of a challenge to renowned architects than the scale and complexity of a city's crown jewel, the stadium. With a few recent stunning examples in the works, we thought we'd take a closer look.

Camp Nou
Home to one of the biggest fútbol teams in the world, FC Barcelona, Camp Nou is getting a major makeover courtesy of British architects Norman Foster + Partners. Already the largest stadium in Europe, Foster + Partners will expand seating capacity to 106,000, ensuring an even more raucous match, but the most eye-catching part of the redesign is the multi-colored exterior and retractable roof.

Made of polycarbonate and glass, the exterior panels can change color and tilt, patterning the entire stadium or transforming it into a giant screen. Think of it as a macro-pixelated television. The renovation will be completed for the 2011/12 season. Now if they could just keep Lionel Messi healthy that long.

Beijing National Stadium
Tasked with designing Beijing National Stadium, the home base for the upcoming 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Herzog & de Mueron came up with this organized entanglement of 36 km of steel, oftentimes dubbed a bird's nest.

The criss-cross façade lends a baroque-modern aesthetic while at the same time functioning as a supporting structure. When it comes to energy consumption, the stadium is fully modern, boasting a rainwater collection system, a translucent roof for a better grass field, natural ventilation and a state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic system.

When finished, the mammoth structure will seat up to 100,000 spectators and thanks to Olympic clout, it will be finished on time and budget. Did someone say New World Order?

Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium made its return mid-2007 to retake its place as the home of football. Also designed by Foster + Partners, it seats 90,000 (only second in capacity in Europe after Camp Nou) and is the largest covered football stadium in the world.

The key feature of the new Wembley is its retractable roof, supported by an awesome 135 meter-high arch. The arch allows sunlight to hit the grass on fair weather days, but can cover all 90,000 seats during precipitation.

Designed with the spectator in mind, the new Wembley offers luxury seating and first-rate banquet halls improving an already great experience. I've also heard the locker rooms are pretty sweet.

Bindi Booth

by Lost At E Minor

We recently came across the work of Australian illustrator Bindi Booth, whose work is rich in color, detailed enough to keep you engaged, but simple enough to be appreciated at first glance. Of her illustrations she says, "I have been drawing ever since I can remember, and it's always been about girls and fashion. I get a lot of inspiration from the fashion industry and also trawling through antique and vintage shops for one-off pieces and generally things I don't need. I like combining fresh and modern subject matter with a vintage twist. I have dabbled in graphic design and illustration but also textile design, always trying to push myself to keep expanding my style so I don't get pigeon-holed." Keep an eye out over the next few months for some special Bindi Booth-designed Lost At E Minor postcards.