YouWorkForThem Relaunch

by Mike Frank

In 2001 designers Michael Cina and Michael Young began a departure from traditional commercial graphic work to focus on more experimental design projects. Spanning typography, illustration, 3D and video, they have been continually pushing the boundaries of graphic design and established YouWorkForThem as a platform to feature and sustain emerging design talent.

Almost 7 years later, YouWorkForThem has grown from a two man operation into a stable of designers and illustrators in studios from Bangkok to Minneapolis. Part stock library, bookstore and art dealer, their freshly redesigned site features a massive 1,800 products. Check out the video previews within some projects for an enhanced online product experience.

Some of our favorite projects include distinct typefaces like Black Slabbath available for $40 (pictured top). Flourishes offers unique and time saving stock embellishments for $20 (pictured above right). We also love the ultra-rare typography books you won't find for sale anywhere else like, Grid Systems in Graphic Design for $70 (pictured below left) and Wim Crouwel Alphabets for $75 (pictured below right). They even make some limited run and reasonably priced t-shirts like Eye on the Prize and The End Up, both available for $20. Check out the whole lot of YouWorkForThem projects on their new and relaunched site.

Japanese Film Noir and Parque Via at San Sebastian 2008

by Max Gold

This year the San Sebastian Film Festival was an interesting mix of new cinema and nostalgia.

The festival hosted a retrospective of Japanese Film Noir or Japon en Negro. A complex genre born out of imported American detective films, Japanese film noir is essentially American film noir digested by the Japanese post-war psyche. It even has its own nationalistic spin. The retrospective was thorough, beginning with the first post-war Japanese detective movies, tracing the genre through the Yakuza films of the 1960s. Even more recent works from directors like Takashi Miike of the 1990s were featured—Miike was one of the main influences on the "Splat Pack" filmmakers like Eli Roth and Rob Zombie. Rarely do you see a film festival trace a genre back so thoroughly.

Outside of the Japanese Film Noir genre, one of the new films receiving the most buzz at the festival was the simple and slightly odd, "Parque Via" directed by 28-year-old Enrique Rivero. The story follows the tedious daily routine of Beto, a repressed caretaker whose life is thrown off at the prospect of losing his job. It was a bit tedious to watch 94 minutes of how this slight rupture affected Beto's life. Nevertheless, "Parque Via" holds its own as a contender in this new era of Mexican film next to the likes of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "Amores Perros" which deal with cinematic reality in a similar manner. All the seat-shifting that may have occurred during the film was worth it to see the jarring ending that undoubtedly helped win this film the Horizontes Special Mention at San Sebastian.

More information on the Film Festival and all the winners at San Sebastian Film Festival.

Ducati Monster 696: Interview with Designer Bart Janssen-Groesbeek

by CH Contributor

by Tamara Warren

The Monster, originally released in 1993, is one of Ducati's more classic and successful models. Bart Janssen-Groesbeek was a Project Leader on the new Ducati Monster 696 (pictured) released this past April, and has already proved popular. During the upcoming Motorcycle Show in Cologne opening 8 October 2008, Ducati will unveil the Ducati Monster 1100 and 1100 S and we are looking forward to seeing what they came up with this time around.

We caught up with Bart Janssen-Groesbeek at Ducati's Bologna, Italy headquarters to ask him a few questions.

What factors are important to motorcycle design?
Motorcycle design as a profession is relatively young. The best example of this is that some of the most beautiful motorcycles were designed by people without any formal training. I would say to be able to produce a successful design, you need to have a good understanding of how a motorcycle works, know how to use it and how it is used, but most important of all you have to love bikes. Otherwise it is impossible to explain why one would spend days on designing a bottom yoke.

What inspired the Monster 696 design? Is there a connection to culture or art in the form and function?
The clearest inspiration of the design is obviously the original Monster, with its characteristic profile and shape. The objective was to strengthen the character by emphasizing the central volume. The design of all the components followed this concept — the flat headlights, the stubby exhausts. I can't say that we made any conscious effort to incorporate any current cultural or design trend in the design. Contemporary and authentic are two ideas that are hard to mix.

Can you break down the design process. When did it begin? What were the steps in bringing the bike to market?
Thinking of a replacement of the Monster has been going on for along time. Every time another owner's special was featured it sparked off ideas of how the original model could evolve. The official kick-off was back in 2004, and the design development started the traditional way with sketches and full-scale drawings. After the approval of the 2D proposals we went into 3D, first by means of a foam core model. This transformed into a CAD proposal from which a clay model was milled. The clay model was then modified by hand to achieve the final design. During the design process parallel prototypes were tested and the technical office developed the engineering side. After the design sign off we proceeded from the pre-production model which was shown at the Milan show to the final model as was presented at the launch in Barcelona.

Cool Hunting on the Sony Ericsson Xperia

by Josh Rubin

You might have noticed the who is johnny X ads here on CH promoting the European launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia. In addition to a brilliant screen, handy form-factor and sleek design the Xperia offers users a variety of downloadable home screens. These panels, as they're called, are like interactive desktops and allow immediate access to content and functionality.

Sony Ericsson offers an SDK so that anyone can develop a panel. For Cool Hunting we wanted to give our readers easy access to our latest articles and the ability to search the archives. When the phone is vertical you can see headlines and when it's horizontal you can see thumbnails. If you have an Xperia, download our panel here.

Designed For Kids: A Complete Sourcebook

by CH Contributor

by Rebecca Odes

The recent explosion of high-design kids gear has been hard to ignore and "Designed for Kids: A Complete Sourcebook," by Phyllis Richardson, culls the greatest hits of the modern kids marketplace into one hefty hardcover package. With its textbook-ish format, the book seems aimed at design professionals rather than consumers but for anyone on the hunt for smart kids stuff it's an excellent, wide-ranging selection.

From the ubiquitous Bugaboo and Baby Björn to the obscure (a convertible Aprica play gym that seems to be unavailable anywhere), the book is chock full of stylish products for the junior set. There's lots of creative work from independent designers, some of whom do products for grown ups as well, including Mohr Polster from Austria and Inke from the Netherlands. The book is pretty interesting from a cultural observation standpoint, too. Until five years ago, you couldn't find a bouncy seat that wasn't covered with pastel duckies or teddy bears. We've come a long way, baby…at least when it comes to décor.

"Designed for Kids: A Complete Sourcebook" is available at Amazon.