Ikea: Come Into The Closet

by Karen Day

Inviting everyone to "come into the closet," Ikea's playful ad campaign uses an interactive flash-based dance scene, controlled by sound, to highlight their creativity when it comes to closet organizing systems. The clever promotion revolves around various characters who dance robotically to music in four different rooms, each pulling accessories from the different storage solutions.

A five song selection dictates the characters' dance moves, but customers also have the option to upload their own tunes or create original music using a computer keyboard and mic. Skillfully blending modern dance, video that effectively illustrates product functions, an intuitively fun interface and absurdist styling (like a suit jacket and tie worn with boxers, socks with garters), the micro-site makes for a compelling diversion.

While already a year old, the campaign is still a fun way to show off the product line and an example of the fun-loving side of web design. From Mexican wrestlers to a blonde afro'd family, Ikea understands how to make organization entertaining.

Another Bloody Water

by Nathan Suberi

Aussie-based water bottling operation Another Bloody Water brings some serious sass to the table. Their disregard for overly pretentious competitors shows in everything from their irreverent name to their simplistic design (consisting of a dazzling palette of white, gray and black) and the oft-acerbic commentary on their blog. Down with the flowery language. Down with the Caribbean vistas. It's just bloody water.

Thankfully their low-brow attitude doesn't translate to a low-quality product. ABW's water comes from a single, natural spring water aquifer located deep in the Victorian Alps. The upshot is clean water, unpolluted by the taint of civilization and extremely low in sodium, which magnifies its thirst-quenching power.

Check out Another Bloody Water for more info and to view their blog.

This is Art

by CH Contributor

by Alex Polier

While artists go to great pains to express themselves through paint, clay, light and sound, many often forget the power of the written word. In the endless to search to answer the question, "What is art?" artist Susan Jennings taps fellow creators with her book, "This is Art," to find out what's on the minds of today’s artists, giving them free reign to write and sparking an original work of art in the process.

The project sprang from a 2002 speech at Cooper Union by painter Merlin James denouncing art that combines such modern methods as video installations with fluorescent lighting. While New York’s art scene responded with outrage, Jennings reveled in the effectiveness of the controversy in doing what art sometimes fails to do: get the masses talking.

Rather than denounce James' purist ethics, the Brooklyn-based artist, an Elizabeth Foundation for the Art Fellow, who's shown across Europe and the U.S., sent out a generic call for submissions. She received 45 heartfelt responses from some of today's most intriguing artists, the very artists he protested.

The result compiles the musings into a 149-page book of puzzles, short stories, word games and essays that act as a portal into the minds of some of today’s most compelling artists. Whether a remembered dinner conversation or a love poem to one's self or a diatribe on the state of the Iraq war, each entry acts a self-portrait, reflecting individual styles and passions.

“'This' is a unique glimpse into the words, thoughts and experiences of some of the creative minds of our time. 'This' is the story behind and around the images these artists make,” said Jennings. “'This' is a book I wanted to read.”

It's a book a lot of people will want to read. Pick up a copy at NYC's Marianne Boesky Gallery or online at Jennings' site Right Brain Words.

Eco-Pocke-My-Hashi Portable Chopsticks

by Nathan Suberi

An eco-friendly and vibrant solution to the rampant waste of disposable chopsticks (250 billion are trashed yearly), Yuento's travel-friendly alternative comes with a portable poly-carbonate case and silicon cap that doubles as a rest between bites. The designers make the chopsticks themselves—dubbed Eco-Pocke-My-Hashi—out of durable and sustainable bamboo in 12 vivid colors.

Buy a set of Eco-Pocke-My-Hashi for ¥1,135 (just under $12) through Idea.

Project No. 8b

by Brian Fichtner

Brian Janusiak and Elizabeth Beer, the duo behind Various Projects, recently opened their second retail establishment, Project No. 8b, in lower Manhattan. A sibling to the couple's acclaimed women's wear boutique just blocks away, Project No. 8b's equally minimal interior houses a tightly edited selection of men's apparel and accessories, many of which hail from Europe.

Foregoing expensive or elaborate interior details, Brian and Elizabeth use utilitarian rolling racks, accentuated by a selection of vintage furnishings from the couple's private collection, along with a few potted plants to merchandise their wares. An alternating selection of e15, the German manufacturer of austere wood furniture, provides the perfect counterpoint to the clothing on-hand, which includes Bless and Kostas Murkudis from Berlin, Natalia Brilli from Paris, Hope from Sweden, Saskia Diez from Munich and Maison Martin Margiela, to name only a few. Sprinkled throughout the space are a variety of objects—a leather-covered skateboard by Brilli, sterling silver key tags by Various Projects and badminton rackets and shuttlecocks from Germany—which attest to both the couple's manifold interests and their curatorial abilities.

Cool Hunting took a moment to ask Brian and Elizabeth a few questions about opening yet another store in New York and what Various Projects is up to next. Read below.

You just opened a new men's boutique mere blocks from your first store, Project No. 8. What on earth led you to do such a thing during a recession?
Yes. Excellent question. We did not necessarily plan the course in exactly that way. The wheels were set in motion some time ago and the build out of the space took much longer than anticipated. A big part of the process was dealing with NY's changes to building codes and regulatons that took effect right at the time we tried to get started.

It is not that interesting to too many people perhaps, but it seems that a big part of creating a space in NY are the long-form gymnastics involved in the paperwork and permitting process. We experienced it with Project No. 8 and it was an even greater challenge on No. 8b this time around. It makes trying new things difficult and costly. And why something as simple as a perfectly logical and efficient radiant floor as one example (Project No. 8) seems virtually impossible to accomplish. If something has not been done tens of thousands of times before, NY seems unable to say if it is okay to do. Again, very understandable in its own way, but equally frustrating and unfortunate.

Your original space was designed with a number of eco-conscious details in mind. What kind of design features define No. 8b?
Ah... yes. A perfect follow-up to the previous question. We would have loved to employ more of the same solutions we used in Project No. 8, but instead tried to focus on accomplishing some of the same issues while being conscious of a different set of needs in a different space.

Since No. 8b is not south facing like Project No. 8, passive solar energy is not as abundant. In addition, we were able to keep the original floor so that it made tearing it out to make a radiant floor seem like a bad solution. So we did simple things like place as many operable windows as possible in specific locations for air circulation throughout the summer and make use of the system of radiator heat that was already in place by adjusting location/placement throughout to make it more efficient and direct in the winter.

Interview continues with more images after the jump.