I.D. Design Cast: Injecting Play into the Design Process

by Karen Day

Inaugurating a series of live online videos—redubbed design casts—hosted by I.D. Magazine, " tomorrow Loosen Up: Injecting Play into the Design Process" continues the discussion started in their current issue about the role of play in the design process in a web browser near you starting at 4pm.

Rinat Aruh and Johan Liden of NYC–based design group Aruliden will moderate the live webcast, bringing their unconventional process they call "producting," which allows design to remain the focus of a brand's marketing strategy to the table.

Using their work for Puma (see the ping pong kit below), Microsoft and Kiki de Montparnasse as examples, the duo will examine the importance of play and the ways Aruliden incorporates the design concept into their producting process. A major point in thinking about the dynamic of play from comes comparing it to business practices—e.g. collective thinking over singular yields great results. The hour-long design cast will discuss how this translates when developing new products, as well as other effective nontraditional approaches.

Register for Loosen Up for $40 from How Bookstore and keep an eye out for I.D.'s next topic in the monthly series.

FullyVisual Metal Toys

by CH Contributor

by Jeremy Brautman

FullyVisual makes heavy metal, but it's not for listening. The brand started as a side project among friends and quickly evolved into a line of part toy, part art and all metal collectibles.

Today, FullyVisual drops its latest figure—an update on Huck Gee's Skullhead. Savvy toy collectors know that Huck Gee pieces tend to have an availability window of approximately six seconds. FullyVisual's designer Jamie Mathis is quick to point out that as a medium, metal lasts longer than vinyl which may explain in part what makes these 100 figures so highly covetable.

Mathis combined his experience making metal belt buckles for the apparel industry with an interest in art, now boasting an enviable artist roster and releasing a new limited edition sculpture roughly every month. He makes the hand-crafted pieces in editions of 100 or less in silver, gold, copper and nickel. For Gary Baseman's Clown Cone #2, Jamie combined several metals into one fantastic figure. To achieve colors that exist outside the metal spectrum, he collaborated with Japan's Gargamel crew and master of toy customization Paul Kaiju.

A relative newcomer to the designer toy community, which focuses chiefly on vinyl, metal adds a new aspect to the field. FullyVisual pieces carry a significant heft, sometimes tipping the scale at a pound of metal each.

To get a sense of what goes into each figure, we chatted with Jamie during a break in his busy schedule.

Can you describe the process of making metal figures?
The artists send drawings of the figures. From those turnarounds, the figure is sculpted, a mold is made and I cast the pieces. I pour lead-free pewter metals, then dip each piece. Some are plated or brushed to look shiny or older. Each artist picks the colorways.

What's it like working with artists who are your friends?
Most of the artists I've worked with are close friends or close friends of friends. I try to faithfully reproduce their vision in metal. Gary Baseman's figures are really specific to his pieces, so it's interesting to have the paintings to refer to. Artists can be highly specific, but there are of course some limitations to the medium.

What's coming up next for FullyVisual?
Amanda Visell and I are continuing the saga of her [sold out] mini wargroup figures in the next couple months. I'm also doing another piece with Huck Gee. This one will be as big as a baseball and limited to 100 pieces in four colorways. I'm pretty stoked about an upcoming project with Joe Ledbetter. There's nothing like it that's ever been done in vinyl, metal or wood. And I'm doing a project right now with Switcheroo that will change the way collectors look at things. It will take them to the next level. In a word: mechanical.

Speaking of mechanical, we heard you collect motorcycle parts. Tell us about your own collections.
Yeah that and also skate decks, kaiju, my friends' vinyl toys and art...and one of every Circus Punk ever made.

Kiwi & Pom x Lucky Voice Karaoke: Party Pod

by Mike Giles

Creators of the facet-design Marks & Spencer cafe, London firm Kiwi & Pom recently teamed up with another British establishment, collaborating with London's renowned karaoke bar Lucky Voice to create the Party Pod.

Tagged as the world's most sophisticated and portable karaoke experience, they designed the aptly named "Party Pod" for paramount user experience. A toy-like unit houses the computer used to store the songs, as well as the audio equipment needed to connect to the microphone, speaker and TV. The Party Pod’s technical configurations synch monthly song updates directly from a computer into the machine’s system and an integrated touch-screen interface makes for a modern yet friendly song selection process.

For those who prefer not to own a karaoke machine, hiring the Lucky Voice Pop-Up Party experience delivers a bespoke Lucky Voice touchscreen unit containing thousands of songs, a plasma screen to display the lyrics and a sleek Bose sound system with two wireless mics to your door. The system is available for hire worldwide. For information and rates visit the Lucky Voice website.

Paperfinger Calligraphy and Hand-Drawn Design

by Doug Black

Breathing new life into the time-honored art of calligraphy, Paperfinger, a new hand-drawn design company, brings a personalized, human quality to everything from wedding announcements to logo designs. The truly homegrown business started in founder Bryn Chernoff's living room in October '08 when she decided to stray from her background in computer science to pursue her longtime love of the decidedly analog world of ink and paper.

One of CH's nearest and dearest, Chernoff now works from a Brooklyn studio where she hand-letters everything from cards and invitations to illustrations and personalized logos—basically, any visual design requiring her meticulously-rendered loops and elegant lines. For true romantics, Paperfinger will even transcribe a love letter, lending refined beauty to sentiment that's sure to impress the receiver.

Accomplished in a variety of styles, the young designer works on everything from top-quality Italian stationary to napkins and experiments with mediums like sea shells, fallen leaves and teacups. In addition to hand-written pieces, Paperfinger also creates replicable designs, like high-quality custom stamps and digital files for letterpress or other mass printing options.

Check out the Paperfinger site to see her range of styles, and stay tuned for an upcoming line of products in the near future. There, you can contact Chernoff directly to develop a personalized font or design and follow her excellent blog, Paper Tastebuds, to keep up with Paperfinger and the daily inspirations behind it. See more images after the jump.

Vanessa Prager and Lizzy Waronker: Little Dream Installation

by Karen Day

For one night only, WeSC's L.A. concept store will host a conceptual installation featuring the works of artists Vanessa Prager and Lizzy Waronker.

Crafting a fairytale world in an outdoor terrarium, the duo's exhibit consists of a secret garden-like setting paired with paintings and assemblage sculptures that evoke feelings of dreams and mystery.

Waronker makes her sculptures using curiosities old and new, fusing the bric-a-brac together to create oft-eerie scenes displayed in items like old cabinets and involving vintage doll heads, tribal figures, twigs and small antiquities—each one evidence of Waronker's background in film and story-telling abilities.

Looking back on old family photographs, Prager paints an imagined future using vibrant colors to depict forbidding scenes. Her expert way of portraying ingenuous characters leaves viewers feeling ultimately connected to her unearthly world.

Little Dream
1 October 2009, 7-11pm
WeSC Concept Store
144 South Robertson Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211 map
tel. +1 310 385 9315

Newwork Magazine

by Brian Fichtner

Let the mass media say what it will, Newwork Magazine, a large-format biannual publication dedicated to art, design, fashion, culture and politics, proves the ongoing relevance of print yet.

The product of Fashion Institute of Design students Ryotatsu Tanaka, Ryo Kumazaki, Hitomi Ishigaki and Aswin Sadha, the magazine's latest release marks its fourth issue. The group, who in 2007 formed their own design firm Studio Newwork, oversees all aspects of the magazine's production, from theme to design layout. On the origins of the magazine, Kumazaki notes, "Since the job as graphic designers is to convey clients' messages effectively, you hardly see graphic design studios having an opportunity to send their own messages directly. Fortunately through Newwork, we've got a chance to send messages purely from us."

Those messages, printed in striking black and multiple shades of grey on 30-pound newsprint, convey a purity of purpose and an urgency of message that feels always on point. Seeing no borders between the creative fields, the studio freely juxtaposes fashion photography, graphic design and painting, all within a single issue. Issue No. 4, for example, features the work of fashion photographer Albert Watson, German graphic designer and typographer Wolfgang Weingart, as well as Brooklyn-born artist Robert Longo's foreboding gas mask image (see below). "It's a natural result of searching for what's good," Kumazaki writes. Rather than serve to confuse, this multidisciplinary approach results in a publication rich with optimism for all creative pursuits.

But don't take our word for it. Visit the magazine's website where all issues are archived and a list of stockists is available should you need to purchase a back issue. And if a magazine isn't enough, they've designed every layout in Newwork to separate for hanging as an individual art piece. That's not something you can easily do with the web.

See more images from previous issues after the jump.

Libreria Valdeska

by Brian Fichtner

Specializing in art, thought and literature, Valencia's Libreria Valdeska is a bibliophile's dream find. Tucked away on the narrow Calle del Mar, just west of the Jardín del Turia, Valdeska embraces the bookstore as boutique approach, offering a tightly-curated collection of small presses, vintage titles and classic publications (all in Spanish).

Tables devoted to music, poetry and journals supplant a small design section, while a vitrine on the back wall features rare titles, such as a book on the toys of Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia. By no means exhaustive, Valdeska attracts those who delight in discovery. If booksellers act as culture barometers of a city, Valdeska makes Valencia rich.

For Spanish-speakers, Valdeska has a blog detailing its latest events. Check out more images of the interior after the jump.

Librería Valdeska

Calle del Mar, 47

46003 Valencia map

tel. +96 3522392