I’d like to be the one credited with discovering this great new young talent, but she’s been working on accumulating her own credits, not to mention her own business, for a few years now. Cindy Brown of St. Louis not only has her own design business, LookyLuClothng but she’s also a student in Washington University’s fashion school.

Along with talent, Cindy has an eco conscience and a costumer’s mind so she created this incredible (the above image) from toilet paper rolls. Genius, huh?

But that’s not all, Cindy has a full page of her costumes on her website as well as her original designs and more eco fashion (she has another beautiful one made out of a shower curtain) that can be purchased online.

I’m proud to call Cindy a native of St. Louis, MO but I doubt she’ll be one for very long &;)

In full disclosure I’ve never met Cindy nor do I own any of her clothing……image by Michael Pearce of Black Magic Studio.

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1902 Auguste Rodin, The Thinker.

If you weren’t a little ADD from this past presidential election cycle then by the time the year was up and $700 billion of tax money seemingly disappeared with no result, surely you felt you’d left a little of your brains on a sidewalk somewhere.

And if not then, perhaps the stock markets daily hissy fits have set you atwirl and your mind into its own kind of hissy fit….

Then came the holidays which for all their wonderfulness tend to test the nerves of even the best of us at moments.

Well then, I’ve got some recommendations for creating the focus we will all need to address the new year, this new year– 2009, be at one with ourselves again at the very least and come up with some of our own brilliant solutions at best.

Read on McDuff here…..(and it’s a list too!)….from EcoSalon, 24 Simple Effective Ways to Quiet Your Mind in 24 Hours or Less.

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On Christmas Day I wrote a blog post on 2modern’s design blog about Typography, ’cause, if you haven’t already noticed, it’s (typography) design’s new darling…..

Then Voila! there’s December’s British Vogue titled Fantastic Fashion Fantasy with all kinds of my favorite things all wrapped up in one issue. “Through the generations there are visionaries who conjure fabulous creations that go beyond the boundaries of the imagination.” And this is an understatement. It was, in my estimation, British Vogue’s Christmas present to me. All for a mere $10.99.

And if per chance you didn’t catch the issue, call them to get a copy (I know for my British friends, this is last year’s news and more than a few of you didn’t care for Kate Moss on the cover, again, but my love of this issue has to do with the typography as well as pulling some of the decade’s most creative fashions together in a crazy wonderful photo montage among other things). Besides creating these incredibly creative, and imaginative pages ( Unbelieveable Fashion, photographed by Nick Knight, above, Where the Wild Things Are photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, below), you can catch Nick Knight’s video of his shoot, Fantasia, at Showtimestudio.com. From the credits it looks as if Epilogue Imaging did the digital artwork for the magazine issue, which I take means that oh so cool typography.

There’s more in there, much more….it was all just so delish I couldn’t help but give the issue some space on my blog. For someone like me who craves visual creativity, this has been my double chocolate mousse cheesecake with chocolate cookie crust and white chocolate and whipped creme on top (in case you are wondering, I had that too during my holidays….my holidays were great by the way, how were yours?).

I loved the editor’s letter too: “Forget the It-bag, the serviceable coat, the investment buy; this is all about how extraordinary things can be–a celebration of the unusual.” Given the times, Ms. Alexander Shulman (British Vogue’s editor), this seems like a wise course of action.

As a final note, as if all of the above weren’t enough, Karl Lagerfield chimed in with Karl Lagerfield’s Secret Ball (above). I did not have to be at a glam mystery ball to get the best of what this might be about, Lagerfield’s paintings were enough for me!

I think this one’s a keeper. What do you think?

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I’ve been thinking about this medium ever since Dale Chihuly had one of his blown glass installations at the Missouri Botantical Gardens.

While I’ve seen other works around, it wasn’t until I walked past my neighborhood Erker’s (that’s right, eyeglasses) that I’d found what was the answer. They had these exquisite, tall and in some cases, odd shaped vases in the window and I’d passed by them so many times wondering what the heck. Finally I stopped to find out the story.

The story is, they brought the pieces in originally for decoration in the store but had so many people asking about them they started selling them directly to people.

Found them on the internet and wanted to share. Their shapes, their colors, and their techniques all very unique and available (pricing is affordable….some of the four foot tall vases were only $400.00).

Makora Glass from Krosno, Poland. See more here.

all images of glass are Makora Glass

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Mixing more than a few of my favorite things, art, fashion, sculpture, and exotic paper….well, you can’t get much better than this. And, I guess that’s what the folks at Kate’s Paperie in Soho, New York also understood when they asked Zoe Bradley to create one of her, one of a kind window installations for them.

Just in time for New York’s fashion week, Kate’s Paperie unveiled Ms. Bradley’s installation with an opening reception September 5th (I am so sorry I missed it, Ms. Bradley was on hand to answer questions!). Ms. Bradley’s installation, named “Hanging Japanese Gardens” is made with luxurious Yuzen papers and can be viewed ongoing at Kate’s Paperie 72 Spring Street store in Soho, New York. Kate’s Paperie is legendary for their specialty papers and journals, it’s a match made in paper heaven.

Ms. Bradley’s other clients include Donna Karan, Harvey Nichols, Selfridges (pictured above), among others, but getting her start with Alexander McQueen producing one off pieces of clothing and hats made out of paper is what convinced her that creating art from paper was her trademark. The rest is history. Her website is chock full of incredible past exhibitions, editorial works, window installations, and fashions all out of paper.

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Patterns In Design, Art, and Architecture by Petra Schmidt (Editor), Annette Tietenberg (Editor), Ralf Wollheim (Editor).

I do like coffee table books and this may be one, but one I’d recommend.

In starck contrast to a contemporary and minimalist movement came the New Baroque movement. Flourishes, leafy patterns, stripes, polka dots, and pattern all appear on bedheads, wall papers, lamp shades, chairs or entire rooms. This book shows how new looks at old ways can produce fresh alternatives to the minimalist movements.

Using examples of contemporary work by internationally renowned designers such as Tord Boontje, Michael Lin, Olaf Nicolai and Sauerbruch & Hutton, the diversity of colours, shapes and applications are laid out before the reader, illustrating the impact and influence of technical innovations such as laser engraving and digital milling on patterns and our perception of them.

Often humorous, very colorful, and rarely plain the movement may be showing signs of maturity but I think it’s always important to see where we’ve been to also know where we are going. Not to mention that the technology factor they bring out has been a tremendous feature to this movement and is probably just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we will be able to accomplish as a consequenc of new technologies.

The book is available in both hardbook and paperback at amazon.

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“>Sea Orchestra.Surely awards will be won if not already. Surely these will set off a flurry of animation in commericals the likes of which have not been seen ever.

United hired international teams of animators, musicians, artists and directors from India to South Africa to Norway to France to China to create these masterpieces. Robert Redford is the voice over (I knew I recognized that voice). Their pr spin reads “New ads create an artistic interpretation of the emotions travelers feel when flying United’s new international service.”

So if artistic mastery weren’t enough, they launched them during the Olympics. Sea Orchestra, featured above, was first shown during the Opening Ceremony which is when I saw it and only a commercial like this could break through the spectacular nature of what the Olympic Opening Ceremony turned out to be.

“>Two Worlds. Then yesterday, Sunday, I saw the second one, “Two Worlds” which takes you from a black and white scenario (again animated) to one with color. You can’t miss the ads though, right, besides being visually arresting they have these catchy little customized versions of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” performed by the L.A. Philharmonic. In Sea Orchestra a United airplane crosses the ocean and
is serenaded by an orchestra of animated sea creatures that are playing a
unique version of Rhapsody in Blue using tubas, violins, French horns and
the Indonesian gamelan. The score was created by Shy the Sun, a South
Africa-based directing team, which used hand-drawn textures, computer
animation characters and photographs of water, reefs and skies. The Two Worlds commercial combines two different and distinctive animation styles created by directors SSSR, a Norwegian and Japanese team, who was responsible for the monochromatic world that was mostly computer-generated with a hand-crafted feel, and Gaelle Denis, a French director, who was responsible for the colorful
fantasy world that uses using live action, computer generation and matte
paintings, including textures such as Japanese rice paper.

So, I did read where the campaign “It’s time to fly,” created by ad agency BDM has earned the Gold Effie Award for marketing effectiveness and was nominated for an Emmy Award. I’ll say.

You can’t beat the timing. That alone is brilliant since what they are advertising is United’s new international first and business class service with flat bed seating. If the flying is as comfortable as these commercials make it look, then they win all around, regardless. It’s first class advertising not to mention international in nature (which is what really makes it all fly) and launched with not just one but 5 different spots to be aired during the Olympics where you get more international eyeballs than any other venue at one time.

Bravo BDM. Bravo United. Bravo Marketing Team. I’m on board. It’s time to fly!

(for more on the teams and intent behind each of the commercials go here and to see the rest of the new ads go here).

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(Adam Pretty/Getty Images for Boston.com)

The Chinese Olympic Opening in Beijing was full of symbolism, art, history, and choreography as well as technology, but mostly it was full of lots of people performing minute details that added up to masterful feats of synchronized movement that in turn became a feast for the eyes.

(Jeff Gross/Getty Images for Boston.com)

I am hard put to say which one of these beautifully choreographed movements was my personal favorite. That said, the above image which referred to how the Chinese invented silk and reminded us of how they were into trade long before their nation burst onto the scene in the latter part of the 20th century may have come close. Their nation is rich in history and culture and have had a sometimes unseen as well as unparalleled impact on the rest of the world.

While this opening was a tremendous undertaking and powerfully well executed my takeaway is yes, their richest resource is its people who can do amazingly detailed work in order to create magnificient things, but there are still a lot of problems to be solved. Now that we’ve all witnessed this at least in great numbers hopefully we can throw some weight behind it to solve them. It would seem to be worth it.

China has both extended the olive branch and thrown down the gauntlet at the same time. Anyone care to pick it up where they’ve left off? If I am referring to the next Summer Olympics, I vote for Brazil. Rio would be able to compete with this extravaganza (not so sure about Chicago). Otherwise, I leave this interpretation up to the viewer/reader.

(as a final word on the opening ceremony, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how far along LED lighting has come and will be with us now for some time to come after this)

(AP Photo/David Phillip for Boston.com)

For more spectacular images like these I encourage you to visit Boston.com; they’ve done a magnificient job of parlaying the images (many more than I am showing) into the powerful story China’s film director, Zhang Yimou, created.

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Some combination of Asian, tribal and Victorian, designer Mei Hui Lui, makes reconstructed garments with raw finishes in which she uses Victorian lace and antique trimmings to make limited edition or one-off garments. Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, Mei Lui is 32 years of age and is now based in London where she recently opened her own boutique, Respiro.

The whole look including the henna type tattoos on the face matching the lace is such an inspired look; so much so it’s quickly become one of my favs. From Surface Magazine.

So, when I came across these…….

I couldn’t help but think how above girl and etched patterned glass lamps matched.

Outdoor hanging etched glass lighting holds pillar candles that lights gently for hours. From Domino online, look for a World Market store nearest to you @ worldmarket.com.

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Austin Kleon, an Austin Tx. writer/cartoonist/designer, has developed a new art form: Newspaper Blackout Poetry. It’s more than just the design or layout of his poetry that is so fascinating, but the fact that he can look at a paragraph (or two) from an article in a newspaper and find such profound meaning. For more, go here. And, Happy Mother’s Day.

Thank you to How Magazine’s blog for the heads up on this one.

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