Category Archives: Reviews
Produced by WIRED Brand Lab with American Institute of Architects | How can design transform emergency rooms from one of the most stressful and chaotic places into a place of healing? Dr. Bon Ku and architect Billie Faircloth, AIA, break down the science behind designing a better work environment for hospitals.
Architects: Stanton Williams’ “Fitzroy Park House” Best English Home 2019 (Modern House)
From a The Modern House online article:
Fitzroy Park, London N6
A stunning 6,200 sq ft space, this remarkable and sprawling house rises up through its surrounding landscaped gardens. Described by the Architects’ Journal as having a “beguilingly cave-like relationship to the outside world”, it is a bold vision of contemporary architecture in which the natural world has been thoroughly entwined with the design.
https://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/fitzroy-park/
Recline by the pool, listen to the artificial stream winding its way through the gardens, meander across the footbridge: this home was conceived for those long, dreamy summer days.
To read more: https://www.themodernhouse.com/sales-list/fitzroy-park/
Top New Camper Trailers: All-Electric “ERV” From Retreat Caravans
Now with an energy-efficient thermal rating construction and revolutionary energy supply, you can live in your caravan just like you would at home! Use what you want, when you want, where you want!
With an unprecedented 2033* watts of factory-fitted PV Solar, integrated automotive-grade 14.3KW/Hr battery, coupled with a 5000-watt Smart Inverter, this holistically engineered, self-generating, battery energy storage system will revolutionise your “truly off-grid experience”.
Website: https://www.e-rv.com.au/
Top Graphic Designers: 88-Year Old Seymour Chwast “The First Postmodernist”
Excerpts from The Revolutionary Seymour, By Steven Heller:
Seymour’s art was postmodern long before the term was coined. Yet it was resolutely modern in its rejection of the nostalgic and romantic representation, as in the acolytes of Norman Rockwell, that had been popular in mainstream advertising magazines at the time. Instead of prosaic or melodramatic tableau, Seymour emphasized clever concept. What makes the very best of his art so arresting, and so identifiable, is the tenacity of his ideas—simple, complex, rational, and even absurd ideas.
The illustrations for magazines, posters, advertisements, book jackets, record covers, product packages, and children’s books that he created after founding Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel in 1954 directly influenced two generations (statistical fact) and indirectly inspired another two (educated conjecture) of international illustrators and designers to explore an eclectic range of stylistic an conceptual methods.
To read more: http://seymourchwastarchive.com/about/seymour/
Homebuilding Trends: Japanese Prefab “Yō no Ie (Sun House)” By MUJI Is Durable And Efficient
From an Interactiongreen.com online release:
…the Yō no Ie re-imagines a life in suburban-rural areas, rather than urban-suburban. This reflects quiet yet significant social changes – or rather, shifts in life priorities of people and how they define happiness. In the 20th century, when society was excited about economic growth, everyone dreamed of living in cities, working at big companies by navigating a world of fierce competition, either spending an eye-popping amount of money on a small urban condo that quickly became a norm, or traveling hours to commute from a more affordable home in rapidly sprawling suburbs.
MUJI House released the “陽の家 (Yō no Ie, or Sun House)” in September, 2019, its 4th product since it debuted the “木の家 (Ki no ie, or Wood House) in 2004. Upon the release, they opened its model house at a glamping site called “Forest Living” in Isumi-City, Chiba which is about a 2-hour drive from Tokyo.
To read more: https://www.interactiongreen.com/muji-house-yo-no-ie-model-home/
1960’s Classic Cars: “1963 Chevrolet Corvette Split-Window” (Classic Driver)
From Wikipedia:
The 1963 Sting Ray production car’s lineage can be traced to two separate GM projects: the Q-Corvette, and perhaps more directly, Mitchell’s racing Sting Ray. The Q-Corvette, initiated in 1957, envisioned a smaller, more advanced Corvette as a coupe-only model, boasting a rear transaxle, independent rear suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes, with the rear brakes mounted inboard. Exterior styling was purposeful, with peaked fenders, a long nose, and a short, bobbed tail.
While Duntov was developing an innovative new chassis for the 1963 Corvette, designers were adapting and refining the basic look of the racing Sting Ray for the production model. A fully functional space buck (a wooden mock-up created to work out interior dimensions) was completed by early 1960, production coupe styling was locked up for the most part by April, and the interior, instrument panel included was in place by November. Only in the fall of 1960 did the designers turn their creative attention to a new version of the traditional Corvette convertible and, still later, its detachable hardtop. For the first time in the Corvette’s history, wind tunnel testing helped refine the final shape, as did practical matters like interior space, windshield curvatures, and tooling limitations. Both body styles were extensively evaluated as production-ready 3/8-scale models at the Caltech wind tunnel.
To see more photos and listing: https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/chevrolet/corvette/1963/724523
New Celebrity Books: “The Mighty Elvis – A Graphic Biography” By Seymour Chwast & Steven Brower
The Mighty Elvis is a commemoration of his life and times in the form of an art book, told through the unique vision of legendary designer and illustrator Seymour Chwast. Beautifully illustrated throughout, it presents an enhanced portrait of one of America’s greatest celebrities.
With text by author Steven Brower (Satchmo: The Life and Art of Louis Armstrong), The Mighty Elvis reminds us of the continuing stardom of one of the most popular American singers of all time. Through Chwast’s illustrations, cartoons and comics we get to relive his early life, his meteoric rise to fame and how he was affected by, and in turn, affected the world of music in the many genres he mastered. The book covers his first appearances on television, Graceland, his meeting with President Nixon, his wedding to Priscilla, and much more. Millions of fans loved him, purchased his records, attended his sold-out shows, and went to his 33 films. Death, 40 years ago, has not diminished his fame. “Elvis Lives!”
Restaurants: “Dear John’s” In L.A. Serves Up 1940’s Style Experience (Video)
In 1962, Johnny Harlowe made the jump from the silver screen to chef and owner of Dear John’s. Convinced by his pal Frank Sinatra, Johnny opened the iconic spot just a ways down from Sony Studios on Culver Blvd. It became the watering-hole for the Hollywood elite with Sinatra often in the corner playing the piano against the dark brick walls once lined with portraits of famous John’s. Seasoned chefs and entrepreneurs Hans Röckenwagner and Josiah Citrin have teamed up to re-open Dear John’s this April with an updated classic American menu and old-school cocktail list.
Website: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnDaAs5_3WXEY_GF3MJ6lyA
Top New Media Books: “Mag Men – Fifty Years Of Making Magazines”
Richly illustrated with the covers and interiors that defined their careers, Mag Men is bursting with vivid examples of Bernard and Glaser’s work, designed to encapsulate their distinctive approach to visual storytelling and capture the major events and trends of the past half century.
For more than fifty years, Walter Bernard and Milton Glaser have revolutionized the look of magazine journalism. In Mag Men, Bernard and Glaser recount their storied careers, offering insiders’ perspective on some of the most iconic design work of the twentieth century. The authors look back on and analyze some of their most important and compelling projects, from the creation of New York magazine to redesigns of such publications as Time, Fortune, Paris Match, and The Nation, explaining how their designs complemented a story and shaped the visual identity of a magazine.
Highlighting the importance of collaboration in magazine journalism, Bernard and Glaser detail their relationships with a variety of writers, editors, and artists, including Nora Ephron, Tom Wolfe, Gail Sheehy, David Levine, Seymour Chwast, Katherine Graham, Clay Felker, and Katrina vanden Heuvel. The book features a foreword by Gloria Steinem, who reflects on her work in magazines and her collaborations with Bernard and Glaser. At a time when uncertainty continues to cloud the future of print journalism, Mag Men offers not only a personal history from two of its most innovative figures but also a reminder and celebration of the visual impact and sense of style that only magazines can offer.
To read more and/or purchase: http://cup.columbia.edu/book/mag-men/9780231191807
Comics Books: “George Herriman’s Krazy Kat – The Complete Color Sundays 1935-1944” (Taschen)
The premise is simple: a black cat loves scheming a white mouse who incessantly throws bricks at the cat’s head, which police dog Officer Pupp, secretly harboring a passionate love for the cat, tries to prevent.
George Herriman endlessly plays with the above formula in his legendary newspaper strip Krazy Kat, published from 1913 until his death in 1944. Through his wit, detailed characterization, and visual-verbal creativity, Herriman introduced even the least comically-inclined to the young medium; Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, James Joyce, US President Woodrow Wilson, Jackson Pollock, Charlie Chaplin, Frank Capra, P.G. Wodehouse, Willem de Kooning—all KK fans among many others.
It was thanks to media tycoon William Randolph Hearst, a confirmed fan who gave Herriman carte blanche in his newspapers, that the artist was allowed to freely explore countless absurd and melancholy variations on the theme of unrequited love for years on end. Herriman unabashedly took advantage of this, radically exploring the medium’s potential and pushing all of its formal boundaries; readers had to put up with surreal, Dadaist sceneries, a language that whirled slang, neologisms, phonetic spelling, and scholarly references, and diffuse gender roles—making Krazy Kat probably the first gender-fluid star in comic history.
To read more or purchase: https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/graphic_design/all/01173/facts.george_herrimans_krazy_kat_the_complete_color_sundays_19351944.htm
Boomers Daily 