Great exhibition
Takashi Murakami – Andy Warhol 2.0
I just got back from an evening at the Brooklyn Museum where I was invited to preview their latest exhibit by one of my two favorite living artists modern artists Takashi Murakami.
For those who may not know his work a quick background. Murakami gained an international reputation for merging fine art with popular Japanese anime films and manga cartoons to create his theory called Superflat. The theory and his art explore art as contrast between hi and low art, east and west, cute and dark themes. It creates a fantastical universe of creatures like Mr. DOB, a Mickey Mouse-type character, and Mr. Pointy, another cartoonlike creature, inhabit this space alongside smiley-faced flowers and colorful mushrooms. All of it explores how mass-produced entertainment and consumerism are part of art. That concept reached it’s peak for him in 2002 when he teamed up with the fashion house Louis Vuitton and it’s creative director Marc Jacobs to reinvent the classic LV monogram and create a whole new visual language for the brand that came to life in brightly colored versions of the classic Vuitton handbags.
Murakami has been called the Japanese Andy Warhol because he creates everything from very large one of a kind painting to sculpture to small run lithographs that are produced through his studio in Queens. The studio in Queens is only interesting because Murakami is based out of Japan and every morning receives digital hi-res photos of every piece of work large and small for his review, comments and changes.
So if you are going to be in New York City any time soon be sure and swing by MOMA to see Design and the Elastic Mind and then head over to Brooklyn to check out Murakami because this is the shows second and final stop in the states. For those of you who aren’t going to be able to make it you can check out videos of the exhibit from it’s last stop in L.A. here though new pieces have been added for the NYC show.
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CHANEL Mobil Art Container
Since I work everyday with brands that cater to creative guests I find it interesting to see how other brands approach this group of consumers. The luxury fashion brand CHANEL has created one of the most unique and best solutions I have seen in quite a while with their new Mobil Art Container.
It was commissioned by CHANEL’s visionary lead designer Karl Lagerfeld’s from architect Zaha Hadid and houses the work of twenty cutting-edge artists who’s creations are based on the CHANEL’s catalogue of iconic handbags. The structure that Hadid designed to house all the art is a mobile and collapsible exhibition pod that is a series of continuous arch-shaped elements with a courtyard in the center.
The container is currently in Hong Kong and will make it’s only U.S. appearance here in New York City in September for fashion week.
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Design and the Elastic Mind
If you are going to be here in New York City anytime between now and Mid May you should plan to check out the new exhibition at MOMA called Design and the Elastic Mind. The show is a survey of the latest developments in the design field focusing on designers’ ability to grasp momentous changes in technology, science, and social mores. These are changes that will demand or reflect major adjustments in human behavior and convert them into objects and systems that people understand and use.
In addition to the show the site promoting this work is also a real standout with a unique interface design that doesn’t compromise usability for cool factor. It was great to be able to experience something that celebrates design and uses it so well at every turn.
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Helvetica the Movie
So I have been using some of my holiday free time to make my way through my Netflix backlog nd finally got my hands on a copy of Helvetica. For those of you who don’t know it’s a documentary film by Gary Hustwit that takes the main title type faces as uses it to look at typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. I really recommend that any designer take the time to watch this because it is an interesting study of the current state of global design as well as talking to a lot of the key type and graphic designers. It will probably bore the wife or girlfriend to tears but if you can get you can get a copy it’s really worth watching.
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Layer Tennis
Coudal Partners is a design, advertising and interactive studio out Chicago who will broadcast the first live game of Photoshop Tennis today. It is a technique I have used with my designers for years and it is where two designers (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post that to the site. This allows the group and the work to quick explore new directions and not get stuck in the vision of just one person. This match is being called ‘Layer Tennis’ since they will be using multiple applications like Photoshop and Flash. It will be interesting to see if how this turns out and the differences between the matches as they have them planned every Friday afternoon for the rest of the year. Todays match will be between Shaun Inman who is the designer and programmer behind Mint and Kevin Cornell who is a freelance illustrator and designer.
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Brad Bird & Ratatouille are brilliant
I, like most of America, just don’t go to the movies much anymore and when I do I only enjoy kids movies. It comes as no surprise that the best of those movies have been from PIXAR. When they joined forces with Brad Bird who is my favorite animation director I was beyond excited. The Incredibles is one of my favorite movies of all time and with my love of cooking I couldn’t wait to see Ratatouille. For me it absolutely delivered the goods and once again proves that Brad Bird is just working on another level from every other American animation director today. It is a much more mature work than any other PIXAR film and unfortunately I think it isn’t going to be a huge commercial success because kids will like the look of the characters but are going to have a hard time connecting with the material. It is also interesting to point out that this is the first PIXAR movie to make place in a real location and does a wonderful job of portraying the romance and personality of Paris. I will not spoil any of the film but if you go see the film pay special attention to Ego’s review near the end of the movie because I think it is a wonderfully written and thought provoking statement on the creative process and what we do.
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Wet Paint Please Touch
So the Wiki, which lets users create written content that can be shared and edited by multiple people, has been around for a while now but I saw a site today that put a really interesting twist on the concept called Wet Paint Please Touch. Like any Wiki the site lets you browse, contribute and create to the content on the site but in this case the content is not written but visual.
Would-be virtual artists start with a blank canvas and have a variety of tools and colors to create their mural. Once their masterpiece is complete the canvas can be forwarded to friends so that they can contribute their own creative vision to the piece. Once all of that is finished the painting is exhibited in the online gallery where visitors can explore and rate the work. Not forgetting the social media aspects you can also downloaded your work to post on you MySpace pages, Facebook profiles or get your own domain like http://bobsmith.wetpaint.com. So the simple interface and social group art concept make it one of the more unique and interesting sites I have seen in a long time.
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WSJ Creative Leader Challenge 2007
A friend sent me a link today to a really interesting site from The Wall Street Journal called The Creative Leadership Series. The campaign is not new since it has been going on 15 years highlighting over 100 of the world’s best advertising creatives. I love this campaign as it is one of the only high profile platforms that the creative who work behind the scenes get to take a bow in a non-industry forum. I personally agree with a lot of the selection but I also think that based on meeting and working with some of them that they are mediocre creatives with good PR agents.
The Wall Street Hournal is now re-lauching the campaign and they are opening up the process to the public to choose the new creative that will be featured in the new campaign. All you have to do to enter is interview the person you want to enter, add your comments, upload their photo and you are done. All entries must be in by midnight June 23rd so hurry up and enter!
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Microsoft Surface at Sheraton New York
It was great to see and meet everyone who made it to the Microsoft Surface live demo at the Sheraton New York in Times Square. Microsoft brought 3 Surface demo machines loaded with all the software applications they have demo’d so was packed from open to close. My compliments and thanks to Microsoft and the Sheraton New York for a great event.
I am writing a full review of the technology that I will post in a few days.
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The Border Film Project
I came across an interesting site today called the Border Film Project which is trying to shed light one of our country’s most heated issues – immigration. The project is run by three people including Weiden + Kennedy Rudy Adler who are trying to convey perspectives from both sides of the literal fence by handing out 73 disposable cameras to undocumented migrants and the Minutemen guards trying to prevent them from crossing our borders.
The project recently finished and the nearly 2,000 photos have been posted to the site with statistics, and other information. The project also comes in book form and that is being sold in several places including Amazon.com and American Apparel worldwide. The artists have also been taking the show on the road with exhibitions around the country.
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