designer spotlight: mariana tocornal

Mariana Tocornal is a Chilean designer who started in graphic design but has since moved to experiemental product design. "The designer's idea is to confront people with the challenge of finding a way to relate to an object of recognizable form but untypical material, in order to make them reflect on it," according to Treehugger.com.

[Beecups]

According to the designer "Beecups have been interpreted as decorative objects, flower vases, candle holders or as containers for jewelry, dice, seeds, sand, sugar, and even warm tea. Some less conventional uses range from determining the position of the sun, to more aggressive drives such as fulfilling the need to bite them, melt them or cut them in slices. There is no correct use for these objects, they are meant to be ambiguous so that each person can claim though physical or conceptual customization."

[left: 100 plasticina; right:Pluck Bowl]

The designer has other playful, confusing designs including bowls made out of play dough that never dries, allowing the owner to choose to leave the shape as is or mold it, called 100% plasticina. Pluck Bowls, also shown above, are a study on "functionality, materiality and memory, according to Tocornal."

Designer's website and first photocredit. Originally found on Treehugger, photocredit for other images.

green patriots posters

According to the editors, "the inspiration came first from WPA (Works Progress Administration) and World War II posters. During the war the United States was able to mobilize industry and its citizens with breathtaking speed. Factories were overhauled and consumption habits were transformed. Conservation (in the form of rationing) became a patriotic act. Strong, graphically compelling posters played a crucial role in the success of this campaign. In these posters, taking action was presented as vital for the good of the nation, and those who were willing to sacrifice were portrayed as dynamic American heroes. This is just what we need today." The images immediately struck me as Americana, so of course I fell in love.

I love the images created for this book, though strongly disagree with statements that seem to have no backing in reality, such as "Younger people, who are the real stakeholders given that they will inherit an environment on the verge of collapse, are weirdly apathetic, hedonistic, and cynical. Less affluent people, who are the most likely to feel the impacts of climate change—crashing economies and starvation—can’t find enough head-space for these concerns in a world overcrowded with anxieties."

It seems the authors believe this to be true because that's what they feel they've experienced, but there is little to actually show that either young people are apathetic or that those most impacted don't understand what they are faced with.

There is, however, a need for us to redefine both the struggle and threat of climate change, and to offer positive imagery for our future and appreciate that the editors "generally sought posters that convey urgency and/or optimism (in a word: strength.)"




Originally found at ReNest. Information and images at Artbook.com.

sic semper tyrannis

50 and 50 is a collective, curated projected that invited fifty designers from different states to illustrate their state's motto. A new piece is posted weekly. Below are my two home states- North Carolina, where I was born and returned to in middle school and Virginia, where I grew up and now currently reside.

[accurate for the good ol' boys currently running the state]

[reminds me of IKEA instructions, but I never knew the motto before and like it]

links: 50 and 50
Virginia Designer/ on twitter
North Carolina Designer

before i die, i want to

Finding time to blog is difficult for me right now. I'm working around the clock lately for an amazing upcoming conference and haven't even kept up much with some of my favorite blogs. But these images from HonestlyWTF jumped out at me and I wanted to pass them on.

[the corner of Marigny and Burgundy]

Public installation artist and urban planner Candy Chang took an abandoned home in New Orleans and created a design intervention that created a conversation in the community. Her goal was to make a space where "residents can fill in the blank and remember what is important to them in life. It’s also about turning a neglected space into a constructive one where we can learn the hopes and aspirations of the people around us."

[What would you write?]

[This could have been mine. or I would write "I will create a Power Shift."]

Originally found on HonestlyWTF. More from FresHome. Artist information at Candy Chang.

fashion week debrief

[Spring/ Summer 2011 trends, worn all together]

From Wallpaper*

"Artist Erwin Wurm tasked his architect Gregor Eichinger to model the season's big trends for Wallpaper*. It seems that things are looking a little, well, layered for Spring/Summer 2011."

Click on the image or here to see what designer created each piece on the model. I wish they had also identified the 'trend' the piece represents since it's hard to get much of a view of each item.

dewdrop tents

I love when I stumble great design that has a social change objective. The drop shaped tents above are not only visually interesting but are a design intervention developed for the Road Alert Group, an activist group that protested the clearcutting of forests by living in the trees to prevent them from being cut down. The designer, Dré Wapenaar, developed the tent in 1998 to assist the protesters by providing a comfortable place for them to stay during their habitation of the forest. I'll skip the treatise on effective protest and just discuss the designwork. The photo above shows their current use at a campsite.

[I really appreciate when designers show their process work.]

The unique shape of the tents is eye-catching and appropriate. As Fleke Konljn wrote for an exhibition, "The Tree Tents, of which three have been made to date, were inspired by the Road Alert Group in England. These activists chained themselves to trees which were due to be cut down in the hope of saving them. Wapenaar set himself the notional commission of designing a tent which would make their vigil among the branches more agreeable. He designed the tent in the form of a water drop... What a fine picture it would make: tents hanging among the leaves and branches like green tears, a sign of mourning."

Of course, that is a highly romanticized view of the reality of both protest and the design of the tents themselves. According to Wapenaar, “the form of these tents naturally developed itself, when I hung a circular platform with a rope on the side of a tree. My inspiration for the shape was not the dewdrop. Form followed function.”

In the end, I love that the shape of the tent was wholly derived from the function that prompted Wapenaar to design a living space.

Originally found on ReNest and Inhabitat. Images and quotes from Dre Wapenaar.

homemade IS best

Images from IKEA's new cookbook Hambakat är Bäst (Homemade is Best,) styled by Evelina Bratell and photographed by Carl Kleiner. The amount of each ingrediant was carefully measured out and arranged in a sleekly graphic but fun way, much like IKEA's furniture. (Disclaimer: I love IKEA. And did a senior project on them.)

Sadly, while free, the cookbook is only available in the kitchen section of IKEA stores.
In Sweden.

Originally found on Snoop, then spotted all over the blogosphere.

quick pic: staircase

[Stairs with reclaimed frames, by Stuart Haygarth]

Found on Re-Nest.

When I went to design school, this is the type of work I hoped to create. While my life has made some turns, someday, in some way, I'd like to have tangible spaces like this to point to as my life's work.

Achievement First Endeavor Middle School, a charter school in Clinton Hill
by Paula Scher and Pentagram design team

Time Out New York's 50 most stylish New Yorkers.

Below are some of my favorites, though the accessories shots are perhaps the coolest.
There are 4-20 shots of each person, so click through.

[Cara Clinton, 28, head buyer of Beacon's Closet and accessories designer]


[Cats McDaid-Kelly, 25, MFA student at Parsons The New School for Design]


Holy self-made chain, Batman!
[Christian Joy, 36, costume/fashion designer]

Why do so many of the amazing women have names that start with C? And I must say, I love "Cats" with an s. Something to think about? Perhaps not.


[Kelly Framel, 26, stylist, jewelry designer and fashion blogger]
Disclaimer: I have long loved her blog theglamourai.com


[Jeralyn Gerba, 28, DailyCandy editor]


Sequins were all over Copenhagen and I regret not buying anything with sequins when I was there (I actually bought NO clothes other my awesome- and needed- woolen mittens!)
[Mary “Mz. Skittlez” Seats, 22, rapper-singer, fashion guru, student and stylist]


[Jessica Delfino, 27, twisted minstrel and subversive art lady]


[Golden Triangle]
[Alix Brown, Carly Rabalias, Vashti Windish]

I love a dandy.
[Bill Webb, 67, retired Wall Streeter]


Just for fun.
[Cheryl, Disco Shamans]

More here.

RIP McQueen

Finale look from the presentation of Lee Alexander McQueen's last collection.

sublet clothing

Two years ago I fell in love with a dress. I was in college and definitely could not afford the dress. Over the years, it's popped back into my life thanks to being featured on various blogs and fashion websites. I still want this dress badly, despite being totally unsure where I would wear it. I still check in on my dress sometimes, but I know I'll never own it because despite the sales, it is still way more than I can afford. So I will share it with you!

This company has gorgeous photography.

Love it in khaki!

Sublet Clothing is an amazing company owned by two friends who many ecologically conscious clothing. The dress I love, the Alison dress, is made from organic cotton, bamboo and a bit of spandex. Eco-fabric has layers of complications, but I support companies that I believe are truly trying to push fashion in the right direction.

In stalking them, I found a similiarly styled dress that I may actually love even more. It's on sale here and comes in a stunning blue. I always want to do the design/professor thing and dress in all neutrals but with colors like this how can I!

The draping on both dresses and the black detail at the waist just is so romantic to me. It's sexy and yet casual. I would want to throw this dress on all the time, but instead would keep it in my closet for some special occasion because after all this time I wouldn't want to mess it up!