*notcot - 02.10.06 , 17:00 -

Marie Antoinette

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Only a Sophia Coppola flick could get away with the hot pink on black for Marie Antoinette - and that Age of Consent song from New Order is completely stuck in my head. But i must say i’m a bit excited about this one - in a way few trailers have sparked my interest lately. Maybe they really will pull off something different… and they had unprecendented access to Versailles, and all shooting took place in france! On a side note - not sure how i feel about kirsten dunst and jason schwartzman as our royal couple through the french revolution. [even molly shannon is in this one… but also steeve coogan, judy davis, asia argento, and many more]

*notcot - 02.07.06 , 06:47 -

Web 2.0 Logos

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Ah the logo fetish resurfaces. BoingBoing pointed out this flickr image of Web 2.0 logos, and its a nice case study in that clean refreshing look of logos that came up the last few years - playfully amusing yet overdone? still great to sit and stare at this image - click to go to the full pic.

*notcot - 01.28.06 , 08:38 -

Don’t Cuddle.

grassorb.png“Grass Orb: Don’t Cuddle”. Ha. Ok officially year of the dog at my present geographical location… and exhausted, but this amuses me. It also feels like it should have eyes, and giggle when no one is looking, and hang from your ceiling but really take over and being some kind of sci fi creature. Or that was the dream/nightmare i had when i fell asleep mid post. So check it out… as well as the other grassy spaces/objects…

*notcot - , 05:32 -

Asylum - heed weed

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Been busy trying to find the singapore design/art scene the last few days - and also all these chinese new year happenings… been clubbing and wandering and art showing and meeting some great designers that you will inevitably hear more about here soon…

This pic is from the HEED WEED collaboration show between Yok and Draawer - which occured at Chris Lee’s incredible shop/studio Asylum (checking out their website is a must - its so playfully fun in a doodly sort of style). The show was great - reminded me of much of the Giant Robot events back home… and the store has that great wallpaper i can’t get enough of… not to mention a glass deli style case for the limited edition sneakers over by the register… and one of the most worldly/eclectic music collections for sale i’ve ever seen.

*notcot - 01.16.06 , 00:42 -

GTI

gti.jpgOk, NOTCOT has taken over my brain at the moment, and between the moving/unpacking i’ve taken to taking pics of the random things around i have been meaning to share. So here’s the VW GTI fuzzy black poster i spoke of in the last post. It is so sweet, i LOVE that rabbit image, not to mention its a great shade of red with the flocked black poster… Couldn’t resist and took a few extras incase anyone else couldn’t live without one too. But you must admit - its a fun one!

*notcot - 01.04.06 , 01:15 -

Black Hoodies

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Dan Witz’s Hoodie series of street art stickers. This one is for Dayv. There’s just something so iconic about black hoodies, and at the moment i would love nothing more than to escape into the shadows in one… it has that invisibility cloak feeling, that people don’t see you and move away from you when you have that hood up. Your shield from the world.

Witz on the Hoodys “The Hoodys came from a dark period in the early nineties. Drugs, HIV, poverty/despair/danger were like a pall of doom over the lower east side (my neighborhood). The grim reaper hoody posters were inspired by plague attitudes from the middle ages and deer x-ing signs—the way the hi way dept. puts up those yellow diamond with black deer silhouettes as warning signs.”

Also… these street hummingbirds are gorgeous.

*notcot - , 00:46 -

AMKA

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Came across AMKA shop “beyond style” today, and fell in love with their prints. Their online shop displays large scale designer posters printed on tarpaulin or plastified couch paper, and are limited edition (only 200 prints each). In a la fraise style design, you can submit your images for voting on these prints, in addition to their already selected designer pieces. Additionally, there are t-shirts and polos available: take a look at the dark angel shirt.

“AMKA is a registered trade mark (in France, INPI, 2004) of Thomas Gayet who is a graphic designer (27 years old) and the founder of the company Spiritvibes (http://www.spiritvibes.com) which he established in 2001. Spiritvibes is a multimedia agency. Amkashop is a product of Spiritvibes. Amkashop is the realization of a childhood dream. We made it for several reasons but the main one is really because we love clothes and designer posters. All our products are orginal and limited editions (200 prints of each only), Amkashop is offering you clothes and posters that you can’t find elsewhere !”

*notcot - 01.01.06 , 23:34 -

TURBO wall art

jellio.pngTURBO wall art- $2,500.00… Look, they say it so well on the site, who am i to mess with perfection:: Remember Revell models? They were the plastic car kits we used to put together when we were young, with a little glue and a lot of patience. We’ve taken inspiration from those classic toys to create TURBO, a one-of-a-kind wall sculpture from Jellio Design.

Based on the sprue element the model parts were atached to, TURBO is the first in a series of limited-edition pieces designed to evoke many fond memories from childhood. We’re only making ten of these, so you know you’ll have something truly unique. It’s guaranteed to become the topic of countless hours of conversation in any home. Design: Mario Marsicano, Chris Lenox - Sculpting/casting: Kevin Champeny, Leonid Filitsyan - Manufacturer: Utleys Incorporated, New York - Materials: Aluminum-filled polyurethane resin - Finishing:
Metallic Silver - Mounting: 3 flush-mounted brackets (comes w/template) - Weight: Approx. 40 lbs - Size: 44” x 44”, 3/4 inch off the wall

*notcot - , 22:36 -

Belgian Santas

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BELGIAN SANTAs!!! Yes i admit i haven’t been so ho ho ho this season. But this just made my holiday season… my favorite holiday memory of being in belgium was these hanging santa guys! And the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles, went all out with this facade du “BOZAR”. Found this on Kezako. Ah santas. Hahaha. Sorry, i can’t get over this one. This goes out to Pierre.

*notcot - 12.31.05 , 13:47 -

Red Dot - Joey Roth

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HAPPY NEW YEAR almost. And thank goodness for an end to 2005… and i welcome 2006 with open arms and a dash of skepticism. But all in all, Notcot has been one of the best things to happen this year, and here’s one of those tasty best for last of the year posts…

Designer Joey Roth (remember his Garden Geta and Shika posts back in the day?) - has done it again with his Totemo, winning the a Red Dot Award in Productivity this year. The Totemo is described as Strip down to cool. The growing importance of silence in computing mirrors a large-scale shift in the way people think about the products they use. The Totemo is designed with recording studios in mind, but is a computer case equally suited for the home or office environment. The omission of LED’s, molded plastic and cooling fans firmly differentiate Totemo from the many computers of today. Its concentration is based on the concept of stripping down the computer case to its bare essentials.

Modest designer that he is, Joey Roth wrote a feature article for Notcot, but just happen to leave out a description of his own project! So take a look at the Totemo on his site, and then read more about his favorite projects and stories from the Red Dot Awards which took place in Singapore recently.

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*ShadeElaine - 12.20.05 , 18:20 -

Olympic Friendlies

beijing_olympic_mascots.gif Mascots for sporting events have always struck me as a little weird. In the U.S., they’re usually aggressive, in your face, and “extreme.” I’ve noticed that mascots for international sporting events are more welcoming and friendly, and sometimes a little abstract. The ones for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games take it to another level. They’re cute and cuddly! I’m not sure how I feel about them being so darn cute, but I am totally loving the mascot for Shooting.

*notcot - 12.16.05 , 22:28 -

Art Therapy

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“BREAKING UP SUCKS AND PEOPLE SUCK AND LIFE SUCKS” — We’ve all been there… and if you haven’t, well, kudos to you, you’re either extremely lucky, or perhaps it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all… but you wouldn’t know.

I’m speechless at these new pieces by Shade Elaine, and when i tried to ask her in that cliche “what would you say about these pieces?”… she gave me “they’re about the opposite extremes in life… finding the good in the bad, the ugly in the beautiful, and the happiness in the pain?” They are brutally honest, and gorgeously delicate. I might need to buy one for my wall, or beg you guys to help me convince her to make tshirts/posters or just to keep making more like them…

*notcot - , 21:09 -

Metz

metz.pngOk last one, but i needed to share this last quote from one of the articles i was reading about Ban…

Which brings us back to Ban’s own monument. The new Pompidou Centre in Metz will not be made of paper. Instead it is based on a Chinese hat made from bamboo strips and oiled paper, that he bought in a Paris market six years ago. “I thought it was very architectonic,” he explains. Scaled up, the hat design will form a giant roof woven out of laminated wood and covered in translucent Teflon. The gallery spaces underneath will be enclosed, but the building is essentially a luminous tent separated from the outside only by glass. “I wanted to make a building that’s totally open,” he says, “to make this a gathering place for all the public, not just people who love art. Also, this location, Metz, is very close to Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, it’s almost in the middle of Europe, so it was very important to be open to other countries. That’s why instead of having an object like a box, I designed just a roof.”

Ah, inspiration is truly everywhere. I love reminders like these not to listen to the people who think you are crazy when a simple idea recontextualized can come up with such innovation.

*notcot - , 20:47 -

Shigeru Ban

shigeru.jpgContinuing the story from below, this is the mind blowing studio of architect Shigeru Ban (who designed the Nomadic Museum as well)… this studio is on the TOP of the Pompidou. [ref]

Ok once you have gotten over fantasizing about having that studio… Ban is an architect who’s taken design to so many new levels, and while his style and modernist looks are impressive, i can not get over his incredible use of cardboard — especially his use of it in creating shelters for victims of natural disasters and others in need… His paper log houses have been shipped around the world… paper emergeny tents… even paper churches.

It started 20 years ago when he was designing an exhibition of the work of his hero, Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. “I couldn’t afford to use wood like Aalto would,” he explains, “so I looked for some alternative, and paper tubes were all over the studio. When you finish a roll of tracing paper or fax paper, there are always paper tubes left over. They were so strong and so nice, so I kept them. Then I went to the factory where they made them, and I saw they could make any length and any diameter.”

His innovation takes leaps and bounds beyond his use of materials… when the UN lost momentum with his cheap temporary housing, he founded the Voluntary Architects Network, which is helping to build temporary houses in various international disaster zones from Turkey to Sri Lanka.

*notcot - 12.13.05 , 20:03 -

Nomadic Museum

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Ok, so i’ve been a bit quiet because chaos has come (and not quite gone) and in the midst of it i drove up to SF on monday, and worked my way back down slowly then quickly Thurs (back in SD now)… BUT of more interest to you, is what i saw on the way up and down at the parking lot on the beach next to Santa Monica Pier… cranes stacking shipping containers strangely on the way up. Odd enough i figured. On the way back down they had become giant barn like structures… Apparently the Nomadic Museum is coming and will be exhibiting the more than 100 incredible large-scale photographic works and an accompanying 35mm film by artist Gregory Colbert’s Ashes & Snow exhibit of animal/human juxtapositions you need to see. This was originally exposed in Venice 2002, and again in New York earlier this year. SM Mirror Article [note: the pic is an old one of the NY installation… SM one isn’t quite ready yet]

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