Level Vodka invited Hussein Chalayan to design The Level Tunnel... and it is now here! With a blog that even chronicles everything from the design and renders - to the building of - and the launch! Also incredible are the specially design blindfold/goggles for the experience, and the gorgeous press release complete with Bach in sheet music form!

"It all started back in 2006. Level Vodka invited star designer Hussein Chalayan to create a pioneering work of art with a focus on taste. He was given completely free rein. The result was The Level Tunnel - a 15 meter long, 5 meter high, traveling installation that captures the essence of Level Vodka. After a mind-blowing journey, the project is now nearing the finish line. The 6th of May 2008, the tunnel will have its world premiere in Mexico City. " See images of the process, press kit, and final product on the next page!

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Tags: architecture - drink - events - travel

Ok, so you've now seen the pictures and heard Justine's adventures at the Banksy Cans Festival this week... and for those unable to be there - to stand in line to pay 3 pounds for an awesome official Cans Festival Program/Zine... she took the time to scan in each and every page for our viewing pleasure! (Thanks, Jus, you're the best sister to vicariously live through!) So check it all out on the next page, click each page to view it high res and read the manifestos and gawk at the gorgeous stenciling.

p.s. don't forget to take the Consumer Survey in there...

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Tags: events - magazines - print - stencils - streetart

NOTCOT Note: Yes, Justine (aka RUGenius) was really there. And i'm envious. Although i did get to go to the incredible painted elephant LA Banksy-fest... this one looked like quite the mob scene in a london tunnel! About 30,000 people showed up over the 3 day period, and over 600 artist took part in covering the walls! Apologies for taking so long to sort through her hundreds of photos... SO, without further ado take a look at her MANY awesome pictures on the next page as well as in the Gallery, and here is Justine's account of the festivities:

Over 28 thousand people turned up to Leake Street, effectively an underpass within sight of the London Eye and moments away from Waterloo. And yes, I was among them. We all know I can't resist a good stencil. So how could I possibly miss a stencil only event, just a train hop away? Not to mention, the Cans Festival was the kind of event that brought in the A-list of street artists like Bsas Stencil, Run Don't Walk, James Dodd (dlux), Tom Civil (civilian), Vexta, Prism, Daniel Melim, Altocontraste, Bandit, Roadsworth, 3D Del Naja, Artiste-Ouvrier. Blek, Sten, Sadhu, C215, Lucamaleonte, Lex, Orticancvoodles, Kaagman, Dolk, Pobel, M-City, Vhils, Btoy, Coolture, Schhh, Borbo, Sam3, Faile, Eine, John Grider, Logan Hicks, Pure Evil, Dot masters, Dan, Eelus and Banksy.

Starting with the art... The space within the tunnel was itself a hodgepodge of mock classical sculptures, trashed and stenciled cars, vans, even a playground. There were rugs, couches, and even a piano, all of course adorned with the patina only a tunnel could bestow. The combinations pushed the boundaries of the bizarre and the contrasting styles of the artists clashed as often as they complimented, yet somehow it all worked. It was as if everyone just suspended belief for a moment to soak it all in and it was particularly surreal as the sun was setting.

So, are you ready? See my highlights from the Cans Festival on the next page... and even MORE in the Gallery (there were so many, i couldn't fit them all here).

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Tags: events - graffiti - stencils - streetart - travel

How very surreal tonight has been. After much hmmming and hawwwwing... i ended up at one of those LA massive clubs (Vanguard)... and it didn't really LOOK like clubbing in LA... it was a super techy/web 2.0 crowd having their incestuous circles and drama... supposedly for networking/matchmaking of every sort... yet you could barely talk to someone without screaming... it was cool to run into lots of random people and hide out at a dive bar after... there were some screens set up for sponsors to show off their companies... but they were impossible to get near and then understand what was going on... but that's ok, because there was massive twittering of who was where and waving to who and doing what constantly... and Perry Ferrell (of Jane's Addiction fame) was djing (see flickr VIDEO here)... and i get home and my mind/body is so confused... it was a night out in hollywood, yet it doesn't at ALL feel like a night out in hollywood. This was the scene that was the TechCrunch + PopSugar "cocktail party"...

So much tech. But i did get a few fun crazy colored pictures of the bizarre scene from the upstairs window by the room where engage was matchmaking... no, seriously. Stickers read - single, taken, matchmaker... and people were actually meeting potentials! Ok so super techy sidetrack over ~ ready to go back to more designy themed events! Few more pics after the jump!

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Tags: events - popsugar - techcrunch

Regardless of whether you did or did not attend TED this year, the TED BIG VIZ pdf book is a MUST download for anyone visually oriented looking for a burst of inspiration. What is it?

The BIGVIZ is an exploration in visualizing the Big Ideas presented on the TED mainstage. Two visual cartographers, David Sibbet and Kevin Richards, created over 700 spontaneous sketches of the presenters' ideas using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro software running on Wacom Cintiq tablets and rendered on a Perceptive Pixel multi-touch display. These tools illustrate the power of interactive visualization to present the big picture to foster insight and communicate ideas visually, central principles of design innovation.

I just went through all 200 pages (i even picked out a few of my favorites for you after the jump)... and its incredible, to see their sketches of the "big ideas" and things that grabbed their attention throughout the talks... seriously, the 700 "spontaneous sketches" are breathtaking. When you have a sec, the BIGVIZ movie is pretty sweet as well. Discovered this through the wonderful Information Aesthetics!

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Tags: art - books - events - sketching - TED - video

Polite In Public. The standard for photobooth/party photography has just been raised dramatically. Imagine this ~ you show up at a party, and in one section you see a crazy well lit open closet of sorts with people lined up... as you get closer you see that the "closet" is lined with white fur and has gold port holes in it, as well as a rack of clothes... and people are trying them on and striking poses within it! That was the scene at the Dussault party i went to back in November 07, and combined with having half of melrose closed off and covered in astroturf, with fake "snow" fluttering down on us, a wooden hottub and girls in leaderhosen dancing about, i didn't think twice about this set up at first. Until i got home and noticed the "Polite In Public" sticker in my purse with a url on it. That "closet" was apparently the new generation of photobooths, and the images were unlike any i'd seen. Flash forward a few months, and when my friend's pics from the Obama Rally for Super Tuesday had some more great Polite In Public shots, i had to take note.

Well, playing with ideas for perhaps the next blogfest or maybe a NOTCOT party, i finally gave them an email, and was surprised to find that Polite In Public is the brainchild of Joe Rubenstein and Joe Miller, two SCAD graduates. Joe R, 31, is a painting and film double major, and Joe M, 29, is a Graphic Design major and Computer Artist... and with backgrounds in lighting/cinematography and photography, it's no surprise that after trying out their photobooth concept at their own myspace publicized house party (early 2007), the idea spread fast throughout LA and before they knew it they were flying around the country going on tour and doing jobs for PlayBoy, Verizon, Svedka, Dussault, Mercedes, Burton Snowboards, The Obama Campaign, Universal Home Entertainment, 944 Magazine, and GenArt among others.... More info about how these are set up, and pictures behind the scenes after the jump!

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Tags: events - photography

NOTCOT Note: Where would i be without incredible readers like Gillian Benjamin, who emailed in an incredible post submission covering the Capetown Design Indaba that ran from Saturday 23 February to Friday 29 February? (I am extremely impressed, she even created all these beautiful images to go with the post without any prompting!) Read on to see what design finds she discovered...

Last week Cape Town was brimming with creative energy as the 5th annual Design Indaba Expo took place. Featuring everything from industrial design to quirky ceramic pieces and reinterpreted African curio kitsch, the Expo showcased the best homegrown talent to both local and international audiences. Each year the event seems to grow a little bigger - a sure sign of South Africa's blossoming creative talent. Following global trends, the focus on craft and the hand-made was definitely visible.

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Tags: art - events - travel

Freshly back from the IDS08 Opening Night Gala ~ and although i'm totally passing out, just wanted to give you guys a peek at some of the pics... there were singers, quartets, acrobats, women dressed up in crazy flowered dresses, the incredible Vertical Limit Veuve Clicquot/Porsche Design collab (1 of 15!), Dysons, Audis... and so much more... anyhow, see after the jump for a quick look!

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Tags: events - travel

On Thursday night i stopped by FORDBRADY's cocktail party for Dwell Magazine, "Los Angeles meet Dwell" where they announced the Dwell on Design Los Angeles Conference and Exhibition event in Los Angeles as well as launch the new look, "environmentally friendlier" Dwell magazine. On June 5th and 6th, it looks like Dwell is looking to start some friendly competition with CA Boom.

What was truly fascinating about the event was the incredible space that FORDBRADY occupies. Their downtown showroom (and home to Willard Ford, his fashion designer wife, Michelle Yu, and teenage son) is set in the historical Chinatown Kim Sing Theatre ~ which was built in 1926 as a vaudeville house, and served as a cinema from the 40's until '86 when it was abandoned... only over years of work, and with the help of Xten Architecture, they've turned it into an incredible loft/gallery space, with a gorgeous courtyard... really an unexpected modern oasis in Chinatown once you step under the original marquee and through the brilliantly orange entry tunnel. Check out their Interior Design Magazine feature for more details and images.

After the jump see many pictures of the incredible space as i viewed it at the party!

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Tags: dwell - events - fordbrady - furniture - party - theatre

Good news, everyone! The Smart House has extended its stay in Venice beach till the end of February! (previously it was gone end of Jan). Now, i've told you about the Smart House before, as well as the Smart Balls (new ones after the jump!), but with every event the space looks so different, i had to share more images of it with you from tonight's +Beryll event where i met Sigmar Berg who is not only the founder of this 10 year old line of sunglasses, jewelry, and vintage belt, but also an artist/designer/architect who created all of the photo-canvases covering the walls of the Smart House this evening! All three floors of this loft space were open - ground floor to explore the car, second floor to dine and dance, third floor had the dj and second balcony (with smart car on it!)... models wandered and danced around in black t-shirts bearing the Beryll '+' and dark beryll shades, vintage belts, and the necklaces and jewelry... i also noticed more design details i loved about the Smart House this time, like this "open your mind" wall... So browse and experience the space through pictures after the jump!

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Tags: cars - events

On unexpected discoveries at CES ~ i first got pulled right into Winplus' Yada's booth from its crazy giant white painted frames filling a wall... each filled with what turned out to be bluetooth headsets and holders! And their space was a bright glowingly white that draws you right into it, with playful lights hanging from a grid above... and an adorable Yada Mini Cooper in there as well. Naturally it was making it onto my favorite booth list, but what i didn't expect was to be completely intrigued with their affordable, nicely thought out design bluetooth headsets and accessories. The Yada YD-V1 ultra lightweight headset, universal phone holder, multiple car mounting options, car charger and home charger is only a mere $46 at amazon. Affordable and adorable, the thing i liked most was how compact their products were... and i kind of want the cupcake looking car adapter for my cup holder. Also look how sleek the car charger is? Why waste more space then necessary with cables? Same with their USB solution. Nice simple speakerphones as well. Anyhow, take a look at pics i took of the booth and products at CES... as for sound quality, i have no idea... but i'm curious enough at that price, to impulse buy one from amazon to find out.

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Tags: bluetooth - cars - CES - events - phone - technology

Wow. So for those of you, who like me stayed at home and watched the macworld keynote and madness unfold across the internet through the eyes and ears of the crazy kids at Gizmodo and Engadget with their live blogging of the keynote, etc... here's a peek at what its like to REALLY be there ~ not as press, just as regular people trying to partake in the mac madness. So dan actually decided to go to the keynote this year (for "fun"), went and spent ages in line yesterday to get his pass, and then got in line at 6:30am this morning (and as you know from our sites, we aren't morning people, unless it's because i'm not sleeping till 6am) in the 40 degree weather... and didn't even make it into the keynote. But that aside, the madness continued as all those turned away tried to make a mad rush for food and warmth after only found themselves in MORE freezing lines, like a half hour just to get into Mel's diner (which is most certainly not really worth waiting in line for at any other given time)... Seems like apple needs to take care of its fans a bit more? Get a bigger venue? Be more realistic earlier on about who will get in? So although he didn't get any pics while in the freeeeeezing cold this morning, he did just send over a few quick pics of the rush and sea of mac fanboys running around... let's just say i'm glad to be home right now, and if he ever tries to do this again, and you guys want us to cover it, maybe i'll apply for a press pass? More pictures of the sea of humanity after the jump!

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Tags: events - mac - technology

At CES the sun sets at Belkin. It was the most natural, inviting, "home" to hang out in... with a grassy courtyard in the center where the band played live music with the sun setting behind them... bedrooms, offices, kitchens, living rooms to the sides... even a perfectly darkly lit gamer den off to one corner... mannequins out for a jog out front... the VW parked out back. With lush green grasstroturf in the center space they nicely insulated from the chaos of CES, and hardwood floors with clean black furniture in the others... i felt more like i fell into a pre-fab house out of Dwell. Honestly you could momentarily forget that you were at an industry only electronics convention... they have really transformed themselves the last few years, and i am thrilled to hear that their design process for products and even the booth put Users First! They work with focus groups and run in home usability studies to find out what people really NEED in their lives, and only THEN do they bring together the designs and technology to fit ~ and it really shows, since they have managed to really put the "lifestyle" aspect into their products. Even the careful detail on the designs of products show, from the buttons, to the fonts and glows, the color choices and materials used... (remember the rockstar and conserve surge protector?)... and when it came to the booth ~ we see more of the silhouetted furnishings motif (like at HP) and i love the touches like both REAL black goldfishes in bowls as well as subtle vinyl stickered goldfish bowls at the top of the stairs where few may even notice such a minute detail.

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Tags: CES - events - technology

Nokia goes green this CES with their Nokia 3110 Evolve, and to show it off they gave it a special corner of their large booth space. The most eyecatching things there? The Toyota Hybrid COVERED in green vinyl sticker trees (YES, i am so dreaming up things to do to my car) ~ the beautifully simple compressed wood layered displays ~ the bold typographic 60% recycled packaging. If there was one common trend between my favorite design centric booth displays this year it would definitely be silhouettes in vinyl...

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Tags: CES - events - phone - technology

I must say that i was proud to have our sites sponsored by HP when i walked into this booth... it was like a designers wet dream. I was just floored by the intense amount of design classics everywhere, and didn't expect to find a booth covered in silhouettes of design classics ~ as well as many beautiful design pieces in their settings as well. Can you name/spot all the pieces? I have LOTS of pictures for you below, and it does feel like they might have gone nuts with a DWR catalog. And even down to the tiniest details ~ they have a normann copenhagen WOOFY on a shelf ~ looks like a nava notebook and automoblox on a desk even! And now they have me pondering whether to start printing out silhouettes of life size design classics (like lamps and chairs) with my vinyl cutter! Even the artimide tolomeo mega classic floor lamp is there. My absolute favorite i'm tempted to replicate is their Vitra Algue wall... i never could justify spending enough to make a proper wall hanging of those, but with the push of a button the vinyl silhouette version would be sooooo easy. I think there is even a french bulldog on one of the walls.... and the mix of woodgrain and the various hues of blue for the faux walls in their walls mixed with the crisp black and white of the products.... *swoon* Look at the pics below, let me know what else you spot!

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Tags: CES - events - technology

One of the first booths i encountered that i actually loved wandering around in was the one for Eton ~ which is re_inventing radio, but more to come on those later! I started from their darker Porsche design collaboration space (i've always been a sucker for those Porsche design radio), and working into their strangely spacious feeling (not an easy task at such a large trade show) main space that used many illuminated white geometric forms for both displays as well as overhead ambiance and projection spaces. the result was a multifaceted cloud like environment. Their main bar showed all their latest products in a range of colors, and surrounded by playful orange stools were very inviting and their colorful, rugged radios displayed on nicely layered pieces of plexi with info on the various models, as well as simple layers of shapes and colors on the main surface. Apparently Eton is Palo Alto based, which was a pleasant surprised ~ seeing as their booth looked far more european and heavily design influenced than the majority of silicon valley companies represented at CES! I also found out from their VP, John Smith, that the booth was the brain child of Jesse Kearney. Take a quick tour of the booth in pictures after the jump!

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Tags: CES - events - technology

This is not your usual list of Top 10 CES picks ~ here are 10 products that are actually relatively attainable (either out now, or soon, and aren't concepts), that made my wishlist far too quickly - and don't fall under the cliche mobile, tv, pc launches you've probably been reading about and seeing everywhere.

Freshly back from CES, and i can barely feel my feet. As can be expected - it was one insane 36 hour vegas trip filled with more gadgetry than you can imagine, taxi lines longer than those at amusement parks, bright lights, tacky hotel rooms, the drone of slot machines pinging away, camera crews/bloggers/businessmen everywhere, booth babes galore, 150" tvs, robots, giant dancing/singing frogs with waterfall projections at the wynn, etc... But before i get into all of that, i need some sleep! ~ So, see below for the full list, and rest assured i'll have some up close and personal pics/posts to show you some design details of these products and more probably in the next few days!

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Tags: CES - events - gifts - roundup - shopping - technology

It's that time of year again. What other way to kick off a new year than the annual CES Vegas madness? I'm sure you feel the buzz of all the tech launches every 5 seconds burning up your RSS readers... Well i'm off at the crack of dawn for two days to wander through the mayhem, and this year dan is coming along as well! Seeing as you have all the tech sites live blogging the latest announcements, just like last year, i'll be showing you what is actually worthwhile in person, who has the most innovative and well designed booths and displays (the big companies don't hold back for this one, and last year Belkin blew me away), and which products we're dying to BUY. So please be patient if my blogging and editing is a bit slow while i'm caught up in the whirlwind for two days, you know i'll catch you up when i have time to process it all and clean up the pics!

*fingers crossed* its a good show this year ~ hopefully the front page of the CES page saying "Experience the Art of Technology" with their super colorful gadget paintings are a good sign!

Oh, and if you're there and/or have something we can't afford to miss, leave us a note!

Tags: CES - events - technology - travel

008 is upon us (nearly!), and i'm excited to say farewell to 007, particularly since this year was spent fairly grounded in california (bouncing between norcal and socal), with a few tiny quick excursions. I'm hoping to make 2008 a more normal jetsettery/nomadic year, and could really use some help! I've been trying to compile a list of major design events, and things to possibly try to make my way out to... as well as just general places to see, etc.

SO, take a look at the list below ~ help by suggesting more to add to it, or if you're interested in sponsoring a trip in some way to make sure we cover it, let's chat! I'm already playing with the idea of having our main NOTCOT homebases for 008 by LA and Paris, but details are in the works... *fingers crossed* ~ what do YOU want to see happening here in 008?

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Tags: events