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The latest from London-based editor, Justine Aw as she checks out the press preview of Show RCA 2012. The show opens to the public on the 20th of June and closes on the 1st of July.
Love this project from Raphael Kim, a fellow former biologist, Kim’s project is not only a beautiful piece to look at, but also biologically fascinating! His Rotifer Farm is all about interactions between microbial communities and people. As Kim points out, we have few conscious interactions with this incredible diversity of creatures (the only time we even notice them is usually when you come down with a stomach bug!).
Rotifer Farm is a home designed to explore interactions between humans and this microscopic world of rotifers. Rotifers are a group of considerable scientific interest on account of their incredible hardiness as well as fascinating locomotion (via coronal cilia), parthenogenetic reproduction. However, they’re not a group we consciously interact with much outside of the lab. Kim’s Rotifer Farm takes the microbial communities outside of the lab creating an intermediate space between the world of research labs and our everyday lives, creating a more tangible experience.
The farm is organized in a number of different circuits with different developmental stages (including those pretty pink eggs) and comes with pipettes for moving your little rotifer friends from one section to the next. Raphael even went to spend a few months with a rotifer specialist in Okinawa, where he obtained some of these incredible images and videos of rotifers feeding and glowing.
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0 Notes
Lítill terrariums are the star of Jette and Fabrik, Lauren Coleman’s latest exhibition opened at Direktorenhaus Berlin on the 1st of June.
The exhibition consists of two rooms, Jette and Fabrik. Jette suspends a catcus in a terrarium in the room with the help of a freely drifting helium-inflated weather balloon. In Fabrik, stalactite like structures descend from the ceiling as if they are dripping the hand blown glass terrariums from the ceiling to the floor below. See more pictures of this stunning exhibition (that i wish i could see in person!) on the next page!
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This series/post is brought to you by Gillette. Learn more about Gillette and its products at Gillette.com. As usual, thoughts and ideas are all NOTCOT, Gillette is sponsoring us to do our thing! 
So many choices! And only two hands… not that we are often using them all at once, but it really is SO easy to have special glasses for just about everything… i have cabinets full of glasses in the kitchen, yet somehow always manage to acquire more! Two of our favorite categories that are pretty versatile (yet still have SO many gorgeously, unique options) are definitely for Beers and Scotches. So if you’re ready for the roundup of fun ones (and a few favorites that are in my cabinet at home even!) head over to the next page!
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I couldn’t resist. I was totally that girl in the tiny supermarket in the huge line buying 4 jars of Nutella tonight. I mean, these limited edition Nutella Esperienza Italia 150 glasses were cute when they came up on NOTCOT.org, but renders are one thing. These are even more awesome in person! Fun glasses for just about anything… filled with nutella… celebrating Italian unity - specifically DESIGN, Arts, Landscapes & Architecture, and History! On fun design week souveniers, the design themed €1.79 glass of nutella is pretty sweet (even AFTER you eat the nutella)… The story? “Nutella wanted to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of italian Unity together with millions of Italian families and asked ARC’s. to interpretate the project in four themes: Arts, Design, Landscapes & Architecture, Historical topics. Through the “Esperienza Italia 150” limited edition collection, Nutella ideally embraces all italians, from the South to the North, as a sole big family.” Above is a render of the 4 glasses in the set from ARC’s… but on the next page, take a peek at close ups of them all!
p.s.
Don’t mind the bizarre hotel/motel feel of the photos… it’s how it feels in here!
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Northern Lighting’s latest addition is Evergreen, by designers Vibeke Skar and Jens Praet, though first presented in milan last year, it’s making the rounds again during the Stockholm Furniture Fair in Sweden now. With a classic pendant shape, i love that it is hand blown glass, giving it such an elegant glow, and the mount is a pulley attached to the ceiling and you simply figure eight the cord around the other fixture to secure it. And it really caught my eye to see the making of pic appear in my inbox this morning! See more pictures of it on the next page!
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Is Moonshine ready to try an take on tequila that’s been the new vodka as of late? The Original Moonshine from Stillhouse is the latest to launch, and i must say, i’m loving the bottle… from the XXXX on the fancified jug (somewhat like our Liqurious favicon/twitter avatar) to the howling wolf logo… and to be honest, i do love bottles with the finger loop (like Kraken that has two!) This is an 80-proof clear corn whiskey handcrafted in Culpeper, Virginia, using the only operational Prohibition-era copper pot still in the US. It’s the brainchild of entrepreneur Brad Beckerman and chef and restraunteur, Adam Perry Lang. They say the flavor is “most noticeable when sipped just shy of neat with a splash of pure water. When well bruised with ice, it transforms into a creamy, voluptuous, satiny texture.” But i have yet to taste it for myself. Other fun facts? It’s all natural, gluten free, and charcoal filtered!
The story of how the 3 year adventure designing this whiskey came to be - “I became obsessed with clear whiskey years ago when a fellow barbecue competitor shoved a jar in my face and said ‘drink this’ at a competition in the south, ” says Perry Lang.
Take a peek at some close up pics of fun old photos as well as the bottle on the next page!
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I always swoon over the Litill Ltd. terrariums when i’m at A+R ~ and i’ve been giddy staring at these pictures that amazing photographer, Lauren Coleman, from Litill Ltd. sent over which she shot of their latest installation in collaboration with Annie Larson’s knit work at E.R Butler & Co. in NYC which are absolutely fabulous window displays! There’s something magical about both the succulent/air plant/mossy mini worlds, as well as the amorphous and organic bulbous glass structures they live within. Absolutely stunning ~ you have to see the way these are installed in the windows… mind blowing pics on the next page! (Thank you, Lauren!)
p.s.
the little brick wall in the picture above is amazing.
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Marcia (our Liqurious Editor!) is over at my house doing the photoshoot for her upcoming Cocktail book (more to come on that…) ~ and she brought me the most adorable present from her Tales of the Cocktail adventures in New Orleans! The teeny tiniest little 2” tall bottle of Angostura Bitters! It definitely reminds me of the little tabasco’s… so on adorable packaging scaled waaaaay down to a tiny glass bottle, check out more pics of it amongst the photoshoot bottles taking over my kitchen today!
p.s.
Awesome email factoid that came in from Elywn - “Angostura uses an oversized label because when it was first started, the product was made in the Caribbean and the labels were printed in England. The labels arrived and were much bigger than the bottle….they had no alternative, so they stuck ‘em on - oversize and all….and the rest is history!!!” Ha!
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On random packaging obsessions ~ stumbled across these special italian Lurisia Water Glass Bottles while at an ICFF event in NY and was mesmerized! Apparently redesigned back in 2008 ~ “This project combined forces of the creative design agency Sottsass Associati, the experts in industrial design from Fratelli Guzziniand, finally, Saint-Gobain Glass, the world leader in glass manufacturing,” says PopSop. And it won a beverage innovation award in 2009! How have i never seen these before?!?! Apparently their water is supposed to have quite a cult following? And they have spa’s in italy as well… And as cool as these lighthouse lantern like bottles are… the vintage logo of the lighthouse keeper is adorable as well! Take a peek at more images on the next page!
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0 Notes
As design week comes to a close, but not the trip (we’ve been hostages of the volcano), i’m still sorting and posting much of the fun stuff discovered this week! Here’s a favorite photo from Milano Salone del Mobile 2010 this 4am. Staring at it ~ Leo, who’s been amazing helping explore and cover design week with me, and i joked that in a way, this image epitomized the key elements of the design week chaos…
Milan Design Week = beautiful objects + flowing libations + a sea of humanity
p.s.
This is the Luce Plan Mini Mini designed by HABITS Studio.
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Also discovered hidden in the same glass cabinet with the illustrated cocktail glassware… this hand blown glass dutch bull filled with Fortune Teller Gold Liqueur, complete with a cigar band like label! Something about it’s face reminds me of Mumin… and at first it looked like it might be a pipe! Having fun this weekend finding creative inspiration from the curiosities picked up during my grandparents jetsetting back in the day… see more details on the next page!
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As delicious as certain liquors are… you all know that spontaneous packaging based impulse buys are how the weird stuff often ends up here. Well recently at Mitsuwa, the adorable little sakes were calling out to me and i couldn’t resist. I also couldn’t resist shaking up the nigori ones… which of course meant i then had to let them sit for a day or so in my fridge so they’d fully settle (all that unfiltered sediment sinking to the bottom) so i could show you the difference when i took pics! But how amazingly cute are these Aladdin Sake bottles? They’d make the prettiest little vases for your desk… And the way the top opens is fascinating as well. So take a peek at them all on the next page! (And no, i haven’t tasted any of them yet ~ too tired tonight, but wanted to show you the packaging first!)
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On more things i’ve been meaning to post for a while. Here’s a brilliantly fun idea… how do you take a normally boring average looking bottled Magners Pear Cider and elevate (or catapult) its status instantly? Give the awesome Bungalow 8 in London an exclusive stunning bottle that is only available there, and only 500 bottles are produced. The new design was created for Magners by their brand entertainment agency, Cake. They were even kind enough to send one over so i could take a look at it in person - and its lovely! Its a sleek black bottle with 5 gloss silver sticker stripes wrapping the bottle and the Bungalow 8 ‘8’ etched in the silver pear. Honestly, it’s hard to look at the original bottle the same way after seeing and holding this. Actually, it’s hard to look at any cider or beer the same. Why don’t they all look this stunningly designed? See more pics on the next page…
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Apologies for going a little quiet on you. Tried to take a little bit of a break this week ~ reassess the amazing year that passed, trying again to hit inbox 0 before 2010 officially arrives… and in doing so, also finding some gems i’ve been meaning to post that sadly got buried in the chaos of my inbox. SO, here’s one of my favorites!
As we slip in to the new decade ~ here are two of my favorite slides from the presentation given by Absolut at the Absolut Art Collection anniversary event in Stockholm a few months ago. On the top you see the state of vodka packaging design when Absolut first entered the market with its shockingly apothecary styled bottle (which i adore!)… Below you see the state of things today. Yes yes, sure it may be a little biased in how things were picked, but you can’t deny that the overall trend is true, and that the it’s a great illustration of the shift in vodka packaging design over the decades! As 2010 comes upon us, i wonder how things will shift next…
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Sometimes you desperately run around the city all evening, desperately hunting for an open restaurant after having two drinks at the ice bar for "breakfast", almost genuinely considering buying 7-11 food, tweet for help, call for suggestions, and almost everything that comes up is closed... then you stumble upon the adorable red cozy outdoor section of Grodan, and peek into a stunningly ornate dining room that smells delicious... and there it is. Froggies! Everywhere! On the menu... embroidered on the napkins, on the door - a simple red silhouette of a frog! (Yes, i now know Groda means Frog in swedish)... but the most intriguing instance of this little red frog i encountered was as i sipped my water... there it was on the bottom of my glass! And it looked so fun with its reflection and prismatic colors projected on the table... I had to share... and i'm so tempted to make mini vinyl stickers to apply to the bottom of my glasses to surprise people when i get home... see more of the pics on the next page!
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5 Notes
Have you ever found yourself mesmerized by a curvature? A silhouette? Just stuck in your mind, and you could stare at it for ages? And it doesn't help that as you stare at it you can't help but sip it as well? Well there's something so beautiful about the Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label and La Grande Dame champagne glasses that i've been obsessing about since that trip to paris with them last year... It actually had me paying much closer to attention to both champagne and champagne glasses, since. You'll see what i mean in the many pictures on the next page... there's a comparison of some of the various champagne glasses rounded up from holiday gift boxes...
... also further indulging my curiosity about the origins of Champagne Glasses, the Veuve Clicquot historian was kind enough to put together some information on their background as well as some gorgeous visuals - from vintage Veuve ads ~ to scans from their library to take a look at what types of champagne glass styles exist and how they have evolved over the years.
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On unusual jewelry gift "packaging" ~ how beautifully intriguing is new Abandoned Comb Amulet by Black Sheep & Prodigal Sons? There are only a limited edition of 30 pieces made!
From their description: "The Abandoned Comb Amulet consists of a hexagonal sugar-glass pyramid filled with Brooklyn rooftop honey. Free floating in the candied bubble is a solid 18k gold honeycomb necklace sculpted by bees. It is protected by a glass dome with a rubber stopper. The usefulness of the Abandoned Comb Amulet is defined by the resulting choice of a Solomonic dilemma. One must either forcefully exhume the honey drenched gold by violently shattering and eating the casing, or find value in the object's current form and care for it as it deteriorates on its own.
Regarding the process: "First, abandoned honeycomb from Brooklyn rooftop hives is gathered. Next, in the ancient 'lost wax' tradition, the honeycomb is burned away and replaced by molten gold. Resulting is a perfect hold replica of the wax comb."
It's a fascinating story/process/concept for what may finally result as simply an 18k honeycomb necklace, but the delicious "unboxing" process really adds a new dimension even more delectable and beautiful to display than most. See more images on the next page!
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On long overdue and super amazing things that have shown up recently ~ 8/9 of the 1800 Tequila Limited Edition Artist Bottles arrived, and i can't bring myself to open them, i just kind of sit and stare at how gorgeous they are ~ honestly, if you haven't seen them in person, you must! Because i've seen pictures, from high res to billboards, for some time now, and they were far more incredible in person! They are like gorgeous drinkable works of art... basically it feels like they are screened on to the backs of the glass bottles, which results in a nice matte feel on the back, and the art looks like its floating in the bottle of tequila... perhaps my favorite detail besides the art work itself (and the fact that the cap is a shot glass) ~ each bottle is numbered (out of 1800), has the name and bio of the artist, and their signature in silver! Really i can only ramble so much about this, but what you really need to see is all the close up pics of the bottles themselves! So click through and browse them on the next page!
p.s.
Not sure what to bring for a last minute party, gift, etc ~ i think its pretty hard to go wrong with one of these... SO pretty!
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Another Venice Architecture Biennale discovery ~ architect, Anupama Kundoo, has an interesting way of using recycled materials for construction and a fascinating system of Terracotta Interlocking Tubes (“Hollow burnt clay tubes are stacked to achieve catenary vaults that require no structural steel. Substructure such as wooden rafters in terracotta roof tile applications are redundant as the system is self supporting. Neither is shuttering required. This leads to an insulated roof based on locally produced materials and quick assembly.” ~ when you combine recycled materials like cut wine bottles with her tube stacking style, she has created an interesting way to create a glass roof made of wine bottles! And the shadows are beautiful too! Take a peek at the details on the next page! 
On fun design spotted in real life ~ just noticed the new 
Remember when 
On NY Design Week must sees… 
As spotted first at 
