We’ve brought to you Sancal’s latest products launched at Salone del Mobile Milano 2013. One of the most exciting products coming from their Tierra collection is Elephant. The colourful and whimsical ottoman/stool – the perfect accompaniment to the home sofa or public space.
Here, capturing the fun essence and versatility of Elephant in video form, Nadadora introduces her new piece…
Nadadora Elephant for Sancal from nadadora on Vimeo.
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Film posters by Bass
Never before have we seen Google put in so much effort to their home page logo design. We all know that they are tireless in working on new concepts and ideas, but today takes the cake.
Celebrating the career of the late American graphic designer and filmmaker Saul Bass, Google gives the artisan a worthy nod, coinciding with what would be 93rd birthday. The 1:20 animated video in the signature style of Bass runs effortlessly across the banner of the search engine giant.
Bass was best known for his cinema title sequences and movie posters, working with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Martin Scorsese. The video showcases some of his best work from a prolific Hollywood career which spanned five decades. Bass designed the title sequences for Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and Psycho (1960), and his work also included Spartacus (1960), West Side Story (1961), The Shining (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991) and Casino (1995).
Onya Google!
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Understanding the creative eye behind a photographic shoot is a skill. It must be analysed in such a way, taking into account factors that may not be available to us. More so, photographic work can lead us down a path to visualise the sometimes unseen, or unacknowledged.
The new works of New York City based Australian expat photographer Benjamin Jay Shand understands this, but easily steers us to see just what its creator does. Titled “Form Follows”, the collection captures form of the built word, paying homage to architecture and design. Benjamin says of the works:
‘Form Follows’ doesn’t promote a style of ’shooting’ – rather, this is a display of my way of seeing. By granting the built world an exclusive aesthetic license, paved geometries rise full-frame as magnetizing protagonists – and skies sit unified with their concrete tenants below.
Capturing the essence of form, space and colour, the works offer a glimpse into geometric unity and balance – presenting beauty in built environments and space in places we could perhaps glaze over.
His first solo exhibition, taking place at PIPS Art Space in the appropriately chic Williamsburg, NYC opens this Saturday.
Benjamin (and his creative eye) is one to look out for in the future!
Recently a friend of the ‘ZU gave us the scoop on his new enterprise, Design Unplugged. Cool name huh?
We’re expecting big things from the new international online platform which reaches as far as Greenland. Going by the name of “DUG”, the premise is pure design, unplugged.
DUG says of their new venture:
We’re not just a pretty face: interminable sites of winsome picture and sugary descriptions left us screaming in frustration. We wanted something less tacky than fairy floss.
Their style is raw, it’s relatable and it’s down right edgy. DUG is only new, but we’re expecting big things! In saying that though, we aren’t saying there isn’t anything wrong with fairy floss, that has its place too…
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We were going to save this little gem for a Furniture Free Friday this week at the Blog but we just can’t wait. It’s too good.
The hypnotic Rita Hayworth – beautiful, flighty, rhythmic and engaging. The Bee Gees, brothers Barry, Robin and Maurice, blessed with voices of vibrato and falsetto forming tight harmonies pumping 1960’s dance floors the world over.
You may ask why we vocalised those two sentences. Well here you go. Our friends over at LZF Lamps happened to forward onto us this little gem someone presumably had a lot of fun putting together.
Cue video!
We’d never think of merging Hayworth and the Bee Gees but someone did, and my word are we glad that they did. The video should speak for itself. Enjoy!
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Sandy Skoglund is a US based artist, studied and trained in all things creative; studio art and art history, intaglio printmaking, and multimedia art. With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, the fascinating artist is self-taught in photography, and process-oriented art production through the techniques of mark-making and photocopying.
Seeing Sandy shine is where all these elements come together – occurring in 1986 with the “True Fiction” series of photographic work. A surrealist series, perhaps borrowing elements of the art movements of neo-expressionism and appropriation so easily associated with the bullish decade of the 1980’s.
As the story unfolds, the dye transfer materials were discontinued by Kodak and the edition never finished.
Enter “True Fiction Two”. The revenge of Skoglund on the unfinished series is aided by the digital printing era utilising Epson’s archival ink system technology. Skoglund says of the reborn project:
Each image has been meticulously crafted to assimilate the visual and photographic possibilities now available in digital processes. The result is a similar, yet significantly different feel to the sense of space and three-dimensional photographic quality represented by each image.
Consisting of 20 images, the series plays heavily with tone, colour and scale in a tableaux vivant setting – creating images of not only emotion and detail but an aesthetic depth. The entire series can be seen here.
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We like to think of ourselves as pretty new-age. A forward thinking people free form the shackles of the unnecessary political correctness of times past. Take our former (and soon to be reinstated) hold music for example, should you ever have previously been placed on hold whilst on the line to one of our friends here in the showroom you would have heard the emphatic lyrics of New York band Brazilian Girls’ “Pussy”. We may not endorse the contents of the lyrics, but it’s a catchy tune nonetheless.
Brazilian Girls is a band which only has one female band member, she’s not Brazilian and the band has never played in Brazil. This simple sentence could perhaps quite simply sum up Brazilian Girls – they’re a bit wacky but a whole lot of fun. Their style is cross-genre and is often described as “melting pop”. All in all, we love em.
What we’re loving today is lead singer (and only female counterpart) Sabina Sciubba’s lead and preview song from her soon to be released first solo album. The song is titled Toujors (translating from French to English as “Always”) and was released today.
It’s not only the tune that we love. It’s the cheekiness of Sciubba – very quickly becoming synonymous with her work. Constantly performing without clothes but often towards covering her body with props (ensuring a close to PG rating!), her knowing and acknowledging secret smile, her ability to draw us into her web of creativity and her injured chicken friend.
Having released the video to YouTube today, it’s a bit of fun to see her interaction on the page with Sciubba already declining a marriage proposal from one finger-on-the-pulse fan by offering an alternative – marrying the poor man’s wife and the songs credits and acknowledgements:
Song written by Sabina, produced by Sabina and Fred Rubens, mixed by Klas Wikberg.
Video by Sabina
Hair and make-up: who needs hair and make-up?
Check out the rest of Brazilian’s Girls’ to tracks on YouTube here.
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We are absolutely loving the installation work of Christopher Janney, American artist or “sound architect” as we understand he goes by! You’ll find itself at the Miami International Airport (like landing in Miami wasn’t fun enough!) and goes by the name ‘Harmonic Convergence’.
Harmonic Convergence is an interactive sound and light installation, which was constructed in a walkway of the Airport and was installed to coincide with Design Miami, the Global Forum for Design held annually in December.
The work combines light, colour and sound as it leads passengers from a rental car terminal. Music speakers are installed along the walkway to produce an evolving “sonic portrait” of Florida. These sounds range from environmental happenings local to the State, tropical birds, thunderstorms etc while video sensors at either end monitor your presence through the space and trigger changes in volume and composition of the sounds relative to your position.
Like that wasn’t enough, we love the colourful diagonal pattern made of coloured and shaded squares which cause a stunning reflection over the white flooring. Why not use the Florida sunlight? And when that’s not available – LED lighting was installed to replicate the effect at night.
What’s even greater… check out the ‘before’ shot.
Well! Our Furniture Free Friday post last week about Chromatophobia was not easy. Writing a post and discussing all the things we love that are black and white (and not furniture), whilst we sit here in the KE-ZU showroom which has a great array of furniture pieces in black and white silently being ignored. So we thought it was time the black and white pieces on the showroom floor got their 15 minutes.
The pieces below are currently available in the KE-ZU showroom for viewing are (from left to right in four rows):
+ many, many more!
Green Square, a complex intersection in Alexandria, a neighbourhood packed with design practices, furniture showrooms, Australia’s #1 business park, a heap of creative go-getters, and the home of KE-ZU looks set to become home to a bustling epicentre of culture for the ever growing area just south of central Sydney – said to be Australia’s largest urban development at this time.
A competition was run recently, reaching far and wide internationally for architecture submissions for the design of a public library and plaza. The winning competition announced and the winning entrant were Sydney locals Felicity Stewart and Matthias Hollenstein in association with Colin Stewart Architects.
From over 160 entries, Stewart and Hollenstein’s proposal was chosen, the exciting design incorporates a subterranean library, exposed internal garden, a public “jam” room for budding musicians and technology rooms.
Their proposal, which creates public space focussing on green areas touted itself as “a business centre, also an entertainment venue, a new innovative library creating an urban living room, and an outdoor plaza becomes a meeting place where friends can shop, dine and play”.
Now doesn’t that sound great for our developing community! Glenn Murcott AO, Architect and competition juror says of the space:
A local winner, this is not only a superb solution, it’s going to be a wonderful scheme and a wonderful place to be for the people of Green Square.
Sounds a treat.
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