01:09:10

It’s a TIE

Unpossible

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Unpossible Catalogue

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Mid last year, the International renowned luxury fashion brand Hermès collaborated with the online publication DesignBoom to launch a competition to design a signature Hermès Cravat. The prize consisted of a fistful of euros but more importantly the top three entrants would have their designs commissioned – becoming part of Cravat History.

Hermès has reinvented the tie every day for 60 years and were looking for a ‘an innovative and original pattern design’. They considered launching the contest as a way to broaden they’re ‘field of vision’, an opportunity to reinvent. They huge variety of submissions from the quirky to the conservative certainly delivered. 5,478 valid entries by 6133 designers from 97 different countries participated, I managed to scrape in amongst the shortlisted 200 with a ‘typographic tweed’ but my personal favourite didn’t get a look in {the horse-hair inspired one above}. It is worth visiting the site to see the variety of graphic responses.

New Zealander Nikolus Clifford came second with his clever design ‘Unpossible’ {top} — he happened to be in London recently to see his labour launched as part of the Hermès Fall-Winter 2010 collections. His design has been produced in a variety of colour-ways and will be available from their flagship store in NYC from September 2010, and department stores worldwide around the same time. Congratulations Nik.

The Design Community has mixed feelings about competitions, they are often lumped in with the destabilising practices of pitching and crowd-sourcing — under-selling us all. In many instances they have a point, but competition is healthy, and the DesignBoom competitions often give designers a chance to flex their creative muscle in foreign territory they’d otherwise never get to explore. DesignBoom has recently launched a competition with Tivoli, to celebrate it’s 10-year anniversary, the prize includes a billboard in Times Square — so get scribbling.

~Tana

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To see the results of the Hermès Cravat competition:
http://www.designboom.com/contest/winner.php?contest_pk=27

To enter the Tivoli Competiton:
http://www.designboom.com/tivoliaudio.html

To see more of Nikolus Clifford’s work:
http://www.hardhatdesign.co.nz/

30:08:10

ZOWIE

We’ve all had to wait a long time since Bionic Pixie popped up taking over bnets, Glassons ads, and TV One’s Asia Downunder alike. The next single was due, then…nothing…

One year on and the transformation from Bionic Pixie to Zowie is incredible.

A busy year spent securing World class management, a deal with Sony Music Australia, travelling the World writing and producing her debut album. The only thing we believe, and hope, has remained the same is Zowie’s longstanding collaboration with local designer and best friend Serena Fagence. Zowie is deservedly setting Worldwide blogs a flutter – even Perez Hilton “LOVES” her.

So, keep an ear out for Zowie’s brilliant new single ‘Broken Machine’ which goes to radio in the next week or so. I don’t think you’ll need to try that hard, it will be everywhere! More importantly keep an eye out for the incredible video that accompanies the single, directed and produced by Special Problems.

Until then keep up your Zowie fix at her new youtube channel:
www.youtube.com/user/iamzowie
Zowie

19:08:10

Kevin Murphy – Protection…

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The clever folk at KEVIN.MURPHY continue their takeover of my bathroom cabinet with PROTECTION.LINE; a break-through range of Shampoo, leave-ins and styling aids that protect the hair from intense heat (you straightener addicts know who you are) without leaving excess weight or residue.

Using a patented Extreme Hair Protection Complex, PROTECTION. LINE contains a blend of natural ingredients traditionally used in the treatment of burns and its high-level of anti-oxidants, essential oils and amino acids make it a saviour for damaged hair.

All products in the PROTECTION.LINE are sulphate and paraben free and, like all
KEVIN.MURPHY goods, provide excellent style-hold while smelling damn-near good enough to eat.

Words by Katie May Rusco

19:08:10

Kids of 88…

Sam McCarthy – Vocals  / Jordon Arts – Synths

I met Sam about three years ago; he came to  borrow some clothes from the PROCESS showroom a for music video.. I couldn’t believe how nice he was… I am always in awe of the musically talented… probably due to my being tone deaf! [as my partner so eloquently puts it!] Having been signed to Sony Music for a worldwide record deal the boys have also launched their album this week… check out the below Q&A…. Words By Caroline Brown

 

Kids of 88 / Vocals / Sam McCarthy / PROCESS Q&A  

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If I was to describe my latest work in five words or less, I would say… “Melting-Pot, Spanner, Whirlwind, Tsingtao”

 For breakfast this morning I had… “Fair-trade coffee, so i’m no doubt feeling pretty morally righteous…”

 The person who has made the biggest impact on my life is… “A particularly Flighty blonde, 5′7″ , cobblestone eyes. Oh and Bruce Forsyth”.

 I know all the words to (song)…. “The Beatles – Blackbird, amazing really, im horrible with lyrics”

 My proudest moment was… “Mastering a full milk milo, get me 1200w microwave and I’ll prove it.”

 My style icon is… “The Dark Horse (the sgt. Pepper years), and Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights”

 When I was a kid, I wanted to be… “One of the Cosby kids, hands down’.

 Attach a photo/video link of something funny or interesting or that just generally sums up how they are feeling at that moment?

http://lisakereszi.com/images/41.jpg

 Kids of 88 – Managed by Ashley Page of Page One Management

18:08:10

Julian Dashper (1960-2009): It Is Life

at MINUS SPACE {98 4th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231}

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Julian Dashper was one of New Zealand’s most accomplished contemporary artists — he died a year ago.

In his work Julian often reduced things to essential elements, put like with like and delineated opposites. It was therefore unmistakably a Dashper thread that neatly tied together a group of his colleagues and friends in Brooklyn last Saturday afternoon at the opening of It Is Life at Minus Space — an exhibition consisting of heartfelt written remembrances of Julian’s life and work. Julian would have chuckled as at the preview many of us unraveled connections he had attempted to make between each of us in prior years — introductions, crossed paths and shared opportunities.

Julian’s work focused on the histories, theories and more general or popular ideas of abstraction, conceptualism and minimalism as a working methodology. His practice took many forms, from painting to performance. As an International artist living and working in New Zealand, Julian’s work, and life, also dealt with the duality of local/global, as seen in his work Future Call, the sole work presented amongst the written tributes that make up It Is Life at Minus Space. Future Call consists of a single telephone installed in the gallery that is periodically called from New Zealand, 16 hours ahead of New York City — a call from the future, only to be left ringing and unanswered. I think we all fought the desire to ‘pick-up’ as the phone rang through our collective reminiscing, I  for one am curious to know what the future holds….

Julian traveled broadly and had friends and allies across the globe, the 70 or more ‘personal notes, memories, anecdotes, criticism, correspondence, poems, and elegies’ from around the world and on display at Minus Space in Brooklyn are testament to that fact. Incredibly personal and poignant, each note held a unique story, the contributors include: Soledad Arias, Marcus Bering, Channa Boon, Ralf Brög, Henry Brown & Millicent Borges Accardi, Mary-Louise Browne, Vicente Butron, Melanie Crader & Mick Johnson, Christoph Dahlhausen, Kasarian Dane, Judy Darragh & Rosanna Albertini, Christopher Dean, Matthew Deleget & Rossana Martinez, Ali Duffey, Daniel Feingold, Linda Francis, Alicia Frankovich, Zipora Fried, Andrea Gaskin, Daniel Göttin & Gerda Maise, Michelle Grabner, Billy Gruner & Sarah Keighery, Vaughan Gunson, Lynne Harlow, Miriam Harris, Gilbert Hsiao, William Hsu, Simon Ingram, Kyle Jenkins, Ian Jervis, Jeffrey Cortland Jones, James Juszczyk, Steve Karlik, Mark Kirby, WJM Kok, Keira Kotler, Elodie Lesourd, Stephen Little, Joshua Lux, MariaMaria, Jackie Meier, Moreno Miorelli, Dane Mitchell, Victoria Munro, Geoff Newton, John Nixon, Rose Nolan, Salvatore Panatteri, Carrie Patterson, Nathan Pohio, Gwynneth Porter, Mel Prest, Linda Roche, Layla Rudneva-Mackay, Erik Saxon, Karen Schifano, Marie Shannon, Sandra Smith, Barbara Strathdee, Robert Swain, David Thomas, Mandy Thomsett-Taylor, Tilman, Jan van der Ploeg, Machiel van Soest, Erica van Zon, Jan Maarten Voskuil, Marcus Williams, Emi Winter, Rachael Wren, Patricia Zarate, and others.

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Julian Dashper was born on February 29, 1960 (leap year day). During his career, he mounted more than 140 solo exhibitions of his work worldwide, including in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States. In 2001, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to be an artist in residence at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, TX. A 25-year retrospective of Julian’s work, entitled Midwestern Unlike You and Me, curated by Christopher Cook and David Raskin, traveled the United States during 2005-2006, making stops at the Sioux City Art Center, IA; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, NE; and Ulrich Museum of Art, KS. Julian’s work was included in our comprehensive group exhibition MINUS SPACE at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in NYC in 2008-2009. Julian died on July 30, 2009, and is survived by his wife Marie Shannon and their teenage son Leo.

to see more of Julian’s work:
www.suecrockford.com/artists/images.asp?aid=28

To see more of the show check out the James Kalm report:
http://www.youtube.com/user/jameskalmroughcut#p/a/u/0/bzKQWVvuIdk

To read a touching remembrance of Julian:
http://cherylbernstein.blogspot.com/2009/08/signs-to-live-by.html

or go to Minus Space’s site:
http://www.minusspace.com/category/currentexhibition/

Words by Tana Mitchell