THE SWISS ARE COMING! THE SWISS ARE COMING!
Looks like the popular Swiss furniture company,
Vitra, made a smart marketing decision when it opened its own museum in 1989. The Frank Gehry-designed building located near its production plant in Weil am Rhein, Germany has become a cultural landmark and, financially, is self-sufficient. Now, the European company/museum that manufactures the work of major designers such as Jean Prouvé, George Nelson, and Charles and Ray Eames is making its American debut at the
Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling is a supple collection of intriguing objects ranging from Eduard Böhtlingk’s hangar
tent to Verner Panton’s playful “Phantom” chairs. On view Feb. 1 through May 7.
HEART OF THE CITY
Tina Lauchengco didn’t have to travel far to do market research
for her first professional design assignment. Every Wednesday,
her client, Heart of the City Farmer’s Market, sets up in San
Francisco’s downtown Civic Center, home to
The Art Institute
of California, where Lauchengco is a student. Participating in
the school’s Community Arts Resource Exchange (C.A.R.E.)
program, Lauchengco designed a simple but effective landscape
poster targeting errand-running riders of the city’s MUNI bus
system. Other pro bono clients who’ve taken AIC-SF up on
their offer for free logo development, poster design, and other
marketing material include Reef Protection International, Saving
Tails, and Friends of the Urban Forest, among others. The
school is now accepting applications for the spring season from
nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area.
RELEASE THE HOUNDS!
Kate Spade’s design director, Alan Dye, is on the hunt for talented
young bucks somehow still camouflaged in the field of visual
communications. He’s heading up the
Art Directors Club’s popular
biennial competition, Young Guns 5. Tenderfooted professionals
(that’s 30 and under) are encouraged to submit 10 pieces of
work across a variety of disciplines including advertising, publishing,
graphic design, illustration, photography, film, and video—
because if you’re a bona fide Young Gun, you’re probably dabbling
in more than one. Dye hand-drew the promotional logo, which
cleverly retains the dignity of the legendary ADC logo while submerging
it in the silhouette of an antlered animal. “I liked the idea
of trophies, of getting new talent up on the wall,” Dye explains.
Online submissions are due Feb. 1. Winners will be announced in
April, and featured in the exhibition and the book published by
Rockport.
MORMONS EMBRACE DESIGN
While professors at
Brigham Young University
do their best to dismantle the theory of evolution
in the classroom, some go as far as to
compare intelligent design to astrology. The university’s
museum is curiously curating an exhibition
to explore how design facilitates and
mediates Man’s acceptance of new technologies.
Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art is
borrowing significant objets d’art to feature in
its exhibition,
Nostalgia & Technology: Embracing
the New Through Art and Design. Key moments
in the development of new technologies—from
Ferdinando Cospi’s 17th-century cabinet of curiosities
to George Eastman’s 1901 Brownie camera
to designer Marcel Wanders’ 2001 B.L.O.
Light—will be on view until May 2006. A nice
break from the slopes, located just 15 minutes
away from Robert Redford’s Sundance Ski Resort.
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