Tag Archive "design"

2011 Books for Holiday Gifts (part 1)

Here are three books, all associated with design, which are likely to provoke thought and wonder among visually-literate audiences. The Infamous Chair; 220̊C Virus Monobloc Arnd Friedrichs and Kerstin Finger, eds. (Berlin: Gestalten, 2010) ISBN 978-3-89955-317-8 This book is at once an homage to and critique of those ubiquitous, cheap, plastic chairs, anonymous and nameless, that litter our environment.  Designers, it turns out, have a name for them, derived from their method of manufacture: monobloc, as well as a high degree of animus towards them. The chairs are created from a single, plastic material, in a single process: forced into ... More » »

Matt Savitsky – our next podcast coming up on artblog radio

Matt Savitsky is a young artist who makes forlorn sculptural installations — mostly autobiographical — and sometimes performs in the character of Minty. Minty played a puppy in a window at Bodega last summer, a memorable performance full of come-hither looks, floppy hair falling over the eyes and my dog Spot black and white makeup on his face. Savitsky graduated with a BFA from Cooper Union in 2005 and he just left the East Coast for San Diego where he’s beginning an MFA program focused on interdisciplinary arts. Matt is a Pennsylvania native and openly gay. And while he only ... More » »

Kaleidescopes, both hard-edged and organic at Race Street Cafe

At Race Street Café this month you can wrap your head around the kaleidoscopic creations of S. Leser and the organic meanderings of Gaby Heit. As a somewhat unconventional gallery space, the café is a great little nook to grab lunch and entertain your eyes with some optical art all at once.

London, design and elegance

Steve came back from a trip to London a few days ago bearing gifts to appease the great stay-at-homes. Our guy is something of a design nerd. So, when we hear he’s got some things to show us from his trip we don’t expect diamonds and chocolates, although we do indeed get chocolates sometimes. We know to expect things that are surprising good design. Steve loves an elegant and simple design. As someone who is an inventor and just got his first patent on a software design, we think he’s got good design sense. So, Steve’s bounty from his London ... More » »

Modern Design in Retrospect: artblog book review

Post by Andrea Kirsh Raymond Loewy pencil sharpener (1934) In preparation for Design Philadelphia, I thought I’d do some homework, so pulled out a book by Philadelphian, George H. Marcus: “Masters of Modern Design; A Critical Assessment” (Monacelli Press, 2005). The book grew out of a course that Marcus taught at Penn where he examined a dozen of the Twentieth Century’s major designers. His central question is each designer’s stance towards modernism, whose demise, Marcus suggests, was “much heralded, but never realized.” Marcus discusses their social and political ideals as well as their varied attitudes towards industrial production and mass ... More » »