All posts tagged: design

Local Leather Love

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A lady’s bag is an important item. I can’t stand bucket type bags with no pockets, especially having to rummage through a mountain of stuff when my phone is ringing. I love a bag that has plenty of pockets or compartments, even if I forget which one I put my phone in. My last bag purchase was a cute tan satchel that cost less than $20 on Trademe but also lasted less than 20 days. It wasn’t leather and the weak “faux leather” was just not worth fixing. Getting it fixed would cost the same amount as purchase. It was not a strong or a reliable bag. Once it broke, it needed to be carried around like a giant clutch. My bag before that was fabric and I finally retired it after 4 years of continuous duty. By the time I was done, the fabric was covered in lint and the lining inside torn to shreds. I had sewn it up many times (by my shoddy hand) and given it new buttons to make it extra …

Monday Bunday: Lady Aiko

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Tokyo-born, NYC living artist Aiko Nakagawa goes by the name Lady Aiko has a background in graphic design and filmmaking. Her bunny welding a can design has taken on a life of it’s own. I’m loving the Hot Pink Bunny Cans that feature a stencil of the bunny holding a can. Lady Aiko has painted this rabbit on canvases and also out there in the real world (in the streets). Vinyl toy giants Kidrobot have made her bunny into a collectable toy and you can pick it up online for about $40US. You can view Lady Aiko’s work at her website http://www.ladyaiko.com

Semi-Permanent 2012

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A decade ago, the year Semi-Permenent set up a chapter in Auckland, I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, first-year design student. I had just started going out with The Koala and when we heard about a new, fledgling design conference we purchased our precious tickets. For a student, even the concession ticket was a lot of money. The Koala and I attended the very first NZ Semi-Permanent event at the Bruce Mason Theatre in Takapuna and we were blown away by the world-famous calibre of creative speakers. Since then, I’ve barely missed an event. I think I’ve missed two. One because we were saving our pennies for our wedding and another time we were out of town. Semi-Permenent took a break from our shores last year, but this year they are back and on in just a few weeks! I won’t be in Auckland so I won’t be attending this year. But if you are around, you should check it out. The two day event runs on 18 and 19 May 2012 at the ASB Theatre at …

Urbis Designday 2012 Eats

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Post 2 of my 3-part review on Urbis Designday which was on Saturday the 24th March. I’m going to post about 3 blog-specific aspects of Urbis: post 1: Bunny, post 2: eats and post 3 (sometime in the coming week): design. This post is all about the delicious delights to be found at Urbis Designday. I had been looking forward to the Fisher & Paykel exhibit and this year’s The Social Kitchen did not disappoint. Last year, it was in a huge inflatable structure in Auckland’s Britomart Station area and this year’s reiteration at The Cloud on Auckland’s Queens Wharf was a great step up. The Cloud was the venue for many of the Rugby World Cup events including a special edition of Taste of New Zealand. You can read more about that event here. Brilliant and light, The Social Kitchen at The Cloud is a 50m+ installation/exhibit/buffet line/kitchen line/processing plant while the rest of the room was made up of long tables and coloured stools to sit and enjoy the creations. To say this …

Monday Bunday: Urbis Bunny 2012

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I’ve been busy with work and such, but a couple of weekends ago, I had a great time at the annual Urbis Designday. Each year this event woos me and this year it did not disappoint. I can’t think of a better all-emcompassing design and food event. A must for fans of design and food and if you work in the industry, you really should give it a day. It’s only one day and you won’t regret it! Urbis Designday is everything this blog stands for and if I had to make a 3 item checklist (Bunny, Eats, Design) I would be able to tick all three items off many, many times. I will post a post on the great food at Urbis as well as the design, but until then, let’s begin with all the bunnies at Designday. And if bunnies aren’t your thing, perhaps some of the baby chickens that were at the Essenze showroom will tickle your fancy? Easter is coming up soon after all. Bunnies and baby chickens are Easter personified. If …

Monday Bunday: Hare’s Bride Beer

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Beautifully illustrated label by Tenfold Collective for Grimm Brothers Brewhouse beer: Hare’s Bride. The label is adult and whimsical without being twee. A man wouldn’t be afraid to hold this in his hand. This label is printed using white and black inks on top of a silver foil. A high alcohol content beer, this is sure to knock the bride off your hare. Bonus: Look for the animated rabbit over at the Tenfold website! Via The Dieline.  

Monday Bunday: Choice Cuts Labbit

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Holy crap. A designer that I adore has turned one of his collector items that I also adore into a diagram of another thing I adore. Frank Kozik has just released a new Labbit vinyl toy called Choice Cuts displaying the cuts of pork. I love Frank Kozik. I love Labbits. I love pork. Geek. Out. Overload. The release and signing of this toy was on Friday at a fantastic butcher in LA, California where they gave away a sausage to the first 50 in line. More info over at Kid Robot here.

Monday Bunday: Bunny Cologne

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An advertisement by Grey in Indonesia for a pet cologne. I suppose the concept is to show that the house bunny has been everywhere in the room. I dunno about pet cologne, Tofu smells like a soft toy usually, but smells like a woolen jumper when he’s been in the rain. I wonder how many variations pet cologne comes in?

CreativeMornings AKL #2

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I’ve been following CreativeMornings in the US for a few years now, after seeing it at Swissmiss. I have watched many of the back catalogue of taped sessions from the comfort of my own home. I think of it as a TED aimed at designers. “CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types. Each event is free of charge, and includes a 20 minute talk, plus coffee!” Art, coffee and pastries make me a happy girl. More info in CreativeMornings at their website http://www.creativemornings.com or the Tublr site for CreativeMornings Auckland here. I took the morning off yesterday to be inspired at CreativeMornings at Alleluya Cafe at St Kevins Arcade. Jade Tang and Elise Sterback are the powerhouse duo behind Creative Mornings in Aucklad. The second edition of CreativeMornings Auckland, it followed a similar format to the first one last month at Box Cafe. Considered the best graffiti artist in NZ and one of the world champions of his craft, Askew One a.k.a Elliot O’Donnell gave designers and creatives an insight into his processes and inspirations. …

Monday Bunday: Lucha Rabbit by Theodoru

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This Lucha Rabbit 3d poster makes my heart squeak. Theodoru Illustration clearly devours and creates all things cool, funky and vinyl and more of his work can be found on his website www.theodoru.com. Working in Vienna, Austria, Teodoru takes bold, bright elements from various familiar graphics like  Mexican lucha libre. His work makes me think of a childhood cartoon on acid. Here are some more bunny inspired pieces by Theodoru. Part fish, part bunny.

Monday Bunday: Silly Pink Bunnies

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Jeremy Fish (sillypinkbunnies.com) draws awesome bunnies. He has also contributed in the art scavenger hunt in London in conjunction with Juxtapoz Magazine and Absolut Vodka. If I were in London, I would be scavenging for this signed piece. Isn’t it divine? Watch the trailer for the whole project here. (Is it still called a trailer if it’s not for a film?)

Brainfarts

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Being a creative person, I often need to do turbo charged brainstorms. I call these brainfarts. I sit and focus, often with The Koala and we nut it out. Top 5 brainfarting tips: Start with a big fresh piece of paper Write down anything that comes to mind (don’t hold anything in) Go wild (you can always reign it in later) The first ideas you have are often too obvious Revisit brainfart sheet later on in the process in case things have changed and ideas that you dismissed earlier can be dismissed.

An Inkling

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The latest buzz around the design and illustration forums and sites is the upcoming release of the Wacom Inkling. With this teched up pen and receiver, all your drawings on paper are recorded to later be plugged by usb into your computer. You can record drawings in layers as well as outputting them to vector. This is great for those that are used to drawing with ball point pen, but those who are addicted to pencil (and eraser) might find this hard to work with. I suppose the next step up from this pen is a pencil with an eraser end that records both drawing and erasing. I’m totally looking forward to its release this or next month.

Malthus, Meal A Day

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Meet Malthus. Malthus is an aquaponics* unit that is designed for the next generation’s home kitchen. This is a conceptual piece and has a planned production of 100 pieces. It grows 1 portion of salad and 1 portion of fish each day. I love the concept but I wouldn’t enjoy eating the same food every day. You wouldn’t enjoy me blogging about fish and salad every day! Or would you? Maybe I could rename the blog “365 ways with fish and salad”. I could write a cookbook for future generations. But…if you could grow 1 portion a day of any meal, what would it be? More info here at Conceptual Devices. * I’m guessing aquaponics is a portmanteau for aqua+hydroponics.