Pattern Pulp

Coralie's Cloth-Bound Covers




Coralie Bickford-Smith-patterns

A week ago, our good friend Alexandra Machinist, a Manhattan based literary agent passed along a link to Coralie Bickford-Smith‘s beautiful cloth bound book covers.  While these beauties have been on the market for a year now, nostalgia for hard cover classics is somewhat recent with the growing success of digital aggregators, such as the Kindle.  Smith’s series is now available in the US and to celebrate the launch, Design*Sponge recently conducted an interview the artist, exploring her process from concept to production. Be it Shakespeare’s Sonnets or The Gothic Horror series, sentiments for a lost art form are reminding us why hard covers deserve a spot on your livingroom shelf.

By: Shayna Kulik

November 2, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Color: Jewel Toned Geometrics




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It’s always thrilling when brands fuse artful thinking with strategic marketing. Pointer footwear appears to be quietly racing to the top as they’ve built a cult following of sneaker enthusiasts over the past two years. Merging relevant trends, such as black and blue color schemes with cubic formations, Pointer’s art direction appears to overlap product categories of every variety. When paired beside this African Shore Eye Palette by Yves Saint Laurent, it’s easy to understand how one color can make the difference between gender specific marketing.

By: Shayna Kulik

October 27, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Fashion: The New Face of Lace




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There’s true intrigue when it comes to lace.  Delicate and dainty, it both conceals and reveals. While we’re all accustomed to seeing its multitude of personalities in fashion, home goods and accessories, reoccurring ties to privacy and obscured visibility have been a constant theme over the past few seasons, making us wonder if everyone’s watching Eyes Wide Shut all over again.

The editors at Dazed and Confused are continuing to manipulate eyes in sadistically interesting layouts just as designers are racing to reinterpret them into tactile accessories.  This Karl Lagerfeld tote is brilliantly inaccessible and proves our point with it’s € 1500.00 price tag.

Uma Thurman’s styling on the May ‘09 NY Times Magazine cover adds a layer of intrigue just as the geometric lace pattern on these Urban Outfitter curtains convey feelings of graphic obscurity. Pulling from past influences, Aperture’s Weegee Spoofs the New Spring Hats spread by Michael Caccaro provides a playful window into the world of advertising and photography in 1957. Fast forward 52 years and Jean Paul Gaultier has created his own interpretation of hooded mystery.

Bringing beauty back to the forefront, this delicate Shu Uemura portrait paired alongside this seductive Dazed spread, reveals the ease with which we can jump mediums and industries, proving sexy or sweet, lace is truly a gatekeeper.

Coverage by: Emily Gup, Kelsey-Lee LeGassick and Shayna Kulik

October 20, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Trend: Global Lightscapes




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All creatives know that doodling leads to ideas. Ideas lead to innovation, and innovation keeps culture flowing. Interestingly, we’ve been noticing unruly markings in everything from media and textiles to graffiti and print. Some of our favorite adaptations of this trend come in the form of video.

Bruno Levy of New York City and Nimrod Weis of Melbourne, Australia are two multimedia artists at the forefront of motion graphics. This Modeselektor Deboutonner video incorporates thousands of photographs taken in Patan, Nepal over the course of a week. Using flashlights and long exposures, Levy was able to capture a truly magical landscape using simple tools and the notion of chance. Using a stationary, yet monumental sculpture, Lightscraper, Weis’ latest creation with Eness, is a light show projected onto a custom built aluminum structure, fabricated with a layer of semi translucent mesh.

Jumping into the realm of fashion, These Costume Department leggings are quite inspirational and we can see them easily being translated into a variety of commercial home goods. Tapping similar inspirations, Diane Von Furstenburg’s Fall windows are filled with graphic prints galore.

This collection wouldn’t be complete without a picture of graffiti in it’s rawest form. This snapshot captures a wall in Greenpoint and shares a striking resemblance to this advertisement for IDA Ireland. The slogan appropriately reads, “Ireland. Where Innovation Comes Naturally.”

By: Shayna Kulik

October 14, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Trend: Virtual Baggage




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These days, who doesn’t live life on the go? The ease at which we consume information keeps us moving from one task to the next, allowing us to jump through ideas, facilitate conversations and share moments. With the use of our mobile devises and computers, we are able to navigate through unlimited technology with minimal strain on our physical being. Dr. Susan Blackmore describes this information transferral process in her TED presentation, touching upon evolutionary theory, consciousness, replication and idea convergence between humans and technology. Blackmore, like others, is part of a research movement that’s focused on studying how trends, ideas and epidemics spread throughout human and digital communities.

In visualizing these theories, we have pulled dot-inspired imagery from relevant print, fashion and web sources. Are Your Friends Making You Fat? is a recent NYTimes piece by Clive Thompson which focuses on social contagion in the world of networking.  Merging fashion with technology, Commes de Garcon embraces pointillism with this atom inspired undershirt. Cisco insinuates global communication using colorful dots while Stella McCartney pares down to blue and green with her Whatever It Takes tote. Nancy Macko adds a truly organic touch with her artful study of the honey bee and Tatiana Plakhova embodies the idea of networkism in her two-toned fiber optic-looking graphic.

Collaborative coverage by: Kelsey-Lee LeGassick and Shayna Kulik

September 21, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Music: Bambi's Sartorial Sister




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Bambi, beautiful women and blood have become synonymous over the past few years. From Giles Deacon’s Spring ’08 punk fetish collection to Stella McCartney’s Fall ’09 disney-inspired photoshoot to musical acts such as the Bambi Killers and Terry Poison, we wonder if we have The Sex Pistols to thank for this snowballing global fascination with femininity and a loss of innocence.

bambi-killers

Meet the Bambi Killers, a creative troupe based in Manhattan and a true breath of fresh air to the downtown creative scene. Melding performance art, role play, costume design, audio soundscape and circus freakery, this trio explores topics such as government brainwashing, conspiracy theories and brut sexuality every time they go on stage. “Initially we were inspired by the loss of innocence, but our shows have evolved into a creative reaction on how pop culture objectifies women,” says Dawn Dunning, the group’s cofounder and fashion designer.

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Tapping similar styling techniques and fierce attitudes, the Tel Aviv based girl band, Terry Poison is just as eye-catching. Petite Meller, Louise Kahn, Gili Saar, Bruno Grife, Anna Landsman are all members of this electro-clash band that merges “American sleaze with European finesse” and has been performing the underground scene since early 2004. Terry Poison will be making their first US debut during CMJ– check them out if you’re in New York in late October.

September 16, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

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