Textiles: Global Tracking Beyond Google

Many of us love and collect maps so it’s no surprise to see modern adaptations to current collections. I recently came across this Carven number while browsing Barney’s after a dentist appointment. It’s quite playful in a polished way. Using a muted palette and traditional layout (who remembers the pull-down version from elementary school?!), this Elizabeth LeCourt dress merges uptown and downtown seamlessly. Reminding us that there are alternatives to the long-winded travel email, Best Made Co adds a needle and thread for DIY participation in their Stitching Postcards (which was recently featured in Wayfare Magazine).

This adorable onesie is from Mini Rodini and almost looks like a web 2.0 info graphic. I saw it on Swiss Miss last week. Precious, no?

May 7, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Famille Summerbelle

The work of Famille Summerbelle first caught our eye with their whimsical and meticulously detailed paper cut city maps, landing them in the top of our pattern designers list. Created by Anglo/French duo Simon Summerscales and Julie Marabelle, the inspiration for Famille Summerbelle came from the combination of family life experiences and a love of design and interior decoration. Together, they sought create the things that they wanted for their own home. La Famille Summerbelle’s design aesthetic is grounded in creating a mix between France and the UK. Famille Summerbelle may be a growing global brand, but they are still clearly very much a family business, reflected in their family friendly designs and sustainably focused mindset.

All products are imagined and designed by Julie, whose background is a mix of Fine Art (which she studied in Paris), and Theatre Set Design (which she studied at St Martin’s in London). This provides a balance of both artisanal skill and an understanding of dramatic backdrop in her work. Simon is managing director, and comes from a background in advertising where he worked for the world’s largest independent advertising agency, Wieden + Kennedy. He has worked internationally with brands such as Nike, Honda, Nokia and the Guardian Media Group.

January 30, 2012 | By: Shayna Kulik

Budget Buys: Louis Reith

A few months ago, Amsterdam-based artist, Louis Reith spun a web of admirers with his typographically inspired works on paper. His masterful merging of geometric shapes, abstract typography, vintage maps and old book pages is a reminder to all designers to take a step back from the computer every once in a while. In today’s world where so much art is digitally composed and intricately dense, the hand-rendered simplicity and obvious restraint makes Reith’s work immensely beautiful and refreshing. Little Paper Planes is presently offering four exclusive limited edition prints from the artist at a delightfully affordable price of $35 per print, with the whole set offered at $120. A lovely opportunity to get your hands on the work of a talented up and comer- take advantage!

June 21, 2010 | By: Shayna Kulik

Homegoods: Tactile Topography

tactile topography

In our modern times, filled with GPS and GoogleMaps, it’s no wonder that we seem to have developed a fascination for knowing where we are at all times. It’s reached a new level of poignancy to be able to locate yourself as well as peer over your neighborhood from above, observing it’s grid-like form. This sentiment is popping up in various textile projects and is most successfully executed by Emily Fischer of Haptic Labs and Marcello Campa and Stefano Avesani of the Instant Hutong Project. While Fischer references the borough of Brooklyn, quilting on silk dupioni, Campa and Avesani explore the Hutong districts throughout downtown Beijing. Regardless of the landscape, both works bring a permanency to topography that has become nearly extinct with technology’s latest advances. Nowadays lines are blurred so easily perhaps there is a certain comfort in being able to see and feel the things that don’t change so easily.

Compiled by: Emily Gup

July 13, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Food: More Sweets to Love

chocolate-jumble

For those who enjoy inspecting their food as much as eating it, desserts and notably chocolate, now offer an array of contemporary patterns and design. There’s a crop of pastry chefs working in today’s global marketplace that are all unified by the goal of innovation. Christopher Elbow, originally from Nebraska, combines a menagerie of ingredients in an effort to create intricate transfers. While this technique is quite common in the dessert world, the results from Elbow’s kitchen are refreshingly modern. Taking an equally creative route, the chocolatiers from Lagrange34 in Torino, Italy have reinvented the traditional chocolate bar, using geometric shapes to mold edible sculptures. A masterful example that combines both the surface and shape is evident in many of PattyCake Baking Co‘s latest creations.

February 12, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik

Patternizing Maps

vitra-map

Oftentimes I am hired to beautify info graphics. For any designer tasked with such an assignment, there is always an underlying urge to challenge the guidelines with as much flair as possible. Striking the perfect balance between translatable content that evokes human nostalgia is every designer’s goal- or at least mine. Here are a few creative approaches to this idea. Vitra recently redesigned their website, filling their homepage with fabric samples sectioning off continents within the world. A valid attempt to display product and distribution, though I wonder if there is any underlying symbolism in the placement of patterns- at first glance the assortment is a bit jumbled. Duck Down Designs takes a more DIY approach to map-making with illustrated paper cut-outs on a metaphorically inspirational treasure map.

downduckdesigns2

February 3, 2009 | By: Shayna Kulik