One of the most interesting things about retailer Cotton On, located on the Santa Monica Promenade, is that it’s from Australia—a nation known for its wool. (In fact, a gross amount of Australia’s gross national product has historically been wool.) The first impression walking in, is that Cotton On is an Urban Outfitters knockoff. And it may be. But after shopping around, visitors understand that CO brings its own perspective into the store. In fact, some items are even design-edgier than UO.
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New Ideas:
A posting of thinking we like.
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Cotton On. Au.
Category: New Ideas Comments Off | July 26, 2010
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Paula Scher
Pentagram partner and renowned graphic designer Paula Scher continues her Map series with these complex and alluring geographies that map out the information context as well as the often overload we experience in 21st century society. These layered, swirling images are hell-bent on mapping context with content of cities, countries, and continents. Amid graphic colors, lines and words layered atop one another, the artist proves her place as one of the most provocative of contemporary artists.
click: www.paulascher.com
Category: New Ideas, New Ideas Blog Comments (0) | January 2, 2008
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Todd Oldham
These super cool plastic bags suggest that even super-talented designer Todd Oldham must have to stand in airport security lines with the rest of us. Or, at least he had the rest of us in mind when he created these FAA regulation quart-sized bags for Mobi. Choose from three colorfully complementary designs and raise eyebrows and envy at the airport security line.
click: www.mobi-usa.com/toddoldham
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Alvaro Siza
Pritzker Prize winner architect Alvaro Sizas spaces fit organically and emotionally into the spaces they inhabit. More established in Europe (and homeland Portugal) than high-flying contemporaries, Siza is nonetheless a sizable force in the current mindscape of architectural design and planning.
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Moscow
Moscow, 2007. Moscow is the new drug. One of the largest markets for Bentleys in the world, Russia today also has the most billionaires. A $15 bottle of California wine sells in restaurants for $150. This photo was taken across the street from Red Square, next to the National Hotel (were Lenin lived before moving across the street to the Kremlin, the hotel where while you might have Room 426 down the hall from where King Juan Carlos of Spain slept, the room is actually on the 6th floor to baffle assassins, also the hotel famed for eavesdropping on its guests). Young Russians pirate iPhones from the U.S. and have the software to not only connect into Moscow mobile phone service Beeline, but replace English characters with the Cyrillic alphabet. The red videotron (above right) loops commercials for Cadillac SUVs, Timberland boots, and Greek tourism. Theres a Levis store down the block, even a Sbarro pizza shop. On the 90th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the army lined up in formation in front of that block-long Rolex billboard. Lenins tomb is green with envy.
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Amarula Cream
An African liqueur, Amarula Cream is made from the exotic Marula fruit. Recipes, cocktails, and distributors are available to explore. Amarula is a South African cream liqueur made with the fruit of the African Marula tree (Sclerocarrya birrea) which is also locally called the Elephant tree or the Marriage Tree. Amarula was first marketed in September 1989. It has the taste of slightly fruity caramel. Amarula has received consistently good reviews, with the caveat that, like most cream liqueurs, it is too sweet for some palates. It has become the second largest seller in the cream liqueur category after Bailey’s Irish Cream, with particular success in Brazil. Recently, Amarula has attempted to break into the American market. Because of the marula tree’s association with elephants, the distiller has made them its symbol and supports elephant conservation efforts. It produces for marketing efforts various collectible items featuring elephant head decoration.
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Poppadums
Some people fall for nan when eating Indian food, but we go for pappadums. Reduced to crispy snacks in Britain (like American potato chips), we found these crispy microwavable Poppadums at a grocery in Cape Town, South Africa. Pop in the microwave for 90 seconds, and they come out just like Baba used to make.
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Damien Hirst
Damien Hirsts skull is covered in $100 million worth of diamonds, which means this piece of art will spend the rest of its life in a vault or under guard.
Category: New Ideas, New Ideas Blog Comments (0) | September 16, 2007
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Hand Job: A Catalog of Type
Former Urban Outfitters designer Mike Perry (who designed our Thinktopia poster) has a book just out from Princeton Architecture Press titled Hand Job: A Catalog of Type.
click: midwestisbest.com
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Rieko Miyata
Japanese designer Rieko Miyata forms this clamshell lookalike from coiled ribbon. click: http://www.japandesign.ne.jp/
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