The color blue; emotive, vivid, royal. In physical form it becomes highly powerful, and manifested in the form of a crown issued postage stamp it is literal royalty. The ‘Mauritius Blue’ is one of the world’s most (in)famous stamps. Colored by tale, colonialism and history, last at sale in 2007 it reached £1,053,090 and continues to be heralded as… Read More >
In March this year Peter Saville’s design for the Blue Monday sleeve celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of its release. Its many anecdotes are widely known; That its inspiration was a computer floppy disc, found in New Order’s recording studio as they embarked on ever more sophisticated computer-generated music. And that it was so expensive to produce each copy sold made a financial loss for Factory Records.The sleeve’s colourful edge design may initially have been presupposed as continuance of the floppy disc’s appropriation – assumed simply as techno-digital decoration necessary to complete a picture. Yet three months later when the band released their critically acclaimed second album, a colour chart on the back cover revealed to those who studied carefully; these eye-catching arrangements conveyed information. The transformation of Joy Division’s legacy into New Order’s electronic new sound could not have had a more appropriately enigmatic start. Read more >
Lucille Ball was an American TV star of the 1950s and had acted in the movie Too Many Girls (1940). When due to a 1980s comeback she had received a complete dental prosthetis, Mrs. Ball raised alarm. She complained about constantly hearing Japanese radio stations. Lucille Ball had caused a lot of trouble to the Rolling Stones already… Read More —
As we snake along California’s infamous Pacific Coast Highway toward Los Angeles, the moon glints off the oscillating ocean, distant high-rises pockmarked with lights reveal the ever-working pulse of industry, a flock of pelicans traces the horizon in fluid flight, our car hugs… Read More—
Each September and February, four fashion capitals of the world come to brim with excitement, for it is the seasonal parades known as Fashion Weeks. Loud, colorful, creative and manic, the mesmerising energies of the live shows are a sight to behold. Read More—
On the Eightieth Birthday of Dieter Rams, 20 May 2012: For me Dieter Rams is one of the masters of the twentieth century. He has undoubtedly written design history. The products that he designed for the electronic goods manufacturer, Braun, in the 1960s were genuinely groundbreaking and of a consistent minimalistic beauty the likes of which I have never again witnessed—
