design

FABRIC FUTURE

The BMW GINA Light Visionary Model is made of fabric, a feature that makes it genuinely cutting-edge.

All too often a concept car is little more than a marketing exercise disguised as pioneering design. By beefing up the form of a forthcoming model, a car manufacturer can begin the PR machine for a new design and gauge public opinion by effectively employing a mass focus group. Stunning as these cars often are, rarely do they break with convention.

Recognizing this fact, BMW does not refer to their latest design as a concept car, for the non-production car is based on the GINA principle: Geometry and Functions In Adaptations, which the company says, promotes innovative thinking by allowing maximum freedom of creativity. With the aim of challenging previously pursued solutions in car design, this month the BMW Group Design team revealed the groundbreaking GINA Light Visionary Model. A two-seater roadster with seemingly sculpted body, the GINA references some of the great cars of yesteryear with its steeply inclined windshield. Yes there are three elements that mark the GINA as truly forward-thinking and make it worthy of a superhero owner. that fabric cover, a structural form that changes shape, and intelligent interior. by kl

CATEGORIES: cars, design, objects

john lennon: erotic

one of my favorite purchases from street book tables. from the march 1970 issue of avant garde, these are ‘john lennon’s erotic lithographs’. beautiful. by kl

CATEGORIES: books, design

tobias wong : a beautiful mind

originally from vancouver, canada, tobias wong creates in new york. after studying art and architecture, he graduated in sculpture from the cooper union. wong treats design as a medium rather than a discipline to show how it embraces the aesthetics traditionally relegated to the fine arts. he’s coined the term “paraconceptual” to describe his dismantling of the hierarchies between “art” and “design.” in wong’s hands, both have similar goals.

 

tobias wong in his studio

remote control light switch designed for conduit group

real gold capsules… so you can shit gold… talk about social criticism

the “mirror” puzzle set a black one was done in collaboration with commes des garcon – good luck with that

wong has a way of looking at the ordinary and transforming it into something extraordinary, as expressed by his bent pencil (above), and reverse diamond ring (below) a weapon in the time of need against your husband

(below) smoking mittens for those very cold days 

“protect me form what i want”

not merely conceptual, his work mocks its own consumption. wong literalized this message with a jenny holzer tattoo on his right forearm: “PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT.” this maxim was written on wong’s flesh by holzer herself, then made permanent with injected ink. equally indelible are wong’s readydesigneds (replacing the anonymous readymade objects with well recognized designer pieces) refashioned. these new forms and aesthetic concepts brace against, appreciate, and invite desire. wong’s continuing exploration of this conundrum goes beyond the paraconceptual to projects he now refers to as “postinteresting”… by pp

CATEGORIES: art, design, perfect gift