Nike Offers 5 Billion Versions of Zoom Kobe IV
How much choice do you need? Well, you can figure that out yourself thanks to
NIKEiD, which is offering an unprecedented 5 billion design variations of its Nike Zoom Kobe IV, basketball star Kobe Bryant's fourth shoe with the brand. Aside from selecting color variations on 11 different parts of the sneaker, buyers can specify materials and patterns, as well as add customized IDs to the sneakers' collars and heels. (Check out my version above, with its reptile patent tip and heel in laser blue, quarter and tongue in midnight navy, and a synthetic leather vamp in good ole black!) The kicks have their usual performance bells, including the thin, superstrong Flywire nylon fibers that support the feet in the upper portion of the shoes. Oh, and the sneakers weigh only 11.6 ounces each, a new record for Nike. But, come on, it's the crazy amount of mass customization options that's the big winner. The Kobe IV won't be in stores until Feb. 1, but Nike is selling 24 pairs online each day until then.
Labels: customization, Nike, Sneakers
Patricia Urquiola's Déchirer Tiles
One of the woefully few celebrated female industrial designers, Patricia Urquiola has created furniture for Boffi, B&B, and Moroso; porcelain teapots for Rosenthal; watches and bowls for Alessi; and interiors for Knoll and Marks & Spencer. So fitting that the multitalented Spainard—and Achille Castiglioni's former teaching assistant—should pull it all together with Déchirer, her debut line of tile. Produced by
Ceramiche Mutina the large-scale ceramic pieces, whose name translates from French as "to shred," have surfaces imprinted with snatches of different patterns. Available in four sizes and five understated colors.
Labels: Patricia Urquiola, tiles
Newson's Micarta Desk, Komed Lights Defy Auction Downturn
Decry the death of the contemporary design market if you will, but works by
Marc Newson continue to seduce buyers. On Wednesday the New York branch of auction house
Phillips de Pury & Company sold the Australian designer’s Micarta desk (2006), made from a resin-impregnated linen used for knife handles, for $203,000, a nice bump above its $190,000 estimate. Neither joint nor junction disrupts the contour of the desk, which Newson assembled from three pieces and first showed at the
Gagosian Gallery in 2007. Newson’s other items at the Dec. 17 sale also fared well: two pairs of his Komed wall/ceiling lights sold for $27,500 and $50,000, far above their estimate of $15,000-20,000 each. Why do works by the 45-year-old Newson continue to have such bank? Chalk it up to his biomorphic shapes, exquisite workmanship (he trained in sculpture and jewelery-making), and penchant for using offbeat materials and finishes.
Labels: auction, furniture, Marc Newson, Phillips de Pury
Sav Wine Packaging by Stockholm Design Lab
The most effective packaging conveys a product's story rather than using bells and whistles to distract from it—or compensate for it. Case in point is the excellent solution
Stockholm Design Lab created for
Sav, a sparkling wine made from birch sap. The tale goes that 9,000 year ago, when the inland ice drew back from Jämtland, the region in Sweden from which Sav comes, the birch was the first tree to reach for the skies again. When humans returned to the area, it was the first tree they noticed. They tapped it for its sap, which they drank to greet the coming of spring. SDL shared this story by creating a bottle wrap that is a modern interpretation of birch bark. It features a white background with a bold black slash, with the faint outlines of other trees in the distance. When the bottles are placed next to each other, they look a like a forest, re-enforcing Sav's contents and origins. (Via
PSHK)
Labels: packaging, Sav, Stockholm Design Lab
5-Euro Coin Honoring Dutch Architecture
Quick, name five Dutch architects. Rem Koolhaas? Yup. UN Studio? Uh-huh. Gerrit Reitveld? More known for his chairs than buildings, but correct. MVRDV? Right. And...ummm...Exactly. Well, no excuse to be at a loss now, thanks to the Netherland's 5-Euro piece that celebrates its architectural achievers. Dubbed the "Architecture Fiver," the front of the legally tender coin contains the names of 109 Dutch architects, past and present, rendered in a single line that coils to create the likeness of Queen Beatrix. The back features Dutch architecture books whose spines are arranged to form an outline of the country. Credit graphic designer Stani Michiels with the design: His entry was chosen by the Dutch Ministry of Finance from a countrywide competition open to artists and architects. A great documentation of Michiel's design process is
here.
Labels: coin, Dutch architects, Gerrit Rietveld, MVRDV, Rem Koolhaas, UN Studio
Fabio Novembre Door Hardware for Valli and Valli
Growing up, I was a big fan of the TV show "The Facts of Life." There were those rollicking good adventures with Mrs. Garrett and the
Eastland girls, who you watched blossom into cool, independent women, and there was the sage theme song: "You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have, The Facts of Life, The Facts of Life." Little did I know that, years on, I'd realize the same maxims hold true for design. Case in point:
Fabio Novembre's Love Series of door hardware for
Valli and Valli. In the past, the company has churned out some fine handles and pulls via collaborations with Frank
Gehry, Richard Meier, Gae
Aulenti, Antonio
Citterio, Michael Graves, and Andree
Putman. But this turn with
Novembre: not so great. For his offerings, the Italian designer, who practices a "narcissistic
neo-baroque" style (his words), started with a classic cylinder shape, then filed down one end so it terminates in an angled heart. The press release waxes that "[W]
hile the heart intends to remind the user of love, its polished surface also serves as a mirror in which one can lovingly gaze upon their [sic] own reflection." Nice try, but a more apt description would be '80s kitsch rendered in solid brass with a polished or satin chrome finish. I would respect
Novembre more if he had really gone for it and added a rainbow arching off the heart, or maybe a unicorn peeking its head over the handle grip. Perhaps he had wanted to. And maybe next time.
Labels: door handles, Fabio Novembre, hardware, Valli and Valli
