Ever since i saw the video for Sure Shot in 1994, i have coveted a fisheye lens, and today my wish came true. I managed to get a Nikkor fisheye for my D80 at around half price from everyone's favourite ebay. It has an incredible focal length of 10.5mm, whilst still producing rectalinear images, and i absolutely love it. Expect many many distorted images from now on. My cat Flo seems impressed too...
Right, i'm back from Milan: tired, sore and full to the brim with design and booze. Unfortunately i didn't manage to see Karim Rashid, but as expected, the trip was choc full of chance encounters with old compadres. There are endless blogs covering the work in Milan, so i won't join in too much, but below are a few choice pics, and there are more on my flickr page. If you want to find out more about what was on show, maybe try designboom or dezeen, and just maybe i'll see you there next year?
The big event was, as always, the Established and Sons party. Bit weird that the biggest ticket in Milan furniture week is a British company, but there you go. As ever there were lots of design celebs there, and the queues outside were monumental as expected. I luckily had tickets, but major props must go to Irina, a friend of mine and PA to Konstantin Grcic, who managed to get nine people in on one invitation. Also bumped into Ed (who is really starting to make waves with Established) and Big Will, who continues to make waves with the ladies.
design-wise, as i mentioned, there are hundreds of other blogs out there going into much more detail than I can be bothered to, but for what it's worth, my highlight was the lolita lamp by Nika Zupanc for moooi. Assuming the pricing is OK, i think there may soon be a new lamp in Casa Fosta.
Tom Dixon showed pretty much exactly the same collection as last year, so i thought it only fitting to take exactly the same photo as last year, reflected in his copper lampshade.
Marcel Wanders was not quite the star as he was last year, but i still think he killed it for Poliform. Sure it's self indulgent tut, but it was very well produced, and quite refreshing. His work for Swarovski on the other hand was awful, although i couldn't take any pictures, due to the ridiculous camera Nazis in the exhibition. On that note, i think it's worth mentioning that camera Nazis have been on the decline in the last few years, but Swarovski and Kartell still employ a huge team to stop anyone taking pictures, which is ridiculous as images of every piece are on their websites and countless blogs just hours after the shows are opened. Stop being so mean, let people take pictures, where's the harm?
So there you have it, another year passes by, more things change, but worryingly, much stays the same. The same stars stay stars, the followers continue to copy, and the same themes get battered to death. We'll see what happens next year but here are my predictions:
1. Lot's of floral adornment, again
2. High gloss, everywhere.
3. White with wood
4. more ordinary objects enlarged out of scale
5. corian corian corian zzzzzzzzzz.
The annual Milan furniture fair is upon us once again, and i'm off for three days of snobbery, furniture, cocktails, queuing and pizza. As usual i'll probably bump into some old friends, some old foes, and a few famous types. Hopefully i'll see Karim Rashid (above) so i can stick a fork in his face. I'll do a full write up next week, but sorry fans, there will be no webwatch this week.
Private Eye magazine has a section called 'solutions' where readers send in company names which use the word 'solution' to try and sound more business-like. Companies such as 'sanitary disposal solutions' (toilets), and 'horticultural management solutions' (gardeners) often get a mention. I was walking past Liverpool Street station today past a building site, as is so often the case in the city. It turns out that they aren't building an office block as i thought, but an 'advanced business life environment'... what?
The Royal Mint has redesigned it's coins here in the UK, or more correctly, a graphic designer has won a competition to design them. In a word the new designs are brave. I don't think i have seen such a brave move in quite some time, graphically speaking. The designs shown above will enter general circulation over the course of this year, and each features a section of a the heraldic shield. When arranged as a collection the full image is revealed, like some sort of jigsaw with circular pieces. I'm yet to make up my mind fully, but i think it's a great move to try something so bold, especially in a field which has remained fairly traditional for such a long time.
I'm patenting a prank today, but you can use it under license if you wish..... I'm calling it 'dockshocking', and i did it with great success earlier today.
I noticed a while back that i open applications on my mac without really registering the icon, but the position of that icon in the dock, which is a little like touch-typing i guess. Well today a colleague of mine was winding me up, so whilst he went to lunch, i just shuffled all the icons around in his dock. Ten minutes after lunch he was swearing and cursing - success! (being a good friend i took a screen grab of the previous state which i sent to him after the prank ran it's course). Try it, it's way more irritating than you might think.
Last night i succumbed and bought a Playstation 3. Before you all get your knickers in a twist, here's my disclaimer: i work for sony. From what i've seen so far, it's a pretty amazing machine. Setup is really simple, just plug in to the mains, plug a HDMI into your TV and you're away. Once i was up and running i was able to connect to my wireless network at home in a couple of clicks. Visually speaking, the unit isn't to my liking, it's way to black and shiny, and the shape doesn't allow for stacking, which in my home is a problem. I bought the unit in a bundle with Gran Turismo 5 prologue and a Tom Clancy shoot 'em up all for £299, which is a bargain in my book. I'll do a proper review once i've got my teeth into it, but so far, so good.
the hundreds have opened a store in San Francisco. The list of reasons to go to the west coast just got one longer.
Near the station, where i catch my daily train, is parked a saab. It's a saab 900 SE, but the font used for the model badge looks a little odd. It seems to be the standard Saab font, but to me it reads 'goose'. I looked into this on the ol' internet, and apparently the 900 SE is widely referred to as the 'goose'. I love quirks like this, it seems to come from a naive age, and it makes me smile.
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