Leave it to the Swedish to come up with a series of drawstring lamps made from a sun-shielding waste material. The textile gurus over at Svensson Markspelle developed a fabric with a self-supporting infrastructure, allowing Merry-Go-Round to make a light with an ever-changing shape. The Drawstring Lamp invites play and interaction with your standard inanimate object. In a variety of colorful combinations, these lamps filter light so their color and draping look effortless, proving that lighting can be more than functional and morally eco-conscious—it can be sexy.
Merry-Go-Round Drawstring Lamps are 340€ at merrygoround.se
Venue, a roving editorial body from BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley of Edible Geography, is nearing the end of a 16-month tour. Since last June the team has traveled around North America with a specially designed, lightweight cinéma vérité tripod rig, conducting interviews and photographing out-of-the-way places. The team has visited the U.S. military's simulated battlefields, been on set with costume designers at Spectral Motion, shot the field where NASA rehearsed the moon landing, and even made music in a cave in Virginia.
Check out some of Venue photos below, and keep an eye out for the final stories from the trip.
Co-founder and former director of Design Miami Ambra Medda (who also happens to be married to OK Go singer Damian Kulash) is going digital. Her latest venture is L'ArcoBaleno, a design e-commerce site with editorial features which launched June 19.
Medda, co-founder and creative director of the new Berlin-based L’ArcoBaleno, tells us ”L’ArcoBaleno will reflect the entire spectrum of design—that includes collectible objects, but also fashion, food, music, architecture, art, and technology. Our hope is that it will influence the global design conversation, and inspire and engage collectors, curators, and devotees of creative fields."
L’ArcoBaleno is obviously drawing on Medda's passion for exciting contemporary design and her well-earned connections in the design and gallery universe. The shop launched with work from presenting galleries such as Galerie Kreo, Demisch Danant and Galerie Patrick Seguin. And the site's advisory board includes heavy hitters such as designer Tom Dixon, fashion designer Reed Krakoff, publisher Martina Mondadori, musician Pharrell Williams, and gallerist Alexander Dellal.
The site specializes in modern design, offering highbrow furniture (the chaise from Poul Kjærholm, above, lists for $65,000), ceramics, and lifestyle products such as bicycles by Velorapida ($2,260), and sunglasses by Conservatoire International de Lunettes ($360). The emphasis of the Objects section is on gallery-quality design objects and furniture.
While few of us may be ponying up for a Max Lamb Poly Dining Set, we can dig into the site's magazine-style features for free. For launch, Medda interviews designer Tom Dixon, whom she's known since childhood, in the Features section. Destinations is a bit like a global gallery guide. And Designers has bios on everyone the site might be carrying from Yuri Suzuki to Humans Since 1982. The L'ArcoBaleno blog might be our favorite bit, it features a recipe from Alla Carta's Martino Gamper, and endorsements of baskets from Botswana and a studio visit with the great Ana Kras.
So far, so good.
Using a massive mirror and some creative angles, Argentine artist Leandro Erlich has recreated the facade of a Victorian terraced house destroyed during World War II as a piece of interactive art on a stretch of Ashwin Street in Dalston. The installation, which places the building's facade on the ground, and reflects that image to a near perfect perspective, allows visitors to hang from windows and climb the walls of the house without actually stepping off the ground. According to an artist's statement in the New York Times, a team that specializes in huge mirrors was brought in from Belgium to collaborate on the project.
Dalston House is presented by the Barbican Gallery as part of the London Festival of Architecture, and will be open through August 4. Find info on readings, screenings, and various events at online at the Barbican. Early arrival is suggested.
The vinyl revival has been mirrored by a resurgence of interest in cassettes—which many of us prized for their size, affordability and blank-canvas flexibility back in their heyday. Designer Neil Stevens like them, too, and has created a series of posters (30, in fact) based on the inlay designs for blank cassette tapes from various countries. Even if one can't get entirely behind the magnetic tape comeback—fidelity was never the cassette's strong suit—one must admit the bold and reassuring graphics of the "C30, C60, C90, Go" era would look very nice on a wall.
"Don't Forget the Cassette" posters are available from crayonfire.co.uk.
Dusen Dusen's latest collection may be about quintessentially shaped pieces, ideal for anyone wanting a crisp spin on a basic. Ellen Van Dusen's silhouettes are clean and simple. But at the end of the day, it's all about the patterns. Wearable takes on Haring-esque squiggles, swirls, and fruity shapes feel approachable, and are appropriately more subdued than '80s textiles from flashy early music videos. The intentional spacing and repetition in these fabrics can fit into any wardrobe in need of some fun.
Photographer John Rudoff was on hand when Joan Baez brought Bob Dylan out as an unannounced guest at a show in Camden, NJ in 1963. Two years later he was in the front row snapping some of the only color photos during the infamous "Dylan Goes Electric" show at the Newport Folk Festival. The former photography student from Philadelphia also snapped some amazing shots of blues greats Son House and Mississippi John Hurt and folkies Dave van Ronk and Phil Ochs. Looking at these little-seen images is a somewhat disorienting experience, mostly because they are so perfectly preserved. Until you notice a vintage microphone, or the complete absence of cell phones, it's hard to tell the collection is half a century old.
Will Laren's down-and-out characters have a tendency to deliver dark comedic monologues. His illustrations, which appear in his three-color silkscreen zine Slurricane, in Vice, and his own posters, feature highly active colors, usually bright blues, purples, and greens made to intentionally clash. The resulting work, especially his fluorescent outlines, shouts at us to be seen.
Keep up with Will Laren via his Tumblr and Facebook.
"Youth Tooth"
Choosing a more voyeuristic reveal of their new Spring/Summer men's collection rather than a runway show, Band of Outsiders livestreamed Devendra Banhart wearing the pieces over a period of 24 hours in a hotel room. The cameras were set up in Banhart's room in L.A.'s Chateau Marmont with producers from Band of Outsiders slipping him performance notes along the way, encouraging Banhart to engage with themes like nostalgia, hunger, and vanity.
An archived version of the livestream is below, and an interview with Banhart conducted during the show in which an answer is "What time is it? I'd like to be a milkshake" is on Vice.
The Dieline, a site that covers advances in package design, has just announced the winners of its annual design awards. The selections lean heavily toward sustainable design, with most winners and honorable mentions managing to reduce transportation energy or packaging waste. Here are five designs we'd like to see on shelves, in cabinets, and on the table.
Sustainable Expanding Bowl
By using the power of hot water and steam, Tomorrow Machine and Innventia created a bowl that reduces landfill waste by using only biodegradable materials, and cuts down on the shipping's carbon footprint by packing to a condensed bowl.
Versa Flow
One of the simplest packaging revisions in this year's honors still deserves high marks. Owens-Illinois added a simple spout to the glass jar and revolutionized salsa, pasta sauce, and anything else that we pour from jars.
Natural Delivery
At some restaurants, the waste from a take-out order can be staggering. Natural Delivery is a to-go package for restaurants that eliminates the need for a plastic bag and additional plates while providing a clean placemat for multitasking lunches at a desk, or meals taken in the great outdoors. The paper structure is stackable and has a built-in paper handle for easy transport.
BANDiful
Not unlike the Versa Jar, the BANDiful one-handed bandage package is one of the most obvious packaging revisions. The simple card format is much easier to use with one uninjured hand than a box with individually wrapped bandages. 
The Little Printer
The Little Printer, a tiny thermal printer that prints reports from news sources and social networks on receipt paper, is a playful item. To package the small device for secure international shipping, the designers at Burgopak added a simple greeting and repurposed the printer's bright red stand as two welcoming arms.