Using the new video-clip-sharing app, Vine, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman collaborated to create a videogram about love for Nowness. The video is broken up into clips of the duo going back and forth as they ponder thoughts about relationships and love. Their quick wit is captured with the help of Graydon Sheppard, of Sh*t Girls Say, who filmed the project, and needless to say, the result is hilarious.
You can watch the video, and join Coppola and Schwartzman as they reflect on the meaning of love now. Look for our interview with Roman Coppola on the site later this week.
The geometric variety Alex Fuller achieves with just two colors and two letters at a time is pretty amazing. His new publication, Book of Two Letter Words, which he says was inspired by his Scrabble champion mother and English major father, abstracts simple words like "It," "No," and "At" by weaving the letterforms together and pitting the primary blue and red colors against one another. The result is elemental and visually striking. If you had any doubt how committed Fuller is to the two-color scheme, note that even the staples are red.
The book is limited to 250 copies, some of which are available at 5x7
With the weather warming up and brighter days approaching, Sun Buddies, the new sunglasses line from Hannes and Simon Hogeman of Très Bien, couldn’t have come at a better time. Currently offered in one style, Type 01, Sun Buddies come in four different color options: turtle green, turtle brown, clear, and black. Inspired by vintage sunglasses of the 1960s, Sun Buddies Type 01 are a sleek take on a iconic shape—a strong, simple look. We'd expect the fine construction and attention to detail typical of Très Bien.
Sun Buddies are now available for purchase online at Très Bien.
You might think that everything that could go on a bike has been created already, but designers consistently come up with new wonders that can ride on two-wheels.
At its Savoir-Faire showcase at Milan's Salone del Mobile, ECAL (Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne) showed some such wonders. Its Savoir-Faire bike accessories included rain deflectors, a brake handle bell, a valve cap you can't lose, snow chains for tires, and cable-tie add-ons like a water bottle holder, bag hook, light, bell, and more. Unfortunately, they're not in production yet, but we'll take 'em as inspiration that the bike platform still holds opportunity for outfitting.
See more exciting design projects at ECAL.
Subject of eager experimentation and speculation since its debut in January, the Twitter video-sharing service Vine has shown that looping, six-second clips may be poised for more than an obligatory 15 minutes of fame. As users continue to test and tweak the app’s possibilities, the Tribeca Film Festival has provided a platform to showcase creativity within the medium with its inaugural Six Second Film Festival.
According to Genna Terranova, Tribeca’s director of programming, the idea for adding Vine to the festival lineup came out of conversations festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal had with actor Adam Goldberg, widely recognized as one of the most popular Vine users.
“We’re always looking to do new and exciting things with storytelling, and wanted to look at how these new tools are inspiring filmmakers, especially young filmmakers” she says. “When you’re telling stories in a visual medium, it can results in bigger stories later.”
Viners submitted more than 400 entries in the Genre, Series, Auteur, and Animate categories, 40 of which were submitted to judges, who selected these winners on April 26.
The winner of each category will receive $600 (a hundred bucks for each second). Terranova feels the app’s built-in limitations—users can’t really edit, leading to a quick-cut style of recording – are more of a creative constraint than a challenge, requiring lots of premeditation.
“There’s something really challenging about it,” says Terranova. “So much creativity is about play, and Vine is another form of play right now.”
Animators took to the app quickly, but she sees comedy and other styles becoming an emerging focus.
“In six seconds you can achieve something with the tools of sound and video,” she says. “You can generate feeling, emotion, the wow factor. When people find a tool they’re excited about, their natural energy is expressed in the story they’re telling. Indie filmmaking is very drama heavy. [With Vine,] you don’t get a six second Blue Valentine.”
Entries to the Six Second Films Competition can be viewed on the Tribeca Film Festival website.
In a few weeks, big cities across the US will experience the annual bummer/phenomenon known as "Urban Heat Island." There's not much we can do to avoid the extra high temperatures, but the designers at Rael San Fratello Architects have a solution for the future in their Planter Brick, which is a brick designed to act as a permanent planter on a building's exterior. Having live plants built directly into a structure wall could not only counter the heat island effect and aid in filtering the air, but could also create better sound and temperature insulation for buildings. Aesthetically speaking, we think it would be awesome to see a wall of succulents. The concrete bricks are 3D-printed to order, and are in production now. [via emerging objects]
For A-Trak & Tommy Trash's new "Tuna Melt" video, director Ryan Staake built a Rube Goldberg contraption that would make Pee Wee Herman jealous. The impressive machine, which spans multiple floors and staircases, cues a flip book animation, a paper airplane flight, and uses roughly one million colored tongue depressors to assemble a tuna melt sandwich.
As an added bonus, the producers assembled a behind-the-scenes clip to show a fraction of the prep work and trials to make a machine like this one work.
"Tuna Melt"
Making of "Tuna Melt"
Is it really necessary to reissue the Kama Sutra at all? Used copies aren't exactly hard to find. But perhaps, the opportunity to update the looks of the classic sex manual was just too good to pass up for Penguin Classics. Malika Favre's cover illustration and typography is both erotic, slightly cheeky, and graphically bold. With art direction from Paul Buckley, the deluxe edition will surely find its way into a many bedside tables.
The bears, deer, and other creatures in Deedee Cheriel's paintings aren't chosen lightly. Her work is concerned with the interaction of the natural world and human emotion, and by painting animals she hopes to show emotions like fear and happiness taking non-human form. Although she now lives and works in urban Los Angeles, she cites childhood camping trips with her mom in a Volkswagen bus as the beginning of her fascination with the natural world. Cheriel's earliest experience as a working artist actually came a few years after those camping trips when she painted album covers and T-shirts for her teenage band and record label.
Thanks partly to his recent success on Kickstarter, Nicholas Monterotti, is well on his way to establishing his upcoming custom neckwear label: Peter Field. After his own struggle with finding a tie that fit properly, Monterotti created Peter Field, to solve the issues that often arise with the search for the perfect tie, bow tie, or even pocketsquare. The brand, based in Chicago, operates by taking the measurements of each customer and allowing them to customize both the width and the print of the neckwear of their choice. Each item from Peter Field is completely unique to the individual client. It's a realistic entry point to the bespoke experience.
For more information, visit Peter Field online.
