The Debut Pop-Up House Initiative

With less than three weeks to go till London Design Festival, anticipation for this year’s event is sky high.  One event which is set to 'Pop-Up' (literally) during the week 18-26 September is the first-ever House Initiative.

House is a new Creative Collective made up of a cross-disciplinary team of inspiring individuals, who aim to prove that creative professionals can beat the recession.  The team met at the Central Saint Martins Immersion Programme - where else?! (it seems that the buzz coming from this legendary university is still worthy of the hype, which excites me as a Post Graduate from this establishment myself!)  

The team includes Co-Founder Theo Bridge, a fellow design researcher, as well as fashion designer Dilini Nanayakkara and set designer Joe Morris.  What they all have in common, Bridge says, is ‘a similar set of ideals’.  By putting their heads together and riding the trend for all things Pop-Up, these guys sure are finding a way to cheat the recession.  Fair play!  With such a diverse creative team, the idea is to be able to respond originally to any multi-faceted brief - and I'm sure they will.

The Pop Up House initiative is not just designed to inspire, with varied showcases from fashion shows to lectures, but also to act as their day to day working space.  Sounds ideal, doesn't it?

The debut LDF Pop Up House installation, will include an event with D&AD as well as a talk by associate director at Seymour Powell, Paula Zuccotti.  Zucotti will be focusing on the importance of ethnography and user-research in design - which sounds right up my street.

The Pop Up House Initiative will be live during London Design festival 18- 26 September at 1 Berwick Street.  For those who don't know it, shame on you - that's the heart of Soho, London (W1F to be precise). 

The Urban Green Line

What are you barking on about now – I can hear you asking?  Well, it's called The Urban Green Line and is, well - exactly what it says on the tin.

This initiative (created by none other than the second batch of MA Innovation Management students at Central Saint Martins), is about to kick off after having received funding earlier this year.  This is all since winning the regional finals at the Audi Design Foundation’s 'Sustain our Nation’ competition.  Impressive, huh?!

In a nut shell - The Urban Green Line is designed to inspire you to live a greener and more active lifestyle, through the encouragement of co-creation with the community - (as in us Londoners). 

So OK, it may just seem like a green line running across the ground – but really, it’s so much more!  When you find out that the idea is to connect us all with green spaces and green thinkers alike, you should be impressed by the initiative, encouraging us city folk to enjoy the outside – whether it be simply walking, or taking part in a little guerilla gardening (as is suggested).

The fun part, is that this line is for anyone to engage with - so even you reading this now – you can put a line down anywhere you want - that is, if you think you are able to lead us to a cool green space in London. 

As well as being visually entertaining in reality, the Urban Green Line will also be supported by online activity, (mainly a website and the usual social media channels).  This will allow co-creation to evolve through people tagging these spaces on a virtual map and generally spreading the love - trying to remain focused on all things green and sustainable around London (although who knows how some people will spin it - let's see).  

If you're not already sold, then I will end on the best bit - it doesn’t cost a thing.  

i-D Magazine Celebrates 30 Years on Top of the Underground

This month i-D Magazine celebrates 30 years at the forefront of style and youth culture.  This cult publication has come a long way since it was first created in 1980, by former Vogue Art Director Terry Jones.   Back then it was produced as a low budget hand-stapled fanzine - can you believe it?! 300 issues later and i-D has certainly matured to WOW status.  To mark this momentous occasion, the fanatical style publication will be showcasing Pre-Fall, Fall and Winter issues under the title of THEN, NOW and NEXT.

Intrigued?

Good.

These next three birthday issues will be busting with 200 of the biggest names in fashion and style.  To make them as special as possible, the celebratory editions have been shot completely in black and white under the watchful eye of legendary photographer Nick Knight - who else? Knight has seriously pulled out all the stops on this one throughout his three-week long photo shoot, at Somerset House.  With gems like Vivienne Westwood, Florence Welch, Lara Stone and Gareth Pugh, to name a mere few - I'm sure you'll agree, we're all in for a treat!

As an avid magazine collector myself, I'm predicting these beauties are going to be worth a bomb in a few years, so make sure you get hold of these three mega issues - and for crying out loud, treat them as you would treat a pair of virgin Louboutins.  Got it?!  With one-eyed cover stars Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga - you should all be very excited.  I know I am.

If a magazine is anything like a woman (not sure if it is - but humour me and my and my analogy) - then we should be expecting this next decade (having hit the big 3-0) - that this amazingly sexy publication will be reaching new heights of maturity!  **WINK**

iPhone 4 Accessories now Available

Finally, iPhone 4 cases are available as a slider case or snap case from Incase.  Time to burst into a chorus of 'Sing Hallelujah!"

Unlike some of the unofficial early versions available to buy on random websites (like the one I got hold of in a panic to avoid the infamous 'death-grip'), these cases have been tested and are 100% compatible with the iPhone 4.  Each case features a 'flash ring', designed as a non-obtrusive cut out for the camera - allegedly cutting out glare and eliminating photo distortion.  Sounds great.  That's exactly what we need when uploading our random snapshots onto Facebook (considering most people's antics are usually somewhat blurry and distorted by their very nature - not mine obviously - as I am an angel!)  

Available in soft touch and gloss finishes - all cases are constructed with a durable hard shell and cut-outs in all the right places.  Obviously.  If they hadn't of considered that, they'd be a bit shit now - wouldn't they?!

The Slider Case (above) is now available in black - with Metallic cases in Dark Mauve, Gun Metal and Raspberry following shortly.

The Snap Case is currently only available in clear, however a Matt Black version will be following during the next hit - and no doubt a selection of crazy colours and prints will be designed and up for grabs, as and when you least expect it.  After all, we are a generation in need of instant gratification - we seem to get bored faster than a gun slinger in the ol' West, fighting to-the-death.  I'm going off on one again.  My point is, that we always want something sexier, slicker and more exclusive - so they better give it to us!  These are a good start though.  No complaints here.  

For details on cost and how to get hold of one of these bad boys, check out the Incase website.  Enjoy.

Ho Bloody Ho!

Passing through Selfridges (yet again), I almost had a heart attack when I realised that the infamous Christmas store was already open - can you even bear it?!  I guess, with this wonderful summer we're having (full blown sarcasm intended) it shouldn't have come as such a surprise that Winter is fast approaching.  Seriously, don't even get me started!   I only managed to right size my feelings of anticipated dread when I spotted these Santa Balls, which pretty much sum up my feelings towards the festive season - ho bloody ho, indeed!

The entire range plays out like music to my ears!  I know, I know, I'd better be nice - I don't want Santa to be mad with me now do I?  After all, I do have my eye on a few nice bits 'n' bobs as usual (sue me!)

**I promise!**

Brooklyn Bäst's Debut Showcase

New York artist Bäst (based in Brooklyn, to be precise), has been creating his wheat-pasted images for over 10 years now - contributing to the New York and European urban art scene more cool than most cucumbers can handle.  Whilst Bäst remains another elusive character in the art world, (very like our very own Banksy), his work has been showcased at various galleries in recent years and as of 20th August, his first debut solo-exhibition is being held at Lazarides Rathbone Place Gallery.  I tell no lie!

It's all very exciting - his homage to Digital Underground's Humpty Dumpty is top notch.  If you're quick and have £250 to spare, you may be lucky enough to get hold of one of the 250 signed and limited editions.  Check it out!

One word, two syllables (and read in a long, drawn-out, high pitched tone...) AAAWE-SOME! 

Nuff said.

Retro Mini Wraps

This may have already launched last year, but if we're going all 1980's retro on the design, I don't see why we can't go one decade earlier to nick a legendary quote from the one and only Veruca Salt...

'I don't care... I want it now!'