If Formula 1 is the king of car racing, then MotoGP is its two-wheeled equivalent – making for the highest level of professional motorcycle road racing in the world. With riders hitting speeds of over 220 miles per hour, knees scraping the asphalt in death-defying corners, and races that often come down to hundredths...
Garden variety – V&A Dundee hosts ambitious design exhibition
V&A Dundee’s new exhibition starts before you get up to the first-floor gallery. As visitors enter the main hall of Kengo Kuma’s 2018 waterfront building, they’re confronted by 11 big white flowers dangling from the double-height ceiling. Called Shylight and created by Amsterdam’s Studio DRIFT, the floral...
Potatoes Aren’t Irish! They’re 100% Peruvian, and We’ve Got the Receipts!
Ask someone where the potato comes from, and, odds are, they’ll say Ireland. Blame the Great Famine of the 1800s, or the country’s famous shepherd’s-pie comfort dish. But the true origin of the world’s most versatile vegetable lies not in the emerald hills of Europe, but high in the Andean mountains of South...
design/leader: Beardwood&Co. founder Julia Beardwood
Julia Beardwood is founder of Beardwood&Co. The New York-based branding and strategy agency works with B2C and B2B clients like Danone, Pottery Barn and Rabble Wine. Design What would your monograph be called? Illuminating Possibilities. Everything we do is about helping clients see opportunities that aren’t...
Cholita Style Just Hit Hollywood Thanks to Dany Escalera Zambrana and ‘Cholita Takes L.A.’
When the creators of the new short film “Cholita Takes L.A.,” a short film by Minivela, were casting the wardrobe for their main character, a Bolivian luchadora-slash-fashionista dropped into East L.A., they didn’t run to Rodeo Drive. No, they went straight to the source: Dany Escalera Zambrana. Zambrana, the...
Industrial Design Case Study: Fluid Design Updates Beurer’s Grooming Devices
Beurer is a German manufacturer of personal care products. When they needed to update their line of men's grooming devices, they turned to Munich-based industrial design firm Fluid Design. Beurer MenCare The Challenge Crafting the next generation of a MenCare range that seamlessly embodies the Beurer brand DNA. The...
The big design winners at this year’s D&AD awards
W Conran Design’s graphic design for last year’s Paris Olympics has won D&AD’s highest accolade. The Black Pencil is reserved for “truly groundbreaking work” and some years none are given out. But this year’s juries awarded three Black Pencils, including the Paris games’ visual identity. The judges...
La Chancla: Older Than Time, Scarier Than Zeus, and Apparently Used by Aphrodite
Move over Zeus. Take a seat, Hercules. There’s a new ancient weapon trending online, and it’s not a thunderbolt or a lion skin. It’s la chancla. Yes, that legendary slipper of doom we all remember from childhood. You know, the one that could turn a kitchen into a courtroom and a hallway into a racetrack. And now,...
Romania, Witches & a Frog’s Behind? The Bizarre Origins of ‘Sana Sana, Colita de Rana’ Explained
Just yesterday, I overheard my daughter comforting her friend by gently rubbing her head and saying, “Sana Sana, culito de rana.” My daughter was serious. Her friend was confused. You see, Dahlia had told Cristina, my daughter, that she had a headache. Naturally, Cristina wanted to help her feel better. So, like...
SCRUTINY | COC President’s Council Season Opener Showcases New Voices
COC President’s Council Season Opening Event (Photo: Joseph So) Jane Archibald, sop.; Simone McIntosh, mezzo; Samuel Chan, bar.; Rachael Kerr, piano; Liz Upchurch, piano. Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto. Sept. 13, 2017. It’s that time of year again! For...