Inspired by the unique aromas of cities across the globe, perfumer Gerald Ghislain and creative partner Magali Senequier present The Scent of Departure. Part perfume, part souvenir, the new collectible line hopes to bring back globetrotters’ memories through the “essence of a city put into a bottle”– such as the “floral and fruity scents of a sun-drenched summer day in Central Park” or the “the sun fruits and white florals surrounding The Duomo.” Currently, the brand has fourteen cities available: Paris (CDG), Milan (MIL), London (LHR), New York (NYC), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), Dubai (DXB), Abu Dhabi (AUH), Doa ((DOH), Singapore (SIN), Tokyo (TYO), Hong Kong (HKG), Seoul (ICN), and Bali (DPS). And–perhaps our favorite part–TSOD’s packaging features sleek, skyscraper-shaped glass bottles that cleverly play on look of the traditional luggage tag.

The Scent of Departure will be available in airports and major retail stores; for more info, visit www.thescentofdeparture.com

*All images courtesy Marie Saeki PR.

A spirit of experimentation pervades everything Dutch designer Maarten Baas does. His smart, playful pieces—all unique and most handmade—are marked by elements of theater, film, and storytelling. And Baas’s latest project, the Plain Collection, picks up where his popular Clay furniture series–which featured metal furniture “skeletons” covered in hand-modeled, brightly colored synthetic clay–last left off. Like Clay, the new collection appears to been shaped by a child’s inexpert hands, as the finger prints of the hand-squeezed clay are still visible, making each piece a truly unique product. However, the Plain line’s materials are treated in such a way that the pieces don’t need to be lacquered like the original. All are made by hand in a barn-turned-workshop run by Maarten Baas and Bas den Herder in the south of Holland.

Describing his approach to me in late 2011 (while I was interviewing him for the book Design Voices), Bass told me, “It’s not that I strive to make something unexpected, but if it’s something that you already expected, then I don’t see the necessity of making it. I want to explore areas that are not explored yet. So in that way I definitely like to play with something unexpected.”

For more information, visit www.maartenbaas.com And to read our full Design Voices interview, along with conversations with several other great designers, check out the book on Amazon.

*All photos by Frank Tielemans. All images courtesy of Maarten Baas.

A self-described “letterer, illustrator, [and] type nerd,” San Francisco and Brooklyn-based Jessica Hische has designed a fantastically charming series of covers for Barnes & Nobles’ classics series. Simultaneously whimsical and sophisticated, the box set includes Hische’s interpretations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The leather-bound books are foil stamped in two colors on the jacket and spine, and Hische calls the series “probably my favorite project of all time.”

The twenty-something Hische’s extensive client roster includes everyone from American Express to GQ Magazine and Tiffany & Co. She currently serves on the Type Directors Club board of directors, and has been named a Forbes Magazine “30 under 30” in art and design as well as an ADC Young Gun and one of Print Magazine’s “New Visual Artists.”

For more info, check out jessicahische.is.
To order, click here.

*All images courtesy the designer.

Describing her work, Dutch designer Rianne Koens says, “My products are simple and clear with a poetic touch.” Her Oturakast cabinet embodies this notion completely, playfully elevating our expectations for a simple cabinet into an opportunity for joy. Its multi-sized and colored drawers can be stacked in a variety of configurations, according to the user’s needs (or whims).

Koens, who graduated cum laude in 2011 from the Design Academy Eindhoven, says Oturakast was “inspired by the warm hospitality of my Turkish in-laws. . .The Turkish word for ‘sit’ is otur, and the word for ‘stool’ is oturak. This chest of drawers is intended for a Western interior that may not be furnished for receiving guests at short notice. It consists of a stack of separate storage components with legs that fold out, turning drawers into stools. When visitors leave, you fold up the legs, stack the stools-cum-drawers and have a complete cabinet again.”

She goes on: “Products have an impact on their environment. Therefore I continue to design products that through their use result in a positive effect. I think that I am, as a product designer, responsible for what I bring into the world.”

*All images courtesy of the designer.

Brooklyn-based We-Flashy makes design-driven, reflective streetwear for cyclists and pedestrians who want to be safe without compromising style (think houndstooth, classic textile patterns, and nautical stripes, as opposed to a crossing guard look). The reflective designs are barely visible in the daytime, but light up at night if a car’s headlights catch them.

We-Flashy co-founders Alex Vessels & Mindy Tchieu launched the brand while they were both grad students–and casual cyclists–at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. As Vessels explains, “We-Flashy was our final project in a wearable technology course. . . Mindy and I are casual cyclists, and we, especially Mindy, were getting frustrated with not being seeing as we were biking through the city and to class.” Tchieu concurs: “I had just started biking around Manhattan more and found the experience very stressful, especially at night, because even with bike lights, it was as if I was invisible!”

After a series of brainstorming sessions and prototypes (which included everything from “an
inflatable, glowing, bike-powered suit” to an blow-up “brain helmet”), the pair landed on the ultra-visible, very wearable reflective line, and We-Flashy was born. A successful Kickstarter campaign encouraged the designers to turn their student project into a full-time business. They now hand-make every piece to order out of their Brooklyn studio, an old storage silo on the Gowanus Canal. “It’s been the site of many parties,” the pair notes. And “it’s an amazingly unique space, circular with interesting acoustics.”

So what’s next for We-Flashy? “We’re very excited about 2012!” Vessels and Tchieu say. “We hope to expand our lineup with new designs, bright summer/neon colors, new retroreflective materials, and maybe even kids sizes (a big request from parents) at some point.”

For more info and to buy, check out We-Flashy.com.

And check out the gallery and video below.

We-Flashy.com – Reflective Clothing for Modern Times from Alex Vessels on Vimeo.

*All images courtesy of We-Flashy

Now open: Yigal Azrouël‘s latest venture, the new Cut25 Soho flagship, designed by Dror Benshetrit. The 1,400-square-foot freestanding building hosts Azrouël’s Cut25 signature collection–a combination of high-end and day-to-day fashion–as well as various fashion and design collaborations, all falling under the Cut25 concept: Contemporary, Modern, and Progressive.

Developed under the creative direction of Dror Benshetrit, whose work runs the gamut from artistic installations to product designs and architecture, the shop’s interior embraces Cut25′s clean, modern aesthetic. Notably, Dror incorporated elements of his innovative QuaDror system – a new space truss geometry the designer spent half his career developing – to complement the fluid draping of the Cut25 collection.

Cut25
129 Grand Street
New York, NY

Photos: © Nathan Kraxberger

In response to the recent economic climate, this past Christmas, the city of Lisbon decided it needed to spread holiday cheer on a budget. So Lisbon City Hall, along with the Museum of Design and Fashion, invited 25 artists, architects, and designers to submit light sculpture plans to mark the holiday. Ultimately, seven temporary concepts were selected for installation, including one especially eye-catching intervention: LIKE Architects‘ very beautiful, very clever Frozen Trees.

Using an unexpectedly common material–Ikea’s “Rationell Variera” plastic bag dispenser by K Hagberg/M Hagberg–LIKE Architects transformed Lisbon’s Rossi square into an interactive, ephemeral holiday experience. Thirty 3.6 meter-tall cylinders of varying diameters were composed from multiple dispensers and a white monochromatic LED system. They were then placed throughout the square, redefining the public space for visitors. As Diogo Aguiar, one half of the duo behind LIKE Architects explains, the studio saw this as “an opportunity to take from the shelves things that are right before our eyes and to look at them in a less obvious way–to subvert their logic with a sense of humor.”

Further, he notes, “It is great to see people approaching the Frozen Trees, peeking and suddenly realizing the installation is made of objects they could find in their own pantries. . . They leave the place with a smile on their faces. . . [And] at a time of crisis, we need a creative Christmas, a Christmas where a lot can be done by using very few and where creativity is essential to surprise others and to put a smile on people’s faces.”

And partner Teresa Otto observes, “The purpose of doing these exercises, registered in photos and in the memory of those who have seen them, is precisely to be part of the history of that place. . . That’s a story, a story that is part of the city’s history, the city’s architecture history.”

Check out the gallery and short video by Dinis&Gustavo below. And for more information, visit likearchitects.com.

Frozen Trees from dinis&gustavo on Vimeo.

CREDITS:
Authors: LIKEarchitects © (likearchitects.com) / Diogo Aguiar (diogoaguiar.com) + Teresa Otto (teresaotto.com)
Client: Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, MUDE – Museu do Design e da Moda
Construction: OutrosMercadus ©
Photography: FG+SG Fotografia de arquitectura | Architecture photography & Dinis Sottomayor

Dimensions:
10 prisms with 3,60 m high with pentagonal base (16 cm side);
10 prisms with 3,60 m high with decagonal base (16 cm side);
10 prisms with 3,60 m high with pentadecagonal base (16 cm side);

Materials:
2400 plastic bags dispensers ”Rationell Variera”
2500 meters of metallic tubular (square section) – 10X10X1.5mm
100 meters of metallic tubular (square section) – 25X25X2mm
330 linear meters of 12-volt white LED tape
45 12-volt car batteries
10 battery chargers
4800 self-drilling screws 3.5x16mm;

All images courtesy of LIKEarchitects.
H/T Domus.

Foscarini‘s newest lighting addition, Anisha, was designed by Spanish studio Lievore Altherr Molina.

The sleek table lamp’s name carries double meaning: According to Foscarini, “anisho” means “ring” in Argentinean Spanish; at the same time, the name “Anisha” is also a tribute to artist Anish Kapoor, “famous for his works with their primordial, rounded shapes and lively, striking colors.”

One of Foscarini’s first lamps to use only an LED bulb, Anisha comes in two sizes and two colors (red and white). For more info, visit foscarini.com.

“When people talk about design, they’re really talking about, technically, everything in the universe that has to do with intent.” —Milton Glaser

“Design is by its very nature free. There is nothing in design that says certain things must be done in a certain way.” —Tokujin Yoshioka

“It will always be up to good designers to correct the public opinion and promote quality.” —Massimo Vignelli

What’s on the minds of the world’s leading designers? What matters most to them right now? And how do they interpret the changes and constants of today’s culture?

These were the questions on my mind towards the end of 2011, when I decided to approach eight of today’s most intriguing and prolific designers—Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Stefan Sagmeister, Giulio Cappellini, Ross Lovegrove, Tokujin Yoshioka, Dror Benshetrit, and Maarten Baas—to gather a snapshot of the modern design world. The result is Design Voices, a collection I’m proud of, and one I hope you’ll also enjoy.

Design Voices includes conversations with design legends, rising stars, graphic designers, industrial designers, and those who defy categorization. Their words provide us an opportunity to reflect on the state of modern design, and reveal the vast possibilities that the term designer carries with it today. I hope these conversations pique and satisfy your curiosity as much as they did mine. Looking forward to your feedback!

And check out the review on Coolhunting.com!

Design Voices
by Anna Carnick
edited by Jeremy Lehrer
Purchase the e-book at Amazon

Daniel Arsham navigates in a space where architecture and art merge, often playing upon existing structures to create unexpected yet organic sculptures. And his latest exhibition, “The Fall, The Ball, and The Wall,” showcases the Brooklyn-based artist’s diverse, innovative practice and his ongoing interest in challenging expectations of accepted reality.

Arsham presents three bodies of work for the new show–his first solo exhibition in L.A.: His structural interventions continue to defy the notion of architectural rigidity, causing walls to drip and corners to meet in knots. These are accompanied by a new series of work on canvas that depicts realistic buildings neighbored by text that rises tall as skyscrapers, spelling out words such as “oops” and “okay.” And finally, the show features a large-scale, hanging mass of tinted spheres–based on the pixels of a hyper-magnified photo of a cloud formation–from the set of Merce Cunningham’s final performances.

The exhibition is on view January 20 through February 16, 2012 at OHWOW.