Madman Across the Water

"Mr. Freedom- Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero".

One of the most innovative boutiques in rock fashion history, Mr. Freedom was as much a show as a shop—a fashion, art, and design mecca for Swinging London’s most outré set. In his new book, Mr. Freedom—Tommy Roberts: British Design Hero (Adelita), Paul Gorman tells the story of the boutique’s driving force: the stocky maverick entrepreneur Tommy Roberts, “one of those unpindownable figures,” the author says, “who fast-tracked vanguard ideas right into the mainstream.” Roberts was the first to sell slogan T-shirts, license images from Disney, and integrate the new Pop aesthetic into everything from the clothes and furniture he sold to the decorating of his shop, a task he regularly put in the hands of young designers and artists just out of art school. Hot pants, chairs shaped like dentures, and window displays of huge detergent boxes were the order of the day. Though Mr. Freedom’s moment was fleeting, such was its impact that when Cecil Beaton organized the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first fashion exhibition, in 1971, he featured 24 of the label’s pieces alongside loans from the British royal family, Madame Grès, Balenciaga, and Mary Quant.
-from Diane Solway's article in W


Paul Gorman's brilliant new book is my new favourite. Tommy Roberts is absolutely fascinating: entrepreneur, shopkeeper, designer, curator, restaurateur- like a more fantastic Terence Conran. The book is filled with creativity and inspiration- it reminds me of Conran's House Book in the regard that virtually every page has something incredible on it that you need to bookmark. Roberts makes one want to do more- be more creative, to push it. The clothing and furniture designs he had made for his boutiques (Kleptomania, Mr. Freedom, City Lights Sudio, Practical Styling) and restaurant (Mr Feed'em) were all amazing, fun, and ahead of their time. Paul Gorman and Tommy Roberts were on BBC radio last week, and Robert Elms asked Tommy, "Where are all these fantastic things? What happened to them?" "Well, we didn't keep anything, we just moved on to the next thing". Thankfully it was all documented, and thanks Paul Gorman for bringing it all back and into our bookshelf.

Mr. Freedom on Amazon
Paul Gorman's blog
related (literally) Mrs. Paul Gorman's blog, which you'll also like.

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Flight of the Lozenges

In World War I, while the British were busy developing the "Dazzle" and "Splinter" camouflage prints, the Germans and Austro-Hungarians were designing the equally brilliant and crazy "Lozenge" patterns, made up of colorful elongated polygons. Printed on 4 foot wide fabric, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to how the colors were worked out, except possibly the fancy of the pilots.
The scans above are from Kenneth Munson's Fighters 1914-19 (part of a brilliant series on wartime aircraft, and found in my dad's barn- Happy Father's Day Dad!), When I first saw the illustrations I thought the planes were painted just like that- before I realized that one side was the view above, the other side the view from below. But as it happens, there were the inevitable battle-damage field repairs made, and if the plane's original fabric wasn't around, the pilots would use whatever was at hand, often times creating a wildly patched, boro look (which could be similar to the illustrations). As amazing and revolutionary as the Lozenge (and Dazzle) camouflages were, they were sadly and puzzlingly around only for the First World War. Maybe the lozenge didn't work? Certainly with all the other colors and insignias on the airplanes the lozenge wasn't able to do a fair job, but it did look awesome.

related: a Lozenge hat-tip in the selective facet-filtering of secretive European buildings

An interesting note about the colors- "the greatest [wartime] shortage, incidentally, was of good, red-pigmented materials, and explains why the use of red at this time was such a mark of the 'ace'. Only pilots of particular eminence could command the priority for materials in such short supply."

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Pierrot le Fou

Some of the millions of reasons to love Godard's Pierrot Le Fou, to the tune of Francoise Hardy singing "La Mer".
Put together brilliantly by youtuber Akaisoul.
Happy Weekend!

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Chez Lalanne, 1978

At home with the fantastic Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, between Paris and Ury, 1978.

From the book Country Houses by Franco Magnani


 Also:http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/artists-francois-xavier-claude-lalanne-abstract-animal-instincts/
http://2thewalls.tumblr.com/post/146529864/atelier-lalanne
http://www.scout-holiday.com/blog/?p=586

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Close to the Edge

Looking over the sides of Mackworth Island this morning.

The middle view is like looking down onto treetops, until you see the water.
Or like looking down to an epicly flooded forest. Or a Hipgnosis album cover.

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"Learn it all, and throw it out." Helen Frankenthaler

"Easels were respectable, but destroy the easel. Sable brushes were wonderful but get a house brush."

Right on.

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Everybody Hustle prints

Our newest print is inspired by the company motto in a 1920's office.
We thought it was so appropriate for these times that we redesigned it a little to hang in our own office. (It should hang in everybody's office!)

24"x19", printed with archival ink on 100lb. Bristol board. Shipped rolled.

here

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Terence Conran at London's Design Museum

Terence Conran talks about Habitat's beginnings, his philosophy, intelligent designing, the importance of supporting crafts, making things, and never giving up. Backed by his Retrospective at the Design Museum which I would have loved to see in person. Like a live Habitat Catalog.
Look at this awesome old Habitat launch poster:





And what is that great big graphic behing Stafford Cliff, in the upper right?:



And related, a spread about us from The Guardian UK earlier this year, talking about how we're more inspired by Conran's House Book and the 1970's than just about anything else.




more great photos etc. on Jim Stephenson's blog here: http://blog.clickclickjim.com/2012/02/17/design-museum-conran-partners-feb-12/

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Al Jaffee's Architectural Triumph

From Mad magazine, January 1974. As with Al Jaffee's "If Kids Designed Their Own Xmas Toys", this is one of his genius spreads that I saw in my formative years and always think about when some new project comes along. It was reprinted in a Mad Special in 1980, but other than that I don't think it's anywhere, and it's too awesome not to share.

related: 

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2010/12/wary-meyers-plastic-crumpled-paper-ball.html

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2010/12/pen-ink.html

http://warymeyers.blogspot.com/2011/02/wary-meyers-installations.html

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In 1985 Steve Jobs hired Paul Rand to create the identity of his new company, NeXT.

Above is a page of final logos- black boxed and pitched 28º - from Rand's presentation package. The project is showcased- with thoughts, reasoning, diagrams, and ultimate choices- in his book Design, Form, and Chaos. 

(available in our shop, as it happens.)

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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Here's to the crazy ones.
RiP Steve Jobs,
thanks for everything.

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Here come the judges

Quite an impressive list of judges for this anti-war poster competition from a 1968 Avant Garde magazine. Could you imagine winning?
A couple issues later the winning posters were shown, but nothing was as impressive as Herb Lubalin's announcement. (above)

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Celia Birtwell, by Celia Birtwell & Dominic Lutyens, and some Birtwell inspiration

There's finally a book about Celia Birtwell and it's fantastic.

Birtwell, if you don't know, is a legendary British textile designer, ex-wife and better half of the late designer Ossie Clark, and muse to David Hockney, who's made endless drawings and paintings of her, most notably 1971's Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy, a portrait of her with Ossie. 

The new book, written by Celia with author Dominic Lutyens, is just as research-and image-loaded as his previous book 70's Style & Design, and laid out the same way- every stunning spread being packed with beautiful visuals.
I became interested in Celia's designs a few years ago after Linda kept adding vintage Ossie Clark dresses to her ebay watch list. Thankfully none of these were actually won, as they're bank-breakers, but the photos stuffed an inspiration file, and led me to pilfer some of Celia's designs for a couple of projects I was working on at the time: the Eames chair and canoe both use her grid-with-dot motif- just in the trees behind the left pagoda and a couple squares, mind you; and then a full-blown Ossie Clark dress with Celia Birtwell Mystic Daisy print for a 2008 painting for our interior of Linhardt Designs Jewelry Shop. I really think all three of these look so cool, and I had a great time painting them in part because I knew I was going to add a little Birtwell touch.

Anyway, I really can't say enough about the book- I'm already partial to its two authors, but if you're at all interested in beautiful prints, design, the 70's, Hockney, Ossie Clark, ...even Jane Birkin, you should absolutely go buy the book. 

Related: David Hockney's Vogue Paris 1985

And be sure to check out these videos on Celia's site:
http://www.celiabirtwell.com/heritage/sound-vision/

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A little Heinz Edelmann inspiration

How awesome would it be paint an actual wardrobe like this one from Heinz Edelmann's masterstroke Yellow Submarine ?  This is just a 5-second non-sequiter scene from near the beginning, but look how great this room is- white go-go boots, Hockney-esque rattan chair, Biba-esque Nouveau Deco everything else. But the dressing table and the wardrobe are the best. I'm on the lookout...

Related: Our half painted Lichtenstein dresser from our book,



and Jessica Lange, 1976:



...also a giant fur and purple leather King Kong hand would be a pretty awesome chair.

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B&W

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