Design Dish: Moleskine launches a logo competition, Frank Gehry's latest for Louis Vuitton
Frank Gehry’s LVMH Sail Boat: After a few legal setbacks and delays, Frank Gehry’s design for the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation (a fancy name for the building that will house CEO Bernard Arnaut’s giant personal art collection) is scheduled for completion next year. At 130,000 square feet, the structure is designed to look like a white sailing ship standing alone in a forest. To create the unique curvature of the massive white panels (or “sails”), Gehry and his team worked with Moulage Sous Vide technology, a new technique that allows the designer to create concrete molds from computer-generated 3D models.
Christian Jankowski Tries “Yacht-as-Art“: One of the most unusual works to debut at this week’s Frieze Art Fair is an “installation” by German artist Christian Jankowski, who’s selling off two super-luxury yachts – an Aquariva Cento speedboat and a CRN super yacht, in case you’re in the market – for two different price points. Should they be purchased as regular ol’ boats, then the more expensive yacht will come in around $65 million. If, on the other hand, they’re bought as artworks, it will cost an additional $10 million. What makes it a performance piece, according to Jankowski, is the complicity of the buyer and the yacht salesman in the whole thing. If it works out, maybe I’ll put some old dishtowels or stained socks on eBay and call the transaction a work of “performance art.”
Moleskine Logo Competition: I’m a big fan of Moleskine’s ruby red day planners, but I physically shudder whenever I look at that painfully dated Copperplate logo. Happily, Designboom is teaming up with the stationary company to launch an international logo competition. The winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000 (whereas an actual designer’s fee would be much more).
Com-oda Wood Tattoo Folding Chairs: Multi-functional furniture is critical for any urban dweller, which is probably why I’m loving these cool com-oda wood folding chairs by design collective, Mr. Simon. Debuted at Valencia Design Week, six chairs fold together to create a standing console table with a nifty baroque embellishment, a must for all the upcoming family holiday invasions.
Floating Orchestra: A fancy new toy – err, serious piece of music technology – is currently being tested by London-based firm, Poietic Studio. Called a “Floating Orchestra,” the device uses an iPhone app to control a panel of levitating ping-pong balls. With the app, the user can control the height of each ball and, thus, control their pitch and volume. The next version will reportedly be controlled by hand gestures. The only bummer is having to look under your couch all the time when your cat inevitably whacks the ping pong balls off those little hover-base thingies.
