Toyota ME.WE

Toyota collaborate on this amazing concept car entitled Me.We. Light, affordable and all green, the Toyota Me.We has the characteristic of proposing a new revolutionary design where traditional codes of driving are reviewed from scratch. The whole thing was designed along with Jean-Marie Massaud. 

Brand Watch - Velvet Johnstone

We've been watching this brand for a little while and seen them grow into a very dynamic design leader in... read on

Velvet Johnstone is an East London based womanswear label establishing a genuine niche for itself in the world of contemporary luxury fashion, creating modern and seductive work through innovative design and complex pattern cutting.

Fusing luxurious and hi-tech new fabrics and styling with the harder, masculine edge of tailoring to create complex yet feminine collections and bespoke designs for private clients in the know.

inspired by the female form to accentuate either sympathetically or in contrast, to complement the individual, both physically and personality. .. perfecting a dress to significantly portray a character, giving a confidence within self or in creating a desired persona. 

 

vj in XO magazine.... Photography by Leoni Blue. styling by Faye Heran..

 

David Lynch's Champagne Dreams

David Lynch's Champagne Dreams The LA Launch of the Iconoclastic Director's Newly Designed Dom Pérignon Bottle
David Lynch's Champagne Dreams on Nowness.com.
Filmmaker Luke Gilford fashions a surrealist portrait of the opening night party for the debut of David Lynch’s limited-edition bottle designed for Dom Pérignon. Following up his dreamlike campaign for the storied champagne brand launched last December, Lynch reinvented the look of the iconic Vintage 2003 and Rosé 2000 bottles. Gilford paid homage to the Mulholland Drive director by adopting his stylistic motifs, interspersing scenes from the exclusive party in Hollywood—featuring a live performance by The Kills and a DJ-set by Diplo for a crowd including the likes of Bret Easton Ellis, Bill Viola and Shannyn Sossamon—with the Lynch-designed bottle’s reveal capturing Los Angeles' fantastical visage. “I showed up to my grandma's house with a fog machine and lasers at 9am the day after,” explains Gilford. “Those images function a bit like non-sequiturs—of the same world, but kind of a hiccup, too. I wanted to build more of a dream sequence than a linear narrative.” Working with DJ Jeremy Lingvall, Gilford interwove an original score with audio recorded at the event and an interview with Lynch. “I wanted the film to be about conversation, experimentation and revelation,” he says. Here the Californian native, who has created film and photographic work for The New York Times and Maison Martin Margiela, as well as exhibiting at MOMA in New York, expands on the film icon’s legacy.

BRAND PROFILE: NANCY DEE

Nancy Dee a brand created by a university friend I love this and you Will too... READ ON

We love ETHICAL clothing. We now DESIGN & MAKE in BRITAIN. We love BEAUTIFUL, CLASSICALLY INSPIRED DESIGN, and AMAZING EXCLUSIVE PRINTS. We believe that ethical fashion and LUXURIOUS SUSTAINABLE FABRICS should be ACCESSIBLE, not dowdy. COME WITH US!!

 

Specialising in day-to-night jersey, Nancy Dee creates stylish, versatile pieces that translate easily from home to office to evening out.Inspired by retro designs, the collections rework classic shapes with bold prints and strong colour palettes, utilising the inherent characteristics of jersey - its softness, drape and stretch. Nancy Dee was created in 2008 by sisters Tamsin and Seraphina, who recognised there was a need to bridge the gap between style, comfort and ethics. Their aim is to make ethical fashion accessible, by creating easy-to-wear styles at realistic prices without compromising on quality or standards.

Seraphina graduated with a degree in Fashion Design in 2004 and was instantly commissioned to design and make a series of one-off pieces for a boutique in Cornwall. On the back of that success she began selling her designs at craft markets around London. Having started her career in the film industry, Tamsin returned to university to study Economics and Social Policy, having developed an interest in the way in which trade and social policies can improve the way people live. She fell in love with East Asia and spent time travelling throughout the continent before returning to the UK to set up Nancy Dee. In May 2008 the sisters combined forces and Nancy Dee was born, merging Seraphina’s design talent with Tamsin’s understanding of business and interest in social policy. Together they share a passionate belief in responsible fashion.

FIND OUT MORE - www.nancydee.co.uk

Iporanga House by Nitsche Arquitetos Associados

Nitsche Arquitetos Associados designed this house in Iporanga, Guarujá, SP, Brazil.

Project description:

I poranga House is located in Iporanga, a condominium for summer houses on Sao Paulo’s coast, approximately 120km east from the capital. This condo is inside a very well preserved and protected area of the original Atlantic Rainforest. The exuberance of this native forest has taken the client to demand a house that occupied the minimum as possible of the ground (lot) surface. But at the same time he wanted it to be large and comfortable, and asked for 5 suites, one for the couple, one for each of his 3 sons and one for guests, which demanded not less the 400m2 to be built.

Photography by Nelson Kon

Typographic Signs - Expressing City Titles

An interesting poster series that expresses different cities typographically. It is interesting how the visual style or semantics of each title gives us an impression what each city is like. Each title is styled in a typeface that is considered quintessential.

View the article: Typographic Signs that Promote Cities

Amazing Alternative Royal Wedding Invitations

 

So maybe we weren't going to get a real invite, but here's a look at some amazing alternatives. Creative team Nick and Clarke has asked all their favourite visual artists to come up with their take on the royal wedding invites, and the results are quite beautiful. From serious looking beautiful invites, to comic and sarcastic posters and pictures, the selection was vast and rather lovely. For more invites and artist credits see here, and for more about Nick and Clarke, click here.

Aesir Copenhagen x Yves Béhar

 
Copenhagen-based Aesir isn't out to create the next iPhone killer, their mission is to team up with influential designers to work from the ground up to create unique and unconventional handset designs. Their first phone is a collaboration with designer Yves Behar who puts it best: READ MORE 

What's Going On - Design

The Death Bag

In the last few years the focus on a ‘greener’ way of living has been intense and unavoidable, with the plastic bag taking a bigger bashing than almost any other common object. The ‘death bag', designed by vedang kulkarni and aakanksha rajhans from India, is a simple yet powerful standout design, aimed to force into the public eye the wastefulness of our use of plastic bags. It is also one of the shortlisted entries 
from more than 4000 participants in the 'iida awards 2010' competition, organized by designboom in collaboration with incheon metropolitan city.

The designers say: “the idea behind the 'death bag' or the 'coffin bag' is to ring that awareness bell in an individual's mind at that precise moment when he or she is being offered a plastic bag in a store. the conventional plastic bag is shaped 
in the form of a coffin by using origami folds. the bag aims to send a strong message to the user to not use it. 
and honestly, how many of us would want to be seen carrying a plastic bag which looks like a mini coffin? 
the shape and form of the bag should repulse an individual at the point of use and make a strong impression 
on his or her mind about the ill effects of plastic.”

Whats Going On

Daydream's weekly news in brief...

FASHION

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

"A must for anybody who admires these very creative Japanese designers – It should be a brilliant exhibition" - Paul Smith

Starting today and running until February, the Barbican brings us a look into the ever-progressive avant-garde Japanese fashion.

“The first exhibition in Europe to comprehensively survey avant-garde Japanese fashion, from the early 1980s to the present. Curated by the eminent Japanese fashion historian Akiko Fukai, Director of the Kyoto Costume Institute, the exhibition explores the unique sensibility of Japanese design, and its sense of beauty embodied in clothing.”

“Japanese fashion made an enormous impact on the world fashion scene in the late 20^th century and designers such as Issey Miyake, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto redefined the very basis of fashion. Their works will be shown alongside Kawakubo’s protégé, the techno-couturier Junya Watanabe, together with the acclaimed Jun Takahashi, and the new generation of radical designers including Tao Kurihara, Fumito Ganryu, Matohu, Akira Naka, Mina Perhonen and Mintdesigns.” Picture and info courtesy of Barbican

ART

Frieze Art Fair

The Frieze Art Fair is upon us once again, featuring over 150 of the most exciting contemporary art galleries in the world. It also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, and a prestigious talks programme to inform and inspire us, not to be missed. Taking over Regents Park until the 17^th, The annual fair showcases new and established artists to an international audience; It’s hard to find elsewhere such an eclectic selection of galleries, artists, individuals and collectives, and the Daydream team will be there tomorrow taking in the sights.

Picture Frieze

DESIGN

For the ultimate fix in snazzy furniture, breathtaking light installations and tables-that-are-cleverer-than-you, head over the Super Design 2010.  

Held at Victoria house on Bloomsbury Square, London’s premier design art exhibition will feature specially commissioned, unique and limited edition pieces from international galleries including The Apartment, D&A-Lab, Quadrige, Mitterrand-Cramer, Tom Dixon, Herve Van Der Straeten and Vessel Gallery among others. Now in its 4^th year, super design will be running alongside Frieze, and like a lot of supplementary frieze exhibits, is free to get in.

Picture courtesy of Super Design

Whats Going On

Daydream's weekly inspiration in brief...

DESIGN

Tom sachs at venice architecture biennale 2010

New york-based sculptor and artist tom sachs is exhibiting at the palazzo delle esposizioni for this year's venice architecture biennale. Known for working with--and reworking--iconic images, the exhibition focuses on le corbusier and explores the successes and failures of modernism.

In the middle of the space is 'mc busier' (2002), which consists of two foam-core models of a drive-thru McDonalds and le corbusier's 'villa savoye'. a collection of miniature surveillance cameras monitor the two projects which are then displayed on a stack of tvs on one end of the installation. the piece is a part of a much bigger project entitled, 'nutsy's', which reads as a real-life videogame involving a series of race tracks, remote-controlled cars, art parks, rivaling ghettos and much more. sachs puts side by side  the idealistic modernism of the villa with the commercialized modernism of McDonald’s to show the shattered  memory of modernism's hopes and failures. 

courtesy of Designboom

ART

Anish Kapoor: turning the world upside down
kensington gardens.

This autumn The Royal Parks and the Serpentine Gallery will present a major exhibition of large scale outdoor sculptures by acclaimed London-based artist Anish Kapoor in Kensington Gardens.

The free exhibition will showcase a series of major recent works never before shown together in London. Constructed from highly reflective stainless steel, the giant curved mirror surfaces will create illusory distortions of the surroundings and will be visible across large distances, creating new vistas in this famous and much-loved setting.

Sky Mirror, Red 2007

Installation view Kensington Gardens, London

© 2010 Dave Morgan

The sculptures will be sited to contrast and reflect the changing colours, foliage and weather in Kensington Gardens. Despite their monumental scale, the works appear as pure reflection of their surroundings: the sky, trees, water, wildlife and changing seasons. The distortions in the works’ mirror-like surfaces call into question the viewers’ relationship to both the work itself and the surrounding environment.

FASHION

September 2010, saw the brand launch of She Died Of Beauty by long standing friends super model Erin O’Connor and Stylist Kate Halfpenny.

Image courtesy of ecofashionworld.com

A simple yet concise collection of 5 beautiful typographic t-shirts and 2 bags, with a play on the brand name – in their own words, “the very visual nature of fashion is to manipulate and exaggerate almost everything. We loved the idea of twisting a polite sentiment into a naughty yet, frivolously funny statement that we hope will appeal to all.” 

The inspiration behind the brand name and collection is to make “a teasing yet affectionate tickle at the fashion industry we continue to love, honour and serve”, showcased through a capsule collection of invigorating and lovingly created organic cotton t-shirts and bags in a classic monochrome palette. 

The brand origins are firmly rooted in London, with a creative collision of informed education; Kate at St Martins School of Design and Erin within the political & potent world of fashion, providing a signature style, which is witty, purposeful and un-apologetic. 

The core brand philosophy is based upon ethically and organically sourced materials important to both Erin & Kate “after all, there’s no reason why style and conscience can’t co-exist!”, say the design duo.