Imagno/Hulton Archive/Getty Images – Ned Scott/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Classic is the thing now, with the current state of the economy, right?  People are “shopping in their closets” and investing in fashion staples like plain white shirts, trench coats and little black dresses.  Have you seen all of the rugged Filson bags on shoulders and Barbour jackets on backs?  Not exactly exciting fashion, but it’s tried and true.  Inoffensive enough in appearance to last a while and hearty enough to take a beating.

The same attitude towards spending can be applied to interior design.  Recently, the king of “classic”, Thonet, paired up with Japanese lifestyle designers, Muji for a collection of furniture.  The pieces aren’t inexpensive, but with the mindset that you are making an investment in classic design and quality materials, the price tag might be right.

Mark Kauffman//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Popperfoto/Getty Images – CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Michael Thonet is the originator of the ubiquitous “vienna cafe chair”.  You are familiar with the chair whether or not you know it’s origins.  Made of bentwood (usually beech), it’s sinewy curves and graceful proportions yearn to be sat in and yes, photographed.  You are reading the Getty Images blog, which makes me think you are interested in photography.  Right now, Thonet is hosting a photo contest through the end of 2009 featuring their no. 14 chair.  Go here for details.

The chair has many imitators but they are all based, more or less on Thonet’s No. 14 chair from 1855.  It has been called the most influential furniture design in history.  It takes very little wood to create, is very light and therefore inexpensive to ship.  You see them on stages, in restaurants, bars, in set design, and homes of all kinds.  Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec depicts the chairs in his paintings of Parisian cafe life, Picasso used one in his studio and  they are in the MoMa permanent collection. Can you imagine Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly upstaged by a piece of furniture?  They are above (top right) Even Ikea manufactured their own plasti-wood version called OGLA.

See how Thonet’s designs invade our subconscious here.

Alfred Eisenstaedt/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images – The Bridgeman Art Library/Getty Images

Express/Express/Getty Images

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And improve your French ! France, land of better wine in the world, beautiful women, Tour de France, bling-bling president, Art of living. France which as a country can give birth to the better or worse.
Let’s talk about the better today, let’s open the JAK LAB #3 . Every quarter JAKLAB magazine offers a 360° vision about a theme or an aspirationnal trend. JAKLAB invites contributors and gives them room and time to explore and talk. Strategic planners, researchers, writers, artists, photographers, architects are creating an effervescent on line webzine. Monitored friendly by Just A Kiss  founders, a design, creative and strategic agency in Paris, JAKLAB is an open publication and platform.
After Desirable Sunstainability, Absolute Necessity , give a breath to your eyes and brain and involve your senses in Urbanity. If you want to contribute to the next issue, please feel free to “superpoke” this unique quartet on their Facebook group.  http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11026998211 !  Have fun !  Brigitte Mantel .

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I’m really excited about the current trend “Tactile Graphics” – the movement of graphic designers to represent their ideas and layouts spatially. It’s blurring the lines between graphic design, sculpture and photography and opens up exciting possibilities for creative’s working in traditional photography and footage to experiment with conceptual ideas.

www.serialcut.com

With the ability to create almost any situation artificially or remove any flaw using software such as Photoshop I think this style of imagery is a refreshing visual counter point. It will be interesting to see if commercial clients agree.

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Opening largely the vision about upcoming trends and future, Just A Kiss, a strategy and curiosity agency in Paris (France), has published the second issue of Jak Lab web magazine. Supported by Gatard et Associes, this JakLab#2 welcomes many contributions from artists, strategic planners, photographers, novelists. Philippe Cazaban, Nicolas Dubost from Nelly Rodi , Monique Wahlen from G2, Pete Jeff, and many others… For this new issue the theme is about “The Absolute Necessity”. Discover texts and photographs written with freedom, inspiration and creativity. JakLab is a quartely free publication on the web. Enjoy it and share it. (Brigitte Mantel)

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It’s always fun to have your own tastes and opinions validated by the premiere authoritative voice in that field, and so I was super excited to see that Getty Images’ own interact10ways microsite was nominated for a Webby Award this year, in the Art category no less, which, come on, is the coolest category to be in.

If you haven’t heard of the Webbys that may not sound like much (and you can breathe a sigh of relief at having safely bypassed the geek radar), but it’s true when the NY Times says it’s “the Oscars of the Internet”, still true but not original when Time Magazine says it’s “the Online Oscars” (ok, not totally fair, I don’t know who said it first), and oh so brash and daring when Vanity Fair says it’s “better than the Oscars”.  Interact10ways didn’t win, but it is nevertheless a big honor to have been nominated.

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Philip J Brittan

Interesting entry in jet-setting troubadour/intellectual Nick Currie’s (aka Momus) blog about the opening last year of a Japanese division of Pantone, New Jersey-based color coders who’ve become the ubiquitous industry standard in design and printing. Following just on the heels of the Japanese division launch, Pantone also unveiled a new global brand identity.
I just saw the line of Japanese Pantone cellphones last week which I thought was a cool new development in the ever-expanding Pantone Universe, but didn’t think too much of it until stumbling upon Nick’s blog entry, which contains amusingly brainy and acerbic ruminations on Japanese culture, proprietary culture/copyright, and marketing.

Momus (Nick Currie)

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The latest TED talk release includes an understated but amazing demo by Blaise Aguera y Arcas of some new technologies that are sure to have an impact on the way we use and view digital images, photo-sharing, and the web in general.  It’s only 7 minutes and you should definitely see it.

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