360 DEGREES Weblog

Marc Newson’s fine association with Qantas is weaving yet another design achievement. After world wide recognition for his design of the Qantas business class ‘Cocoon bed’, Qantas wanted to continue the working relationship into other areas of the airline.

Newson has recently designed the new first class lounge in both Sydney and Melbourne airport, which are due for their debut this coming May. The lounges will be met with much anticipation from some of the countries leading design firms who credit Newson as a major inspiration in the field. To ad a little something extra, Newson has also designed a slick amenities kit for both female and male customers. Jam packed with Ultraceuticals products, (we would of much preferred the Aesop brand), the packs are a nice way to say ‘welcome, we are going to spoil the hell out of you! “

Some might call it madness to mess with a heritage brand. Others might call brand extension an enlightened move. Heinz is planning to invigorate the tomato ketchup category with the launch of a new sophisticated range, Heinz Tomato Ketchup With a Twist.
Hitting shelves from April, the product been created to satisfy a growing trend among consumers, particularly adults, for more adventurous flavours and foods. Packaging is designed to suggest a more premium, gourmet ketchup to appeal to adults. (UTALKMARKETING.COM)

The Zero chaise from Nolen Niu with its long lean lines and its cantilevered look seems to require an equally angular and thin person to drape over its sharp curves. Nevertheless the Zero chaise is able to withstand weights up to 400 pounds. It has a leather seat and a polished stainless steel base. The ridiculously chic lounge sells for $3,500 and comes in red or black.
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When Dutch artist Irma Boom suggested designing a book in an unusually squat size and shape, it didn’t go down well with the publisher. Nor did her insistence that it should have a white cover, raggedy page edges and an introductory essay printed in type that starts off big and becomes smaller on successive pages.
The result, “Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor,” was published last year by Yale University Press to accompany an exhibition of Hicks’s textiles at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. It has since won a shoal of design prizes, and on Friday is to be awarded the Gold Medal at the Leipzig Book Fair for “The Most Beautiful Book in the World.” (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

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Outdoor Advertising

If you’ve ever been to a concert, you’ve seen something like it. A lone spotlight hits the baby grand as the star sits for a final solo; in the audience, a sea of tiny lights flicker. But those aren’t lighters, and this isn’t a rock star. His name is Koji Kondo, and he’s playing his own composition, one of the most famous tunes in the world — the theme song to the video game Super Mario Bros. (WIRED)
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Valentine’s Day sure is gone, but, the season of love stays forever! Ok, you might not find it poetic and charming enough, but…never mind! Designer Karim Rashid has designed a Clicquot Loveseat which features two opposite petal-shaped chairs together on a chrome-plated pedestal joined in the center by a pistil-shaped ice bucket in classic Clicquot yellow to make sure you celebrate every love meet with a glass of champagne!

That new Louis Vuitton Tribute Patchwork Bag everyone is blathering about? The one that’s supposedly the most expensive bag ever? The one being disparaged from blog to blog as the ugliest bag ever?
Sold out.

Yes, some two-dozen special customers of the venerable French line ordered the $45,000 custom-made shoulder bags months ago — and they’ve all been delivered. No more are being made, and Vuitton doesn’t want to talk about them.

It is not the most expensive bag ever sold: An Hermés Birkin bag of black crocodile with a diamond-covered clasp sold for $64,800 at auction in April 2005.

No word yet on who would pay the equivalent of a college education for the Vuitton Tribute, a startling-looking bag designed by Marc Jacobs and made up of pieces of 15 Vuitton bags. The British press, never shy about sniping at the French, referred to the bag as “Frankenstein’s monster” when it appeared on the runway last fall.

Spanish designer Jaime Hayon has a definite love of the playful (his pictures often show him in various costumes). His designs include toys, sculptures and furniture with a fantastical theme and a childlike look that belies their sophistication. His Showtime multi-leg cabinet is a prime example. It is modular and can be used with a variety of different leg styles. The old MGM musicals inspired Hayon’s Showtime collection, which includes sofas, chairs and tables that turn 1940s glamour on its ear. The cabinet comes in white, blue or black. The base piece sells for $1749 and the leg modules are sold separately.