Yesterday the art and design world lost a great mind. As the New York Times wrote in his obituary, “Tobias Wong, a designer whose outrageous sendups of luxury goods and witty expropriation of work by other designers blurred the line between conceptual art and design…” His death has been ruled a suicide. Wong described his work as “para-design,” and gained the public’s attention (and not always favorable) by blending art and design together to create witty conceptual pieces that often questioned the pretensions of their makers. One of his first stunts consisted of taking a Phillip Starck Bubble Chair, turning it into a lamp and and showing it the night before the actual Starck chair was even shown to the public for the first time.
A sad loss for the design and art world.

Courtesy of Esquire

Remote Control Switch enclose in Lucite Box

This is a Lamp, Courtesy Design Boom

Gold Pills

I am excited to have been chosen as the designer for MGH’s Storybook Ball. This year they are going for an Arabian theme and I have had a great time researching and hunting for inspiration. Check out some of my picks below. I plan to create a suite of paper collateral including an invite package and program book. I can’t tell you too much yet, but I’ll share more details as the process continues…

Thanks to Lovely Package I discovered these fantastic milk product packaging designs from Hungary. Simplicity, sans serif font and fun colors—why can’t American’s get into stuff like this?…

How great is this poster in memoriam for Guru from Gang Starr? The design is
simple and perfect and makes great use of the font Akzidenz Grotesque. You might
be wondering what a white girl from the ’burbs is doing talking about Gang Starr,
but I was big hip-hop fan in my New York–art school days at SVA. Albeit, in a
somewhat, ironic ”I get it” sort of way and intermixed with a lot of punk and trance
music (I was 18 and I thought I was so informed, so underground, you know?…)
Although nowadays I more often find myself sipping overpriced cocktails and listening
to the new Grizzly Bear or XX album, I still pull out my old Gang Starr albums when
I need to channel those free, creative days in the late 90s when I ran around
downtown NYC with $20 in my pocket…

Tip via Friends of Type.

Thanks to FPO, I just caught a glimse of the Spiewak book covering the history of the iconic clothing company. Spiewak, who got his start 106 years ago making sheep skin vests for dock workers in Brooklyn, has since grown into a successful business that produces clothing fit for celebrities and police officers alike. The book is beautifully conceived and crafted.