Our stuff
Designs On Us
As huge fans of the show, Skew was thrilled to look at the packaging for a product line for Fremantle’s Grand Designs. The packs combined simplicity with tactility and used the GD logo as the architect’s stamp. We felt it important to portray the craftsmanship involved in the product, whether it was produced by an artisan or made in mass. This information was wrapped around the pack on a removable label. In store the products can be stacked and displayed in various ways, showing texture and product side by side.
Stuff we like
-
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fashion!
Despite graduation being just a year behind her, Trine Lindegaard is impressing everyone from Vauxhall Fashion Scout to Vogue to Skew with her colourful menswear line. Commenting that the menswear silhouette is restrictive, Lindegaard says her challenge lies in creating detailing that excites. The boys in the studio are the lucky ones! We’re hoping the unisex line she’s considering comes to fruition soon…
-
Bags of Light
Unusual looking, environmentally-led design is something that always gets us going, and the Bagalight collection is both such things. From desk lamps to pendants, these lights cleverly combine a product that designers Liqui say ‘normally wouldn’t be considered to have any real value’ with simple cutouts of different types of lighting. Their beauty lies not only in the soft glow they emit, but in their being made entirely of cardboard and paper, and taking only energy-saving bulbs. A true spark of genius.
-
Fruity Fun
The trend for camping – whether the fancy ‘glamping’ kind, or the back-to-basics simple sort – continues apace, and this summer is bound to be about brilliant hols spent reclining in the fields of Britain. How would we do it? Well, our temporary residence would look like a giant slice of watermelon, of course. Why? JUST BECAUSE.
-
Dog Dude
It turns out flick books don’t have to be in book format – or so says illustrator Mr Bingo, whose print ‘Charlie Does a Kickflip’ had us in stitches when we first laid eyes on it. It’s nice to see this traditional way of showing movement being given a new lease of life…
-
Krazy for Katrantzou
We’ve spent the past couple of weeks digesting all the S/S 2012 runway shows, from Paris to New York to our very own London. One of the designers we truly heart is Mary Katrantzou, whose wild prints and crazy colour palettes defy the laws of matchy-matchy dressing and put the fun in fashion. So we’ll be charging down to Topshop, as her 10-piece collection for the high street giant is launched today! We love that the designer’s printastic look can be adapted to the high street – it’s what fashion dreams were made of.
-
Playing with Type
In Francisca Prieto’s work ‘The Antitype’ we have found the ultimate in tantalising type. The 3D nature of the lettering is delicately tempting, making you want to pull the rest of the form from its stainless steel backing like you’d peel a sticker from its pack.
-
Yay for Yayoi!
We’ll be making a beeline to Tate Modern to catch the first UK retrospective of 82-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, whose output over the past 60 years has featured an eye-poppingly bold colour palette and an obsession with dots. Described by the show’s curator as ‘interesting, arresting and intriguing,’ Kusuma’s influence has also been seen by art historians in the work of Warhol and Oldenburg. We can’t wait to spend an afternoon having a long tall drink of innovation and inspiration!
-
Kissy Kissy
Happy Valentine’s Day one and all! While you spend the day being showered with rose petals, bathing in Cristal and scaling a mountain of Ferrero Rocher, we’ll be immersing ourselves in the (granted, staged) passion evident in these gorgeous aerial snogging shots. Vive la romance!
-
Colour Us Happy!
At this, the start of a second freezing February week, our eyes are lingering long on this image of The Saguaro Palm Springs in Coachella Valley, which will open its doors for the first time this month. Literally infused with local colour, the hotel’s vibrant palette is derived from 12 tones found in the nearby Colorado Desert and splashes across everything, from the balconies to the bar to the beds. We want to be there! NOW!
-
Sweet Sayings
Helvetica. Possibly the best loved of all fonts, and certainly the most classic, it was the obvious choice for graphic designer Beverly Hsu when deciding which type to set – as cookie cutters. Her ‘Helveticookies’ biscuit shapes were born of her “love of design and food” and we’re thinking they’d be the coolest way to spell out one’s love in a couple of days’ time…
