1.15.2012

Free Life Center


Mark Warren Jacques- Pender Island B.C., Islands Fold residency. Photo by Kris Khosrowkhani

1.13.2012

1.12.2012

Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer who was chief of design for the influential electronic devices manufacturer Braun for almost 35 years. Rams and his team designed many iconic devices ranging from record players to furniture to storage systems.

Dieter Rams is associated with the memorable phrase “Less, but better”. He used graphic design, form, proportion, and materiality to create order within his designs. His work does not try to be the center of attention, rather he allows his work to become part of the environment through precision and order.

Here are his famous "Principles of Good Design":

1. Good design is innovative: Innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
2. Good design makes a product useful: A product is bought to be used and has to satisfy certain functional, psychological and aesthetic criteria.
3 Good design is aesthetic: The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being.
4. Good design makes a product understandable: Design clarifies a product’s structure and at its best, is self-explanatory.
5. Good design is unobtrusive: Well-designed products are like neutral and restrained tools that are neither decorative objects nor works of art.
6. Good design is honest: Good design does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
7. Good design is long-lasting: Good design avoids being fashionable so it lasts many years and never appears antiquated.
8. Good design is thorough, down to the last detail: In good design nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance and it should show respect towards the consumer.
9. Good design is environmentally-friendly: Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment, conserving resources and minimizing physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
10. Good design is as little design as possible: Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials.

Dieter Ram's work has been a big influence on others such as Jonnathon Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple. Phaidon publishing released a new book on Dieter Rams in June, 2011 called Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible – with a foreword writen by Jonathan Ive.

4.18.2011

The Ozymandias Parade


Ed and Nancy Reddin Kienholz
The Ozymandias Parade
1985

Mixed media tableau
386.1 x 886.5 x 457.2 cm

HV10175
© The Estate of Ed & Nancy Kienholz 2006

3.01.2011

2.23.2011

12.22.2010

Dieter Rams

The first Ipod
A 1958 Braun T3 pocket radio designed by Dieter Rams

12.14.2010

Ellen Gallagher

Ellen Gallagher is coming to Gagosian. I can't wait.

12.07.2010

Seeing is figuring out

Liz Larner, Two or Three or Something, 1998–99. Steel, paper, and watercolor, 101 × 84 × 64 1/4 in. (256.5 × 213.4 × 163.2 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee 2001.31

12.02.2010

Au Grand Palais

Anselm Kiefer au Grand Palais

12.01.2010

Mark Fox



from the exhibition Magna Carta- Art/Paper @ Caine Shulte
San Francisco: Nov 17, 2010 - Jan 18, 2011
Berlin: March 18, 2011 - Apr 30, 2011