Wallpaper* Magazine asked me once again to be a part of their exhibit at the Salon del Mobile in Milan this year. They approached me to apply graphics to a Laser Sailboat.

It just so happens, I’ve always wanted a Laser.

I decided to avoid the obvious of working with organic forms to go with wind, water etc., and instead work deliberately against those forms. I wanted to make something that was incredibly distinctive in the water, and which would disguise its speed and versatility. To create an optical illusion of sorts, of something that looked like it didn’t belong in the water at all, much like the cubist patterns of WWI & WWII “dazzle” naval camouflage.

This is the finished boat, and the photo as it ran in the August 2010 “Handmade” issue of Wallpaper*. The photo is by Benedict Redgrove.

I worked with Sarah Douglas at Wallpaper*, James Lund Lack at Laser Performance, Alastair Goodall at Inchmere Design in the UK, and John Brooks at Hyde Sail in the Philippines.

And here’s the transom:

The sail, being a one-off*, was hand painted:

And here is someone in the UK taking it for a spin on a sad little English day before it was shot for Wallpaper. (Thanks to James Lund Lack for the photos.)

But here’s the good news! YOU CAN BUY ONE! Wallpaper is making a limited edition of 12, each for the small sum of £10,000. How can you resist? Order yours from Wallpaper* now!

It’s been making some … er … waves in the sailing community, too.

here
here
here
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etc.

This illustration was made to accompany an article in The New York Times about the word “So”. Picking up from this line in the article:

And “so” suggested a kind of thinking that appealed to problem-solving types: conversation as a logical, unidirectional process, proceeding much in the way of software code — if this, then that.

I decided to create a pattern out of the words “IF THEN” and then pick “So” out of that pattern.

For this year’s Salon del Mobile in Milan, the highly inventive, active and innovative company droog decided to buy various lots of remaindered items from liquidation sales, and then offered the batches of unusual things to 14 designers to transform in some way. Things like glassware and safety vests and dog baskets and wooden spoons … none of it particularly nice, so it was a challenge.

From the lot I chose 2 items: a single wooden table, and 80 wooden folding chairs.

For the folding chairs, well, I had this wacky idea. I had just had my fingernails done in LA for the first time, and I was fascinated with how quickly and nicely the manicurist put designs on my nails. So I proposed to droog that we get 80 manicurists and get one each to decorate a chair. Incredibly, they went for it. In the end there were only 4 or 5 manicurists, but still.

This is the first time ever that I have done something that was only concept, in which I designed nothing, and touched nothing with my actual hands.

These were my instructions:

1) COLOURS
bright colours: pink, red, yellow, etc.
opaque colours: white or nail polishes with a lot of white in them: light blues, greens, etc.
neon colours (a whole chair in neon colours would be cool: it would glow in blacklight!!)
metallic colours: the more shiny-metallic they are, the more they will stand out on the dark surface. Silver, copper, glitter .. .I have found that even metallic dark greens and blues look quite good.
They can choose a colour “theme” or make it multi-coloured.

2) MOTIFS

I’m not looking for works of art. Keep the designs simple and easy to make.
Flowers are very easy to make: 3- , 4-, and 5-petaled flowers
or little grasses, stars, abstract things with shapes and dots (I like this a lot).

Maybe there is some design they have learned that they are good at: a little butterfly or ladybug or something. Whatever they are, they should be small and simple, as though they were done on a fingernail … but there will be lots of them. I would prefer that they pick one or two little designs and just do that over and over, over the surface of the chair. Something they get good at and can do quickly and easily. NO big design pictures, no scenes or designs that would not fit on a finger nail … it should look pretty and delicate.

The Centraal Museum Utrecht bought one of these chairs, but droog still has a lot. The plan is to ship them to the droog store in New York, I believe, where they will be for sale, and more will be made.

Photos by Stefanie Grätz, courtesy of droog.

Maharam is a very high end fabric company, mostly for the trade (architects, interior designers) with “a strong focus on new technologies and cultural markers, often finding inspiration beyond the textile industry, including collaborations with avant-garde industry outsiders.” That would be me.

After wanting to work with them for several years, I have now been working with them on some things for about a year, some of which are not ready to be revealed. But these are: from Maharam Digital Projects, their new collection of wall coverings.

So far there are 3 designs of mine to choose from.

1) Feathers.

This is an old pattern of mine, which I revived and perfected for this project. I confess I was doubtful about the application, but clearly they know more about these things than I do because it looks terrific!

2) Pattern Plaid

This is a plaid in which not only do the colours cross at the intersections but little pattern units do as well. It’s bright and cheery.

3) Birds

This bird is one I drew years ago which has also been resurrected and patternized for the wallpaper. Giant, scrolly birds.

To see these on the Maharam website, or to order them, go to the Maharam Virtual Library and click on the binder (currently on far left) called Maharam Digital Projects, and then click on the index at top right, and scroll though to find mine. But be forewarned, you’ll probably get to the ones by Karel Martens and forget all about me and order his for your entire house. Not to mention all those other fabulous designs that I wish I had a palace for.

Photos courtesy of Maharam.

This year I had the idea to make my valentines from old Christmas cards.

I solicited my friends to send me all their used Christmas cards, and I started getting exciting envelopes of cards in the mail. Many, many cards. This must be what it’s like to be popular!

I created the design of the heart for laser cutting … I wanted most of the card image to be cut away, but there to be enough left that some semblance of image remained; that you could tell it came from a christmas card.

I then consulted with Arkwel Industries here in Vancouver about the production. They got totally behind the idea, and Nancy Lock and her boss, Bill, also sent me a huge batch of used cards.

The laser cutter is fussy, so then I had to sort the cards, discarding any with multi-layers or glued-on bits, and sorting the rest into card weight, which I did just with a primitive snap-test.

Then I trimmed them so that the heart would fall in the most interesting part of the card.

The final result exceeded my most hopeful expectations.

I simply couldn’t believe how transformed the cards were …

How these cards (most of which were, in their original state, nothing special, or even downright ugly) gained so much more from the process.

How abstracted the designs became.

And how incredibly attached I became to each and every card. They were very hard to give away.

I made about 500, and every single one is different.

Here’s Ed Fella’s card, hanging in his office:

They looked so great all together:

This time, I was invited, along with 10 other designers (including Milton Glaser, Louise Fili, Neville Brody, Chip Kidd, among others) to design one of 10 special covers for GQ Italia’s 10th anniversary issue.

Of all the things I’ve done recently, this is my favourite. It’s structured, manly yet pretty, n’est-ce pas?

(printed in CMYK + silver)

John Gall at Random House invited me to take part in a project whereby 21 designers are invited to create a cover for reissues of Nabokov’s books … but within the prescribed format of creating a specimen box (Nabokov collected butterflies) with pins and “paper”, to create the cover.

Ten of these new designs are just being issued now, with wonderful covers by Carin Goldberg, Sam Potts, Michael Bierut, Stephen Doyle and the ever-amazing Martin Venezky, among others.

My book was “Transparent Things” so I used the pins to suspend 4 layers of acetate, with dots of transparent ink on each later.

And below is the picture I took of it, in sunlight.

You can view all (or almost all) of the covers here, at Design Observer. (Including a more eloquent description of the project, by John Gall.)

Emilie Lamy of the design magazine étapes in France, asked me to contribute a piece for their upcoming book celebrating 15 years of the magazine.

She asked me to create something for the 15 years, but also to reflect my process in the piece.

The tiling unit for this piece is a “15”, and the piece then shows how it goes from one little sketch, to a repeated pattern which evolves and changes from left to right. Plus of course, there is a “15” in the larger, resulting image.

After attending Design Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa, earlier this year, I was asked to do the cover for the next issue of the Design Indaba magazine. It’s a great conference, by the way, if you ever get a chance to go, do!

Todd Falkowsky of Motherbrand in Toronto approached me to design a … a … well, see, there’s this machine that squishes pennies, just like we used to do on the railroad tracks when we were kids (only it’s safer) and it has the ability to impress a new image into the penny, turning the penny into an oval copper thing. So Todd wanted to get 4 designers to make designs for this machine, and then set the machine out somewhere and give the proceeds (I think it costs $2, plus the penny) to an art studio for street youth.

I just liked the idea of squishing pennies … though, isn’t there a law against this? Doesn’t it come under “defacing the queen” or something?

Anyway, So I thought about what one might conceivably want to have on a copper thing that might mingle with your change in your pocket. Ultimately I decided on “Empathy”, because really that’s all the world needs is a whole lotta empathy, and I imagined that you might look at that Empathy penny from time to time and it might actually influence how you viewed a situation.

Then, for the design, I was interested in putting the “round” back in the distorted penny. Or maybe I’m just into circles right now (yes.)

Where can you get this? Only one location: at the Design Exchange in Toronto.

The three other designers were Douglas Coupland, Burton Kramer and Paul Butler, so if you want my design, make sure you turn the dial to the right position!

Way back in November, Flaunt magazine asked me to do the cover for their 10th Anniversary, I decided to do an oil painting of the whole cover and this was it.

They loved it! And then there was an edtorial change and they couldn’t use it. Shit happens.

Michael Bierut at Pentagram hired me to draw some thistles for a new mark for Strathmore Papers. I did various versions, all designed to work as repeating patterns as well, and this was the one they chose.

Katie Barcelona, at Pentagram, worked on these ream wraps with Michael … I think there’s more stuff to come.

Last year Saks commissioned me to draw 25 snowflakes for their 2008 Christmas season. (I delivered a few extras.) Working with the marvellous Terron Schaefer once again, he encouraged me to be very loose and varied in my approach. I spent a number of days, sitting on my couch, in July, drawing snowflakes.

I drew some like feathers, like antlers, with little people, one made all of houses, some like sparkly lights, a hairy one, a few like ribbons, some were complex and three dimensional, others simple and flat …

You know how it is, you do some work for something that won’t be realized for over a year, and you kindof forget about it. It’s not that I forgot, exactly, it just that I forgot what Saks does with things after I hand them over! And now the season of magic is upon us, and the snowflakes have been launched, and are turning up on bags and ads and catalogues and hats and … well, have a look:

The front and back of one of the catalogues (above and below):

Another catalogue showing the snowflake hat:

I supplied drawings, but they have been transformed into all sorts of other materials:

A page from the catalogue shows the boxes:

Gift cards!:

The hat:

The bags, outside and inside … :

But get a load of this. They commissioned jewellers to make one-of-a-kind pieces based on some of the snowflakes:

More about the jewellery, here.

And I will be going to New York in mid-December and will return, I hope, with more pictures from the store.

View the Saks catalogue online, here. (Not sure how long that link will work: maybe not after Dec. 25 2008?)

This one of my favourite pieces so far.
R-Wines, from Australia, wanted a poster with the names of all of their suppliers, to give to them as a present.

I drew 30 grapes, of different varieties (who knew they were so colourful?) each hiding a letter of the alphabet. But then I had to place them … a total of approximately 2,130 grapes!

Here’s a detail: