The Design Conspiracy Blog

As featured in Wallpaper*

Oo-err, Missus. The July issue of Wallpaper* Magazine is art directed by somebody called Peter Saville and is themed around 21st Century Sex. Amongst the articles about getting your leg over in skill pads and fancy clobber there's one about "Tart Cards" and how they'd look after designers have got their filthy little fonts on 'em. 

Instead of seedy little telephone boxes, these particular Tart Cards will be on display at KK Outlet, London at the end of June, so don't forget to bring Granny and the kids.

Check out our contribution, Swiss Miss. She's up for a bit of Helvetic Fun. Corrrrrrr....

  

Woodstock of The Mind?

Hay-on-Wye. You know, the Festival where every year loadsa literati get together and natter about books n ideas n stuff? Yep that one. Well this year The Design Conspiracy rolled into town to see what was going on. Bill Clinton called it the Woodstock of the Mind. We'd say it was a bit like a Middle-Class Butlin's. But any which way it was a terrific place for a picnic.

And we really liked these...

Pimpez Mon Ride, Monsieur.

The Citroen DS. Sleek. Elegant. Gallic. Absurdly Wonderful. No wonder that brainy French geezer, Roland Barthes said it looked as if it had "tombé du ciel." 

Best of all, the DS was a great set of wheels for Design Conspiracy to embark on a factory outing to the Hay-on-Wye Festival. Ah how the leather ran smooth on the passenger seat...

Swine Flu is no joke...

...so who roped Frank Skinner into the publicity campaign?

Skinner smoking                               Skinner Sneezing      

Separated at birth?

I know Manchester United sometimes have a bunker-like mentality, but this is ridiculous.

            Ferdinand                                   Goebbels

A Design Classic - by a Classic Designer

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you the Hoover Junior 1334, the vacuum cleaner that the hip housewife of 1958 happily pushed over the florally-patterned carpet as Buddy Holly & the Crickets played on her Bakelite iPod. 

And it's also what the unhip housebloke of 2009 pushes reluctantly over his floor as he muses on the fact that Spotify has probably made his brand new 160 GB iPod totally irrelevant. 

But back to the Junior 1334. According to the world's foremost educational resource for vintage Hoover studies (yep, I've looked) www.vintagehoover.com, "the 1334 was Hoover's 3rd total redesign of the highly popular Junior model - and very likely the work of Henry Dreyfuss. For the first time, all the mechanics were enclosed in a streamlined alloy hood, reminiscent from some angles of the Volkswagen Beetle. It was the first UK Hoover to feature a disposable dust bag, which made disposing of the dirt a much cleaner and more hygenic process. The colour scheme was 'white and rose'."

In case you didn't know, Henry Dreyfuss (1904-1972) was the American industrial designer responsible for amongst other things, the classic Western Electric 302 tabletop telephone (1937)...

...as well as the iconic WestClox 'Big Ben' Alarm Clock (1939)....

 

...and this funky 'lil train called the NYC Hudson (1936).

Apparently Dreyfuss died in a suicide pact with his wife, after both received diagnoses of terminal cancer. A tragic end to a Design Genius. But what he's left is stuff that still works and is still relevant to today, cos' I've still gotta clean my floor. 

But do I still need an iPod?

Macca

Your Flexible Friend?

Ah, the memories....

The Watchmaker That Time Forgot

This is Mr Langley's Jewellery Shop ('Watch and Clock Repairs a Speciality'') that you'll find on Leicester's Melton Road.

Mr Langley has been plying his trade since the 60s.

Mr Langley concentrates on stuff like repairing your watch.

Mr Langley is great. 

Liam Harvey Oswald

Phwooooarrr, awwwww, wahooo

I've just bought a new pair of trainers. I'm very excited as I've not done this for quite some time. I'd shunned them in favour of shoes in a bid to appear smarter. Ha, what a load of rubbish.

I realised not only had I missed the comfort of trainers, I'd missed the experience. The fresh out the box smell and the joy of lacing up. But also the graphics. Trainers  to me feel more 'graphics' than shoes. Does that make sense?

The chosen trainers were Adidas Rod Lavers, from the Tournament Edition collection. All plain white with a gorgeous little hint of dark green on the back which is the range's signature colour. They've been available for quite some time and I've had my eye on them for a while but was scared of the commitment for some reason.

Anyway, tried them on, loved 'em and then I clocked the box. Nice box. Dark green box. White debossed stripes. Hinged lid. A divider to seperate the trainers. A special box for the special range. I shared my box excitment with the sales guy, he mirrored my excitement.

On further inspection, other little details came to light. Dark green soles. Punched out special logo on tongue. Embroidered label on the inner sole. With gold thread.

Oooooh this is all lovely. Nice little graphic touches that mean absolutely zilch to the fit or comfort, just make a designer feel all tingly. Lovely.

Written by April. Not Kingsley.

Con2001 Monolith

Ok, we have this rather large piece of black acrylic, it measures 40" x 60" and we cannot decide what to do with it? I like the idea of using it to create a series of photographs, this being a large black mirror type device, much like in the image below. Other creatives here think it would be good to engrave into it, what, we don't know? Have any of you folks out there go any thoughts as to what we can do with it? Is there anyone out there?