Things we do, thoughts we have and things we like at Vostok Studio
Edwin Land once told me…
‘Those people who can stand at the intersection
of the humanities and science, the liberal arts and technology,
that intersection, are the people who can change the world’.
Yesterday Edwin H. Land, Polaroid co-founder and the brains behind the SX-70 would have turned 103. Quite a number.
No amount of money, and no small amount of time, can buy taste.
Taste is like a language: those who know it understand you, those who don’t, never will. Taste is one of those black and white concepts: you either have it or you don’t. No middle grounds. Can you develop it? Yes. (Although aesthetic taste is something you’re born with). Does it make a difference in life? Yes. Always. Can you copy it? No. Never.
Salute Yuri Gagarin, Gherman Titov, Andrian Nikolayev and Papel Popovich. Pilots of Vostok mission 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Respect.
We’ve been doing a bit of reminiscing today with the Kit-Kat map of Japanese flavors divided by region and wanted to share it. This is at least two years old so there’s nothing new here but we still love it. Unfortunately, we can’t find an english version of this so, if you happen to stumble upon one, give us a shout.
Some of the cool ones:
Sweet: Berry wine, golden peach, custard pudding
Weird: Camembert cheese, soybean paste, lemon vinegar
Savory: Grilled corn, miso, sweet potato, jacket baked potato butter
Beverages: Ramune soda, Earl Grey, caramel macchiato McFlurry
If you’re like us and silly fun facts like these rock your boat you’ll enjoy this list of past and present Kit-Kat flavors (in Japan and elsewhere). Yum!
The London’s Design Museum launched a couple of days ago version 1.1 of their free Collection iPad app. In our bookcase you’ll find this app’s distant cousin from the paper world: Charlotte and Peter Fiell’s Industrial Design A-Z. Put one next to the other one of the pros is blatantly obvious. The rest though have less to do with heftiness and more to do with practicality:
This app is worth downloading and revising every so often. For those just starting out, it’s a great read alongside Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. An overview of good, solid basics on product design that give many more insights into fundamental interaction design principles than most design courses out there today.
Minube released yesterday their international city guides for iPhone and iPad of Granada, Barcelona and Madrid in 5 new languages (English, French, Portuguese, Italian, and German). The guides in Spanish were released a few months ago. Back then they won the App Date’s prize for best design. We worked with Alex Martín (lead designer at Minube) and the rest of Minube’s team. You can download the apps here.
Things worth noting about the guides:
This is a great step forward for Minube’s enterprise: their product is now fully portable. Paper guides? Who needs them?
We just came across another promising documentary: O’Mast. A glimpse into the craftsmanship of italian tailors. FYI: O’Mast means ‘master’ in the Neapolitan dialect and ‘the man in charge of the workshop’ in the tailoring trade.
After watching the trailer, we couldn’t help but remember a quote from one of the designers interviewed in Jason Cohn’s Eames: the Architect and the Painter.
It’s ok to be exploited as long as you’re exploited by the right master.
We believe in apprenticeships, not internships, apprenticeships. Because there’s nothing like having a master to learn more about one’s craft. Call it a role-model, a hero, whatever. Someone to look up to, someone to learn from. Someone to inspire you. And of course, someone to break free from eventually.
So pick your masters wisely because what you learn today will determine who you are tomorrow. Or at least, that’s what we believe.
You can buy the O’Mast DVD here.
I love this photo.
From left to right. George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Charles Eames and Jens Risom.
Playboy Magazine July issue, 1961. It couldn’t be anywhere else.
You can read the original article here.
We like modernism. We like the fact that it’s a movement that’s not just based on aesthetics, a movement that has an actual ethos behind it. Simplified forms, rationality and functionality are the principal concepts that guide it. And we believe in them, because we believe that if you make something following these principles it will last longer.
It was a happy surprise then to find out that The Getty Conservation Institute has begun a project called the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative. Though it’s international, it’s primary focus will be L.A. The city was a wonderful breeding ground for both designers and architects exploring with new materials, new structures and new proposals. Their first effort will be the Eames House Conservation Project.
Here’s a short video about it:
If you can’t explain your ideas to your grandmother in terms that she understands, you don’t know your subject well enough. Some people use over complex (and often meaningless!) language in an attempt to gain recognition and respect. You might have to let some of them get away with it, but don’t imitate them. Professionals who know their subject area well know how to communicate their knowledge to others in everyday language.
