This inspiring collaboration between Dutch quality wallpaper producer NLXL and designers Studio Job was unveiled last April, during Salone del Mobile. In the collaboration existing patterns from Studio Job's library of icons and images were adapted and extended to compositions of nine meters. Unique and without repeat, the collection reflects a retrospect of the history of Studio Job, which on a material basis was also the case in the design for Land Rover. Studio Job used archetypical drawings, combined as iconographic elements for patterns and compositions, ultimately creating 7 designs: Industry, Labyrinth, Perished, Alt Deutsch, l’Afrique and Withered Flowers, the latter in black and white and in color. These patterns, icons and compositions were originally created amongst others for their own work and projects in design, art and fashion and now applied beautifully as wallpapers. [ Continue reading ]

To celebrate the fact that the first Land Rover Defender was produced 65 years ago, Studio Job was asked to take this 4x4 in hand. In their own way, they have created an ode to the vehicle that makes many of us dream of adventures. Eventually, it has turned out to be more than simply a revised or upgraded vehicle. The result is a sculpture that questions escapism, power relationships and above all Studio Job’s own work. "Designing a car is the same as when, as a designer, you’re sometimes given the chance to redefine a hotel: it’s a higher goal. You don’t get such important commissions every day," says Job Smeets, founder of Studio Job. "On top of that, Defender is an emotionally charged icon. We’ve approached that golden carriage in our own way, maybe not so much from the angle of this one car but rather from the phenomenon of the holy cow in general." [ Continue reading ]

It is always good to see print is far from dead, and there are still people investing in good quality and craftsmanship. For more than 12 years ‘Studio on Fire’ is doing a great job in letterpress printing, and keeping the craft alive! The studio started late 1999,… [ Continue reading ]

We have been off to a slow start here (not elsewhere), but with some very exciting meetings ahead in the coming months (stay tuned!), there will be an even stronger overal shift to ‘Less but Better’ in this year. Nevertheless, we will start picking up the pace from here, still sharing those things that continue to move us — today putting focus on the infamous Studio Job once more. As part of the Carpenters Workshop Gallery's ten-year anniversary programme, last week the gallery with three locations worldwide opened its Parisian space for the public to an exclusive exhibition by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, which might very well be the most impressive display of their holistic practice till date.

Entitled ‘Here There Nowhere’ the exceptional solo show presents new creations, some of the most emblematic pieces that the duo created over the last few years and, very excitingly so, for the first time it opens up the drawings that form the basis for most physical creations to the public. The result is a highly diverse constellation of the fascinating creatures, iconic hybrid forms and ironic objects that punctuated with iconographic references — forming a kitsch and fanciful world where the object transcends functionality with everything bound together by the ‘Neo-Gothic’ aesthetic, masterfully championed by the Dutch power duo. When in Paris, ‘Here There Nowhere’ in a must visit! [ Continue reading ]

During the weekend of the 5th of February, Amsterdam will welcome a new initiative by the name of MONO JAPAN. The debuting event organized by the Japan Cultural Exchange offers a stage to acclaimed Japanese masters of traditional practices next to the new generation of ambitious and enthusiastic creators from the country famous for its craftsmanship and design vision. The inspirational new platform has curated a diverse selection of exhibitors, presenting their products which range from pottery, washi (paper), textile, clothing and furniture to teas, sakes and art in the iconic rooms of the Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy. Out of this beautiful lot of ambassadors of the Land of the Rising Sun we particularly love the work of multidisciplinary artist Ryo Okamoto, who is present with fellow artist Daimon Kanno, to introduce his totally unique, yet very Japanese vision on contemporary art. [ Continue reading ]

After last year's impressive debut of the New York-based inspirational boutique of limited edition design, objects and art named Chamber, this month the second annual collection, given the moniker 'Human | Nature', opened its doors. Curated by celebrated photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman who, just as his predecessors Studio Job, has worked closely with Chamber’s founder, Juan Garcia Mosqueda, in shaping the year-long project. With his curation for Chamber Collection #2, Andrew Zuckerman explores the theme of how the natural world interacts with man’s living environment as expressed through objects of design, art, and various types of ephemera. Zuckerman’s collaboration with Chamber draws on a broad array of sources, including Japanese aesthetics, ethnographic art, and biomimetics, in the service of creating a collection of objects that reintroduce organic forms or concepts into designed spaces. When in New York city this is a must see! [ Continue reading ]

The infamous(ly great) Studio Job returns once again with an incredible new show. For 'The Banana Show', the Antwerp- and Amsterdam-based studio of Job Smeets and partner in crime Nynke Tynagel, created a series of lamps - fitting their subversive aesthetic perfectly - shaped like peeled bananas for an exhibition which opened last month in the Belgian Samuel Vanhoegaerden Gallery. The limited-edition collection of Banana Lamps comprises seven different lights, including five standing models held up in different positions by the curved representations of a banana's peeled skin, as well as a hanging wall light and an oversized version. Each light features a polished bronze skin and an etched mouth-blown glass fruit filled with LED lights. The show also includes the Buoy Mirror, which has a red ring-shaped frame with four white bands and resembles a lifebuoy. The facet-cut mirror features sintered glass and hand-painted banana graphics in keeping with the exhibition's theme. Seven new ink banana drawings on A2 paper in oak frames will be displayed alongside 30 drawings taken from Job Smeets' archive from 1998 to 2005. [ Continue reading ]

Chamber is an exciting new boutique of limited edition design, objects and art, which opens today in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. The space’s unique concept and retail experience is the vision of Argentinian-born Founder Juan Garcia Mosqueda. Critically acclaimed architectural practice MOS has designed the interior of the space. Taking the Renaissance-era Cabinet of Curiosities as its inspiration, Chamber will be a twenty-first century reliquary for unusual objects and a platform for design experimentation. Every two years, Garcia Mosqueda will choose a different designer or creative to curate the shop’s entire program, bringing their unique viewpoint to Chamber through specially commissioned works, and rare and vintage items. For the inaugural curatorial period, he has selected designers Studio Job, who are working closely with a dynamic group of established and emerging designers and artists to create Chamber Collection #1. [ Continue reading ]

The second issue of Blend Magazine just hit the stores with our new Treasures in it. Again a fine selection of our favorites of the past months: The White Oak Cone denim by Tellason x Tenue de Nîmes, Le Labo Vintage Candles,… [ Continue reading ]

This coming Friday, the doors of the beautiful Capital C building in Amsterdam will open for BIG ART. The exciting new initiative of curator Anne van der Zwaag presents over 50 XL artworks by contemporary artists and designers and will run for 10 days in what used to be the Diamant Exchange of the city. A unique mix of acclaimed names and upcoming talents, monumental paintings, drawings, large sculptures, big photos and huge installations. As one of the official partners of BIG ART we will present some of our favorite artists included in the curation of van der Zwaag. Starting with Rotterdam-based painter Katinka Lampe, with whom we discussed the democratization of the contemporary visual culture, the rise of artificial self-representation and how this is reflected back in her haunting distorted paintings of young human figures. [ Continue reading ]

Following on from last year’s inspirational 'American Craftsmen in Britain' profiles, which we really liked, Shinola and Jocks&Nerds have collaborated again in a series named 'Community of Craft', which resulted in a unique series of pop-up events in Shinola’s London shop. Over the coming months, five craftspeople will set up their own shops within the Shinola store. Members of the public can watch them work, learn what is involved in their craft, and purchase their own bespoke items. The third profile in the series focusses on Peter Bellerby, the London-based artisan globemaker of Bellerby & Co Globemakers. From the stand, to the artwork, the painting and map-making, each of the globes is expertly crafted using traditional and modern globemaking techniques, and is lovingly produced in their North London studio. The globes by Bellerby & Co have been used in Hollywood movies, in BBC and ITV productions as well as by established artists. Next to receiving customers from around the world searching for only the finest when it comes to globes. [ Continue reading ]

It must be a very good month for Ryan and Tina Essmaker, the married duo behind the inspirational project named The Great Discontent. Their platform was launched as a digital publication focussing on the darker side of creativity; the risks, the failures and the disappointments everyone who creates has to deal with, which they last year translated to a great tactile printed publication. Funded through Kickstarter, and in a collaboration with designer Frank Chimero, who assisted with editorial design and art direction, the first issue of the printed quarterly magazine saw light in the Summer of 2014 and was received very positive. At the beginning of this month the beautiful second issue was officially launched and some weeks later it was announced that the TGD debut was totally sold out, underlining that the step taken by Ryan and Tina to fully focus on their platform was a great decision. The second printed issue, with singer Sharon van Etten on the cover, revolves around the theme of hustle and implores the reader to reconsider the idea of making it —both how we do it and how we define it— which proves to be another perfect angle for the honest and revealing stories by The Great Discontent. [ Continue reading ]

During last year's London Design Festival, in the second collaboration with BMW group, British design duo Jay Osgerby & Edward Barbar created this incredible bespoke installation, the largest structure that they have ever created, for the annual event. The project named ‘Double Space' – Precision & Poetry of Motion— was an immersive experience constructed within the V&A museum‘s prestigious Raphael gallery that combines technical precision with poetic semantics. It was the British creatives’ intention to interpret the leitmotif of BMW’s design philosophy, ‘precision and poetry’, bringing forth an all-encompassing piece that merged technology and sensuality into a single experience. The kinetic installation is composed of two large reflectors, each composed of one flat wall of mirror and one curved surface, hovering over the 600 m² space where Raphael’s famous cartoons for his Sistine Chapel tapestries hang. The two shimmering volumes (each measuring 15 x 10 meters each) revolving on their own axis, either simultaneously or alternatively, collectively citing the monumental size of the Raphael gallery – "A place that cries out something great," according to Osgerby, with which we can only agree. [ Continue reading ]

Last week the amazing work of the highly talented Singapore-based Michelle Yu was brought to our attention. In everything the 25-year old creates there is a sense of dark brooding energy to be found, and we particularly love the work named 'mad girl's love song' which is inspired by the poem with the same title written by American poet Sylvia Plath in 1951. Plath who suffered from depression most of her adult life, which she ended by suicide when she was 30, left an oeuvre of poems, short stories and a novel which are considered to be a significant milestone for the genre of confessional poetry, which focusses on individual experience, the psyche, personal trauma, and taboos. This sentiment of personal trauma, very apparent in 'mad girl's love song' is beautifully caught in the black and white drawing by Yu. All figurative elements in the drawing, a girl's head, hand and feet, two birds and what appears to be a set of lungs are drowning in a fire-like pool. Beautifully catching the emotions of despair and misunderstood love which are expressed by Plath. [ Continue reading ]

Métier, Small Businesses in London is a lovely book by photographer Laura Braun published through her own Paper Tiger Books, about London-based small-scale independent and specialist businesses and the people who run them. In a time when the high streets of London are taking on a more and more corporate character, this book offers an unusual and interesting perspective on the city and an insight into the working lives of people who strongly identify with their occupation. In total Laura has photographed 26 people and their places of work, accompanied by a short text about each person and business and an afterword by sociologist Dawn Lyon. [ Continue reading ]

On the 7th of September Galerie Gabriel Rolt opened the exhibition of portraits by the very talented painter Dawn Mellor in which she depicts former members of now defunct not-for-profit collective The Austerians. This is the second solo exhibition at the gallery following "The Conspirators" in 2010. The Manchester-born Mellor is the oldest female artist never to have participated in a group exhibition, nationally or internationally at galleries, museums and public institutions in Europe and the USA or to have collaborated with curators or artists in various media. [ Continue reading ]

Calepino, the lovely little French notebook company, released a special series of notebooks in collaboration with the graphic and typographic studio from Nantes called La Casse. 'Alteration', as the collaboration is named, is a pack of 3 notebooks, made using manuel letterpress printing.  [ Continue reading ]

In these heated, confusing times of economic recession and political angst, unavoidably and inevitably, we all find ourselves listening to music of the more soothing variety to put our world in balance and perspective. Some folks veer towards the classical end of the musical spectrum while others default to country; the cheesier of those among us turn to Kenny G. while the more refined look to Coltraine; but we Anthem staffers increasingly find ourselves on a sonic journey to Scandinavia for our aural Xanax fix.

Maybe it's the fjords; maybe it's the omega-3 fatty acid diet; or maybe it's just the placid snow-covered, oftentimes sunless landscape the Northerners dwell in. Whatever it is, we Americans find ourselves entirely in want of the X Factor that is making the musicians mentioned below (and many more) pump out such mesmerizing and enchanting tunes. Here are some of our favorite new disco/new Balearic/cosmic disco favorites (don't worry about the genre monikers―just jam). [ Continue reading ]