We were rather sad to read that Saab is to be closed down by GM. We weren't impressed by the latest models, but we were looking forward to the new 9-5, which hinted at a return to Saab's quirky and very much Scandinavian roots. We still would love to own a classic 900 Aero in white as seen above.
20/12/2009
17/12/2009
Sleep
"America needs to get some sleep. The prevailing culture tells us that nothing succeeds like excess, that working 80 hours a week is better than working 70, that being plugged in 24/7 is expected, and that sleeping less and multi-tasking more are an express elevator to the top. I beg to differ.
There is nothing that negatively affects our mood, our productivity, or our effectiveness more than lack of sleep. For the last few years, ever since I passed out from exhaustion, broke my cheekbone and got five stitches over my eye, I've been working on bringing more balance to my life.
To do this I've had to learn to unplug and recharge. To trade multi-tasking for uni-tasking and - occasionally - no-tasking. It's left me healthier, happier, and more able to make a difference in the world. My eyes have been opened to the value of regularly closing them."
Arianna Huffington - Editor in Chief of the Huffington Post writing in the inspiring book entitled "What Matters Now", compiled by Seth Godin.
Photo by Hedi Slimane.
13/12/2009
12/12/2009
"The Joy of Less" - article by Mr. Pico Iyer
Out of all articles and blog posts we have read in 2009 here at Z List, one has left a particularly powerful memory. It's a good time to revisit it and save it here as one of the mementos of 2009.
Mr. Pico Iyer wrote an opinion column entitled "The Joy of Less" for the International Herald Tribune in June. He spoke about his life and the choices he has made.
One of our favourite passages dealt with his plans to spend a year in a temple in Kyoto. He wrote:
"My high-minded year lasted all of a week, by which time I’d noticed that the depthless contemplation of the moon and composition of haiku I’d imagined from afar was really more a matter of cleaning, sweeping and then cleaning some more." 
International Klein Blue.
11/12/2009
6 photos
Hedi Slimane + Hurts.
Click for more.
We're trying to hide our excitement and maintain a fashionable sense of detachment and froideur, but it's difficult. Not only do these images sum up 2009 and everything we've been thinking about over the past 12 months here at Z List, but they also show us exactly where to go. 
10/12/2009
Pantone 15-5519 TCX
Pantone has chosen turquoise as their colour of 2010.
They say:
"Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing."
It is also the colour used by Arne Jacobsen in room 606 at the SAS Hotel in Copenhagen. 
09/12/2009
The Internet
"Has the internet brought us together or driven us apart?" - an interesting article by Mr. Johann Hari, published in the Independent on Tuesday, December 8, 2009.
Also, Lady Greenfield - Oxford University neurologist and director of the Royal Institution said:
"I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf."
Download Leechblock.
08/12/2009
05/12/2009
Should I run a million miles away from every memory of you?
For a great interview with Jody Gadsden, please head to the fantastic xolondon.
03/12/2009
Tyranny of E-mail
From Outlook (BBC World):
American literary critic John Freeman found he was drowning in email. So he tried an experiment, he cut himself off from all email contact. He tells us how he coped, and admits that he's now back to using email albeit in a more controlled way. The full story is told in "The Tyranny of Email", published by Simon & Schuster.
01/12/2009
30/11/2009
16/10/2009
Arianna says...
"That's a huge thing we're dealing with, as a culture, individually. We call it How To Learn To Disconnect in order to recharge. And connect with ourselves. Otherwise you can really lose yourself on the surface. We want to uni-task - if we are in love or reading a great book or absorbed in a creative project, multitasking is an enemy of that."
Arianna Huffington in The Guardian's Weekend magazine from 10 October 2009.
15/10/2009
5 illustrators
The Guardian has been publishing a series of books with fairytales this week. They focus on themes such as Wicked Parents, Love and Quests. They are beautifully illustrated by a variety of artists.
My personal favourite is Finnish illustrator Pietari Posti who worked on the theme of Wisdom and folly. More images below.
Laura Barrett
Wicked Parents
Pietari Posti
Wisdom and folly
Rui Tenreiro
Quests and riddles
Emily Forgot
Love
Heisuke Kitazawa
Raga to riches
01/10/2009
A dream come true
This morning started with a bit of a disappointment and ended up on a high and on both occasions Ms. Jil Sander was to blame.
The morning wasn't great, as I couldn't buy anything from her collection for Uniqlo. I was hoping for the Uniqlo on-line store to carry some of the items, but that was not to be.
But then the new issue of T Style Magazine (published by the New York Times) appeared on-line.
Now, for a long time I wanted to catch a glimpse of Ms. Sander's private life (not in a crazy stalker-ish way, but in a 'I wonder how a creative person with a strong sense of aesthetics lives' kind of way). In the past I heard about the uniform, I read about the 35 identical white shirts and I knew about a period residence near Hamburg.
And now I know. The Fall Design issue of the T Style Magazine published photos (taken by Ms. Sander herself) of her studio and of her private residence. The buildings stand side by side near Aussenlaster lake near Hamburg.
The studio (desi
gned by Michael Gabellini) looks as I expected: parquet floors, white walls with expensive-looking minimalist white-on-white art, huge windows and a sense of efficient serenity. It aslo looks like a space where hours can be spent on deciding the exact shade of white or the right texture and feel of cashmere.
The photos of the private residence, however, tell a different and at first glance unexpected, story. Designed by the legendary Renzo Mongiardino the house looks opulent and almost theatrical, something I wouldn't expect from Ms. Sander. But I also think on some level it all makes sense. Ms. Sander says in the interview about her dislike for the word minimalism. She is not about minimalism, but about purity. She explains: It's an ethic. The courage not to fill a room, to know where to stop.
Photo of Ms. Sander's office from the T Magazine article.
NZZ
Mike Meiré redisigned the Neue Zurcher Zeitung*. It looks absolutely amazing and just how I imagine my (nearly) ideal newspaper to look like. Serious, elegant, understated, trustworthy, modern(ist) and not like a web site. I have the previous incarnation of this newspaper in my small archive and I hope I'll get my hands on an edition with the new design soon.
* 'The most serious newspaper in the world' according to one of the editors at the Guardian (via Mark Porter, who also has a fascinating review of the redisign).
J+
It looks like I might not be wearing a cashmere Jil Sander for Uniqlo scarf this autumn. I was hoping to buy on-line, but the Uniqlo web site is very slow at the moment and I don't think any of the pieces are available on-line at the moment anyway. On the main Uniqlo web site there is information about 'one piece per customer' policy. So will it end up being yet another designer/high-street collection you cannot get hold of?
To cheer me up I have this picture of Ms. Sander's library (via T Style Magazine Blog).
Demand
This is a good month:
Arena Homme +
A10
032C gives us a blueprint for the NEXT decade's magazine
Fantastic Man
AnotherMan
Looking good when it comes to the crunch
Looking goods a state of mind
Ms. Neneh Cherry made an appearance a few posts below and then yesterday I picked up the latest Arena Homme + and she's there too. I've only cracked open the magazine this morning, but it promises to be one of the most exciting issues ever. It's a tribute to Buffalo and to Mr. Ray Petri and it's tough. And the cover is an ode to The Face.
A cast of thousands includes Ms. Neneh Cherry and her daughter Ms. Tyson McVey, Ms. Naomi Campbell, Ms. Talisa Soto, Mr. Nick Knight, Mr. Juergen Teller, Mr. Neville Brody, Mr. Raf Simons and Felix.
30/09/2009
Tyler Brule and Twitter, take three.
Mr. Bruce Nussbaum from Business Week responded to Mr. Brule’s recent comments about Twitter (please see my post below). He wrote:
A good Twitter posse is better than a Google algorithm in ferreting out important and useful insights.
I do agree - it is quite great to ask/see what people are thinking/reading/tweeting about.
Mr. Brule’s created a mini Twitter-storm with his column. I typed his name into Twitter’s search engine and there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of messages about it. Unsurprisingly the reaction has not been positive. One user, going by the name ‘absolutrufus’ wrote:
I thought Tyler Brule’s column hating on Twitter started out great, but flamed out. I stopped reading after the first 140 characters.
I still think there is a lot of noise on social networking web sites and the real skill for the future would be to edit it and make it useful.
Jugs, Jars & Pitchers
Jugs, Jars & Pitchers is the title of an exhibition curated by Mr. Jasper Morrison currently on display in Mr. Morrison’s shop in London.
The subtitle for the show could be Quiet is the New Loud (and Kings of Convenience are back too). Mr. Morrison collected and decided to show more than objects designed to carry liquids. There are simple brushes, spatulas, pots. No names, no stories, just form and function. Some of it is from well-known designers, some from junk shops and flea markets.
The exhibition runs until Wednesday, September 30th.
For more info, send an e-mail to: shop@jaspermorrison.com or read more here.
I like the concept of basic clothes in a democratic world.
Jil Sander on her collaboration with Uniqlo (via The Daily Telegraph).
Jil Sander on her collaboration with Uniqlo (via The Daily Telegraph).
Another take on Twitter
Tyler Brúlé doesn’t like Twitter, but Leo Babauta (of the inspiring zenhabits.net) does. In an interview with Karen Leland he recognises Tyler’s point about noise and says:
“There is a lot of noise out there about social media right now and while social media is useful, it can also be a time suck. You have to integrate marketing time into the rest of your life.”
And then he adds:
“I’ve been experimenting with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and others. Twitter is the one I really enjoy the most. I think you have to understand that each one you use on a regular basis requires a time commitment. So I set time limits. I don’t leave my Twitter open all the time. I check it twice a day and even then I skim the messages. I also split my Twittering time into 20 minute sessions - a morning session, one after lunch and one towards the end of the day.”
Cubicle is the new loft?
Cubicle is the new loft? I would not mind living in my office (but it would have to be refurbished back to its original design). NYMag asked five design offices for their ideas.
Tyler Brûlé doesn't like Twitter and is not afraid to say it.
It doesn’t come as a big surprise that Monocle’s Editor-in-Chief Tyler Brûlé is not a fan of Twitter (read his latest column for FT here).
As a vocal advocate of old-school/old-world/old-fashioned approach to media (foreign bureaux, analogue photography, craftsmanship, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, etc.) he never seemed like a person who was going to send us a tweet from his favourite rokku kissain Shibuya-ku. I must say that I would be the first to follow his Twitter updates, though, as it would be fascinating to try to keep up with his schedule.
I liked this particular sentence:
On second thought, perhaps you should have been arrested for invading the privacy of others, for making your “tweets” all over the place and fouling up an already overburdened media and social networking landscape.
Although it has to be said that one can choose whether to follow Twitter/Facebook et al. or not, there is a lot to be said for polluting the media/social networking landscape. it isn’t a new argument that it is getting harder and harder to even attempt to digest the amount of information (trivial, essential, serious and superficial) available to us. One should carefully consider adding one’s voice to the Internet chatter (and this leads to a natural question to the author of these words - why are you writing this blog, then? Ah yes… perhaps we’ll come to this in the coming days. Perhaps not.)
So don’t expect a Twitter account for Monocle then, but that’s not to say that Tyler Brûlé’s media brand is stuck in the past. They have built an interesting and solid on-line presence, marrying traditional approach (it takes time, effort and money to write and produce something of value and substance) with new technology (podcasts, short videos, slideshows). Recently they’ve also introduced a Monocolumn - I would risk calling it their take on a blog, but with a distinct Monocle flavour (it’s called A daily bulletin of news and opinion).
Weekly and growing
Magazines are having a tough time. Some are folding (Arena), others are thinking about staff cuts (20 per cent at Business Week). Things are not looking good.
But there are exceptions, one of them being Italian Vanity Fair. With circulation up by more than 8 per cent year-on-year, it apparently has a problem with an abundance of adverts. Its secret? It's a weekly. In the editorial mix: fashion, politics and celebrity gossip. Glossy photos and articles shorter than in its American counterpart (estimated reading time between 6 to 14 minutes). It's not the only weekly that is going strong, as the success story of Grazia magazine in the UK is well-documented. But going weekly is not always the answer. German edition of Vanity Fair went weekly in 2007 and folded in February 2009.
The link in the title takes you to an in-depth article by J.J. Martin for the New York Times.
Postcards
Nice postcards with some iconic images of communist popular culture (Fiat 126p, bottle of milk, Moscow Olympics mascot, Druh camera) from PanTuNieStał blog.
They've just opened a shop in Łódź, but you can buy them on-line too.
The truly fantastic Fantastic Man magazine has launched their new web site a couple of days ago.
So far their web site usually just had a couple of images from the magazine. After the redesign it's evolved into kind of tightly edited blog with only one post per day (The Daily Recommendation) and just a few sections (The Forum, The Look, etc.).
I am happy that there will be a daily on-line presence for the Fantastic Man brand, though it seems a bit at odds with their philosophy. I thought it was all about old-world values re-interpreted for now, handwriting, letters and fountain pens. And there was something reassuring in the fact that there was no proper web site. That the physical magazine was all there was.
I am not sure about putting Mr. Ewan McGregor on the cover. He seems like an odd/popular/populist choice after Helmut Lang or Bret Easton Ellis.
From this month's The Look:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)