The Wonderlust Journal

Wisdom/Fortune

On the refrigerator in the cool Brooklyn apartment of this photographer.

As photographed by Jamie Beck, who has this awesome blog.

September 10, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Well Said

Labels:
sentimentalism

Jumpstarting the weekend with the infectious beats of French pop cutie Yelle. All the official videos are un-embeddable, so you’ll have to watch them on youtube, but the one below should be enough to entice you if you think there might be any room in your heart (iTunes) for some French pop.

One awesome video here, and the official video for the song above here. You really should watch the real versions, they’re super fun with loads of 80′s style on steroids. Think Lady Gaga eccentric but happier, cuter, French, and without the weird fetish-y undertones.

September 10, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Listening To

Labels:

Table Wine

Rethink Communication rethought (ha, ha, great pun, I know) the concept of “table wine” for this wine packaging they created as a promo to display their outside-the-box design capabilities. Pretty clever, no?

Of course I love the Saarinen tulip table version.

[Rethink Communications]
[via Serious About Wine]

September 9, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Graphic Fix

Labels:
Drink About It, Graphic Design, Shelf Appeal

This is your life.

RIGHT??? These are the things I plan to tell my kids every day. At least one per day. Maybe I’ll just hang this on my kids’ walls. I’m not one for “inspirational” posters, but I love how bold this one is, both in its statements and in its style.

[from here]

[via Elements of Style]

September 9, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Well Said

Labels:
Graphic Fix

Toes in the Sand >> Casa Areia

Portuguese firm Aires Mateus unveiled these sand-floored houses at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale. This is one of those where your first thought is, “How has no one thought of this before? How fun to have a beach house with sand floors!”

My next thought was, “Except, you would ALWAYS have sand in your bed… Ick.” Not to fear, they have put the bedrooms in separate little structures (in above photo, white buildings are bedrooms, thatched is living room) that look beyond tidy and sand-less, although I don’t know how you’d keep it that way.

But my doubts continued and my next thought was, “How does electrical and plumbing work in this building?? How is the foundation solid?? Doesn’t the old proverb start, ‘Do not build your house on the sand?’”

Then I decided not to look a gift-horse in the mouth…

…I’d rather keep the daydream alive of one day having a sand-floored beach house.

[Aires Mateus]
[Dezeen]

September 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Interiors

Labels:

100 Legendary Trunks

“This exceptional book showcases the most beautiful creations of the House through more than eight hundred photographs. Many incredible pieces are featured here, along with the equally incredible stories of their creation. Available from October 2010.” Must. Pre-order. Now. The video alone is a dream.

Pre-order Louis Vuitton 100 Legendary Trunks here.

[all images are screen-grabs from the video]

[via selectism]

September 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
LustList

Labels:
for the library, style files, travel

Listening To >> Mumford & Sons

Mumford & Sons “Winter Winds”

This song makes me want to hit the backroads in an old Jeep Wagoneer, roll the windows down, and “let love grow.”

September 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Listening To

Labels:

Behind the Scenes >> Pierre Balmain, 1954

Love these photos unearthed by Brooklyn fashion blogger Sighs and Whispers taken for Life Magazine from backstage at a Pierre Balmain couture show. What an amazing snapshot of a bygone, and oh-so-glamorous, era.

Also interesting to compare to current photos we see from backstage at fashion shows! Don’t these models seem much older and more decidedly feminine than runway models today? I feel like these women look very mature and elegant.

Original post with more photos here.

September 8, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Style Files

Labels:
classics, fashion, Photography, style files

Jaume Plensa

Jaume Plensa’s Nomade at Antibes.

By constructing figures out of letters, Plensa’s work explores not only the human form, but also the role of language in the human experience. The figures are literally made out of the building blocks through which we communicate and describe emotion, both expressing the importance of language in the human experience and giving a physical, tangible form to language.

Many of his pieces, like Nomade, above, are built so that the viewer can walk inside of the piece. Very different from viewing a three-dimensional sculpture from afar, the viewer is now inhabiting the piece, having his experience of the work shaped both by the shape of his physical environment and by the language it is made out of, incomprehensible though it is.

The contemplative poses of many of his figures also suggests the artist’s interest in the role of language in reflection. While true meditation may be thought of as the absence of thought, by quite literally forming shapes out of letters, Plensa seems to emphasize the importance of language in giving shape to our inner monologues.

In the Midst of Dreams, above, in which three ambiguously-gendered and race-less forms appear illuminated from within while in sleep, was described by the artist as an exploration of the centrality of dreams to the human experience and his own interest in the concept of a universal human race, democratized by common experiences like dreaming.

In Song of Songs, the artist constructed “walls” out of letters that, when read from top-to-bottom, form the classical poem of the same name, walls that guide the movement of and form “rooms” around the viewer as he experiences both his environment and the poem.

Interestingly, the letters are suspended rather than laid against an impermeable surface, meaning that while the sheets of letters form “walls” around the viewer, the walls are transparent, allowing a visual interactivity with the entire room while the viewer reads the poem that mimics the way one also brings outside experiences and reference points to the reading of poetry in more traditional mediums.

If you want to check out more of Plensa’s work, read about his Crown Fountain project in Chicago here.

[Jaume Plensa website]

September 7, 2010

Curated by:
Eliza Coleman

Section:
Arts Visuels

Labels:
Arts Visuels, installation, typography

Best Made Co >> Block-Printed Maps

I really want to like Best Made Co’s Axes. They’ve been getting a LOT of attention in the designy-man-world, and I do really like their aesthetic, and I know on an instinctual level that they’re “cool,” but I just can’t quite get into the idea of a pretty axe, as I’m pretty sure anyone who cares about their axe being pretty isn’t using an axe. Right? Like what outdoorsman is like, “wow I just love the color palette of the painted stripes on this axe”?

Still, I do like the looks of them, even though I can’t justify their existence or purchase. And I do like these maps block-printed with their logo. Again, they don’t quite make logical sense, but I am drawn to the aesthetic. Well, I like maps, and I like x’s (seriously, also equal-armed t’s), so it wasn’t a hard sell.

And it makes slightly more sense to me to buy a cool-looking thang to hang on your wall than to buy a cool-looking axe, purportedly a functional object, that you’ll obviously never use.

Best Made Co maps here (of course sold at Partners & Spade).