Design Spotlight: 2022
January 25, 2023
An ode to another year of innovation.
The Uncomfortable
The Uncomfortable is a collection of deliberately inconvenient everyday objects by Athens-based architect Katerina Kamprani. Due to the focus on practicality over aesthetics in product design, the discipline is often taken for granted. But everything, even the most mundane object, is designed with intention. By changing these items just enough to render them impractical, Kamprani’s collection forces us to appreciate that sentiment.
Rapunzel
Rapunzel Naturkost is one of the leading organic food producers in Europe. This multipurpose exhibition area, coffee roastery, nightclub, organic supermarket, bakery, and yoga studio puts every single one of its 7,560 square meters to use. I was lucky enough to spend some time in Germany this summer and attend a lecture and tour led by the project’s architect, Martin Haas. The entire concept is based on balancing creative ideas with practical, sustainable architecture. Nothing is wasted. The coffee roastery heats the entire building, downpipes collect rainwater, and cooperation with local and regional craftsmen allowed the project to avoid expending unnecessary energy transporting materials to the build site.
Collective Arts Brew Series
To be honest, I could do an entire post solely about beer cans. For now, there’s one brewery in particular I’d like to focus on. Collective Arts Brewing is a grassroots craft brewery that uses their cans to showcase emerging artists from around the world. Their most recent series features artists from Japan, Portugal, and Canada. The featured art changes every 6 months, so if you’re interested in submitting, you can read more about the process here.
The North Face China Pop-Up
Experiential design has become increasingly important for companies over the past few years as a way to strengthen brand loyalty and build a reputation for themselves. After temporarily closing their store in Genting, China for the Winter Olympics, The North Face opened a pop-up shop in the Changbai Mountains, one of the country’s coldest and hardest to reach regions. That’s definitely not something you see everyday. Check out the video below for more.
The Sun Comes in Whenever it Wants
The Sun Comes in Whenever it Wants is an exhibition currently on display in France’s LUMA Arles. The creator, Sky Hopinka, is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and an experimental filmmaker, photographer, and poet. Hopinka’s collection has since been immortalized in a publication by the same name. Each of the 700 copies printed is unique, featuring a different frame from Mnemonics of Shape and Reason, a different project of Hopinka’s, on the cover. The interior, however, is what blew me away. The typesetting takes Hopinka’s poetry to the next level by creating art not only with the meaning of the words but the very arrangement itself.
