Printed Antimatter

D-Wade's Sidekick slam-dunk

In today's edition of Third Screen, screen-queen Michal Lev-Ram talks to some basketball player named D-Wade. That shows you how much I know about basketball-- I've never heard of him, even though he's a big enough name that T-Mobile tapped him to design a Sidekick. When Michal described it to me as white with gold accents, I shuddered at the thought of how tacky it was going to be. But then I saw the photos, and for some reason, I think it looks great! I especially love the basketball texture on the back. It would be totally cool if that allowed you to dribble it.

I do think they missed an opportunity, though-- the phone screen still features that purple-haired cartoon girl with her tantalizing pixelated cleavage. Why not go all the way and replace her with Dwayne's smiling face?

A graphic designer's dream phone

So what if LG is coming out with a pink phone. Softbank Mobile is releasing the Sharp 812SH in 20 different colors! And even better, the colors all come from the Pantone Matching System!

For those who don't know, the PMS (yes, PMS) is a way for designers to specify an ink color for a printed piece. For instance, if I request Pantone 368 from any print house in the world, my piece will always come back the same bright green. Now I can order a cell phone in Pantone 368 to match that printed piece. Actually, I can't, because like all things cool it is only available in Japan.

Anyway, it is interesting that Pantone is branching out to become a consumer brand. They've also released such products as stationery, luggage, and stools under the name Pantone Universe. They've also created the Colorstrology site, which tells you what your birth color is and what it means. Mine is Pantone 13-0116, pastel green (earnest, compassionate, magical). Well, I suppose that's no less ridiculous than regular astrology.

Plagiarism: Not just for words and music

David Segal has an interesting article up on Slate called "Can Photographers be Plagiarists?"

The father-and-son photography team of Horst and Daniel Zielske caused a stir in September when their show, "Megalopolis Shanghai," opened at MKG, a museum in Hamburg, Germany. But it wasn't the sort of stir any artist could relish. Another German photographer, Peter Bialobrzeski, accused the pair of ripping off two images from his highly acclaimed series "Neon Tigers"—right down to the luminous, Blade Runner-like glow that was the "Neon Tigers" signature.

I'm not sure why Segal phrases the title as a question, because the answer is clearly "Yes." He writes that the issue is made complicated by the fact that artists pay homage to each other and that a photo is a record of a scene which is accessible to all, but he illustrates them with examples that don't prove his point.

Plagiarism is a matter of intent. If you deliberately tailor a photo to look like another photo, that's plagiarism. The example of the Zielskes may not be clear-cut, but it doesn't disprove the possibility.

At Business 2.0 we have had occasion to hire photographers to reproduce an existing photo, with changes to make it suit our purposes. In those cases, we have gotten permission from the original photographer and paid him for the idea. Had we not, we would have a lawsuit on our hands, and using the example of Steichen and Stieglitz shooting the Flatiron would not have helped.

The most fascinating part of Segal's article is the example of two cheeky artists who straight-out photographed other artist's photographs. Yay for conceptual art! [Warning: the second link leads to an image of a naked 10-year-old. But it's Brooke Shields, so it's art, not porn.]

Like a spork but manlier: The scrench

While browsing the more outdoorsy parts of the internet I learned about this cool hybrid tool known as the bar wrench, or scrench. Being a city boy I have never even held a chainsaw, let alone maintained one, but apparently the scrench is exclusively designed for that purpose.

The word "scrench" has such a visceral sound, and wouldn't be surprised if it was onomatopoeic. I can totally imagine the sound of chainsaw maintenance being "scrench, scrench." I have not been so simultaneously delighted and repulsed by a tool's name since the nipple wrench. ("Supplies leverage necessary to remove even stubborn nipples.")

If you're wondering what to get your scrench-enthusiast mate this Valentine's Day-- why, a scrench holder, naturally.

The man who designed my pre-school chair dies at 92

From the NYT:

Hans Wegner, whose Danish Modern furniture — most famously his chairs — helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and ’60s by sanding modernism’s sharp edges and giving aesthetes a comfortable seat, died on Jan. 26 in Copenhagen. He was 92...

He also earned a footnote in political history, when, in 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy were seated on Wegner chairs during the first nationally televised presidential debate.

That's a nice thing to have on your résumé, even an incredibly long one like Wegner's. Check out the wide selection of artful and pricey chairs that bear his name here and here and here.

But I was surprised to discover (via daddytypes.com) that Wegner had even ventured into children's furniture:

When in 1944 Wegner's good friend and colleague, Børge Mogensen, fathered a son, it was difficult for Wegner to find an adequate christening gift because of the war. So he decided to make one himself, and what was more appropriate than a small piece of furniture for the new-born... He finally decided for a chair consisting of 4 flat parts that could be assembled to a chair without the use of tools. In this way little Peter not only got a chair but at the same time a toy he cold assemble himself and take apart again.

Maybe my memory is faulty in my old age but I swear I've seen this chair, or knock-offs of it, in every nursery school, kindergarten, and day-care center I've attended or come across.

Wikipedia has a few choice Wegner quotes that are applicable to every area of design:

"Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."

"The chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with."

"A chair is to have no backside. It should be beautiful from all sides and angles."

Hans, dude, a chair with no backside is called a stool. J/K all the way, I know what you meant.