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THE EMERGENCE OF PLASTICINE
Featured in editor David Shah’s Viewpoint Magazine, Franklin Till tells us that, in contrast to stylized and minimalist design, Plasticine is characterized by a playful and hands-on aesthetic that indulges in highly saturated colors and smooth textures. Seeming to emerge from the enthusiastic DIY culture, these process-driven works of art created by spontaneous and expressive techniques embrace an element of surprise and produce some unique pieces and installations. From Yago Hortal’s acrylic paintings with neon colors, Jordy van den Nieuwendijk’s vibrant figurative designs made out of fluorescent clay, and hot fuchsia pink orchid bowls created by Fredrikson Stallard to fantastical legwear by Nick Pulles, we are seeing some bold new color and design directions coming to the forefront, highlighting a fresh new look in this digital age.
David Shah
www.view-publications.com
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FEATURES |
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The Emergence of Plasticine |
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A Psychedelic Trip |
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Drivable Art |
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Social Gaming - Fashion's
Newest Frontier
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Good Enough to Eat |
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Happiness is a Balloon |
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Micro-Mini |
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Putting Dyestuffs on a
Low-Salt Diet
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DESIGN TRENDS |
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Fashion in the Streets
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Glamorous Reflections
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Shaggy Chic
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Fit to Print
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Connecting the Dots
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Glo For It
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It's All Mashed Up
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COLOR FORECASTS |
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PANTONE Fashion Color
Report for Spring 2013
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Positively Blissful
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Seafoam
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A Path to Vibrant Tribal Color
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INTERVIEW:
Paul Thompson |
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A PSYCHEDELIC TRIP
Integrating the station with its surroundings, as well as providing a platform for innovative, cutting-edge design strategy, the Karim Rashid-designed metro station in Naples, Italy represents the new wired global condition. Sculptures and graphic artworks line the escalators leading to the train platform which has been transformed into a candy-colored kaleidoscope. Once the commuter arrives at the end of the escalator, transformational digital art follows them to the platform stairways. Lime and pink accents appear throughout, guiding visitors through the descent to their final destination. Such a playful and colorful experience certainly turns the drudgery of the daily commute into a wondrous and exciting journey.
Pantone Color Team
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DRIVABLE ART
Timed to coincide with the London Summer Olympics, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London partnered with BMW to bring Art Drive, an installation of BMW’s Art Car Collection, to London for the first time. Started over 35 years ago, when French auctioneer and race car driver Hervé Poulain invited his friend Alexander Calder to design a car that married artistic excellence to “an already perfect object”, Art Drive now features designs from 16 of the world’s best-known artists. Created for various reasons and causes, designs contributed by Alexander Calder, Ken Done, Frank Stella, David Hockney, Jeff Koons and others display a wide range of artistic interpretation and certainly add a great dose of color excitement and vibrancy to these powerful driving machines.
Pantone Color Team
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SOCIAL GAMING - FASHION'S NEWEST FRONTIER
Interactive gaming looks to be fashion’s next frontier in the digital space for companies who have already expanded their web presence with editorial content, mobile presence and social commerce. Partnering with DKNY, www.fashionweeklive.com is an interactive social experience designed to engage the fashion industry online. Living exclusively on Facebook, players are challenged to create a career within any facet of the fashion world, from show production and photography to styling look books, runway shows or ad campaigns. Users are encouraged to tap into talents within site parameters as well as network with other players and rise to fame with each challenge. Starting with generic options, as a player progresses up the ranks, a boutique with virtual products and designs will be at their disposal to help them advance in the game. Shoe company Aldo has entered the mix here too. On their site, www.shoeparadise.com, players are given 16 pairs of shoes, broken down into four levels with the goal to try on as many pairs as possible within three minutes. If players run out of time, they can gain a bonus three minutes by sharing the game on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler. Upon completion of the four levels, players are asked to enter their information for a chance to win an actual three-minute in-store shopping spree. And then there is www.fashionhazard.com, a game in which high-fashion models dodge obstacles – and each other – as they prance down the catwalk. Blending feminine passion with high-octane action, each model is given a storyline and as the competition gets tougher, we see models tripping one another and flying coffee lattes splattering on the screen. With social gamers estimated to hit 74 million in 2013 and 53% of this population predicted to be female, it is no wonder that many companies are stepping up their game.
Pantone Color Team
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GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT
The handmade resin pieces in the new Sorbet collection from Australia-based Dinosaur Designs come in refreshing hues layered in such a way so as to produce a variegated effect. Each piece, hand sculpted in clay, is characterized by its uneven lines and finger-smoothed surface before being cast in resin and then sanded, drilled and finished by hand. This juxtaposition of gelato-inspired pastel shades and bright highlights, inspired by the vibrant pigments of fruit, the color processes they go through when transformed into an icy sorbet and how the tones change with the addition of ice, look simply good enough to eat.
Pantone Color Team
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HAPPINESS IS A BALLOON
Looking more like a shaggy dog than living room seating, the “Happy Chair”, created by Israel-based industrial designer Pini Leibovich, is made with thousands of colorful balloons. Taking a playful and unstructured approach with these most familiar of materials, our intellectual barriers melt and pure unadulterated joy springs forth. Quirky, odd and surely whimsical Leibovich and his Happy Chair have captured our imagination, taking us up, up and away on his beautiful balloons.
Pantone Color Team
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MICRO-MINI
Looking simultaneously retro and futuristic, the Peel P50 and Trident from Peel Engineering are making comebacks 50 years after their original launch and, in keeping with the times, each can now be purchased with an electric engine. With only one door, one headlight, a
single windshield, and able to reach a speed of up to 40 miles per hour, the tiny three-wheeled P50 at 134 centimeters long and 40 centimeters wide is possibly the world’s smallest car. Seating two, the bubble-roofed Trident is only just slightly larger. Only 25 of each will be made and, while neither pretends to be the future of electric transport, they certainly bring some fun and flair to the world of eco-friendly automotive design.
Pantone Color Team

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PUTTING DYESTUFFS ON A LOW-SALT DIET
Developed with the goal of reducing the amount of time, water and energy needed to bring color to
fabrics and reduce toxic output, ColorZen is a new
process that sits between dyestuffs and cotton fibers. Through nano-technology, cellulose is manipulated at the molecular level in a way that makes it more receptive to dye, reducing the time needed to dye a bale of cotton from 7.9 hours to 2.4 hours, creating an energy savings of approximately 75% and dropping water usage by an estimated 90%. Even more critical is ColorZen’s ability to eliminate salt from the process, as well as three-quarters of secondary chemicals, that otherwise would be put into any and all bodies of water communities depend upon, including streams, rivers and local water systems. With 20% of industrial freshwater pollution believed to come from textile treatment and dying – a number that increases in countries more dependent on textile and apparel production – ColorZen’s formula for saving the dyer time and money while simultaneously decreasing environmental impact without any additional financial investment appears to be a win-win for all concerned.
Pantone Color Team
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