2004/09/14

the john deere effect

THE WILLIAMSBURG-ING OF DESIGN [hipster culture's impact on contemporary design*from bedford avenue to mainstreet america]

as much as i'd like to, i can't blame ashton kutcher for everything. i mean i guess his ceaseless support of the trucker hat phenomenon really marked the END of the hipster look being cutting-edge, but come on- did it have to suck design in too?

from bedford avenue to the streets of milan, the influence of hipster culture can be seen in the newest and most successful product and furniture design. at this year's design shows in new york, denmark, italy and germany (whose shows tend to be a bit more out there, but not necessarily "hip") the floors were marked by designs clearly branded with the mark of the hipster. by all this i mean the propensity to take low budget living, a disdain for coporate society and traditional values and turn it into a high end product.

the best example would be lorena barrezueta's 'gourmet dishware' on display at williamsburg's own, the future perfect. barrezueta molded porcelain into the shape of chinese takeout containers and throwaway take-out dishes and turned it into hip, expensive diningware. she even dipped the edges of some in gold leaf for godsake. charlotte friis, a young danish designer even made a chair of cow hide with edgy tatoos on it. seriously, anti-estab furniture now too?

while i could rant for hours about how lame this is, the movement has managed to produce some cool stuff- i mean, i really do love barrezueta's takeout dishware, just not edged in gold leaf. my favorite piece of hipster furniture would be stud, by touch design studios in brooklyn- a stool and table combo made of simple, no-fuss interlocking 2x4s. doesn't get any cooler than that.i guess if you can't be hip, at least your furniture can.

TAKE-OUT GODDESS [gourmet dishware*lorena barrezueta] porcelain molded into the shape of cheap, take-out containers.