Latest / Design Darlings / Design Culture Catchup: The Odyssey, Couture Dressing, Political Design and World Cup Iconography

Transcript

Design Culture Catchup: The Odyssey, Couture Dressing, Political Design and World Cup Iconography · Design Darlings

• Allie: Hello, darling. Ro Rich: Hello, darling. I'm Robin Richardson. Allie: And I'm Allie Miller, and welcome to Design Darlings, the podcast where we obsess over what makes, breaks, or bakes a good design in the real world. And this week we're gonna do something a little bit different rather than our deep dive into one topic. We're gonna do a little design culture catch up because we are in the height of summer, and there has a been a lot going on in the news, in pop culture, in the design world that will be. Be fun to talk about. So we have a whole litany of topics from fashion to architecture to everything in between And we're just gonna meander through and cover a lot of fun little things today. So I'm pumped. We got our lists. We're gonna ramble, we're gonna giggle, we're gonna chit-chat. Ro Rich: I would like to think of this as like a design charcuterie board. of all your favorite design flavors of things. And you know, we've got nibbles here and there and Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: it just a delightful spread of goods. Allie: In honor of Spain in the World Cup, these are our tapas. Design tapas. Yeah. Ro Rich: Design topas. Kind of fun. Allie: one thing I wanna that's I wanna jump off with that is very much in the moment, in the now, is the Odyssey. And it has never been a better time to be a projectionist. projectionists are like the cool girls and the cool boys right now, which I love. But specifically, I've been very much that meme in it Sunny, where like, there's no Karen in HR. I am him, on the board trying to understand how IMAX and different ratios work. but if you have been following along, if you've been in a hole for some reason, Christopher Nolan did something that has basically never been done on any full-length feature film before, where he shot the entire movie in 70 millimeter IMAX. So there's been IMAX movies. there's been 70 millimeter movies, but there's never been a full-length movie in 70 millimeter IMAX. And part of that is because the machinery to run that film is incredibly loud. So if you have a movie that requires any sort of nuanced dialogue It's just impossible to film it because it's too loud for the actors to act and then for to edit out the sound. So IMAX created this brand new thing that they called the blimp on set, which is basically just a giant sound dampening box. And so you could take the camera, you put it in this blimp, and then there's all this padding around it that prevents sound from escaping. Which is really cool because then allows you to do all these films. But then it's also really fun because then if you have two actors who are dialoguing against each other, they had they can't stand in front of each other. Like normally, if I'm talking to you, I'd be right in front of you if I were an actor. But they had to stand apart from each other. And then so what they did is they created This really cool sort of mirror system where if like Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland are talking to each other, they're actually about three or four feet apart. And then there's a series of mirrors that reflect their image back to each other. So it looks like I'm right in front of you, but really you're sort of kitty cornered to each other. So the way they film this is just really neat. And then there's just been a lot of interesting discourse on what is the right ratio to see it, what's the artist. mis intention versus is it cool to see it regardless of where you see it so I have more to say also practical effects they were very very very very low CGI and so most of the special effects are legitimately practical effects so there's a lot of very cool stuff going on in this film Ro Rich: Yeah, I read The Trojan Horse is Real and they actually dragged it through the desert. and Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: when folks when the pig scene, that's not Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: CI, that's actual costuming. And the film came in ahead of schedule and under budget, which is pretty fantastic. That considering the massive scale of the production and everything that they had to do, it was just that e efficient that even even with all the new considerations that no one had to do, like you're saying the the projection mirrors and all of these All these additional feet factors that they had to consider that didn't get in the way of them shooting the film and maintaining a production schedule. That's pretty fantastic. Allie: And that is really cool because when you say that, what it makes me think of is what a dream it must have been like to be on that set. Cause we've all been on design projects that have gone over time, over budget, et cetera. And this isn't always the case, but I think when you're working with people who are just one, just great to collaborate with and are working, they are at the top of their game and they excel at their craft. good human plus incredibly competent at what you do, that's like the ultimate recipe for success. So it almost makes sense because Christopher Nolan's literally picking the best people in the world in all of these technical disciplines. yeah, I just think about what a dream it must Ro Rich: The eighteen. Allie: have been like to to be on that team. must Ro Rich: you're on the A team. So you're like, Hi, I would like to assemble the A team and the A team is going to function in the the best and highest way possible. So of course Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: the A team got to do it. Well and the mission drove it as well, right? I mean, when we've been on design projects and they things get derailed or whatnot because because some things are just out of your control, right? are things that can cause delays. And so, not having to contend with some of those slowdowns, I'm sure, was very cool. And getting to work with everyone all towards the same mission. There's no divaness on the Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: project that's happening because everyone just really wants to make a great movie and work together. So yes, collaboration is key. So you had a really cohesive cast. That's great. Allie: I love that. One other practical effect thing, there's I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've just been watching those behind the scene things. There's a scene where they're in Hades and the dead are coming from the ground and it's like a hundred extras or something. And Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: they said that they literally buried the extras in the ground. And then they gave them all snorkels so they could still breathe. So then on cue, you're Ro Rich: Yes, yes, yes. Allie: They're physically coming. I'm like, holy crap. Like that is so cool. Ro Rich: Well, we talked about this a while ago in like the in the nineties when we we were talking about and we've talked about with candles and the Romeo and Juliet. I rewatched it a couple of weeks ago. Like all the candles inside of the church and things. Like when you have the dedication to make the scene and have that set up it carries a different weight. Even for the actors, I've seen so many interviews with people talking about the way they create sets and it just enhances your sense of being there. So it it changes the acting. It changes the way that you are able to even experience shooting a scene because you're immersed in that and you're not like, I'm talking to a green wall or I'm talking to Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: a like a tennis ball on a on a rod to try to get this ex experience of like a dragon that will be edited in later. So that enhances just so much of the the way that you can act and respond, which is so cool. Allie: Mm-hmm. But yeah. Ro Rich: So yes to craft. Okay. So I feel like this whole the Odyssey has been the creation of it was an homage to craft and and making something in a very dedicated and a high high art, I'm gonna say, high design way, with the best Allie: I are Ro Rich: people that you could get, that A team. And so Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: when you have that dedication and you don't try to do shortcuts, then then it the response, the human response is felt and very real. Because I also saw something this week about someone saying, We're gonna make more AI movies and they're like, Yeah, but humans can tell it's fake. They don't want more AI movies And they're like, Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: Let's make anyways because it'll be cheaper like, Okay Allie: Yeah. Well, I read some article, A twenty four, I don't know the specifics, but A twenty four signed some giant partnership around trying to build basically AI features in their filmmaking. And so people are pretty, pretty upset, pretty livid about that. Because A twenty four is supposed to be like the indie darling, Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: you know, anti-technology or like let's preserve creative creative Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: rights and artistic rights. And so there people are like, A twenty four, what are you doing? Why are you trying to build all these AI features? Yeah. Ro Rich: They got hijacked, babe. I think I saw that too this week that movies in the entertainment world got hijacked by business bros. And so now it's driving a lot of creativity out of the studios. You know, it's just gonna end up being probably more small independent studios will be made. Just like Pixar, Allie: Right. Ro Rich: like right, like this thing happens where you have this push to commercialize or the the suits come in, the bobs come in to say we're gonna make this production house more efficient, and then People have to splinter off 'cause they're like, Well, you just killed it, so we're gonna go now. But yeah. Boo. Allie: Right. You killed what made it beautiful. well speaking of craft, we can do a little pivot. also this summer recently was Couture Week in Paris. and so lots of beautiful stuff happening. but specifically I want to talk about the Scaparelli collection, which I know we both have a soft spot for. it was called Between Agony and Ecstasy, which just like we love just like a such an artistic statement. But I think what was really beautiful about this, I was watching Daniel Rosenberry's artist statement about it. And he talked about the collection being about asking questions and how much of a privilege it is to ask questions as opposed to declaring statements. And during the runway, it was his artist statement, but it his voice was all kind of warped and distorted. But in it, it was kind of a little bit bold, I was like, Ooh, shots fired Daniel. But he was basically in his statement saying that Scaparelli is one of the last few couture houses. that can truly make without having to also have the burden of being commercial it gives him a level of experimentation and flexibility. whereas like a lot of these other big houses, they have to both make the couture work but then immediately have ready to wear clothing or accessories or perfumes or bags that they can then sell where he's like, No, I'm just gonna continue making like beautiful creative things. And if it evolves into a commercial output, great. But that is not the primary goal here. The primary goal for me is to start first with the exploration, the thinking, the wondering, the asking and that that'll get people hooked. Ro Rich: Well, the craft of creativity is driving it. I saw something else this week. Was it Hermes? I can't remember who said that basically they're going to go back after a made to wear customer. Like they want to return to a time Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: where you had like a coutrier and people came to the house, they made you the clothes and it was a more personalized experience. I need to look that up who that was. But this makes me think I was looking, Looking at luxury in general, because one of the trends that we've seen this year a lot, across fashion houses is moving away from AI and hiring illustrators to create content for them. And so it started with their mez. They handed their entire e-commerce site to the French illustrator, Linda Miron. And she has, you know, she's done things for the New York Times, the Atlantic. she does like pencil and ink characters and sea creatures and line work and that replaced the product photography in the first few weeks of the year. I don't remember I don't know if you remember seeing it, but it it was all over Instagram. and it was really beautiful and it had a lot of emotion and it was obviously something that like AI can't fake or create. And so I think it it started as a single Instagram animation and then it snowballed into a full site takeover, which was super cool. And then other brands you saw them follow and other stories and Dior They're commissioning illustrated portraits for private events. Loeve is working with illustrators on campaign work. And so you've got these like small cluster luxury houses treating illustration as a signal of status but luxury houses all started because of their craft, because of their handmade work, and people responded to the the quality of that. Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: So snaps to to our brands who are hiring illustrators and folks to demonstrate how they're how they're committed to. To craft and human made touch. I was thinking about it in terms of the four orders. I was like, what has happened in like the two the two D like graphic design world this year and I was trying to frame it and like frame it across that, which is great because movies are also movies are whole worlds. Movies are two D and three D in experience. So We love that. Allie: I think that makes a lot of sense. These design houses are going back to or putting a lot of emphasis on these hand illustrations because at the end of the day, sewing and especially couture work, it is about the hand work. It's about Ro Rich: DJ. Allie: working with your hands to make something beautiful. And illustrations, Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: fashion illustrations, have always been one of the first any artist, any designer, right? The sketch is like the most visceral. tactile immediate way to communicate. Hey, I have this idea in my brain. I just need to physically put it on paper as easily as possible. So I like that they're taking this sketch and handmaking, hand drawing something, which is so important to just the process of design and making that kind of a a focal point as a way to make sure people understand, hey, at the end of the day there's people doing this. There's a real human hand making this these clothes, these these bags, these shoes Ro Rich: Well, it's a visual indicator, right? Like they're giving you a semiotic clue that like we care about handmade. Like you said, traditional design teaches you to sketch a concept, so expression first through sketching. Some fashion designers don't. Some only they start with draping. Some are like give me the scissors, I'm going to cut the fabric. And people clutch pearls. But a lot of designers, they have to use that expression in that medium. But yeah, I mean in traditional design, you were taught express the concept, capture it in a sketch, and then move through that. So having the cue like, hey, we care about handmade, we care about hand drawn the human indicator of craft, it's a brilliant move it's a Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: a core part of who we are. Allie: Yeah. Did you see Robert One's collection this year? Ugh. Him Ro Rich: Every time. It's freaking brilliant. Brilliant. Allie: him and Scaparelli, him and Daniel, they're like up there for me is just the crazy thing. But yeah. Ro Rich: Well, it's like the invitation of surrealism into fashion, walks that line of costuming and also wearability, I mean it's high art walking down the runway. and the way that he executes those concepts, it's one is so cohesive, but it creates new interpretations I have a my friend did his design master's thesis on something he called mediative design and he did a a visual campaign where he took a concept that you would have a level of familiarity with and then he added layers to it where you're like there's a familiarity here but I'm trying to mediate what I'm seeing. That's what he called the mediative design aspect of it. Allie: Mm. Ro Rich: I think Robert won in you know Daniel Rosenberry the the they're giving you something that's familiar, but then they add in these layers that you look at it and you're like, but I need to look at this. I need to reconcile it in my head because it's something new. But it is that bridgeway into what you've got. And so It's visually arresting, I think, because of that, which is Chef's Kiss, babe. A thousand chefs kisses. Allie: And for our listeners who are not spending five hours of their week watching couture shows, Robber won his exhibit this year was called Child's Play, and so was a sort of surrealist take off of iconography and colors of childhood. So he had a lot of the models come in big bulbous outfits that were super bright primary colors, so blue and yellow and red, models wearing sort of sad macabre looking like bears and bunny doll outfits and just things that looked like taking iconography from our childhood but adding this tinge of you know, dowerness or kind of morose to it. Like it was like slightly uncomfortable. And then the finale look was this this giant dress that was covered and basically looked a blow up balloons. So Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: I just thought it was really you know he's not subtle, the man, but this idea of Ro Rich: No, you would never think that. Allie: taking these things that are very much iconography of our childhood, but then this commentary on as we grow up, we kind of try to hold on to these things, but there's this tinge of sadness with it. But yeah, that was really beautiful. Ro Rich: Well, I mean, you outgrow things that are fun and playful, and we've talked about that Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: a lot this year, I think. Like the idea of joy back in design. The Memphis group was rebelling against this idea that design had to be really staid and stuffy and dark. And actually Malign Design Week also had a lot of color. Alessi did this. They turned one of the palazzos in Milan into a giant red and yellow pillared homage to Ettore Sotsas, from the Memphis group. Allie: Hm. Ro Rich: and so there was more fun and more play this year in Milan Design Week. more people came, the attendance was up, the countries that attended were also up. There was a different layer of experience. last year it was more serious and it just felt I don't wanna say post-apocalyptic doom, but maybe maybe a little bit. But this year focused on materials and experience. You had biobase and waste stream materials that were really cool, like mycelium tiles. You had surfaces made from rice husks and coffee waste. And I love that we're experimenting with Bio-based materials in 3D printing and also in just fabrication, because we know we're finding ways to make them sustainable and durable all at the same time where you're like, wait, we made this out of what? And so rather than just treating food waste as discardable, we're upcycling it. And actually one of the exhibitions was no space for waste, and it was all built around circular design and upcycling. And so like they were really cool, like material milestones, which it's like the World's Fair for Design, right? Where people they're pushing boundaries. There was glass blown cubes again, which I feel like just those having a comeback moment is fun in general. Like glass cubes from the 90s are back. Allie: Miami nineteen eighty, it's back, baby. Ro Rich: but there was more softness and texture which we tend to associate With youth, Like stuffed animals makes me feel like Klaus Oldenberg is having like this like Allie: Mm. Ro Rich: soft, squishy moment. And so after a lot of stark minimalism, the statement sofa more modular conversation pits are having this comeback where you've got Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: things that are more colorful and soft and less edgy. I say that in a l in a physical actual sense of the term. where we're like, no, let's let's get soft again because things have been too hard for too long. Allie: Right. Ro Rich: In a lot of ways. Allie: Yeah, literally, we're like, the world is hard. I just want a soft couch and a nice blanket. And I just want to curl up in my tea and my coffee cup. I love Ro Rich: Yeah. Cozy. Allie: that material sciences is becoming cool. I mean, we're seeing that in on runways, designers playing with more kind of non-traditional fabrics. And then, you know, Milan Design Week. I always I always just think the companies that do that are so rad. They're always a really small, scrappy company and they have very niche humble missions where they're like, I wanna just take discarded flip-flops and turn them into a new insulation material. I think the circular economy and how do we literally take trash and turn it into gorgeous, desirable building materials? I just I think that stuff is so rad and I I applaud the Ro Rich: Well Allie: companies that do that. Ro Rich: I mean, if not, we've all seen the trash island in the Pacific, right? Like we're gonna be drowning in our trash if we don't figure out how to recycle in a way that is useful. yeah, I agree. I think there's gonna be a ton of innovation and money in figuring out how to take what has been discarded and reimagine and reuse it. 'cause we have to. We're being we need to do that. Allie: We have to. Ro Rich: Necessity is the mother of invention. Guess what, girl? She is back. She is here coming in hot. Allie: Mm-hmm. She's trashy. She's back and she's trashy. Yeah. playfulness too, I think IKEA got a lot of looks this summer because IKEA put out their new big collection this year. And it was very like the critique was that it was juvenile, good and bad. So people Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: who didn't like it were this looks like it should actually be in the IKEA kids section. it was so youthful Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: looking. Ro Rich: See? Allie: Where Gen Z is like, I love this. This is great. also Yeah. Ro Rich: It's old school in the design group. I mean, they had they had a big homage to them too at Milan Design Week and it's funny, actually there's a like a very escandalous documentary coming out about IKEA and their wood sourcing. Allie: Ooh. Ro Rich: I'm very curious about that. but IT also something really cool this year where AI was improving their call centers. They took everyone that worked in the call center and turned them into an advisor consultant because they knew the catalogs the best. So people were Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: able to call and they're like, I'm looking for this. And they could advise them. And actually their sales went up because they took those people and turned them into not salespeople, but advisors. And I saw a Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: video this morning about this 7 Eleven in Japan that This guy opened this one seven eleven in nineteen seventy six and now he has a bunch of stores and they sell so much product because they took all of their clerks and said, Rather than looking at the data that says what is selling, I want you to know I want you to think about what people want. cause you see people buy things every day. Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: So I want you to do predictions on what you think is going to be important. So they turn over their products all within a year. Nothing sits on the shelf ever longer than a year, but they Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: know that people are gonna come in at peak times, like, there's gonna be a music festival, people are gonna want cold beer and this and this and that. So they will buy because they've leveraged their people on the front lines to say what they want and they need. and then they respond to it instead of saying, well the data shows we're selling a bunch of product X, so buy more of it. They're like, No, no, no, no. Like we want it that we want the market to be more dynamic, which it is. So I think that's brilliant, generally. Allie: Yeah. No, I think that's great. Ro Rich: Hm. Allie: this idea of always being in fr in front of demand as opposed to just being reactive Ro Rich: You know, I'm gonna talk Allie: What yeah. Ro Rich: about a at one point, not in this episode, but like saturation. Because we've Allie: Mm. Ro Rich: kind of touched on it before, but when a company over indexes on a product and now you're like flooded with it, I think Amazon Hall's a great example of that where there's things on there that you're like, my god, there's a million of these now. And we have all this product that's been produced, and now it's a dollar. my gosh, this is wild that in order to chase the dollar We're creating all these things that people don't really need. So I would like to talk about that in the future. Like Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: a deep dive on that. Allie: Okay. last last like fashion news I have. Ro Rich: Hm. Allie: And it's really more just a a snaps. The ultimate method dresser, Zendia. It's a big year. It's the summer of Zendaya. She's had the drama, Spider Man, Odyssey, and I'm I'm truly like peeing my pants over Dune, for this fall. I can't wait to see what she's gonna wear. her her and La Roach have unsurprisingly just been killing the the method dressing game. snaps to her. Ro Rich: They're killing the premiere game. No, it's been impressive that the way that he's been able to snatch pieces. We talked about that the other day. Was sc Scaparelli? It was Scaparelli, Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: right? that show happened. He grabs a dress, flies it to wherever she was so she could wear it on the red carpet that night for the premiere of the Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: Odyssey. but the method dressing, yes, for her to match her film and match the vibes of it. Via fashion has been like a thousand chef kisses. Allie: Yeah. I think that was in her her Paris premiere. And then the creme de la creme, the Piece de la Resistance, is the Mathieu Fecal Fecale, couture dress. She's Ro Rich: my check called, yeah. Allie: basically like an angel. She's like a goddess, like with the giant feathers coming off of her. Ugh, that was just stunning. Like, you're good, go home, we're done. Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: You've I I you don't need to prove anything else to us. And then she's still promoting Spider Man. This woman never sleeps. We had a little break Ro Rich: No, she is. Allie: for Odyssey. She had like a three week break to promote Odyssey and then she's back to promoting Spider Man again. Ro Rich: He's a queen. And she just did this year, didn't she do a collaboration with OnCloud? Like she's their first brand ambassador or something like that. And she they did a shoe collaboration with her. Yeah, they did a line. Mm-hmm. Who's her agent? I need to know who her agent is. I'm like, girl, you're getting deals on deals on deals. Like, what? Allie: Last year she did that Louis Vuitton, the rebrand not the rebrand, the relaunch of the the cherry design from Louis Vuitton. Ro Rich: Mm. I think it's it's her authenticity really resonates with people. She's such a real she's such a real girl. and I've seen this a couple of times. She's on Fallon and she talks about her regular walk where she just kinda slumps around, but then Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: like in a runway walk, she walks and you're like, my gosh, it's this night and day thing. So she just her self awareness seems high and I mean she's a real girl. She's very cool. Allie: Yeah, love it. okay, I wanna make a hard pivot. A Ro Rich: What else is that? A hard pivot. Allie: hard pivot out of fashion and into architecture. So Ro Rich: Okay. Allie: this year, it's been a big movie summer for Zendaya. It's been a big summer for presidential libraries. Like presidents Ro Rich: Ha ha ha. Allie: are saying, We're here too. but two presidential libraries opened this summer on June sixteenth, which uncoincidentally is also Juneteenth, the Presidential Center, which I think is interesting, they specifically it's called the Obama Presidential Center as opposed to the Obama Presidential Library, which we'll get to that in a second. Yeah. Ro Rich: Yes. Yes. I was gonna say I learned about this this week and was like, okay, girl, she is a campus, Allie: It's cool. Ro Rich: she's a whole campus. Allie: Yes. And the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened up in North Dakota, which again Ro Rich: Yes, on July fourth, on America's birthday. America's birthday. Allie: America. Yeah. that also similarly is a campus, which I can see that becoming a trend in future presidential libraries. Thinking about for both of them, it's about this sort of being a center of building community and being a place Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: and being sort of a in a way like a third space that people can Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: congregate as opposed to being a traditional library. And I think what's really Interesting, especially for the Obama library. So traditionally presidential libraries are specifically that. They are research archives and repositories of all of the physical media that The White House generated during the course of that president's presidency. Obama is really the first president to be a president where the majority of his correspondence and media were digital and not physical. And Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: why that's really interesting is it sort of it negates the traditional idea of needing. A physical venue to archive his information because his information isn't physical, it's digital. And I Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: think the stat is that during his presidency, he has 1.5 billion pages of digital assets that were Ro Rich: Hm. Allie: accumulated. And so what he did was really different is that rather than his center being a place for his archives, he gave rights and permissions to the US National Archives to be the official archives. Archiver of his digital documentation. So that means anyone anywhere in the world, because it's a public resource, can go to the archives website and basically see Obama's entire archive. So then that leaves the question: okay, what do you do with this space? What does Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: a presidential library look like in the 2020s in a post-digital presidency? And so the architecture firm, so Todd Williams, Bill, Tien, architects, exhibit Ro Rich: It's a husband and wife firm. Allie: yeah, very well renowned firm. exhibit design by Ralph Albaum, which I personally am huge fans of Ralph Albaum. They designed the Holocaust Museum, the Human Rights Museum, Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: really, really, really well-regarded exhibit firm. and then landscape architects, Michael Van Velkenberg Associates and I think that really kind of says a lot, Where they're thinking about yes, the building, And then I think what's really important with the landscaping, and you see the so the Teddy Roosevelt Museum as well, the whole environmental space was really important. So how do we make this a public park? And the library component actually ended up just being a branch of the official Chicago public library. So it's a library, Ro Rich: Yes, which is awesome. Allie: everything gets back to this idea of in the Obama presidency, the White House is the people's house. And his center feels like an extension of that sentiment. it's the people's center. It's for the Ro Rich: Right. Allie: city of Chicago and the community that lives around it. Ro Rich: Yeah. Because it's got a sports complex and a playground and a green space. So it's supposed Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: to be like a neighborhood amenity, not just a monument that is sitting there as a shrine. and I really love that, that it is it is for the public and that's incredibly incredibly cool actually. Allie: And there's been the critique over the Obama Center has been the the design of the tallest part. There's this large, tall central building, and then these smaller buildings sit around it. And people, have kind of named it the Obamalisk has been the term. Like an obelisk, but the Obamalisk, yeah. Ro Rich: like an obelisk, yes. Allie: And the designers came out and they said Well, yeah. they said, quote, it is obviously a landmark presidency. And this idea that like his presidency was monumental. So yes, his center will be monumental and it will have a visual distinction to it because we need to pay legacy to the significance that his presidency had. Yeah. Yeah. Ro Rich: Homage. Yeah. Well, I was looking at this a little bit and then also the the Roosevelt Library. and that is on a 93-acre site next to Teddy Roosevelt National Park in the Badlands. It's Allie: Bad lands. Yes. Ro Rich: a 95,000 square foot building. And the concept was that the library is the landscape. So I think you could even apply that to you know, the Obama library, that the library is part of the urban landscape. And so for the Teddy Roosevelt Library, you've got the building rising out of a butt, the landscape, the butt. Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: And it has an earthen roof that spans 121,000 square feet as a living prairie that you can walk on. Like what? And so it was pursuing a living building certification to be one of the most regenerative cultural buildings in America's. Like that's amazing. and it's What you were talking about by the National Archives, it is not officially recognized by the NARA, the National Archives, because the Teddy Roosevelt Foundation built it independently instead of through the single Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: federal process. So depending on who you ask, it's either the 14th presidential library or an unofficial fourteenth overall. So then this put me down this rabbit hole of like presidential libraries in general, how did they start? so Like it started with FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In the late thirties he built the first one and established the National Archives Records Administration to oversee it in future libraries. And then the President the Presidential Libraries Act in fifty five formalized it. So each president picked their own architect and site. They had to fund a construction entirely through private donors. And only then does NARA take over management and public access. So they're usually part museum, part archive, part monument. And the site choice and architectural function styles as a final active control like it's their final homage to their own administration. and the zine did a really cool roundup of this and and looked at some of the really standout ones, like the JFK library in Boston, Linda B. Johnson library in Austin, you've got the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Carter's in Atlanta. And so it's cool to see how they chose their architects and had them build for the their. Their design mission. Allie: Yeah. And the Clinton Library in in Little Rock, Ralph Alplebaum also was the lead exhibit designer for that as well. Ro Rich: very cool. Interesting. And that one actually Allie: yeah. The Ro Rich: it was it cantilevers over the Arkansas River built to embody a bridge to the 21st century. I Allie: Mm. Ro Rich: love I mean we talked about this a a concept coming to life, literally walking off the page and having a design to meet a concept or like embody that concept. It's so beautiful to see it happen in the real world, like in a professional Allie: Yeah. Ro Rich: way. It just hits you. I mean like that is the awe of good design. It just is it hits you in the chest. Allie: Yeah. I you know, it's easy to compare and contrast the the Teddy Roosevelt and the Obama Center. But I Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: you know, they both are beautiful in their own ways. I think the symbolism of the Obama Center is stunning. Personally, the the Teddy Roosevelt one I mean, I grew up in rural Minnesota. I grew up going to the Badlands on vacation. And that area of the country is just it is inspiring. It's awe inspiring, Ro Rich: Hmm. Allie: when you see the pictures of the the Roosevelt Library, like you said, the landscape is the museum. Like you see the building. And Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: what's phenomenal to me is for how massive and how many square feet the facility Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: is, it just sort of hides into the landscape. And the architects Ro Rich: was folded in. They folded it in. They didn't want it to stand out as some gaudy Allie: They folded it in. Ro Rich: monstrosity. They like, We're gonna design with this because designing with something is always better than designing against it. Allie: Yeah. The firm, the architecture firm, is their name's Soneta and they're based their Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: origins are in Norway and it does it definitely has this Norwegian Scandinavian feel to it. And Ro Rich: Love. Allie: they were talking about how They didn't want it to feel like an alien had just landed and then built something. They wanted Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: it to feel like this thing had always been there. And just like the Badlands, right, there are these rock formations that have built over millions of years that have come up from the earth. And the library is almost like this little mini rock formation just slowly coming up. And even getting back to sort of what you're talking with Milan design week of material sciences. The way they built some of the walls. They actually took the soil that they excavated from the area, Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: they compacted it. So the walls themselves are the soil. Literally, they're using Ro Rich: It's site specific, literally site specific design. That's super. Allie: the natural materials to build it. And they wanted to sort of hearken to building materials that. indigenous groups or ancient civilizations would have used to build it. So have So he's hearkening back to natural building styles that have existed for much longer Ro Rich: Native Americans. Well, you know my whole kick about the four orders of design and how those translate into culture quite symmetrically, quite perfectly. And I tell my students, I call it the love formula. That sounds ridiculous. But like you've got location. So we're talking about location and we design within locations. You've got objects inside of those locations, and that's your object design. You've got your visuals and your language and your symbolism, right? We've also talked about that. But then the experience of it is when you fold it all together. And so when you go to that location and you have that experience, you are not just in a in a place that is devoid of meaning, like you folded it all into that. So to build a design that is all-encompassing for all those orders and all of those aspects of culture that humans already make and create Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: for anyways, it's that's the experience of the design. And we talk about experience design a lot of interfaces nowadays because everything's digital and we're doing interface design. But When you think about this broader, deeper idea of experiences and interaction, it's going, it's like we're bringing screens in digital technology into spaces. And I feel like that's maybe our our good place to go to the final aspect of design news and I think museums are a big part of this, immersive in physical installations. And how Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: do you walk through and experience a space that is designed from tip to tail, where you're getting this. Highly immersive experience where everything is designed from the way that the ceiling moves or responds to you, or the way that the wall you experience a wall. And you know, you're talking about that with the design of the dirt being made into fabrication for the walls inside of that. So you're not just In a space where you're like, it's some wood beams. Like we've all seen that. Like you are pulling that out so that the way you even experience that wall is so ingrained in the space that now your experience of that design is heightened and and made better because of it. Like there is in London infinite impressionists visitors were walking through digital brush strokes that responded to motion. And we're having these experiences where your location and your objects and your visuals, they're all like blurring together and they're all doing these things that we'd never thought possible and until now. And so it's almost like the wall is an interface. What? Like that scale of that, because we're we're merging in architecture and language and objects. into those things, this is beautiful blended symphony, girl, that's like immersing yourself in the Odyssey. It's like immersing yourself into this experience that is otherworldly that we're designing now. And that's so freaking cool. Allie: And I think if done well, there's this yes, this visceral reaction to I feel completely immersed and overwhelmed, but it also done successfully helps you build understanding. So in the case of whether it's the Obama Center or the Roosevelt Library, it helps you better understand the environment that you're in, helps you better understand the city of Chicago or Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: The landscape of the bad lands, it builds an appreciation and a connection to that environment that you didn't have before that experience. But yeah. Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Exactly, because it enhances it so much. So like you already have the natural wonder and awe of being in the Badlands, right? You're like, my God, look what Mother Nature did. she's the OG designer. She is the queen. And Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: then the best design says, How can we improve on that? I think and maybe that's what it is. We're kind of disenchanted with human tricks of cheap disposable things. And there'll always be a place for that, but we kind of overindex. So now we're going. How can we come back to nature? How can we take biomimicry, which is one of my favorite topics ever, and fold that Allie: Same. Ro Rich: into design and fold the art f everything in? And I mean, we've said it before, luxury brands do that really well because of the way that they create an an immersive experience and environment. and now when excuse me, as we're having more technology breakthroughs and better interfaces and things are moving and bendable interfaces, stuff like that, we're we're folding it into The way we experience walls and ceilings and all of that's nuts. It's so cool. We're in the future, babe. What? Allie: Future is now. What? a little kind of side pivot. So speaking of political design, it kind of made a blip, but I think it's an interesting I'd love to see where this goes in the future. Mayor Mamdani of New York released a new typeface, which Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: is called Empirica. and this is also just everything is designed, nothing's coincidental, So the the foundry Freer Jones type that created Empirica. Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: it was the same team that designed the typeface Gotham, and Gotham is important because Gotham is the typeface that was all over Obama's presidential campaigns, hope and change. Ha ha, so bring it back to Obama. And then I believe the typeface was originally called Imperial or Imper Impirica something. And so the Mamdani campaign went to this foundry and said, Hey, we'd love to make this an official typeface of Mamdani's mayoral. Office, and they said, fantastic, let's yes, and this, yes, and let's customize a few little ditties here and there, a few little seraphs. Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: And so they evolved an existing typeface and made it for his office. And I I think this is important to note because one, it's that Graphic design and politics have always had this interesting history. And some of our most savvy marketed presidential campaigns in history have understood how to use design, branding, typography to make their offices, their campaigns, their their platforms recognizable. So I think it's really interesting, very savvy of his his office to do something like this. Ro Rich: Well, yeah, the psychology of brand and the psychology of symbols and symbolism, like recognition constructivism stands out. You think about poster design being used to unite people because we're ultimately, as creatures of nature, living in being being able to be safe for so long, we had to identify like threats and patterns and anomalies before it it got us killed. Like, you didn't see that thing in the bushes? Mm-hmm your dinner. and so like having a strong visual presence and identity, it hits something in our our caveman brain that we're like, ooh, because I don't even have to read it because I have a symbol I have a visual signature that I can recognize really quickly, which is why we like fashion logos and those are the most knocked off designs in the world. And Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: I this font is so interesting because it's got the serif element, but it also has a strong sans serif vibe. And the way that they mix it with color, I mean it's a three color. mix and it almost has like it almost has like a I don't want to say it's it has almost a circus vibe to it. It has this like callback feeling of like the zoom Allie: Well Ro Rich: effect, right? That you see it in is and it's got the red and the blue and the orange. It's re it's unique. It feels like the New York Knicks also. And I saw some of those shirts when the Knicks won that they were they were blending some of the font and some of the vibes on it because it's recognizable and it it does feel nostalgic. There's something incredibly nostalgic feeling to it. Allie: So you I think it's so interesting that you hit on this sort of the circus vibe. So th my interpretation of that, and by interpretation, just reading the the designer's statement, Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: is so the way he's doing it, he sort of has this more blocky type face, and then oftentimes it's gonna be paired with a more traditional script type face. And Ro Rich: There's a flare into it. Yeah. There's also a flare in the letters themselves a little bit. Allie: So a lot of them are tied to the the actual physical mark making of sign painting. So that's why I think you're getting the circus vibe and the layering effect. But think about like 1920s, shops, So think very like working class merchant shops. You're gonna have hand painted signs on these windows, above the doors, etc. And so what this font is doing is it's eliciting a sort of a working class, like a blue collar. visual language of, small businesses essentially. And I think again it's so smart where His whole campaign was it was a grassroots campaign. He was a working class, candidate. And so it's the immigrant story, immigrants coming to New York City and opening shops and bodegas and businesses and restaurants and, what have you. And so I think he's taking that sort of hand painted small business sign that dates back to, hundreds of years, you know, Ro Rich: Old New York. Allie: hundred years ago when people were coming through. Ro Rich: There's a guy I follow on Instagram and he makes mirrors. I'm sure you've seen he like hand paints the mirrors. It has this vibe. It almost it well, it has a couple vibes. It has a silkscreen vibe where you'd have to do like a three color print and you would lay one down, then you do another layer and then another. But then also like you're saying when old New York people are nostalgic for, these smaller mom and pop shops where you have someone, yes, they're gonna paint their brand on the glass. That's like it's a glass painting, right? And so Allie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ro Rich: you do the layer first. Like you lay down the red, then you would lay down what's on top. Like you have to the way you have to layer it on, it takes time. So the cleanliness of a single color print that looks almost like a stamp or like it was etched in something. This is different. This looks this has layers to it and the layers indicate that handmade bit of it, that quality. Just like we're kind of coming full circle here. my gosh. Good job us. High fives. with something that feels handmade, talking about the Ermes the illustrations that Luxury brands are saying, ooh, how do we make something look handmade again? How do we give it a human quality? Well, we give it something that reminds us, or is literally the direct indicator if someone hand drew this illustration. or they they handmade the sign. So we already have associated in our culture brains because we take in so many signs and symbols. There's an association there that's already ingrained. Thank you, human culture. Allie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Ro Rich: Thank you, human. Mammalian caveman brain for helping us be like pring ping Allie: We see it Ro Rich: Yeah. Allie: All right. Robin, design darling of the week. We ready to close things out? Ro Rich: Let's close it out. so talking about from A to Z design of all the things, World Cup, watching the different ways that unfolded across the globe, literally. And I Allie: Literally. Ro Rich: was really delighted by a lot of the things that came out of it. Our boy Erling Harland in his bag haul. and right. Ha Allie: Mm. Beautiful and fashion girly. We love it. Ro Rich: ha He is like everyone's favorite human right now. I was loving and amazed by the ranch dressing craze that unfolded. Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: So talking about design objects, ranch dressing, I feel like food, it falls into the category of design objects and culture because Allie: Mm-hmm. Ro Rich: Everyone can share it, everyone can understand that experience. And so There was all these great videos online of you know, folks visiting the US and trying ranch dressing. Some of them were like, no, thank you. And others were freaking out. And so Hidden Valley Ranch, the OG ranch dressing, I learned from the Wall Street Journal, was created by this guy who did have a ranch in California. He called it Hidden Valley Ranch. And he made this dressing. And so he he ended up selling it to Clorox of all the weird talk about a brand purchase. So Clorox Allie: Okay. Ro Rich: bought this from him. Anyway, Hidden Valley Ranch, people were trying to buy it and shove it in their bags to fly back with. And the the president or whomever Allie: TSA. Ro Rich: of yes, it's so TSA was like having the issue announcements. The president or CEO, whomever, of Hidden Valley Ranch was like, I never thought I'd have to make a public statement for TSA around. Around our our salad dressing because people are trying to get it back. And so they were trying to figure out how to get people the capacity to bring back ranch dressing to their countries. And craft figured this out and it was starting to pop up like kiosks of little packets that you could take with you into the plane. And so it it kind of became this funny r not a I don't think a full out ranch war, but maybe a ranch war for people to be able to take this back with them. And so They had already had brand ambassadors going to other countries to try to promote ranch in different places. and then they were like, This just happened organically. All of a sudden the world has discovered ranch because they came to the state. And especially Allie: And we love it. We're obsessed. We're glad for it. Ro Rich: the Midwest, I feel like me and a friend of mine, she's from Illinois. We went to a restaurant once and she's like, can I have some ranch? And they brought her a gravy boat of ranch. And I was like, Listen. Allie: Yes. Ro Rich: It could have gone either way. And so we still love to joke about that gravy boat of ranch that she got. because yes, people were so obsessed they wanted to bring home gr the gravy boat equivalent of ranch dressing. And so that is my design, darling of the week. Talk about a small brand that's become a ubiquitous American experience. And people were literally breaking TSA law or trying to to take it home. So what a victory for ranch dressing. I that's my Design darling of the week. Allie: Yeah. I read reports where people were trying to actually chug bottles of ranch in TSA line and then T S A'd like, Ro Rich: Gross terrible. Allie: No no no, like please, like just it's not like it's not that important. But then Ro Rich: Sto don't do that. Don't do that. Allie: Boston Airport, they were all posting on their social media. So what they ended up doing, which was super, super smart in Boston, is they behind TSA line, so at like the Hudson News, they were selling full-size bottles. Ro Rich: yes. On the other side, yes. Allie: So they're like, guys, we got you covered. We've stocked all of our Hudson News's with full size ranch bottles. So you don't even bring it through TSA. Ro Rich: Yes, that's right. Allie: You can just buy it when you get on the other side. bottles and so good. Yeah. What a c Ro Rich: Yes. What a coup. What a what if what a moment for ran stressing. Allie: And Ro Rich: I die. Allie: okay, my design Darling of the Week is also World Cup related. There's just been so Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: much there's been so many good design things coming out of World Cup. but My true design darling of the week is Erlene Holland's hair ties. Very specifically. These hair ties Ro Rich: Really? Allie: are the hair ties. So it's a company started in South Korea called Kaneki Brand. And these hair ties are made in this really specific way where It's a thick elastic and then it's braided and the material that's braided around it, it does two things. One, the braiding creates texture, so it holds your hair really well. And then secondly, the material it's braided out of is really s I don't know if it's a silk, but it's a really, really slippery material. So it doesn't Ro Rich: Mm-hmm. Allie: snag or break your hair. So it it Ro Rich: We love that. Allie: shouldn't work in theory, but you have a really silky material, but the braiding gives it grip and so Ro Rich: Yes. Allie: these hairbands they've alre already been big for a while and Harland he had been wearing them for ages and he even did like a few years ago like a collab with them of like special colors like of a Norway flag so he he's already been using them for years and it's already kind of been a low-key underground product but in the World Cup he had for his team colors he had like bright red and blue these hairbands. So everyone online is like, Ro Rich: Mm. Allie: what hair tie is he using? And my friends and I would be watching the game. And we would be watching, his hair tie. We'd be like, no, the hair tie's gonna fall out. we were watching his hair more than we were the game. And then in between breaks you would see him we're like, he readjusted it. Cause you'd see him retieing his hair tie. and so during the course of the World Cup, 'cause people have been watching him and seeing these hair ties, they've sold out multiple Ro Rich: Wow. Allie: times. they cannot keep their product stocked. The whole world is not obsessed with these hair ties. Ro Rich: Honey. Allie: And we're also just obsessed with his hair 'cause it's gorgeous. His his adorable little man bun. but yeah, that's my World Cup of the week. Ro Rich: You know, we you and I talked about this too. the we talked about the specific font that was on the back of their jerseys that was made just for them. That like very Norse Viking looking font and everyone was like, What is this font? Where is where did it come from? Because the designers in the world are like, that is custom, that is unique. How did that happen? And so also what a triumph of a visual indicator that that is legit their font. That's so cool. Allie: Yeah. That was the the Nike team. And I read a little thing that the last World Cup they had a a similar font, but it was considered unlegible, by FIFA. So they actually had to Ro Rich: Yeah. I know. Allie: wear different jerseys altogether. So this World Ro Rich: Okay. Allie: Cup, Nike was like, Okay, we're gonna try this again and make the typeface just slightly more legible. So then it passed this time. Ro Rich: Wow, Jersey five e compliance, is that what that is? I'm here for Allie: Honestly, a hundred percent. Some of these jerseys that's a whole other thing we can talk about, but some of these jerseys are it's very cool. Some of them are very political and very symbolic when you like get into the nitty gritty of them. Ro Rich: Intention and design. I mean look, we started episode one. What is it? Design is intention. And when you can read those codes and those Easter eggs that people are putting in things, scroll, that is real. We love it. All right, mama. Well, thank you for this news dive, this new charcuterie that we laid out. Hopefully people got Allie: Yeah, I loved it. Ro Rich: a little tasty sample of things that they loved and if they got a a new taste of something different, then hurrah for that as well. Allie: Amazing. read. Ro Rich: We're gonna have a we're gonna have a lot of cool episodes coming up the for the rest of the year. I can't believe we're also halfway through the year. So Allie: wow. Ro Rich: we're gonna talk about production design. We're gonna talk about interior design. We have some cool guests coming up the next several months. So tune in and holla at us if you want us to talk about something that we have yet to cover. Allie: Holla. Ro Rich: Until now time, enjoy the design of the world, darlings. We'll talk to you then. Allie: Alright, talk then. Bye-bye. Ta-ta. Ro Rich: Bye bye.