October and November are going to be big months for Artoyz. The French website and magazine that both covers and sells designer toys is slated to unleash a slew of products under it’s Artoyz Original label. The past Saturday they released their exclusive limited 100 piece run of Chaos Monkey figures in both white and guerrilla version, as well as the Elements First Degree figures from Easy Hey. The four figures are comprised of colorful interchangeable pieces representing fire, water, earth, and air. The final new wrinkle in the Artoyz Originals family that was just made available is Kid Onion, a vinyl creation also from the mind of Easy Hey, that is more or less a colorful scaly amalgam of a boy and a vegetable. You know what they say: you are what you eat. Let’s hope you don’t become what toys you play with.
One of the great things about traveling is getting to see some of the local design products. The instant I saw Remake Design’s wall light fixtures I knew I was looking at a gem. The light blocks break apart and plug into each other via magnetic plugs to create any block design you can dream up. Think building blocks but with lights and magnets. The light magnets are designed for optimal power distribution, and in most cases only one plug adapter is required for the entire structure. The lights come in various colors and look stunning. Check out the Remake Design website for some more examples of how to put these blocks together (including one by the del.icio.us guys?). The lights can be a little difficult to get your hands on. There is an online store, but we prefer them in the wonderful home design boutique in Brussels, Toit.
A couple of years ago, we told you about the first fair trade sneaker, a simple affair in the Adidas Samba vein. Three years later, France’s Veja has seven full sized collections, including a line for kids and even little tiny baby sneakers. The kicks have gotten undeniably hotter and branched out into a few different incarnations. Our favorite is the mid-top Grid in Cyprus.
To briefly recap our progress with the Veuve Clicquot recipe this week, we added one part design on Tuesday, one part ambiance on Wednesday, and one part expertise on Thursday. Today, there’s one last ingredient to add, and we’re going to be pouring a little bit more of this one into the mix than usual. The reason the recipe calls for two parts family is that the Veuve Clicquot family is the glue that holds the rest of the dish together.
The strength of the VC family not only serves to keep the internal workings of the brand humming along, but it’s also a strong, effective, and natural customer draw — I think it’s the authenticity people perceive when they feel a strong sense of family associated with a brand. It was certainly what made me feel relaxed, welcomed, and inspired during my days in France — a refreshing, tradition-bound experience amongst the hoards of Johnny-come-lately brands out there these days.
And as a special bonus today, I’ve put together this photo/video montage of my Veuve Clicquot experience. In all honesty, it was inspired by my new, adopted family. I hope you all enjoy watching. (I recommend viewing the montage in high quality on youtube )
And what “family†post would be complete with out a few family photos? You'll find several after the jump…
Moving right along with the Veuve Clicquot Recipe I’ve been slowly but surely completing for you this week… Since we’ve successfully added one part each of design and ambiance, we’re going to go ahead and fold-in one part expertise today. Successful businesses invariably depend on exceptional people, and VC is no exception, its tradition of expertise having been laid into place by Madame Clicquot. At the ripe age of 27, she took over the family business of wine making from her late husband, Francois Clicquot. The Madame began what what must be considered one of the most impressive careers of the era, both pioneering within her industry, and setting an important example for other aspiring female entrepreneurs. Through brilliant ingenuity of her own, she revolutionized how champagne was made and mass produced when she invented the process of riddling in 1816. She went on to leave her legacy to people whom she trusted, and the brand grew so that when she died in 1866, she was the richest woman in Europe.
Luckily, my Veuve Clicquot experience last week included meeting and learning from Madame Clicquot’s contemporaries. While the guys pictured above are by no means the only experts within the Veuve Clicquot organization, they sure stuck out in my mind. After the jump, I’ll introduce you to them in turn, starting from the left and working right…
You know why driving isn’t fun? Because your car is spewing out Earth killing gases? Maybe, but also the road signs can be so boring. It’s a problem the Panos 2013 aim to address in the town of Lyon, France. Taking the color scheme, materials and dimensions of real traffic signs, a group of artists have recreated fictional signs to create a gallery without walls and full of directions. They’ve placed 100 signs all around the city, and so far no wrecks. We don’t expect many of our readers will be able to hop over to Lyon (if you do, please let us know), but fortunately images of all 100 images are up on their site. Our favorites are below.
Now that we’ve mixed 1 part design into the bowl, we’re going to move onto the second ingredient — let’s add one part ambiance. Just the second ingredient in the four-ingredient recipe, it was the most eye-opening component of my Veuve Clicquot experience last week. My choosing of “ambiance” as a vital ingredient in the overall recipe that is the Veuve Clicquot brand was predicated on the idea that a luxury Champagne brand must act the part — it must not conduct business in a vacuum. The incredible flavors that emerge from the bottle don’t appear out of thin air — they are created and caused by the process, by nature, by people. In this rather photo-heavy post, I hope I can at least skim the surface of the ambiance within and surrounding the Veuve Clicquot brand as I experienced it. After the jump are just some of the sights and circumstances that epitomize the yellow label. READ MORE…
As a bonus to the Veuve Clicquot “recipe” which I will be assembling for you all this week, I thought I’d also offer up a bit of instant gratification — good form for a Monday, I figure. During my time with VC, the other bloggers and I had plenty of opportunities to try plenty of different kinds of champagne. I found myself battling with the dichotomy of objectively great champagne (the stuff that’s known to be great) and subjectively great champagne (the stuff I liked regardless of its reputation) — a philosophical debacle of monumental proportions, right? At times, it was a bit overwhelmed (coming to mind immediately is the dizzy feeling I had at the luncheon we had at the Verzy Mansion right after our first morning tasting event with master Oenologist Cyril Brun)… but when in Reims, one must make the most of each flute of champagne laid in front of them, right?
After the jump are my three favorites, in no particular order. For each, I’ve included a link to explanations by the experts at Veuve Clicquot, as well my various (humble) musings…
Last week, a perfect storm of luck, timing, karmic repayment, and a unforeseen hiccup in Josh’s schedule had me whisking off to Paris on an Open Skies flight to join some other bloggers as guests of Veuve Clicquot (think bold yellow label). In the past few years I’ve been noticing a stronger presence of Veuve Clicquot in the states — I think this is probably due to a combination of my own personal maturation, taking a notice in their various thoughtful forays into the world of design, and an increased marketing outreach on VC’s part. From a branding standpoint, I always thought that VC “got it,” and was doing a nice job reaching out to the U.S. market, but I was excited to get behind the curtain to see what that wonderful wizard was all about on a more nuts-and-bolts level.
In the States, we tend to treat champagne (”bubbly”) as a celebratory mechanism — our approach is decidedly habitual and formulaic, drawing cues from holidays like New Years and pop culture icons Jay-Z and 50-Cent (who drink lots of bubbly in the ‘cluh’ and show us in their videos just how that process works). A romantic portrayal of champagne? Sure, why not? But champagne has different significance in France. In its homeland, champagne is an integral component of French society, its heritage, and frankly, its style. Indeed, what I came to find out during my week with Veuve Clicquot is that, to the French, champagne is a way of life deeply rooted in tradition, rich soil, and most of all, family.
Some of these press trips can be nightmarish — following PR people around like puppy dogs for days on end, as a corporate agenda is shoved down your throat — and in which something (a certain advertorial something) is invariably expected of you in the end. This trip was of the more natural ilk — the nice people at Veuve Clicquot simply wanted us to experience their brand and their culture, and by adopting us into their family (literally), they created a truly enriching setting whereby I became inspired to share my experience with you all. Our aim as contributors on Joshspear.com is to continue the tradition upon which Josh founded the blog: to write about things we like — things that inspire us. Well make no mistake, my experience in France with Veuve Clicquot inspired me deeply.
Over the course of this week, I will endeavor to provide you, the readers, with the Veuve Clicquot recipe. I hope you will enjoy the ingredients on their own, and as a harmonious whole. But just remember, as with haute French cuisine, there are nuanced ingredients which can only be discovered through first hand experience — I will hold these ’special’ ingredients in my mind and in my heart, with a hope that someday you will discover them for yourselves.
So, here’s a simple list of the ingredients in the Veuve Clicquot recipe. If you want to know how they all come together, stay tuned this week!
- 1 part design (Tuesday)
- 1 part ambiance (Wednesday)
- 1 part expertise (Thursday)
- 2 parts family (Friday)
Mix together for a little over 200 years, and enjoy.
It’s been a little while since we’ve written about the surreal French gift shop, La Tete au Cube (who could forget the buddy towel or the cowboy flask, great gifts wrapped in classic French noir.) Their new items bring that same strange irony and add a little creepy to the mix. The Mistic Mirror (sic), which acts like a normal bathroom mirror until steamed up to leave behind the knife image, is a wonderfully weird way to surprise a house guest. But, it’s especially convenient for those that overstay their welcome.
October and November are going to be big months for Artoyz. The French website and magazine that both covers and sells designer toys is slated to unleash a slew of products under it’s Artoyz Original label. The past Saturday they released their exclusive limited 100 piece run of Chaos Monkey figures in both white and guerrilla version, as well as the Elements First Degree figures from Easy Hey. The four figures are comprised of colorful interchangeable pieces representing fire, water, earth, and air. The final new wrinkle in the Artoyz Originals family that was just made available is Kid Onion, a vinyl creation also from the mind of Easy Hey, that is more or less a colorful scaly amalgam of a boy and a vegetable. You know what they say: you are what you eat. Let’s hope you don’t become what toys you play with.
A couple of years ago, we told you about the first 
You know why driving isn’t fun? Because your car is spewing out Earth killing gases? Maybe, but also the road signs can be so boring. It’s a problem the 
Now that we’ve mixed 1 part 
