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…
Many will argue that radio, information, and life will be increasingly accessible to all of us via Wi-Fi, but we’ll always need a signal. Montreal-based designer Stefan Dukaczewski helps us envision the day when our clothing helps lead the way. His Wi-Fi sneakers light up to indicate signal strength whenever you walk near a zone.
Each week, JoshSpear.com explores the latest projects by top creative professionals in the Behance Network and highlights a few that are pushing the edge of creative industry. Josh Spear also serves as an Advisor and Guest Curator for the Behance Network.
It’s estimated that 8-10 billion un-recyclable plastic and wire hangers are wasted every year, and they end up clogging our landfills, requiring more than 1,000 years to break down. Kind of a big deal, that’s like 4.6 Empire State Buildings full of plastic hangers every single year. And it gets worse — those white plastic hangers in your closet also leak all sorts of dangerous chemicals into the ground water. Mega scary.
Until now.
In comes Ditto Hangers, a global company with an incredible and honorable mission: Save the world with hangers. They’re solving the worldwide and much forgotten problem by designing hangers made from recycled materials; papers and plastics. Vegetable inks add to the environmentally friendly ingredient list. The 100% recyclable paper and PET plastic hangers are meant for retail environments and non-toxic dry cleaners, but I say we all could use a little more green in our closets. No word on ordering direct from their site, but keep your eyes peeled for them near you — word is they’re coming to GAP in the states.
They were also recently nominated finalists at the Design Excellence Awards for their Ditto PETE CLIP Hanger for Eco Design. Congrats!
Normally if you were to engage in fisticuffs with a lighting fixture you’d probably end up in some sort of insane asylum. The genius minds at Fluid Forms however, have turned it into an artful endeavor with their new Cassius lamp. The Austria-based design firm affords customers the opportunity to shape the lamp to their own liking using an online interface in which the product’s lampshade is utilized as a heavy bag with the punches being thrown by a pair of virtual boxing gloves. The result is a truly one of a kind creation made by you that may eventually lead to anger management classes.
Congratulations to Alan, who went above and beyond the call of duty by not only making clever acronyms, but also created some banner art to go along with them.
It was so good that I was momentarily fooled into believing this was part of the conference.
Thanks, as always, to everyone who came up with an ATEAM (That’s Acronym To Excel Above Mediocrity). We’ll see you next week.
Brazilian skaters like Bob Burnquist and Sandro Dias have been holding it down for the South American country when it comes to the worldwide skate stage, but unless you’re already deep into the scene or keep up it with here on JoshSpear.com, you wouldn’t know that Brazil has had other veritable contributions to the sport. Graffiti artist Sesper has been getting his hands dirty as producer on an as-yet-unreleased DVD documentary called Re.board on the history of Brazilian skate art which features jacks of the trade Fabio Bitao, Billy Argel and Ragueb Rogerio, who talk about the discipline’s development and shows what all the goodness they’ve done to push it forward. To get a closer look from the trailer, check out the photo album.
You think your friends are pretty diverse. Maybe you have one buddy who lives on a steady diet of tacos with no apparent consequence, or another who can’t leave the house without tying his shoes in double knots. Whatever. Friends are friends, and who are you to judge? Just like the new Cannibal Funfair freak show of minifigurines designed by Tado, because despite their insistence to live only in the forest — which is an obvious sign of an antisocial tendency — they are too cute to refuse. They also have neat removable accessories and interesting personalities … even if they’d turn on you in a second and eat you like chocolate cake. You can pick them up at the Magic Pony site.
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.
Many will argue that radio, information, and life will be increasingly accessible to all of us via Wi-Fi, but we’ll always need a signal. Montreal-based designer 
Congratulations to Alan, who went above and beyond the call of duty by not only making clever acronyms, but also created some banner art to go along with them.
