Hasta La Creative!

(TrendHunter.com) These sensational sugar cube sculptures showcase the artistic talent of Belfast-born Brendan Jamison. The level of precision Jamison is able to achieve in his sculptures is astounding.

These seven sugar…

(TrendHunter.com) Ziipa is a visual search engine geared towards the Web 2.0 set. More indie rock than top 40, as Mashable’s Paul Glazowski quips, Ziipa allows users to search in a number of different ways. There’s the…

(TrendHunter.com) The cuddly panda bear is often perceived as a sign of peace, but according to animal rights activists, China has primarily used the panda bear as a symbol to advance a political agenda. Wu Hung, the director…

(TrendHunter.com) Everywhere you turn you read about the credit crisis, from oil prices to the federal reserve cutting its federal funds rate. So it was inevitable that these social changes would find their way into art…

Since it’s a political season, we’ve dedicated a fair bit of space here to political ads and also to what Alan Wolk calls NASCAR blindness. Wolk says, NASCAR blindness is “the strongly held belief that if no one in your little bubble of upscale artsy BoBo friends is into something, then clearly no one else is.”

It’s a topic that the daily (ad) biz picked up on, as well.

…we in advertising are supposed to know the people that we are selling to. We don’t have to be them, obviously, but we need to understand them, know what makes them tick, empathize with them to the point that we can understand them emotional hook that connects them to the brands that we are advertising for. How can we do that if we live in our hipster Manhattan (and Austin and Portland and Boston and Minneapolis…is it any surprise based on these cities that everyone in advertising is a Democrat?) worlds and disdain the rest of America that isn’t us?

Think about it honestly for a second…and yes, most people in advertising actively disdain the Wal*Mart shopping, flyover country living, openly religious people that buy most of the stuff that we sell. Just think about any briefing you have been in, think about that point where the planner starts talking about the target, and think about all of the cracks about said target that you know are coming.

Shame on them for not being upper class urban hipsters!

Well said, Mr. Biz.

(TrendHunter.com) A man from China could not afford to buy a stroller for his baby, so he decided to make one from various parts he found in garbage cans and on the street. The resulting work can be seen in the gallery…

Positions, Portrait of a New Generation of Chinese Architects, edited by Frédéric Edelmann (Architecture Critique) and Françoise Ged (Architect and Director of the Observatoire de l’Architecture de la Chine Contemporaine in Paris.)

Amazon USA and UK.

Publisher Actar says: This book presents over 40 finished works by Chinese architects, produced between 2003 and 2008. A compelling selection representing a new generation of architects in a country whose building rhythm over the last decade has been unstoppable, as China’s architects are making their mark within the backdrop of an avalanche of world class architecture stars.

Featuring works by China Architecture Design & Research Group, Jiakun Architects, Atelier Deshaus, Mada s.p.a.m, MAD, TM Studio, Urbanus, Studio Pei-Zhu, Amateur Architecture Studio, Atelier Feichang Jianzhu, Atelier Z+, Standardarchitecture and Architectural Design & Research Institute Nanjing University.

Contemporary architecture in China has met with a huge amount of coverage in the press. With so many shopping malls, gated communities and high-rise condos mushrooming within its borders, and with such cheap labour force, China has become a mecca for new architectural ideas. We’ve all been admiring photos of the Bird’s Nest, the CCTV headquarters, the Water Cube, etc but every single one of these buildings has been designed mostly by foreign architects. So where are the Chinese architects? Who are they and more importantly what are they doing and building? Do they find inspiration in the heritage of their country or are they more influenced by what they see in the West? Are the spectacular edifices built in Beijing and Shanghai only?

Positions gives some answers to those questions and they are encouraging answers. No pagoda-helmeted builders in sight. Instead, the book showcases dozens of constructions by mega-talented architects and introduces you to 15 of the most accomplished architecture studios. There’s a one page biography and presentation of each practice, along with their contact address, followed by several pages that focus on the most striking works conceived and/or built by the architects.

Here’s a selection of buildings you encounter in the book (i wish i could have added many more but i struggled to find good images of some of the most remarkable edifices online):

MADA s.p.a.m‘s Hotel Village in the Jade Valley

MADA s.p.a.m‘s Hotel Village in the Jade Valley is the Shanghai-based architect‘s attempt to establish a vineyard in his childhood village. The house he designed in Lantian is both modern and deeply anchored in Chinese tradition.

MAD, Super Star_A Mobile China Town

MAD studio has now gained world stardom. Their latest project is the conceptual, star-shaped, mobile Chinatown they are currently exhibiting at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. The new model would be self-sustaining and replace the usual restaurant streets and fake traditional buildings that gives a kitsch image of contemporary China.

Digital Beijing, by Zhu Pei and UNRBANUS. Photo: Iwan Baan

One of my favourite building ever is the computer circuitry-inspired Digital Beijing, by Zhu Pei and URBANUS Architecture. The edifice concentrate, during the Olympic Games and afterwards, all the computer systems allowing the control of the smooth running of the Games and subsequently of the Capital.

Slideshow:

See also 0300tv’s five part documentary China According to China.

Related book reviews: The Chinese Dream – A society under construction, by DCF, Neville Mars and Adrian Hornsby and The Concrete Dragon: China’s Urban Revolution and What It Means for the World, by Thomas J. Campanella.

(TrendHunter.com) This collection of medical inspired shoes is the work of Gwendolyn Huskens, a student at the Design Academy in Eindhoven.

The six pairs of shoes in this ‘medic esthetic’ collection are all made from…

BBDO produced the above spot for Starbucks. The ad urges people to vote, and promises them a free cup of coffee on Nov. 4th if they do. Double whipped vanilla non-fat mochachino? Probably not, but a nice incentive just the same.

A commenter named “hmmmmm” shared a link for W+K’s “The Girl Effect” which is strikingly similar to BBDO’s piece. Big deal, originality is dead, remember? Click continued to see the W+K piece.

More: “Starbucks Giving Away Coffee So You’ll Vote”

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media

(TrendHunter.com) Claire Beckett shot this intriguing series called “Simulating Iraq.” It features fabricated Iraqi spaces that were created by the military within the borders of the United States for the purpose of training.…