BOOK NOTE: Coca-Cola as Design Icon

What do these odd couples have in common: Andy Warhol and Norman Rockwell, JFK and Richard Nixon, the Andrews Sisters and the Kinks? The answer: all were Coca-Cola enthusiasts!

Coca-Cola

Assouline Publishers, hard cover, 208 pages, 125 illustrations in color and black and white, $65

Billions of people worldwide, over generations, have been lured by the winning synthesis of content and packaging that has made Coca-Cola an icon of American popular culture. To celebrate the company’s 125th anniversary, Assouline has released a cheery new volume (with forward by Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent) abundantly illustrated with photos, posters, graphic and fine art; and punctuated by apt quotes from poets, songwriters and politicians (Averell Harriman: “Americans wanted to settle all our difficulties with Russia and then go to the movies and drink Coke.”) A fascinating timeline/epilogue chronicles the company’s enduring commitment to topnotch visual presentation: the mindful selection, in1886, of a signature typeface; a trademarked, instantly identifiable “contour bottle”; fulsome use of red – the color of power and passion; and employment of charismatic design. (Industrial design giant Raymond Loewy, for example, created the company’s sleek fountain dispenser in 1947.) Together, these elements have made Coke the most recognizable product on the planet, and – with 79 million Facebook friends to date – probably the most popular.

EXHIBITION: Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from The Wolfsonian Collection

I finally got to see the permanent collection of the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami, Art and Design in the Modern Age -- great fun to see all the tableware, radios, and furniture referencing the look of skyscrapers and ocean liners! The collection contains three hundred works spanning graphics (books, posters, and postcards) decorative arts, architectural models, paintings and sculptures. 

The big blue disc in the middle of the room is a radio;

on the far left is a snazzy vacuum cleaner.

   

                             Skyscraper bookshelf            Crazy toasters were all the rage in the 1930s

JEWEL BOXES: A house for Valentine's Day ♥

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone -- and special greetings to my followers from Ukraine, who have risen to the top of the charts in my audience stats! In honor of the day, I'm posting some photos of a Frank Lloyd Wright house I recently found out about. Sited on a heart-shaped island (!) it's called the Massaro House and is located in Mahopac, New York.

It was on the market recently, priced @$20 million. Rumor has it that Angelina Jolie bought it as a gift for her life partner Brad Pitt, for his 50th birthday. (He is a major architecture buff, so it wouldn't surprise me.)

The island (house at left edge) 

The house

EXHIBITION: London Design Museum offers something zany

By popular demand, the London Design Museum has extended its

Paul Smith exhibition through June 22.

There's an interesting article about this zany designer in the Guardian newspaper,

which you can read here.

EXHIBITION: Richard Meier Model Museum opens in Jersey City

Famed 79-year old architect and proud Newark, NJ native Richard Meier, best known for creating refined, luminous houses and cultural landmarks, has just completed installing the Richard Meier Model Museum in Jersey City. It contains nearly 400 handmade models of projects he’s designed since 1963. His firm is also currently building affordable housing and schools in downtown Newark, drawing on his less-well-known early work designing community-oriented residential projects. What a wonderful thing for him to be doing at this phase of his life! There's a great article about this in the Jan. 24 issue of the NY Times.

(All photos from NY Times)

 The ever-elegant Mr. Meier checks out his new museum in Jersey City.

Models, sculptures and architectural drawings 

are featured in this new 15,000-square-foot space.

OBJECTS OF DESIRE: Space Age Style for Today ✫ ..✫¸.•°*”*°•✫!!

If you like the aura of The Twilight Zone, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Mad Men, I think you'll enjoy my latest article for Houzz.com. Lots of great pics!

Zuo UFO ceiling light

ODD BITS: Dazzling new airport in Mumbai

Mumbai India's International Airport has just been transformed by

 a dazzling new makeover. Wowza!

The terminal’s design, by  New York-based architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, was inspired by India’s national bird, the peacock. Traces of the motif are found in the giant columns and marble flooring. The venue will also be home to the world’s largest public art program, with over 7,000 artworks featured along a 2-mile long wall.

To read more about this, please link here.