Category: Pop Culture

Architecture

Oberhausen’s Slinky Springs Bridge

By Delphine Hirasuna |

If this bridge in Oberhausen, Germany, reminds you of a slinky toy, that’s exactly what inspired it. German artist Tobias Rehberger spiraled 496 coils around a rainbow colored walkway that crosses over a canal to connect two existing parks. Rehberger collaborated with structural engineers Schlaich Bergermann and Partner to realize his design. The structure consists of pre-cast concrete plates, spiral bars and railing made of steel and net cable, all attached to high-strength steel stress ribbons connected to the inclined supports on both sides of the canal. The 1,332 foot walkway has a synthetic finish that kind of bounces when you walk. It is presented in 16 different colors, matched in color on the underside of the bridge which is made out of a different material. The Slinky Bridge is luminous with color and definitely puts a spring in your walk.

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Packaging

Mexican Pop Culture Branding

By Delphine Hirasuna |

For the packaging of Mexico’s premium craft beer, Cerveceria Sagrada, Mexican designer Jose Guizar built a brand identity around the nation’s legendary luchadors enmascarado (masked wrestlers). A beloved pop icon, the masked wrestlers were the first superheroes of Mexico. The colorful stylized masks they wore were designed to represent ancient heroes, deities, and animals — sacred identities that wrestlers assumed during their performance. The ferocious-looking masks reinforced the impression that the wrestlers were more than ordinary mortals. The most famous luchador, known simply as El Santo (the Saint), never removed his mask in public even in retirement. He was even buried wearing his silver mask.

In the 1950s, masked wrestlers became Mexico’s first pop culture icons, with El Santo turned into a comic book hero by artist Jose G. Cruz. The popular comics quickly led into a series of lucha libre action films in which the silver-masked El Santo defended the common people against supernatural creatures, evil scientists, vampires, secret agents and other villains. To this day, the masked wrestlers of Mexico embody the mystery, mystique and machismo of the culture.

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Interviews

Interview with Authors of
“Pantone: The 20th Century in Full Color”

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Looking for a Christmas present that a designer will appreciate? Try “PANTONE®: The 20th Century in Full Color” (Chronicle Books) by color experts Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker. The book takes readers on a color-palette tour of the last century presenting a decade-by-decade account of fads, fashions, films, social and art movements, objects, and events and the colors associated with them. Each subject is presented with color chips of the palette, complete with exact Pantone numbers — e.g., Buttercup Yellow (PANTONE 12-0752), Nile Green (PANTONE14-0121), Lipstick Red (PANTONE 19-1764). Perusing this book, it becomes apparent that color is very much a part of our collective memory, evoking a sense of time and place and the emotional climate of the era. It’s a unique way of seeing the 20th century.

Here authors Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, and Keith Recker, Pantone color and trend consultant, join us for a brief interview.

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Pop Culture

Ice Cube Raps on Eames and Architecture

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Famed rapper Ice Cube (aka O’Shea Jackson), who once studied architectural drafting, riffs on Los Angeles’s quirky landmarks such as the Cockatoo Inn and Five Torches, freeways and the Eames House for a video series produced by Pacific Standard Time, a collaborative effort among Southern California cultural Institutions to spotlight L.A.’s art scene between 1945 and 1980. Ice Cube avoids the lofty language of architectural experts and gives his take in terms that the street can understand. Talking about The Eames house, Ice Cube reflects that with Charles and Ray Eames “it’s not about the pieces, it’s about how the pieces work together,” and notes that they did “mashups before mashups even existed.” Way ahead of their time, he adds, “The Eames made structure and nature one. This is going green 1949 style, bitch. Believe that.”

Pop Culture

Asterisk Superheroes

By Delphine Hirasuna |

Polish designer Filip Lysyszn, who dubs himself a “wannabe type designer,” took the typographic asterisk sign and transformed it into different Marvel and DC Comic Superheroes. What’s amazing is how easy it is to identify each Superhero simply by the color of the costume and a few signature details – Batman’s ears, Mr. Fantastic’s stretchy arms, Superman’s cowlick, and Wolverine’s claw hands. Lysyszn even suggested relative size by showing the Hulk as a bulging asterisk and Storm as a more petite asterisk. Aside from being a clever exercise, the asterisk Superhero caricatures show us that every exact detail does not have to be captured to be recognizable – a few iconic elements will suffice. It also suggests that most of us have spent far too much time reading comic books.

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