The Pradalphabet is a subjective view of the peculiar world of Prada branding from French design duo M/M. They’ve engineered their own letters of architectural abstraction and simply put them on a t-shirt. Prada is continually involved in and inspired by architectural projects and so the t-shirt is presented as a creative souvenir. M/M is Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag. Their own incredible world is made up of projects involving people like Björk, Jil Sander and Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin.

NYC’s finest art collective Faile have gone and outdone themselves yet again. As part of Portugal’s Arte 2010 festival they have taken their iconic 2d creations and brought them to live in 3d and then went one step beyond to create a “future temple” to house them all in. Every detail is considered, every single inch of it treated with love and attention, every element is unbelievable. The piece was meant to only be up for a couple of weeks but such is the interest, both locally and people flying in to see it, that it will be extended for a couple of months. Check out more pictures here and here. Also, here’s the making of, the effort just blows me away.

I’ve been following the work of Copenhagen design duo, Vilsbøl de Arce, for a few seasons now, but I still find it impossible to pronounce their name. Their clothes merge fashion, art and experimentation to create visually arresting results. For their recent AW10 show they presented a collection based on muscle strand theory using leather cut into delicate tissue-like strips. I have a friend working at JDS architects who built the set. To the audience, the skeletal frame that was made of spliced wood with lazer plexi to keep it apart, moved with the music, but backstage there were 20 people in place moving it up and down! It’s hard not to say Avant-garde when talking about their work and it’s easy to see why they are becoming popular with stage divas like Lady Gaga & Rihanna.

In their yearly round-up, the Wallpaper* Design Awards features many interesting articles and videos on the freshest creative work happening in all corners of the globe. Of particular note are the city shorts, especially the NYC one. Man, I want to be back in Manhattan sipping a Manhattan and watching Manhattan right now…

Came across this trailer for an upcoming documentary on the work of Julius Shulman, the world’s best architectural photographer, who captured many of the last century’s seminal building designed by the likes of Frank Gehry, Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright and many more. Hopefully it’ll come and be screened here in Dublin, looks fantastic.

An interview,  in 3 parts, with director Eric Bricker is after the jump…

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So, with only 4 days to go to the first Pecha Kucha here in Dublin next Thursday our lineup is complete.

With a theme of “Small Ideas, Big Impact” each speaker will have 20 slides to show and only 20 seconds to speak about each. There will be no portfolio presentations, just original thinking for original times.

Really hope to see you there.

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BRENB / Illustrator
www.brenb.net

Cian Hallinan / Journalist

Conor & David / Designers
www.conoranddavid.com

Culturstruction / Architecture
www.culturstruction.wordpress.com

Fountainhead / Digital
www.fountainhead.ie

Gisele Scanlon / Author
www.thegoddessguide.com

Now What? / Architecture
www.nowwhatrichview.blogspot.com

Thinkhouse / PR Agency
www.thinkhousepr.com

TAKA / Architecture
www.taka.ie

Will St. Leger / Artivist
www.willstleger.com

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HOST: CIARAN O’GAORA (Zero-G)

SUGAR CLUB | DUBLIN | THURSDAY 16.07.09
ADMISSION : ONLY 5 EURO
DOORS FROM 7PM | FIRST SPEAKER 7.45PM

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http://www.alwaysreadthesmallprint.com

http://www.architecturefoundation.ie

http://www.pecha-kucha.org

Some interesting new products in development from the great people at Lego. Lego Architecture will initially feature 6 iconic buildings but no doubt will grow. What better way to teach kids about great buildings and the design behind them than getting them to make them themselves. I cannot wait to get my hands on some of these.

Falling Water, Pennsylvania

Guggenheim, New York