Design Archive - The Fox Is Black

Finding Inspiration in High Fashion

Louis Vuitton Insect Purse Ad

For the last two days Kyle and I have been hanging out in Las Vegas. Yesterday was my mother’s 60th birthday and she wanted to spend it here. I haven’t been here for about 5 or 6 years, but in that short period of time things have changed quite a bit. It’s more polished, less kid-friendly, but essentially how it was. We ended up staying at the Aria, an extremely contemporary casino that was opened in 2009. It actually fits me and Kyle quite well, eschewing the kitch of most Las Vegas hotels.

Situated next to the Aria though is essentially a super fancy mall called Crystals at City Center. There are shops from all the major fashion brands like Louis Vuitton, Tom Ford, Gucci, Saint Laurent, etc. It’s Rodeo Drive contained in a beautiful, Daniel Libeskind designed building (which also happens to be LEED+ certified). Walking around the shops I started to take notice of just how on-point everything was, how all the details were done right. This isn’t necessarily a surprise by any means, but when you look at these shops from purely a design perspective it’s actualyl quite fascinating.

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Text by

Bobby Solomon

April 12, 2013 - See more posts by Bobby

Fashion meets illustration as Rebecca Torres collaborates with Saskia Pomeroy

Torres : Pomeroy

Last year the fashion designer Rebecca Torres collaborated with illustrator Saskia Pomeroy to create a bold and brash collection for women. Her vision was to create a line which drew inspiration from her signature style whilst also captured the raw essence of native, ancient and decorative arts. Fortunately Saskia was the perfect partner to see that vision come to life.

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Text by

Philip Kennedy

April 12, 2013 - See more posts by Philip

Alessi Collaborates with Big Game on CARGO Products

The Milan Furniture Fair, or Salone Internazionale del Mobile, is happening this week, and it will feature a new collaboration between renowned Italian design company Alessi and Swedish design studio Big Game. Alberto Alessi specifically asked the studio to create “anonymous Swiss objects” and , as a reference, cited a classic 1930′s Swiss toolbox. Big Game took the suggestion quite literally and created a series of CARGO objects, pairing their streamlined aesthetics with colorful utilitarian simplicity.

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Text by

Andi Teran

April 11, 2013 - See more posts by Andi

This Type Is Just The Ticket: Mono45 Headline by Europa Type

Mono45 Headline by Europa Type

Swiss studio Europa Type has caught my eye with a typeface that’s both tall and tough. Mono45 Headline was actually inspired by tickets used for people waiting to be inoculated.

Mono45 Headline is an uppercase font which has got its origins in tickets issued by the university hospital in Zurich for queuing up to get inoculated. The idea for this font bases on these stamped tickets numbers, which are distinctive monospaced figures. The font is thought to be a headline typeface and it reminds with its strong character and rustic charm of old condensed poster typefaces and such used in factories or for industrial purposes.

What I think is great is the strength and the quirks of the letterforms. It definitely has a strong industrial feel, you could easily see this on the side of an old conveyer belt in a sawmill. But I really appreciate it for it’s unique characteristics that you see in the J, K, 4, and the 7. What’s also kinda cool is that the typeface is also available as a Webfont and in Typekit, in case you want to use it on your next web design project.

Text by

Bobby Solomon

April 9, 2013 - See more posts by Bobby

Louis C.K. interview by Dave Itzkoff

Louis C.K. painting by Cara & Louie

I’ve been seeing a lot of folks suggesting I read this interview with Louis C.K. by Dave Itzkoff from the New York Times so I figured it must be pretty good. I’m not a huge Louis C.K. fan, nothing against him, but I’ve always admired for calling out that everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy. Overall it’s a good read though it may not shed a lot of new lot on C.K. for those who are fans. But I did find a lot of wisdom in this part of the interview, which is true of any profession, including design.

Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special and your tour can’t be replicated by other performers who don’t have the visibility or fan base that you do?

Why do you think those people don’t have the same resources that I have, the same visibility or relationship? What’s different between me and them?

You have the platform. You have the level of recognition.

So why do I have the platform and the recognition?

At this point you’ve put in the time.

There you go. There’s no way around that. There’s people that say: “It’s not fair. You have all that stuff.” I wasn’t born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life. If you’re new at this — and by “new at it,” I mean 15 years in, or even 20 — you’re just starting to get traction. Young musicians believe they should be able to throw a band together and be famous, and anything that’s in their way is unfair and evil. What are you, in your 20s, you picked up a guitar? Give it a minute.

Text by

Bobby Solomon

April 8, 2013 - See more posts by Bobby