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bodega x acc make a room

Our creative director, Liz, was asked to design a room for the American Craft Council's spring show. The theme is based around the four directions, North, South, East and West. She chose South and is using her trip to Miami Beach last year as an inspiration. 

Each designer was asked to curate 3 artisans from the Craft Council network to include in their space. Here are her selections as well as some inspiration from her trip. Marvin Freitas is building a custom floor and built-in wall cabinet while wall coverings are being provided by Area Environments. 

 

Lynda Ladwig

Lynda Ladwig

Keith Holt

Keith Holt

James Pearce

James Pearce

For a preview check out Minneapolis St. Paul magazine's story

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inspiration: what is colour?

 

Maison Martin Margiela Interview Script (1998)

What is colour?
An intensity, a temperature, a clash, a harmony.

AND

How do you use it?
When it asks.

What is black?
An absence, a presence, a mood, a mantle.

What is red?
A blush, a flush, a fever, a command.

What is skin?
A protection.

What is fabric?
A Medium.

What is texture?
A result of time.

What is construction?
A means to an end.

What is function?
A reply to a need.

What is art?
A Need to reply.

What is craftsmanship?
A fruit of time.

What is clothing?
The final layer.

What is fashion?
A series of propositions.

What is recycling?
Another chance.

How does recycling fit into your work?
By Nature.

How does a concept develop at Maison Martin Margiela?
Time, a question, a reply.

How does a concept develop at Hermes?
Time, another question, another reply.

What would you like to develop? Besides Clothing?
An understanding.

What words do you live by?
We.

(Ends)

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2 Comments

2016

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.
and there never was.

-Charles Bukowski

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bodega x klaudstag

We met with Michael and Jennifer of Klaudstag and immediately knew this was going to be an amazing journey of a project. Having recently moved to Minneapolis from LA to start their e-liquid brand, we immediately fell down the conversation rabbit hole of lifestyle branding. 

Their vision for Klaudstag was to create something more than "just" a e-liquid but rather start a revolution. With brand phrases like "Know Thyself" and "Born Kings" already embedded into the story, we couldn't pass up the chance to bring this into reality. Looking to cultural icons of the past like Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski, we set out on the exploration that inevitably taught us a few things about ourselves (as well as the intricacies of package design). 

Starting with branding. We then forged into label and package design, a 2.5 day brand photo shoot in the Badlands of South Dakota, a lookbook design, and collateral from letterhead to tshirt to 5 panel hats. 

It has been such an amazing process and project: to take something that exists only in the imagination of one person, birth it into the world, let it begin to tell you what it is and shepherd it into a beautiful space. 

Here are a few inspirations and behind-the-scenes photos from our epic trip to SD.

See the final lookbook, packaging and photoshoot.

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