Inverted

Last week saw the exclusive launch of ‘i-am’ and Beyond the Valley’s INVERTED environments, a collection of flipped retail spaces spread throughout multiple venues across the Carnaby area for London Design Festival and London Fashion Week 2008.

The main spaces are two distinct INVERTED retail experiences, environments of polar opposites. Using the visual concepts of reversal and reflection, the environments will be presented in a way you will not be expecting. The spaces will showcase brand new fashion and design products in back-to-front and front-to-back versions, most of which will be created exclusively for the Festival. Guest collaborators include Hannah Holland (Trailer Trash/BBB), Tim Watkins (Illustrator for Kate Moss) and a selection of emerging designers.

LOCATIONS
2 Ganton Street, 2 Newburgh Street and 9 Newburgh Street, London W1

DATES
12th – 27th September 2008, 11.30 – 19.00 daily
The spaces will play host to numerous events and workshops throughout the duration of London Design Festival. Check the INVERTED site for details and photos from the launch party (above).

Serpentine Pavilion

After much anticipation, this summer’s new temporary pavilion by acclaimed architect Frank Gehry is now open at the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Kensington Gardens. The Serpentine’s Pavilion series has been running for 9 years, with a different architect rising to the challenge of designing an innovative temporary structure each summer. In recent years, we’ve seen pavilions from Olafur Eliasson and Oscar Niemeyer, and 2008 sees Los Angeles-based Gehry take the helm.

Gehry’s four huge wooden columns support a structure of glass, fir timber and steel. This acts as a framework for a promenade-like space which is set to house live talks, music and performance over the coming months. ‘i-am’ love the way the apparently haphazard network of glass appears to tilt and slide.

Gehry says, “The Pavilion is designed as a wooden timber structure that acts as an urban street running from the park to the existing Gallery. Inside the Pavilion, glass canopies are hung from the wooden structure to protect the interior from wind and rain and provide for shade during sunny days.”
The Serpentine Pavilion runs from 20th July – 19th October. Visit www.serpentinegallery.org for details on upcoming Park Nights.

Domus

‘i-am’ are pleased to be working with Domus, one of the UK’s leading tile brands, to prepare a series of brand enhancement ideas designed to move the existing brand forward and ahead of the competition. Five years ago ‘i-am’ created a new Domus identity and vibrant brand personality that translated to all areas of their business, including branded binders, sample cards and signage. ‘i-am’ also created the ‘Surface’ sub-brand targeting the booming home market. Now, to help maintain Domus’s edge on the competition, ‘i-am’ are in the process of refreshing and extending the look and feel of the brand to keep them ahead – adding new design elements and devices. The team also looked at the ‘Brand Architecture’: the actual structure of the branding and how the company uses their mark. Visit: www.domustiles.com
Above left: The Battersea showroom for Domus sub-brand ‘Surface’. Designed by ‘i-am’ associates, it features a 26-metre long spiralling entrance.
For more info on this project, contact ‘i-am’ here: info@i-amonline.com

Chanel’s Art Container

‘I want to be part of what’s happening’ Coco Chanel once said, so no doubt she would be proud of this revolutionary travelling art project comissioned by Karl Lagerfeld for the Chanel brand. The jaw-droppingly sexy Zaha Hadid-designed structure features twenty exhibits from prolific international artists, who were given a brief to create works based around Chanel’s back catalogue of iconic handbags. This combination of an international premium brand, a visionary architect and a team of celebrated artists has created one of the most magical luxury brand experiences for years, with a trip to the pavilion likened by one visitor to being trapped inside a lavish Chanel commercial! Now that’s got to be worth a try. Here at ‘i-am’ we’re very much looking forward to the art container’s touchdown in the Big Smoke later this year…

Mobile Art will travel from Hong Kong to Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London, Moscow and Paris over the course of two years. Keep up to date here: www.chanel-mobileart.com

D.L. & Company

‘Modern Alchemists and Purveyors of Curious Goods’, Los Angeles-based D.L. & Co. “was born of the desire to bring objects of opulence and beauty to those who yearn for the uncommon and exquisite.” Well that’s what the eerily tranquil website states anyway. D.L. & Co offers a unique and consistent brand experience at every stage of the shopping journey. From the funereal website to the luxury packaging, there are surprising details at every turn.

Visit: www.dlcompany.com to shop for luxury bespoke perfumes, intricately packaged scented candles and some particularly macabre chocolates (above). Premium gift-shopping has never been so gothic.

Sake No Hana

From Alan Yau, the influential restaurateur behind Wagamama and Hakkasan, comes a new Japanese fine-dining experience Sake No Hana (’sake flower’). The interior of this Modernist building in St. James has been well and truly transformed with gloss black escalators, Shinto arches and bamboo forests by award-winning Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Alan Yau is said to be the man who ‘made dim-sum fashionable’ and his restaurant brands are responsible for setting a standard for Oriental restaurants, with each offering a consistent and high-quality brand experience. Reservations: 020 7925 8988

GoldBar

Here at ‘i-am’ we’re big fans of consumer experiences and environments with a real ‘WOW’ factor, and GoldBar in New York certainly delivers on this level. Even in a city packed with glitzy cocktail lounges, opulent new downtown hotspot Goldbar stands out from the crowd. As its name suggests it’s practically forged from gold, with gold skulls embedded in the walls, gold chains separating the rooms, gold ceilings… oh, and $18 cocktails. The gilt-framed oil paintings are portraits of GoldBar investors, contractors, and the photographer’s accountant. It’s this attention to detail and the constant surprising touches around every corner that really impress, and make a visit worth paying that little bit more for – something a great brand experience should always achieve. Visit: www.goldbarnewyork.com

La Purificadora Hotel

At ‘i-am’ we’re always on the lookout for surprising, eye-popping environments and interiors, and the latest destination from Mexico’s HABITA Group, La Purificadora definitely deserves a mention. Having emerged from a converted water purification factory in Mexico’s fourth-largest city, Puebla, the hotel’s design, from Mexican architects Legorreta & Legorreta, features an open-air lobby area with a dramatic sweeping staircase.

Meanwhile, the interiors of the 26 rooms, identified by letters of the alphabet, blend glass, dark stone and wood, with splashes of kitsch purple for a playful feel. The rooftop terrace bar has become the latest hotspot in Puebla and buzzes til the early hours. Visit: www.lapurificadora.com

Skin + Bones

Visit Somerset House this Summer for the Skin+Bones exhibit, and witness how the two disciplines of Architecture and Fashion Design have become closer than ever before. The ‘i-am’ team paid a visit last month and – aswell as gawping at some extraordinary frocks – discovered how Fashion and Architecture have been sharing materials, design methods and fabrication, to inspire radical developments since the 80s.

Discover how over 50 internationally-renowned architects and designers including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons, Future Systems and Zaha Hadid ‘fashion’ buildings and ‘construct’ garments. Visit: www.somersethouse.org.uk