the mehallo blog. beta.

Out of Weimar, the first home to the bauhaus, is marcel & wassily: the bauhaus label.

The original bauhaus’ manifesto advocated the union of fine, applied and performing arts. This included architecture, civil engineering, design and media. Today, the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar has incorporated the next logical step, the dimension of sound.

Music, radio plays, sound art, experimental radio, electroacoustic constructs. First step: this past summer, a collection of music was distributed at the school on a concrete-cast USB stick via gumball machines. Very bauhaus in its thinking.

The label doesn’t stop with student work. And like the original school, is working with outside resources, bands and artists.

Check out the label’s cool site. Click around, see what pops up.

And here’s some of the USB hosted bands (with links to their MySpace spaces):

New Telepathics

The Awesome Soundsystem

Joe B. Hard & The What?

More artists listed here

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, music // Comments Off on The bauhaus label: bringing sound design into the fold

‘I imagine people go into for making sex’ -posted comment by dario

Once designs are actually built, humans tend to come up with new uses.

Sleepbox by Arch Group. Sleep on the run. Details (and comments) here.

A few years back, my wife – a business traveler – came up with an idea almost exactly like this for a design class she was taking. It involved a lot of plug ins for laptops, connectivity.

I like how these shots have careful incorporation of shrubbery.

Tags: design // 1 comment  . . .   

A 3D typographic re-rendering of Walter Gropius’ Bauhaus building in Dessau. By UK-based artist Chris Labrooy.

Set in ITC Bauhaus – a post-modern interpretation that’s everywhere these days – originally designed by Ed Benguiat and Victor Caruso in 1975.

Rendering details here.
Plus, here’s a recent photoset of the actual restored building. Building history here.

And
Here’s another one of my favorite type buildings.

Invitation to the opening of the Bauhaus building; design by Herbert Bayer, 1926

Tags: cool finds, design, design history // Comments Off on Bauhaus Dessau in type

Women in red. Photo by Fischer, 2004

One evening this past June, I went a bit crazy and tweeted a bunch of Bauhaus links. In honor of the design school’s 90th anniversary (founded 1919). History, photosets, auctions, bicycles, fonts, coffee, the Mexican bauhaus, anything interesting I could find online.

Jamie DeVriend collected and conveniently reposted these on her blog.

Happy exploring!

Herbert Bayer circles, 1923. Photo by Ralf Herrmann

Bauhaus greyscales faces tee

Josef Albers, Schablonenschrift. Photo by Ralf Herrmann

Bauhaus Dessau. Photo by Ralf Herrmann

Tags: cool finds, design history // 2 comments  . . .   

”It’s a Haushold word, the Bauhaus, but a misunderstood one. Its influence is all around us, from Ikea furniture to glass skyscrapers, but it is credited – and blamed – for much more than it should be.’ -Candace Jackson, Wall Street Journal

The bauhaus was about advanced thinking in design, and it has its successes and failures. It was a great experiment and it changed the world. Its influence can be seen in everything today.

Workshops for Modernity: Bauhaus 1919-1933 just opened in NYC. And the exhibition is about going beyond the basics, show how far reaching the school actually was.

WSJ article here. Exhibition info here. Catalog here. TIME magazine video here. Show runs thru January 25, 2010.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe armchair, 1927-30

Tags: art, cool finds, design, design history, education, exhibitions, typography // Comments Off on Bauhaus at the MoMA

This year is the 90th anniversary of the bauhaus (1919-33). And workshops – titled ‘get on site’ – were held this past summer in Dessau. Here’s a photo gallery.

And here’s info on  . . .  the bauhaus bed and breakfast. Really.

Tags: design, design history, education, events // Comments Off on Summer school at the bauhaus

Visual Acoustics, the new documentary profiling modernist photographer Julius Shulman (1910-2009) is now screening in select locations around the country.

More info at Grain Edit. Visit the Visual Acoustics site here.

Tags: cool finds, design history, events // Comments Off on Julius Shulman on film

Dyson Air Multiplier: rethinking table fans

James Dyson actually made a vacuum cleaner that syncs with my dogs. They’re really hairy and they need a no-clog vacuum. And that’s cool. He’s gone beyond this though, and here’s a great write up at the Lost Angeles blog.

Up next, probably the Dyson sphere. At the very least, I’ve always been impressed that he uses a variation of bauhaus boy Herbert Bayer’s universal typeface for his logo.

Tags: cool finds, design, typography // 2 comments  . . .   

90% less water, thanks to the wonders of scrubbing nylon! Details here.

Tags: cool finds // Comments Off on Laundry of the future

‘Futurism of the nineteen fifties: contemporary trends exaggerated’

Theo E. Korthals Altes takes a look at our fascination with depicting the future. Here.

‘Not (yet) built: a vision of the future’

Tags: cool finds, design history, thoughts // Comments Off on Visions of the future

Modernism was optimistic. A utopia for the future! More than just a style to be pillaged. And even if you weren’t able to see Modernism: Designing a New World 1914–1939 at the Victoria & Albert Museum back in 2006, Marian’s commentary on the show says much. Go here.

Tags: cool finds, design history, exhibitions, thoughts // Comments Off on Marian Bantjes: Optimistic modernism and soap