I fear I may be starting to sound like a broken record by now in telling you how much I adore heritage interiors. They are a huge love of mine – their decaying beauty captivates and inspires me, their peeling layers leave me intoxicated unlike most “new” spaces ever can. This 18th century apartment in medieval part of Barcelona belongs to Benedetta Tagliabue, a Milanese born Barcelona based architect who has done such a wonderful job in creating a very special home for herself and her family (her late architect husband and business partner, Enric Miralles, passed away in 2000).

I am in love with all the wonderful kinks and the perfectly thought out “imperfections” within this home… The way those amazing patterned floor tiles almost deliberately clash with room geometries as though they are saying “Bite Me” to all the modernist fans. Those incredible peeling walls that reveal the 18th century decorative murals which were simply left to be as they are – patchy and broken – without the need to make them perfect by restoring or covering them up.

This home is all about preserving the memories of the building, expressing the detailing and the artistry of the bygone era, creating a natural, comfortable, rich and authentic interior which appears to be a joy to occupy. Isn’t that ultimately what all designers every strive to create? Sometimes I feel like we can go about doing things the wrong way these days by being so damn preoccupied with “what’s hot”, “what goes” and rationalising the shit out of things and “making them align”.

What do you think?

[Images via Dwell. Photos by Gunnar Knechtel.]

“Smoking Kids” is a compelling and slightly disturbing personal project by Brussels based photographer Frieke Janssens. She was inspired to create this series after watching a YouTube video of a chainsmoking Indonesian toddler. This is what Frike has to say about her project.

Frike feels that the culture of smoking has a retro feel, hence her photos capture a time period of Mad Men, when smoking on a plane or in a restaurant was not uncommon. Her photographs also capture the fine line between the beauty and ugliness of smoking. And in case you are horrified about this whole thing, no real cigarettes were used on set, assuring the safety of the children. Instead, chalk and sticks of cheese were used as props, while candles and incense provided the wisps of smoke.

[Found via veryverybeautiful. Images © Frieke Janssens.]

Images via The Sartorialist. 

Did you ever have a moment where you saw something so awesome that you immediately proceeded to hyperventilate and had to quickly look for a paper-bag to breathe into and calm yourself down? No…? Yeah, me neither. I’m waaaay too cool for that… *Fidgets nervously* Oh ok, except maybe when I saw this.

At the recent Dries van Noten menswear fashion show at the Grand Palais in Paris, five painters were busily working on a 30m long mural while a bunch of well-dressed models strutted their stuff on the catwalk. The painters ignored the models walking behind them and continued working on their canvas wall, carefully recreating the work of typographer Job Wouters (aka Letman) and Dutch artist Gijs Frieling.

Images via Fashionista.

Letman and Gijs Frieling collaborated on this project interpreting Van Noten’s “psychedelic elegance” collection concept with a mix of eye-catching typography, surreal illustrations and acid-bright colourful patterns. They also designed some of the textiles for the collection shown above.

Well, I don’t know about you but I am feeling an attack of extreme love here.

Check out the below video showing the live painting of the giant mural during the catwalk show. Super duper cool man…

Images via The Sartorialist and Fashionista as indicated.

The Light Garden by Alex Fitzpatrick.

P1 Chair by Christel Hadiwibawa.

Thread Light by Coco Reynolds.

Sculpture by Dion Horstmans. (Check out my interview with Dion right here.)

Bedrock Light by Henry Wilson who was last year’s Bombay Sapphire Design Discovery Award recipient. 

Woolball Light by Ilanel.

C10 chair by Jennifer Edmunds.

Belt chair by Alex Zander Lee.

He Made She Made is a brand new concept art and design gallery that is opening it’s doors for the first time tonight! They will be showcasing some of Australia’s best young and emerging design talent, with their first showcase including Henry Wilson, Alex Fitzpatrick, Christel Hadiwibawa, Jennifer Edmunds and Ben Edwards – just to name a few. The gallery is run by four designers, who secured the space through the City of Sydney’s Oxford Street revitalisation project. Their aim is to showcase and promote the work of Australian creatives who are otherwise under-represented. Hurrah!

These guys are a self funded gallery and they would love to have your support by attending their opening night tonight and getting to know some local designers and artists. Who knows, you might even find that perfect piece for your next project…

New Gallery Launch – He Made She Made
Tuesday January 31 (tonight!) 6pm – 9pm
70 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, NSW

[Images courtesy of He Made She Made.]

Named after its façades filled with greenery, ‘Stacking Green’ was designed by Vo Trong Nghia for a for a thirty-year-old couple and their mother. The house is located in Saigon, a chaotic city in Vietnam with one of the highest population densities in the world, on a block of land which measures only 4m in width and 20m in length. The front and back façades are constructed of layers of concrete planters cantilevered from two side walls. Architects’ inspiration came from the idea that Saigon streets are filled with “flower-pots crampped and displayed here and there all around the streets. This interesting custom has formed the amused character of Saigon over a long period of time and Saigonese love their life with a large variety of tropical plants and flowers in their balconies, courtyards and streets.”

Très interesting and beautiful, no?

Images © Hiroyuki Oki. Found via ArchDaily.

Above images courtesy of GoMA and photographer Mark Sherwood.

Above image by HeyBubbles.

Above images by Stuart Addelsee.

Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary Japanese artist who puts dots all over her world. Her obsessive compulsive nuttiness is close to my heart and Kusama’s is definitely one of my all time favourite artists. Since December 2011, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) has been showing her work in a ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever‘ exhibition. Part of this event is a seriously cooltown interactive installation for children called The Obliteration Room - a series of rooms were painted completely in white where every room surface, piece of furniture and decoration was treated as a giant white canvas. Over the course of two weeks, kids were given thousands of colour dot stickers and were encouraged to make their creative contribution towards transforming the white space into one exploding with vibrant colours.

Seriously amaze, no? Yes, I thought so too. Can you just imagine how friggin’ exciting this must have been for the little ones? I can literally hear all the crazy screams and squeals just thinking about it.

‘The Obliteration Room’ and ‘Yayoi Kusama: Look Now, See Forever‘ are both on display at GOMA until 11 March 2012. You can read more about Yayoi Kusama and the exhibition at GoMA’s dedicated website.

[Images courtesy of GoMA and photographer Mark Sherwood. Bottom  images as indicated by Stuart Addelsee and HeyBubbles. Discovered via Architizer.]

It is very un-Australian of me to be posting (and working) on Australia Day, but I feel as though I have no choice. Luckily today is Design Free Thursday so this should be relatively quick and painless.

To Resolve Project by Chris Streger features downloadable wallpapers which are perfect for keeping us reminded of our New Years resolutions! Download one of their templates if you would like to create your own design. Brilliant!

Ok, now I’m off to have a Vegemite sandwich and a Lamington. Or something…

[Images via To Resolve Project. Found via swissmiss.]

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (which is most un-yellowtrace reader like, btw!) no doubt you would have noticed that THE food trend of the moment on the Sydney dining scene is all about South American cuisine. Brazillian, Argentinian and modern Mexican restaurants and takeaways have been sprouting up like…. umm sprouts(?) all over our fair city for a little while now. Many of these places, particularly the Mexican variety, have taken on the stereotypical “Mexican aesthetic”, unlike the interior I wanted to share with you today.

Barrio Chino in Potts Point was designed by Mandy Edge (see Mandy’s previous project featured on yellowtrace here), completed in a quick time frame and on a modest budget but with a lot of passion and heart. Mandy chose to steer clear of the more obvious visual references, and crafted an interior which references the raw, robust and gritty Mexican aesthetic subtly and effectively. Nice work lady! Another proof that budget should NEVER stand in the way of a successful interior. Below is a little Q&A with Mandy and her experience on this project.

+ What was your design inspiration for this project – i.e. was it a result of client’s brief, a particular concept, an image, your favourite song or a book etc?

A concept image I found ended up design inspiration for the whole project (see image below). We wanted to steer clear of anything too gimmicky, especially because the Mexican food trend was just starting to hit Sydney so I wanted to separate ourselves from that in regards to aesthetics. I decided to visually express the Mexican cuisine more inadvertently through use of the vibrant colours on the walls and in the furniture.

Mandy’s reference image which drove the aesthetic of the whole project.

+ Your favourite thing about this project?

Probably the level of creativity involved.

+ Most challenging aspect?

Budget and time restraints!

+ What did you learn during the project?

That I love eating Mexican food!

+ Would you have done anything differently?

Yes but I’m not going to tell you what they were :)

Mandy’s concept presentation boards for Barrio Chino.

Images courtesy of Mandy Edge. Photography by Steve Back.

Billie Achilleos is a young British artist who was recently commissioned by the French luxury fashion house, Louis Vuitton, for their 100th anniversary celebration of small leather goods. Keeping alive the skills of a forgotten craft, Billie created a miniature zoo of fantasy animals made exclusively from LV’s wallets, purses, belts, and accessories titled Maroquinaris Zoologicae.

Just imagine how nerve-wracking (but incredibly fun) it would have been to cut up thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of luxury leather goods! Billie has done an incredible job re-imagining and transforming LV gear into super-cool shapes representing mammals, reptiles, birds, crustacean and insects.

This collection first debuted at the famous Parisian taxidermy store Deyrolle back in October and is currently on world tour. All you Sydney folk can see it in person in Louis Vuitton’s windows at their glorious new store located on the corner of King and George St. Below is a sweet little video showing the making of some of these animals.

[Images via LV's Facebook.]

Yelling out “WOOHOO” at the top of my lungs feels like the only appropriate way to greet you in this first post for the year and to welcome you to our brand new site!! Man oh man, what an EPIC adventure this has been. Little did I know how much work was going to be involved in redoing the site and migrating all the content – I have a new found respect for web dudes and their craft. This new site simply wouldn’t be possible without the help and dedication of the two leading men in my life – my super awesome kick-ass code busting kung-fu web developer brother, and one and only supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Husband with mad Ninja-skills (who recently took his very own Leap of Faith to join me on this yellowtrace adventure full time – oooohhh the excitement!!)

Over the last few weeks, our days were filled with many sleepless nights and countless tekkie adventures – some happy, triumphant and hi-fivey, others definitely not so much… But this steep learning curve has made us even better at what we do so that we can continuing to build on what we’ve learned and work on ongoing improvements of our site. Bring it!

So, what exactly did we do? You know… Stuff. Together we reformatted and retagged close to 550 posts, migrated thousands of your comments, nearly 1GB of data with over 15,000 files to a bullet-proof dedicated server and improved the overall performance of the site. And then there’s the super responsive template ready to provide you with a superior yellowtrace experience in any browser and/ or mobile device, faster loading with bigger and juicier images, etc, etc. I totally sound like a nerdy web person here, don’t I? Well that’s beacuse I am dammit! So please do let us know what you think of the new look and also if you discover any dodgy little quirks we haven’t picked up on so that we can address them, ok? Great.

But enough about all that, let’s talk about these beautiful images for a moment.

I thought it would be highly appropriate to kick off this New Beginning with art photographs by Eric Cahan titled Sky Series. Using four different cameras ranging from film to digital, Eric explores and captures the magical light during a sunrise or a sunset over California, Florida, and New York. I am so deeply captivated by these sublime and cinematic images and their vibrant and subtle graduated colours. They are so lovely and peaceful, don’t you think? But what I am intrigued about is their ability to capture a surreal limitless space which makes me think of undiscovered places, new adventures and endless possibilities… It is precisely how I feel at the start of each new year, and especially the one which promises to bring about as many exciting adventures as 2012. Let’s make it our best year yet! All together now - It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me… And I’m feeling good!

On that note, thank you for continuing to fly with me.

Always,

Lil miss mama yellowtrace x

[Found via This Is Awesome. Images © Eric Cahan.]