vavabene

Dear this apartment,

STOP advertising. No one wants to live there, no matter how many different subject titles you put on craigslist.

Yeeesh

On August 15 The New York Times reported and this Wednesday the The BBC wrote that the German fashion company Hugo Boss A.G. (now owned by an Italian company) has apologized for “its maltreatment of forced workers during World War II when it supplied the Nazis with uniforms.” The apology was designed to coincide with the publication of a new history of the company during the Hitler years, Hugo Boss, 1924-1945, which the company commissioned itself. The book states that the founder, Hugo F. Boss, “was a loyal Nazi.”

The Boss connection to the Nazis has already been well documented. I included a brief reference in Iron Fists: Branding the 20^th Century Totalitarian State. This new admission shows the current firm wants to turn the page on this sordid history.

“It is clear that Hugo F Boss did not only join the party because it led to contracts for uniform production, but also because he was a follower of National Socialism,” wrote the author, Roman Koester, an economic historian at the Bundeswehr (German army) University in Munich.

According the the BBC, the book recounts one of Boss’ “first big contracts was to supply brown shirts to the early Nazi party. After the war Boss, who died in 1948, sought to argue that he had joined the party in order to save his company.”

By 1938, the firm was producing army uniforms, and manufactured for the Waffen SS too - “though it did not, apparently, design the SS uniform,” which has been claimed. From April 1940, Hugo Boss was using forced laborers, mostly women. A camp was built in the area of the factory to house the workers and “hygiene levels and food supplies were extremely uncertain at times”.

By way of apology, the company wished to “express its profound regret to those who suffered harm or hardship at the factory run by Hugo Ferdinand Boss under National Socialist rule,” says its website.

(Illustration above from Organizational Handbook of the NSDAP, 1936.)

-The Daily Heller

Spent the past 20 minutes of my sick day home from work looking for a desktop wallpaper that is worthy of my new pride and joy- 27 inch iMac!!

Found this great blog, The Fox Is Black- such a great resource. full of illustration, design, thoughts…and desktop wallpaper! I recently decided I was sick of my own pictures and memories as my backgrounds because I need something that I’m not in and didn’t create to inspire me to be better and different.

Anyway, had I hard time choosing between these two, but I eventually went with the black one, since I have issues cluttering up my desktop with random crap, and it would have been even harder to organize it all when using the gray one.

by Alex Westgate

by Roxanne Daner

well…as i am currently sad and sick at home on a saturday night…i might as well post some photos. i’m really bummed right now. my brain wants to go out!

this was super awesome. went to culver city today with brandon to buy MY BRAND NEW 27 INCH IMAC!!! but ya… i think an art student i knew did something like this. was the idea stolen? i dunno. so amazing. i feel like since culver city has had the opportunity to re-invent itself, designers decided to do it right.

reading the paper with Mr. Culver

the “chandeliers” at Kitchen 24. A pretty noisy experience last night at 3am. I took some photos of the ceiling and walls at the parlour room but they didn’t come out very well. they were gorgeous though.

love love love this kitty. one of the sweethearts at the shelter i volunteer at. Casey, 2 years.

went to Cafe 50’s last weekend. loved the decor. loved the selection of every milkshake you could ever want ever.

new baby!!

I was reading on the rebranding blog Brand New about the rebranding of Cheer Laundry Detergent, and when I got to the comments section it struck me that, aside from comic sans and 1990’s AOL-internet color, designers will never agree on anything. In some ways that’s relieving, and in some ways that’s terrifying. I could design something really mundane and there might still be designers that like it. I could design something that I think is creative and awesome and people will rip it apart.

I know this is a rather obvious revelation. It just came to me when I started realizing that I didn’t really know what to think of the rebranding..and that, after reading everyone else’s opinions my mind still wasn’t changed one way or the other. I mean- the super-saturated colors are cool. But laundry detergent in a black bottle? Ew.

I found the most interesting article today when I decided to do a little research into Anthropologie and their design department. I’ve always been a fan and it’s a dream of mine to go work for them some day- not in the way of fashion design, but in everything else. I keep screen shots of all the amazingly designed email blasts they send everyday. Everything is JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!

Though the article came out in 2002, I don’t think that much has changed. What an interesting place to work.

Some highlights from the article…

Hayne enlisted architect Ron Pompei, who has led the creative direction of every Urban and Anthropologie space, to help envision an experience for the post-Urban generation. Hayne’s training as an anthropologist informed the process. The two spent nearly two years on a “cultural odyssey” — traveling, reading, visiting museums and exhibitions, attending cultural events, and scouring outdoor markets. What surfaced in the course of this amateur anthropological dig, says Pompei, “was a return to an earthier sensibility. We saw things that were tactile and visceral. Things that engaged the whole body. Texture was very important. Storytelling was central…

…Anthropologie’s approach to its stores flips many of the conventions of retail on their head. For instance: selling things. Glen Senk is quick to say, “Our customers are our friends, and what we do is never, ever, ever about selling to them.” Advertising and merchandising in most chains is about selling the Thing of the Moment (stretch denim!) to the largest number of people. Anthropologie doesn’t advertise, and the merchandising does not highlight product so much as set a mood and create context…

…Every customer discovery in an Anthropologie store starts with discoveries by buyers in the field. Keith Johnson, de facto chief product anthropologist, spends half of his time (down from nearly three-quarters a few years ago) traveling the globe to scour antique fairs, flea markets, obscure emporiums, tiny shops, museums, and factories for inspiration and artifacts. For eight years, his job has been literally to shop the world — and he has the passport (reinforced with 72 extra pages crowded with stamps and visas) to prove it…

…Beyond smart merchandising, the critical factor in keeping the mix fresh is maintaining fresh eyes. At Anthropologie headquarters in Philadelphia, everyone travels. Everyone visits markets, museums, and cultural events. In fact, “cultural events” (from movies to art exhibits to sporting events) are a critical item on the agenda of the Monday-morning meeting attended by all 60 staffers in the home office. “The Anthropologie gift,” says Ron Pompei, “is that they can look at the creative edge of a culture and see how it relates to a more mainstream experience. They’re always trying to find the common language, materials, textures, and patterns that reach people.”

If anyone shops at ralphs and would like to be on the receiving end of some good karma, please set Cat Connection as your Community Contribution Recipient. It doesn’t cost you anything, and Ralphs with donate 2-4% of your purchase to Cat Connection, which raises much needed funds for the rescue, care and adoption of homeless animals in the Los Angeles area!

I volunteer at this organization every week, and it’s where I adopted my little Webster!
 

1.)    Create an online Ralphs account or log into your existing account at: RALPHS

2.)    Click on “My account” in the upper right hand corner 

3.)    On the “Account Settings” tab click on “Community Rewards” at the bottom of the page and choose Cat Connection (Organization #82680.) Don’t forget to save your settings before you log out!