The folks at YOUNG design studio have created a lovely vision of what could (very well?) be the future of fashion education. The Vivienne Westwood Academy in a single logomark and typestyle (and type arrangement.) Join up and be rebellious with a nice blue and white combination and extremely thin bits of solid. You win this round, negative space.

EDIT: See comments for name of typeface, courtesy of Jocham.

For those who don’t know, you’d best be suggested to find somone who does know, and call them. But for now, act like you know. Vivienne Westwood and her partner (former partner?) Malcolm McLaren molded fashion as we know it today. Having an academy for fashion under her name wouldn’t be too far a stretch at all if ye ask me.

Take a look here at this pic from Westwood’s current line:

and notice how that (official) mark and type are reflected in the blue and white YOUNG made mark. Nice progression? I love both.

Vivienne Westwood Academy

Logomark and typestyle for a new fashion and art academy in England.

Contact
42 Edge Street, M4 1HN
+44 07891 480 271
hello@weareyoung.co.uk

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies wearable category.

This post is a collection of hundreds of Star Wars photos from the set, of the movies, and from the promotional shots of the 70′s and 80′s. Doesn’t matter how you feel about Star Wars, it’s affected the way you work. The world you live in today is the world you live in today because of Star Wars. You’d better believe that. Its basically like this: Luke Skywalker: New York, Princess Leia: Los Angeles, Han Solo and Darth Vader: Minneapolis.

These have been scrounged from all over the internets. If you are one of the photographers of these phantastic photos, shoot me an email or a comment here. If you’d like to take credit for bringing an image here to the internet, I give you a hearty thank you and internet hand shake. If you’ve got photos you’d like to add to the collection, feel free to also contact!

This post is composed of photos from the movies, (the original trilogy,) making-of photos, a few posters, products, and advertisements. MOSTLY it’s photos from cut scenes and promotional photos. Everything is super amazing and very wild.

Star Wars: one of, if not the greatest non-Jesus brands in history.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies outer space category.

Yes there are some times when its appropriate to draw sports figures, believe it or not! The golden, romantic age of sports heros is over – Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson do not play sports anymore. But here’s a couple of women who love sports men so much they draw them with felt pens & markers to this day! These illustrators are named Sandra & Annika and they go by the team name YAWN.

YAWN means YEAH! AWESOME! WOW! NICE! What a weird thing. Yawn is like a yawn, boring, crappy, tired, but then it means something amazing here.

It’s just totally clever, isn’t it?! It is!

An ongoing project. There are times when we tend to like certain stuff and then draw it almost obsessively. This is obviously a time when we liked sports guys. It all started when Annika wanted to get a football helmet…

Look around! Find a few sports figures! My favorite drawing is of the USA swimmers from the Beijing winter olympics MICHAEL PHELPS FOREVER.

This post is from the World Famous Design Junkies pizza party category.

Luxury fashion brand Louis Vuitton is more than just a clothing line. It is a social manifestation whose tendrils twist and turn into our mind-grapes. Louis Vuitton is an oddity whose effects on the world are uncontrollable mark-mutants: guns, tattoos, paintings, wild things! The LV brand is not just a bag, not just a brand, nay! It is a very real metaphor for the desire of the western world to become a class it is not, a class lost, classless.

On the other hand, the products made in the process are priceless. Behold the World Famous Design Junkies Louis Vuitton Obsession Collection.

The LV Bullet by 21-19 is part of a campaign kit for director Bita Hairdarian’s autobiographical documentary Finding Bibi; which explores her unique identity as an American born Iranian. This bullet is one of probably less than 5 prototypes made specifically for the photo shoot for the press release material for the film. P.s. can’t wait!

Designer Gas Masks by Diddo Velema (only the LV mask is shown, it is part of a set of three designer masks). This project is known especially for its high rate of misconception. AKA lots and lots of people believed these were “real.”

LV Electric Chair and Chainsaw, part of an exhibition of such objects by the name of “The Revolution Will Be Fabulous: A Weapons of Mass Designer Show.” This show was made entirely by artist Peter Gronquist – this exhibition was photographed by Jean Aw of Notcot fame for, what else, Notcot.

The Louis Vuitton skateboard case and skateboard. Seems pretty amazing, and hot, right? That’s because it’s real. It cost $8250 and was sold at the SOHO, New York location official LV store early 2009. The difference between most art pieces working with the LV and the real deal LV is the quality. A lot of the ideas on both the real and unreal side are good and terrible, but almost all the time, the quality is exclusively real.

LOUIS VUITTON graffiti in big orange letters on a real Louis Vuitton store. Like writing a name on a nametag that was already labeled, right? Real. 116 Greene St. (between Prince St & Spring St) New York, NY 10012 An actual official LV facade early September, 2009, photographed by Sang Bleu. The painting was part of preparations for a Stephen Sprouse Collection released early 2009. Stephen Sprouse “was a fashion designer and artist credited with pioneering the 1980s mix of “uptown sophistication in clothing with a downtown punk and pop sensibility.”

Then there’s this painting by graffiti artist SKAM for Louis Vuitton Toronto. This one’s photographed by Think Contra.

Then there’s this extremely unofficial painting on the other hand. Spanish fashion site Hazme el Chingado Favor stole the pics from a Facebook profile they aren’t giving up the name of. But the house is somewhere in Mexico. It’s the real deal, as in it exists, painted by the owners in a show of brand power.

Whoa shei if I didn’t know the location of both I’d think this car belonged to the custom-LV house owner. This is a car sitting in Echo Park, Los Angeles, photographed by Victoria Bernal, who at the time was basically just rollin on a stroll.

In a slightly more “LV Acceptable” manner, tricked out car shop Detroit Customs was contracted to do this 1962 Cadillac Louis Vuitton’ Custom Convertible. It sold for 5k less than the starting price at a recent auction, going for 35k instead. Find out more at ICollector.

“Recently constructed by Detroit Customs, this 1962 Cadillac convertible is unlike any other. The most outstanding feature is the liberal use of Louis Vuitton fabric design throughout the car; including the folding top, upholstery, soft boot and dash insert.”

One of Prince Marcus von Anhalt‘s 26 luxury cars und autos. He is rich on account of he was adopted by Zsa Zsa Gabor and her ninth husband Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, who is, incidentally, the owner of 20+ brothels and nightclubs in Germany. This car is driven to promote von Anhalt’s “Royal Race.” It’s a fact: you don’t have to be poor to want to make yourself look like a fool for want of an LV mark.

A simply super acrylic painting by photographer designer painter Danny Schissler. This guy usually does photography, primarily. He takes pics of all the lovely wonderful things in the world and suddenly he makes these guns in a painting. Fun!

This terrifying amalgamation is called “LV Child.” It’s a screenprint (one of several different versions, plus a couple sculptures, all pictured below) designed by graffiti artist Beejoir. He explains on his now-defunct blog that he was inspired by real beggars sitting in front of the LV store just down the street from where he lives.

This is what inspired the LV, its just up the road from where we live, I’d just got back from the UK and was walking home from the supermarket with bags of shopping, when I passed these two beggars, guilt stuck I gave them a few coins and carried on, that night I remembered seeing Mantas’s iNeed stencil in Shorditch, and being struck by the same feeling of utter guilt.

The next day the stencil was cut, and sprayed across the city.

This print was sold (out) at Souled Out Studios.

Oh the dirtiness of the culture! These are piggies. These little piggies (and one more, pictured below) are tattooed with the LV, the whole flower pattern, and a few embellishments by Belgian tattoo artist Wim Delvoye (if you click that link, find the tattoo shop sort of in the middle if you’d like to see more of his tattoo art.) These pigs were supposed to be shown at the 2009 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, but were not allowed because they were considered “outside the categories of display.” BONUS check that link for more info on a tattoo Delvoye sold right off a man’s back!

Another gun for those in the luxury death business. “LOUIS VUITTON AK-47 7.62x39mm” from the entirely lovely armory of the “ARM•ME” project.

Justin Melnicks “ARM•ME” Project “Justin Melnick is an avid photographer, digital artist, and has spent time oversees in the Middle East. All of these influences have come together in his latest project, titled ARM•ME Melnick imagines — quite vividly — what Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Pucci, and Chanel would add to standard ammunition. The exhibition starts September 2nd at Gallery 385 in New York City. The outcome is a compelling statement that questions how we — individually and as a nation — spend our money, contrasting the abundance of weaponry with the scarcity of high-end luxury goods and some pretty amazing imagery.”

Made by Justin Melnick. In the gallery you’ll find several weapons from this project, including the TIFFANY & CO. M-67 HAND GRENADE, the LOUIS VUITTON RPD 7.62x39mm, the YVES SAINT LAURENT .380ACP, and of course, the MARC by MARC JACOBS MORTAR (all these are sitting there below.)

From the wild piggy heart and hands of artist Meryl Smith, who specializes in paper mache animal creations. More pics below.

Materials: metal screen, paper mache, leather, gold paint, zipper I made “excessory baggage” for a group exhibition at The Honey Space, where 5 curators asked artists to create sculptures that fit the measurement requirements for international carry-on luggage. – Meryl Smith

Supreme is a skateboard / streetwear brand that’s got a history of big time hype. This particular “collaboration” is a parody of the LV pattern used on several “box” t-shirts and the stickers you see above.

Tasty! Artist photographer Massimo Gammucurta makes “Sweet Fashion – lick your way to success” set of candy pops, lollypops, luxurypops I’d call em. Gammucurta‘s got amazing eyeballs and a good clicking finger, too.

Artist Michael Levy takes a total left turn bringing the history of luxury brands into the light with this LV menorah. Concept for the sake of eye opening.

The worlds of haute couture and religion have a long history that too often gets ignored. The papal rings, sacramental wine chalices, torah yads, and a whole assortment of robes, sashes and head dressings have littered the landscape of western religion for as long as it has existed. This Louis Vuitton menorah brings that intersection to the forefront. Let’s not give a wink and a nod anymore, let’s put it all out in the open. We already have torah yads (the pointers used to touch the torah so as not to damage it) made of silver, why can’t they be Tiffany’s?

Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction had been rockin and rollin using a faux Louis Vuitton guitar strap up until June 18, 2008 when he received a cease-and-desist notification from the brand’s lawyer squad.

In probably the cutest and best-made counterfeit of them all, doggy-toy makers Huate Diggity Dog made this combo bag set for puppies… and was also thustly sued by LV. They were inside the law though, and are still producing!

Another LV Piggie! This one’s sprayed by OZI! Ozi is a Brazil-based street artist spraying a campaign called “Glamour for All”. – thanks Ozi!! I love this concept indeed!

This post is, of course, from the World Famous Design Junkies Bad Taste category.

In this post-manystuff* internet environment, it seems pertinent upon my person to make a list. A list of all the different ways that a modern graphic designer can hold a poster! When a poster is held correctly, it is done great justice! When a poster is held correctly, it is totally blogged all over the internets!

*manystuff will actually live forever. It is like an immortal superbeast.

Peek at this quote for a moment:

Why does everybody shoot work like this?

Arms outstretched, they nip the work gingerly between finger and thumb. Who are they? Is it the same person each time – some kind of professional poster holder-upper who, seizing their chance, has carved out an unlikely career in the graphic display business?

I can see the advantages of doing it this way. We’d far rather feature images of physical objects than Illustrator files any day – the latter being so anaemic and, obviously, one-dimensional. With these images you get a sense of scale and a feel for the quality of whatever print finishes have been used. And if you could see the face of the holder-upper, well, I guess it might detract from the work. -Patrick Burgoyne

How many roads must a typographer walk down? Let us count the ways.

A) Space for Ideas with the “Two Person Handle!”

B) Kevin Wade Shaw with the “Backwards Fingerpinch!” I should mention that this photo basically inspired the whole world to start holding their posters differently. No joke. For real. The real deal, Kevin Wade Shaw.

C) Nick Sanchez with the “Mutanagenic Poster Hold” — three at once!

D) Stephan Müller with the “Relaxed Low Hold!”

E) Craig Oldham with the “I Am Questioning This” grip!

F) Stuart from the now-defunct We Are Thoughtful has a grip on the rather-specific subject-matter-wise “OLE!” – it only works when you’ve got a poster like this, as you can imagine.

G) Craig Robinson from the loltastic Flip Flop Flyin does it “WHY” Style.

H) After that we need a little rest so Eric Wrenn takes a little snoozer on a poster – what’s that?! You mean that’s a hold too? Yes! It’s called the “Carry Me P!”

I) JK Keller turns this thang on its HEAD by taking 90 portfolio images of designers displaying their posters. All taken from links listed on the Manystuff blog and putting them on a poster where all the posters are CUT OUT! Holy CRAP you can see his face. This is called the “Holy ManyStuff!”

J) Alex Trochut takes it to the NEXT. LEVEL. by holding not the upper left and right corners, but the middle of the bottom and the top! My god! It’s called the “Up-n-Down!”

K) Bryan Dalton of Mistake the Beautiful uses a unique tree-like apparatus in this completely people-free technique entitled “Double Huge Clip Nightmare!”

L) Straight from the STREETS is this perfectly illegal in every country, city, state, and little town technique from Den Smirnov called the “Wheatpaster!”

M) Illustrator and screenprint poster printer and artist extraordinaire Jay Ryan with the majorly successful use of a friend to hold the poster – yes, always a good idea – in the “Middle Gripper” technique.

N) Oh wow holy goodness it’s Jay Ryan again. He is using what might appear to be a modified “Up Down” – but it is NOT! It is actually what’s called the “What Poster Am I Holding?!” And it is generally very successful indeed.

O) The team at JustGoneSix have teamwork on their side with the “Teamwork!” technique. It is important to note that teamwork means two or more people working together.

P) Ice-cream connoisseur Justin Leibow takes a page out of the Bryan Dalton book and uses no human at all! But unlike Dalton clips on a tree, there’s no clips involved at all. This technique is completely “HANDLESS.”

AND THAT’S ALL WE GOT SO FAR!

But that’s not the whole of it! If you’ve got the lodown on any more techniques like something Bruce Lee wouldn’t do like HIYA hold the poster! Then leave a comment! Holy crap! This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies celebration category.

As Emigre turns 25, FontFeed celebrates with a big huge post (you’ve gotta click that), and World Famous Design Junkies gets buckwild. I saw this fantastically red book cover that you see above* and said OH my goodness this is a good cover. The colors. The colors are so lovely I can scarcely believe it. This doesn’t happen just every 10 minutes, so I said to myself then that it was time, OMFG!

Time for the very first World Famous Design Junkies color retrospective!

*If anyone wants to pick this book up for me, that’d be just super.

This book, designed and edited by Emigre co-​founder and designer Rudy VanderLans, is a selection of reprints, using original digital files, tracing Emigre’s devel opment from its early bitmap design days in the late 1980s through to the exper i mental layouts that defined the so called “Legibility Wars” of the late 1990s, to the critical design writing of the early 2000s.

Emigre No.70 is a must have book for those who missed out on all the excitement the first time around and for those who have been long time Emigre fans alike. Any graphic design library would be incom plete without it.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies COLOR category – imagine that!

It is a powerful designer indeed who can not only set type, not only illustrate, but also pull the entire day-glo library out and put it in a blender and pour the contents into a Diary Queen Blizzard of a collection of works called ICONBLAST!

Your friends and mine, Minneapolis print duo Aesthetic Apparatus, conjure up a vast collection of test prints from all across their print library. As each color comes from each different print project, it is the skilled pulling of each bit of each unfinished test sheet that makes for a good final piece.

Some unnamed street artists (unless you’ve got some good graffiti interpretation skills) let loose the colorsplosion upon some unsuspecting cargo trains on Broadway and Johnson in North Minneapolis.

A color fantasy as seen through the eyes of OG graffiti superstar Futura 2000 – NOTE: the first comment on the post is from Lenny Futura himself!

Designer Dylan Mulvaney’s three-dimensional colortastic font for Manhattan Magazine is slick.

Another adventure into Minneapolis street art, this time up in Uptown. This is part of a gigantic collection of photos from Intermedia Arts – layer upon layer of lovely, lovely paint.

Photographer Jeff McLane places a color chart in the desert.

International photographer super-deluxe Erin Nicole Johnson captures Toronto’s own Honest Ed’s.

Next, we’ve got poster artist Tyler Stout with this fabulous Flight of the Conchords screenprint. Basically a billion colors, all of them precisely sliced.

During a camera battle for a colorful prize I can only imagine has something to do with the ruling of the entire universe, Akif Hakan Celebi manages to photograph a collection of naturally fantastic architectural colors on the streets of Turkey.

In a moment of genius that almost eclipses the rest of this set of underwater pictures, photographer James Cooper finds the distribution of pink spraypaint to be a new experience in the H2O.

This is mine. It is my favorite. It is a painting I acquired at the estate sale of the late James Burnley. The nunery and churchery is unsurpassed.

Aesop and the Brothers Grimm stories told with a neonic fantasmagorioum of color from who knows what dimension, as illustrated by Yiorgos Yiacos of 12×2 Design Group.

Producer / Artist / Rapper Pharrell Williams collaborates with International Superartist Takashi Murakami to create this Art Basel super-piece entitled “Simple Things” — 26,000 individual fine gems direct from the rainbow later and you’ve got Jacob the Jewelers most colorful (and expensive) project yet!

And of course, a “gigantic” post on World Famous Design Junkies wouldn’t be a complete post without the flea market – this one’s in Deutschland!

Click on through to those other sides or enjoy the gallery below!

Hi you like collections of cute, crazy, and otherwise cuckoo automobiles, right? Well here’s one that should strike your fancy right up! This is Japanese mini-vans. Not to be confused with the ugly white-van epidemic that’s been plaguing the UK for some time now, no! These little thangs are just super cute.

What sparked my interest in this sort of collection was designer Shane Lat’s portfolio/project http://thingsthatwelearn.com/ -in it, he’s got the start of a Japanese Minivan collection with encouragement to search for more!

Japanese Mini Vans
a small tribute to perfection

A tribute to the little vans and trucks most commonly found in Japan. Suited to their small, tight streets and spaces, these automobiles have a rich history and continue on in service today.

These class of cars are known by a variety of different names. If you’re interested in searching for yourself, try using these as a starting point.

Keywords: Kei Vans, Japanese Pick Ups, Micro Bus, Keitoras, Kei Car, K-Vans, Keitora, Keicars, Light Cars, Micro Cars, Kei Trucks.
Models: Cony Giant 360 AF3, Cony 360 Wide, Mazda Porter, Suzuki 4×4 Mini Truck, Suzuki Carry, Subaru Microbus, Daihatsu HiJet, Daihatsu HiJet Cargo, Mitsu, Honda Acty, Nissan Clipper, Suzuki Every, Piaggio Porter, Daewoo Damas

Further viewing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Kei_cars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microvan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_truck

http://www.flickr.com/groups/891126@N21/
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjs/cabover.html
http://www.pdxmini.com/history.htm

So we continue! Many thanks to Marky Mark, Chocogato, Up the Sock, Iwate Buddy, Jon Christall, Katie and Joe, Janta, perSona, Clyde 8, Lawrence Peregrine, NOCT-Nate, Kriss Face Bakery, sRAW John, dai oni, and last and mostly Shane Lat.

A World Famous Design Junkies automotive post.

Disenfranchised youth! That’s what we’ve got here. Design concious fantastique photographer Pietro Cocco concocts this project entitled “MY GENERATION IS (IN)DIFFERENT” – a set of photos with dates ranging from 2000 to 2010. Each photo is meticulously set up and designed, each one features dated and timeless elements relating to rebellion, careful activity, and the lack thereof. Each picture is bright, precious, and soullessly full of heart. It’s difficult to describe my generation (the same generation, basically, that Cocco covers here, and he’s done it so well.

MY GENERATION IS (IN)DIFFERENT
Il progetto ha origine da una riflessione sulla mia generazione, la cosìddetta
Generazione Y, quella della tecnologia, dei reality show, di Internet, delle informazioni e delle risposte immediate. Proprio da questa facilità di acquisire informazioni prende il nome il progetto; la generazione diventa indifferente a quello che succede fuori dalla propria realtà quotidiana. Le notizie, anche le più cruente, passando attraverso i mezzi di comunicazione odierni vengono percepite in modo distante da chi le riceve. Si viene inconsciamente anestetizzati rispetto alle disgrazie peggiori come agli eventi più positivi, tanto da arrivare, simbolicamente, ad averle appese alle proprie pareti senza degnarle di attenzione.

Stampa su alluminio
40×40 cm

Now in Swiss!

MY GENERATION IS (IN) DIFFERENT
The project originated from a reflection on my generation, the so-called
Generation Y, that of technology, reality shows, the Internet, information and immediate answers. Precisely this ease of acquiring information is called the project, the generation is indifferent to what happens outside their everyday reality. The news, even the most bloody, passing through the communications media are perceived in today’s so far from those receiving it. It is unconsciously anesthetized than the worst disasters to events as more positive, much to get there, symbolically, to have hung on their walls without worthy of attention.

Print on aluminum
40×40 cm

You know you’ve got wild love when the post is in both the World Famous Design Junkies categories brightness and photography! Zip pow bang! Hit up the rest of Pietro C‘s portfolio for some other wicked photo combos.

It’s a project called “Close Up and Private.” It is a super-up-n-close exploration of modern style of what I’d call the “hipster generation.” You get the feeling from these photographs that these people own vinyl records and probably don’t play them very often. Clothing in these photos are from LOTS of different places, amongst them Comme des Garçons, Barneys Boutiques, Polo, Experimental Jetset – the shirt for 2K/Gingham (Beatles), Ray Ban, Vans, Adidas, D&G – Dolce&Gabbana hello! – + more I can’t recognize or type n such.

The above picture is my favorite. Looks like there’s a place for a little photo to be installed in that tie, doesn’t it? If not, there should be. Dibs!

Photography by Sergei Sviatchenko
Art direction and design by Nello Russo
See further seasons at http://closeupandprivate.com/

If you’ve got any more tips on the types or brands or clothing stores these threads come from, flick me a tip below! Or on twitter at @design_junkies – now with bonus food tips!

Ho! Behold photography in its glory day – today!

This lovely hand-painted gem sits soundly at Galactic Pizza in Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The colors! The clash! The Obey!

EDIT: Also check out this news about the Obama OBEY image being used for EVIL instead of good: Notre Dame Protest May 2009

This image is based, of course, on the famous Obama HOPE portrait illustrated by Shepard Fairey. Check out the mini tour of the rest of Galactic Pizza too. Then try the “Paul Bunyan” – all Minnesotan. Read all about it in that mini tour post. Go there nOOOOOOOOW!!!

An Unusual Update: Since this post was originally posted, lots of updates have happened. And Pharrell is a man of creativity and fine taste, so I tastied the post up a bit of a bit. It now contains Pharrell’s silliest interview with Paper magazine, a super-list of every song Pharrell has sung in, and super-amazing shiny colorful photo coverage of the Glow-in-the-Dark tour that NERD traveled on with Rihanna and Kayne West. No photos of them though, just Pharrell and club, N*E*R*D. Enjoy this unique re-up gang post.

First, the interview with Paper Mag, then a list of every song Pharrell has sung in, then photos of Glow in the Dark. All photos not a part of the interview are taken at the Target Center, downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, 7:37PM to 11:44PM on June 11th, 2008.

PaperMag/ There is no stylist waiting in the penthouse of The Raleigh Hotel in Miami. There is no rack of designer clothes, no table piled with jewels. Every article of clothing and glittering accessory for this shoot arrives with [N.E.R.D] frontman, super-producer, style arbiter and newly-minted jewelry designer, [Pharrell Williams.]

He strolls in just before noon wearing a black T-shirt and red baseball hat from his own line, [Billionaire Boys Club], a pair of high-tops that are by [A Bathing Ape], and a diamond-encrusted [Jacob & Co.]-designed keychain that’s hooked on the belt loop of the dark, slim-cut [Levi's] he picked up in Tokyo last week and from which the key to his Ferrari Enzo dangles. It’s a look of studied nonchalance that [Kanye West] might spend an hour calculating, but when Williams says it’s just something he threw together, somehow I believe him. And that’s the beauty of being [Pharrell Williams.] Since everything he owns is already imbued with his own stylistic stamp, he can roll out of bed, throw on a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and his most comfortable [kicks] and, like that, he’s ready for his close-up.

“Style is about who you are, where you’re going, what’s comfortable,” he says with a shrug, stepping out onto the wraparound balcony where the photographer waits. “It’s your attitude that makes it hot.” He presses the sole of one sneaker against the wall and peeks out at the camera from under the stiff brim of his hat, his [4.5 carat diamond studs] and 23 carat Asscher-cut ring, both designed by his close friend and gem mentor Lorraine Schwartz, glinting in the Miami sun. As the camera clicks, he admits that he has never used a personal stylist, which makes sense. He’s one of the world’s most watched stylemakers — a setter of trends, not a follower. Still he feels the need to clarify. “I don’t want to sound snotty or cocky,” he says for the first of several times. “Let’s just say I’m blessed to have my own company. [Whatever I want, I can have it made].”

alt=”Pharrell Williams Interview Photo” title=”Pharrell Williams Interview Photo”

Can and [does.] Everything in his possession seems to be a specially customized creative collaboration of some kind. The Goyard wallet stamped with his initials. The iced-out [BAPE G-Shock] watch (another [Jacob] co-creation) with the cartoon logo that was featured on the cover of his debut solo album, [In My Mind,] hidden on the underside. The white leather belt with the oversized N.E.R.D buckle. The bug-eyed shades from the Millionaire line he designed for Louis Vuitton. Even his boxers are BBC. But as conversation pieces go, The Bag has no rival.

“Don’t call it a murse,” he says, pulling out his second look from the gargantuan purple croc Hermès tote, which he has accessorized with another Jacob keychain, this one covered in yellow diamonds to match the bag’s gold hardware. “It’s not a man purse. It’s my travel bag.” A custom-made Haut a Courroies to be exact, the bag that inspired the smaller, obsessively collected style that was named after British actress Jane Birkin. Williams declines to say how much he paid for it because that would be “tacky,” but when pressed, admits that it costs as much as a high-end Mercedes. He has six of them in various colors. And another on order.

(Top) Bag by Hermès; (bottom) shoes by BAPE.

His style and taste level have evolved by leaps and bounds since he blew his first big paycheck — about $15,000 for writing the 1992 Wreckx-n-Effect hit “Rump Shaker” — at the Polo store. His first piece of jewelry, a necklace purchased from a diamond district dealer named Tito whom he’d heard people like Biggie rapping about, cost about the same. “It was called a handmade chain. White gold. I was a backpacker then, so I’d be riding in my little Porsche with a backpack, handmade chain — couldn’t tell me nothing.”

These days, he spends more time on private planes or pimped-out tour buses than cruising in his fleet of luxury vehicles. He’s about to hit the road with Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco and Rihanna for a U.S. tour, then N.E.R.D is off to Europe for the summer. While his buddy Kanye plays with the idea of nerd chic, Pharrell Williams lives it. “It’s not that I’m necessarily proud of being a nerd,” he says, as if he isn’t the coolest one around. “It’s who I am.” After detailing the fashion history of his pricey bag, he seems slightly embarrassed that he has no idea how to spell the name. When I find it listed in my notes and show it to him, he closes his eyes and tries to spell it from memory, grimacing when he gets one letter wrong. His favorite television channel is Discovery, and when he finally recalls the name of the movie that gave him an idea for a song the other night, it’s the quintessential hipster nerd flick, Rushmore. He strips down to his boxers to change outfits in the middle of the penthouse, revealing the lanky body of a teenage boy and, although he just celebrated his 35th birthday, responds like one when asked what he likes to see a woman wearing: “Other than nothing?” His only response to the inevitable follow-up question — dating anyone? — is to look down at the jeans he’s slipping into, which I take as a non-verbal “no comment.” If he is single, he’s not looking to mingle. His partying days are over. “Who wants to be around loud music and drunk young bitches all night? I ain’t with that at all.”

Pharrell wears a t-shirt and hat by BBC Ice Cream, jeans by Levi’s, earrings by Lorraine Schwartz and BAPE G-Shock watch by Jacob & Co.

He prefers to be in the studio here in Miami, the city he calls home, and finds his creativity flows best when he’s on a plane, in the shower or walks in circles. “That’s sort of what my album is based on — synesthesia,” he says of his new N.E.R.D album Seeing Sounds. He’s surprised that I don’t know what that is, as if this is basic common knowledge, and offers a detailed explanation. “Synesthesia is when your eyes, for example, send electric impulses to your brain, to the vision department, sometimes it sends that same information to the auditory part of your brain. So we see music.” Mick, his low-key assistant plays some tracks on his MacBook while Mike, his assistant’s assistant, and Ben, his enormous security guy, sit idly by. One song is called “Yeah you,” and it was written about the only woman in Williams’ life that he is willing to talk about publicly. “I have a full on stalker in Japan,” he says. “I didn’t do anything and she just started stalking me out of nowhere. I’m telling you, out of her goddamn mind!” He has another persistent fan stateside, and this ditty, with its chorus of “I bet you heard this song, wondering who I’m talking ’bout,” probably isn’t going to do much to shake them.

In addition to the new album, the multitasking Williams has a newly opened Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream store in New York, and a new venture, a jewelry line for Louis Vuitton, hitting the market soon. Standard hustling for the hip-hop world, but how many other rappers would travel to Basel, Switzerland to attend a jewelry trade show and learn about the business of bling? “He’s very studious,” says Lorraine Schwartz, his personal diamond merchant, who invited him to the Basel show six years ago when he first became a client. “He’d come to our office and look at stones with the cutters. He was really fascinated by the design, the workmanship.”

Not only did he take it upon himself to learn about everything from baguettes to bezels, clarity and cuts, Schwartz says he has educated his hip-hop brethren on the subject. “You can actually credit Pharrell with a lot of the changes that happened in the hip-hop world. A lot of those guys were about wearing pave, blingy objects, you know, Jesus heads. They had no idea about quality. It was just about the look. Pharrell doesn’t buy something because it’s fashionable. Pharrell makes fashion.”

Pharrell wears a t-shirt by BBC Ice Cream, jeans by Levi’s, earrings and ring by Lorraine Schwartz, BAPE G-Shock watch by Jacob & Co. and belt buckle by Jacob & Co.

Schooled in the basics by Schwartz, the consummate student earned his graduate degree at the Université de Vuitton when his friend Marc Jacobs tapped him to design the jewelry line Blason. “There I learned more about the artistry of different periods and functionality,” he says of the collection, inspired by French heraldry, that he designed with Vuitton creative consultant Camille Miceli. “It was a learning experience. And I love that I got paid to learn.”

His desire to branch out — he co-designed with Domeau & Pérès two chairs and a table that will be part of a show at Emmanuel Perrotin’s gallery in October — may have resulted from his close relationship with Nigo, the Japanese founder of A Bathing Ape and his partner in Billionaire Boys Club who got him into collecting art, particularly the work of conceptual artist Kaws, whose three-picture Smurf series hangs in Williams’ Miami apartment. “Meeting Nigo was a confirmation that you could turn your imagination into reality if you really, really want to,” says Williams. Wasn’t he already doing that? “I thought I was until I met him. He does it across the board, the whole gamut — his house, his stores, his idea of design — he’s a genius.”

So is Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, in Williams’ opinion, and when the subject of LeBron James’ controversial Vogue cover with Gisele Bündchen comes up, he snaps out of the bored stupor the fourth round of photos has put him in. “I was happy to see that it happened,” he says about seeing the first black man on the cover. But what of the racist imagery? “I’m black so I don’t get King Kong outta that. I think that says something about the person who sees that. [LeBron] doesn’t look like a monkey to me.” He wants to be challenged and when he is, a heated debate ensues. “It’s an iconic picture for fashion. That’s the most important thing,” he says. “And I hate it when people drum up controversy over stupid shit like that. It’s like, yo, look at it objectively. Remove your own personal baggage. Artistically, it’s an iconic picture and it will go down in the books as striking, brave, risky, edgy — and that’s what fashion is. Now, had we given him a safe picture, no one would care. And some of us might even be complaining — ‘See they put him in a suit? They couldn’t give him nothing iconic!’”

His perspective on this particular issue is uniquely his own. One of the few black men who has been featured editorially in Vogue, he is also a personal friend of Wintour’s. “That’s why I love her,” he says. “‘Cause she doesn’t give two fucks about what nobody thinks — even when she does controversial shit, it always goes to her benefit. She’s a genius chess player. And far from racist.” Ten minutes later, he’s still debating. “Shit, it might have been considered racy if it had been me in gym shorts screaming like that, but I would’ve looked crazy as hell. ‘Cause that’s not who I am. But [LeBron] is a monster on the court. You goddamn right, let him in there in some gym shorts, basketball in one hand screaming like the monster that he is with the baddest bitch in fashion.” He claps lightly. For the picture? Anna’s perceived bravery? Himself? “I applaud it.”

Pharrell wears a t-shirt and hat by BBC Ice Cream, jeans by Levi’s, earrings by Lorraine Schwartz and BAPE G-Shock watch by Jacob & Co.

For his last shot of the day, he’s asked to step out on the balcony and hold his enormous Haut a Courroies tote out at arm’s length for four frames. “Four?” he says, letting the photographer feel how heavy it is. He nods at his beefy security guy. “I’m not him.” After the camera’s final click, he drops the bag to his side and ambles inside, mumbling, “I think I just pulled something.”

He’s heading to the studio now where he’s working with Common, but it turns out the Ferrari key was purely decorative. Parked in the hotel driveway is his silver Mercedes SLR McLaren. So on a typical day, after he leaves the studio, what does he do? Have dinner and go home? “Yes,” he says. “That’s a good day.”

Info/
Pharrell Williams interviewed by Erica Kennedy
Photography by Dan Monick at the Penthouse of the Raleigh Hotel
Published online on May 23, 2008.
It is also published in the 2008 June/July music issue of Paper.
[Source: Papermag]

Pharrell Williams songography with wiki links:
1994: “Tonight’s The Night” (BLACKstreet feat. Tammy Lucas)
1996: “When Boy Meets Girl” (Total feat. 112)
1996: “Use Your Heart” (SWV)
1997: “Lookin’ At Me” (Mase feat. Puff Daddy)
1998: “SuperThug” (Noreaga feat. Pharrell & Tammy Lucas)
1998: “It’s All Yours” (M.C. Lyte feat. Gina Thompson)
1998: “I Can’t Make A Mistake” (M.C. Lyte)
1999: “Oh No” (Noreaga feat. Pharrell)
1999: “Recognize” (Ol’ Dirty Bastard feat. Pharrell & Chris Rock)
1999: “Got Your Money” (Ol’ Dirty Bastard feat. Kelis)
1999: “Good Stuff” (Kelis feat. Pusha T)
1999: “Caught out There” (Kelis)
1999: “The Funeral” (Clipse feat. Pharrell)
2000: “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” (Jay-Z feat. Pharrell)
2000: “Get Along With You” (Kelis)
2000: “Supa Luv” (Guru’s Jazzmatazz feat. Kelis)
2000: “Southern Hospitality” (Ludacris)
2000: “Shake Ya Ass” (Mystikal feat. Pharrell)
2000: “Girls Dem Sugar” (Beenie Man feat. Mýa)
2001: “Grimey” (Noreaga feat. Pharrell)
2001: “Danger (Been So Long)” (Mystikal feat. Nivea)
2001: “Knock Yourself Out” (Jadakiss feat. Pharrell)
2001: “Dem Thangz” (Angie Martinez feat. Q-Tip)
2001: “Candy” (Foxy Brown feat. Kelis)
2001: “Wait a Minute” (Ray J feat. Pharrell & Lil’ Kim)
2001: “Formal Invite” (Ray J feat. Pharrell)
2001: “Lapdance” (N*E*R*D)
2001: “Young’n (Holla Back)” (Fabolous)
2001: “Best U Can” (Tha Alkaholiks feat. Pharrell)
2001: “Diddy” (P. Diddy feat. Pharrell)
2001: “I’m a Slave 4 U” (Britney Spears)
2001: “There She Goes” (Babyface)
2001: “I’m Serious” (T.I. feat. Beenie Man)
2001: “Young, Fresh n’ New” (Kelis)
2001: “As I Come Back” (Busta Rhymes)
2001: “What It Is” (Busta Rhymes feat. Kelis)
2002: “Hot in Herre” (Nelly)
2002: “Feel It Boy” (Beenie Man feat. Janet Jackson)
2002: “Pass the Courvoisier pt 2″ (Busta Rhymes feat. Pharrell & P. Diddy)
2002: “Bouncin’ Back (Bumpin’ Me Against The Wall)” (Mystikal feat. Pharrell)
2002: “Take Ya Home (Lil’ Bow Wow)
2002: “House Party” (Latrelle)
2002: “Rock Star” (N*E*R*D)
2002: “Provider” (N*E*R*D)
2002: “U Don’t Have to Call” (Usher)
2002: “Girlfriend (‘N Sync)
2002: “Like I Love You” (Justin Timberlake feat. Clipse)
2002: “Grindin’” (Clipse)
2002: “When the Last Time” (Clipse feat. Kelis & Pharrell)
2002: “Ma, I Don’t Love Her” (Clipse feat. Faith Evans)
2002: “Luv U Better” (LL Cool J feat. Marc Dorsey)
2002: “Amazin’” (LL Cool J feat. Kandice Love)
2002: “From tha Chuuuch to da Palace” (Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell)
2002: “Pass the Couvoiseur Pt. 2″ (Busta Rhymes feat. P. Diddy & Pharrell)
2002: “Work It Out” (Beyoncé Knowles)
2002: “Come Close” (Common feat. Mary J. Blige)
2002: “Hit the Freeway” (Toni Braxton feat. Loon)
2002: “From tha Chuuuch to da Palace” (Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell)
2002: “Boys (Co-Ed Remix)” (Britney Spears feat. Pharrell)
2002: “Star” (702 feat. Clipse)
2003: “La La La (Excuse Me Miss Again)” (Jay-Z)
2003: “Show Me Your Soul” (Pharrell, P. Diddy, Loon & Lenny Kravitz)
2003: “I Still Love You” (702)
2003: “Beautiful” (Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell & Charlie Wilson)
2003: “Rock Your Body” (Justin Timberlake)
2003: “Senorita” (Justin Timberlake)
2003: “Frontin’” (Pharrell feat. Jay-Z)
2003: “I’m Lovin’ It” (Justin Timberlake)
2003: “Excuse Me Miss” (Jay-Z feat. Pharrell)
2003: “What Happened To That Boy” (Birdman feat. Clipse)
2003: “Call The Ambulance” (Busta Rhymes feat. Rampage)
2003: “Belly Dancer” (Kardinal Offishall feat. Pharrell)
2003: “Change Clothes” (Jay-Z feat. Pharrell)
2003: “Light Yo Ass On Fire” (Busta Rhymes feat. Pharrell)
2003: “Milkshake” (Kelis)
2003: “Hot Damn” (Clipse feat. Pharrell, Ab-Liva & Rosco P. Coldchain)
2003: “Drop It Like It’s Hot” (Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell)
2004: “Maybe” (N*E*R*D feat. Lenny Kravitz)
2004: “Flap Your Wings” (Nelly)
2004: “She Wants to Move” (N*E*R*D)
2004: “Package Of Power” (Lil Flip feat. Pharrell)
2004: “Provider” (N*E*R*D)
2004: “Let’s Get Blown” (Snoop Dogg feat. Pharrell & Keyshia Cole)
2004: “Tit 4 Tat” (Fabolous feat. Pharrell)
2005: “Touch” (Omarion)
2005: “Don’t Stop” (Beanie Siegel feat. Snoop Dogg)
2005: “Like a Boss” (Slim Thug)
2005: “Signs” (Snoop Dogg feat. Charlie Wilson & Justin Timberlake)
2005: “Hollaback Girl” (Gwen Stefani)
2005: “I Ain’t Heard of That” (Slim Thug feat. Bun B & Pharrell)
2005: “Wanna Love U Girl” (Robin Thicke feat. Pharrell)
2005: “Can I Have It Like That” (Pharrell feat. Gwen Stefani)
2006: “Tokyo Drift (Fast & Furious)” (Teriyaki Boyz)
2006: “I Gotcha” (Lupe Fiasco feat. Pharrell)
2006: “Yummy” (Gwen Stefani feat. Pharrell)
2006: “Say Somethin’” (Mariah Carey feat. Snoop Dogg)
2006: “Angel” (Pharrell)
2006: “Vato” (Snoop Dogg feat. B-Real)
2006: “Number One” (Pharrell feat. Kanye West)
2006: “Margarita” (Sleepy Brown feat. Big Boi & Pharrell)
2006: “Wind It Up” (Gwen Stefani)
2006: “That Girl” (Pharrell feat. Snoop Dogg)
2006: “Mr. Me Too” (Clipse feat. Pharrell)
2006: “Money Maker” {Ludacris feat. Pharrell)
2006: “Shakedown” {Ludacris)
2006: “Wamp Wamp (What It Do)” (Clipse feat. Slim Thug)
2007: “Girls Gone Wild” (Ludacris)
2007: “Green Light (Beyoncé Knowles)
2007: “Give It Up” (Twista feat. Pharrell)
2007: “Blue Magic” (Jay-Z feat. Pharrell)
2008: “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S. (The Hives)
2008: “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom) (N*E*R*D)
2008: “Spaz (N*E*R*D)
2008: “I Decided” (Solange Knowles)
2008: “Universal Mind Control” (Common feat. Pharrell)
2008: “Announcement” (Common feat. Pharrell)
2008: “My Drive Thru” (Julian Casablancas, Santogold & Pharrell)
2008: “Zock On!” (Teriyaki Boyz feat. Pharrell & Busta Rhymes)
2008: “I Know” (Jay-Z feat. Pharrell)
2008: “Give It 2 Me” (Madonna feat. Pharrell)
2008: “I Decided” (Solange Knowles)
2008: “Hooked on it” (Britney Spears)
2008: “Why Should I Be Sad” (Britney Spears)
2009: “Work That!” (Teriyaki Boyz feat. Pharrell & Chris Brown)

So you are a person who is stuck to love. You want to stick to one-another, you humans, and you cannot bring yourself to figure it out- figure out how to do this- when you are so in passionate melancholy with everything.

You must just stick.

Here it is. The solution. It is “Takkiainen.” A black jacket with different sized velcro attached all around it. Some day everyone will own one – and we can sing this song all together.

Tom Cruise reveals the truth about his feelings on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Next to him is David Letterman, agreeing. This event took place December 16, 2008 at night. No-one was harmed in the filming. Many were satisfied. For more on Tom Cruise, check out [The Encyclopedia Dramatica]

What’s this got to do with World Famous Design Junking? It’s Grade-A Gold Junk, and I’ll tell you why; Tom Cruise, David Letterman, and Adolf Hitler have touched the lives of millions; each of them is a cultural force. Once their paths combine, it becomes a moment in time worth remembering, even if only for a larf.

a: david letterman
b: tom cruise
c: studio audience

a: “when you watch the movie, you want hitler dead”
b: “i’ve always wanted hitler dead”
c: *clapping*
b: “i want hitler dead, i want those nazis dead”

Diddo Velema / Louis Vuitton / Gucci collaboration.**

Monogrammed and diamond encrusted. For display only.

From Diddo Velema’s website: ** IMPORTANT NOTE Designer Gas Masks is a conceptual art project. The masks are not real commercial products. They are designed to be displayed in magazines and exhibited at galleries. They are not for sale. The brands used to visualize the concept have been done so without their permission. However, as the artist, I am not responsible for any copyright infringements that may result from publication or display of the masks taken from this website.

World Famous Design Junkies says: Interesting then, isn’t it, that most of the online publicity points in the wrong direction? They obviously look nice enough to be real, and what a strange environment we live in when they’re accepted as legit luxury items, many times without hesitation:

Lyrois
Style Dash
SneakerFreaker
Antho Universe
SlamXHype
DVICE
Complex
Hypebeast
~
[designer gas mask official]
[didovelema official]