In a wonderful fusion of ancient Asian art forms and modern sensibilities, two massive origami lanterns in the form of tigers, will help Sydney citizens and visitors celebrate the Lunar or Chinese New Year. February 14 will mark the start of the Year of the Tiger, but the two crouching giants will remain at Customs House from February 11 to March 14, 2010.

 
The lanterns are 2.5 meters high and more than 7 meters long and they are lit by low-energy LED lights. As is fitting in soccer-mad Australia, the felines are not just idly posing, they are playing soccer in celebration of the FIFA soccer world cup. The tigers, commissioned by Customs House to raise awareness about the endangered status of tigers, were designed by Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) with offices in Sydney and Stuttgart, Germany. - Bill Tikos

Coinciding with Art Basel Miami, FriendsWithYou has unveiled its flagship boutique at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue in Miami, Florida. In their whimsical and inimitable style, they have created their very own fun house for their fans stocked with new limited-edition stuff — from clothing and toys to prints, books and art. We are also looking forward to our collaboration with Friends With You in 2010 on some special TCH projects.

Magical spiritual powers are not the only talents Miami-based art collaborative FriendsWithYou can claim as theirs. They also have a special skill for creating cuddly, cute and somewhat clever toys, events, experiences and other playthings for us mere mortals. We would never imply that their Fun Houses and other such entertainments are just for kids because if they were, we’d feel too envious to be nice.

 
In 2008, the FriendsWithYou duo — Sam Borkson and Arturo “Tury” Sandoval III — participated in the Hexagone (A hex is gone) group art show in Miami, curated by Jose Mertz. The FriendsWithYou playroom was filled with gigantic inflated buddies and called Wish World.

 
Also in 2008, a FriendsWithYou Fun House was part of the 944 Magazine’s Crime on Canvas surrealistic pop art show at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. And later in the year FriendsWithYou created another Fun House interactive exhibition for the SCOPE Miami lounge. SCOPE took place in the Wynwood Art District where the FriendsWithYou studio is also located.


 
Earlier this month, FriendsWithYou created another Fun House interactive exhibition for the SCOPE Miami lounge. This year’s SCOPE had nearly 90 exhibitors from more than 20 countries in a new 60,000-square-foot space in the Wynwood Art District where FriedsWithYou’s new studio is now also located.

The Fun House is a giant, anthropomorphic bounce house intended to help unleash the visitors’ inner brats and in doing so, take advantage of the healing power of fun. This is in keeping with FriendsWithYou’s mission of sharing the message of “magic, luck and friendship with the global community.”- Tuija Seipell

Two prominent Parisian retail facades are getting the Jean-Charles de Castelbajac treatment this month to brighten up the Holiday season. At the second-oldest department store in Paris, Bazaar de l'Hotel de Ville, or better known as the BHV, a funky neon-lit facade  will be lit up on November 17, with the help of powerful vocals performed by the 28-year-old, Arkansas-born Beth Ditto of the group Gossip.

 
Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s second Holiday facade is at the top of Champs Elysée, at Publicis Drugstore, established in 1958 and located on the site of the famed Astoria Hotel. The complex now houses two restaurants and several specialty shops, including a high-end grocery store. From November 20 to January 20, the building will be covered with enormous colour glass panels and the inside will have a similar color-rich treatment with the theme “Pop your X-mas”. - Tuija Seipell

Our consulting arm, TCH Platinum specializes in developing ideas for brands, new ways of showcasing their products, and to come up with event ideas, property development concepts, packaging designs, hotel/spa ideas, TV commercials etc.
 
Sometimes we take the initiative ourselves and pitch ideas to brands that we like. We are currently working on an idea for Puma that we call SPINSTAR, that aligns well with the brand image. It is a touring program that aims to find participants who can last the longest in a spin class with Puma as the backdrop. Participants would be offered a free pair of Puma sneakers and workout gear once they pass 2 hours (most spin classes run for 45 minutes). The winners of each session (which can last up to 8 hours) will receive the Puma bike and would then be all invited to the final competition where the winner of the longest spin-class is crowned Puma SPINSTAR and receives $25,000 cash along with $10,000 worth of Puma gear.

Other TCH Platinum initiatives include Treelife — a world-first sustainable event featuring 100 of the world’s most creative architects/designers creating 100 super-cool eco treehouses.
 
A Pop-up skate park for a high energy drink brand is another TCH Platinum concept, as are our Mini Cooper car wraps and our ideas for a new Virgin Atlantic plane.
 
Next, we will be creating a high-end space for McDonalds to launch at fashion week, and taking everyone’s favourite brand, Apple, and turning it into a hotel.

Visuals created by Dobson White

Here at the industry arm of TCH Platinum, we collaborate with some of the world's best companies to help them stand out from their competitors. We specialize in developing ideas to help brands move into the new, niche Cool Age niche.

We also develop ideas to take TCH into the offline space, starting with TreeLife and now our Pop-Up skate park.

This innovative concept sees art, design and extreme sports collide creatively in an awe-inspiring, customised skate park entirely unique in the skating world. Using pop-culture icons and the latest trends, the Pop-Up Skate Park by TCH creates ultra-cool skating environments, designed to garner the ultimate media exposure through their incredible appeal and popularity.

Currently, we are creating two Pop-Up Skate Park themes – Transformers and Space Invaders — both ideal promotional media for high-energy brands that want to attract serious attention.

For Transformers Skate Park, we commissioned Christiann Klaassen and his amazing team from Rockhunter in London to visualize the recreational and promotional space where design, technology and skate culture meet with a cool Skate Park.

This is a fully customizable skating environment, designed for each specific location’s surroundings, and incorporating a range of innovative ramps, bowls, half-pipes and landings.

Two oversized Autobot Transformer robots, impressively positioned at either end of the skate park, signify guardianship of the ramp and those who use it, echoing seamlessly the Transformers film concept of robots protecting humans.

En all-encompassing landscape of illumination and light-projected designs enhance the skating environment. There is also the option of showcasing a range of rotating art works to further emphasize this hyper- real environment.

Space Invaders, in turn, are arguably the biggest pop-cultural icons of the 80s! The original characters that introduced the world to the realm of video gaming through their pixilated aesthetics, enjoy the unique advantage of multi-generational appeal. Globally, from children of the 80s through to Generation Y, the public has recognized and appreciated these characters for their cool simplicity.

The Cool Hunter is taking these alien invaders and super-sizing them for their unique skate park. A pair of larger-than-life Space Invader characters frame the two ends of the skating environment. Made from translucent Perspex, these illuminated figures create the visual masthead for the Skate Invaders Park.

The skating surface itself reflects the playing environment of the original 80s game. This design comprises of illuminated alien ships, fighter units and laser beams as seen in the games architecture.

The entire Skate Invaders environment will be visually enticing and provide innovative user functionality for Skate Invaders. Skate Invaders has been rendered by Per Krogsgaard and Jason Idris Alami from What!

If your brand is ready to launch a Pop-Up Skate Park by THC in your city, get in touch.

Mini Cooper by TCH is also another project we'll soon announce online.

 How can TCH work with your brand on innovation and creating new brand experiences worth talking about? - get in contact with TCH Platinum

Indulge a bit of old-skool photography with this clever, partly inflatable, architect-designed photo booth. Actually, the old-skool bit isn't entirely true - this photo booth is fully digital and portable, so it's probably more accurate to describe it as high-tech. Created by two Melbourne based photographers, who believe it to be the world's first portable design, the photo booth is perfect for events where partygoers are prone to a spot of exhibitionism after a drink or two. The booth can also be branded to transform it into useful marketing tool. Smile! - Lisa Evans

From August 5 to September 30, the cutely nostalgic Fiat 500 C, unveiled in February, appears on Milan’s world-famous fashion street, Montenapoleone, in an unexpected role. Exactly 20 fiberglass replicas, precisely the same size and shape as the little Fiat, have become planters for real trees of various shapes. The happening, called “Per fare un albero” (Create a tree), is a cooperative effort between the City of Milan, Fiat, and artist-designer Fabio Novembre. In Novembre’s words, his solution to merge into one object trees and cars, two elements always vying for urban space, is a “symbol of a new way of living.” According to Fiat’s spokespeople, Fiat 500 C’s cheerful, friendly, innovative and eco-friendly character is a perfect fit for such an undertaking. - Tuija Seipell

Our world is full of noise, coming from every angle. Consumers have seen it all before, creating an unprecdented challenge to marketers.

It’s not enough just to be noticed. To rise above the clutter brands need to be extraordinary in every way. Extraordinary is the new ordinary; a mandatory requirement in a globaiised world where consumers are savvier, better educated and more connected than ever before.

Over the last five years The Cool Hunter has sought out the extraordinary and these finds have been a source of inspiration for hundreds of thousands of readers. But what you see on the site is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg as we don't always give away content for free. For hundreds of examples of innovative brand communications - from guerilla marketing through to environmental and outdoor - visit our consulting arm The Cool Hunter Platinum.

A new permanent exhibition, LEVEL GREEN, dealing with the complex topics of car manufacturing, sustainability and the use of global resources, opened last month at the Autostadt (Car city in German), near the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburgh, Germany.

The architectural firm of J. Mayer H. of Berlin and interactive an digital media specialists, Art+Com Berlin, developed the concept for the 1,000 m2 interactive exhibition. The themes of the exhibition — Personal use, Sustainability at Volkswagen, The three aspects of sustainability, Mobility of the future, Sustainability and the economy, Effects of climate change — wind their way among an organically-shaped, sustainably built web of green structures.

Established in 1994, the vast is a seven-pavilion Autostadt visitor attraction area has ultra-modern pavilions for Volkswagen, Bentley, Škoda, Lamborghini, Audi and SEAT, and draws about 2 million visitors annually. - Tuija Seipell

Sick of going to the opening of an envelope new store opening party? The tried and tested formula is safe, uninspiring and obvious. (Eg. celebrity invites, cult dj spins some safe retro tunes and the real consumer is supposed to be inspired by this out pouring of elitism to then visit said store.) Always ready to challenge the status quo, Diesel's new store on Fifth Avenue in New York took a decidedly different approach at a time when consumer behaviour and creative marketing is not only revered but essential.
 
Titled "Five on Fifth", the guerrilla marketing campaign for Diesel allows the consumer on the street to witness real life installations in their store windows. Intimate dinner parties that would normally be held behind closed doors were staged in the windows featuring famous New Yorkers. Each night was a different theme (cleverly organised to appeal to a cross section of consumers) with a club night featuring key dj's like Richie Rich, Kenny Kenny and Patrick McDonald,  a sports night with the key players from the New York Giants and then a Fashion night featuring the girls from Ford Models.


 
Street teams also gave out free goodies in key spots alongside the intimate window dinners in an attempt to catch the busy eyes of the press who were running with blackberries in hand from Fashion week's shows to parties.
 
Bravo to Diesel for their creative, inspiring and well executed campaign that should hopefully set the bar for economic-chic alternatives for store openings! - Kate Vandermeer

Truth: prostate cancer kills thousands of Australian men each year — equal to the number of women who die from breast cancer. We know, definitely not cool. But the Cancer Council of Australia is far from giving up hope. This year they are asking Aussie blokes to participate and help raise funds for Daredallion Week from March 2nd-6th.



Dare: register to take on the Daredallion challenge — dare someone to do something they normally would not do — or else challenge yourself to something completely outrageous and raise money that will be used to promote awareness for men’s cancers.  Eugene Tan, our friend over at Aquabumps, photographed one of the first dares this year — a guy unsuccessfully attempted to float away from Bondi beach strapped to a bunch of helium balloons.  Check out the Daredallion site and either register a dare of your own, or use their Dare Generator and take on one of the challenges already developed — we dare you! - Andrew J Wiener

Held between June 14 and September 14, 2008, the International Exhibition Expo Zaragoza 2008 is already a distant memory but its effects still reverberate.


 
The 25 hectares along the river Ebro near Spain’s fifth-largest city, Zarazoga, hosted thematic pavilions and thematic squares plus the pavilions of more than 100 countries, all exploring the overall theme of the Expo, “Water and Sustainable Development.”


 
Some of our favourite Expo mementoes are these spectacular images from the Portuguese Pavilion. Theming the Portuguese participation in the watery event, Lisbon-based Bak Gordon Architects envisioned a river’s ever-changing flow from its trickling source to a river mouth by the sea.


 
BAK created the pavilion’s spaces as versatile, changeable and changing surroundings for audience participation at levels of each individual’s choosing. The three main areas – Alert, Consciousness and Change – explored water and sustainability and featured a red “river” of pavement that helped the visitors track the flow of the exhibit.


 
From an alarming tubular “jungle” of Alert, to Consciousness where Nuno Cera’s photography highlighted the three mighty rivers of Iberia – Guadiana, Tagus and Douro, the visitor ended up in the hopeful Change, where the promising movement of citizens was depicted, literally, with the movement of images and words spoken in various languages. - Tuija Seipell



Photography by ultimasreportagens.com

Fashion launches are a bit like romantic comedies; pretty people in pretty clothes in pretty places - and they all start to look and feel the same after a while. Louis Vuitton broke the mould with its latest launch for its new Stephen Sprouse collection. The mega party was held over three venues in New York, starting with a cocktail party at the Louis Vuitton store, followed by an exhibition of  Sprouse's artwork. The night ended with a packed after party at the Bowery Ballroom, where Debbie Harry took to the stage for a mini concert.

Louis Vuitton did the late designer proud, celebrating his unique Punk couture aesthetic by creating mini 'Sprouse worlds' - referencing his work at every turn, from the walls to the ceiling and the furniture, culminating in a spectacular 'hall" of graffiti, a 'tower' of vintage TV sets and custom neon signs. Even the food paid homage to Sprouse - neon coloured hors d'oeuvres and desserts spilled out in a kind of punk colored rainbow.



Sprouse, who was part of Andy Warhol's set, become famous in the 1980s for pioneering the uptown pop punk look; a wild and edgy mix of elements such as day-glo colours, high-tech fabrics, sequins, velcro, superb uptown tailoring and hand painted silks. The designer and artist, who died in 2004, also created elaborate costumes for the likes of Mick Jagger, Axl Rose, Trent Reznor, Courtney Love, David Bowie and Duran Duran.

And now, thanks to Louis Vuitton, a whole new generation will have the opportunity to discover his work. - Laura Demasi

 

 

TreeLife by The Cool Hunter. 

A public interactive outdoor exhibition of cutting edge tree houses designed by of the world’s top artists, designers and architects.



After four years of spreading the latest word on cool online, The Cool Hunter is proud to announce the launch of its first "real world" public event, TreeLife by The Cool Hunter which is set to land in iconic park locations in New York, London, Sydney and other exciting cities in Europe, New Zealand, Canada and Asia during 2009 and 2010.



TreeLife by The Cool Hunter will showcase cutting-edge eco design by the world’s best architects, designers and artists.

Tree houses have become creative eco-statements in the design world; structures that don’t impose themselves on the environment, but blend into it with harmony, respect and grace. They allow people to literally live in “nature,” a place of peace and tranquility high above the street level of life where stress dominates.



The Cool Hunter will invite the world’s most exciting established and emerging architects, designers and artists to design a tree-house for the event. TreeLife is a thoroughly green event, and tree houses will be crafted from sustainable or recycled materials. The participating designers  will be briefed to design the tree houses as ‘stand alone’ structures that only appear to be suspended in the trees, so the exhibition does not impact on the trees or the environment.

A board of curators will work to select the participating architects, designers and artists, both established “stars” and rising talent from across the globe as well as the event’s home city. 

TreeLife by The Cool Hunter will be held over four weeks, and will feature a program of cool sustainable entertainment events happening around the exhibition.



Sponsorship Opportunities

Design: The new frontier in brand alignment

The consumer marketing landscape is changing. A decade ago brands rushed to align with fashion, music and celebrity but as these worlds have become ubiquitous their value as vehicles for brand positioning is decreasing.

Consumers are moving on, looking to more exclusive, less accessible disciplines of design such as architecture and art for distraction and inspiration. We have entered an age where architects, product, furniture and industrial designers and other design and visual creatives are becoming the new pop icons.

An age where names like Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson, Karim Rashid and Philippe Starck have entered the popular culture lexicon.

Yesterday, mass market consumers cared who designed the dress. Today and tomorrow, they will care who designed the chair, the building and the artwork.



The challenge for brands is to learn how to engage this increasingly design-literate consumers, who are not only spoiled for choice, but also developing an almost inherent expectation of innovation in everything they consume.

As evidenced by Apple, innovation - from product development through to all facets of brand communication - isn’t just desirable. It’s everything.

TreeLife by The Cool Hunter offers brands an opportunity to align with a design brand event that will reach a large audience. The event is about casting green as innovative, cool and the only way forward for the future. 

For sponsorship enquiries please contact bill@thecoolhunter.net or laura@thecoolhunter.net



TreeLife illustration created Andy Gilmore

Hector Serrano Studio has curated and designed the exhibition Spain Emotion as well as the communication campaign of the Spanish participation at this years Tokyo Designer's Week. The event is organized by the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) and will take place in the Spanish Embassy in Tokyo from 30 October to 3 November 2008.



More than an exhibition, Spain Emotion is a celebration of the best Spanish design in the Tokyo Designer's Week that encompasses not only this exhibition, but also conferences and seminars; a forum that provides with an exceptional opportunity to get to know at first hand those who are behind the products. The aim of Hector Serrano Studio this year is for emotion to be the guiding threads of their story, and the products its main characters. To this end, they have created a space that aims to surprise, entertain, seduce and encourage, rather than simply showing; four large stages where light dramatises and bathes the surroundings and the pieces in colour. Colour to communicate the vitality and energy with which the Spanish character is so often identified. In short, an experience aimed at revealing the latest in Spanish design, in a most emotive way. - Tuija Seipell

A glass of expensive champagne on a swanky rooftop bar just doesn't cut it in the competitive world of product launches, which are all vying for VIP attendees and press coverage. 

Chanel decided to think outside of the square for the launch of the brand's new perfume, ‘Eau première,’ staging the event at a private Parisian apartment. Chanel recruited acclaimed set, window and interior designer Jean-Marc Gady to create an experiential event for guests, a "scenography" tasked with bringing the new fragrance and the heritage of the brand to life. Gady has created spaces for the likes of Louis Vuitton, Moet & Chandon and Apple.



The designer transformed the apartment into a set, which guests were encouraged to explore as the event played out. While they played with artfully arranged test sprays,  a fountain sent drops of the new fragrance into the air, sweetly permeating their senses. The evening ended with the unveiling of large format photographs of Chanel's iconic "faces" over the years, from Marilyn Monroe through to Nicole Kidman. - Lisa Evans

Forget the sport..some of the most interesting things happening at the Beijing Olympics are coming from clever sponsors who have dreamt up creative ways to promote their brands at the mega global event. We're loving the offering from Mini Cooper, who have dragged traditional Chinese street transport into the 21st century with these great bike-powered Minis. Samsung has been equally creative, giving Olympics' fans a chance to view all of the action from their own "private" alien-like pods. Both of these offerings are a lesson to global brands: get creative and innovative in your marketing or risk being drowned out by the noise. - Laura Demasi

What’s an hourglass? Oh yes, it’s an ancient time piece, flowing fine sand quietly marking time in a perfectly balanced glass. Or, as everyone should know by now, it is the main prop at Never Stand Still. It was the kick-off party to start the countdown for BMW’s European launch of the latest model of BMW 7 series, slated to take place this fall. The car, displayed in the world’s largest hourglass in the Red Square, has not received much coverage but as soon as the construction of the hourglass marvel began four months ago, online buzz about it has been consistent. The 12-meter-high glass contraption was the centerpiece of the party thrown to 400 invited guests and celebrities. At the start of the build-up, more than 180,000 silvery balls concealed the car that was gradually revealed as the balls fell to the lower level. Moscow is a strong and growing market for BMW, and what better place to strut its latest but the historic location against the backdrop of the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral and G.U.M. — all veterans of many a communist-era motorized military parade. By Tuija Seipell

The team behind the Danish pavilion at the World Expo 2008 in Zaragoza, Spain consists of three Copenhagen-based firms – architects Spektrum Arkitekter, graphic agency Loop Associates and communications agency 2+1.

The Danish pavilion houses Círculos de Agua (Circles in the Water), an exhibition about sustainable living and lasting solutions that echoes the World Expo 2008 theme of water and sustainability. Círculos de Agua highlights Danish technologies that have started out small yet have the potential to affect global change. The underlying message is that everything we do spreads like ripples through water. The pavilion will be used again at the COP15 Copenhagen – United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009.



The pavilion consists of five cylinders with five themes. The Wind Cylinder explains how the tiny country of Denmark with only five million inhabitants has become a leading supplier of wind power technologies. The Water Cylinder explores the planning of cities to cope with rising water levels and the extreme climate of the future. The Daylight Cylinder showcase natural light as a vehicle for both style and sustainability. The Biomass Cylinder extols the virtues of bio fuels produced from harvest waste. The Restaurant & Shop Cylinder, dedicated to creativity, showcases the latest in Danish design and crafts. The World Expo runs till September 14, so it's not too late to see it. - Tuija Seipell.

Karl Largerfeld never puts a pedicured foot wrong and hispresentation for Chanel at this week's Couture shows proves that he isstill one of the most innovative and creative minds on the planet. Largerfeld unveiled his collection amid an extraordinary 50-foot setmade up of steel-grey tubes inspired by organ pipes. Lagerfeld worked the tubes theme into the collection, showing tubular shapes in severaldifferent manifestations.

Lagerfeldis one of the masters of catwalk theatrics, dreaming up incrediblelarger-than life sets that seem to get more elaborate each season. Forsome of the best of recent shows check out Runaway Runway Success. By Lisa Evans via Fashionation

In 1877, Antonio Fluxá went all the way from the island of Majorca to England to learn about shoemaking. Whatever he learned there, he put into action immediately and founded a shoe company that his grandson Lorenzo turned into Camper Shoes  in 1975. Today, the family's fourth generation is at the helm, the company is still based in Majorca and its shoes are sold worldwide. If you were lucky, you received an invite to this fun-and-games Campy party held in Germany recently, to celebrate the launch of the Spring/Summer 08 collection. AstroTurf, retro gear, great music and sand in your sandals. We're in. By Tuija Seipell