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DESIGN PHILA 2011: A transformative kickoff
Taking over 11th street between Vine and Callowhill, last night's DesignPhiladelphia kickoff party was abuzz with design-focused activity.
DESIGN PHILA 2011: A transformative kickoff
Taking over 11th street between Vine and Callowhill, last night’s DesignPhiladelphia kickoff party was abuzz with design-focused activity.
The first stop on the tour was an opening reception and award ceremony at the Liao Collection, a mass emporium of exquisite Asian antiques. This year marked the festival’s first award ceremony where a “design champion” was rewarded for his or her hard work creating space and resources for design in Philadelphia. This year’s award was given to Mayor Michael Nutter, who has given much support to Philly’s creative initiatives.
Across the street, Grizzly, Grizzly hosted the architectural works of Patrick Gaven (through Oct. 29), who created an aluminum table and aluminum/maple room divider along with several design sketches with minimalist style. Each piece is simple and engineering-oriented, leaving any superfluous ornamentation behind. Not far away, in one of Vox Populi’s open spaces, artist Piper Brett created a mass sacrificial piece in the spirit of “make-it-or-break-it” culture. Noting the need for celebrity and success, her works combine bling, pornography and ritual sacrifice.
Probably the most vibrant exhibit at Vox was a series of enlarged black-and-white prints created by famous and semi-famous graphic designers. “Signatures” (through Oct. 23) shows vast variations on how a single word can be written, and how we can convey different feelings through font.
Up the block, the Trestle Inn hosted a one-of-a-kind burlesque-hair cocktail party. The Richard Nicholas Hair Studio set up shop under a spotlight, turning models’ hair into sexy ’60s throwbacks. Meanwhile, cocktail waitresses glided through the crowd, offering butlered hors d’oeuvres and signature cocktails. The recently revamped space used to be the dive bar of all dive bars with a pension for BBWs. While certainly not opposed to curvier gals, the new Trestle Inn is making its home in ’60s-era go-go girls, classic cocktails and casserole dinners. While crowded and rather warm for the event, the space is a testament to the turn-around ability of good design.
Despite an array of visual treats, most impressive was DesignPhiladelphia’s own street art. The signature white light boxes were in full effect, and the old train platform was lit up with neon arches and a DesignPhiladelphia logo light show. A true transformation to kick off what looks like a transformative festival.
For more information on DesignPhiladelphia, visit designphiladelphia.org.
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