Renaissance by Beyoncé. Image courtesy Parkwood Entertainment…
The Design Dispatch offers expertly written and essential news from the design world crafted by our dedicated team. Think of it as your cheat sheet for the day in design delivered to your inbox before you’ve had your coffee. Subscribe now.
Have a news story our readers need to see? Submit it here
The artwork for Beyoncé’s new album, Renaissance, is compared to Lady Godiva.
“On Thursday afternoon, Beyoncé unveiled the cover for Renaissance, her newest album, and many fans immediately took to social media that it looks a lot like a famed painting from the 19th century. The cover, which was shot by Carlijn Jacobs, features a scantily clad Beyoncé atop a silvery horse. It bears more than a few similarities to John Collier’s 1880/98 painting Lady Godiva, which depicts a nude woman who figures prominently in Anglo-Saxon lore. Beyoncé herself didn’t mention Lady Godiva or the Collier painting when she announced the album cover, though her caption for it on Instagram seemed to echo some of the themes of the Anglo-Saxon legend.” [H/T ARTnews]
Bosco Sodi is giving sculptures from his Venice Biennale show to Venetian locals.
“When the Venice Biennale closes in November, artworks from hundreds of artists will be packed up and shipped back to countries around the world. But a little piece of the contemporary-art circus that brings so many jet-setting art collectors to the Italian city will stay at the lagoon thanks to Bosco Sodi. That’s because the artist is giving away one of the artworks in his exhibition “Bosco Sodi: What Goes Around Comes Around.” Venetian residents will be able to take home the small 195 clay spheres that surround a giant one in Noi Siamo Uno, an interactive display on view beneath a Murano glass chandelier at the Palazzo Vendramin Grimani.” [H/T Artnet News]
Balenciaga’s “Couture Store” in Paris. Image courtesy Balenciaga…
Balenciaga plans to open a Paris storefront that will act as a “gateway to couture.”
“It’s been a year since designer Demna’s revival of Balenciaga’s couture business, which re-energised the brand with iconic silhouettes made modern as well as impeccably designed renderings of wardrobe basics, including jeans, T-shirts and hoodies. Now, Balenciaga is opening a “Couture Store” at 10 Avenue George V, housed below the brand’s traditional couture salon, offering limited-edition clothing, accessories and objects that can be personalized or altered by the ateliers upstairs.” [H/T Business of Fashion]
Adjaye Associates is selected to lead the redesign of two major museums in Liverpool.
“Adjaye Associates and lauded exhibition design practice Ralph Appelbaum Associates have been selected to lead a roughly $69 million planned revamp of both the International Slavery Museum and the Maritime Museum at Royal Albert Dock in the English port city of Liverpool. The Adjaye and Appelbaum Associates team won the commission out of competition, beating three other shortlisted teams comprised of Haworth Tompkins with JA Projects, Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, and heneghen peng architects with DROO Architects. NML formally launched the competition, one that sought out “radical and brave” design proposals from collaborative teams, in January of this year.” [H/T The Architect’s Newspaper]
A bridge in Rotterdam won’t be demolished to make room for Jeff Bezos’s yacht.
“The Dutch company building a super yacht for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has no plans to request permission to demolish part of a landmark Rotterdam bridge so the boat can reach the ocean, Trouw reported on Thursday. There was a major outcry earlier this year when it emerged that the company, Oceanco, was planning to remove the middle section of the bridge temporarily so that the €500 million yacht could pass through. Trouw used freedom of information legislation to find out more about the plan, and says Oceanco was so shocked by the February outcry that it has changed its mind.” [H/T DutchNews.nl]
Marcus Fairs, the founder of Dezeen, at Surface’s The Diner during Milan Design Week in 2018…
Marcus Fairs, the visionary founder of global design magazine Dezeen, dies at 54.
“Marcus, who was a brilliant journalist, visionary entrepreneur and much-loved father, husband, colleague and friend, was taken to hospital on Tuesday last week after becoming unwell. Following a short period in intensive care, he died on Thursday 30 June 2022. Marcus forever stamped his mark on the architecture and design industries as a pioneering, creative and ambitious journalist. Not least through Dezeen, which he launched in his spare bedroom in 2006 and grew to become the world’s most popular and influential online architecture, interiors and design magazine. By doing so, he changed the landscape of design journalism, bringing the global design community closer together and helping to inspire and launch the careers of countless architects and designers around the world.” [H/T Dezeen]
The FBI places “cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
“With crypto markets in turmoil, files seen by the BBC suggest an unlikely Bitcoin investor may have also lost a fortune—”the missing cryptoqueen,” Dr Ruja Ignatova. The scammer disappeared in 2017 as her cryptocurrency OneCoin was at its height—attracting billions from investors. Fraud and money-laundering charges in the US have led to her becoming one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives. The Oxford-educated entrepreneur told investors she had created the “Bitcoin killer,” but the files suggest she secretly amassed billions in her rival currency before she disappeared.” [H/T BBC]
A graffiti wall in Hayle, England. Image courtesy Hayle Town Council…
Today’s attractive distractions:
An English town provides a blank wall in a park as “fresh space” for graffiti artists.
Thieves are now targeting the owners of pricey and on-trend French bulldogs.
This Marseille typography practice expertly revives historic, centuries-old fonts.
