Lactona M31 + M39

Ever since electric toothbrushes became the norm beside upscale sinks in the US, I thought there had to be a manual version that worked as well. I’ve been known to spend entire days touring pharmacies, studying products, ingredients, and packaging. During many of my lengthy visits to CVS and Duane Reade, I began to notice that the rows of toothbrushes in these aisles not only looked more like sneakers than toothbrushes, but very few, if any, were accepted by the ADA. So began my quest for manual toothbrushes accepted by the ADA.

I gleefully redirected my search to aisles of Manhattan pharmacies like New London Pharmacy in Chelsea, C.O. Bigelow on Sixth Ave., and Zitomer on the Upper East Side, and my search was fruitful. All three of these locations sell an ADA accepted toothbrush enveloped by a perfectly emblematic toothbrush shape: the Lactona M-Series.

Unwrapped: Lactona M31 + M39

With clear or solid plastic handles measuring about six inches long and 3/8” wide, Lactona M-Series brushes come in a variety of classic colors: red, blue, yellow, white, light green, clear. There are 3-row and 4-row options, featuring soft multi-tufted nylon or natural bristles, ranging from extra soft, for sensitive gums and after periodontal surgery, to hard, for dentures and appliances. They’re equipped with strong rubber tips at the ends–gum stimulators that protect teeth from gingivitis.

The Lactona company is based in the Netherlands, but there’s some American ingenuity behind this brand. According to the Lactona website, this brand name was first used as the name of a toothpaste developed by a dentist in the USA in 1931. Twenty-one years later, it became the name for a multi-tufted toothbrush, also made in the USA. Production moved to the Netherlands in 1982 and by 1996, Lactona was purchased by a Dutch company.

The Lactona News page documents the sale of one of the first toothbrushes that was present for the first moon landing in 1969. This claim is particularly notable because Oral B also claims that an Oral B toothbrush was on board Apollo 11. I have to wonder if Aldrin brought two different brushes or if Neil Armstrong or Michael Collins brought the Oral B. Nevertheless, the Lactona brush, the M39, used by astronaut Buzz Aldrin, was sold to Steven Belasco for $16,000 in 2004. Lactona still sells M39 brushes today.

How about a Lactona M39 in MoMA’s design collection?

Donna Karan's Mannequin sans hat and backpack

There’s a new tribe marching down Broadway in the Fashion District, and no, it’s not Lady Gaga and her dance troupe. It’s a line of Ralph Pucci-designed mannequins strutting their weatherproof wares (wears) between Times and Herald Squares. What is the reason for this stoic entourage? Well, like the fiberglass pigs, horses, and cows that cropped up around the US in previous decades, these hard-bodied silhouettes have been installed to build awareness and support for the fashion industry in New York City.

So, are they doing this job well?

As for the project itself, my initial reaction is that these mannequins get lost in the crowd. Some of the designs helped me focus on the successes of the fashion industry, whereas others really made me scratch my head and wonder about the level of innovation behind this project. And by that, I am not talking about the fashion designers’ work, but rather the people who decided this was the right kind of public art and the right kind of message to be promoting. For example, I love Yeohlee Teng‘s garments, which are made in New York, but the brick “skirt” begs for a different kind of display. I believe the Fashion District would be better served by something less literal, something more cohesive, rather than this rehashing of projects of yore. Yes, the pigs and the cows and the horses were successful, but that was at least 10 years ago. And fashion should be all about what is happening now or even next. And I hope what is next is not something from the early aughts, as design digression should not be the goal here.

I decided to ask a couple of people on the street what they thought about the Sidewalk-Catwalk. The interesting response I received indicated a strong respect for Mayor Bloomberg and his interest in using and promoting public art. Though I agreed with these fine folks that it is great to be in a city where public art is a mainstay, I had to double back a bit to find out if they thought the art was working. It seems they weren’t really concerned with the delivery, rather they were more interested in the political message. This made me want to shout, “Come on! You should demand more than this! Don’t settle for mediocrity!”

Although the Sidewalk-Catwalk may be drawing attention to some great fashion designers and these designers may very well be happy with the response, is this the aspect a public art project should be drawing attention to now? Isn’t the loss of manufacturing one of the biggest problems facing the garment district today? The Public Trust gets this and has been assembling their own project since 2009. I do hope that the public art that springs from their project proves to be more thoughtful and thought-provoking than this one.

That said, it has come to my attention that there are many public artists in this city of 8 million people that have better ideas for drawing attention to the Fashion District and I’m wondering how many artists were considered in the bid for this display. At a time when NYC is rethinking traffic patterns and bucking old systems, isn’t it time for the same kind of forward thinking to be applied to public art?

Paco Cube in the Forest

Paco cube marries the benefits of modular housing with the less-is-more lifestyle. Schmata Architecture Office’s perfect white box is adaptable to any environment and, with its included kitchen, toilet, shower, and built-in desk, it is a kit ready for most any activity. The white epoxy interior is ideal for a mini art exhibition in the forest and the propped-open hinged roof provides an excellent setting for an afternoon snooze in the hammock.

Check out what Cool Hunting had to say about the Paco Vacation Home.

Bioscleave House

Want to live longer, maybe even forever? Artists, poets, and architects Arakawa and Madeline Gins along with their Transhumanist colleagues believe a rough and challenging terrain inside the home is key to making this possible. According to their philosophy, living in a colorful and mountainous home like the Bioscleave House (aka Lifespan Expanding Villa) in East Hampton, NY, disturbs inhabitants’ equilibriums enough to power their immune systems and fight the effects of aging (aka death).

A couple weeks ago my boyfriend’s Land Rover limped its way back to Cincinnati, casting serious solemnity over his car-driving soul. It was time to buy a new car, but what could possibly replace the English-made manliness of a hunter green 2001 Land Rover Discovery II? A BMW or Lexus SUV? A Saab station wagon?

What’s this? Cash for Clunkers? Okay – maybe it’s time to consider an American automobile. So, we’re off to the Ford dealership to check out the models! With an average of 14 miles to the gallon, the Land Rover definitely qualifies for the highest rebate.

Now onto the available models: perhaps the Flex could fill the void. The package with all of the desirable features is a bit over the budget. Maybe an Explorer? This would take much more convincing, it’s just not cool enough for this guy (or his girlfriend). It hasn’t changed much since the 80s. How about the Escape? Getting closer, but the pricing isn’t making sense yet. Unless…okay…let’s just try the hybrid model to see what it feels like. Always been curious. Uh-oh. This is great: black exterior, tan leather interior, and a fully-loaded navigation system. The price is about the same as the Flex, so he has to think about it. For about two minutes.

A test drive later and it’s now a possibility. Considering the fuel efficiency and cool-factor of driving a hybrid, this is it: automobile adoration.

Here it is a week later, having made it from Cincinnati back to New York City with only $60 worth of gas. That is truly impressive. And it still looks über-cool to co-workers and environmentalists alike. Now my boyfriend and I are noticing all of the other Escape hybrids around the city: taxis, service vehicles, even traffic enforcement. And there are so many other hybrid SUVs available out there. Here’s a list I found:

Ford Escape Hybrid
Mercury Mariner Hybrid
Mazda Tribute Hybrid
Saturn Vue Hybrid
Toyota Highlander Hybrid
Lexus RX 400h
Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid
GMC Yukon Hybrid
Cadillac Escalade Hybrid
Mercedes ML 450 Hybrid
Saturn Vue Green Line Two-Mode (2010)
BMW X6 Hybrid (2010)
Porsche Cayenne S Hybrid (2010)
Saturn Vue Plug-in (2011)
Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid (2011)

For further information, check out this website/blog site.

Sixteen-Sided Barn @ Mount Vernon, replica completed in 1996

We all know General George Washington as the first President of the United States and the first Commander-in-Chief. Some might even know of his interests in agriculture. But who knew he was a designer?

Last Sunday afternoon I visited the Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens along the Potomac, outside of Washington, DC and it was more impressive from a design standpoint than I expected. And for me the mansion wasn’t the high point; rather it was the Sixteen-Sided barn.

Washington designed this nearly circular barn, also called a treading barn, to more efficiently separate grain from the straw of wheat. Before this method, wheat was usually threshed by hand or trampled by horses on open ground. This new building brought the process indoors (kept the grain dry) and also separated the unsanitary elements (a.k.a. horse excrement) out of the grain.

Here’s the threshing process:
After wheat was harvested, it would be gathered and put into the center of the barn. A layer would be put out into the treading lane and then horses would run around the lane, treading the grain out of the wheat. As the horses trod out the grain from the straw, the grain would fall between the gaps to the lower level, where it was gathered up and stored until being taken to the gristmill to be ground into flour.

Treading Lane Floor Detail

Here’s the exciting design part:
Washington calculated the supplies required for the construction of the barn, including the 30,820 “hard and good” bricks that would be used in the building. (Apparently he calculated this amount exactly.) He specified the size and amount of lumber required, including the measurement of the gaps between the floorboards of the treading lane.

Ground Floor Detail - Handmade Bricks

Washington dreamed of making the United States the “granary of the world” and he led the movement by concentrating his effort on growing wheat rather than the more common Virginia crop of tobacco. He experimented with composting and crop rotation and brought about improvements to the designs of seeders and plows. He was a real Renaissance man!

In my life, precious little boutique-type items with exquisite labels have been shown the door, replaced by more affordable mass-market brands with package design so unappealing I felt compelled to decant the shampoo, dish soap, and the like into better-looking bottles. (I know this is ridiculous; my mother-in-law used to call me “fancy” all the time, and it wasn’t meant as a compliment.) Fortunately I noticed an alternative, not only more cost effective but graphically more pleasing: Costco’s own Kirkland label. Let’s look at a side by side comparison of package design as you descend the price ladder.

At far left is Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Dish Soap, available at upscale markets like Whole Foods and health-food stores. Before the recession I was a devotee. The attractive retro-chic bottle is adorned with a stylish label in sophisticated muted colors, calculated to attract design-savvy consumers. Using only natural ingredients and fragrances like Snap Pea, Lavender, and Geranium, the products are biodegradable, the packaging 100% recyclable. And the bottle looks darling sitting next to the sink. It could easily pass for a beauty product, like body wash or hand lotion. The aesthetics are part of the price: $4 for 16 ounces, or .25 an ounce.

In the center we have Dawn, available in pretty much every supermarket across the nation (including Costco). At $2.69 for 12.6 ounces of double-concentrated detergent, it works out to just over $0.11/per ounce, and is meant to appeal to a much wider audience. The scents are abstract concoctions straight from a lab, named for natural things like Apple Blossom but not smelling much like them. The bottle’s shape evokes clean images of waves and water, the Day-Glo blue of the liquid itself telegraphs “clean” (imagine if it were bright red instead), and the logo’s dimensional typography with a sunburst behind it promises a new day of immaculate dishes. Perky abstract bubbles surround the logo for a final touch.  Consumers across a wide swath of demographics can understand by looking at the bottle exactly what they’re going to get, and the design communicates this concisely and effectively. To me, it’s a bore; it feels like middle of the road pop music meant to offend no one, but not very memorable either. Popular doesn’t always mean pretty, and I didn’t much want to look at this thing every time I washed the dishes.

Then you get to Costco’s own Kirkland Environmentally Friendly Liquid Dish Soap. 135 ounces costs 7.89, just under $.06/ounce. But the overall look of its package, as well as everything else sold under the Kirkland label (from hams to shampoo) doesn’t scream cheap. Rather, it communicates elegance, pairing simple, understated typography with attractive photography in an uncluttered composition. The image of leaves gently floating on water says “environmentally friendly” while the cheerful bright orange border around the label reinforces the “freshly squeezed citrus scent.” The clean white container evokes the sleek look of more expensive products without intimidating a value-conscious shopper. Even the logo is appealing, bold and direct, with a strong graphic presence. Overall, the branding effectively speaks to yours truly, who spends most of her time thinking about design, as well as to someone who just wants to wash the dishes inexpensively and doesn’t care about labels one way or the other.

The ironic twist is that even a design snob doesn’t keep 135 ounces of dish soap out on the counter, no matter how much she admires the packaging. As before, some is transferred to a smaller container and the rest is stashed under the sink. But I still have to look at it, sometimes, and at least it’s not hideous. A victory of sorts.

Lewis photo copyright Joel Ryan/Associated Press via New York Times.

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Trois Couleurs trilogy is not only his cinematographic tour de force, but is also a collection of well-choreographed objects. The mélange of objects that star in the film build bridges of memory through color and shape and place. Because of the blur of blue, white, and red that appear throughout, this essay employs a series of circular charts derived from the cataloguing of all of the objects that appear in the films.

But first, have a look at a scene from each part:

Bleu
An Alpha Romeo crashes into a tree in the countryside. This accident immediately starts a series of actions and objects in motion. Smoke pours from the hood of the dark grey car, a dog runs across the road, a beach ball blows across the field (blue-white-red-white-yellow-white), and white papers spill into the humid air. Sorrow and desolation hang in the atmosphere, but for Julie they will not last forever.
Bialy
Karol gazes at the shape of a white portrait bust of a woman across the room. Half eaten toast remains on a white plate with a knife, next to an unfinished glass of wine. He bends to the floor and picks up the receiver of a white telephone. All he wants is to hear her voice, but she hangs up. He’ll have to do something drastic now.
Rouge
Valentine receives a phone call: an invitation to go bowling. While she tosses a red ball down the red-walled lane, a couple leaves. A broken glass of beer, a crumpled and empty cigarette pack, and the last cigarette smoldering in the chrome ashtray are the only items that remain from the couple’s night out.

Critics say there is an overwhelming number of blue, white, and red objects in all of the films. It’s true: there is an intense amount of symbolism and complexity in the placement of every coffee cup and the timing of every car that passes. But Kieslowski has not overdone it. Rather, he has carefully assembled the elements to form experiences that feel like personal memories for the audience, as if these events are happening to them and not on the screen.

With Bleu, the audience is crushed by the weight of the beginning sequence (as described above.) Sadness hovers over the main character, Julie (Juliette Binoche), for a majority of the film. Melancholy clouds her vision. The number of blue objects in the film is not the focus here, rather the magnitude of blue feelings is the more persistent element: the vastness of the blue pool, the memories associated with a blue candy wrapper, the cloudy blue light that appears whenever Julie hears music in her head, and the overwhelming power of blue reflections from a crystal chandelier. The list of items is short, but their meaning is highly important to the tale.

Objects in Bleu

Since the color blue stands out so insistently, red and white objects also have greater impact. It is also interesting to note, as the chart here demonstrates, that the number of white objects, in this part of the trilogy, far exceeds the number of blue and red objects.

To interpret the meaning here, it is important to understand the symbolism linked to each color.

Blue = Liberty or Freedom
White = Equality or Fairness
Red = Fraternity or Interconnectedness

These colors are equally represented in the French flag; Kieslowski wanted his trilogy to be symbolic of their meaning.

In applying these definitions to the context of the film, it is clear that Julie tries to separate herself from the belongings and memories of her former life. However, in the process of trying to achieve true independence from her past, she soon learns that her life cannot continue without making connections to the people around her. The message here is: complete freedom is impossible to achieve, because our connections to others and our responsibilities eventually unify us.

Dissimilar from Bleu, Bialy (“White,” in Polish) begins with a different kind of crash, one that is erratic and frustrating. The main character, Karol (played by Zbigniew Zamachowski) suffers through divorce proceedings with his French wife Dominique (Julie Delpy) after which he loses his home, his assets, and the woman he loves. After his tragic loss, he maneuvers through a series of comedic and peculiar tactics, all for the purpose of getting even with his ex-wife.

Objects in Bialy

The over-arching presence of the color of white is highly understandable in this film, whose plot not only deals with legality from start to finish, but also takes place in the snowy Christmastime of Warsaw, Poland. Purity and sterility are also a part of the symbolism of whiteness, but it is the build-up of an unexpected plan that makes it possible for a homeless hairdresser like Karol, to become a wealthy businessman in what seems to be a few short weeks. Kieslowski shows that anything is possible in an environment of equality.

In Rouge, the audience watches Valentine (Irène Jacob) and Auguste (Jean-Pierre Lorit) through a series of peeps into their apartments and onto the street that separates them. They do not even suspect how their lives will eventually intersect. But the viewer, or rather the voyeur, knows that somehow they will come together. It takes the involvement of books dropped in the middle of the street, a collision with a German Shepherd, a spying judge, an unfaithful girlfriend, and a ferry in the English Channel to finally link the two main characters who are already neighbors living in Geneva.

Objects in Rouge

Rouge is the culmination of the trilogy, both in message and literally in the conclusion. From the beginning, the film emphasizes chance, transportation, and communication through a series of images of telephone wires, repeated locations, and cars on the street. In this piece, Kieslowski uses so many red objects and so much symbolism that it is impossible to miss the meaning of the emblematic, even fetishistic, imagery.

The core of the trilogy is to draw attention to the colors of the French flag. At first glance, this may seem a bit odd for a Polish director. It is likely that Kieslowski’s obsession with France has more to do with the French government funding his films than any sense of connection he has to France or French people. However, it can be deduced that he found the French government far superior to the disorganization that fell upon Poland in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Objects in Trois Couleurs

In its entirety, Trois Couleurs employs the use of at least 190 blue, white, and red objects. In number, the red and white objects are more prevalent—one wonders if this was the intention of Kieslowski. Overall, Kieslowski employs all three films to draw attention to the importance of interconnectedness and equality. Additionally, it is important to consider the colors of the Polish and Swiss flags. Poland’s flag consists of two equal stripes of white and red while the Swiss flag is red with a white cross at the center. Counting each color equally in each the French, Polish, and Swiss Flag, that graph looks like this:

Colors in French, Polish, and Swiss Flags

It’s impressive how similar the last two graphs are to one another.

Another way to assess meaning behind the colors is to measure the significance of the most important objects in the films, including all colors involved. This study incorporates the following objects:

“Karol” flashing light sign @ salon
Auguste’s Jeep
Suspenders (2 – red + brown)
Ballet barre
Bottle of pear brandy
Volvo
Crystal chandelier
Bouquet of daisies
Door of the dispensary
Doors in veterinary office
File folder
Glass wall of Julie’s hospital balcony
Kitchen chairs (2 – red + white)
Candy wrapper
Painting in Olivier’s apartment
Papers (flying out of the crashed car)
Phone wires + circuitry
Pills
Ribbon on TV antenna
Rita’s leash + collar
Sculpture of woman’s bust
Unfinished glass of…
Word on box (Blanco)
Coffins
Fountain pen
Necklace with gold cross pendant
Wool blanket

In graphic form, these significant objects look like this:

It is clear that the red objects appear most often.

Overall, this series of charts demonstrates how Trois Couleurs emphasizes the importance of interconnection and brotherhood. Although it is possible that the director got carried away in using blue, white, and red objects, especially his use of red toward the conclusion, knowing the careful eye of Kieslowski was usually so calculating and well planned, it seems unlikely that the balance of blue, white, and red objects could have happened by chance. But Kieslowski probably wanted it to seem this way.

Trois Couleurs: Bleu, Bialy, Rouge were released in 1993, 1994, and 1994, respectively. Krzysztof Kieslowski co-wrote the films with Krzysztof Piesiewicz. Both Krzysztofs were natives of Warsaw, Poland. Kieslowski died in 1996 during open-heart surgery following a heart attack.