Latest news with #designstudio
Yahoo
01-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Project Runway' Returns With a Disney Princess Twist and a Shocking Exit!
Project Runway is back and better than ever! That's right. After two years, designers from all over the country are headed back to the design studio to compete in the hit design show hosted by none other than Heidi Klum herself. Woman's World recently got the chance to attend an event centered around Season 21 of the show, and was even able to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous dresses featured in Episode 1, which just so happens to be Disney Princess themed. To discover all the magical details we learned and find out what happened in the show's highly anticipated season premiere, keep scrolling. What to know about the Disney princess-themed Season 21 premiere of 'Project Runway' August is National Princess Month, and what better way to celebrate than by watching a Disney Princess-themed episode of Project Runway? In it, the new designers are divided into two teams, one of which is tasked with creating a princess-themed dress, while the other is tasked with creating outfits for their counterparts, the villains. And while all the dresses were beautiful, one designer was sent home—and to make matters worse, this wasn't the first time this had happened to her. Caycee Black is a 44-year-old designer who first appeared in Season 19 of Project Runway. She was sent home after the first round of competition, which really upset her. 'Being eliminated in the first challenge, I didn't get to show who I was as a person, as a designer, as an artist,' Black said in the most recent episode of Project Runway. 'I'm just hoping to prove who I am.' Sadly, though she never got the chance as she was sent home after Klum, the judge and host decided that her princess dress design didn't fit the theme. 'It's very lackluster in terms of shape and everything,' Klum, 52, explained. 'I want to see more design. It's not inspiring.' Law Roach, another judge who is famous for styling Zendaya, told Black that 'I just think it was a miss because you had everything to make something so beautiful and so fairytale-like and you kind of missed it.' They then decided to send her home at the beginning of the second part of the season premiere and Black was devastated, especially because she thought her design was totally fine. 'I'm just in shock a bit right now. I actually really loved my dress,' she explained. 'Being in this position again, I never thought I'd be in the bottom three at this stage in the competition again. After being eliminated in episode one of another season, it just feels like a bad joke. I don't want to go home. I can't go home. I didn't get to show who I was as a designer.' Following her departure, Black then did a confessional interview where she detailed just how devastating it was for her to get eliminated in episode one again. 'I'm beyond shocked to be eliminated for this look,' she said. 'It feels harsh to leave at this stage of the competition again. Project Runway is an experience I will never forget, and I'm probably finished with as of now.' A look at the rest of 'Project Runway' Season 21 Season 21 of Project Runway will air every Thursday on Freeform—previously named ABC Family—at 9 p.m. EST. It will then be available for streaming every Friday on both Hulu and Disney+, a place where you can also stream previous seasons as well. For more entertainment news, keep scrolling! 'There's Just So Much at Stake': What to Know About 'Percy Jackson' Season 2 and the New Trailer 'Wicked: For Good' Trailer Details You Might've Missed—Like That Glinda Wedding Scene! Kristin Hannah's 'The Nightingale' Gets Movie Cast and Release Date: 'This Has Been a Long Time Coming' Solve the daily Crossword
The Verge
27-06-2025
- Business
- The Verge
Graphic artists in China push back on AI and its averaging effect
Sendi Jia, a designer running her own studio between Beijing, China, and London, England, says she mainly uses AI generators like DALL-E to make fake photos for background panels or websites when her clients don't have access to real ones. That's helped clients with limited budgets, but it's also exposed just how much of the creative process AI can replace. Recently, a potential client working in a university contacted Jia about creating the logo for a new project. Then, they changed their mind. They had used AI to make it, they said. Chinese graphic artists are rapidly experiencing the impact of image generators on their day-to-day work: the technology enables copycats and profoundly shifts clients' perception of their work, specifically in terms of how much that work costs and how much time it takes to produce. Freelance artists or designers working in industries with clients that invest in stylized, eye-catching graphics, like advertising, are particularly at risk. Long before AI image generators became popular, graphic designers at major tech companies and in-house designers for large corporate clients were often instructed by managers to crib aesthetics from competitors or from social media, according to one employee at a major online shopping platform in China, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from their employer. Where a human would need to understand and reverse engineer a distinctive style to recreate it, AI image generators simply create randomized mutations of it. Often, the results will look like obvious copies and include errors, but other graphic designers can then edit them into a final product. 'I think it'd be easier to replace me if I didn't embrace [AI],' the shopping platform employee says. Early on, as tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney became more popular, their colleagues who spoke English well were selected to study AI image generators to increase in-house expertise on how to write successful prompts and identify what types of tasks AI was useful for. Ultimately, it was useful for copying styles from popular artists that, in the past, would take more time to study. 'I think it forces both designers and clients to rethink the value of designers,' Jia says. 'Is it just about producing a design? Or is it about consultation, creativity, strategy, direction, and aesthetic?' 'You might get a good result, but there will inevitably be dozens or even hundreds of poor ones … Personally, I see [AI image generators] as more of a toy than a tool.' At ad agencies, for example, graphic designers work on comprehensive strategies for campaigns, aiming to create iconic, recognizable visual identities across a variety of formats. As such, AI image generators are less useful because they don't produce anything particularly unique, according to Erbing, a graphic designer in Beijing who has worked with several ad agencies and asked to be called by his nickname. 'Each project faces different problems, and designers are there to solve specific problems, not to create identical visuals,' he says. 'Sometimes, the process of thinking through a project takes longer than actually creating the visuals.' When faced with more complex tasks, AI's utility dwindles. Image generators are capable of creating many images, but that does not replace the work of understanding what an ad campaign needs to establish a visual identity and communicate what it is the client is selling and why people should buy it. Then, translating those concepts to the AI productively is its own challenge. Among graphic designers in China, there's a joke that using an AI image generator is like gacha, referring to addictive games where users spend money to receive randomized items and find out what they won. 'You might get a good result, but there will inevitably be dozens or even hundreds of poor ones,' Erbing says. 'Personally, I see [AI image generators] as more of a toy than a tool.' Across the board, though, artists and designers say that AI hype has negatively impacted clients' view of their work's value. Now, clients expect a graphic designer to produce work on a shorter timeframe and for less money, which also has its own averaging impact, lowering the ceiling for what designers can deliver. As clients lower budgets and squish timelines, the quality of the designers' output decreases. 'There is now a significant misperception about the workload of designers,' Erbing says. 'Some clients think that since AI must have improved efficiency, they can halve their budget.' But this perception runs contrary to what designers spend the majority of their time doing, which is not necessarily just making any image, Erbing says. Erbing, like other designers, hopes AI image generators can become more useful to graphic designers in the future, and notes that people's perception of their usefulness outpaces their actual application. In the meanwhile, it is twisting the clients' view of the usefulness of the artists themselves.
Auto Blog
17-06-2025
- Automotive
- Auto Blog
The $45,000 EV That Could Change Everything: Latest Rivian R2 Details Unveiled
Learn more about how Rivian is innovating its R2 mid-size SUV scheduled for release during the first half of 2026. Curious to hear the latest on Rivian's R2? Rivian announced its new R2 midsize SUV in March 2024, and now, the electric automaker has updated an eager public on the model's progress leading up to its planned launch during the first half of 2026. The car manufacturer's newest information on the R2 includes insider looks at the SUV's design studio, powertrain test lab, and electrical lab. Previous Pause Next Unmute 0:00 / 0:09 Audi A5 replaces A4: So, what's changed? Watch More Inside Rivian's design studio According to Rivian, its in-house design studio spent hundreds of hours creating sketches to form the R2. Rivian described the design studio as a space where creativity meets feasibility, and one of its primary challenges with the R2 was acknowledging and working with its cost constraints without compromising appeal. The automaker's design studio works on and approves solitary segments ahead of time so that there are 'no surprises at the end,' with smaller elements like a glovebox receiving high amounts of individual attention. All about the R2's drive unit, Maximus The powertrain test lab's highlights featured a closer look at Maximus, Rivian's in-house next-generation drive unit primarily serving in its upcoming R2 and R3. Improvements from the last drive unit, Enduro, include Maximus' smaller size, lighter weight, lower cost, and simpler manufacturing from reducing its fasteners by 30%. Maximus' inverter converting direct current (DC) energy to alternating current (AC) energy is now side-mounted, providing additional clearance for the lower R2. Rivian noted that the R2's drive unit uses a continuous winding e-machine, generating higher performance and further simplifying manufacturing by reducing the number of welds. According to its manufacturer, Enduro is 40% more power-dense than its predecessor, much cheaper, and easier to build—all of which facilitate scaling, something Rivian struggled with while producing its R1T and R1S models. Rivian said Enduro was its first drive unit to go immediately to hard tooling, meaning it went straight from digital designs and engineering to building production-ready manufacturing tools used for high-volume creation. Maximus is undergoing month-long testing in extreme high and low temperatures along with simulated rainfall conditions. Autoblog Newsletter Autoblog brings you car news; expert reviews and exciting pictures and video. Research and compare vehicles, too. Sign up or sign in with Google Facebook Microsoft Apple By signing up I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . You may unsubscribe from email communication at anytime. How Rivian's electrical lab helps form an R2 Rivian's electrical lab works on the R2's stack, or integrated hardware and software acting as the vehicle's brain. The automaker has spent the last few years vertically integrating its tech, and zonal architecture organizing electronics by location helps it design a stack entirely in-house. Rivian uses a midsize platform lab car for active R2 development and testing, where it can evaluate harnessing, endpoint devices, and everything on the low-voltage side that code from the SUV's brain touches. A Rivian mule bridges the midsize platform lab car stage and design validation builds just before mass production. One of Rivian's mules, 3.2, shows seats, screens, motors, and more that will be represented on the design validation build while still allowing design accessibility. Source: Rivian Final thoughts Last month, reports emerged that Rivian remains on track to sell the R2 for $45,000. A newly completed extension will house R2 production at the automaker's Normal, Illinois plant. LG Energy Solution's batteries for the R2 will initially come from South Korea before being sourced from LG Energy Solution's new Arizona factory. About the Author Cody Carlson View Profile
Telegraph
17-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Telegraph
Seven clever shoe storage solutions
'They're a literal trip hazard. You open the door, walk in, and the first thing you see as you come home after a busy day is a pile – or worse, a scattering – of shoes littering the hallway. Not only do they get in the way, but they manage to totally overshadow any sense of order or decorative decency you might have been trying to instil.' So says interior designer Irene Gunter, the founder of the London-based studio Gunter & Co and a big believer that shoe storage is one of the most important things you can build into a home. 'Clients rarely get excited about where they're going to put their shoes, and tend to be far more interested in paint colours, furniture and lighting choices,' she adds, 'but we factor shoe storage into any project as soon as we're starting on floor plans, because we know that without it a house will feel like a cluttered-up failure.' Yes, built-in shoe storage is the designer's favourite trick. The small touch that makes a big difference, alleviating the entryway shoe mountain and ensuring that there is a place for everything and that everything has its place. The good news is that shoe storage doesn't always have to be part of the fabric of a home. 'Sometimes we design or find a bench with a single-layer shelf for you to tuck your shoes on that you've worn that day, so they're at least out of view and not a stumbling block,' says Gunter. Read on for the six ways designers have factored shoe storage into their projects, and some well-heeled buys you can make that will have an equally transforming effect. The right angle 'We have so many shoes between us, and couldn't think of anywhere to put them,' says Margot Tsim, an interior designer, who requisitioned the under-stairs area in her home. 'I came up with pull-out drawers with angled shelving underneath the staircase so that they can be accessed easily, and we tried to maximise all the space available, even if it meant some of the shelf heights were slightly poky,' she says. 'The children's shoes can fit in the shallower shelves and the adult shoes can go in the taller ones.' Tsim's shelving was made from hand-painted MDF boards, as she 'didn't have a big budget to play with', 'but it has meant I can hide between 40 and 45 pairs of shoes, depending on their sizes,' she says. A joiner would be able to create something similar bespoke, or try a company such as Clever Closet, where under-stairs drawers start from around £1,200. Hide and sleek Designer Lindsay Bosonotto was working on a project where the entrance to the flat was in the basement – a dark room that was also a laundry zone, a walkway and, inevitably, a place to kick off shoes. 'It needed calm, order and a more thoughtful welcome,' she says. 'As it is a basement and ground-floor flat in a period property, there was no loft or existing built-in storage, so every square inch had to earn its keep.' With a background in aviation design, Bosonotto knew the value in hidden storage compartments utilising any bit of space she could find, so she turned each stair riser into a pull-out drawer, tucking a discreet seating nook by the front door so that the homeowners could take their shoes off in comfort. 'We used hard-wearing birch plywood to form the core of each drawer, and added hand-painted timber fronts that match the existing hallway flooring, for a seamless, built-in look,' she says. 'Soft-close runners ensure each drawer glides effortlessly, even when loaded. Discreet brass pulls, chosen to echo the hallway's other door furniture, sit neatly beneath each tread for a refined, unobtrusive finish.' Niche interest Initially, the above hallway, belonging to a client of interior designer Leoma Harper (@styletheclutter and @interiorsbyleomaharper), 'struggled with a lack of identity and function,' she says. 'It felt disjointed and dark, with awkward corners, bulky furnishing and a dated finish. Except for a couple of hooks, there was no storage, resulting in clutter gathering around the doorway. Shoes lined the floor, with nowhere purposeful to go.' Harper's redesign was all about creating storage while giving the space cohesion and a visual flow. 'Creating a little boot-room-style nook in the unused space to the side of the stairs, with a built-in bench for shoe storage and a practical spot to sit, was a perfect solution,' she says. 'Painting it all in the same tone as the bannister and walls (Slaked Lime Mid by Little Greene) helped it blend seamlessly with the rest of the new decor. The hallway feels a lot more spacious and welcoming as a result.' Space invader Irene Gunter made the surprising choice of eating into her living room's floorplan to create better shoe storage in her home. 'It was a very small front room, so we took some of it as hallway cupboards and the rest for the kitchen,' she says of how she reconfigured the layout to find space in her classic London Victorian house. Fabric-encased cupboards now flank the hallway, where there once was just a wall (and a pile of shoes), with shelves for shoes and hangers for coats. 'Shoe storage doesn't need to be as deep as normal cupboards – only 43cm [17in] instead of 65cm [25½in] – and you can get still get size 12 shoes into it,' she points out. She lined each shelf with Xylocleaf, a melamine with the texture of linen, that looks smart but is wipe-clean and waterproof – perfect for muddy boots. Gunter adds that good storage may not totally change your life, but it gives you a fighting chance to achieve order. 'I still have to encourage the kids to use it, and sometimes I don't have it in me,' she says, 'but it gives me a space to put shoes in before I go to bed each night so I come down to a tidy hallway every morning. It makes a big difference to my mood.' In the pink 'People ask me what my favourite room in my house is, and I always say the hallway,' says Emily Murray, an interiors writer who shares her home projects on the Instagram account @pinkhouseliving. Murray reconfigured the entire space to make multi-purpose shoe storage the star of her home. 'You used to open the front door and be met by a wall into a horrible bathroom and an old kitchen, which you could only get to by turning left and going through the living room,' she says. Knocking down the walls, making the hallway seem less congested, and building a bespoke storage bench front and centre, has been life-enhancing. 'It's comfortable to sit on, and it makes me smile to see it,' she says of the seat, which is covered in a bouclé fabric by Romo, under which are two deep drawers with brass trim handles, one for her sons and one for her, painted in Pink House by Mylands. 'I'll admit, the shoes often get thrown in rather than placed, but at least they're out of the way,' she says, adding that every so often it needs a declutter. 'The cleverest part is that the underfloor heating continues beneath the drawers, so it dries damp footwear in no time.' To the point The hallway isn't the only problem area for shoes, and interior designer Clare Gaskin likes to include space for them in her bedroom designs, to alleviate the messy lower levels of wardrobes. For one project in Kingston, south-west London, she was trying to make sense of a bedroom on a mezzanine level with a full-height apex ceiling that vaulted into the roof. 'While the room was full of natural light, it felt dated and lacked impact, and offered no opportunity to showcase the clients' extensive shoe collection,' she says. 'Most shoes ended up scattered on the floor due to the lack of dedicated storage.' A new layout included full-height, back-to-back wardrobes for his-and-hers storage, with a striking display wall of shoes at the end of a run of wardrobes. The effect, as she puts it, is 'turning functional storage into a design feature', so that the shoes – a passion of the owner – are displayed almost as works of art. Each shoe cubby has a mirrored back and has integrated lighting to increase attention. Hole in the wall For a project in Putney, south London, Gaskin found herself with another bedroom littered with shoes. 'An unused fireplace had become a dumping ground for anything without a home,' she says. 'With limited wardrobe capacity and a lot of clothes to house, there simply wasn't enough space for proper shoe storage, leading to overflow and clutter. The solution here needed to be quick, effective and budget sensitive. We sourced simple chrome shoe racks from John Lewis (that both extend and are stackable) that fitted neatly into the fireplace void, making use of wasted space in an unobtrusive yet practical way. It's a fun moment in the room, and proof good design doesn't always require a big spend.'
Travel Daily News
10-06-2025
- Business
- Travel Daily News
NewTerritory to lead brand experience transformation for LATAM
NewTerritory appointed by LATAM Airlines as brand experience and design partner following a global tender, marking their first collaboration. Project spans redefining LATAM's product design guideline and design philosophy to enable a number of future design programme launches. Aviation brand experience and design studio, NewTerritory, has been appointed as LATAM Airlines' strategic partner to deliver a wide-ranging and comprehensive transformation of its product design experience, following a competitive multi-agency tender process. Marking the first collaboration between the London-based studio and the largest airline in the Southern Hemisphere, NewTerritory will lead the delivery of LATAM's new product design identity and design philosophy, along with the supporting documentation that will shape all future design programme launches. As the sole partner for this strategic element, NewTerritory will define the creative direction and ensure it ties seamlessly across the entire passenger and employee experience, feeding directly into future developments and launches. The all-encompassing project begins with the creation of a comprehensive Product Design Bible – a foundational document that will define what it means to step into a LATAM space. From the check-in counter and airport lounge to the aircraft seat, this work will establish the core principles that guide every touchpoint in the passenger journey. This new design experience will then cascade into the development of a number of future design programme launches later into the year, including hard and soft products. Speaking on the announcement, Nadja Orwell, Director of Client Partnerships at NewTerritory, said: 'Flying may be more familiar than ever, and because of that, customer expectations continue to evolve with growing demand for personalisation, comfort and considered moments throughout the journey. 'For airlines, this means working harder than ever to deliver experiences that feel intentional, elevated and memorable to create moments that speak to passengers' emotional needs. 'That's what makes this partnership with LATAM so exciting. Starting with the Product Design Bible gives us a clear foundation to define what LATAM stands for as a brand – and to express that design DNA across future programmes, shaping the onboard journey for both passengers and crew. It's an approach that brings consistency, coherence and, most importantly, experiences that truly resonate.' Dominic Purvis, SVP of Product and Customer Experience at LATAM Airlines, added: 'NewTerritory demonstrated a unique ability to connect brand, design and customer experience in a way that felt both strategic and emotionally intelligent. Their creative approach and cross-sector insight made them the standout choice in a highly competitive process. 'This partnership marks a major step in our journey to deliver an elevated, distinctive and cohesive LATAM experience – one that reflects the warmth, diversity and vibrancy of Latin America while embracing innovation and human-centered design. We're not just enhancing the travel journey, we're crafting an experience that is emotionally resonant, culturally authentic and truly unlike any other, making it unmistakably LATAM.' Further details on the project will be shared later this year, with phased rollouts expected to align with LATAM's broader innovation and customer strategy.
