Chicago Influences Archive for Event Planners regarding Food, Rental and Gift Ideas, Design Inspiration, Business Entertaining strategies and Decor trends

Chicago Influences Archive for Event Planning professionals looking to get inspired to host a trendy and memorable event complete with elegant invitations and within Budget

Chicago event planning resource directory

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GIFT IDEAS What to Give Budding Wine Snobs 7 Noteworthy Pad-and-Pen Sets for Meetings A Gift to Motivate Staffers Planners' Picks From the New York International Gift Fair   FOOD AND DRINK IDEAS Rosenthal Group Launches Eco-Friendly In-Office Catering Option Boka Partners' New Catering Division Catering Company Focuses on Local, Sustainable Ingredients Afternoon Delights: 5 Springtime Lunch Entrees Health-Conscious Cookies   DECOR AND RENTAL IDEAS A New Source for Natural, Unfussy Flowers A New Take on Fancy Draping An Iconic Modern Chair, Now for Rent 10 Fancy Forks 10 Innovative Lighting Ideas   BUSINESS ENTERTAINING What Are Some Crafty Takes on Teambuilding? 5 Cutting-Edge Performers     Influences Archive 09.22.09 8:00 AM New Louis Vuitton Book Focuses on Integrating the Brand and Art Jun Aoki & Associates' terrazzo façade of the Louis Vuitton Ginza boutique in Tokyo is embedded with translucent marble squares. Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion, and Architecture documents the iconic French luxury brand’s collaborations with leading international artists, architects, designers, and photographers. The 400-page anthology (with 400 color illustrations), out today from Rizzoli New York, includes an A-to-Z list of those who have worked with the company over the years—Vanessa Beecroft, Frank Gehry, David LaChapelle, Takashi Murakami, Stephen Sprouse, and Zaha Hadid, among others—on advertising, fashions, boutique designs, and commissioned art projects. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Louis Vuitton 08.10.09 9:00 AM Exploring the Latest in Green Design Ellen Lupton in the "Design for a Living World" exhibition galleries Photo: John Madere FROM NEW YORK The exhibit “Design for a Living World” at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York focuses on the work of 10 top designers (including Yves Behar, Maya Lin, Isaac Mizrahi, and Hella Jongerius), who were commissioned to create products made from sustainable materials from various regions. Even the show's installation makes use of green practices. We talked with co-curator Ellen Lupton about what eco-friendly design really means. The exhibit is on view at the museum through January 4, 2010, and then it travels to additional U.S. locations. What are some common misconceptions about green design? Green design has become a huge term that encompasses nearly anything—from herbal shampoo in a green plastic bottle to genuine innovations in solar energy. Designers, marketers, manufacturers, and inventors are looking at sustainability from every possible angle. Some of it's legitimate, and some of it's just green-washing. Almost all of it involves compromise, and I believe that the future of sustainability will necessitate give and take. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Going Green, Ellen Lupton, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Isaac Mizrahi, Maya Lin 07.27.09 8:00 AM Reality vs. TV: The Events of Gossip Girl The runway for the Eleanor Waldorf fashion show Photo: Warner Bros. Television Entertainment/Giovanni Rufino For fans of Gossip Girl, what the show’s characters are wearing and where they’re going can be as important as whom they’re sleeping with or scheming against. That focus on the visual creates the challenge and the charm of the job for Loren Weeks, production designer for the CW’s ratings-challenged but much-obsessed-over chronicle of pretty private-school kids on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It seems like every other episode has a reference to “the social event of the season,” so some of the show’s most lavish and labor-intensive sets are for events: school dances that likely don’t look anything like your prom or uptown benefits that could pass for the real thing. “They’re important to the show because we’re portraying a group of people who live in high society, in which there are lots of events,” Weeks says. These gatherings also spark pivotal scenes, when characters fight, kiss, or get caught doing one or the other. “Everyone needs a reason to get dressed up and come to one place,” says art director Malchus Janocko. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS The CW, Gossip Girl, Warner Brothers 06.15.09 5:12 PM A Look at Viral Marketing and Media Culture From the Creator of Flash Mobs Bill Wasik's book These days information comes at us from all directions, and constantly—what's new seems old quickly. In And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture, out this week from Viking Press, Bill Wasik, senior editor at Harper's Magazine, takes a look at the very young history of new media culture and its effects on society and marketing. As one of his case studies, the author explains how he originated the 2003 flash mob phenomenon, discussing how he sent a mass email directing a large group to form, spawning a fad and copycat mobs. Wasik also digs into examples of how companies and organizations go viral in the quest for buzz, from Ford's appropriation of the flash mob for a concert to promote a new vehicle to consumer-involved campaigns from companies like Diesel, Nike, and Procter & Gamble.   —Mark Mavrigian 05.18.09 8:00 AM 10 Insightful and Inspiring New Art and Design Books New Treehouses of the World, from Abrams Photo: Pete Nelson/Courtesy of Abrams MORE >> 03.03.09 8:00 AM Talking to Doug Jaeger, the Adventurous Marketer Who Ticked Off MoMA Last Week Doug Jaeger Photo: Gary Sloan Last week Doug Jaeger teamed up with New York graffiti artist Poster Boy to reimagine a Museum of Modern Art marketing campaign he had helped conceptualize—but the ordeal didn't sit well with MoMA. Before all this, and Jaeger lost his position with the museum, we interviewed him for our next magazine issue. Here's what he had to say. As founder, C.E.O., and creative director of New York-based branding and marketing firm TheHappyCorp and its offshoot LVHRD (pronounced “live hard”), Doug Jaeger generates unique ideas for events that explore new ways for people to interact and think creatively. Funded by a mix of sponsorship and ticket sales, his events include competitions that pit people from fields like fashion and architecture against each other and “cell phone lockdowns,” where guests either surrender their phones for the evening or rely solely on text messages to communicate. In March, an “un-conference” called WRK/PLY will explore the intersection of work and recreation. Jaeger is also the recently installed president of the Art Directors Club, and works with the Museum of Modern Art’s marketing advisory committee to help attract young, creative audiences to the museum. You seem to do these events just for fun. What do guests take away from your events? What we’re trying to do is inspire people by getting them connected to others in different fields. We’re trying to cultivate a cross-pollination between various disciplines in a way where one of those professions is showcased. The formula overall that we used to get where we are was to create competitions for people who were innovative in their fields, that got people who are the best at what they do to socialize; and from there, we built our audience. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Museum of Modern Art 01.19.09 8:00 AM Faythe Levine Examines the Indie Art and Craft Phenomenon Faythe Levine Photo: C. Taylor Faythe Levine is the co-author of Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design, a new book published by Princeton Architectural Press that she co-wrote with fellow crafter Cortney Heimerl. A polymath in the craft field—and a champion of indie artisans and designers—Levine operates Paper Boat, a boutique-gallery in Milwaukee, which specializes in handcrafted objects. A designer of postcards, accessories, and curious artistic objects, she set up the large-scale craft fair Art vs. Craft in 2004 and then got inspired to document the movement on film. The documentary Handmade Nation showcases more than 30 artists breathing new life into the craft community. How would you describe the craft phenomenon? I guess what I consider the D.I.Y. indie craft movement is a community of people who have the common goal of being creatively motivated and wanting to do things themselves, share information, network, and have an open dialogue about making. Why do you think there’s been such interest among artists and even untrained crafters to get involved in the movement? Sites like Etsy have made it incredibly simple for someone with access to a computer and a digital camera to have a Web shop. The accessibility and user-friendly aspect of that is a big part of it. People see artists and other makers doing things that they have the ability or skill [to do], or maybe feel like they want to try, and the whole point of the D.I.Y. movement is “Well, I can do that, too.” MORE >> 10.27.08 8:00 AM How Improv Stunts Are Inspiring Guerrilla Marketing Efforts Improv Everywhere's Charlie Todd Photo: Chad Nicholson After successfully posing as musician Ben Folds while his friend pretended to be a fawning admirer in a bar one night, Charlie Todd decided to stage stunts on a larger scale. He started Improv Everywhere in New York in 2001 with the goal of making people notice the world around them (or just smile). Todd and his team of “undercover agents” have since organized more than 70 public missions involving thousands of volunteers, which are filmed and shown on the Web. This past January, they captured worldwide attention with a spectacle that involved 200 people simultaneously frozen in their movements for five minutes in Grand Central Terminal. What’s more, the group’s efforts are influencing corporate events and marketing stunts: Todd, who has been consulting with corporate marketers for three years, advised Marie Claire for a recent Ray-Ban project. We spoke to Todd in between his teaching duties at the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy theater and planning his next public coup. How do you feel about people who copy your work? It depends on who copies our work. One thing that has been amazing to watch is what has happened with our “Frozen Grand Central” video. It got about 13 million views on YouTube. I get email from all over the world with links to videos of people freezing in place in China or South Africa or small towns in the United States. We’ve always been democratic about our ideas, but we appreciate it if there’s a mention that what they’re doing is inspired by us with a link to our Web site. MORE >> RELATED TOPICS Marie Claire, Ray-Ban 10.22.08 8:00 AM Jenny Holzer's Text and Light Installations Opening at M.C.A. Jenny Holzer's "Yellow Floor" Photo: Attilio Maranzano; © 2008 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society Starting Saturday, the Museum of Contemporary Art will house "Jenny Holzer: Protect Protect," an exhibition of the pioneering American artist's work. Holzer frequently positions text as art, and her body of work includes everything from street posters to LED light installations, as well as sculpture and paintings. New works will include "For Chicago," an LED floor installation configured at the M.C.A., which showcases phrases that the artist wrote from the late 1970s through the '90s. Outside of museum walls, Holzer's large-scale, text-based projections in public spaces transform their architectural settings. From October 29 through 31, the facade of the museum will feature outdoor light projections. Additional temporary projections will take place November 1 on the Lyric Opera and Riverside Plaza, the following night on the Tribune Building, and on November 3 on the Merchandise Mart. The exhibition ends February 1.   —Jenny Berg RELATED TOPICS Jenny Holzer 09.24.08 8:00 AM Fashion-Inspired Home Designs Come to the Merchandise Mart A room from DreamHome Fashion at Home. Photo: Wayne Cable for Cable Photo Tomorrow the fourth annual DreamHome installation, dubbed Fashion at Home, will take over the north lobby of the Merchandise Mart. Presented in partnership with Elle Decor, the design house features nine rooms decorated by local interior designers, each of whom plucked furnishings from Merchandise Mart showrooms and took visual cues from fashion trends and icons. On display will be a Coco Chanel-inspired bathroom designed by Sanjay Singhal from Sanjay R Singhal Professional Design. Grace Sielaff from M. Grace Designs decorated a modern living room in shades of gray, chocolate, and ivory. A kitchen, library, bedroom, foyer, home office, dining room, and terrace round out the design house. The rooms will be open through December 20, and a voluntary $5 entrance fee will benefit the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation Women's Board. 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