Airstream - the most iconic trailer of them all

The Airstream Trailer is the gold standard - the shape and style of which are immediately recognisable as unique, and no doubt the envy of all other trailers the world over. With a shape that recalls a time when things were simpler and there was more time to travel the open road, they retain a glamour that others can't touch. Perhaps it's the sleek shape, or the use of shiny aluminium - either way, one look at the design and you'd be forgiven for thinking 'There must be a good story there.' And you're right - there is indeed a great design story behind the iconic Airstream. According to the company's history (listed on its website): "In 1929, Wally Byam (shown above, outside the California factory) purchased a Model T Ford chassis, built a platform on it, towed it with his car to a campsite, and painstakingly erected a tent on it. The effort was tiresome and unpleasant, especially when it rained. Spurred on by his first wife Marion, Wally built a tear-drop-shaped permanent shelter on the platform that enclosed a small ice chest and kerosene stove." That. more or less, was the start of a company that became the definitive leisure trailer.

The Aluminum Airstream look: from concept to design icon

Once Wally Byam had relocated his factory to a rented warehouse (he'd made his neighbors crazy with all the racket), the basic design of the trailer shape, and its materials, were improved. In fact, Byam's famous motto was 'No changes - only improvements!'. In crafting the shape of the trailers, he looked to the design of the Bowlus 'Road Chief' and 'Papoose' trailers, designed by William Hawley Bolus, an engineer, designer and builder of aircraft and recreational vehicles. Byam worked for the Bowlus-Teller Manufacturing Co., which shut it doors two years after Byam joined the company - Bowlus's design formed the basis for Byam's Airstreams, and Bowlus went on to become the Superintendent of Construction for Charles Lindbergh's aircraft, the Spirit of St. Louis. With the basic design of the Airstream in place - and most importantly the internal frame redesigned to accomodate a door on the side and not forward-facing, the final shape and look of the trailer came into focus.

Sleek, shiny and aerodynamic - the quintessential trailer design

Thanks in part to a massive retro design revival, the Airstream now enjoys pride of place in the world of trailers, and it's no surprise. With interiors as well designed as the aerodynmic and 1930s-inspired curves of the exterior, the silver cigar shape continues to attract fans and collectors the world over take great pride in restoring originals to their pristine state (or for that matter converting them into design objects of a different kind, as at the Old Mac Daddy Luxury Trailer Park outside Cape Town). With solid construction that compliments the expertly designed exterior, the chances are the present resurgence in their popularity will continue for many years to come, and the design icon of the open road will easily sail past a grand century's worth of being the iconic dream trailer.

If you enjoyed this design article, take a look at the many others in our Great Design Monday archive! 

Battle of the Best: voting extended, top contest tees to be won!

You read that right - to give our Springleap designers even more recognition for their amazing work, we've extended voting in our annual Battle of the Best to March 13th! With 55 amazing designs in contest and a top prize of $5000 - our biggest, ever! - the stakes are high, but no way as high as the quality of the amazing designs!

Vote, Share and Comment to be in line to win!

Raising the bar even further, we're now offering our community of designers and design lovers a great incentive to engage with Battle of the Best - if you vote, share and comment on the designs in contest, you stand to win one of the top tees that takes the crown! Take a look at the awesome submissions, vote for your favourites and share the love with your social network, and you could be in line to take the tee you love home! And here's a tip - the most innovative sharing and commenting gives you the upper hand here, so get creative and get busy, because contest voting is open only until March 13th!

Roll up, roll up and share the love by showing our designs the recognition they deserve!

'Paperman' - an Oscar-nominated Disney Animation Studios short

Hand-drawn, computer-generated, animated and feelgood - that's 'Paperman', in a nutshell. Here's a reminder from the Walt Disney Animated Studios that, despite the art of cartoons having become as high-tech and slick as all other spheres of the moving image world, the simplicity and emotive qualities of simple hand-drawn animation still carries a powerful ability to communicate a great sense of feeling. At around the six-and-a-half-minute mark, 'Paperman' is a short that pays homage to the great Disney animaton legacy in many ways.

A simple story about love, and paper airplanes

This isn't a complicated animated art short - there aren't any subplots which could spark long-winded discussions by movie critics about the overarching themes of how two strangers are destined to meet. No - this is a classic story, told simply but very cleverly, using paper airplanes as cupid. George is a working man (it's a boring desk job) who sees a beautiful woman, Meg, at the train station. The wind blows, and all is set in motion. Are we telling you more? Sure, but we'll leave the great bits for the short itself!

Classic animation from the studio that started it all

Though only released last year (2012), 'Paperman' leans heavily towards the mid-century style of classic cartoon animation. The backgrounds and styling of cars, buildings and interiors is very mid-century urban USA, and the characters could easily have been plucked from any number of Disney classics (no surprises there). Down to the last detail, this is unmistakably a Walt Disney Animation Studios creation, especially the climax, which leans heavily on the bringing to life of inanimate objects, much in the style of 'Fantasia'.

With a whimsical effect that's built on tried and trusted animation themes (as well as using Meander, a custom-built software that seamlessly merges hand-drawn and computer-generated techniques) there's no surprise that 'Paperman' was nominated for an Oscar. Is it deserving? We'll let you decide - enjoy!

Credits:

Thanks for reading (and watching) - if you enjoyed this, you'll love our other featured Video Friday shorts - go here for more.

Charles & Ray Eames - Mid-Century Modern Design Pioneers

In the great, wide and wonderful world of design, the practicality of an item can sometimes be overlooked in favour of aesthetics - form and function might not always meet in harmony, and the result can often be more a creation destined to be focus of discussion rather than practical use. The same cannot be said for the creations of Charles and Ray Eames, the American couple who had such a strong influence on furniture design that as you read this, you might not have noticed that the chair you're sitting on was likely either designed by them in its original form, or was heavily influenced by a design of theirs.

Crisp, clean, modern and long-lasting - a classic design formula

Having independently developed a keen sense of design (Charles established an architect's practice in 1930, and Ray was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group in 1936), and both having been successful in their respective fields, it was when they met and married that their combined design skills began to make a long-lasting impact on the design and materials used in furniture manufacturing. In particular, their use of moulded components and curved lines had a strong influence on the genre that since come to be known as Mid-Century Modern Design.

Eames chairs - design icons across the world

Among Charles and Ray Eames's greatest designs have been those done for the legendary furniture company Herman Miller, which continues to sell a wide range of Eames chairs that remain very popular as high-quality office furnture. Chances are that if you're sitting in a swivel chair, one with a moulded seat, a welded frame or one which makes use of aluminium spider legs and rollers, that the chair may in fact be an Eames design, if not directly influenced by one of their designs. In the last ten years, original Eames chairs have become highly sought-after and can fetch crazy prices on auction.

Structure and practicality, combined to create durable design classics 

In the last few years, the super-clean lines of Eames design have seen something of a revival in interest, with Herman Miller re-issuing many of their iconic 1950s designed pieces, often with a contemporary update in the form of collaborations with design firms who have added their particular style (as in the pieces above, which are the result of a collaboration between Herman Miller and foundry House Industry). One thing's for sure - if you have an original Eames piece, you should look after it - it's a design classic which could one day be worth quite a pretty penny!

If you enjoyed this design article, take a look at the many others in our Great Design Monday archive! 

Murals, Wall Art, Street Art, Graffiti - we love it!

Down here in Woodstock, Cape Town, we're lucky enough to have a longstanding and healthy culture of street art, with some of the leading names in the game creating some truly awe-inspiring pieces. You can read all about that over here, but today's roundup isn't about local walls and neighbourhoods being brought to life, but a global cherry pick of a few of our favourites. First up is the piece you see above, a psychedelic reinterpretation by Eduardo Kobra of the classic end-of-WWII photo, 'The Kiss' by Alfred Eisenstaedt, painted in New York's Chelsea district (only a few hundred metres away from where the original photo was taken).

Next up, the amazing and entirely crazy work of Flying Fortress and Nychos The Wierd - truly, some of the most mind-bending wall art you're ever likely to see. These guys are constantly creating collaboration pieces all over the world, and they always seem to feature their trademark exploded anatomical views and seriously kaleidoscopic colours, as in this piece from Brooklyn. Mad? As a hatter, but damn! So good looking. 

No review of outstanding global wall art would possibly be complete without the addition of one the biggest names out there - Aryz. He's arguably one of Barcelona's finest, and a legend in his own right, with a pastel palette that's always a little haunting, but in the very best way - his work makes you think. With huge pieces dotted all over the world and now making a success of gallery exhibitions, he's a king in this little rogue's gallery right here! 

Lastly, no post on the subject could leave out the incredible work being done by Etam Cru - consisting of two Polish artists (Bezt and Sainer), this crew have created some of the most well-known large-scale pieces out there, and in their own little way have contributed to uplifting public opinion on wall art and street art as a whole. Which is why we're leaving you with a last close-up (that's a relative term, here) of the amazing girl created by Sainer in the image above (the guy riding the green elephant with balloon is by Bezt). These two pieces were created for the Urban Forms Festival in Lodz, Poland, last year.
 

Thanks for reading - if you'd like to see more on the topic of street art here on Springleap, take a look here, here and here.

Cheers!

Travis