纯粹的设计和Abloh – Pure Design and Abloh

Summary and excerpt

Pure Capitalism; what is that?

Pure Socialism; what is that?

You enter into the house of a pure minimalist. What does that look like. So Pure. What is that?

Sacred and Profane? Pure as in sacred. Profane as in contaminated?

Welcome to Learner Centered Design Education, I am your host Soumitri Varadarajan. And the topic of this episode is “PURE Design and Abloh”.

Virgil abloh was an American engineer-architect-designer. He could explain the Hoover Dam, quote Koolhaas and share jokes that he had heard from Kanye West. He was the design director of LVMH. He has a fashion house in Italy. You are now probably thinking – whaaat! That’s an Abloh-ism. Sort of.

Who is? He studied civil engineering and architecture and 15 years later was the men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton and founder and CEO of Off-White. This ability to traverse genre and collapse hierarchies became his signature. He worked with Kanye West, Nike, Evian, Ikea, Vitra, and Mercedes-Benz. He designed album covers, buildings, sneakers, dresses and furniture. He made sculptures and paintings while directing music videos and holding DJ residencies.

Abloh passionately disregarded the long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual; for him, no discipline equalled freedom. He vehemently believed that there are no rules and that in the future, we won’t be able to see any defined edges of genres; instead, all categories will be allowed to inform each other. The result is an empowering vision of unchartered territories that holds vital space for a new archetype of what a designer can be and do.

Source: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/virgil-abloh-legacy-antwaun-sargent/

Transcript and Notes

纯粹的设计和Abloh – Pure Design and Abloh

Keywords

pure design, china, genres, enterprise, capitalism, architecture, access, LiShufu, Duan Yongping, George Zhu, Zhang Xin, Ai Wei Wei, Guo Pei, Wang Shu, minimalism, Pharrell Williams, Michael Graves, pure capitalism, pure socialism

Transcript

Yeah, pure capitalism. What is that?

A purest form of capitalism would be an enterprise that is like what you might have seen at the start of the Industrial Revolution. I heard somebody discussing this phrase a couple of days ago. And I said, that’s interesting. I’ve never thought of a pure version of capitalism. And then he went on to discuss how, when it’s completely pure, it’s essentially an economic enterprise. Its PURE profit motive. And, and you treat your workers quite shabbily. And if they are maimed, then you’re not there for them. You know, mining disasters or industrial disasters. Pure capitalism is where all the attention goes towards the holders of stock. It’s about maximising profits. It’s essentially going to spend money, but so long as it improves the profits. Let us say, it is possible to create in the abstract – the notion of pure capitalism.

Pure socialism would be, let’s say, a form of communism. Where workers rights are important. Where the enterprise is a collaborative between different stakeholders. Humans, some of them, own the enterprise. Some of them actually have the skills to contribute to the enterprise, but they are all shareholders of this collective. So it’s more humanistic – in that sort of sense. So you’ve got these two notions of pure. I think, I’m doing a disservice to capitalism. There may be a pure form of an enterprise of the workers – as workers owned. So there are no capitalists, there are no owners. It is a completely straightforeward worker owned enterprise. That’s an interesting one.

That’s an interesting deviation, because I actually have another podcast that I want to do about hybridities. Yeah. I’m sort of wandering off into that podcast, I should come back here. So so there exists a possibility of pure capitalism and pure socialism. It’s also possible that we can do a binary, you know, capitalism versus socialism, or capitalism is one and it’s polar opposite is socialism.

Now in design, we might not have capitalism or socialism, but we might have something called minimalism. So you enter into a house, that’s pure minimalist. You are going to a church. A church designed by Tadao Ando is pure minimalism. There isn’t even a dab of paint. It’s pure, naked concrete, and it’s pure naked wood. There isn’t a cross because you, you can actually cut the concrete and let in the light. Here the window is cut in the shape of a cross. So that’s pure, pure minimalism. And Japandi is not pure minimalism. It is a bit of this and a bit of that. But no, it’s not pure. So that is this notion of the pure.

So what is that? But since we’ve done the church, I’m thinking now, there’s also the binary of sacred and profane. So the church is sacred. It’s pure sacred possibly. And what is then profane, profane is where it’s not pure. It’s where there is a lot of impurity. You know, you’re a bit of this and a bit of that. So it’s sort of, it’s like the impurity as in contamination.

Yeah, so welcome to Learner Centred Design Education. I’m your host Soumitri Varadarajan, and the topic of this episode is Pure Design and Abloh.

I have been dragged into Virgil Abloh, Virgil Abloh. Virgil Abloh was an American engineer-architect-designer of Ghanaian ancestry. He was American, but his parents were from Ghana. He could explain the Hoover Dam or the construction of the dam. To me, he could quote from Rem Koolhaas, he could share jokes that he had heard from Kanye West. He was the design director of LVMH. He has a fashion house in Italy.

He was a lot of things. He was also the designer of the Air Jordan, so he had a Nike stint. So who is Abloh? He studied civil engineering and architecture I’m going to quote and read from a online article, creative review.co.uk That’s where I got this.

He studied civil engineering and architecture. He studied civil engineering and architecture and 15 years later, was the men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton, and the founder and CEO of Off White. This ability to transverse genre and collapse hierarchies became his signature. He worked with Kanye West, Nike, Evian, IKEA, Vitra and Mercedes Benz. He designed album covers, buildings, sneakers, dresses and furniture. He made sculptures and paintings while directing music videos and holding DJ residencies.

Abloh passionately disregarded the long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual.

Abloh passionately disregarded the long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual.We’ll pause here. There was a lovely intro to this episode, wasn’t it? He passionately disregarded the long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual. So essentially, I’m sort of pausing here. And then you can look at pure capitalism, pure socialism, minimalism. And then, of course, the sacred and profane. But he’s talking about genres. You know, industrial design is industrial design and fashion design is fashion design and architecture is architecture. You can’t have hybridities.

For him. “No-discipline equal”s freedom. There aren’t any disciplines. You might question, what universities are doing or some sort of companies are doing – they are hiring people into one or other discipline.

I have the Michael Graves, Alessi kettle. And Michael Graves was not an Industrial Designer. “Michael Graves, you are not allowed to design kettles, you are an architect.  Go work on buildings. What are you doing designing kettles?”

The coffee and tea service wares – which are post modern Alessi museum pieces – were almost all designed by architects. Oh, so architects are allowed to design furniture and architectural and design objects. Of course Abloh is an architect. And so he’s allowed to do whatever he wants.

He vehemently believed that there are no rules and that in the future we won’t be able to see any defined edges of genres. Instead, all categories will be allowed to inform each other I can see how ablow is fantastically liberating for an industrial design students saying that you can be genre busting.

The dangerous part of this is that Abloh is saying dangerous things. And if you are part of one church or the other – I’m now calling the disciplines as churches – then you can’t go to the mosque and the church at the same time or you can’t go to one and then to the other and say that – No, I believe in two faiths. No. That’s dangerous. People will be suspicious and you can get into a lot of trouble. Because yeah, “there is a long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual”. It is what it is.

You can subscribe only to one football team. It’s it’s going to be 1 PM. At 1pm is the whistle for the Collingwood game. I am a Collingwood supporter. I cannot be a supporter of any other football team. I would be unfaithful and people will find me contaminated somehow, you know, not pure enough. Not passionate enough. Yeah.

He vehemently believed that there are no rules and that in the future, we won’t be able to see any defined edges of genres.

So if you’re a student, are you allowed to be passionate about Abloh? And if you were to write that you’re passionate about Abloh in your report, then the person reading is going to go – what is the problem you’re solving?

Abloh was not solving problems. He was just being a designer. Very much in the nature of Bach, or Beethoven, or Dave Brubeck. So when my son learned music, he would play Dave Brubeck on the piano. And when you go to music class, you always learn the pieces of the masters. Is it okay in learning design, to learn from the masters? Or are we not allowed to do that? I think we’re not allowed to do that.

But it’s magical if you can learn from the masters. As for me; I imagine that my China scholarship, feeds my passion for the engineering, the innovation, the the complete, magical, sort of genre busting, way that technological collaborative innovation happens in China. I avidly consume this stuff. So I can hold forth endlessly about Li Shufu or Duan Yongping.

• Li Shufu, the owner of Geely, at one point the majority shareholder at Mercedes Benz, owns Volvo and Lotus and Polestar. I think he owns eight brands.
• And then there’s Duan Yong ping. I have endlessly bent my students ears about Duan Yongping. Duan Yongping is the owner of BBK. A magical magical fellow. So where Li Shufu was a mechanical engineer. Duan  Yongping is an electronics engineer, hardware engineer, who owns Vivo, Oppo and OnePlus.
• Now I’ve started to look at George Zhu. George Zhu has a company called Transsion that controls 60% of the mobile phone trade in Africa. And this company is coming into India in a big way.

Who are these people? And how are they so technically brilliant, not just a mechanical engineer, Not just an electronics engineer? How come you are so good at business? What’s going on? So yeah, fascinating, fascinating.

So you can learn from Dave Brubeck, you can learn to play Beethoven. You can potentially do Abloh. But you should try and do just him. But then, you can get into trouble? Because while in music you would learn from, you will learn the pieces of the masters. In some postcodes, you don’t actually have a tradition of learning from the Masters.

But for some reason I too am trying to to learn from the masters; about the Chinese manufacturing and design ecosystem or the ecology of innovation in China. I could do that same thing through reading the work of people who have researched this subject, That doesn’t inspire me very much. Because they using their own lenses. There could be supply chain people from the discipline of management, there could be economists, there could be political people. I don’t want to go into those kinds of texts – I don’t want to look at the ecologies in China through those lenses.

So I also – just like my son learnt Dave Brubeck’s work – do that. I use Li shufu. Li, as my anchor, teaches me a lot about product development. So I have got three of these people. To learn about how product manufacture and innovation happens in China.

Next, I can understand how 25% of all the significant buildings that were built on the planet have been built in China. Soho Beijing is a Zaha Hadid building. I’m not that interested in Zaha Hadid. But I am essentially interested in Zhang Xin, who was the person who visualised the project. She is the owner of the Soho chain of leased office real estate. And there’s a thing that she’s doing. It is her enterprise, her project. And she talks about how she wanted to bring in signature architecture into Beijing. So if you today look at photos of Beijing, at videos of Beijing, you Soho Beijing. So, I am interested in Zhang Xin to understand how projects like this get built. I want to know what is her ideology. What were her struggles and things like that.

I’m also looking at Gui Pei to give me access into China. She gives me access into a particular construction of fashion design in China. I’m looking at Ai Weiwei to give me access into the art scene in China. And so I’m looking at Wang Shu to give me access into the architecture studios of China.

Yes, Kengo, Kuma and Isozaki also have built in China. But I’m not looking at Kengo Kuma and Arata Isozaki for China. I do Kengo Kuma to get access into Japan.

Which seems to have brought me to some very odd point which is you. Yes, there is actually a specific person who is the intended audience of this particular podcast.

So you have now become an Abloh expert. You know, more about Abloh than anybody else, hypothetically, in Melbourne, or anybody else in the amongst the student community where you are currently located. It probably is not your express intention to use Abloh as a research subject to get access into West Coast design scene in the US. It is probably also not your intention to get access into LVMH. But it could be. Why not?

I mean, you’re at that door. Abloh opens a lot of doors. He opens the doors to black culture. What Pharrell Williams opened for me. He took over from Abloh, he’s the current director of design at LVMH. What doors do you want to open? Where do you want to look in?

For me to go into China, to understand specific aspects of China, I need these people. And then I stay with those people. I’ll stay with Duan Yongping. I’ll stay with the brands. I’m starting George Zhu now and Transsion. George Zhuis Shenzen based. For me, that was quite spectacular, because Li shufu is Hangzhou based. And that was also quite spectacular because I had a bit to do with Jeda which is Zhejiang University. I still have a little bit to do with them and one day I will go back. This for me is amazing. It’s spectacular.

So Abloh is a door and the fact that you’re holding the door and you’re looking in, means you own that material. But it’s very dangerous to do this. To study design by taking one person. But you have to declare it, saying this is what you’re doing. To read more.

Abloh passionately disregarded the long upheld sacred space of keeping genres individual. For him NO-DISCIPLINE equals freedom. He vehemently believed that there are no rules. And that in the future, we won’t be able to see any defined edges of genres. Yet instead, all categories will be allowed to inform each other. If you can do that, if that is what you’re doing, then you should believe in the Abloh philosophy this is this is totally fantastic. The result is an empowering vision of unchartered territories that holds vital space for a new archetype of what a designer can be and do.

So I am making this podcast for you to say, you too, can aspire in time. Now, whenever you’re going to get into so much trouble. You too can aspire for an empowering vision of unchartered territories that holds vital space for a new archetype of what a designer can be and do.

So are you aiming to be the embodiment of a new archetype of what a designer can be and do? You go for it?

But we need to talk about how you speak and give people access to a reasonably unformed but exploratory territory that you have said is so exciting. Thank you very much for introducing me to Abloh.

How did I miss Abloh? I am a bit into LVMH. I’m quite a bit into Nike. And he is the link to Air Jordan. And then Louis Vuitton. I’m doing Pharrell Williams, but in the middle. Is he the connective tissue?

And he’s an architect. And he says the most astounding things. So yes. pure genius.

是的，纯粹的资本主义。 那是什么？

资本主义最纯粹的形式是企业。 这就像你在工业革命开始时所看到的那样。 前几天我听到有人讨论这个词。 我说，这很有趣。 我从来没有想过纯粹的资本主义。 然后他继续讨论，当它完全纯粹时，它本质上是一个经济企业。 其纯粹的利润动机。 而且，你们对待工人的态度也很恶劣。 如果他们受伤了，那么你就无法在他们身边了。 你知道，采矿灾难或工业灾难。 纯粹的资本主义是所有注意力都集中在股票持有者身上的地方。 这是为了利润最大化。 本质上是要花钱的，但只要能提高利润。 可以说，抽象地创造纯粹资本主义的概念是可能的。

可以说，纯粹的社会主义是共产主义的一种形式。 工人权利很重要的地方。 企业是不同利益相关者之间的协作体。 人类（其中一些人）拥有企业。 他们中的一些人实际上有能力为企业做出贡献，但他们都是这个集体的股东。 所以从这个意义上来说，它更加人文主义。 所以你就有了这两个纯粹的概念。 我认为，我正在损害资本主义。 可能存在一种纯粹的工人企业形式——工人所有。 所以不存在资本家，也不存在所有者。 这是一个完全直接的工人所有的企业。 这是一个有趣的事情。

这是一个有趣的偏差，因为我实际上有另一个关于混合性的播客。 是的。 我有点走进那个播客，我应该回到这里。 因此，存在着纯粹的资本主义和纯粹的社会主义的可能性。 我们也有可能做一个二元对立，你知道，资本主义与社会主义，或者资本主义是其中之一，而它的极端对立面是社会主义。

现在在设计中，我们可能没有资本主义或社会主义，但我们可能有一种叫做极简主义的东西。 所以你进入一所房子，那是纯粹的极简主义。 你要去教堂。 安藤忠雄设计的教堂是纯粹的极简主义。 连一点油漆都没有。 它是纯粹的、裸露的混凝土，也是纯粹的、裸露的木材。 没有十字架，因为你实际上可以切割混凝土并让光线进入。 这里的窗户被切割成十字形。 所以这就是纯粹的极简主义。 Japandi 并不是纯粹的极简主义。 有点这样，又有点那样。 但不，它不纯粹。 这就是纯粹的概念。

那么那是什么？ 但既然我们已经完成了教堂，我现在想，还有神圣和世俗的二元关系。 所以教堂是神圣的。 这可能是纯粹的神圣。 那么什么是亵渎，亵渎就是不纯洁的地方。 这是有很多杂质的地方。 你知道，你有点这样，又有点那样。 所以这有点像污染中的杂质。

是的，非常欢迎来到以学习者为中心的设计教育。 我是主持人 Soumitri Varadarajan，本期节目的主题是 Pure Design 和 Abloh。

我已经被拉进 Virgil Abloh 了，Virgil Abloh。 Virgil Abloh 是一位加纳血统的美国工程师、建筑师和设计师。 他是美国人，但他的父母来自加纳。 他可以解释胡佛水坝或水坝的建设。 对我来说，他可以引用雷姆·库哈斯的话，他可以分享他从坎耶·维斯特那里听到的笑话。 他曾任LVMH集团的设计总监。 他在意大利拥有一家时装屋。

他有很多东西。 他也是 Air Jordan 的设计师，因此曾在 Nike 任职。 那么阿布洛是谁？ 他学习土木工程和建筑，我将引用并阅读一篇在线文章，creative review.co.uk，这就是我得到这篇文章的地方。

他学习土木工程和建筑。 他学习土木工程和建筑，15年后，担任Louis Vuitton男装艺术总监，以及Off White的创始人兼首席执行官。 这种跨越流派和瓦解等级制度的能力成为了他的标志。 他曾与 Kanye West、Nike、Evian、IKEA、Vitra 和 Mercedes Benz 合作。 他设计了专辑封面、建筑、运动鞋、衣服和家具。 他一边创作雕塑和绘画，一边导演音乐录影带并举办 DJ 驻场演出。

阿布洛（Abloh）热情地忽视了长期以来保持流派个性的神圣空间。

阿布洛（Abloh）热情地忽视了长期以来保持流派个性的神圣空间。 我们将在这里暂停。 这一集有一个可爱的介绍，不是吗？ 他热情地忽视了长期以来保持流派个性的神圣空间。 所以本质上，我在这里暂停了一下。 然后你可以看看纯粹的资本主义、纯粹的社会主义、极简主义。 当然，还有神圣的和世俗的。 但他谈论的是流派。 要知道，工业设计是工业设计，服装设计是服装设计，建筑是建筑。 你不能有杂种。

为了他。 “无纪律”

Summary 概括

Soumitri Varadarajan explored the concepts of pure design and Abloh, examining how Virgil Abloh’s multidisciplinary approach to design embodied the idea of pure design. Varadarajan discussed Abloh’s ability to transcend genre and hierarchies, noting his notable collaborations with various brands. He also delved into the concept of genre-busting innovation, citing examples of individuals who have successfully blurred the lines between different disciplines, and how Abloh’s approach to design is liberating for industrial design students but also dangerous as it challenges traditional boundaries of disciplines.

Soumitri Varadarajan 探索了纯粹设计和 Abloh 的概念，研究了 Virgil Abloh 的多学科设计方法如何体现纯粹设计的理念。 Varadarajan 讨论了 Abloh 超越流派和等级制度的能力，并指出了他与多个品牌的著名合作。 他还深入探讨了打破流派的创新概念，引用了成功模糊不同学科之间界限的个人的例子，以及 Abloh 的设计方法如何为工业设计学生带来解放，但也因为挑战了传统的学科界限而变得危险。

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Outline

Pure forms of capitalism and socialism, with references to minimalism and sacred vs profane spaces. 资本主义和社会主义的纯粹形式，涉及极简主义和神圣与世俗空间。

• Soumitri Varadarajan discusses pure capitalism and socialism, contrasting profit-driven enterprises with worker-owned cooperatives.
• Soumitri Varadarajan explores pure design and Abloh in architecture and design.
• Virgil Abloh, multifaceted designer and CEO of Off-White, studied civil engineering and architecture before leading Louis Vuitton’s men’s artistic direction and founding his own fashion house.
• Soumitri Varadarajan 讨论了纯粹的资本主义和社会主义，将利润驱动的企业与工人所有的合作社进行了对比。
• Soumitri Varadarajan 探索建筑和设计中的纯粹设计和Abloh。
• Virgil Abloh，多才多艺的设计师兼 Off-White 首席执行官，在领导 Louis Vuitton 男装艺术指导并创立自己的时装屋之前，学习了土木工程和建筑学。

Designer Virgil Abloh’s belief in genre-busting and the potential for hybrid disciplines. 设计师 Virgil Abloh 坚信打破流派和混合学科的潜力。

• Abloh disregards genre boundaries in design, embracing hybridity and freedom.
• Soumitri Varadarajan cautions against blending genres, warning it will lead to confusion and suspicion.
• Soumitri Varadarajan is fascinated by Chinese tech entrepreneurs’ technical brilliance and business acumen.
• Abloh 在设计中无视流派界限，拥抱混合性和自由。
• Soumitri Varadarajan 警告不要混合流派，警告这会导致混乱和怀疑。
• Soumitri Varadarajan 对中国科技企业家的技术才华和商业头脑着迷。

Fashion design in China through interviews with industry experts. 通过采访行业专家了解中国的时装设计。

• Soumitri Varadarajan is interested in understanding the Chinese manufacturing and design ecosystem through case studies of influential figures such as Zhang Xin, Ai Weiwei, and Kengo Kuma.
• He aims to gain insights into how projects like Soho Beijing get built and the ideology and struggles of these individuals in the Chinese art and architecture scene.
• Soumitri Varadarajan discusses his fascination with Virgil Abloh and cultural exchange.
• Abloh’s philosophy: no rules, no edges, unchartered territories for new archetype of the designer.
• Soumitri Varadarajan 有兴趣通过张欣、艾未未和隈研吾等有影响力人物的案例研究来了解中国的制造和设计生态系统。
• 他的目标是深入了解像北京SOHO这样的项目是如何建造的，以及这些人在中国艺术和建筑界的意识形态和斗争。
• Soumitri Varadarajan 讨论了他对 Virgil Abloh 的迷恋和文化交流。
• Abloh 的理念：没有规则，没有边缘，为设计师的新原型开辟未知领域。