Base partner Geoff Cook first met artist Randy Moore over a decade ago when Moore was helping out at the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco. Soon after, Moore moved to New York City and the two struck up a friendship. Cook and his partners in Base soon became avid collectors of his work and enthusiastic supporters of his efforts, designing a catalog for his show at Sperone Westwater and sponsoring his performance piece, “Death Drive,” a 78.1 mile bicycle ride through the heart of Death Valley. Moore’s work, which varies as much in subject as it does in the media used to make it, may be pop on top, but always carries with it a firm conceptual backbone.

Base: Where are you from?
Randy Moore: California… all of California. Monterey to San Luis Obispo to San Francisco.

B: San Francisco being when you went to school?
RM: Yea… when I went to SFAI.

Phonetic Randy_chewing gum on wax, Wrigley wrapper frame

B: What was SFAI like at that time?
RM: It was much smaller than what it is today. They weren’t having a money meltdown and just letting in any 18 year old like they are now. It was more about people with life experiences than just about people who could pay the tuitiion. Our total class size was about 500 people and included Barry McGee, Jason Rhoades. It was an interesting time.

B: Why was it an interesting time to be in San Francisco?
RM: Honestly, I don’t know if it was an interesting time in general. But for me, coming from a small town, it was. Back then nobody thought you could make art as a career. You could teach, but that was about it. So people went there to pursue something but perhaps didn’t know exactly what. There weren’t any young artists who we could use as references. There was the Neo-Geo artist movement with Jeff Koons, but that was really about it. No one was thinking about going into art to make money.

B: What did you do after school?
RM: Started doing my own work. Worked odd jobs a day or two a week…

Randy Candy_chewing gum on wax, Wrigley’s wrapper frame

B: But always linked to art?
RM: Yea. Installing art, in a museum, collections… whatever to pay the bills. Rent back then was, like, $250. That was SF pre-dot com. Everything was still cheap. In the early 90’s, the economy wasn’t that great, either.

Freud’s Outline_chewing gum on wax

B: What was your first body of work? What was your starting point?
RM: When you get out of school, you want to unlearn everything that you’ve learned. I needed a starting point. I questioned everything I’d ever learned. Language became important. The formation of personal identities, either through cultural or autobiographical experiences was of particular interest. I began to question the basic notions of the cultural we’re brought into and our systems of beliefs, especially popular psychology such as Freud. It was at this time that I started using Wrigley’s chewed gum in my work. This was related to Freud’s psycho-sexual stages of development, oral being the mouth, anal being the waste product…

Double Your Pleasure_chewing gum, Wrigley’s wrapper frame

B: The waste product?
RM: Yea, gum is basically a polimer with flavor and sugar, all of which becomes waste. There was also personal reason I used Wrigley’s. At that time, Wrigley’s used twins in their ads. Remember “Double your pleasure?” Well, my mom was a twin, so I always found the notion of twins in pop culture fascinating. Perhaps a sort of Oedipus complex…

B: You often reference popular culture in your work.
RM: Yea. In the case of Wrigley’s, it’s a mass produced product that is easily consumable and available to everybody.

B: What did these gum pieces look like?
RM: At the time, I was thinking about the construction of an identity with what we were first given: a name. Many of these early pieces therefore utilized my name, “Randy.” I was wondering if a name predisposes a person to any personality traits or phonetic dispositions. Also, the gum is related to oral language in that it’s formed in the mouth.

Play on Randy_chewing gum on wax, Wrigley’s wrapper frame

B: And about what year was that?
RM: 1990-1994.

B: And that was about the time you were working at the John Berggruen Gallery?
RM: Very loosely… about a day a week.

B: So those gum pieces related to your name were the first body of work… then?
RM: That led to the Robin series.

B: “Robin” as in “Batman and Robin?”
RM: Yea. “R” was the first letter of my name. Cartoons are a great way of socializing kids, and Batman and Robin in particular is a moralistic tale that teaches good vs evil in very simplistic terms. On a different level, the work was about role playing, trying masks. These characters are identities we try on as kids.

Robin suit

B: You once said to me, that the periods of your work reflect the periods of your own life?
RM: It relates to Freud in relation to my own development. Gum was oral, anal and the phallus… three phases of Freud. After that is latency. The Robin work falls there. Role playing, the mask. Exploring other identities while burying your own. Or! Perhaps how putting on a mask allows you to bring out another identity. There are a lot of possibilities about how to read the work. Masks have been used throughout history. Like Halloween, which is sort of a sanctioned break with life’s everyday realities where one gets to act out latent impulses.

B: There was one piece that everyone remembers in particular…
RM: The suicide video? Robin’s leap into the void from SF MoMA’s catwalk?

Robin Suicide Movie

B: What was that about?
RM: Besides the art historical reference, it was a way to put an end to the Robin character. It was a way to kill off adolescene, a way to move into Freud’s genital stage.

B: Meaning?
RM: When you turn the R on Robin’s chest upside down, it mutates into the playboy symbol.

Stay tuned next week for part 2 of this interview.

For more information on Randy Moore and his work, contact the Sprovieri Gallery, London.

BaseWords is the writing division of Base. We write anything from commercial copy to essays and stories, grocery lists, and emails to friends and family. Each Wednesday we try to post some of our work on BaseNow. This week’s installment takes its inspiration from the world of oral hygiene.

I went shopping for toothpaste yesterday because I ran out. Choosing a toothpaste was much harder than I remembered. There were so many options! There was one tube with whitening, one with cavity protection, one with fluoride, one with baking soda, one with Scope, one with sensitive teeth protection, one with tartar control. Then all the combinations. One with tartar control plus Scope, one with cavity protection plus whitening, one with baking soda plus fluoride, et cetera. Phew!

When I saw all the different pastes to control tartar, I must say it worried me a bit. It had never occurred to me that my tartar may be out of control. Probably because I didn’t know what tartar is. I still don’t, because that was only yesterday. But I’m going to look it up online when I get the chance. I guess tartar is the same kind of thing as viscosity breakdown—don’t know what it is but it doesn’t sound good. When I saw a toothpaste dedicated to controlling tartar I figured maybe it was something I should look into. I mean, my tartar could be through the roof and I wouldn’t even know it! For all I know, people are talking about my tartar problem this very minute! Anyhow, I was ready to spring for the tartar control, but I wanted the other toothpaste features too. Why did I have to choose one level of care over the others? I mean, did I have to buy seven different toothpastes to get comprehensive protection? Because that would be plum crazy.

As I was weighing my options I noticed something called Crest Multicare toothpaste. It was sitting inconspicuously right there on the shelf with the others. I picked up the box. Lo and behold, as the name implies, the Multicare gives you several different kinds of care in a single toothpaste! When I first saw the Multicare I thought, “Awesome!” I looked at the price. It was the same as the others! I would have expected to pay more for more protection, but no! Why hadn’t I heard about this Multicare before?! I figured with all its features that the Multicare must supersede all the other flavors, and that those must now be moot. Surely those unicare pastes must be old stock the pharmacy was liquidating. “Who in their right mind would choose a toothpaste with only one or two layers of care when they could get the Multicare for the same price?” you’re probably asking yourself.

Exactly.

I asked a clerk why they had the Multicare and still all the other ones. I explained it to him. He said he didn’t know but he understood what I was saying. Those were the regular flavors. He said people bought all of them. I asked him how long the Multicare had been out and he said he wasn’t sure, a few years he thinks. I asked him why people wouldn’t just buy the Multicare to cover their bases. He didn’t know. He said maybe they just didn’t know about it. So I suggested they run it as a manager’s special, put it on an end cap up front in between feminine hygiene and HBA. Let people know about it rather than have it tucked away on the shelf with all the unicare pastes. He said he’d talk about it with his manager. I asked him what toothpaste he used. He said he usually used cavity protection but was going to switch to the Multicare to get the extra levels of care after he was finished with his current tube, which unfortunately for him he just bought.

Just as the clerk walked away, I saw a lady pick up a two-pack of the whitening, sitting right there on the shelf next to the Multicare, and put it in her basket. I couldn’t believe my eyes! What’s more, the two-pack was $5.49 when a single tube of the Multicare was only $2.49! I mean, how stupid can you be?! Out of courtesy I told her about the Multicare and the price thing. I asked her why she didn’t just go with the Multicare to get the extra coverage and she said she wanted the whitening. I explained that the Multicare has the whitening built in, plus all the additional layers of protection. But her husband likes the whitening. I told her they even make a Multicare with whitening! I showed her the box. I told her surprise your husband. But she said she just wanted the regular whitening, that’s what she buys. Obviously she didn’t understand what I was saying so I spelled it out a little clearer. I’m really good at math so I told her why pay $0.443/ounce for the whitening, when you could get the Multicare for $0.401/ounce! And I showed her that the Multicare even came in a gel with sparkles for the kid in all of us. Then I told her think about all the extra levels of dental care you could be getting, and for less money no less! I told her you do the math. I told her think about all the money you could be saving in toothpaste, let alone dentist bills. Not to mention wear and tear on the car, back and forth to the dentist all the time. Those little things add up. My old math teacher used to say that. Mrs. Fishsniffer. She had a terrible personality and wasn’t afraid to use it. Around the holidays she made us sing carols in class. I saw a kid get beat up for singing once so I just sort of hummed with my mouth open. Kind of like a ventriloquist.

Anyhow, I asked the lady in the store if it ever occurred to her that her tartar may be out of control. I asked what were her plans for fluoride and cavity protection. I told her if you want to throw your money and dental hygiene out the window, who am I to stop you. I asked her what good she thought her pretty little white teeth would do her if they were all full of holes and were covered in disgusting yellow tartar. (Is it yellow?) As she backed away I looked for the clerk who had agreed with me for support but he was nowhere to be found. The lady must have known I was right; how could she argue with the logic? It’s as plain as the nose on her face! (Damn, I should have used that one.) But sadly, her stubborn pride and devotion to routine ultimately won out. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but if that horse isn’t thirsty, it just won’t drink, no matter how hard you try to get it to.

A new era in toothpaste is upon us. But people are resistant to change, even when they know it’s good for them and their teeth. If people want to get the most protection in a toothpaste for their money, they need to consider their options. They have got to keep an open mind! I must admit I was a little sentimental about leaving regular toothpaste behind. But now that I’ve been using the Multicare for a day, I don’t think I can ever go back. And why should I? I mean, why would you buy a car whose only amenity is an AM radio with the antenna in the windshield, when you can get the same car with a tape deck, CD player, heated seats, rack-and-pinion steering, and one of those robot-arm drink holders for the same or lower price? I just don’t get it. I rest my case.

At the end of last week we presented our identity design proposal for the new Greene Hill Food Co-op in Brooklyn (due to open in fall 2009) to a group of co-op members ranging from VPs to chefs, architects to computer programmers, grad students to lawyers. Greene Hill is one of the most collectively diverse clients we have worked with. And because of the co-op’s non-hierarchical structure, every one of its members has equal say in the development of its identity, along with what products it carries, where it is built, and how it will operate. So it was considered quite a triumph when the design was approved with an unanimous vote by all 27 co-op members in attendance at the meeting.

We used the co-op’s guiding principles as the foundation for the identity, pulling out key words: welcoming, community, affordable, diversity, eco-friendly, healthy, fresh. The identity design is based on the idea of coming together because a co-op is where neighbors, farmers, merchants, and food come together to make quality organic, local food available at lower costs.

Built from pieces that fit together

To translate that idea visually, we referred to the way pieces of a puzzle fit together. But rather than using typical jigsaw puzzle shapes we created five squares with interlocking nubs and divots that have a more abstract, plant-like, organic feel. These pieces are the building blocks for the identity and will be used to create all of the applications, much like all the different parts of the community come together to create the co-op.

Words and shapes come together

A simple system that is easy to use by non-designers was needed since so many different individuals will work with the various applications. The pieces can be combined in a multitude of ways with type and imagery, so there’s never really a right or wrong way to put parts together, including the logo.

Variations on logo composition

In the coming weeks we will begin implementing the new identity with the website, newsletter, e-mails, flyers, and posters to help garner enthusiasm and support to get the co-op up and running.

Paneles, vinilos, cartelas, banderolas, anuncios prensa… Todas las aplicaciones evocan el espíritu irreverente y la pluralidad de Beautiful Losers, grupo estadounidense de artistas visuales formado a principios de los 90 cuya forma de expresión gira alrededor del Do It Youself, de la calle, los skaters, los graffitis, el punk, el hip hop… Puedes descubrirlo por ti mismo en La Casa Encendida, tienes tiempo hasta el 4 de enero.

Noticias relacionadas: Vivienda y Espacio doméstico en el siglo XXI,
Happy 80th Birthday, Andy Warhol!

      

Beautiful Losers. Arte actual y cultura urbana. La Casa Encendida

women’secret ha lanzado w’eau, una nueva eau de toilette creada por Idesa Parfums. El naming
es made in BaseWords, y BaseDesign ha trabajado en el packaging y en el diseño de la botella
junto al diseñador industrial Martín Azúa.

El nombre w’eau fusiona sencillez y frescura evocando el carácter cosmopolita de women’secret, 
su subnombre ‘garden’ añade sensación de naturalidad y belleza.

El frasco se inspira en formas orgánicas, sus cantos redondeados proporcionan calidez y adaptabilidad a las manos y al cuerpo, invitando a sentir su tacto. La opacidad del vidrio pintado en blanco contrasta con la transparencia de su contenido, escondido en su interior como un secreto.

El packaging es un juego de luz y color que funciona como oposición y complemento a la simplicidad del frasco. El color se desdobla en distintos tonos repartidos entre las diferentes caras de la caja, simulando diferentes impresiones de luz. Un juego de luces y sombras que bajo la influencia de la iluminación artificial aumenta su fuerza creando contrastes atrayentes. 

Noticias relacionadas: women’secret Says It with a Smile, Summer at the Beach with women’secret,
Las Tiendas women’secret Cambian de Look.

In yesterday’s Sunday edition of the NY Times, the stylish T magazine recommended BozarShop as one of eight “must see’s” on any Brussels tour. BozarShop is co-owned by Base, publisher Actar, and the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

Click here to see the full story. Click section “The Goods,” article “Style Map: Brussels.”

If Humphrey Bogart’s Rick Blaine could be brought to life in modern day New York, he might very well be reincarnated as John McDonald. A dashing entrepreneur with boundless ambition, McDonald has built an empire that includes several downtown restaurants and bars, beverage company EBOOST, internet property Tasting Table, and City magazine (to which BaseWords has contributed). We grabbed John for a quick discussion about how he makes it all work.

B: You have other partners in your businesses… if memory serves, Steve Hansen and now Bob Pittman as two examples. What do you look for in a partner? What’s the key to maintaining healthy partnerships?

JM: I brought Steve the Dos Caminos concept and helped in the early years to develop that franchise. But it was Steve’s long-standing expertise and operational power that really made the difference. As with Bob and Pilot Group, I prefer to look for situations where they can make the idea much better and fill the gaps where I know I would possibly fall short.

City magazine

B: City magazine—standard to rooms in W Hotels around the country—has done its own thing since day one. Graphically, it was generous when other books were spare. The content has always had a distinctive point of view that was not readily categorizable. Was it difficult in the beginning to buck the trend and do your own thing?

JM: From day one we really just did what we wanted to do. Not having to try and compete on a mass level meant that we could do whatever and I was never concerned about backlash. As I look back I know I made some major mistakes but only now do I realize that.

B: What is the future of the magazine business?

JM: In print I believe it will move to where magazines become even more niche and have higher production values that add to the physical experience of stories that need context to communicate and cannot do so online as effectively. Information magazines will have to be only online for that matter. There is no doubt that print on the whole is shrinking but you cannot replace the feeling of sitting down on a sofa or lounging poolside with a great magazine.

B: Last year you were behind the (re)opening of Brasserie 44 at the Royalton Hotel. Have you ever thought about getting into the hotel industry?

JM: For the most part, no. I used to think so but I really don’t know what I would do now that would be unique and have an impact. Just designing a pretty hotel and having great service doesn’t excite me.

EBOOST Case

B: Are there other sectors you’d like to dive into?

JM: Considering that two years ago I would not have guessed I would be in the EBOOST or Tasting Table business, I am not sure. Nothing comes to mind yet but tomorrow is another day.

B: What’s the story with EBOOST? How did it come about? How do you plan to compete against the other beverages in that highly competitive segment?

JM: I was a huge fan and user of many European effervescent vitamins and realized nobody was doing the same thing here with an aggressive branding and marketing approach. EBOOST is both a daily vitamin and ultimately a beverage company but we don’t have the negative issues that the usual beverage company would have (i.e. storage, shelf space, shipping). When you look at Vitamin Water for example, they sell the idea of health yet if you dissect the product it is closer to a soda, with 160 calories. With EBOOST, the consumer makes it happen, watches it fizz and the degree of efficacy is high. And, by the way, it’s only 5 calories.

EBOOST Packet

B: Who are your heroes? The people you looked up to as a kid?

JM: Other than family, I was always into sports starting back at the age of like seven, so I had coaches and athletes that I looked up to and admired. It may sound too simple but I most admire people who achieve total excellence in their field.

B: How do you get your information? Weigh, for example, TV vs. online vs. magazines/newspapers vs. word of mouth.

JM: Mostly a good combo of the latter three. TV really doesn’t factor in so much when it comes to information.

B: What do you do in all that spare time?

JM: I never notice when I have spare time but there is nothing better than sitting on the bench on Mercer Street on a sunny afternoon, people-watching.

Chinatown Brasserie Bar

B: Where do you live and how would you describe your apartment?

JM: Downtown NYC. I’d say I live with only the things that I really truly love and value. Zero clutter or random meaningless items but not in a zen-like manner.

B: With the recent economic problems, have there been tangible ramifications in your ventures, which tend to be high-end?

JM: There is no doubt there is going to be an adjustment. At the end it will be a matter of survival and who does their job the best will be the one standing when it turns around.

B: What does your future hold?

JM: I don’t like making plans.

Read part 1 of this interview.

The Word, a magazine about “neighbourhood living and global style,” has commissioned paper sculptor Christopher Coppers to create a work using some of its old issues. The piece will be featured in a three-work Coppers exhibition at BozarShop in Brussels that will kick off with an opening reception this evening, November 7.

The project coincides with The Word’s Essential Luxuries issue. As Editor in Chief Nicholas Lewis explains, “We thought that the essential luxury was to have an artist create a work of art for us. The idea of working with an artist whose work we love was appealing, and the fact that Christopher works with magazines made it even more appropriate.”

Coppers in the past has used as a medium many different magazines, including Playboy, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and our now-dormant BEople magazine (pictured here). While Coppers has frequently made his art with a single magazine issue, his work has included large-scale paper pieces that he shapes with a chainsaw.

Coppers says of the exhibition at BozarShop: “I wanted to portray very different ways of representing the same object. The first piece is called ‘construction’, a three meter-high spiral of magazines which, from its well defined structure and perfect symmetry, represents a vision of limited grandeur. The second piece is called ‘(de)construction’, portraying the absolute opposite of the first piece. It is a huge mountain of waste, which represents decadence, perfection, and excess but which can continue to feed itself indefinitely. The third and final piece is the work commissioned by The Word, which I am very proud of.”

Coppers’ work will remain on display at BozarShop until November 30. Stay tuned for photos of the exhibition.

Several issues of our BEople magazine have been given the Coppers treatment

Multi-talented French actor Juliette Binoche and British dancer–choreographer Akram Khan have collaborated on a new dance work that incorporates music, singing, and acting. Akram, who acts and plays guitar in the performance is admittedly inexperienced in both pursuits, and Binoche is known for many talents other than dancing. But as Binoche explains, “What we had in common was our fire for the new.” The pair co-direct and co-perform In-I, which debuted in September in London and comes next week to Brussels’ La Monnaie, the Belgian National Opera.

Binoche and Khan in In-I [photo: Tristram Kenton]

The set is designed by artist Anish Kapoor, whose photography we incorporated into La Monnaie’s program for fall 2008. As part of our ongoing work with La Monnaie we’ve designed the poster and program for the event, at La Monnaie from November 11–13.

As part of our on-going work with Barnard College, the prestigious women’s college in New York City (in partnership with Columbia University), we designed a series of construction barrier graphics to help generate excitement about their future student center and ease the disturbance of the long-term construction. Working with the same concept as the architects of the building, the construction barriers are designed as a place for interaction. Each design serves as a message board for the campus community. Our design was recently recognized in Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual for this year’s most outstanding creative work.

The first of three designs laid out a subtle 8.5 x 11-inch grid with different categories noted in each unit, ranging from rants to events to available services to graffiti. Large photographic silhouettes of students in profile (shot by Katherine Wolkoff, a Barnard alumna herself) were overlaid on the grid to give the wall a bold visual graphic and personable quality. Students immediately began engaging with the wall, using it as a community bulletin board and place for personal expression.

Barnard College construction barrier, first in series, fall 2007

The second design capitalized on the way students were using the wall to make their voices heard, and so we covered the wall in empty talk bubbles.

Barnard College construction barrier, second in series, spring 2008

The third and current design returns to the use of the silhouettes as both small and large graphic forms. The small silhouettes become pixels that create larger profiles, giving the wall different readings depending on the viewer’s proximity.

Barnard College construction barrier, third in series, fall 2008