This was a yr that design collaborations went super-stellar. Music legends Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre turned to canned drinks, with designer Ini Archibong, whereas singer-songwriter Solange Knowles created glamorous new glassware with Saint Heron, Barbie launched furnishings with Kartell, and former NFL star Michael Bennett created lighting with Gantri. The curiosity these well-known names convey to the design world goes past celeb stardust; every venture featured here’s a case examine in bringing a recent perspective to a short with an alternate view developed from adjoining trade expertise. Right here is our round-up of starry design collaborations of 2024.
A yr in evaluation: star-studded design collaborations of 2024
Solange Knowles for Saint Heron
(Picture credit score: Rafael Rios for Saint Heron)
In 2024, singer-songwriter Solange Knowles designed and launched an beautiful trio of glasses that have been in the stores from the MoMA Design Retailer. On the time, she spoke to Wallpaper* about her need to democratise good design and its energy to raise mundane gestures into ceremonial moments. The glassware assortment, ‘Small Matter: Kind Glassware 001’, sees topaz coupes prime three completely different onyx bases, every with a definite character: there’s a chic deco stem wine glass, a chunky ribbed trunk goblet, and a squat, graphic counterweight of a base for the cordial glass. Light-weight however sturdy, the glasses really feel ceremonial and glamorous, historic and horny directly.
Author Hugo Macdonald
READ: Solange Knowles on designing her new glassware assortment, ‘Small Matter: Kind Glassware 001’ for Saint Heron
Barbie x Kartell
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Mattel and Kartell)
Barbie and Kartell teamed as much as current a collection of chairs, each doll-sized and adult-sized, in collaboration with Mattel Creations. The totally pink collection brings a contact of the Dreamhouse to your individual dwelling, and was showcased throughout Milan Design Week 2024. Celebrating Barbie’s sixty fifth anniversary, the design collaboration unites 5 Kartell chairs – ‘AI’, ‘Venice’, ‘Louis Ghost’, ‘Masters’, and ‘Ero|S|’, all by Philippe Starck – in Barbie’s enjoyable model and distinctive bubblegum Mattel pink.
READ: Barbie and Kartell’s pink chairs are match for dreamhouses massive and small
Michael Bennett x Gantri
Michael Bennett and the ‘Ursa Minor Desk Mild’ for Gantri
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Studio Kër and Gantri)
Michael Bennett, former NFL star and founding father of Studio Kër, collaborated with Gantri to showcase the ‘Ursa Minor Desk Mild’, which nods to his ancestry and African structure and design. Drawing inspiration from Bennet’s personal ties to Senegal, the desk mild echoes the Little Dipper constellation, which accommodates the North Star, a guiding mild for the various slaves who escaped the American South, in addition to numerous others all through historical past – an emblem of freedom and unity.
‘African heritage is filled with superb artwork and custom that I wished to discover and rejoice with others,’ the previous NFL star and Studio Kër founder instructed Wallpaper*. ‘I received glimpses of it from my grandmother whereas rising up in Louisiana, and ever since, I’ve been drawn to designs that seize the spirit and power of those that got here earlier than me. Furnishings is deeply narrative for me – it is the place the tales of my ancestors and my very own come collectively in a tangible method. I really like how a chunk of furnishings can do such a superb job of telling tales which might be each private and common.’
READ: Michael Bennett’s collaboration with Gantri is a recent tackle African heritage
Tyler, The Creator x Parachute
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of le Fleur* and Parachute)
Tyler, The Creator’s way of life model le Fleur* teamed up with Parachute to current a breezy homeware assortment of pastels and prints. Le Fleur* is thought for garments and equipment that confound conventional and confining gender norms, embracing multi-hyphenate inventive’s personal private strategy to model and id. The model identify itself is a refined reference to his album, ‘Flowerboy’.
The preppy way of life model is not afraid to play with color, as evidenced by its assortment of nail polishes, shiny knitwear and baggage traces. But, its newest collaboration with Parachute brings an essence of spa-like tranquillity to the textile bedding designs. The collaboration is an unlikely matrimony that harmonises daring and shiny le Fleur* signatures with Parachute’s laid-back attract, and spans bedding, cushions, and a particularly tender pair of shearling slippers.
READ: Tyler, The Creator’s new pastel-hued homeware assortment with Parachute
Ini Archibong, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre
(Picture credit score: Dominic Leon)
When designer Ini Archibong – whose portfolio spans furniture-making, lighting, glass and past – was requested by music legends Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg to design the packaging for his or her canned drink, Gin & Juice, he jumped into the world of 2D design. Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of Snoop’s 1993 debut album, Doggystyle, produced by Dr Dre, the canned gin drink received its identify from Snoop’s Grammy-nominated track ‘Gin & Juice’, and is available in quite a lot of fruity flavours. Archibong observed, when shopping the cabinets for a canned tipple, that drinks packaging can typically be stuffed with massive graphics, and daring colors. The California-born designer wished to take this probably saturated idea and spin it on its head.
Stripping again the design to 4 colors that signify every flavour, Archibong labored with shut faculty pal and illustrator Wayne Johnson to hand-draw a basic lo-rider that takes centre-stage in opposition to a white background, alongside the ‘Parental Advisory, Express Content material’ iconography that’s emblematic of the period of the track’s launch.
READ: Ini Archibong explores 2D design with Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg for brand spanking new canned gin drink
Hi there Kitty x Fender
(Picture credit score: Fender / Sanrio Co. Ltd)
There aren’t many merchandise that haven’t been given the Hi there Kitty remedy, and though this new haul from Fender (additionally featured in our decide of one of the best devices and tech of 2024) feels novel, it’s not the primary time the cartoon cat has graced the corporate’s guitars. Again in 2006, the corporate’s Squier sub-brand introduced out an ultra-simple Stratocaster, completed in pink, naturally, however with a Hi there Kitty scratchplate and decals. Neglected at first, it’s since gone on to develop into a cult merchandise.
Now that Kitty Strat is again. As a part of the cat’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations, Fender Japan teamed up with Sanrio to create an expansive limited-edition assortment of things, culminating in a reissue of the Squier Stratocaster, together with a full-fat, Made in Japan Fender Stratocaster that’ll solely be obtainable from Fender’s Flagship Retailer in Tokyo.
Author Jonathan Bell
READ: Fender Hi there Kitty Stratocaster marks 50 years of Sanrio’s most interesting cartoon cat
Supply: Wallpaper
