Design | Russell Brightwell

The Japanese Garden in Hermann Park – Celebrating 25 Years

Comments: 0 | Posted by: russbri

I’m just getting back into the swing of things after moving house, so this is definitely a latergram. As a happy supporter and Executive Board Member of the Hermann Park Conservancy, I was thrilled to attend this year’s Evening in the Park Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of The Japanese Garden. [I and Art Directors David Sloat and Leah Justice created the branding for the event.] A roaring success, the event raised over $600,000. Those funds will be split between the operation of the Conservancy and the Japanese Garden itself. These galas are parties to be certain, but they raise funds to actually run these not for profit organizations – staff salaries and expenses – that aren’t typically covered by patrons’ generous capital campaign gifts.

Take a look at the Chronicle’s coverage.

Collaboration Is Cool

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LV + Koons Masters Collection Da Vinci Mona Lisa Shawl, complete with dualing LV JK monograms and Konns’s signature across the middle

Yesterday, I stopped by the Louis Vuitton store for an early morning presentation (in association with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston) of the new Masters collection, a collaboration with Jeff Koons. The latest in a string of LV collaborations, beginning with Stephen Sprouse and including Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Yayoi Kusama, Cindy Sherman and The Chapman Brothers among others, this collection is a extension of Koons’s “Gazing Ball” series. Bags and accessories are printed with old Masters paintings, including Titian’s Mars, Venus, and Cupid and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. This collaboration, like those that came before, burnishes the LV brand by association with in demand artists, generates a ton of press and presumably sells product – the ultimate goal.

I’ll Start at the Beginning

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The moment pictured – the Astor Place Diner in 1984 with my friend Alice (and that waiter) – wasn’t quite the beginning, but it was fairly soon after my move to NYC and Parsons School of Design after two years at Rice University in Houston. It was the beginning of my life in the applied arts and my love of art, design, architecture, photography, fashion, and eventually advertising and marketing. And as all my friends like to point out , “Look at that hair!”