Self-taught artist Phil Hansen is all about the process. He has used a tricycle to paint a giant portrait of Lance Armstrong and parted with a quart of his own blood to depict the grinning visage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on a canvas of 6,000 plywood-backed Band-Aids. Last summer, he painstakingly rendered the likeness of Jimi Hendrix in matchsticks, before lighting the piece on fire in a nod to Hendrix's fondness for guitar burning. And so when the Grammys came calling, Hansen was ready. Using tools such as microphones and guitar picks as paintbrushes, he created the official artwork for February's 51st annual Grammy Awards program book, telecast tickets, and promotional poster. And in keeping with Hansen's focus on process, he also created this time-lapse video to document the making of the twelve-foot-tall 3-D poster (pictured at left):

Click "continued..." for a video of the making of "A Moment," a 2007 work for which Hansen posted his phone number online and asked people to call and tell him a moment that changed their lives. Over the course of 136 consecutive hours, he wrote the responses on a giant circular canvas. Click to see the sum of those pivotal moments.

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Promoting green buildings begins at home, and so the American Institute of Architects (AIA) is offering its advice to President-Elect Barack Obama on how to turn the White House green. "During the campaign, Barack Obama voiced plans to invest in infrastructure, advance energy efficiency and sustainable buildings, and to develop a 21st century transportation system," said AIA CEO Christine McEntee in a recent press release. "These are all longstanding AIA goals, and we look forward to working with the new administration as they tackle these important challenges." Among the AIA's proposals? To create a high-level advisor on green buildings who would coordinate executive branch activities and promote these issues to the public, to develop a White House Office of Urban Policy (which Obama proposed during the campaign), and to focus on making the White House an international model of energy efficiency. OK, we admit that these ideas trump our suggestion that the Obama team draw all energy for the White House from a basement full of Gilligan's Island-style pedal-powered generators.

If you read our humble little blog here with any regularity, you might recall our special love affair with Kentucky's Creation Museum, a multi-million dollar hotbed of insanity. So it was with happiness that we read this story about the Cincinnati Zoo deciding to team up with the Creation Museum for a ticketing promotion, only to have the Zoo scramble to get out of the deal after being pummeled for two days with negative press, a massive campaign against them online, and talk of multiple boycotts from different groups. Why? Well, usually science-based organizations and science-hating groups don't mix so well:

"They seem like diametrically opposed institutions," said Dr. James Leach, a Cincinnati radiologist who e-mailed zoo officials about his concerns. "The Cincinnati Zoo is one of this city's treasures. The Creation Museum is an international laughingstock."

And to show that maybe the Cincinnati Zoo marketing department needs a bit of an overhaul, here's a bit we particularly enjoyed:

Zoo officials said they considered the promotion -- dubbed "Two Great Attractions, One Great Deal" -- a marketing deal no different than other cross-promotions they do with institutions like the Newport Aquarium or the Cincinnati Reds.

..."When we partner with the Reds, we don't get these kinds of e-mails," [zoo spokesman Chad Yelton] said. "It's pretty clear this is more of a distraction."

Oh, Chad, how sweetly innocent you are.

While Dubai struggles to keep from falling apart, as does nearly every major construction project everywhere else in the world, the firm Gensler is attempting to weather the storm and just broke ground on their Shanghai Tower, a massive giant of a skyscraper that is set to be the tallest building in China. Fortunately, the government is backing the building and have claimed that the financing has long been in place, so all that needs to be done is for everything to stay on task and get built as its supposed to (and on-budget, sure, but when was the last time that happened with a project this big?). We think it looks swell, but keep in mind that ground was broken on Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire too and look where we are now with that big fella. Here's a bit:

Located in the Lujiazui section of Pudong, the Shanghai Tower will sit adjacent to the 1,214-foot-tall Jinmao Tower (1998), designed by Adrian Smith during his tenure at SOM, and the just-completed 1,614-foot-tall Shanghai World Financial Center, by William Pedersen of KPF. Shanghai Tower -- which will house offices, stores, and a hotel -- is the last major part of a master plan for Pudong. The plan, conceived in the 1990s, envisioned three super-tall buildings, each taller than the next, rising next to each other.

And for more info, we highly recommend checking out Gensler's press release about the building.

Some follow-up to two recent stories. First, we heard that things are going sour in a hurry in Dubai, marking an end to their much-discussed building boom, with project cancellations and layoffs hitting nearly every development company's plans. Since then, more news has crept out about the situation in the desert kingdom, particularly this very detailed, interesting report from the Telegraph about the possible implosion of the entire architectural market there, the bailout the government has planned, and of recent meetings being held between developers and builders who are hoping to figure out a way to keep it all together. It's a fascinating look at what has the potential to become an example of the quickest rise and the most sudden fall of any urban planning in history. Here's a bit:

Property prices have slumped, demand has dried up and, for the first time, the emirate is being forced to consider calling a halt to its expansion. Some analysts are claiming that Dubai could implode, weighed down under a pile of debt and, given that it has relatively small oil reserves, no obvious way of paying for it. One said: "This has been the most spectacular spending mission on Earth. But it's a mirage. If complex debt structures have brought the financial world to its knees, Dubai is the world's biggest toxic time bomb."

Second, we quickly check in on the situation at Robert Mondavi and Julia Child's Copia wine museum in Santa Rosa, California, which unexpectedly closed its doors last Friday. Since then, the museum has prepared to file for bankruptcy and has picked up some credit in order to pay some necessary bills. What's most surprising is, despite having lost millions every year it was running, they've remained hopeful that they can reopen once all of this mess is taken care of. Hmm.

At left, a look from Thakoon Panichgul's spring 2008 ready-to-wear collection, shown at New York Fashion Week in September of 2007. At right, a look from Panichgul's limited-edition collection for Target, which debuts later this month.

We rue the day we passed up a deeply discounted (yet still rather pricey) Thakoon coat while on a trip to Seattle but are somewhat comforted by the announcement that designer Thakoon Panichgul's bargain-priced ($16.99 to $44.99) collection for Target hits stores nationwide on December 28. Part of Target's ongoing GO International program of limited-edition collections by young designers (Richard Chai, for example), the women's apparel and swimwear will be available through January. What to expect from Thai-born, Omaha-raised, and Boston University- and Parsons-educated Panichgul? Designs evocative (or just plain identical) to those of his spring 2008 ready-to-wear collection. Plenty of color and graphic prints, including a blue and white shibori print (pictured above, shown on the runway in September 2007 and now in a version for Target), a large floral pattern in yellow and green, and a signature diagonal stripe that pops up throughout the collection. (Pictured at right is the "Floral Camo" cotton canvas coat. Say that five times fast.) Given Michelle Obama's fondess for Thakoon, Panichgul is likely to be the first fashion designer to have his work simultaneously show up on the First Lady and in Target stores. Click "continued..." to see six more soon-to-be-purchasable looks from the collection.

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Did your love for design derail your pre-med plans? Want to get involved in the world of healthcare but get queasy in hospitals? Health information portal WebMD is looking for an art director who will bring a passion for great work with a unique style to its New York City office. Like the medical profession, WebMD puts a premium on "inventive problem-solving" in a "fast-paced, high-pressured, and sometimes unpredictable" environment where the deadlines are "aggressive" (but aren't they all?). Although the position may sound like something straight out of an episode of ER, we advise you to focus your cover letter on your healing design skills rather than your legendary bedside manner.

Learn more about and apply for this art director, WebMD job or view all the current mediabistro.com design/art/photo jobs.

Award-winning landscape architect David Font (at right) is the head of seven-year-old Font Designs, and so when presented with the opportunity to interview him on the eve of Design Miami, we had to begin with the obvious question: Does Font Designs ever get mistaken for a type foundry? "Yes, on occasion. Not very often though," he told us. "When we first opened the firm we also had several inquiries from people thinking we were graphic designers." That settled, we move on to the big news: Font's extraordinary exhibition design for "Beyond Organic: Design in the State of Nature," a themed satellite exhibition that is Design Miami's first foray into mixing contemporary and historical design.

Showcased in a 6,000-square-foot space inside The Collins Building, "Beyond Organic" is meant to be an "an exuberant, witty, and inspiring celebration of the natural world reflected through objects" contributed by the likes of Moss, Richard Wright + Arik Levy, and Demisch Danant. Font's exhibition design integrates the objects—here a Swarovski chandelier resembling cherry blossoms, there a pair of Max Lamb chairs sculpted from stone—into an organic environment that includes 50 pick-up trucks full of topsoil, more than 700 pieces of native and exotic plant material, and a large wall covered with patches of grass and slices of tree trunks. Below, Font tells us about how he approached the project, some of his favorite objects in the exhibition, and how he brings a little bit of the Italian Renaissance into the spaces of today.

1. How did you approach the assignment to create the interior environment for Design Miami's "Beyond Organic: Design in the State of Nature" exhibition? What were your inspirations?
I researched natural indoor environments as they related to the art world and tried to do something that hasn't been done. I didn't want the landscape design or the art pieces to overpower, outweigh, or compete with each other. I wanted to create a cohesive and integral environment that flowed while avoiding certain pitfalls of making it too manicured. I wanted to achieve an unstructured, natural environment.

In terms of inspirations, one was one of the design objects that I was creating the exhibit to showcase: the Michele Oka Doner "Tara" chandelier (pictured at left), which is a candelabra made out of bronze that is in the form of a cut down tree stump. That piece, in particular, was inspiring because it really depicted what the aesthetics and overall theme should reflect. One of the challenges in organizing the space within the Collins Building was taking a rectilinear box and giving it a free-flowing design to mimic what the landscape is doing. We accomplished this by creating a curvilinear stage and carrying it throughout, having that pattern radiate out from that center stage.

2. "Beyond Organic" includes 50 design objects. Any favorites?
I have so many favorites, but there are two that stood out in particular; the candelabra that I explained was also a source for inspiration of the exhibit and the eight-foot Zaha Hadid "Iceberg" bench (pictured at left), which I appreciate because I understand the work behind the intricate design that it requires to create something that appears to be unstructured and free-flowing. It was one of the challenges I faced in designing the space.

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While the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art has found itself in the middle of a financial crisis and is being investigated by the state's attorney general to look into what happened to all their money, Art Info is reporting that another museum in the city is now facing financial questions. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is being investigated for spending $900,000 to fund a campaign to increase the city's sales tax while simultaneously asking for $6 million in tax money to fund their museum operations. This, of course, doesn't quite sit so well with a lot of people and so they've found themselves at the wrong end of the government's administrative attack dogs. Probably also doesn't help that the museum is still running around with Renzo Piano at the moment, spending their new $55 million in donations along the way. Here's a bit:

County officials believed the donation was inappropriate. "If they have nearly $1 million to spend on campaigns, then they obviously don't need additional funds to operate their facility," said county CEO Bill Fujioka, whom the board has directed to look into the matter.

..."It's reprehensible that they would use nearly $1 million to engage in a campaign to increase taxes that does not enhance the museum's art collection," said County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

A few event recommendations from us to you, as we know you're probably itching to get out there and do some cultural stuff now that the weather has turned. First, in New York next Monday the 8th, we'd highly encourage you to get over to the latest Dot Dot Dot series held by the MFA program in interaction design at the School of Visual Arts. They'll be interviewing four guests, director and all-around good guy Gary Hustwit, frog design's top designer, Jason Severs, writer and Wired regular Clive Thompson, and design professor Elisabeth M. De Morentin from Chicago's own Illinois Institute of Technology. RSVP here and you'll find the details below:

Monday, December 8
6-8PM
White Rabbit
145 E Houston Street

Next up, albeit earlier than the event above and in a place where the weather never turns, is starchitect David Adjaye making an appearance down at Art Basel Miami this Saturday the 6th. The event is entitled "Art Loves Architecture" and Adjaye will be sharing the stage with artists Matthew Richie and Teresita Fernandez, along with the moderator Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and curator of this year's Venice Architecture Biennale. All the details are here and a little info on the topics, here:

The panel will discuss the roles, responsibilities and authorship in the collaborations that all three of them are undertaking and explore how the ideas of art and architecture converge, what architects and artists can learn from each other, and what kind of practice could potentially emerge from this blurring of previously demarcated practices.

Our friends over at Print passed us along word that you only have a few more days to vote for their annual Student Cover Competition, which is down to its last three finalists: Ann Christiani, Jenny Kim, and Amani Lusignan. Strangely, all three are Canadian, probably meaning that Canada should win some sort of Best Design Teaching award to be given to the entire nation. And while we're not a forceful bunch over here at UnBeige, if you're having trouble deciding on which to pick, our money is on Christiani's cover, which you see over here on the right and is described as such:

Christiani traced the words "The Golden Age" into the lines of her grandfather's face, and wrote in her submission, "The theme of Design, Culture, and Youth is shown through the eyes of a old man in contemplation; the juxtaposed illustration creates a merging of the old and new."

And speaking of safaris, photographer Peter Beard has brought his Ansel Adams-meets-Robert Rauschenberg-meets-Zoobooks aesthetic to the 2009 Pirelli calendar, which has—you guessed it—an African theme. Because nothing says December like meerkats! (The 2008 version showcased twelve months of Patrick Demarchelier-photographed "Pearls of the Orient," a nod to Pirelli's new plant in China's Shandong Province.) In case you're unfamiliar with the Italian tire company's famed calendar, we point you to this recent Financial Times piece on its history. The near total creative control exerted by the star photographer who gets the plum assignment makes for "a calendar whose only consistent theme is unpredictability." In addition to Beard and Demarchelier, past Pirelli calendar photographers incude Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Bruce Weber, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Nick Knight, and Mario Testino. Note to Pirelli: give Marilyn Minter a call for 2010.

Planning a trip to Berlin? Put down that guidebook, ditch the tour bus, and step into the past—more specifically, squeeze yourself into a Trabant, East Germany's plastic-bodied, 26-horsepower answer to the BMWs and Porches zooming just beyond the wall. In the automobiles section of Sunday's New York Times, Towle Tompkins provided amusing and interesting background on the car (sure, it came with three different keys, but it was simple to maintain, because "the engine had fewer movie parts than an off-Broadway play") and tells of touring Berlin in a avocado-hued model couresy of a company called Trabi Safari. "The good news is that Trabant is twice as powerful as a Sears Craftsman two-stage snow blower," notes Tompkins. "The bad news is that it's twice as loud."

Admit it, your seven-year-old nephew could out-HTML tag you any day and you think that a Cascading Style Sheet is something with a thread count. That's where the mediabistro.com mothership comes in. They've asked us to tell you about the upcoming weekend crash course in HTML Fundamentals: Over two information-stuffed days (December 6 and 7) in New York City, artist, designer, and interactive developer David Tristman will teach you the basic structure of HTML and many commonly used tags as well as the role of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in HTML pages and current recommendations such as XHTML. By Sunday night, you'll be creating fully functional web pages and geeky birthday cakes like the one pictured above. Register here to get cooking with HTML.

With all the negative news this writer is shoveling onto you this morning, he wanted to finish on a more enjoyable note with John Tagliabue's recent tour of the Ferrari factory in Italy. Certainly not ones to be outdone by those lowly little economy car manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes, with their Zaha Hadid factories and UN Studio museums, Ferrari has a wing created by Renzo Piano and another newer one by Jean Nouvel. But they don't just stop there, in the periphery, all of their restaurants and administrative buildings were designed by other, possibly soon to be starchitects. All in all, it's pretty spectacular and makes you sort of wish you could don overalls and get over there to work on the assembly line, a desire we're guessing doesn't strike you very often.