Acme Studio, design for everyone
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The enormous task of dissemination is very exciting. Bringing culture, language, history, sports or any other activity closer to those who do not know it, is a task of great value and with great social impact.
Getting the design of authors such as Ettore Sottsass, Michelle de Lucchi, Richard Meier, Frida Kahlo, Aldo Cibic, Karim Rashid, Constantin Boym, etc., to reach any part of the planet, with an affordable price for the majority is what I call: design for all.
Not everyone can order a house from Michelle de Lucchi, or ask Karim Rashid to design our new glasses. However, we may have small doses of his talent and wit in our pockets. Too bad that this idea already occurred to Adrián Olabuenaga years ago! …I’m going to tell you the story of Acme Studio.
Introduction:
I found out about Acme Studio back in 2014 when an architect friend was drawing freehand some details of a project that we had to start.
The truth is that I paid attention to the mechanical pencil I used. It seemed great to me. A naïve point of light in the elegant and orthodox good work of that great architect. I could not imagine him with another mechanical pencil that was not Rotring, Steadtler or something German.
That mechanical pencil looked like a crossword puzzle! I could’nt control myself. I commented:
– Nice mechanical pencil!
– Yes, it’s a gift, (he answered vehemently), but it’s not just a mechanical pencil. It is also a pen with 3 colors. I also use it on the IPad, look.
– It is very practical (I said nodding my head).
– It’s from Acme Studio, a company that makes editions of Designers, Architects and Artists. Not only pens, but also wallets, card holders, etc… Look: with GaudÃ’s trencadis! What do you think?
– The truth is that they have something, I think they are very original.
I collected the revised project plans and returned to the studio to calculate the order of materials that I had to place.
The history
From that ephemeral encounter with the “Crossword” pen until today, 8 years have passed, and how to say it, life goes on. already have a few “issues” from Acme Studio that I use often, but I remember with particular fondness the day I bought, of course!, the Constantin Boym “Blueprint” 7FP ballpoint pen. I don’t know, it has a special attraction for me and I can’t stop using it.
Here begins the story of Acme Studio.
1985 – 1994
Adrián Olabuenaga and his wife Lesley Bailey found Acme Studio.
Her first project was a limited edition jewelry called “Melrose Emblematic”, designed by Memphis Group participant Peter Shire.
Peter would later introduce Adrian to Ettore Sottsass, whom he would later arrange to meet in Milan and organize the “Memphis Designers for Acme” jewelry collection. It would be in 1986, with Sottsass and the writer Bárbara Radice, when this collection would be published with 100 designs by, among others, Aldo Cibic, Michele De Lucchi, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Adrian Olabuenaga, Peter Shire, Ettore Sottsass, Matteo Thun and Marco Zanini. Some pieces from this collection are part of large museum collections, for example, The Houston Museum of Fine Art, The Brooklyn Museum, and the Frankfurt Museum of Decorative Arts.
In this period also stand out:
– The “Atomic” pendant, Design Plus Award in Germany.
– “Architects for Acme”, a jewelry collection featuring designs by Richard Meier, Alessandro Mendini, Cesar Pelli, Aldo Rossi, Ettore Sottsass, Laurinda Spear, Robert AM Stern and Stanley Tigerman.
– “Alchimia for Acme”, in collaboration with Alessandro Mendini.
In 1988 Ettore Sottsass was commissioned to design the ACME complex in Maui, which included housing, a warehouse, and offices.
In 1994 the collaboration with the “Frank Lloyd Wright” Foundation began.
1995 – 2004
In 1994, Adrián Olabuenaga introduces Andy Warhol to Campbell’s Soup Company. In turn, Acme Studio publishes a collection of jewelery based on Warhol designs.
1996 is the year in which Acme Studio would launch its collection of writing objects. His first collection incorporates designs by Frank Lloyd Wright, Piet Mondrian, Michael Graves, Keith Haring and others.
In this way, Acme Studio revolutionized the pen industry, incorporating the printing of great designers, architects and artists into these writing objects.
Acme completes the Maui House, a project commissioned to Ettore Sottsass.
In 1999 he began a long relationship with The Eames Office. At the same time, a fruitful collaboration with Karim Rashid also begins.
In this period the projects “Collezione Materiali” with Shigeru Ban, Larry laske, Jan Matthias, Karim Rashid, Ettore Sottsass, Michelle De Lucchi and “Americana Collection” are also developed.
2005 – 2014
This is the period of internationalization of Acme Studio, opening a store in Tokyo and another in Fukuoka Airport. Later in Vietnam, Singapore and Mexico City.
The EcoPen series is launched, adding a 100% biodegradable product.
An evolution in Acme products occurs with the series “Etched pens” (engraved pens), whose innovation is the first engraving and later lacquering of the bas relief, obtaining pieces with an unprecedented texture up to now. All pens in this series featured the designer’s signature on the cap band and the name ACME stamped on the clip. Designers: Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Karim Rashid, Ettore Sottsass, Frank Lloyd Wright and Karl Zahn.
Other products from this period are:
“Rocket Hero” with Buzz Aldrin ,“Musicians for Acme” with Jenny White, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin and Stanley Clarke. “The Beatles Collection” is undoubtedly the collection of writing objects that has previously disappeared from circulation. “Dracula” with Bram Stoker. “Le Corbusier Collection” and Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”
The future:
“I am interested in the future because it is the place where I am going to spend the rest of my life.” Thus, without doubts or nuances, Woody Allen expressed his conception of the future. In this same way I believe that Acme Studio faces the contemporary and future part of its project.
It is not difficult to imagine that his collaborative work with architects, designers, musicians and other artists will continue to produce beautiful fruits. Not only that, I think Acme Studio and Adrian Olabuenaga will continue to innovate and present evocative designs as well (a formula that has proven to be very efficient).
Conscious of the passage of time, like Albert Einstein and his famous phrase: “I never think about the future because it arrives very soon”, Acme Studio carries out a task as beautiful as it is enormous: bringing design and art to every corner, day after day.
Thus, however soon the future arrives, we will already have secured our place in it. Does it seem little to you?
Information, bibliography and media:
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Texts (source): Acme Studio and own.
Images: Acme Studio and own.
VÃdeos: s. n.
