the words “suburbia” and wild” rarely meet, unless of course, you’re talking about some eyes wide shut commemorative party my dentist didn’t bother to invite me to. probably because of that time i made a joke about gas. but that’s neither here nor here. i simply wanted to alert you to a wonderful book project kickstarted by photographer martin adolfsson and designed by theaptFRIEND larry mayorga. they have managed to capture both the silliness and eeriness of suburban model homes on just about every continent and the result should be an incredible part of your collection of shit your friends don’t have. so kickstart it now. that’s not a suggestion.

you might remember the above diagram from a lobby we designed for a residential tower in istanbul, turkey posted to our work-in-progress section. well, i am so delighted to announce that we are almost done with it and it looks a-ma-zing! that’s why we can’t help but post a sneak peek, below the radar, before official unveiling proceeding get under way in the next few weeks…
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our new baby has arrived, the adventure with the good people at yelo spa continues as we have just unveiled the new location and brand rethink! having worked on this multi-disciplnary project for over a year now, i cannot tell you how proud and relieved the team and i are that we have made it to the finish line. well, almost to the finish line, as usual… see, the kinds of projects that we, the apartment creative agency, choose to ponder on a regular basis are neither exclusively graphic nor solely architectural in kind, neither purely strategic nor marketing-driven, rather we deliver experiences, for lack of a much better word, to clients who have a product and a desired customer reaction in mind but don’t know how to get from one to the other. that is when we step in, not to deliver what they want but find out what they need, a marked difference in approach that is not without its (lengthy) explanation cycle. using tools such as architecture, graphics, strategy, music, film, writing and more, we conscientiously tell the story we believe in if anyone else can be also asked to and deliver an experience to the eventual and probable customer that surprises, delights but, above all, means.

that is how we took on the mammoth task of rebooting yelo spa, the brand we created with founder nicolas ronco almost six years ago. looking at everything we had done right and, of course, all that had not quite worked in that span of time. the concept was ripe risk-taking again, ripe for trying new things, ripe not simply to be upgraded but looked at from scratch in most areas so as to imagine what the spa of the next ten tears might feel like. and the one thing you need above all on such an adventure: trust. from the client, for your team as you make recommendations that go against industry standards (colors!) and sometimes even common sense (naked babies?) but in the end, agreement won over compromise and we launched yelo spa 2.0 last month to incredible critical acclaim as much from the press as from clients returning after a month-long hiatus.

we could not be more proud to present to you our efforts and hope that you go see the real thing at 5 east 57th street (between 5th and madison) in new york city very soon. you can say the apartment sent you and see what happens…

as partners in this journey, i would be remiss if i didn’t give a shout-out to the theaptTEAM who worked of the pieces on the puzzle: guy reziciner on architecture, william gralewski on senior graphics, nicole audette on junior graphics and hilary bowers on public relations. they are incredible and, by the way, i’m willing to share… just ping me.

in the meantime, take in our latest portfolio entry, yelo spa 2!

in winter 2002, while probably taking a break from nothing, the phone rang on my oversized desk and on the line was the politely determined voice of a young woman, just graduated from interior design school in germany, who had heard of our little dog and pony show in manhattan and wanted in for a summer internship. the apartment, having just been invented out of thin air a couple of years at that point, it never dawned on me that we could teach anyone anything, let alone offer “internships,” those were for “real” companies i thought, but my interlocutor that day reassured me that she would pay her way from germany and do whatever we asked, for free, as long as she could learn our trade… our what?! i didn’t know we had a trade, i thought until then that what i had been doing was pushing back the date when i would have to put my film degree to good use and be a waiter at dojo’s. i tried to tell this young woman that i would not want to take advantage of her and could not have her waste her time so i said that there wasn’t a position available at this time but to please stay in touch because, you know, yeah… and stay in touch she did, by email, voicemail and, about a week later, getting me on the line again and now saying that she was going to book a flight to come meet me for an interview because, obviously, the telephone was too poor a means of communication to convey her intention to never be told no to anything she wished. i was dumbfounded by her persistence to fill a non-existent position that i felt would be of no use to anyone but i couldn’t let her spend her money for a transatlantic flight just for an interview, that was crazy! so, defeated, i said ok. after all, it would just be a summer internship and by september, she’d go back home, disappointed, and i would put on my apron, filled with guilt, as things should be…

but i had underestimated ms. pia richter…
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last week, i was lucky to have been invited to london by my beneficent mother to attend the premiere of a ballet scored by a friend of ours. yeah, that’s how we roll, apparently. so, a few kisses to my wife and children later, i found myself in the entitled cocoon of jfk’s virgin lounge, about to sleep my way across the ocean. that’s when i realized that, even though regaled by mommy dearest who has evidently been better with her money than i could ever dream to be with mine, it would be a shame not to take advantage of such a jaunt to pay my long-overdue respects to friends i hadn’t seen in a long time.
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