Elon Musk launches $250 Teslaquila following April Fools' Day joke

Electric-car brand Tesla has launched its own branded tequila, which comes inside a lightning-bolt-shaped bottle, after founder Elon Musk suggested the idea as a joke on 1 April 2018.

On April Fools' Day in 2018, the American entrepreneur joked that Tesla had gone "completely and totally bankrupt", leading to him being "found passed out against a Tesla Model 3, surrounded by 'Teslaquilla' bottles, the tracks of dried tears still visible on his cheeks."

Six months later, Musk filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to trademark "Teslaquila" and teased a visual of the bottle on Twitter, which had a much more generic form than the final product.

Over two years after filing for the trademark, the drink has now launched under the new, and simpler, name of Tesla Tequila, which is now available to purchase on the brand's website for the costly sum of $250.

The Tesla Tequila is stored inside a lightning-bolt-shaped bottle

Contained inside a hand-blown glass bottle shaped like a lightning bolt, which could be a reference to the company's electric cars, the product is only available in select states in the US.

The Tesla Tequila appears to come with a metal stand, which holds the pointed tip of the bottle in place to enable it to stand upright.

According to the online description, the tequila has been aged for 15 months in French oak barrels and features a "dry fruit and light vanilla nose with a balanced cinnamon pepper finish".

The Tesla Tequila is produced by agave spirits brand Nosotros Tequila, while Speakeasy Co is responsible for the distribution of the product.

The bottle sits on an angular, metal stand

SpaceX founder Musk is not short of eccentric ideas. Back in November 2019 he unveiled the Cybertruck – a bulletproof electric vehicle designed to look like a cross between a pickup truck and a stealth fighter jet.

Also in 2019 he launched tech startup Neuralink, whose aim was to develop implants that connect human brains with computer interfaces via artificial intelligence.

Musk revealed the design of the implant and the robot that will be used to insert it earlier this year, in September. He also demonstrated the effects on a group of pig test subjects that had had the in-brain device installed.

Photography is from Tesla.

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Somnath Bhatt on why design institutions need to let go of individuality and embrace collaboration

The multidisciplinary designer and artist advocates for the peer-to-peer model of designing and explains how decolonisation of the field cannot be taken lightly.

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Hugh Pearman to retire as RIBA Journal editor

RIBA has announced that Hugh Pearman, editor of architecture magazine RIBA Journal, will be stepping down from the role in December 2020 after 14 years.

Pearman joined the journal, which is published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), in 2006.

January 2021 to be Pearman's last issue

He is one of RIBA Journal's longest-serving editors and oversaw 170 issues of the magazine, with the January 2021 issue set to be his last as editor.

Under Pearman's editorship, the magazine went digital-first, publishing more articles online than in print. Annual page views of its website are set to surpass the million mark in 2020.

As the editor, he also launched RIBA Journal's social media channels and oversaw the 2013 redesign of the print magazine.

"Editing the RIBA Journal means nurturing something valuable," Pearman said.

"It had flourished in the hands of my predecessors including RIBA librarian Bobby Carter in the 1930s and 40s, social activist Malcolm MacEwen in the 1960s, Monica Pidgeon and Peter Murray in the 1970s and 80s, through to Amanda Baillieu, just prior to my stint."

"I've been honoured to be in charge of the journal for 11 per cent of its lifespan since 1893, and fortunate to work with a very talented and stable editorial team.”

Eleanor Young named acting editor

Pearman is now going freelance and will continue to write for RIBA Journal as a contributor. He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for Services to Architecture in 2019 and is an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA since 2001.

He was also the architecture and design critic at The Sunday Times, a role he held 30 years from 1986 to 2016.

Executive editor Eleanor Young will take over as acting editor of RIBA Journal, with Jan-Carlos Kucharek becoming acting deputy editor and Isabelle Priest acting managing editor.

Earlier this year RIBA elected Simon Allford its new president to replace current president Alan Jones, who temporarily stepped down from the role, from 1 September 2021.

RIBA is currently advertising for a contributing editor for RIBA Journal on Dezeen Jobs.

Portrait of Hugh Pearman courtesy of RIBA Journal.

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AHEAD Middle East and Africa 2020 awards winners announced in video ceremony on Dezeen

AHEAD is announcing the best new hotel designs in the Middle East and Africa region today, in a video ceremony broadcast by Dezeen for the hospitality awards programme.

The ceremony will be broadcast in two parts from 2:00pm Dubai time, which is 12:00pm South Africa time and 10:00am UK time, and can be viewed in order below. The most recent part of the ceremony is also included at the top of this story.

The event is hosted by Sleeper Magazine's editor-at-large Guy Dittrich, and will feature exclusive video content from the AHEAD nominees, as well as from the judges and sponsors of the awards programme.

The AHEAD awards celebrate striking hospitality projects from across the world and is split into four different regions: Middle East and Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

The 2020 Middle East and Africa leg of the competition will review projects that have opened, reopened or launched in the continent between January 2019 and February of this year.

In June this year, Dezeen broadcast a ceremony announcing the winners of the AHEAD Americas awards winners 2020 as part of Virtual Design Festival.

Dezeen also broadcast a ceremony in March announcing the winners of the Asia leg of the competition.

 

AHEAD MEA 2020 – part one
2:00pm Dubai time / 12:00pm South Africa time / 10:00am UK time

In the first part of the ceremony, the winners will be announced for categories including Bar, Club or Lounge, Landscaping & Outdoor Spaces, Renovation, Restoration & Conversion, Spa & Wellness, Guestrooms, Lobby & Public Spaces, Hotel Newbuild and Lodges, Cabins & Tented Camps.

 

AHEAD MEA 2020 – part two
3:00pm Dubai time / 1:00pm South Africa time / 11:00am UK time

The second part of the ceremony will see the winners of the Resort, Suite, Restaurant, New Concept and Visual Identity categories, and the AHEAD MEA Hotel of the Year will be revealed.

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Tadeas Podracky's The Metamorphosis furniture rejects mass-produced design

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Tadeas Podracky rejected formal design methods when creating these unconventional furniture objects, which he made by layering materials like "a bird weaving its nest".

The Metamorphosis collection comprises three sculptural objects that the designer refers to as "functional art", which act as a chair, a table and a light.

Each is made using materials Podracky found around his home, or that were easy to access, during a period of quarantine.

These include paint, wood, textiles, discarded materials like spare car parts, pieces of broken ceramics and broken sheets of glass – materials that he felt had a level of "authenticity of scarcity".

Podracky's The Metamorphosis collection is a series of functional art objects

Podracky used his "creating through destroying" technique when making the collection to grant each of the pieces a high level of unpredictability to achieve his goal of authenticity.

The Metamorphosis furniture is his way of rejecting mass production and industrial manufacturing processes, which he feels makes objects "ugly and uniform".

"Design has rendered our environment impersonable. Living in prefabricated houses that are occupied by mass-produced furniture, where we spend most of the day escaping to virtual worlds," said Podracky.

"Through questioning construction methods, putting emphasis on authenticity and revaluing materials' ability to reveal character, I propose a new methodology of making – a reformulated approach to design that is based on emotional decisions, unpredictability and expression."

The Rietveld chair is coated in layers of paint, polystyrene and foam

The Rietveld chair takes its name from Dutch designer, Gerrit Rietveld, whose works inspired the geometric shape of its base structure.

Podracky crafted the chair from wood, before messily covering it in layers of black, white and yellow paint. He then used a chainsaw to carve away at the structure to reveal the layers of wood inside.

The designer then stuck clumps of woody materials such as moss and mulch mixed with a blue liquid to the top half of the chair, before securing sections of polystyrene and foam to the bottom half and dripping more liquid over the top.

Podracky wanted the creation process to be as "unpredictable" as possible

"My aim in the metamorphosis of Gerrit Rietveld's iconic chair was to deconstruct it both physically and ideologically," he explained. "For me, the Rietveld chair represents a symbol of the emphasised functionality and beginning of design for mass production."

"It could be read as an iconoclasm or a critique on modernism, which is undoubtedly partially true, but I aimed to create a dialog between me and a modernist icon in order to learn and be able to relate to it," he added.

The Growth piece is illuminated by discarded car lights

For the lighting piece, called Growth, Podracky let an "intuitive use of materials and emotional decisions" determine the outcome.

He built a cage-like frame from which he hung different materials such as wood and woven fabric, securing them in place with glue. The light sources inside the structure are made from discarded car-headlights.

"My aim was to let the object grow through my hands by glueing and combining different elements like the process of a bird weaving its nest," the designer explained.

Podracky also designed a glass table with a shattered effect

Podracky used recycled pieces of glass to make the Creating Through Destroying table, which is topped with a blue and white vase made from reconstructed broken fragments of porcelain.

The table boasts a shattered, fragile effect, while the vase sits solidly on top, dotted with flowers made from pieces of ceramic.

Podracky's The Metamorphosis collection was shown during Dutch Design Week as part of the Design Academy Eindhoven graduation display.

Dezeen teamed up with Dutch Design Week to present an exclusive virtual tour of the event, which took place entirely online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

We also hosted a series of live discussions during the design week, including a talk between trend forecaster Li Edelkoort and designers Sabine Marcelis, Giorgio Gascia and Gianmaria Della Ratta about the impacts of Covid-19 on the design community.

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