WILD LOVE
ROGUE KNOWLEDGE
HANDCRAFTED
Retail design strategies have this thing akin to cinema and theatre. It is something profane, promiscuous and playful. Looks like Architectural pre-history; something before the invasion of classic ethics and Kantian morals
We’ve read somewhere that one has to think outside the box. They have to go creative; one says in a brainstorm that the architect attempting to think outside the box when designing a jewelry shop cannot even think about saying that an idea came about designing the shop like a jewelry box. This is to be considered ridiculous. Tupi came to face to face with this very same brainstorming and it was raining brains all over the table that day. The only non-ridiculous idea was to go primitive and just accept that a jewelry shop and a jewelry box (since they are the same thing, no matter what) are, at the bottom of their archetypes, the same thing as a space of pure sensuality. A sacred place. Gold is gold. Sex is sex. But what to do when we enter that mid-century museum of gems? The first thing one thinks is: if not Walt Disney World, then what?
The promiscuity here is that of cinema and theatre. It comes from the dramatic play of lights and shades. It is a powerful thing emanating out from the of Rocks that safeguards shining things that are capable to hypnotize anyone. Why is that diamonds are so valuable? Why is that diamonds are given to the beloved one? Just because diamonds are harder than steel? Amsterdam Sauer is a legend in the history of jewelry design in Brazil. This is a three-generation family business. They hold the first certificated emerald found in our lands. It is a piece of art. It is held in a small museum of gems that the family keeps in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Tupi is much honored to be chosen to design the third generation of their human-scale jewelry boxes. The idea was to bring the family name to the foreground. Amsterdam, once the capital of the underground; wherever one posted this place-name had to give back space to the family name. Not in a conservative vein, we would say, but due to something closer to the flirtatious tastes coming out from the sound of Sauer when softly read aloud.
"This is a Sauer taste", one would think aloud. Ah, you mean the art objects they sell made out of precious stones assembled in the shape and form of birds. Something just the boldest of the designers could embrace. The Sauer(s) are this bold. They just go for it full on. The spinning energy of colors came foreground. The spinning kitsch glamour came foreground. The spinning clichés came foreground. The most rock and roll of their pieces, the Constellation ring from the 1960s, became the ceiling cascade lighting lamps. The whole of the museum came foreground. This is not a jewelry box. This is a sex box. An homage to the vanished Amsterdam that will always remain on the background. Stephanie, the head art director of the house is a cutting-edge artist. She is fearless. Tupi just had to hold on and enjoy the ride. When a family company really decides to come out of the closet, this is what you should look after as a case-study.