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Hurry up, please, it’s time. TEFAF favorite Kunstkammer Georg Laue’s offerings included, at right, a Renaissance vanitas cabinet. Lest would-be buyers tarry, the front door of the cabinet opens to reveal a scene with a naked child leaning on a skull with an hourglass at his feet.

Shoppers ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Kanye West have popped into the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), which runs through Sunday in the Dutch town of Maastricht. No word on Kanye’s haul, but the Met scored “Virgil’s Tomb in Moonlight” (1779) by Joseph Wright of Derby (a poster version is yours for $19.99), Ronald Lauder picked up Picasso‘s “Homme au Chapeau” (1964) for $8 million, and the soon-to-reopen Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has enriched its collection with works including an 1809 Nicolaas Bauer canvas and Antoine Vechte‘s silver “Galathea” vase, created in 1843 for a French nobleman. Meanwhile, 26-year-old TEFAF is looking eastward: the fair’s organizers announced this week that they’re in talks with Sotheby’s to develop an art fair in China, so stay tuned for updates on “TEFAF Beijing 2014.” We’ve still got plenty to show from you from this year’s artstravaganza in Maastricht–check out 25 more must-sees:

Gagosian gallery positioned this 1946 Picasso nearby Rudolf Stingel‘s 2012 photo-realist painting of the artist as young man. At right, L’Arc de Seine’s jaw-dropping stand featured a circa 1930 shagreen-covered desk and chair by Jean-Michel Frank.

The secret to eternal youth? Multiple suitors and frequent ski trips, suggests this first edition from Shapero Rare Books.

Didier Ltd’s assortment of jewelry by artists included this one-of-a-kind silver brooch made by Harry Bertoia during his time at Cranbrook in the ’40s. And what do you get when you combine a fishing float painted black and a gilded beer can? Louise Nevelson‘s 1984 pendant necklace.
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The FBI announced earlier this week that it has identified who was behind the 1990 art heist at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, but–spoiler alert–the Feds aren’t naming names, and the statute of limitations has run out on the crime, so the creeps that swiped masterpieces by the likes of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Degas can’t be prosecuted. This may or not explain why Rick Abbath, one of the night watchmen on duty the evening of the crime 23 years ago, has decided to get chatty. In a segment on last night’s episode of Anderson Cooper 360°, CNN’s Randi Kaye spoke with Abbath about what happened inside the museum that fateful night. Kaye takes a closer look at the famous caper in 81 Minutes: Inside the Greatest Art Heist in History, a documentary that airs on CNN tomorrow at 10 p.m. Eastern.

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Famed literary critic Lionel Trilling once described Henry James as a “social twitterer.” Sure, he meant it as an insult, but it makes us feel better about having signed up to twitter ourselves. Look to the official UnBeige Twitter feed, for up-to-the-minute newsbites, event snippets, links of interest, design trivia, and free candy (OK, we’re still working on the physics of that last one). The mediabistro.com tech wizards have added to the sidebar at right a handful of our most recent word bursts (limited to 140 characters), but you can sign up to follow all of our twittering, and start twittering yourself at twitter.com.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

This week, Gannett is hiring a senior graphic designer, while Washingtonian Magazine needs a photo director. Spa Week Media Group is seeking a graphic designer, and the American Marketing Association is on the hunt for a graphic designer, too. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

Find more great design jobs on the UnBeige job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented UnBeige pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

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Jólan van der Wiel‘s “Gravity” stools, tables, candleholders, and bowls appear ripped from an enchanted sea floor–or are they Magic Rocks run amok? At once otherworldly and organic, these moody forms are in fact the products of the Amsterdam-based designer’s “Gravity Tool,” an innovation that earned him top honors at last year’s DMY International Design Festival Berlin. “I admire objects that show an experimental discovery, translated to a functional design,” explains van der Wiel. “It is my belief that developing new ‘tools’ is an important means of inspiration and allows new forms to take shape.” Now, just two years out of Gerrit Rietveld Academy’s designLAB department, he has a “Gravity stool” at London’s Design Museum, as part of the “Designs of the Year 2013” show that opens today. This short film by Miranda Stet provides a luscious look at van der Wiel’s unique process, which is something of a team effort among opposing magnetic fields, the forces of gravity, two-component plastics, and good old-fashioned elbow grease.

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The design-minded datacrunchers over at Coroflot recently released their redesigned and better-than-ever Design Salary Guide, now a rolling (and free!) tool that reports results in real-time. They’ve followed it up with an executive summary of sorts that is tailor-made for designers–in a word, infographics. Check out the just-published “Creative Employment Snapshot” for a visual presentation of the current state of employment in design, creative, and interaction fields–including current and potential earnings. There’s even a PDF version to print out and slip onto your boss’s desk.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Portrait by Yoshiaki Tsutsui. The photo at right is Iwan Baan’s “Tokyo #1″ (2006), part of a project to celebrate the opening of Ito’s Mikimoto Ginza 2 building. See more of Baan’s work in a solo exhibition on view through April 13 at Perry Rubenstein Gallery in Los Angeles.

“Firmness, commodity, and delight.” These are the three words–cribbed from Vitruvius, who considered “firmitas, utilitas, venustas” to be the fundamental principles of architecture–that appear on the Louis Sullivan-inspired bronze medallion that is awarded to each laureate of the Pritzker architecture prize. This year the coveted hardware goes to Toyo Ito, who’ll receive it along with $100,000 at a ceremony in Boston on May 29. Ito is the sixth Japanese architect to receive the prize, which has previously been awarded to Kenzo Tange, Fumihiko Maki, Tadao Ando, and SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa.

Ito was selected by a jury that included Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who lauded the 71-year-old for “improving the quality of both public and private spaces,” and 2002 Pritzker laureate Glenn Murcutt, who praised Ito’s dogged, shape-shifting pursuit of excellence. “His work has not remained static and has never been predictable,” notes the Aussie architect. And for Ito, that’s exactly the point. “I have been designing architecture bearing in mind that it would be possible to realize more comfortable spaces if we are freed from all the restrictions even for a little bit,” said Ito upon learning of his award. “However, when one building is completed, I become painfully aware of my own inadequacy, and it turns into energy to challenge the next project. Probably this process must keep repeating itself in the future. Therefore, I will never fix my architectural style and never be satisfied with my works.”

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The amazing Letman (a.k.a. Job Wouters) will be on hand tonight at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis to discuss and demonstrate his eye-popping approach to the alphabet–think illustration meets grafitti meets graphic design. The Amsterdam-based designer’s talk and hand-lettering demo, which will be webcast live at 7 p.m. EST, is part of the Walker’s “Insights” series of design lectures that earlier this month welcomed Geoff McFetridge and Eike König, and next week features Wouters’ fellow Mokummer, Luna Maurer. Each of the designers has been commissioned to create a project for the Walker, and Wouters is at work on mural. While you await tonight’s webcast, enjoy his 2003 video, “”abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” (below), in which Wouters and his then four-year-old nephew, Gradus, practice their penmanship.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lori Greiner knows firsthand the power of Oprah Winfrey to sell product.

In part two of our conversation with Greiner, the “Queen of QVC” and regular on ABC’s “Shark Tank” tells SocialTimes editor Devon Glenn what happens when one of your products makes the list of Oprah’s favorite things, how every inventor thinks they have the greatest thing in the world and what they need to do to make sure they’re right.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

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• Elsewhere in museum thievery news, Gerald Jones, a disgruntled former employee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art–who insists he is not disgruntled but a whistleblower (someone’s been watching Englightened!)–is speaking out about the museum’s tactics for getting visitors to pay the suggested $25 admission fee. “I arranged for security officers to forcibly remove the museum visitors who demanded entry without paying,” Jones told the NY Post.

• How has technology reshaped contemporary life and what does it mean for photography? Curator Christopher Y. Lew considers “Swiping at Pictures” in an online-only essay commissioned to accompany Aperture‘s boldly redesigned spring 2013 issue.

• Fashion powerhouses such as Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, and Zac Posen are serious about philanthrophy. Gotham goes inside the minds of “6 Designers Who Give Big.”

• The selection of a new pope prompted Norma Kamali to consider how much the Catholic church has influenced her career in fashion. “The tapestries and brocades, the candles, and the bar reliefs, and sculptures, and the holy water. Every one of my senses was a part of the experience,” she wrote in a recent “Note from Norma.”

• And speaking of fashion influences and pyramid schemes, Vince Camuto has ripped off Valentino’s wildly successful rockstud heel. Camuto’s “Mikhal” model is priced at $118, while the Italian original goes for around $950.

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Exactly 23 years after the stunning heist of masterworks from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, FBI officials announced today that they have identified the thieves (“members of a criminal organization with a base in the mid-Atlantic states and New England” is all they’ll say, dashing our hopes that Thomas Crown, Steve McQueen, and/or Pierce Brosnan was involved) and determined where the 13 artworks had traveled in the years after the robbery (Connecticut! Philadelphia!), but the hunt is still on for the pilfered trio of Rembrandts, a Vermeer, a portrait by Edouard Manet, and sketches by Renoir, among others. Check out the FBI’s newly released video (above). There may be a $5 million reward in it for you.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Are you a die-hard Top Chef fan? Do you have strong views about “flavor profiles”? Were you able to enjoy Julie & Julia without becoming distracted by the hideous costume choices for the Julie character? Then clear your plate for this job opportunity: the healthy foodies at Cooking Light are looking for a new cook—and by cook, we mean photography director—to join their smart yet delicious Birmingham, Alabama-based team. Ingredients of a successful candidate include two cups of “deep experience gathering and directing photo teams,” one cup of “ability to manage photo budgets and schedules,” and two heaping tablespoons of skills for finding new photo talent, all sprinkled with an abiding faith in quinoa–and in making it look delicious. Got tablet experience and a scrumptious sense of humor? That’s icing on the (upside-down) cake.

Pack your knives and apply for this photography director, Cooking Light job or view all current mediabistro.com design/art/photo jobs.

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(Images courtesy the Luxe Project by moo.com)

We’re declaring March Stefan Sagmeister month! The designer’s “Happy Show” opens Wednesday in Los Angeles at MOCA Pacific Design Center (he’ll speak on “Design and Happiness” tomorrow evening in West Hollywood), and on the other side of the country, New York’s Jewish Museum offers up a room full of jaw-dropping, typographical whimsy in “Six Things: Sagmeister & Walsh,” the first exhibition of Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh‘s recently launched design firm. Between readying museum shows, the designing duo found time to whip up some new business cards for you–and all profits go to New York’s Coalition for the Homeless.

Now to muster the courage required to give the cards to others. True to their provocative nature, Sagmeister & Walsh have created something that is half graphic design, half social experiment. The seven sets of seven cards in their “Halftone Satisfaction” series are printed with bold sentiments that range from the flattering (“It’s a delight to be around someone who loves with they do.”) to the vicious (“You are a waste of time.”). Lest you vituperate someone (“Fuck you. Eat shit.”) you had meant to compliment (“Your eyes are lovely.”), the back of each card is printed with a mood-matched pattern, from solid white through gradations of dots and finally, solid black. “It’s a test of what kind of person you are and what kind of people you meet,” says Sagmeister, “what cards would you give out and why?” Sagmeister & Walsh’s motivations for creating the cards are easier to explain: they are a limited-edition collection for the Luxe Project, a moo.com initiative that gives 100% of net proceeds to the designer’s charity of choice.

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If you like watching rich people buy things on TV or prefer doing it yourself while watching QVC, then you’re probably familiar with Lori Greiner.

Greiner, known as the “Queen of QVC,” is also a regular on the ABC show “Shark Tank” where those that have millions listen to pitches from those that have little more than a million dollar idea.

SocialTimes editor Devon Glenn sat down with Greiner to talk about the show, her reign on QVC and if any of the products she’s invested in on “Shark Tank” have any bite.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

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“[Since becoming a curator in 1994, my view of design has] definitely moved more towards the ‘five-dimensional.’ The common thread is always how people live and what design can do to make life better. If design has more to say in the immaterial realm then I focus on that. I can’t deny that furniture excites me less and less. I still get excited by some pieces, like Dirk Vander Kooij‘s “Endless Flow” rocking chair of 2011 (pictured). There needs to be innovation in the process and in the material because otherwise how many more chairs do we need? You need to justify your use of physical resources and your occupation of space with real innovation, real talent, and even fantasy and delight. I’m not so much of a moralist to think everything needs a purpose.”

-Paola Antonelli, director of research and development and senior curator of architecture and design at MoMA, in an interview with Ermanno Rivetti that appears in this month’s issue of The Art Newspaper

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At the TEFAF stand of Tornabuoni Arte, Alighero Boetti’s “Mappa del Mundo” (1980), viewed through tulips. (All photos: UnBeige)

Armory Week has come and gone in New Amsterdam, but the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) is just beginning in the Dutch town of Maastricht. Gluttons for sumptuously showcased masterpieces, we decided to take a field trip. With some 265 art and antiques dealers from 20 countries–and hundreds of thousands of tulips, the 26th edition of the fair opened to the public today after a vernissage that, in the words of a colleague, “makes Art Basel look like a slum”–all savvy lighting, high ceilings, and spacious aisles studded with fragrant blooms, thanks to fair designer Tom Postma.

TEFAF has long been a must for collectors of Old Masters and antiques, and in recent years has boosted its offerings in modern and contemporary art, design, and photography. Were the fair crass enough to have a slogan, it would be “where the museums shop.” We arrived in Maastricht and, fortfied with stroopwafels, set out to see works spanning 6,000 years of history. Let’s just say it’s a good thing that the fair runs through March 24. Here are 25 of our early favorites.

The multilayered stand of Axel Vervoodt. We couldn’t muster the courage to ask him whether he receives a monthly royalty check from Restoration Hardware.

Wartski of London offers (for six figures) the shot that almost killed Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Fired–maybe accidentally, maybe as an assaination attempt–in 1906 three days before the Bloody Sunday Massacre, it was mounted in gold by Carl Faberge and presented to the tsar as a creepy souvenir.

Among the standouts in the design section of the fair, a 1921 Wiener Werksatte table lamp by Dagobert Peche (at Bel Etage, Wolfgang Bauer, Vienna) and a preppy combination of works by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (at Galerie Ulrich Fiedler).

Claude Lalanne’s “Grand Lapin de Victoire” (2001) stands sentry at the Ben Brown Fine Arts stand and keeps an eye on the 1984 Basquiat across the way, at Tornabuoni Arte.

At the stand of Robert Hall, bottles, bottles everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
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A judge has nixed the NYC “soda ban”–due to take effect Tuesday, it would have banned 16-ounce containers of sugary drinks that have more than 25 calories per ounce–but an appeal is in the works, and Mayor Bloomberg isn’t the only one looking to change the way we look at fizzy beverages. SodaStream is shaking up the market with its DIY take (slogan: “If you love the bubbles, set them free”). Founded in 1903 with the introduction of “an apparatus for aerating liquids,” the Israel-based company recently teamed up with Yves Behar and his team at Fuseproject to design the Source, a sleek home soda maker. “The design of Source was a process of elimination,” says Behar, who also worked on the packaging, naming, and graphic design of the compostable soda pods. Yaron Kopel, SodaStream’s chief innovation and design officer, made time during his recent trip to NYC to answer our questions about soda, the Fuseproject collaboration, and what’s next for the company.

First things first, what is your favorite beverage?
SodaStream Ginger Ale.

How do you describe SodaStream to someone who is unfamiliar with it?
SodaStream allows you to make carbonated water–which can become cola, fizzy juice, you name it–from home, in an instant. We have become so accustomed to the everyday consumption of bottled soda that its impact has been rendered mostly invisible. From an environmental perspective, when we consume and toss out plastic soda bottles, we’re doing damage. That plastic ends up forgotten, in landfills, in oceans. With SodaStream, consumers can enjoy their bubbles without any environmental impact. In essence, SodaStream takes what was once a passive, environmentally damaging practice–purchasing and enjoying soda–and has made it simple, active and environmentally sound.

What led you to seek out Yves Behar/Fuseproject, and what did you ask them to do?
Yves is among the finest industrial designers in the world. He is an innovator in sustainable design. Yves was tasked with reducing complexity and waste and creating a simple and beautiful object for the kitchen that keeps with 21st Century values. The result is SodaStream Source. Realizing that world-class design is a prerequisite to securing space on the countertop, SodaStream Source combines outstanding design with best-in-class engineering to improve functionality and ease-of-use. Its refined mechanics make the entire top surface responsive to touch. A new Snap-Lock mechanism makes the process quick, easy and intuitive, while an LED display provides instant visual feedback on the level of carbonation.

How was the process of working with Yves?
Yves and I worked together 24/7 for nine months to bring Source to fruition. It was a collaborative process. We shared a similar vision and joint desire to reduce and refine the user experience. Nothing about Yves’ work is redundant–every design attribute has a purpose. The finished product is a beautifully pared back design delivering the luxury of sparkling water, sodas, and bubbly beverages in one iconic minimal piece for the modern kitchen.
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How do you solve a problem like James Dyson, he of the life-changing vaccuums and bladeless fans? “Put faith in frustrations and solve the problems that cause them,” advises the Norfolk-born industrial designer. “We’re looking for people who rather than accept a problem, go further to design a simple and effective solution.” Such is the premise of the James Dyson Award, a competition open to students studying product design, industrial design, and engineering at the university level (or recent graduates) in 18 countries, including the United States and Canada. Last year’s big winner was Royal College of Art grad Dan Watson‘s SafetyNet, a device to increase the sustainability of fishing:

Inspired yet? Entries open today for the 2013 award, and the prize money has been doubled. Register here to submit footage, images, and sketches of your idea, along with details of your design process and inspiration by the deadline of August 1. The national winners and finalists will be announced this fall after local panels of designers, engineers, and design critics compile their shortlists. Up for grabs is around $150,000 in prize money, including an international prize of $45,000 for the student/team and another $15,000 for his or her school, along with a swell trophy that may well double as a dustbuster.

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This week, Acoustic Guitar is hiring a designer, while the University of Michigan is seeking a multimedia designer. Williams New York needs an art director/designer, and The Economist Group is on the hunt for an art director. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.

Find more great design jobs on the UnBeige job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented UnBeige pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Après the Satorialist, le déluge! Dasha Zhukova and her team at Garage magazine, her artsy biannual, set out to make a short film exploring the world of fashion bloggers and the stylish types they frequently feature. They ended up with something else entirely. “As we started to review the footage, two salient trends became apparent: fashion editors frustrated by the ensuing commotion outside of shows, and the rise of ‘peacocking’ street style stars as a result of the proliferation of blogs.” The freshly completed short, “Take My Picture” (below), digs into both perspectives. Style.com stalwart Tim Blanks provides valuable perspective, pointing out Tommy Ton‘s exceptional eye, but it’s veteran street style photographer Phil Oh who takes the prize for best soundbite, comparing the fashion week pre-show melee of posing and snapping to a battle scene. “It’s become trench warfare,” he says.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.