Baxter - 2023 Concept & Inspirations

2023, Baxter takes us back to the golden age of 1970 with a series of eye-catching new products. The 1970s is a time of carefree, pioneering freedom, naivety and faith. Andy Warhol's pop colours, the glittering atmosphere of the legendary Studio 54 in New York, YSL's beloved Jardin Majorelle at Marrakech... A multidimensional mix of inspirations has resulted in the new Baxter 2023 collection. On the interior side of the exhibition spaces, Baxter has taken influence from the architectural designs of Gae Aulenti and Corbusier, two renowned architects in the history. Let's take a trip back in time and experience the retro artistry this year.

1 Pop Art & Andy Warhol

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Pop Art is an art style that originated primarily from commercial art forms and is characterised by the representation of details of pop culture, such as the enlarged reproduction of comic strips, fast food and logo-printed packaging. Pop Art emerged in the UK in the early 1950s and later spread in the US, becoming an important art form in the 1960s and 1970s, with a particular and long-lasting influence on pop trends, fashion and culture.

Among the well-known Pop artists, Andy Warhol (1928.8.6-1987.2.22, American artist) is regarded as the soul of Pop Art. He unapologetically applied and explored a wide range of media and expressive possibilities, dabbling in many different fields, including design, painting, sculpture, installation, film, photography, video, text, advertising ...... What remained constant was a high degree of sensitivity to the times in which he was living. Moreover, he published expensive art works in print, making them accessible to the public at low prices. High value artworks are no longer overpriced, and ordinary people can own an artist's masterpiece as well.

Andy Warhol practised the passions, desires, ambitions and fantasies of his time, creating a world with a wide range of perception and that is experimental, plebeian, non-traditional experiences, anti-elite and anti-aristocratic. Despite numerous publications and extremely high exposure, the artistic value of his works was not widely acknowledged during his lifetime; they far surpassed the artistic styles of the era and it can be said that he changed the reality and ideals of American art.

In Pop Art there is often a strong focus on colour expression, for example by using highly saturated colours and by intensifying the contrasting tension between the uncoloured (black, white and grey) and the coloured palette to create a strong visual impact. In Baxter's new collection this year, the colours are particularly striking, and together with Baxter's new leather finishes, are a tribute to the Pop Art of the 1970s.

2 Studio 54 New York's Legendary Studio 54

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Formerly the CBS TV studio, New York's Studio 54 was born in 1976 when the two founders, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, bought the space and spent $400,000 on renovations to create the most controversial nightclub in the world.

Almost every celebrity of film, music, art and fashion from the 1970s enjoyed themselves here: Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, David Bowie, Karl Lagerfeld, members of the Rolling Stones, Calvin Klein, Freddie Mercury, Dali, members of the Kennedy family, the then Chief of Staff of the US White House and many more.

Studio 54 itself was created by renowned architects, interior designers, florists and set designers from Hollywood and Broadway theatres, so the high quality and artistic atmosphere attracts a large number of creative people who came to party and it became a place to meet and exchange inspirations.

The wild nights, the crowds, the noise - Studio 54 was the centre stage of the 1970s trend of emancipation, perfect representation of the 'free 70s'. Although Studio54 cannot be replicated, we can get a glimpse of the 70s through Baxter's dazzling new collection this year.

3 Yves Saint-Laurent and Jardin Majorelle

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Marrakech, Morocco's third largest city, is home to the Jardin Majorelle, a 1920s Art Deco-style garden that has been described as one of the most enigmatic villa gardens of the 20th century and an artistic mecca for Marrakech artists.

The first owner of the garden was the French artist Jacques Majorelle, who devoted almost his entire life to designing and building the garden from 1924 onwards and scavenged various plants from all over the world to create a cactus garden, a vine promenade, a lotus pond and a bamboo pathway... It is said that there are over 100 species of cactus. The gardens were filled with the blue colour favoured by the painter, and the villa, vases, walls and ponds were all tinged with this bright and pure blue. This blue was called Majorelle blue by later generations. The gardens were slowly abandoned until the artist died in a car accident in 1962.

The second owner of the garden was the French fashion giant Yves Saint Laurent, who discovered the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech in the 1970s and fell madly in love with it, buying it with his romantic partner Pierre Berge. "The Jardin Majorelle is like an inexhaustible source of spirituality for me, and I often see the unique colours in my dreams," says Saint Laurent. For almost 30 years, Saint Laurent lived in the garden every spring, and after his death, his ashes were also scattered in the garden. Today the villa is a museum, with an exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent's manuscripts.

The most iconic of the gardens is the Majorelle Blue, a blue more stirring than azure. This unique shade of blue is extracted from Saharan desert plants and is difficult to purchase from other areas. The pigment, which costs a fortune in kilograms, is used in most of the buildings in the gardens, so you can imagine the cost. Majorelle blue has also since become a classic YSL nail polish colour.

The striking blue finish that Baxter features this year comes exactly from this Majorelle Blue. Baxter is an expert at using colour to create a sensual experience, and while Baxter offers users a variety of understated and elegant neutral colours, the boldness of Majorelle Blue is representative of Baxter's passionate and enthusiastic side.

4 Le Corbusier & Gae Aulenti

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Born in France on 6 October 1887, Le Corbusier, the most famous architect, urban planner and writer of the 20th century, was a leading proponent of the modernist architectural movement and the functionalist architecture, as well as the founder of the prestigious Bauhaus School of Design.

In his design, he was guided by the rationalist idea that function determines form, and that the design of space is never divorced from the original cornerstone of the human needs. The "Brutalist Architecture" began with Corbusier's Unite d'Habitation, a housing project for the working class in Marseille, France. Lacking ornamentation and committed to creating a certain social bond between its inhabitants, the Unite d'Habitation set the framework for the Brutalist style of architecture in both design and aesthetics.

Corbusier likes to discover the essence of classical works, recombine them and reconstruct the space for modern life, combining classical and modernity. He returns to the original point of architectural principles. The original design form is broken down into different 'parts' according to the needs of the building's structure, and then reassembled using advanced design concepts, techniques and materials to form a new spatial form.

Corbusier's ideas on spatial design are regarded as the roots of the modernist style, and in the field of architecture it was he who re-established the beliefs and expectations of architecture. Corbusier advocated the value that we must not only break away from established patterns, but also take responsibility for the meaning of this new form of space for human existence.

Born in Italy on 4 December 1927, Gae Aulenti was a prolific Italian architect and furniture designer. She was one of the only two women in the graduating class of 20 who received a degree in architecture from the Milan Polytechnic in 1954 and later became famous for transforming the Gare d'Orsay railway station in Paris into the Musée d'Orsay.

The building was heavily criticised by the press at the time, but has since become one of the most popular museums in France, with 20,000 people queuing to get in every day when it first opened to the public. Her admirers see the museum as a major step forward for her as an industrial designer and a leader of a young generation of Italian theorists.

Gae Aulenti spent much of her life scorning current trends and fashion, saying "Whoever asks me how to build a space for a home, my advice is to put nothing in it but a few bookshelves, some pillows to sit on, and then leave the fleeting things and trends behind and return to what is valuable and has stood the test of time." Gae Aulenti is a rebellious personality who rejects the modernism of the machine age in favour of a revival of personal expression, an aesthetic innovation that strives for hand-crafting and colourfulness, and the powerful expressiveness of post-modernism. She is a godmother-like figure in the Italian architectural history.

This year, Baxter's spaces for exhibiting the new products are influenced by Corbusier's "Brutalist architecture" and Gae Aulenti's architectural style, and Baxter's tribute to the masters also conveys to the user the value of design that lasts forever. Each space of Baxter is filled with a strong expression of individuality, which over time has settled into the brand's quintessential values and is worth savouring.

Baxter's new 2023 collection is inspired by many elements of the 1970s and two famous architecture masters in the history. It's not just a simple nostalgia for a bygone era, but a collection of design and cultural values that have had a profound impact on society, combined with the brand's keen observation and perception of the current social environment, all presented to users in Baxter's unique and sensual way. With the polishing of time, Baxter's heart and the quality elegant lifestyle it conveys are cherished by everyone who loves Baxter.

Planning：JP Concept China

Supervisor：Yi

Editor：Xinwei

Images' copyright：in part from Baxter, others from online sources