Design, Puppies, and Love

Design, art, and a good cause will come together this winter to benefit cancer research. The brain child of Nasir and Nargis Kassamali of the renowned Lumainire stores in Miami and Chicago, the “Puppylove” project challenges creative types from all over the world to turn Eero Arnio’s minimalist plastic dog into an object of desire.

The redesigned, decorated, and otherwise artistically enhanced puppies will be purchased for big bucks; Christie’s will conduct the charity auction and the Kassamialis and their supporters hope to hand a generous check to the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center to fund research in its molecular oncology program.

The spruced up puppies can be seen on the Luminaire website, to prepare bidders (starting at $5,000 per dog) for the silent auction that starts December 6th. A jury—Craig Robins, Rosa de la Cruz, Gilda Bojardi, George Lineman, and Terence Riley—will choose eight, from a selection of 35 designer-puppies, to be auctioned off to invited guests at a dinner on Friday, December 8. Puppylove coincides with Design Miami, the annual forum for creating, exhibiting, collecting, and discussing design, held December 8-10 2007.

If you had any doubts that designers and artists see the world in very different ways, these puppies provide an enlightening view of two unique sensibilities. Product designers and architects, such as Jasper Morrison and Herzog & deMeuron, made minimal interventions, while artists and fashion designers like Federico Uribe and Elke Walter show a penchant for the fanciful and unabashedly decorative.