Hey great! Maxi-Cosi and Quinny have partnered with a world-famous artist I've never heard of to decorate a stroller, car seat and accessories collection.
Romero Britto, who I'm going to guess is the Peter Max of Brasil, and the secret twin brother, separated at birth, of children's book artist Todd Parr. They were born to Niki de Saint Phalle and Eric Carle after a wild night at Carnevale in the early 60s. No one talks about it.
Oh waitaminnit, Britto Britto? You mean the Britto who made that bunny that was on the South Lawn of the White House for the 2008 Easter Egg Roll? The one which "has been accepted into the permanent collection of art of the White House archives"? Yeah, no idea. If only I hadn't been so caught up in the excitement of a newborn K2 getting her picture taken with my mother and former Utah governor, then HHS Secretary, and now-Romney transition team chief Mike Leavitt, I might have noticed it. My bad.
From the press release:
"This unique new collection features his artwork in a way never before seen in the stroller and car seat categories," said Dan Pennacchio, General Manager of international Brands at Dorel Juvenile Group.And I'll be darned, he's absolutely right. Where previous stroller colabos with bright, painfully poppy designers have focused on the soft elements--the upholstery, canopies, and seat covers and stuff--the Quinny Moodd by Britto has Brittonized the aluminum structure of the stroller itself. Is it painted on? Which would be impressive? Or vinyl-wrapped? Which would be interesting? Or some combination of both, wrapped with a paint tattoo of some kind?
If I had to guess--and I'll have to, since I can feel my invitation to the glitzy momblogger stroller junket in Miami being yanked as I type--I'll go with non-sprayed paint.
But wait, the handle on the Maxi-Cosi Mico by Britto is plastic, not metal, and it's black at the hinge, so maybe it's shrinkwrapped? Done with a printed decal tube and a hairdryer?
Now I'm a little skeptical again. And that's without considering the actual design itself, which, what even is it? It looks like 90s cartoon vomit. Whimsy Skinz. Like they didn't realize someone accidentally left a Lamaze Peekaboo Cube in the transporter.
We've had two of these fugly things, btw. the kids loved them, whatryagonnado?
But then, realistically, what else could it be? It's not a rhetorical question. I've actually thought about how to righteously mod a stroller for like eight years, and honestly, except for one [ONE!] custom-pinstriped Bugaboo, I've come up almost entirely empty.
So kudos to Quinny for at least trying. And for not just slapping a Yellow Submarine patch on there or whatever. "I do not have samples," says the publicist, as ten thousand BlogHer veterans' hearts deflate at once, "but let me know if you are interested in other assets." "Parasols by Britto will be available in late fall!"
New Quinny and Maxi-Cosi by Britto Collections [quinny via publicist]
Romero Britto flash megasite [britto.com]
Maybe this post put me on the lookout for graphics-on-aluminum kids products but this weekend I saw a whole lot of these: http://www.razor.com/products/kick-scooters/wild-style/