We reports about endless product collaborations here and in some cases the get together of two parties make sense and results in a fantastic new product. In other cases the results are more questionable. Designer Jeff Staple is involved in a lot of them himself and gives us some background on the different types of collaborations and more importantly explains when it is not a collaboration and what makes a good one. He wrote the article for the latest issue of Antenna magazine.

“As soon as man could make things, man was collaborating.

When the first caveman discovered fire, one person found the wood, the other worked the flame. Centuries later, the blacksmith needed to work with the leathersmith in order to make that perfect belt. Long before the word “collaboration” or “colab” was invented, we were collaborating.

The reason is simple. As humans, we are adept at only a certain number of skill sets. Even so called “Renaissance people” are not masters at everything. Eventually we need help. There are two kinds of help: we can simply pay for the help, otherwise known as “work-for-hire,” or we can collaborate. When you collaborate, you’re basically saying, “Hey bro, I’m really good at X, but I suck at Y. You, on the other hand are really good at Y, but you’re miserable at X. If we come together, we might be able to do some amazing things!”

The result is an epiphany. A yin and a yang forming one. Taking the best of the negatives and turning them into positives. Fast forward a few more centuries and we now live in the digital/technological/informational age. Our outputs are no longer only physical objects, but they are experiences now too. People make a living by offering opinions, or by having a certain number of people “follow” and “like” them. It’s a new day where your thoughts are the commodity.

Even with all that, the basic premise of the collaboration is the same.
Nowadays a corporation will seek the services of a cool artist, influencer or designer to work with them on a product. Why?

Read the rest of the article after the jump.

In the latest installment of his 1-2-1 series Jeff Staple sits down with founder and CEO of Karmaloop.com, Greg Selkoe. They talk about the beginnings of Karmaloop and how far they have come, as well as their future plans.

Karmaloop has always attracted as much hate as admiration. Controversy about its business, its founder and of course the impressive size it has reached over the years result in much talk and also much hate. It is funny from our perspective, because we feel like we grew along with Karmaloop over the years. We remember the times when the 10 Deep’s and Crooks & Castle’s of this world would not sell to Karmaloop because they were not ‘cool’ enough as a retailer. As you can imagine, those times have changed – economic crisis, lots of ‘cool’ retailers closing and a massive streetwear retailer that can actually sell numbers, made it hard to say no to. Karmaloop was one of the very first advertisers of this site and actually made it possibly for me in the early days to spend more time on Highsnobiety.com and less time on doing other jobs to pay rent. That I can simply not hate on.

Now check out the interview with Mr. Selkoe here above.

Influential artist, designer and entrepreneur, Jeff Staple, brings his positive social contagion to the truth tobacco awareness campaign with the “truth 1585 Collection” of limited edition t-shirts. Staple worked with eight boutique’s and street culture stores across the country – Major, Goliath, Bodega, UBIQ, Alife, Burn Rubber, TRUE and the Reed Space – to produce eight original t-shirts. Available now.

To find out more about the collaboration see the video below or visit www.truth1585.com.

More images follow after the click.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And while the quote has been misattributed to everyone from Napoleon to Confucius, Turgenev broke the essential idea down in Fathers and Sons, that a complex idea or situation can be conveyed through a single still image.

With ever-improving cameras in mobile phones, it seems everyone is a budding photographer. Results vary, from spectacular to embarrassing. Just check out youarenotaphotographer.com, which highlights some of the worst results of online fauxtographers, for an example of the latter.

A major catalyst in this digi-photo revolution has been Instagram, which has been cutting through the world of social networking like wildfire. An homage to the Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid, as well as the fantastically addictive cult of Lomography, Instagram turns the camera on an iPhone into an entire photographers toolkit, allowing a host of filters and lighting options.

The true genius of Instagram is in it’s social aspects, and for many it’s taking over from Twitter as the way they share their day to day lives. Twitter allows expression of what’s on our minds. 140 character thought bubbles. Whereas Instagram functions as a sort of picto-Twitter, allowing glimpses into our aesthetic realities.

Debate is raging on (ironically, primarily on Twitter), but many people clearly feel that a picture may be worth a thousand words, but an Instagram is worth at least 141 characters.

This column will, once a week, take a look at some interesting IGs and IGers, in the world of streetwear and beyond. With over 15 million users, I can’t possibly see everything, so if you want me to check out your shots, or have recommendations of IGers, hit me up on Twitter: @quentincrispy, or on Instagram: cottonrazorblade.

Check out this weeks selection, featuring Jeff Staple, Edison Chen, Aaron Bondaroff, Bobby Hundreds, Juxtapoz Magazine, Mia Valerio and Rocky Xu and  and others after the jump.

Happy Snapping.

Benny Gold has unveiled this season’s Guest Artist Glider tee shirt done in collaboration with Jeff Staple. Staple’s design mimics a schematic blueprint of the BG Glider Plane logo and is available in three colors: white, black and blue. Whenever you have two guys of such immense talent getting together like this, the outcome is bound to be something else. Good work, guys!

Take a look at the tees after the jump.

In the latest 1-2-1 episode with Jeff Staple, the New York creative sits down with none other than mysterious artist Neck Face. They talk about the artist’s childhood, school life and his new work. Enjoy!

Jeff Staple presents the latest installment of his 1-2-1 with jeffstaple video series. This time artist Jose Parla is being featured. They talk about his childhood, his school life and of course about his recent work. The episode was produced in conjunction with letsredu.com. Check it out!

This is the seventh installment in the “1-2-1 w/jeffstaple” Series. Each segment, jeffstaple, Founder and Creative Director of Staple Design & Reed Space, talks to someone one-to-one. Direct. Intimate. No BS.
For this segment, Jeff talks to Scott Campbell about his childhood, his school life and his recent work. This video was produced in conjunction with letsredu.com.

Thursday night MADE in Berlin hosted the All Gone 2010 book release and exhibition. Bringing together many of the today hard to find items that the All Gone books have showcased over the years, the space was also decorated with large size prints of the new 2010 issue which was released this past week. Pretty much 100% of the items that are in the All Gone books have also appeared here on our website over the years and last week we realized how many great things went down in that time and especially how many we forgot about.

Michael Dupouy, the maker of the All Gone book series was in place to sign issues for people. DJ Jeff Staple and Busy P were in charge for the music of the night. As you can imagine the exhibition attracted lots of people, with a huge line building up outside the building on Alexanderplatz in Berlin. Lucky for all of you, the exhibition will remain open to the public until February 2nd.

Take a look at the space and some of the people from the exhibition opening after the jump.