Archive for 02.2010

Copperfield

This pendant, Copperfield, was named after the famous magician David Copperfield. Inspiration for the name came from the ‘magic box’ of glossy plexiglass inside the lamp, which creates an interesting mirror effect.

With its industrial look, this would look mighty nice over a dining table or snooker table.

Copperfield was designed by Maxime Szyf from Belgian design studio Dark. Interestingly, Szyf also works under the nickname Maximal Design ;-)

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Homework

Since 2003, Polish design studio Homework, a duo comprised of Joanna Górska and Jerzy Skakun, have created posters for a range of cultural events.

Regardless of whether you can read Polish or not, the designers’ portrayal of the events in question, particularly the Hollywood movie references, gives you good idea about what is being advertised with minimal effort.

Actually, there’s a game in this: visit Homework’s website and see how many events you can guess the relevant posters are for. Unless you understand Polish of course, in which case you’d be cheating.

An exhibition of the studio’s work at London’s Kemistry Gallery begins on March 5th.

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The paper cloud sofa by Tokuyin Yoshioka

A ‘messed up’ look. Or is it wabi sabi? Japanese designer Tokujin Yoshioka has a fascinating minimalist approach to asymmetric conceptual design: design and nature get really close. “I’m fascinated by the elements of nature.” he says.

Tokujin Yoshioka takes white paper, crumbles it a lot and voilà. He creates a crumpled sofa with a ‘paperness’ and fluffy cloud feeling. Believe or not the prototype is actually made entirely of paper. The Cloud sofa, to be manufactured by Moroso, has the sensibility of wabi sabi which values modesty, simplicity and imperfection.

Tokujin Yoshioka’s work is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Museum’s permanent collections among others.

I love the ‘crumbled paper’ blue sketch. One of the interesting things about experimental design is the difference between the first idea and the final object. Is the design more important than the original idea?

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Onda

When you can draw the design of an object with one single line, and do that even after you only saw it briefly more than a week ago, then you know you’ve encountered something special.

Lounge chair Onda by Spanish designer Diego Granese consists of a single piece of stainless steel, covered with leather. It saw the light in 2003 and is produced by the Spanish furniture manufacturer Frajumar.

I haven’t been able to try it for myself, but it looks like quite the balancing act. Either way, a great conversation piece.

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QlockTwo

A great alternative to numerical clocks is this worded clock by Biegert & Funk.

Called QlockTwo, this clock tells the time using words highlighted by LEDs. It is available in numerous colours and languages.

I like how the smooth design and structured typographic grid compliment the illuminated words and make it stand out.

You can purchase the QlockTwo in various colours and languages via Biegert & Funk’s online store.

And there’s also an iPhone application available!

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Kinetic Sculpture

Oooh this is nice!

The Kinetic Sculpture consists of 714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires. Each sphere can be moved individually, and through some amazing software, moving shapes can be created.

The Kinetic Sculpture is created by ART+COM, a digital media design agency based in Berlin, Germany, for the BMW Museum in Munich, Germany.

ART+COM have animated a seven minute long mechatronic narrative – a dance in mid-air. (Thx, Floris!)

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Bin

This beautiful minimalist bin, designed by Japanese designer Shigeichiro Takeuchi, consists of nothing more than a cylindrical body and a wooden lid – but no moving parts added.

The wooden lid tilts without a mechanism; it just balances on the diagonal cut of the cylinder. The shapes and angles doing all the work.

And although it consists of just two parts, the bin definitely has its own identity.

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Shellf

Prompted by our recent post on single-drawer Less Stuff, Belgian industrial designer Pieterjan Deblauwe sent in this prototype he made a fw years back.

If you’re a bit like me, your first response will probably something like ’Okay, a shelf, yeah, so?‘ In that case I suggest that you read the next line and then quickly click on through to the rest of the images.

What you are looking at here is Shellf: a bedside table to hide your little secrets. The designer says this:

Objects take volumes out of the space which surrounds you. Here the idea is to use the space which is taken by the object.

Pretty smart!

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Rebranding the Swedish Armed Forces

A project group of Hyper Island – Robbin Ingvarsson, Fredrik Holmberg, Kristina Herngren, Anke Buchta, Simon Schlüter and Waldemar Wegelin- rebranded the Swedish Armed Forces. They turned the usual function of camouflage around and used one of the basic shapes of geometry, the triangle, to create a new type of camouflage that is all about showing yourself. The goal is to reflect the diversity with the Armed Forces.

The focus for Swedish Army is peacekeeping abroad. In order to fullfill their missions they want to attract new talent – brain rather than muscles.

The challenge of the rebrand was to change the Swedish Armed Forces from a traditional defensive institute into a modern employeer.

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BIY Lamp

Why use three dimensions if you can do the same with two? This table lamp arrives in a flat envelope, leaving you to bend the steel up into its dynamic two-dimensional form, thread the cord and screw in the bulb.

This interactive piece designed by the Luis Eslava Studio has the silhouette of a lamp die-cut on a stainless steel sheet. The cable is used to hold the structure and to tense the volume; and, on the other hand, the strong red or black color used depending on the model makes it acquire an important decorative role. It plays a very important part in the design of this piece.

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