Posts by Niels-Peter Foppen - Author at Minimalissimo

Multiblocks

Inspired by his father, a civil engineer who built toys for his children, Seattle based Brad Singley designed Multiblocks. Singley says:

I can still remember the frustration of playing with building blocks as a young child. I wanted to build BIG, but it was impossible to make a skyscraper out of triangles, semicircles, cylinders, and small cubes.

His fater in the end made him a set of wooden square and rectangular cubes in different lengths. Many years later Singley recreated his favorite toy. He added numbers and increments to encourage mathematical and creative thinking.

The blocks, from scraps of basswood leftover from other products, come in recycled cotton storage bag and seem to me the perfect gift for kids.

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A_Stool

A_Stool is created by the American industrial designer Jonathan Nesci. In 2006 Nesci founded his studio HALE a part-design, part-production firm based dually in Chicago, IL and Scottsburg, IN.

Made of laser-cut powder-coated aluminum the A_Stool is a robust furniture piece to enrich your interior.
The stool is available in 2 different sizes: bar (44.5w x 45.7d x 76.2h cm) and counter (44.5w x 45.7d x 66h cm).

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Radio

Daniel To and Emma Aiston met during their study Industrial Design at the University of South Australia. After their graduation they established Daniel Emma and exhibited their first collection Shapes in London and Tokyo. After this collection two more collections followed; ‘solids’ and ‘basics’.

I would like to present you Radio from this first collection. Simplistic and featuring geometric pieces in minimal colors. The duo says humbly:

Our designs aim to be ‘just nice’.

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Posters by Emil Ruder

Recently I found this great set of minimalist posters by Emil Ruder, Swiss typographer and graphic designer. Ruder (1914-1970) played an important role in the development and dissemination of the Swiss Style.

“Typography has one plain duty before 
it and that is to convey information 
in writing.” – Emil Ruder

He has helped, together with Armin Hofmann, to found the Schule für Gestaltung, Basel (Basel School of Design), and was known for encouraging his students to be more concerned with precision, proportions and the role of legibility and communication with type.

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Hembakat är Bäst

Swedish design and marketing agency Forsman & Bodenfors created, as part of IKEA’s kitchen appliance campaign, an unconventional baking book. According to F&B it was “the perfect way to ensure a connection between IKEAS kitchen appliances and one of the best things you can do in a kitchen: baking.”

Hembakat är Bäst (Homemade is Best) gives you an overview of fantastic traditional Swedish recipes; biscuits, buns and cakes. The design is inspired by high fashion and Japanese minimalism and gives a great overview of the necessary ingredients. Evelina Bratell (styling) and Carl Kleiner (photography) are responsible for the perfect geometric aligned composition of ingredients.

A piece I would like to add to my collection of (cook-)books. The great news is that the book is available for free! Unfortunately the only place you can get it is the kitchen department of Swedish IKEA stores.

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John Pawson – Plain Space

In the past Minimalissimo already showed you some of the great work of John Pawson. Now I would like to inform you about a big exhibition about the overall work of the, by the The New York Times entitled, “The father of modern architectural minimalism”. Pawson, emerged in the 80′s, is known for his rigorous process of reduction, creating designs of simplicity and visual clarity.

‘John Pawson – Plain Space’ runs until 30 January 2011 at the Design Museum, London and shows Pawson’s career with big photographs, detailed models and other resources that hint a the reductive process of the British minimalist architect. The models are very nice, and often large; they are build big enough so that cameras can be placed within and used to test out in advance the interplay of light and shadow.

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Writer

“The key to good writing is not that magical glass of Bordeaux, the right kind of tobacco or that groovy background music. The key is focus.”

iA recently launched the excellent iPad app Writer. No autocorrection, no scroll bars, and no cut and paste. Just you and the text. A Focus Mode blurs out everything except the current three lines of text you are working on.

The monospaced font Nitti Light, created and optimized for iPad by Bold Monday, text size, column width, leading and contrast are carefully set for the best reading experience both in portrait and landscape mode.

Available in the app store for $5.

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Plooop chair

Later this week, during 100% Design London, the Plooop chair by London based designer Timothy Schreiber will be launched. All elements of the armchair – seat, backrest en legs – are made of layered plywood. The use of one single material, the open organic shape and the complex manufacturing process make that I like this chair so much.

Schreiber likes to explore and challenge the boundaries between digital design, manufacturing methods and environmental sustainable use.

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Anacleto coat hanger

Italy-based designer and columnist for the online edition of Rolling Stone magazine, Paolo Capello created the Anacleto coat hanger. Made of metal, the hanger simply leans against the wall. Due to its minimalist and timeless design, the hanger will fit into different kinds of interiors.

Durable and easy to relocate, Anacleto is manufactured by Miniforms.

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The Infamous Press book cover concepts

I recently found this nice and varied set of book cover concepts.

The covers were designed by Norwegian based designer Morten Iveland as The Infamous Press, in the style of the late sixties to the early eighties.

The balance between typography, illustration and composition is just amazing, don’t you agree?

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