Category: Industrial design

Corona

Our beloved Japanese design agency Nendo brings us yet another gem: a set of globes called Corona.

Rather than the common blue and green, the Corona globes have white oceans and black land masses. Furthermore, the globes show country names, but no borders. The purpose of this simplification was to:

…create a new kind of globe that would be more emotional, rather than simply presenting information.

I love how the designers reduced the amount of information – even though some African countries seem to be missing…?

The globes were designed for Japanese globe manufacturer Watanabe Kyogu.

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Lotta

Minimalist design, beautiful form and color, comfortable feel, and a sense of fun that’s the new Lotta mobile phone. It sits firmly in your hand and casts a delicate, trapezoidal silhouette. A two-tone contrast plays on its bright surface and features a matte finish and polished texture.

Ichiro Iwasaki has designed this new mobile phone for the Japanese company iida. He initially worked at the Sony Design Center, later moved to Italy.

After having experiences at design studios in Milan, returned to Japan and established Iwasaki Design Studio in 1995. He received a number of awards including the design award of the Federal Republic of Germany, the iF design award, the red dot award and the G-mark special award.

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Balloon lamp

Kyouei Design have a number of ingenious yet simple ideas among their product range; the balloon lamp is one that really caught my eye. They’ve been on the market for a while, but time hasn’t ravaged their ability to impress.

The lamp itself comes flat-packed and is merely made up from a standard balloon, a high-intensity, low energy LED bulb and a couple of lithium coin batteries. Once the the balloon is inflated you have a great temporary, wireless lighting solution that lasts for around 100 hours.

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BushkaBanks

Inspired by the famous silhouette of the Matriyoshkas, Racheli C. Sharfstein designed these piggy banks for Studio Ooga.

The piggy banks, made or cermamic, available in large, medium and small look like a family of two parents and one child.

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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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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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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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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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Home Away

I just fell in love with this gorgeous dual alarm clock, Home Away.

It was designed by Kitmen Keung, a designer who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

Dual clocks are a practical tool for people who spent time away from home, because of work or travel. Keung has given the two clocks different degrees of color contrast. Home is high in contrast, the Away clock is vague – mimmicking the distance away from home. Additionally, each clock has its own unique alarm sound.

To be honest, I think I would use the faint face as the Home clock instead… just feels more natural. What do you think?

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Couple vases

The couple vases, made of porcelain, are designed by Germany-based Christine Ruff. Ruff, who studied ceramic design after an education in ceramics decorating, sees her work at the intersection of art and craft.

However clean and neutral it is, the form play of vases attracts your eye. Reflecting their form on the opposite, a bound is created between the two vases despite their outward differences.

“For a time like ours, when people’s taste seems to return to baroque, no-frills is rather refreshing, I think”

The pairs are available in either white or black matte glaze, or black and white.

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