Category: Uncategorized

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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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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Pocoyo

Pocoyo is a brightly coloured animated children’s cartoon series. Not exactly minimalist, is it?

Well, there is a interesting element of ‘less is more’ in this cartoon – it has no backdrops, just a plain white background.

It is through smart use of depth and perspective that the makers, the Spanish David Cantolla, Luis Gallego and Guillermo García Carsi, are still able to create a 3-dimensional world.

The benefit of using a plain white background is apparent: the colourful characters really stand out. (Thx, Vasilis!)

Shade Pixel

Skin is the plane of contact between people and things. Traditionally, the skins of objects are passive and static. They were simply dead outer surfaces. However, recent advances in technology have made them more active and dynamic.

Shade Pixel [video] is an interactive display that uses small depressions in its surface instead of a light source. It can be used as an ambient display for its peripherality; non-luminescent nature and simple appearance. The main difference from other displays is that Shade Pixel is applicable to the surfaces of everyday products or to the environment as an interactive skin.

The project is another creation of the design media lab at korea advanced institute of science and technology, the creators of the crystal zoetrope table.

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Merry Christmas

We would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas, with lots of food and surrounded by friends!

- Maarten, Stan, Vasilis, Vicky, Niels-Peter, Alex and Nauko

(The elegant image on the left was sent in by Alexander Pankratov, and is called Elka Minimalista, which is Russian for ‘Christmas Tree of the Minimalist. Thanks, Alexander!)

Let’s meet on Facebook

We’d love to meet you and see your faces. So please check out our brand new Facebook Page for Minimalissimo!

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Villa Sibis

You can’t start early enough in life! This is Villa Sibis… a dollhouse.

Villa Sibis was designed by German interior designer Wolfgang Sirch and sculpter Christoph Bitzer.

The Sirch family has been producing products in wood for over 300 years in Germany. After Bitzer joined the company they started making children’s toys under the brand name Sibi.

This tiny modernist gem comes equipped with a full set of furniture, including a table, bed and chairs, as well as a kitchen and a bathroom. Sliding tinted plexiglass walls and an indoor swimming pool complete the dream.

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My Deer

This is My Deer, the perfect hunting trophy for us coolhunters. And it doubles as a stool, can you believe it?

My Deer was conceived by Dutch designer Jeroen Wesselink. Wesselink learned his moves from Richard Hutten, one of the leading designers of the school of ‘Dutch Design’.

Dutch Design can be characterized by the mashup of styles, materials and concepts, often resulting in ‘design reinventions’ with a fresh feel and a hint of humour.

So: Would you consider My Deer to be ‘Dutch Design’?

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Less and More

This is not our first post about Dieter Rams, and probably also not the last. He is a true minimalist god, and in the more than 40 years that he spent working at Braun, he established himself as one of the most influential designers of the twentieth century. His elegantly clear visual language not only defined product design for decades, but also our fundamental understanding of what design is and what it can and should do.

Book Less and More elucidates the design philosophy of Dieter Rams [video]. The book contains images of hundreds of Rams’s products as well as his sketches and models. In addition to the rich visual presentation of his designs, the book contains new texts by international design experts that explain how the work was created, describe its timeless quality, and put it into current context.

Less and More is edited by Professor Klaus Klemp and Keiko Ueki-Polet. One of the world’s leading experts in the field of product design, Klemp has been acquainted with Dieter Rams for many years and is an authority on his work. Ueki-Polet is one of Japan’s most renowned design curators. She is well acquainted with design developments in both Asia and the Western world and works at the Suntory Museum in Osaka.

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Daylesford Organic packaging

It’s all about natural food and quality over at Britain’s Daylesford Organic, and it shows!

Daylesford’s packaging does exactly that what good packaging should do: support the product and its proposition. The see-through food containers (glas or plastic) give all the attention to their contents, with just some elegant white typography to communicate the few details which the consumer needs in order to make his buying decision.

The packaging was designed by Teresa Roviras, owner of a consultancy firm by her name in West London, and who is specialised in corporate identity and packaging design.

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