this is ‘tonic’, by reinhard dienes, a piece of furniture that can be either a standup bookcase or a low storage unit, by flipping the oak shell and moving the feet.
i thought the legs were maybe black rubber, but seeing the closeup shot (below) it looks like they are darker stained wood. i really like the contrast.
about the design, dienes says:
This transformation allows Tonic to adapt itself to changing living situations and desires.
im not sure how often the user might do this in reality, but it’s still a nice idea.
this is moving mondrian, by vladimír ambroz. the white frame is made from corian, and the doors and drawers can be moved around inside it as the user wishes. this seems like the kind of thing i shouldn’t like at all, but i really do. more so, in fact, every time i see it!
i saw the new alessi collection by spanish designer marti guixe today, and my eye was caught by two of the designs in particular. above is the ‘communicator plant’, which has a trunk and branches for holding notes (presumably green post-its for best effect), as well as the pot for holding everything else.
from the original article:
‘collection of objects’ by spanish designer martí guixé is a new series of household items for alessi. the pieces are designed to encourage interaction and play from its users. through his designs, guixé researches new ways of looking at objects rather than simply reinventing a form that fits into the traditional interpretations of function.
‘objects have become tools for perceiving our daily reality, and also for communicating not only with objects, but also with other people through these objects. this collection is based on new typologies revolving around this concept.‘ -MG
the other product i liked best was the ‘24h sentence maker’. i’ve seen a few blank-clock-with-pen ideas before, but none with an explanation as strange as this:
24h sentence maker wall clock allows one to measure time with sentences. the hours are represented by words. ‘is‘ is written in the middle of the clock connecting the words to create a new sentence every hour, 24 sentences a day. for example: ‘design is desire’.
i came across this today, and have been wondering whether or not it would (or could) ever actually work. designed by julien bergignat and patrice mouille, the comments on the original article are full of such questions. having worked a lot with polypropylene (the material of which the outer shell is made of) i would presume it would not protect you in a crash at all.
however, it is still a nice concept, definitely an interesting design, and who knows!
this is the e8 table, by mathias hahn. made of lacquered redwood, i think this table looks amazing! a great shape, and a great colour too!
here’s what he says:
The E8 table is based on an observation of an impromptu composed piece of post war time furniture that ended up as a dining table.
The long and narrow format allows it to be used as an every-day work and kitchen table, where temporary items such as laptops or paperwork can easily sidestep during meal times.
these are the ‘gravity ruler’ luggage scales, by politecnico di milano students marcella maltese and lin wei. you wonder why no one did it before. for me, it’s another one of those ‘i had that idea a few years ago’ kind of designs. not to take anything away from it though, this is such a good design; so simple and so effective. the packaging is great too!
from the original article:
The demand for these things (what with the miserly 15kg allowance on Ryanair flights in Europe and the clumsiness of other similar products) was proven when the pair sold their first batch of 35 in under an hour at the Travel Trading fair in Milan. They’re now looking for a manufacturer.
these are ‘rocket’ planters by minali singh from qatar.
rocket is a reversible terracotta planter which can be utilized in two ways. smaller plants can be planted in the three small pots on one end of the pot. but the pot can be turned over to provide a larger pot space for bigger plants. the planter is made by attaching three small cones to a larger cone, thrown on a wheel.
at first i was drawn to the top image, with the three feet at the bottom as quite a nice detail, and thought that using them as small pots for herbs was a bit impractical. but then i thought about it, and it makes sense to me somehow. using the larger pot as a base or foot, the smaller pots are more stable than they would be as stand-alone pots, and just that bit higher up too.
above is ‘tidelight’, a glass and cork table lamp by paris designer pierre favresse, part of the inaugural collection by the new french design company petite friture.
This table lamp plays with diffraction, with a design that draws its inspiration from the techniques and codes used in the car industry. By its texture and shape, Tidelight increases diffusion.
there are four pieces in the collection, my favourties being the lamp, and the ‘grandissant’ modular candlesticks (below) by jean-charles amey. they are both very simple designs, with a lovely choice of materials.
sorry [again] for the sever lack of posts recently. hopefully this will be rectified soon!
lego have just released an app for the iphone, which turns any photo you take into a mosaic of lego bricks. i have just downloaded it, and not only is it great, it’s also free!
last year i took part in the ’super christmas market’ at somerset house, and will do so again this year! as you can read on the poster, it is a great place to get some original designs from some great designers, at an affordable price.
i will be situated alongside chloé nagle, martha mitchell and julia patterson, as part of studio ransoms. below is my selected product, measuring mugs, and below that are chloé, martha, and julias respectively; tailored decorations, bottlenecks, and brooches.
also there will be previously-blogged-about-friends offcut design and michael marriott. so come along!
i just came across these, and think they are great. and only $5 for a set of two! only today did i find myself needing a screwdriver and not having one to hand.
having just bought a new watch (see ‘design on ebay‘ post, below), i have still managed to come across a few more i like. above are a collection of watches by uniform wares, a new london based design company.
i like simple watches, and if you type in ‘watch’ into the search bar in the top right of this blog you will find many posts on others i like. these watches are nice and simple, and the selection of colours above are quite cool too. unconventional somehow, but nice. the body is made of anodised aluminium, and the strap out of polyurethane.
the second watch i saw was the single hand watches by defakto, a german brand (below). again, very simple, if not more so due to the lack of minute hand. debate always rages as to the benefits of single hand watches. there are many to be found, and i guess it just depends on you preference whether you need to know exactly to the minute what time it is, rather than to the nearest 5.
defakto say:
We build place our confidence on understatement and stand for a new way of living in form of a relaxed feeling of time. Our central theme is to display time as simple as possible, but as exact as needed. Defakto builds watches for people with time whom are therefore not meticulous depended on knowing the exact time.
the other thing i like about this watch is the back (see bottom image). covered in the same crystal as the front face, you can see some of the inner workings through it. again, you could argue this is pointless if you are going to be wearing it, but i think it’s a nice touch.
my brother just bought me these for my skateboard, and like all things enjoi, i like them a lot. i think even if you’re not into skateboarding, you can appreciate these.
sorry for the lack of posts recently. to make up for it i’ll give you a tip: search for design on ebay! unconventional, i know, and you’ve got to be clever about it too. i often type in the name of famous designers or designs and see what comes up, and if you do it right, you can find some great things very cheap!
for example, below is the pxr-5 watch, designed by michael young. you can get these for about £80-90 at the design museum or from twentytwentyone. it featured in one of my first ever blog posts (here), and i think it’s a great looking watch.
what i like to do every so often is type in the name of certain designers, manufacturers or designs, and see what comes up. if you type in popular ones, then there are often a lot of items (not all good) and the demand is high, which therefore means price is high. type in dieter rams for example, and lots of his famous braun designs will come up, and they will all cost you a lot. similarly for other well known designers.
but if you type in slightly more obscure things, you can often find some great items. the watch is one example. i typed in michael young, and this came up. £20, no bids, brand new, 2 days left.
now, this is one of the most exciting thigs i have seen for a while. a collaboration between muji and lego. a hole punch, that punches lego sized holes in paper and card, to help you create other things.
i know it was as recent as my last post that i was saying how rubbish fake and non-lego things were, but i don’t think this counts, as it is an official product. and how innnovative it is! the possibilites are as endless as you imagination.
recently lego has been spreading out into all kinds of areas. see recent posts on boardgames (creationary, which i have played, and is amazing), architecture and gadgets. it seems they have been picking their collaborations wisely, as few ventures seem to be bad, and it makes you wonder why they didn’t do it sooner!
[i love lego, and have done many posts on lego related things. type in 'lego' into the search bar to see other things i written about!]
i was on the v&a shop website, and came across this: the ‘lego inspired’ puzzle calender. I’m not sure if I like it or not. On the one hand, it looks like lego, but then that’s the point: it’s not. And I don’t quite understand why certain things are certain colours.
Either way, it’s one of the few items on the v&a website that actually sold out, so i’m guessing it’s quite popular. And maybe something that lego themselves could actually do, but better.
i did a post on sigg bottles a couple of months ago (here), and have since bought one (0.6l, in red). i think the bottle itself is great, and my reasons can be found on the original post. my reason for writing another post is about the screw top cap, and what a great design it is.
not only is it comfortable to screw on and off, but the hole is so multifunctional! it’s great for attaching to a bag strap, or securing with a bungee cord to something. but possibly the best part is how comfortable it is to hold with just one finger through it; great!
these are damien hirst’s latest deck designs for new york skate brand supreme. above are 5 variations of his iconic spot series, and below are 5 decks with a more pharmaceutical theme. if i were to buy one, it would be from the latter designs i think, but they’re all very nice.
this is his second range of designs for supreme, follwing his spin series from earlier in the year (below).
these are the nike zvezdochka trainers, designed by marc newson. i saw them probably about 5 years ago now at the design museum when marc had an exhibition on there. i don’t know why i suddenly remembered them recently, but i did, and i didn’t have a blog then, so i’ll write what i would have written at the time.
there’s no doubting these shoes are cool, but why? looking at them now i am reminded of two things: jelly shoes and crocs. actually, they were designed as a multi purpose shoe for cosmonauts; it’s named after the russian space dog that ventured aboard sputnik 10 in 1961. so that explains the name.
the shoe is made of two parts: a rubber outsole and an insole that fits inside it. i remember what i liked was how the ’sole’ of the shoe was actually the insole popping out of the holes in the outsole (does that make sense? see picture above).
being a fan of nike, and also of marc newson, is another reason i like them. the thing about them was that they were never available in the shops. certain boutiques had them available in very limited numbers at the time, and they all got bought up by design and trainer lovers alike.
i remember they came in a range of colours (both insole and out), my favourties being the green. i know there are reasons why companies do collaborations like this where they keep the batches small, but this is one i wish i could own. as it is, if i had managed to buy them, i would never actually wear them as i wouldn’t want to ruin them knowing they’d never be in the shops again!
it’s not very often i tear something out of a magazine to remember to blog about it, but today i did. there were a few key factors that made me do it: firstly, winter is coming. secondly, it’s raining today. thirdly, when planning holiday in winter the main problem is usually footwear.
on a ski/snowboard holiday for example, deciding what to wear when not on the pistes is a bit annoying, as i don’t want to buy a pair of boots specifically for the snow, when i may only need them one week of the year.
i have walking boots, but they are waterproof only to an extent. wear them literally all day in the snow, or in extremely wet conditions (canoeing, for example) and they will become heavy, wet, and cold.
so perhaps here is the solution: seal skinz. falling into a similar category (of use at least) as recent posts on sigg, mag, scottevest, stovetec and an old one on inflatable kayaks, this is something that i am excited about. i like innovative use of materials to solve problems in products, so while this might be seen as an item of clothing rather than a product, i still think they are relevant.
SealSkinz® are the world’s only range of waterproof, breathable, close-fitting socks and gloves. Suitable for a wide variety of uses, from outdoor pursuits to gardening, you’re sure to stay dry with SealSkinz® on!
i figure that with a pair of these underneath my walking boots, i should be sorted! no need to buy boots specifically for wet or snowy weather, and i increase the number of uses for the boots i already have.
a look at their products reveals lots of other exciting things, but if i’m sticking closely to the socks (that caught my attention in the first place), the things i like are their original ‘mid-thermal black socks’, the ‘high-vis sock’, which has a reflective strip around the top, and the latest range of waterproof football socks (both below).
all in the £20-£30 range, i think they could be a sound investment.
this is the ‘mayday’ lamp, by konstantin grcic, a designer i like very much. i received the book ‘kgid’ (konstantin grcic industrial design) as a gift just before beginning my degree in product design, and it was very influential and inspiring for me.
one of his most well known designs is ‘chair one’, which i absolutely love (and will almost certainly do a blog post on soon). heading to his website i found a few interesting things about the light (which are also in the book): the first is the origins of the word mayday, and the second about his design process. Both are below, the most interesting part for me being his first line about him designing it.
Mayday … Mayday … were the famous last words before the Titanic sank. The S.O.S. call originates from the French ‘m’aider’ (engl. ‘help me’).
I designed the MAYDAY lamp to be a tool. It has a practical handle which incorportates the ON/OFF switch and two spikes to wind up the 5 meter long cable. A big hook on the end of the handle comes in helpful to install the lamp wherever needed. The big white funnel is at the same time reflector and protector. Its smooth polypropylen plastic gives off a warmly diffused light and is strong enough to absorbe any bashing. MAYDAY is not designed for anywhere in specific. It rather comes in handy in all sorts of expected/unexpected situations: Taking it to the garage for work underneath the old Mercedes Benz. Taking it to the garden where it can hang from a tree. Using it on top of a ladder or lying on the floor trying to get the cat from behind the cupboard. Kids love MAYDAY inside their self-made cardboard house. I have one next to my bed for late night reading. Another one sits by the front door of my apartment … just in case.
available in a few colours, my favourite is the orange one i have featured pictures of here. everything about it is great, from looks to function. like any good tool, it does exactly what it needs to do perfectly. produced by/for flos, the best price i have found is £67, which for such a versatile lamp and design classic is not too bad!
this is the ‘here’ hook, by richard shed. i bought one a while ago for my brother, and am hoping he’ll keep forgetting to ask for it back. and i think that is testament alone to how good a design i think it is.
Never again will you have to tell guests where to hang their jackets.
made of lacquered mdf, it is available for around £10 in various places. i think richard shed is a friend of my old tutor sam johnson (which is mostly irrelevant, now i re-read it), and if you head over to his website you’ll see lots of other nice products.
this fleece hoodie from scottevest not only has an incredible name, but also a lot of cool features too:
Comfortable, stylish and useful, the Ultimate Hoodie Microfleece is a must have layer. It has earned its title as the Ultimate Hoodie with 11 hidden pockets and compartments that are strategically located and ergonomically designed to manage all of your gadgets. Our patented Personal Area Network (PAN) provides wire management for iPods®, cell phones and other wired devices. Special earbud loops keep your music within easy reach.
The Ultimate Hoodie is made of ultra-comfortable, lightweight microfleece, thick enough to keep the chill off but thin enough that you can control your iPod® right through the fabric. This hooded sweatshirt features spacious DeepPockets™ with magnetic closures to keep your essentials secure. Other great features include a built-in extendible keychain and a secret pocket. Microfleece. Machine Washable.
this came as a recommendation from an inhabitant of montréal, which is as good a sign as any for me that it would be just the thing for winter. there’s nothing like a good fleece to keep you warm when it’s freezing outside. usually i’m put off by multi-pocketed items of clothing because they bulge out too much, but if the xray image below is even slightly representative of what it claims to be, then it won’t be bulging with stuff when you’re wearing it either!
this is the tykho radio, designed by marc berthier for lexon. i have always like this design, but had forgotten about it until i saw it for sale at habitat last week. (habitat have started selling products from other design houses such as lexon recently, and this is one that fits in perfectly).
the outside of the whole radio is rubber, including the speaker. this not only gives it a really great feel, but means it is splash and shock resistant too. it will also not look out of place inside or out, in the kitchen, the bathroom or the office.
it keeps the number of buttons down to a minimum, and to tune it you use the aerial, spinning it in either direction. it is available in a few different colours, and costs around £45 (depending on where you look).
it occured to me that i know a lot of very creative people, and wanted to show off some of their talent. it didn’t feel like it would have fitted into this blog, so i started a separate one, called ‘people i know’.
in this blog i will be showing the work of, profiling and interviewing the people i know; my friends, family, housemates and acquantainces.
i will be updating it as regularly as i can, but don’t worry i will be updating this one just as much as usual too! first up are quinn cowper and robert newman. so check it out!
and also (following the last post), i just saw this.
this analog alarm watch by industrial facility takes its starting point from the alarm clock image. here, sound is replaced by vibration (through the use of a small motor), which indicates that the alarm is activated. simply by moving the hand to the desired time and lifting the alarm button, the watch can be set and used for daily alerts.
another thing i havn’t posted about for a while: watches i like. so here’s two!
above and below are some variations of the RADO r5.5 watch, designed by jasper morrison. apart from the titanium buckle, the links and watch face are made the same high tech ceramic used in F1 and space shuttles.
the use of this material is what i like about it most i think, but it does look very cool too.
the second watch i like is the sharing watch by korean design studio maezm. the watch [below] is designed so that it is convenient for more than one person to read.
a normal watch is worn so that it is convenient for the wearer to tell time – with numbers readable when the arm is folded toward the trunk of the body. however, through a slight change of turning the display board 90 degrees, the intrinsic meaning of the watch changes – for example when you are showing someone what time it is. sharing watch by korean design studio maezm displays the time in such a way that it is read in the same way to you as it can be read by others. the simple act of turning the numeric face 90 degrees reconsiders the ritual behavior of sharing time on a different level.
although it would probably confuse you for a few weeks, it is still a nice idea, and just looks so simple.
this is the cantilevered bench, by stokke austad, which was shown at an exhibition called norwegian prototypes during the london design festival last month.
i think it’s been a while since i posted up some furniture, now i think about it, and i think this is more than worthy. what i like about this is the combination of wood, concrete and metal. the yellow really pops out. it must weigh a lot though!
this is the dyson air multiplier, which is like an electric fan with no blades. using it’s air multiplier technology, it draws in air and amplifies it 15 times! with no blades or grille, it means that is is much safer, much more efficient, and much easier to clean too. How does it work then? Click on the below image for a more detailed explanation.
James Dyson (above) says:
I’ve always been disappointed by fans. Their spinning blades chop up the airflow, causing annoying buffeting. They’re hard to clean. And children always want to poke their fingers through the grille. So we’ve developed a new type of fan that doesn’t use blades.
livescience says:
The conventional fan relying on blades has been largely unchanged for about two centuries; the first mechanical fans are said to have been built in the Middle East in the early 19th century. Ceiling fans blew onto the scene in the 1860s, powered by running water and a setup that turned a series of belts with the ability to operate several fans at once (some of these still exist in old buildings). A personal electric fan hit the market in the 1880s.
if you follow the link to the dyson page at the bottom, there are loads of videos explaining the whys and hows of the idea, which are well worth watching. another genius bit of product design from dyson!
i think maglites are a design classic. i’d put them in a similar category to sigg water bottles (that i did a post on here). they are just very simple, very functional, and therefore very useful. i thought, like sigg, that they were a swiss design, but they are actually american. and the newer ‘mag LED’ designs are the most efficient. apparantly, a new set of batteries will last literally days if you leave it on!
the LED versions do cost a bit more, but the saving on batteries alone surely makes it worth it. i don’t think i’d have much use for the larger model (below), but the above model (the 3w LED torch) is compact but powerful, and costs about £20. not bad!
i was first shown ‘trip clips’, from terra plana (the ethical shoe people), a few months ago now. i thought the idea of a little lime green tab at the back of my jeans would look cool, regardless of the function. but the function is (obviously) the best bit. they describe it better than i can:
Not wearing Trip Clips will seriously damage your jeans! Trip Clips are the indispensable tool for keeping your jeans from fraying round the heel. You can still wear the baggiest of jeans and these little clips will keep the hem of your trousers safely away from the ground. All you need to do is place the hoop over your foot, clip it on and away you go!
they cost £5, which i don’t think is that much really, if they can save your jeans from getting all torn up. they come in a range of colours, but seem to be out of stock on the website at the moment. im going to go to the terra plana store and see if they have any there. when i first saw them they came in a few different colours (including my favourite, the lime green), but the colours they do now are different it seems. i think i’d want a brightly coloured pair, and a discreet pair, for different occasions.
if there ever was a company that makes everything, it is rolson. anything tool related anyway. one of my first ever posts (which you can find here) was on a set of safety goggles with led’s on the side, which i have since bought, and are brilliant. i have also more recently got some metal polishing cloths, and some mini clamps.
the reason i mention them, is because i was at my local car boot sale today, where there is a guy that always sells tools and other diy things, and i saw a basket of rolson tools, of which one caught my eye: the ‘clip on spectacle eye loupe’.
i thought it was such a specific tool, that i couldn’t believe anyone actually buying (at this car boot sale at least), yet there it was. right next to the ‘watch bracelet link removing pliers’ and the ‘watch case holder’ (both below).
it made me wish i actually had a use for these things. they are, as i’ve said, extremely specific, but they are so well made and look amazing too.
if you have any job that may require a tool, or have a general interest in things like this, i suggest you head over to their website. you might have a task you didn’t even think there was a tool for, but rolson make one. it has such a vast amount of products to browse through, it’s brilliant!
brooks bicycle saddles are very nice, and also very expensive. so the idea of cutting into them seems very risky to me. as the leather artisan responsible puts it:
“I’ll never forget how nervous I was to make that first cut into the gorgeous seat. Carving leather leaves little room for error; not only can you ruin the design, but with one slip of the blade you can render an object useless!”
this alarm clock, by industrial facility, is designed so that the whole of the back casing is the actual bell that rings. industrial facility say that this improves the efficiency of the clock, using fewer components and creating a louder ring. it was designed for the japanese brand IDEA, and comes in three colours, each of which is inspired by a loud object: a fire bell (red), bicycle bell (chrome) and door bell (black).
remember the post i did on james may’s lego house? well, it seems that after an unsuccessful bid to buy it (and then rebuild it) by legoland, it is being demolished. im not sure if demolished is the right word. but what i like about the images of it being taken apart are the unconventional shapes of holes in walls that are created.
apparantly the 3 million bricks that were used are going to be donated to charity.
(as the original article explains) the clue is in the title. this is a pretty cool idea, and well executed too. i love the smoothness of their turning, and the fact that they get it right at the bottom as well (every time!).
via itsnicethat
feeling a bit creative, and want an actual outlet for it? something physical, tangible, that you have [partly] designed yourself? head over to nike id, where you can fully customise [colour-wise, at least] a wide range of footwear, apparel and accessories.
you can keep it quite basic [like the top image], go for something a bit colourful [above] or go all out [below]!
they have a wide range of products to customise, from shoes to football boots to bags to tshirts, and they don’t cost that much more than you would pay for the pre-chosen colours in the shops.
even if you aren’t planning to buy, it can be fun to play around anyway. the site is simple and easy to use, so give it a try!
a few months ago i did a post called more lego things, about a range of official LEGO gadgets, and have found out they are set to be released in the next month!
