Polish designer Alicja Wasielewska has got some interesting work. Among it is Morph Chandelier, combining the traditional element of crochet with the use of modern fibre optic technology that result in is this strangely wild chandelier.
Once again the annual circus of strange, often useless gadgetry and salivating tech-geeks, Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronics Show, has rolled around. While there’s undoubtedly some very smart little digital happenings being shown off, what’s often most fun is a look at the more ludicrous end of the spectrum, which this year has beamed out such treats as a plant pot that automatically waters your flowers, electric roller skates and a rather frightening looking belt that adjusts with your waistline and tries to shame you into reducing it.
Don’t get us wrong, we’re not here to knock big Scandinavian furniture empires, but there’s something about the homegenisation of our homes that’s getting a bit silly now. That’s why we’re always keen to hear about ventures which are tackling this domestic sameness, and Feathr.com is going in all guns blazing.
When the winning Dyson Award Winner is announced each year, every time it’s humbling proof of the power of design for change, and the power of young designers to make the designs that can make those changes.
It’s a well-established fact that even the most conceptually exciting product designs can fall flat on their face if they’re photographed poorly. Imagery can often make or break these projects. And while of course this isn’t the be-all and end-all, it’s worth taking this part of the process seriously to maximise the chances of your work cutting through the noise.
When it comes to product design; our tastes tend towards the more offbeat end of the spectrum and so Ernesto D. Morales’ Magnifying Spoon is right up our street. Allowing users to inspect their food before they dive in: " On approval, the same tool is used to scoop up a healthy mouthful," the inventor tells us. The spoon is part of Object Solutions, "a fictional company that develops inventions for solving everyday problems. Its laboratorians are fixated on halting inconvenience, discomfort and imperfection, by producing an ever-growing set of hyper-specialised tools.
Many a blue-sky-thinker and envelope-pusher has been extolling the virtues of meditation and mindfulness to pseudo-spiritually swell their business jargon lately. So it’s refreshing when a beautifully branded, creatively-minded product emerges that promises to offer that lucrative “pause from modern life.”
We often take colour for granted in this digital age where our rich tapestry of tones and hues comes as standard on a computer tool bar and getting the right shade is just a few clicks away. Columbian designer Laura Daza wants to shake us out of this complacency, and her project Colour Provenance is an investigation into the ancient origins of colour pigment.
Everyday 24 million journeys are made across the London Transport Network, which is why the unveiling of the latest fleet of London tube trains is a pretty big deal. Of all the design we come across, not much of it affects as many people as trains that millions of Londoners will use day in, day out.
It wouldn’t look out of place on the set of a Wes Anderson film or in a Roald Dahl story but believe it or not, the Flavour Conductor exists in our very own world. Magicked into being by the Willy Wonkas’ of the design world, Bompas and Parr, in collaboration with Johnnie Walker Blue Label, it is a musical instrument like no other. This is no ordinary church organ; it’s part of a multi-sensory theatrical experience combining music and imagery to transform the audience’s appreciation of whisky and even make its taste change in their mouth.
Innovative eyewear brand Etnia Barcelona has carved out a niche for itself through collaborations with artists like Araki, Yves Klein and McCurry, and its new collection riffs off the mainstream fashion trend for floral prints. Art Flowers takes inspiration from various flora and abstracts colours, shapes and patterns to create a striking new range with an expressionist aesthetic well in line with Etnia’s cultural cache.
These have been doing the rounds a bit this week but it’s not hard to see why – Israeli designer Lee Ben David’s Very Specific Cutlery range is a middle-class gourmand’s perfectionist dream. A graduate of the BEZALEL Academy of Art And Design, Lee believes “that the products that surround us should make us smile, laugh and think beyond,” and this project does just that.
It’s the little things that make a difference, as the expression goes, and the creative brains behind memobottle have taken this sentiment very much to heart. In a pledge to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic water bottles and to get rid of annoying clutter in your bag,they’ve invented memobottle, a drinks container the same size and shape as a notebook, or laptop.
If we’re honest we lost interest in 3D printing for a bit there. After all the home-made gun controversy and the constant assurances it would democratise production processes forever more we had to deal very quickly with the reality that most desktop 3D printers were only capable of producing very small objects, and the materials they made them from were structurally unsound. We’re still holding out hope though.
