Burritos, Lamps & Design. Founded by Mark Irlam and Tom Tobia, Something From Us is one of those creative teams that seem to effortlessly apply their creative skills to any number of activities.

They’ve recently completed the delightfully colourful interior for the gourmet burrito restaurant in London, Poncho No.8.

They’ve also designed the super-cool looking Wired Lamp (available to buy from their website.)

They’re definitely a design practice to keep an eye on, so check out Something From Us.

Chocolate + Design; what more could you want from life? If you’ve ever visited the wonderful London Tea Shop, Teasmith, you’ll have experienced the amazing interiors work of Jonathan Clark Architects. And, if like me, you’re left wanting to see more, then check out their latest work for renowned British chocolatier, William Curley.

One of the main ideas behind the design of the interior was to think about chocolate in terms of it’s origins and how it is procured – designing a predictable dark brown interior to ‘represent chocolate’ was something we actively avoided. This resulted in features such as the gold leaf artwork for the corner banquette depicting cocoa trees and the three-dimensionally arranged hessian clad padded panels behind the counters to reference the hessian sacks that cocoa beans are packed in at various plantations around the world.

Find out more info, and see more images at Jonathan Clark Architects.

Music, line & colour. I love this video for the single “General Motors, Detroit, America” by Record Makers’ latest signing, Acid Washed. The video created by Anthony Burrill features his signature style of beautiful simplicity, producing an almost hypnotic display of colour & simple lines. It’s a refreshing approach considering the overblown production values of most modern music videos.

Check it out at Vimeo.

Update: The debut 12” by Acid Washed is available in transparent vinyl with Artwork by Anthony Burrill via Records Makers.

Is it weird that I want to go for a ride in a bin? Designers Jan Körbes and Mantas Lesauska have collaborated on a special project in South Africa to create mobile prototypes for hybrids between bikes and garbage bins.

It’s a clever idea for re-using, and re-purposing existing objects into something that could have any multitude of new purposes.

They say he plays the banjo & drinks whisky. The illustrator Stevie Gee has a solo show entitled ‘Vengence is Coming’ over at Jaguarshoes 32-34 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8DA. It’s up for six weeks, so if you’re in the neighborhood, you can pop in and see the custom bike paint jobs by Death Spray Custom, prints, tomahawks, screen prints, T’s, etc.

See more images from the show here.

Why do architects always have shit websites? Is it an in-joke or something? I don’t know much about this, as the websites involved are so frustrating to use that they make you want to climb into the internet and stab them. But nobody cares about the details anyway, do they? Surely, you just want to see the pretty pictures. In which case, just go here and check out the lovely architectural shenanigans.

For those of you that need the details; From what I gather, these dudes created some lovely architecture stuff for this place to show off their collection of fancy rocks. Not very detailed, I know, but it’s all I’ve got.

I’m a couple of years late on this but… once upon a time there was an exhibition of lasered skateboard art. The exhibition allowed a select group of global artists to explore the idea of lasering away at seven layers of ply, in order to make their mark on skateboard decks. Only 50 will be produced per artist. Those 50 are available through the Refill 7 Shop.

For old school value, my personal fave is Mark Drew’s design, although at 500 australian dollars a pop it seems a bit pricey for me (although, in all honesty I have no idea of the value of the australian dollar. That might be cheap. I’m just too lazy to find out.)

See more images on Flickr.

Wear your helmets, people! I don’t need a helmet, but I do like the “Brain Box” Helmet by Death Spray Custom. Quite partial to their Love/Hate Bars too. Wish I had something that needed spraying, as these guys do some cool work.

See more work at Death Spray Custom.

Serhan Gurkan has restored my faith in life, design & blogging! I haven’t been blogging much over the last few months. I’ve been feeling a bit disillusioned with the whole thing. Nothing much has turned me on, and the stuff I do like has usually gets posted by a zillion other bloggers in an endless circle-jerk of incestuous linking.

But something has fired me back up again, and it’s name is Serhan Gurkan. I don’t know anything about the designer or the products, and I don’t need to know, because the Fetish Gazelle & Fetish Madame Bovary products are so beautiful they make me dizzy. The fleeting glimpses offered by the website only add to capture my interest (other still photos available by behance are just as surreal and beautiful) and give me that feeling that I’m seeing something fresh in the world.

So thank you Serhan Gurkan! No doubt a million other bloggers will post much more informative posts on you than I, but this post, due to your products, has made me realise that there is still design out there that touches me & makes me want to tell the world about it; and that is what inspired me to start blogging in the first place.)

You’re going to have to ignore the connotations of the word “emo” here. The e’mo is a lightweight electric car for town and local traffic, of a totally new design. Consistent with the motto of “less is more” e’mo renounces all superfluous unnecessary burdens and places in pole position the original purpose of the automobile, that is individual mobility. The name itself stands equally for electric motion, efficient mobility and for emotion. Thus the central concerns for e’mo are optimal energy efficiency with high suitability for everyday use, an attractive and distinctive package, and all this at an affordable price.

I can’t decide if I like this car or not. You can’t fault the pure electrical drive, which produces no noxious emissions, and is practically noiseless; but I can’t get over the fact that it looks like a golf cart from a sci-fi film!

Find out more at e’mo.

Nope, this post isn’t about cocktails… It’s about Jason Battersby’s low-rider bicycles. The bikes, named Tequila Sunrise & Eye Candy, are a bit to funky for the daily commute, but you can’t fail to be impressed by the design and work that has gone into creating them.

Check out the photos at Behance.

Parra this, Parra that! Parra, yada, yada! First off in Parra related news – Arkitip are presenting Parra’s first ever Exhibition and Pop Up Shop in Germany. Find out more here

Secondly, and more importantly, LOOK AT MY PARRA SHOES!!! (gotta click ‘more…’ to see ‘em though!)

‘Obsessions Make My Life Worse & My Work Better.’ In 2001 Sagmeister embarked on an ongoing project based on sentences from his diaries. For the typography he used a great variety of materials and sites, writing three-dimensionally on objects and surfaces. His latest piece is ‘Obsessions make my Life Worse and my Work Better’, an elaborate design that consists of 300.000 Euro cent coins on a large square.

See the latest piece via this Flickr set, then find out more at http://sagmeister.com/urbanplay/

Diesel enters the interior furnishings market. Not content with making a decent pair of jeans, Diesel have reportedly moved into the world of home furnishings. According to Wallpaper*, this latest project is in collaboration with establish interior brands such as Foscarini, Moroso and Zucchi.

Check out a slideshow of Diesel’s new products at Wallpaper*.

Update: There’s a promotional video up on YouTube with a preview of the Diesel furniture, lighting & textiles collection to be launched during the Salone Internazionale Del Mobile Milano, 2009.

Sleep under a cardboard box so a homeless young person doesn’t have to. At first glance, you see uninviting cardboard boxes, but on closer inspection you’ll see a high quality duvet cover.

The Le Clochard quilt cover is part of a project to draw attention to, and raise money for, homeless young people in the Netherlands. A large proportion of the proceeds from the Le Clochard duvet cover go to SZN, the foundation for homeless youngsters in the Netherlands. The income is used to fund housing projects which prioritise supporting young people in finding work or continuing their education.

Find out more at Le Clochard.

Hot, new artist (to me, at least.) I’ve only just learned of the Rallito X, but I’m an instant fan even though he does seems to have an unhealthy obsession with drawing penises as an extra facial feature.

Check out the Rallito X’s work on the website, or onFlickr.

Great interior graphics. You’ve got to love the bold graphic style of Ivan Bravo’s Wall Mural for Icasual. If you’re ever in Barcelona, you should pop in for a sandwich and a chance to see the walls for yourself.

See more work by Ivan Bravo.

Loving this work I really like the “Paint on Print” series by Phil Yamada (scroll half-way down the page to see this work). It’s an alphabetical series of letters painted in various typographical styles. Great stuff.

See more work by Phil Yamada.

An insight into new work by Alain Gilles. The designer Alain Gilles has been kind enough to let us see the renderings and photos of the prototype for his “Big Foot” table design for Bonaldo. The final developed version of the table will be featured during the Milan Furniture Fair.

See the images accompanied explanations in the designer’s own words after the jump…

Alain Gilles explains his new “Big Foot Table” design as…

A strong personality, always in movement, always trying to put one foot in front of the other. As if it were walking, each foot stretches to reach further away. Whatever the angles, it always looks strikingly different from one point of view to another, as if you could never really grab it.

It has been sculpted in 3D by the hand rather than by the pure logic of the computer. Even though it is a large functional table, and follows some strict rules, all the legs have their own characteristics and have been positioned and oriented manually in order to give the whole structure a warmer and more human feeling.

A mix of rather traditional materials, steel and wood, give a rather unexpected and fresh product. The legs are made of steel plates that have been laser cut and folded. All the legs have a different width, and have been cut and bend in order to reveal different tonalities of their own color, in order to play with shadows. As for the angled cuts in the legs, they increase this ever changing perception of a product, that looks drastically different from one side to the other; they also add detail to the piece and give it a much lighter feel.

The metal legs can then become of field of experimentation for all sorts of color combinations, thus giving birth to a more experimental or a more traditional table.

Dimensions: 250 x 100 x 74cm and 300 x 100 x 74cm

First original renders – The feeling of movement and tensions

First original renders – working on the concept of “simplexity”…. Simple, yet complex and unexpected

First original renders – an ever-changing personality

First original renders – simple material : metal and wood (and in the future the possibility of a glass top)

First original renders – as if the legs were moving…

First original renders – all black or all white possibility

Second work prototype in the factory – unexpected color combinations that can adapt to a lot of different atmosphere

Second work prototype in the factory – each leg has a different size and shape

Second work prototype in the factory – with a different personality from each angle

Third work prototypes – experimenting with different gradient color combinations – the importance of shadow in the variation of the tonality concept

Third work prototype – experimenting with different color combinations (will normally not be put in production in that specific blue color combination)

The very first raw prototype – true to the sculpting in 3D…

The very first raw prototype – testing for the adequate length of the top plate.

Your home is rubbish! I haven’t linked to one of these property/interiors/location type sites for a while, so here’s another opportunity to beat yourself up about the fact your home doesn’t look as cool as any of those found at Lavish Locations.

I refuse to hang up my clothes. It’s a design choice. If there was ever a chair made for me, it is the Side Chair by Loris & Livia. I’m incapable of using wardrobes, coat-hangers or drawers, preferring to simply pile stuff up, or hang stuff off, chairs instead. So the Side Chair with it’s sculpted top rail to create a hook, and it’s cross bar which can be used to hang a pair of trousers, is perfect for the modern messy man.

See more work by Loris & Livia.

Don’t throw away the ‘Bin Bag Bear’! The strange tale of a council rubbish disposal worker and his obsession with teddy bears…

A simple employee at the council rubbish disposal services had a peculiar imagination: he could see teddy bears in every object he observed. As a child he would stare at the clouds imagining that he could see teddy bears in the sky… and today…everywhere, even the black bin bags looked like teddy bears to him.

No one at work could stand his excited cries every time he shouted ‘look at that bear…look at that one…don’t throw it into the garbage crusher… nooooo!..’

Of course he was fired from his job, lost his family and friends and became homeless. Yet even though many people thought he was strange, none of them would admit that they too saw the teddy bear bin bags dumped around the streets of London.

You’ve gotta love the ‘Bin Bag Bear’ by Raw Edges aka. Yael Mer & Shay AlkAlay.

Fancy a nice quiet sit-down under an old tree? I really like the idea of the ‘Treepot’ by Gutzz. The design, by Studio Mango, is essentially a two part system that clips together to create a pot-like structure around the bottom of a tree that can be used as a seating area.

See more products at Gutzz.

Peel the veg, or watch TV? Decisions, decisions. The global economic crisis probably means that we’re staying in more. We’re eating at home instead of restaurants, and we’re generally just chilling out at home and watching more television. In the evenings you may now find yourself torn between having to prepare food, or watching your favorite TV show, but now you can do both with the Lap Counter design by Tomas Kral. The stylish vacum formed plastic accessory means you can sit in your favorite chair and peel those potatoes in comfort. A plastic bowl would probably do just as well, but it wouldn’t look as cool, would it?

See more work by Tomas Kral.

You bought a 50 year old blanket?!?!! I wanted a blanket. Not just any blanket. I wasn’t looking for an expensive & delicate cashmere throw; no, what I wanted was a vintage Swiss Army Blanket. A man’s blanket! But, you would be forgiven for thinking I was asking for the presidency of the moon, as it proved extremely difficult to get my hands on one in the UK. Then, I finally found the answer at Pedlars. They must have sent the teaboy to Switzerland to collect it, as it took that long to be delivered, but it got here in the end. Just in time for snow here in the UK.

So, if you’re cold, and you don’t mind buying a 50 year old blanket (they don’t make ‘em like they like they used to, you know!), you should get a vintage swiss army blanket.

Sad news in the architecture world. Czech-born architect Jan Kaplicky of Future Systems died in Prague yesterday, aged 71. Worse still, his death came only hours after his wife gave birth to a daughter.

If you’ve ever been shopping in Birmingham’s (the UK one) Bull Ring, you can’t have failed to notice the soft silver wave-like curve of the Selfridges building. Kaplicky’s death is undoubtedly a great loss to architecture. Our condolences to his family & friends.

Jan Kaplicky 1937-2009.

All I need now is a pipe! With the financial world collapsing, and money getting tight, many of us are going to be spending more time at home. So it’s only fair that we should be comfortable whilst lounging around the place. Maybe a pair of slippers wouldn’t be such a bad stocking filler this christmas? Especially if they’re a pair of artificial sneaker slippers from String Republic. Designed to look like your favorite sneakers, these pure virgin-wool lined slippers are stylish enough that don’t have to be ashamed of wearing them when your friends turn up on your doorstep.

Buy them now in time for christmas at String Republic.

There aren’t many people I would let draw indiscriminately on my walls… but Denise Fort is one of them. you’ve got check out her Behance portfolio. I’m seriously tempted to lock her in a room of my house, supplied only with a bucket of marker pens. That sounded creepy, didn’t it?

See more work by Denise Fort.

Great interior work. The work coming out of Dupoux Design is incredible. The blue interior for Nylo Warwick is beautiful, as is pretty much everything else in their portfolio.

Find out more about Dupoux Design.

Ever dreamt about a life on the seas from the confines of your drab office environment? In the near future, you may be able to make your dreams come true. The architecture practice Gillard Associates has announced that one of it’s latest commissions is to design the H²Office a compact, luxury floating office space for use in marinas.

The proposed design for the floating offices will include a compact design giving enough space for one or two people to work in, which will include all the usual office amenities, but with the added bonus of a sun deck so you can catch some sun when you get bored of answering emails.

See more work by Gillard Associates, or find out more about H²Office here.

Unique, simple and home-grown. There is a wealth of young british design talent out there; one such example is Sonodesign, who specialise in the design and production of contemporary products and furniture. The company was created in September 2007 by Grant Baker and Nick Jackson, two young and innovative designers who share a passion for designing unique, yet simple products produced in the UK.

This partnership was formed during the duos time spent studying furniture and product design at university. It was here that their desire for creating accessible products for the retail market developed, prompting them to start their own design venture.

Setup straight out of university and still in its maiden year of trading, sonodesign has acquired some impressive stockists worldwide including Purves and Purves, Selfridges and the Design Museum. With this base and the brand constantly increasing their collection this British design duo are defiantly ones to watch.

Find out more about Sonodesign.

Art lovers and denim connoisseurs now have a new joint objects of desire. The artist Damien Hirst has teamed up with Levi’s to produce Damien Hirst X Levi’s a limited edition capsule collection. The Levi’s brand and designer Adrian Nyman worked closely with Hirst to showcase his art in an exclusive, custom range of jeans and tops that is sure to be highly regarded by the most discerning denim collectors. The collection revolves around three key themes of Damien Hirst’s body of work – the skull, spots and tropical butterfly. Jeans and T-shirts are emblazoned with iconic Hirst imagery – tropical butterflies, dots and skulls.

Retail Prices start at £55 for tees, £150 for jeans and the collection will launch at Cinch, Newburgh Street, London, W1F 7RG, from October 14 2008.

Something for the weekend. The London based illustrator Rob Ryan has opened a shop. The space, which only opens at weekend, is filled with Rob’s work ranging from screenprints to ceramics. So if you’re in London’s East End on the weekend, check out Ryantown at 126 Columbia Road.

See more work by Rob Ryan.

Flat-pack emergency shelter. This is a great bit of construction from a designer currently studying Product Design at Central St Martins. Cemal Okten’s flat packing temporary shelter is constructed from waterproofed cardboard, and allows space for eight people. Possibly a cheap, recyclable option for emergencies? Or, at the very least, a seriously hip home for the homeless.

See more work by Cemal Okten.

I know, I know, I know… I just mentioned Anna Ter Haar, but here Outlines Project is too cool not to mention. I want to do this in my house!

So hot, my sunglasses are melting! You gotta love Anna Ter Haar’s Dripping Sunglasses made for the catwalk show of designer Klavers van Engelen fall / winter 2008-2009 collection shown at Milan fashion week.

See more work by Anna Ter Harr.

New clothing available from Parra. I’ve mentioned Rockwell Clothing by illustrator/artist Parra before, but it now seems the clothing store is full of new products featuring Parra’s distinct graphic styles.

Buy some new threads at Rockwell Clothing.

New work by Marcus Walters. Hyper talented illustrator and designer Marcus Walters has new work featured in an upcoming exhibition along with work by a whole host of international image-makers and illustrators. The exhibition entitled The Joyful Bewilderment, is curated by friends Marcus Oakley, Simon Peplow and Holly Wales starts with a private view on Thursday October 2nd at 7pm-12am at Rough Trade East, ‘Dray Walk’, Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL (there will be live music and more…)

Marcus has also completed a series of illustrations (featured above) for a book about environmental and social actions. This new book for children created by We Are What We Do (the “I’m not a plastic bag” people!) and Walters’ design studio New Future Graphic will be available in all major bookshops and Sainsbury’s from Mid October.

See more work by Marcus Walters

Do you want to work for Philippe Stark? BBC Two has teamed up with celebrated French design guru Philippe Starck to help find a new generation of British design talent. Ten aspiring designers with the talent, drive and vision to create the next ‘must have’ products of the 21st Century will be given the unique opportunity to learn and work alongside Starck and his team over a period of several months.

With a working title of ‘Philippe Starck’s School of Design’, the tv show will involve Starck inviting would-be designers to bid for one of 10 places on a design course to be held in Paris. At the end of the course at least one student will be rewarded with a six month placement at Starck’s design agency in the French capital.

Read more about Philippe Starck’s School of Design.

Cool tile work. You’ve got to love the creative use of mosaic tiles in the restrooms of Tranan Restaurant, designed by Karl Grandin. 300,000 mosaic tiles make up the artwork, featuring portraits of figures such as Tom Waits, Biggie, and Peter Tosh. Artists whose music Grandin associated with late nights at Tranan.

See more work by Karl Grandin.

Don’t be S.A.D, be happy! Graphic designer Keith Hancox has created some clever t-shirts for a friend who suffers from Seasonal Affective Disorder. The first S.A.D T-Shirt is over printed with black heat sensitive ink which turns transparent at 32ºc. So when the sun comes out, and the heat rises, the black clouds on the t-shirt fade away and the sun shines! The second S.A.D T-Shirt is screen-printed with the statement, “The Sun is nature’s Prozac”, in uv sensitive ink which only appears under sunlight. Clever stuff!

See more work by Keith Hancox.

Incredible street art animation! You’ve got to watch ‘Muto’ an “ambiguous animation painted on public walls” by Blu. Then go and watch all his other video animations. If you like his style, you can always go and pick up some signed Blu prints at Pictures On Walls

See more work by Blu.

Do you remember 80’s pop legends, Thompson Twins? I’m not quite old enough to have a good memory of the 80’s music scene, but I do know that the Thompson Twins were a big part of it. So what has happened to the band members since then? Well, If you’re Alannah Currie, one third of the synth-heavy pop group, you become an “armchair destructivist”. Part artist, part upholsterer, Currie combines upholstery and taxidermy under the moniker Miss Pokeno to create surreal furniture artworks. Who would’ve thought that a red velvet armchair combined with two entwined foxes (Currie is a vegetarian and the animals in her work are either roadkill or died naturally) would produce such a beautiful but disturbing place to sit and read the newspaper?

See A Collection of Chairs to honor the Godless by Miss Pokeno from the 8 May 2008 – 8 June 2008 at The Ragged School, 47 Union Street London, SE1 1SG

Where next on the map? I love to travel, and maps hold a special allure for me. They present suggestions and possibilities of new experiences to be had. Which is why I quite like Future Maps by Digitile. The company has created a modern redesign of the Cylindrical Equal Area Projection and made it available for people to cover their walls with on a massive scale via wallpaper or tiles. It’s an opportunity to cover your walls in something more interesting and educational than a tin of white paint

Tables, algorithms, trees and elephants legs. I’m completely taken with the organic branch like legs of the Arborism Table by Eisuke Tachikawa of Nosigner. Although they remind me of the long spindley legs of the surrealist elephants that Dali often featured in his paintings, the design was actually born out of the calculations of a fractal algorithm.

See more work by Nosigner.

Create your own Persian rug! Made from a recyclable mixture of synthetic and natural rubber, this modular flooring design from Katrin Sonnleitner allows you to create your own persian style rug from jigsaw shaped pieces. Everytime you get bored of the pattern, just break it all up and start all over again.

See more work by Katrin Sonnleitner.

Ashamed of your cheap corporate style office chair? Day in, day out, you’re sat in that horrid aesthetically unpleasing office chair. Isn’t it time you gave it a new lease of life? Thanks to the designs of Chenhui Su, with a quick cover you can transform your everyday seating into a Victorian style chair, or perhaps an Eames Lounge Chair or Eero Saarinen Tulip Chair.

Visit the website of Chenhui Su.

Did you know that on average, two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987? With Starbucks attacking on all fronts, it’s refreshing to see something as uniquely glorious as London Tea shop Teasmith fighting back against the growing coffee mono-culture.

Owner John Kennedy, a self-confessed ‘tea geek’, runs the contemporary teahouse offering customers the world’s best teas amidst a beautifully designed interior created by Jonathan Clark Architects. Accompanied by Miss Random Fashion Coolness, I visited the teahouse this weekend, and instantly fell in love with the place. As if the beautiful hanging bare bulbs of the interior design weren’t enough to turn me on, the teas, biscuits and chocolates (by master Chocolatie William Curley, no less) certainly finished the job. Although, the absolute jewel in the crown is reserved for the owner, John Kennedy. Never have I experienced such warmth and enthusiasm from the owner of any establishment. Even though we were just another couple of customers off the street for all he knew, he took the time to educate us in the culture of tea and the skills involved in making the perfect cuppa. Christ knows how he gets anything done if he’s as attentive to every customer as he was to us this weekend.

I’ve completely forgotten what teas we tried, as I was so engrossed in Kennedy’s tales of the tea world, but guided recommendation using his wealth of knowledge, resulted in experiencing some of the finest tea I’d ever tasted. However, I can definitely recommend accompanying your tea with the chocolate dipped fruit, and salty Miso flavoured biscuits (I know, right? Salty biscuits? Sounds so wrong, but incredibly it works so right!)

If you live in the capital, or you’re just passing through, make sure you take a pit-stop at Teasmith. Saturday is a great day to go, when the nearby Spitalfields market is closed, and it’s quiet. I can’t recommend it enough. Go and experience the best the world has to offer in tea, guided by one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Teasmith is located at 6 Lamb Street, London.

Without sounding like a character from Willy Wonka… I want a Golden Egg! To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic ‘Egg Chair’ designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958, Fritz Hansen have produced a very special limited edition of the chair. The 999 limited edition chairs available are made with “wild elegance leather” and suede in a soft chocolate brown colour, with a hand polished solid bronze base and christened The Golden Egg

See The Golden Egg microsite from Fritz Hansen.

Waste not, want not. The award winning London designers Steven Smith and James Wosiek, collectively known as Thabto have produced a range of products produced from salvaged car seatbelts. The highly engineered safety components, which would of otherwise been destined for life in the scrap yard, are transformed into desirable products.

As I keep misplacing my keys, I could really use one of the keyholders they’ve produced. This wall mounted key holder cleverly changes the context of the buckle, while retaining the “arriving and leaving” element of using a seatbelt. Over time, plugging in your keys becomes as much of a habit as putting on you’re seatbelt.

See more from Thabto.

Fresh home and interiors porn. As people might have gathered by other posts such as this,
this or this, I like looking at cool houses and interiors. So I’m glad someone pointed me in the direction of Fresh Locations for another junkie fix.

See all the wonderful media shoot locations available at Fresh Locations.

eBay – the international flea market. Sometimes, you’ve gotta love eBay. Whilst it’s often full of scams and cut-price junk, if you’re lucky (and by ‘lucky’, I mean ‘obsessive’) you can occasionally find vintage gems. I’ve been an eBay convert ever since I bought an amazing vintage chesterfield sofa for 50p, but now my love for eBay is strengthened by another recent purchase. I managed to nab a vintage 60’s Semi light pendant.

These arc-shaped enamelled metal lights were designed by architects Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup in 1967 and produced by the innovative Danish lighting company Fog & Morup. The Semi was produced in a number of sizes, with each one being individually manufactured by hand by a skilled metalworker. The process involved spinning a 1.5mm thick aluminium plate onto a steel form and moulding it into shape with a thick leather-covered baton. I’ve seen several smaller versions of the Semi pop up on ebay, but never one of the huge large versions – so when I found someone in Denmark offering one, I had to have it! So eBay comes through for me again.

Find your unique vintage treasure on eBay (just don’t outbid me on all the cool stuff I want!)

Add a touch of Frank Gehry aesthetics to your home. Whilst browsing around the Tiffany website (not something I would normally do, but circumstances required it!) I noticed that the award-winning architect Frank Gehry has designed a collection for them. While I’m not into jewelry, I love the china work he’s created such as this Vase which bares all the hallmarks of his multi-faceted architectural aesthetics.

See more of the Frank Gehry Collection for Tiffany.

Hip & stylish accommodation in Malta. If you’re like me and love quirky, hip boutique style hotels and you’re thinking of heading towards Malta anytime soon, you might want to check out the a new luxury self catering accommodation option in Malta called Maison La Vallette. It’s a discreet self catering luxury town house, situated in the old part of Valletta. Decorated in a mix of Maltese style baroque and bespoke designer furniture, it looks like a great setting for a romantic stay, for those looking for a bold, stylish, sophisticated yet affordable option for their travels.

Even if you’re not looking to go there on your travels, it’s worth checking out the website just to pick up some decor style ideas on the virtual tour.

For more info see Maison La Vallette.

Still random. Still cool. I’ve mentioned the company Random Retail before due to their very cool french sac cushions. So I thought I’d do a little update to say they’ve got a new catalogue for 2008, which has the still cool french sac cushion designs in more colours, and also on some canvas shopping bags (good if you’re trying to go green and cut down on your supermarket plastic bag usage!)

So get yourself over to Random Retail to check out the new stuff.

Great new German design. I love the clean design work coming from Maigrau, a new german design brand by the industrial designers Alex Stamminger and Nik Back. I’m particularly fond of the beautiful and elegant simplicity of their ‘Luca Lean’ lamp. According to the company…

“The leaning lamp stresses the relationship between light and architecture by its generous gesture. Its orientation to the wall conveys stability and moreover creates an elegant and atmospheric silhouette. The puristic design of the lamp is set in scene by the combination of oiled oak and fabric of the company JABAnstoetz.”

Maigrau definitely look like a design brand worth keeping an eye on for the the future.

See more work from Maigrau.

Breakfast is a battlefield. You may not realise it, but the breafast table is a place of warfare. The boiled egg, up until now, has had to fend off attack from knocking spoons, and toasted bread soldiers, all by itself. But no longer! Soldiers are on hand to protect the precious egg in the form of the Egg Solider Eggcup from Reiko Kaneko.

See more by Reiko Kaneko.

Your fortune according to your crockery! Redstr/Collective has created the Alma Fortune cups & saucer range based on an abstraction and reinterpretation of Turkish coffee fortune telling (a kind of tasseography.) Ground up pigments serve to create the fortunes, which are fixed as permanent decoration on the items, and allow each cup and saucer to be set with it’s own unique fortune.

The cup and saucers, which are currently being produced by Areaware, are now also available in a limited edition collaboration with Tobias Wong. Wong has taken the Alma Fortune cup & saucer sets to a new level of esoteric luxury by suspending the fortunes in 22ct Gold!

See more work by Redstr/Collective.

Wonky tables are now something to be embraced! I love the table that Nina Farsen has created as part of her Invalid Project.

Malfunction is usually avoided in design and art. A designed object should always be complete and perfectly well-engineered. Imperfection however is a spring of creativity. Deviations from the conventional, which are usually perceived as defective, often develop into something truly new and unknown.

The Table that has been created is missing two legs, and should inevitably topple over, but it doesn’t. Why not? The missing legs are compensated by weights held by nearly invisible thin strings which act as a counter-balance. It’s a clever idea, and a surprisingly beautiful object.

See more work by Nina Farsen.

Cheer up meal times. If you’re a bad cook, then you’re probably going to need some cheerful plates to lighten the gloom that your dinner guests feel when forced to eat your awful attempts at gastronomy. Luckily, the wonderfully colourful stylings of Geneviève Gauckler have been put onto plates for Domestic. In fact, there’s a whole range of cool plates available docorated by a number of great designers, illustrators and artists.

Check ‘em out at Domestic.

Art is dirty. I’ve seen a few clever ideas that use the removal of dirt and grime to create something new, but I particularly like Simon Heijdens’ ‘Clean Carpets’ project. Through the use of a high-pressure sprayer and a template, grime is removed from the pavement in the shape of a carpet. The clean spot appears, a place where one would want to sit. The image is made by taking away instead of adding. The carpet slowly disappears over time as the streets gathers fresh grime.

See more work at simonheijdens.com

Charles Eames + Tony Hawk = ? With references to classic designers such as Isamu Noguchi, Charles & Ray Eames and George Nelson, Pierre-Andre Senizergues and fellow skateboarder, Gil Le Bon de Lapointe, have been constructing modern design classics out of skateboard parts.

Read more on the Skate Study House.

Word up! (geddit?!! it’s a reference to… never mind.) I think these Coat Pegs are kind of quirky. Nobody really notices coat pegs, so by turning them into an object that resembles the cameos and the black paper silhouettes typical of the 18th century, they’ve been created into decorative items in their own right.

THe coat pegs are from Big Game, in collaboration with Adrien Rovero.

See more at Big Game

More shoot locations. I can’t get enough of the inside of other peoples houses. I can’t help myself, it’s a sickness. So companies that provide shooting locations for the media are like crack dealers to me. I’ve mentioned a few before such as Shootspaces and Shoot Factory, but I’ve found a new dealer in Zownir Locations. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to gorge myself upon some shoot locations.

Check out the house porn at Zownir Locations.

Chair Cushions! Designer Julie Wilkinson has come up with a creative way of advertising and inviting people to an exhibition she has been helping to organise in partnership with Joyanne Horscroft entitled LEGS; an event where 25 students have been asked to design a chair of some kind. Julie has created a set of miniature cushions which display the details of the event, which will then to be scattered around the city of Bath on benches, chairs and in bars. Legs: Creative Chair Design exhibition opens on 8pm Wednesday 30th January at Invention Studios Bath.

More details of the event, including photos, will be available at graphicdesignonallfours.co.uk following the exhibition on Wednesday

Slow down your world and relax. Set in motion by the heat of a single tea candle, the Carousel Candle is beautifully designed heat motion sensitive carousel. The warmth of a candle will power the Carousel into a clockwise motion, whilst it’s heat will scatter mesmerizing silhouettes upon your walls.

Find out more at Carousel Candle.

Creative shelving. If I had a collection of beautiful things to show off, I’d definitely consider the Taapa display system from Hold. This flexible shelving system comes in four sizes with a selection of shelving components. The unique layer configurations are limited only by your imagination.

See more from Hold.

Looking for unbalanced balance? Then the Stick Chair design by Emmanuelle Moureaux is the one for you. The inspiration of “stick chair” came from the “Mikado”, a pick-up sticks game originating in Europe. A total of 7 round wooden sticks placed obliquely support the heavy chunk of acrylic seat at the perfect balance. This architecture like structure was developed after many attempts to achieve an “unbalanced balance,” which stabilizes the structure although looks unstable by coming closer to the structural limit. Due to its beautiful refraction effects, those sticks appear as if they are soaked underwater.

See more work by Emmanuelle Moureaux.

My guilty secret: I want to be a gardener. Maybe it’s because it’s a new year and the natural world will soon be bursting back into life, but I’m suddenly taking much more notice of gardens. Whereas normally I’d drool over the latest in cutting edge architecture, I’m now finding myself obsessed with the accompanying gardens instead. I now dream of modernist garden designs, and have decided to spruce up my own garden. Which is how I came across the furniture/plant hybrid products by Japanese company, Mindscape. It’s a great idea that combines interesting plant shapes with a place to sit and contemplate the garden.

See moree from Mindscape.

Hope & Apologies. Rafael Morgan, a Brazilian based designer, looks set for a great future. His work has already been featured on several of the big design blogs, and now he’s unfortunate enough to have hit a low by appearing on mine, haha. Anyway, I’ve spoken to Rafael once or twice via email, but I always forget to post anything about him on Things of Random Coolness (Sorry Rafael!)

Anyway, I saw Gijs Baker’s droplet style fruitbowl for Royal VKB, and it reminded me how much I liked Rafael’s Hope Table Design. Apparently, the table is going into production through Six Inch this year, so that good news! Nice work, Rafael!

Find out more about Rafael Morgan.

As sweet as… I really love the Honey Chair by Buchegger, Denoth, Feichtner Design. The angular form displayed by the chair has become something of a trademark for the design team (just look at their cutlery designs, for example!)

See more angular work by Buchegger, Denoth, Feichtner Design.

Make eating bizarre! With experimental chefs such as Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adrià being all the rage these days, it’s about time someone designed some cutlery that can match their bizarre cuisines. Simone Brewster has created a range of experimental cutlery entitled Seasons Of Love, which are a collection of bizarre and beautifully fluid eating utensils. They probably don’t make the act of getting food into your mouth any easier, but they’ll certainly be more fun.

See more work by Simone Brewster.

Get out your credit cards! For those of you that aren’t obsessive Mac fanboys, you might not be aware that Apple have released the MacBook Air, the world’s thinnest laptop. I know I shouldn’t fall for Apple’s powers of seduction, but I can’t help myself. It’s a sickness.

Available from Apple.

Chairs…err…bench…umm…chairbench? Unfortunately, I don’t speak German, so I have no idea what this is all about. Whatever Yvonne Fehling und Jennie Peiz have made, it’s cool and I want to sit on it.

See more work byYvonne Fehling und Jennie Peiz.

“My God, It’s floating!” Angela Jansen, in partnership with Crealev, has designed loS!, the first in a planned series of floating lamps. The lamp features two magnets that constantly repel each other causing the slightly surreal levitating lampshade effect to occur. I want one!

Find out more at Crealev.

Willy Wonkify your home! Flavor Paper have created The Fruit Cocktail Collection, a range of scratch & sniff wallpaper. When scratched, B-A-N-A-N-A-S! smells like bananas, Cherry Forever like cherries, and Tutti Frutti like…tutti frutti! Visual AND olfactory satisfaction from your walls. Pure genius.

More fantastic walllapers available from Flavor Paper.

Another reason to turn on the heating in this cold weather! I love this concept of heat sensitive wallpaper by Shiyuan. In a simple and elegant gesture, when the radiator is turned on a series of flowers previously unseen begin to bloom in reaction to the heat. Clever.

See more work by Shiyuan.

If you’re on a diet, look away now! It’s a new year, and like many others, I’m doing the obligitory resolution to eat in a more healthy manner. However, the exact moment that you start denying yourself sugary snacks, you start dreaming about cake. At least I do. Or to be more accurate, I’m dreaming about the edible creations of Carles Mampel at Bubo.

I found Bubo last year whilst mindlessly wandering around the back streets of Barcelona. The Bubo shop is more akin to an art gallery than a shop selling cakes and petit fours, which is fitting as the edible artworks created by Carles Mampel are beautifully designed statues of taste. Seriously, it’s almost a crime to eat these things!

If you ever find yourself in Barcelona, skip the tourist traps and head over to Bubo to stuff yourself with beautifully designed award winning cakes. Even if you’re not hungry, just go and feed your eyes.

Visit Bubo ]]> http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2008/01/10/bubo/feed/ 0 http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2008/01/10/100-chairs-in-100-days/ http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2008/01/10/100-chairs-in-100-days/#comments Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:41:10 +0000 admin http://www.thingsofrandomcoolness.com/2008/01/10/100-chairs-in-100-days/

A whole new world of mutated chairs. I missed the Martino Gamper exhibition of his 100 Chairs in 100 Days project which was shown in London last year, but there is now a book available titled 100 Chairs in 100 Days and its 100 Ways. It highlights the bastardised chair forms which have been created by Gamper using the odds and ends of other chairs, and other various objects.

See more work by Martino Gamper.

Another talented young graphic designer. Normally I’m annoyed by people emailing me with nothing but their website urls, but I’m making an exception for Jack Crossing as I like his posters.

For future reference, if anyone fancies sending me emails about stuff, at least say hello. I get all kinds of emails from weirdos and losers, so ones that are from normal people that say hello are like gold. Also, to anyone who’s sent me an email recently that I haven’t responded too, don’t think that I hate you, it’s just that I’ve got tons to get through, and quite frankly, I’m pretty lazy.

See work by Jack Crossing.

A modern graphic reworking of Klimt’s work. London based graphic designer, Angus Alexander, has created a beautiful screenprinted re-working of the Gustav Klimt sketch ‘The Blood of Fish’. Alexander’s re-working entitled ‘Flood of Nuda’ is a 2 colour screen print available in a limited edition of 250, and is available via his website.

See more work by Angus Alexander.

Gods get mail too! The wonderfully named design company Greece Is For Lovers, have made the mundane act of opening your daily mail into an event that’ll make you feel like a greek god. With your Zeus lightening bolt letter opener, you’ll be able to “rip through hatemail with the stealth and fury of Zeus! ”

See more work by Greece Is For Lovers.

Cars, tax & Art. The Art Car Boot Fair have developed a range of car tax disc holders created by leading artists and designers. The Pretty Taxing tax disc holder and certificate is both a collectible and a usable artwork. With the limited edition pieces both the circular tax disc artwork and the certificate are hand numbered with the edition number.

Pretty Taxing will launch new editions of tax disc holders by leading artists and designers on a regular basis so customers can build their own in-car art collection, and promise to occasionally produce other special signed and editioned pieces.

Available from the Art Car Boot Fair Shop.

Upgrade those nasty plastic bags of yours! Curated by Process Packaging, the Re-Bag Exhibition is a collection of limited edition reusable canvas bags designed by 15 of the UK’s leading design talents.

Designers were asked to create a design centered on the theme of sustainability and reusability. The resulting bags are produced in limited edition batches of 250, and are available to buy. So dump those environmentally damaging plastic carrier bags and pick yourself up a stylish eco-friendly alternative.

Find out more at Re-Bag.

Cccheck Ooout Ttthe Cccrazy Ccchairs. The design of the Ssstoell chair (no, I don’t have a stutter – that’s what it’s called!) by Voortman & Girod is like looking at a cubist painters interpretation of a chair. I doubt it’ll ever be the most comfortable chair to sit on, but as an object in it’s own right, I think it’s cool.

See more work by Studio Voortman & Girod Interior Architects.

Black is the new..err…black. I absolutely love the New York City The Black Apartment created by The Apartment for Cindy Gallop, chairwoman of advertising giant BBH. Gallop gave The Apartment a simple brief stating: “at night, i want to feel like i’m in a shanghai nightclub…”

I’m always impressed when people are clever enough to pull off the black look in interior design, it’s one of those things that can look either luxurious and seductive (as The Apartment have managed to achieve), or claustraphobic and gloomy. It’s a risk to take, but the rewards, as in the case of The Black Apartment, are worth it.

See more work by The Apartment.

Ghostly apparitions in furniture. There’s something really ephemeral and intangible about the Ghost Chair by Drift (as it’s a flash site, I can’t link to the chair directly – sorry!). It’s a strange ghostly figure encased in a plexiglass material, and marks the first time this manufacturing technique has been used in this way.

See more images of the Ghost Chair and more work by Drift.

Great stuff by &Made. I’ve long been a fan of &Made’s quirky design aesthetic, and I really love the understated (for them, anyway) design of the Greta sideboard they’ve created for Isos Collection. The clean lines of the wooden sideboard are interrupted by the more ostentatious gloss lacquered legs. It’s an almost classic modern look with a cheeky post-modern addition.

See more work by &Made.

Designer housing for the modern bird. Rob from UglyBogus informed us about The Modern Bird Exhibition after the recent post on religious bird houses. ‘The Modern Bird’ is “an exhibition of designer birdhouses created by more than 20 of the top artists and design studios worldwide”, which “will show how far contemporary visionaries have taken the traditional wooden birdhouse.”

See more photos at Flickr.

Guns + Umbrellas = Cool. It’s been a while since I saw something that I thought was just stupidly cool, but Alex Woolley has created two things that I’m dying to play with.

Firstly, he’s created a Musical Instrument/Ruler Desk, which is “an Instrument based on childhood boredom and the escape to music as a form of entertainment.” Basically, it’s a bunch of plastic rulers shoved in a desk at different lengths to produce different notes. If you never did this as a kid, you probably won’t get it – but if you did, you’re probably aching to hear that school days twanging ruler sound!

Secondly, Alex has created an Umbrella for Encouraging Adults to Play in the Rain – the “unique, funnel shaped umbrella harnesses the flow of rainwater down into its handle, a water pistol. The user can fire at will, maintaining a constant flow of water as long as rain continues to fall!” Turning dull days of crap weather into a water pistol fight is something to be applauded.

See more work by Alex Woolley.

The children! Won’t somebody think of the children? Industrial Designer, Alain Gilles has developed an exciting prospective playground concept for urban cities in 2015. He explains, “Young children acquire most of their social behaviors through playing with others. So, what they play with greatly matters. In large urban cities, the playground is often one of the few outside place children have free access to. Too often, playgrounds are seen as boring and are deserted after a while. Hence, the idea to have a solid structures allowing for different games to be rotated between playgrounds, or even within every playground itself.” The various different designed structures are intended to “foster the acquisition of some values needed to live in a community. So some of games will in a way highlight some social behaviors and encourage communication, independence, self-esteem, respect for other and for what belongs to the community, but also encourage the need to behave as the majority, as well as encourage young children to find their own path and venture out.” Check out the various designed elements and their intended influence on young mind:

Urban Jungle – Hanging or walking between rubber vines. Playing hide and seek with their peers. Young children need to learn to go beyond their fears, to step into unknown territories.

Antzzz – Open, closed or linked structures replicate everyday social behaviors. Encouraging communication and/or confinement, especially when passing over a bridge.
Antzzz – The piece follows a modular logic. Parts are made to be easily disassembled, transported and allow multiple configurations. The bubbles are made of two identical double-skin rotomolded elements.

Cosmosphere – sunlight can shine through tiny holes made into the sphere and give an inner image of a sky full of stars. Children, while still being accessible, can hide away from their parents thus learne to become more independent.

Culbuto – Leat all that positive energy out, as children need to unleash once in a while. Up to four kids can shake that tree like structure and reap the benefits of their effort.
Boulo Modulo – Big memory foam balls in whichchildren can leave their imprints for a little while. By leaving their marks
in, they will make the playground their, and be tempted to respect it a lot more.

Follow that Frog – Society is a lot about behaving like other, and in a way following other people in their footsteps. Children can jump on one green lotus after the other as they light up the path taken by a virtual frog. Computer controlled LEDs are lit via bluetooth sensors thus defining a random path.

See more work by Alain Gilles.

Did you ever carved a message into the bark of a tree when you were a kid? Perhaps a subtle declaration of love for a teenage crush, or a profound statement of existence such as ‘I was here’? If you did, you’ll understand the beauty of Grafitti Tree Vases by Johanna Jansson which grew out of the equally beautiful Silver Birch Tree Sculpture.

Grafitti Tree Vases is a series of glass objects that resemble the angular typographic scratched out graffiti messages that you often see carved into the bark of trees. Only now that graffiti is transformed into the decorative touches for an item to decorate your home. It’s a thoroughly beautiful object to remind you of the nostalgia of teenage vandalism.

See more work by Johanna Jansson.

Flattened desktop objects. Here’s a cute little idea by Irish born designer Finn Magee; Flat Life consists of ‘Flat Light’ and ‘Flat Time’, both of them posters depicting ordinary desktop items but with the added benefit of them still having their functionality. So in the case of ‘Flat Life’ which depicts a table lamp, the poster uses LEDs to illuminate the printed lamp. You get “the productive atmosphere of a desk light without the bulk.” Similarly the ‘Flat Time’ poster depicts a radio alarm clock, but the poster houses a 7-segment LED display to tell the time.

See more work by Finn Magee.

Great products. Terrible website. If you can force yourself to put aside your hatred of the annoyingly bad website that Dark uses to promote itself on the web, you’ll find some fantastic products. I particularly like the delicate retro nature of the Franje light (link to PDF, so you don’t have to suffer their website). The light designed by Marcel Reulen is available in any colour as long as it’s black or white.

See more products from Dark.

Do birds believe in God? On the off chance that they do, at least they now have a place to worship thanks to Holy Homes designed for TuttoBeNe by Frederik Roijé. These two bird houses are made out of the best porcelain in the the shape of a cathedral and feature a golden branch. So if you fancy getting all the religious birds hanging around your garden, you had better invest in a Holy Home.

Find out more about Holy Homes.

Ceramics + Music = Design Beauty. I want a Phonofone by Science & Sons. The Phonofone is clever piece of applied science, a beautiful icon of nostalgia, and an ironic twist on the insular nature of personal listening devices. Through passive amplification alone, the Phonofone can instantly transform any personal music player + earbuds into a sculptural audio console. Without the use of external power or batteries, the Phonofone inventively exploits the virtues of horn acoustics to boost the audio output of standard earphones to up to 55 decibles (that’s roughly the maximum volume of laptop speakers). Upon connecting active earphones to the Phonofone their trebly buzzing is instantly and profoundly transformed into a warm, rich and resonant sound.

Find out more about the Phonofone by Science & Sons.

What is the ‘Six Letter Word’? Design? Six Letter Word is the amazingly talented designer Diogo Potes. The Six Letter Word website doesn’t offer up much more information, preferring to simply offer up a banquet of fantastically coloured illustrative designs instead.

Check out the work at Six Letter Word.

Sofa so good. I love the 50’s modernist stylings of Autoban’s Box Sofa, the latest offering from the Istanbul based design firm. I was happy to learn at the 100% Design exhibition that Autoban have teamed up with De La Espada to create Autoban De La Espada a furniture collaboration between design firms.

Find out more about the collaboration at Autoban De La Espada.

This is Tengu. He loves to be around people and he makes his home by your computer. Mr Jones’s Tengu is a small electronic character who connects to your computer’s USB port. Tengu responds to sound, so if you play music then he looks like he is singing along with it. It’s this generations version of the 80’s Dancing Flowers, but not as crap.

Designed by the talented Crispin Jones, I first saw Tengu at the London Designersblock, in which Crispin also showcased his great Watches which help you not only tell the time, but give you guidance on decisions or Mantras to live by.

Find out more information on Tengu and Mr Jones Watches.