Finnish brand Iittala has a long tradition of introducing new and bold design solutions. Iittala has recently launched the highly individual Taika series decorated by Klaus Haapaniemi. This renowned designer/illustrator from Finland has a very distinctive style of decoration, and combining this style with the basic values of the Iittala range produces an exciting mix.
The strong decorative style of the Taika series may surprise those who are used to seeing Iittala representing traditional Nordic functionality and simple design forms. To counterbalance the exuberance of the decoration, the design adopted for the pieces in the Taika series is that of Heikki Orvola’s Aika with its classic, clean lines, which was launched last autumn. Aika was originally designed with the intention that its look could be easily transformed with different styles of decoration. Click here to see the beautiful Aika line decorated by Klaus Haapaniemi.
Klaus Haapaniemi is a talented illustrator. His CV of design work is impressive: garment prints for Diesel, Levis, Marimekko, Dolce & Gabbana, Cacharel and Bela’s Dead, a new brand. I will feature more of his gorgeous work later this week. Above you can already see some of the work he did for Cacharel.
This beautiful and somewhat funny bowl brought a smile to my face. The Buddha Bowl is designed to rest in the palm of your hand and can be used for rice, lattés, ice cream, and even cereal. The handmade bowl is designed by Flavour Design. This interdisciplinary design company from Canada strive to design products that make people say “why didn’t i think of that!” The company owners Élan and Mark Falvai: “Our pieces aim to be clever yet elegant with a strong emphasis on ergonomics and functionality. We believe that the items you choose to surround yourself with should be interesting. They should enable you to strike up a conversation or at least make you smile”.
Their Udon Noodle Bowl is fun, elegant, and ergonomic. This bowl, which is also handmade, is available in eight colors and comes complete with chopsticks. More information about these bowls, and all their other products, can be found on Flavour Design’s website.
(via design milk)
Ever since my first visit to Australia several years ago, I have been fascinated by Aboriginal art. In order to know more about this interesting form of art, I have visited several exhibitions and read many books about the subject. In the course of years I have collected some beautiful paintings by great aboriginal artists. As I have no room to hang all my paintings, I change them every now and then. And sometime I sell some, just to make room for others. At the moment I have 4 smaller paintings, grouped in a square, hanging in my living room (see image above).
In the the Jan/Feb issue of Australian Vogue Living magazine, the home of Linda Gregoriou was featured. Linda’s stunning apartment in Sydney is full of aboriginal art. This lady has the most beautiful collection! The Vogue Living photos of her apartment have already been featured on decor8 and Desire to Inspire. As both the paintings and the apartment are gorgeous, I would like to share them with you as well in case you have not seen them yet. By the way, the ceiling light Zettel’z (image above) is designed by Ingo Maurer and is a favorite of mine.
The large pink painting above the fireplace is from the hand of the famous Emily Kngwarreye. The white sofa Charles is from B&B Italia .
Every aboriginal region in Australian has a different style of painting. Some regions are known for their bold colours. Artists from other regions use ochre colors for their paintings, like the art works in the image above.
(images have been removed at the request of the photographer)
Danish brand DAY does not only create beautiful clothing, they also have a very stylish collection of home and interior design products: DAY Home. The inspiration behind the lifestyle collections is a mixture of the ethnic cultures, modern classics and vintage clothes picked up at flea markets in Paris, London and New York.
They recently launched their second Home collection. Gorgeous pillows, throws, fabrics and table and kitchenware, which are all available in various beautiful colors. Check out the DAY website for the entire Spring 2007 collection. If you like that typical Danish style (like I do), it certainly worth to spend some time browsing through their gorgeous collection.
Deisgn your own shelving system with MShelving, an almost endlessly customizable storage system. Available in several heights and configurations, it allows you to create your own look from a wide range of interchangeable colored steel and wood veneer sliding doors. MShelving was designed by Mathias Frei from Zürich, and is produced in Switzerland and Italy. It combines a sturdy, slightly industrial-feeling steel shelving system base with a refined, simple and attractive sliding door system. The result is a shelving unit that holds just about anything (each shelf can hold up to 220 pounds) but looks like stylish furniture in your home or office. The best way to design your own unit is to use the Composer, which is available here.
The Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, has invited 13 prominent Norwegian women to decorate their own personal hotel room. The rooms, which have been termed the Ladies’ Floor, are designed exclusively with the needs of female guests in mind. Each suite is named after – and decorated with photographs of – a different successful Norwegian woman. Below a sample of what you can expect if you stay at The Grand’s Ladies’ Floor.
This room is called The Snow Princess Room and is inspired by Kari Traa, a Norwegian freestyle mogul skier and clothing designer. Interior- and design shop Ekse from Oslo decorated this room with furniture, lighting and accessories of various young designers. They used Cole & Son’s Wood wallpaper to decorate the walls of this beautiful room.
Veronica Sønsteby, the owner of the interior and design store JANE DOE in Oslo, has designed The Butterfly Room. JANE DOE is known for it’s eclectic mix of new and vintage furniture, accessories and lamps. Veronica has used this same mix to decorate this room.
R.O.O.M. has designed this room named A colour kingdom, which is inspired by Norwegian jazz-singer Silje Nergaard. R.O.O.M. is a well-known retailer of high quality products within the areas of furniture, interior accessories and design. They have various stores in Scandinavian cities such as Oslo and Copenhagen.
For more information about the Grand Hotel and The Ladies’ Room you can visit the Grand Hotel’s website.
Berra from Istanbul, Turkey, introduced me to some great Turkish designers. Did you know that Istanbul is the only city in the world that has been built on two continents, Europe and Asia? I can see that a lot of Turkish designers are inspired by this “east meets west” atmosphere. One of my favorite designers that Berra introduced me to is Erdem Akan. Like his home city, Istanbul, where thoroughly modern ideas and traditional practices co-exist, Erdem’s design philosophy is based on the tensions between opposites: fabricated versus hand-made; natural versus artificial, romantic versus hard-core, new versus old, – and especially between cultures, eastern versus western. For him good design should balance or amplify this tension. I think Erdem’s designs are wonderful and very original. I just love the zero bean bag with tray (top row, left image) and the good morning service tray with space for a newspaper.
Some more of Erdem’s designs: thonet bench (top row, left image), eastmeetswest tea glass (top row, right image) and the three amigos side table which is reincarnated from porcelain pizza plates (second row). Visit Erdem’s website to see more of his gorgeous designs!
Istanbul is high on my list of places to visit. I have heard that it is a wonderful city, very vivid and cosmopolite with a great energy. If you are planning a trip to Istanbul, try to include the Istanbul Design Week which will be organized between 14 – 24 June this year. Thanks Berra for the wonderful information that you sent me!
I found this teapot from Covo in an Italian magazine. As I was fascinated by the irregular shape of the design, I visited Covo’s website for more information. The Ciacapo teapot is designed by Kazuhiko Tomita, a wonderful Japanese designer. The simple and modern shape of the design has been executed with the highest skill and craftsmanship in cast iron. Ciacapo is available in two sizes (small and large) and in various colours.
I spent quite some time browsing through the Covo collection on their website. All their products combine elegance with simplicity, a combination that I love. In the images above you can see some of their designs, but it is definitely worth it to check out the Covo website to see their entire collection. By the way, if you are interested in one of their products you can send an email to mail@covo.it.
Lately I have been seeing a lot of Matryoshka doll inspired designs. This Russian nested doll is a set of dolls of decreasing sizes placed one inside another. Did you know that the name Matryoshkac omes from the Russian female first name “Matryona”, which is traditionally associated with a corpulent, robust, rustic Russian woman?
These fun Matryoshka inspired money bank dolls are from Present Time. Click here to see all the different dolls available. Are you rather looking for some more authentic dolls? On ebay you would be able to find some beautiful vintage dolls.
I love the work of UK designer Kathleen Hills. Kathleen’s ceramic designs were featured at a Dutch exhibition called ‘Extremely White’, where I first saw Kathleen’s work. I have used a photo of this exhibition for one of the style files logo banners (if you click on a single post, you can see this photo at the top). Kathleen’s designs have also been featured in many magazines.
All Kathleen’s products are wonderful but the cluster lights are my favorite. These strings of lights are designed to hang as clusters. The largest cluster available has 16 shades on a string but smaller clusters and single pendants are available as well. The pendants are also available in shiny black glaze. Another favorite is the star light, which I personally like best as a single pendant but these lights can be made made up as clusters as well. Visit Kathleen’s website for more more information and to see her entire collection. Click here for stockists information.
