Today is the first day of summer (in this part of the world)! I hope you all have a wonderful summer time. Here are some images to get in the mood. Those gorgeous ‘summery’ colours cerntainly work for me!
The cotton fabric is Habanera from Designers Guild (top left image). The ceramic plates are from Brigitte de Bazelaire (top right image). The sorbet spoons and glasses are from Habitat (below left image). The prestenation plate in light blue is from Brigitte de Bazelaire for Sentou. The plate in the darker shade of blue is from Le Bon Marché (below right image).
(images from Cote Maison)
Marcel Wanders has designed some couches for Dutch design label moooi. I especially like the fabric of Moooi Boutique sofa, New York (top image). The red couch is Moooi Boutique sofa, Diary.
This gorgeous tablecloth, LET’S TALK, is designed by Karijn Otjes from The Netherlands. The heavy fabric has a 18th century feel but the abstract pattern is modern. On the tablecloth you can find questions (in Dutch) about friendship, love and life in general. By reading or pointing out these questions, interesting discussions can be initiated at the dinner table.
Designers from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland, showed their perception of a hotel at the Milan Design Week 2007. This interesting exhibition named helsinki hotel is exploring contemporary living, hotel environment and Finnish culture through space, objects and events. Besides being an exhibition it also serves as a social meeting place. As the designers have transformed their views into items. The results is an unusual family of charismatic, pleasurable and thought-provoking objects. ‘They stole the ideas of hotel maids and lost tourists, transforming into objects the atmosphere of the city.’
The group behind the project consists of 16 designers from six different countries. The designers and objects showed in the images above are: A Room Service Set by Vasja Urh (large top image), 1+1+1=1 bedside furniture by Päivi Niemi (left top image), Käki Cuckoo serving plate by Tuomas Rossi (top right image), Conversation pieces by Niels Ole Frandsen (left image below), seat 100 years by David Dahlhaus Mora (right image below).
On the helsinki hotel website you can see all the other great products that are part of this project.
I love the multifunctional aspect of the itbox. This practical transformable piece of furniture can be modified to suit the needs of any user or any room. It is available in a range of eleven different sizes and seven different colors that can be freely combined, to suit home or office, in any number of ways. The itbox is made out of finely polished aluminum that is color anodized. The surface color and finish of the itbox lend a high-quality feel to the base material. Both the material and the color are waterproof and thus are suitable for kitchen or bathroom uses as well.
It is a label from Switzerland that has designed and produced compact and flexible furniture for young and mobile urbanites since 1997. The label has been created by the two architects Valérie Jomini and Stanislas Zimmermann. Check out their website to see their other designs such as the itbed futon.
The scandinavian style pattern gives a vintage feel to these storage tins from IKEA. TRIPP is available as a set of 3 tins for 2.95 euro.
5,084,000,000 people 5,360 pages 3,700 years 243 countries 7 books 1 shelf. Shelf JUXTAPOSED: Religion brings the world’s most influential religious texts together and presents on the same level, their coexistence acknowledged and celebrated. This work of art, the first in a series of Juxtaposed curated bookshelves for blankblank, is created by San Francisco designers Mike and Maaike.
By using experimentation as a collaborative work process, the designers strive to develop strong conceptual foundations and therefore do not attempt to arrive at a preconceived and static goals. “We mix our diverse high-tech and low-tech design background with our collage of interests to create products, wearables and art pieces, most of which are in search of perpetual motion and human interaction”.
I had not heard from Leif. design park before but I am glad to have found them. Their designs are just amazing! Leif. design park is a design team based in Japan, consisting of Takashi Ueno and Mamoru Naito and Keizaburo Honda. Their main work is widely ranged from interior design to art and industrial products. They maintain the highest quality production by cooperating with specialists from arts and crafts friends. The designs below were displayed at the Milan Furniture Fair 2007.
The chairs (top image) and the beautiful credenza (third image) are from the Tone collection. In Japan’s craft culture, predecessors have created much craft work applying the traditional techniques of parquetry, which brings out the natural taste of the various types of wood used. The unstained natural colors of wood must result from absorbing the numerous nutrients within the soil. The diversity is amazing. Tone is an attempt at producing furniture using effectively materials and skills established in the Japanese culture.
The gorgeous bench is named ‘KuKunochi’, which means the guardian that protects the forest and nature. This concept is grounded on Japanese traditional fantasy, and the branches growing from the large, impressive base implicates it. The combination of the soft texture of the seat cover (urethane foam) and the symbolic forms of the back (made of white ash) is also a significant feature. The design was inspired by an image of nature, combined with the calm that exists in a traditional Japanese garden.
Check out their website to see their entire collection. You will be amazed!
Also on display at the Milan Furniture Fair 2007 were these ‘jewellery drawers’ and ‘jewellery lamp’ by Swedish designer Malin Lundmark. The designs are part of the project ”As if fantasy was reality”; a project which consists of products where fantasy has become reality. Malin lives in Stockholm, Sweden, where she works with functional design, often with a poetic value added to it. For her it is important that a product is telling a story and that you get something more than its function when you use or look at it. You can see more of Malin’s designs by visiting her website.
By (happy!) accident I found Karin’s Etsy shop, Stiksel. Karin is a graphic designer from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, who loves to create all kind of things, photographs, textiles, collages etc. She likes to surround herself with beautiful supplies and start creating, inspired by the material and the textures. All items in her beautiful Etsy shop are handmade, unique, of a high quality and made with lots of love and care. Karin uses mostly recycled and vintage materials. Some of my favourite items from Stiksel are: Leather Key Purses, the BIG canvas SHOPPER and Never a dull Passport Case made from green leather
