Solar power is a sustainable power source, and it is one of the more interesting energy sources these days for designers to work with. But it's not easy to make it look great. These products from the designer Elena Corchero shows that it definetely works! She is an experienced fashion and interaction designer with a fine arts background and specialist knowledge in smart textiles.
I stumbled upon this design group called Reestore, were they take everyday waste objects and turn them into charming yet functional pieces of furniture and accessories. I also love the mentality behind this- use old stuff instead of buying new! This is the future!
Take a quick walk in Oslo, read a few design- and interior magazines and see what they all have in common. Just like the old maze game where everything is connected, the Maze Lamp is everywhere these days! The designer and friend of mine Rudi O. Wulff, has made this geometrical and symmetrical lamp that leads the light out from the different layers. Maze lamp is made for Northern Lightning, a company that has given us a couple of really good designs the last year. . I’m aMAZEd….
This chair is from 100% recycled domestic plastics, and it looks fatastic! Every chair is different; each one is handwoven. It can also be stacked- and it comes in many colors. Check out their website: www.cohda.com
This might be the geekiest toy I have ever seen, but still- I want one!
With the shape like the Russian dolls or Matryoshkas as they also are called, just like the ones I used to play with when I was a kid, you can now play and learn the right size sequence for Bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte and terabyte. Give this to your kid while he/she is still young and you’re sure you’ll have a fully developed geek within a short period of time!
The designer Anne Bullus has been thinking about our streets lately- how we litter it with used chewing gum, but with her little bubble gum bin you dont't drop it— you recycle it! When it's full, the entire container is recycled to make even more bins!
She has also created the Gumnetic Chewy Pad, a comfy cushion. Sitting on gum may not be so bad after all!
This lightbulb "LampLamp", also from 100% (a new favorite of mine), has changed the concept "lightbulb" into something totally new and interesting. We've got so used to the standard one that we all forgot for a while that there is so much more to design on a lamp. Great to see something new!
Call me cynical or unorthodox- but I really loved this wooden brush/door mat. It's at least a conversation starter, you might say!
Hug it, pet your dog with it or step on it- your choice!
A simply stunning and wonderful idea by 100% in Japan. Everytime you lift your glass cherry blossom appears- what a wonderful way to make something negative (for most of us) to something beautiful and positive! Love it!
Is she a fashion designer or a sculptor?
Hard to say, but who cares about labels- just take a look and get inspired.
Taking the human body as a starting point, Backlund builds her garmentes by hand from a couple of basic bricks of knit to discover the shapes she wants. Making new silhouettes, experiment with different materials and techniques. She is also very interested in traditional handicraft methods, showing great skills in her work.
Once again I have stumbled over something so beautiful that my heart just stopped for a second and I got tears in my eyes. The Danish artist Peter Callensen has made these incredible artpieces out of paper. Castels, Butterflies Trying to Escape Their Shadow, a spider rising in the shadow of an orchid, a man holding his own skin in his hand……Some just pure beauty, some make you slightly uncomfortable, and all of them made so realistic you will be amazed.
See and read more here, and I strongly recommend you to check out Peter Callensen´s website: http://www.petercallesen.com
The artist himself about his work:
“These playful performances exist in the lost land of childhood, between dream and reality and it is in this meeting or confrontation of these two conditions, in a kind of utopian embodiment, that these works of art become alive, often in a tragicomic way. “
A dog can make a lot of noise, but I doubt that you ever heard a dog sound like this... Dutch Sander Mulder have designed this kitsch speaker-system, adding a function to an otherwise grotesque object, that gives a professional audio studio made of two dogs!
Some might say that the dog is a man’s best friend, some audio-fanatics might say something else...why not combine?
Ingo Maurer has worked with light for many years and is now working on what might be an essential part of future home-décor.
Led-wallpaper is made of 900 light emitting diodes glued inside of the wallpaper, and the user can decide the colour and luminosity of the pattern. So far its still a prototype, but hopefully we will find it in stores soon, rolled up like normal wallpaper.
Some people might think of Norway as a place where polar bears and moose are wandering peacefully around in the streets of Oslo. But that is far from the truth.
As a Norwegian I have to admit I have never seen a moose and definitively not a polar bear. BUT the Viking in me loves this nice doormat or “moosemat” from Frost Produkt, and think it will give a nice touch of nature to an urban lifestyle.
The couture week in Paris is not over yet, so here are some more news from the fashion world.
He is a rebel and he always puts on a show when he presents his new collections:
Jean Paul Gaultier takes us diving deep this seson, to a world of mermaids and aquatic wonders!
Fishing nets, chiffon floating like seaweed, fish scales on dresses- so chic and so beautiful.
There is also some old signatures, the sailer looks and the famous stripes.
I cant wait to see what he comes up with next- he makes fashion so fun fun fun!
Esc. Sometimes I really wish I had a button I could press to escape form an awkward situation or when things get to boring….. But if I can’t have the function, at least I can have the button! The Italian duo, Marta Rampazzo and Nicola Genovese have made an internet site, www.k-boards.com, were you can by letters from vintage keyboards from the ´70 and ´80s, and they make it in to a jewellery for you.
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Darling Clementine consists of two Norwegian girls, both with a degree in graphic design from the UK. Now based in Oslo, they have set their goals to provide the public with fabulous stationary so that people no longer have to send each other lame greetings cards!
A lot of today's greeting cards are impersonal and gives you the feeling of mass-product, and they quickly end up in the trash. And perhaps it's precisely the personal touch that’s the reason for my love for Darling Clementine’s greeting cards. With inspiration from the 20´s and 40´s, the cards have a retro-look and a warm and personal feeling. It's so beautiful- you want to frame it and put it up on your wall!
What better way to send your love to someone?
P.S. Remember: Valentine's Day is coming up soon!
Missing those old days when you could make your own mix-tapes, and feel the groove from your boom blaster? The Cassette MP3 player is a totally functional mp3player for only $22 and it definitely brings back a taste of the -80s.
I´m a huge fan of tape. Those who know me well seen that I´ve basicly put jesus- and skull-teip all over my stuff. And i´m a huge fan of people shuting up sometimes though i may not always say it out loud that I want them to.... So i really like this new teip from Atypyk and can already imagine all the places to use it....
The time has come for the spring-08 Couture shows in Paris.
And the greatest showman of them all, John Galliano for Christian Dior, has yet again turned fashion into art.
Only a few designers have the talent and the money to do these collections today, Galliano, the wild child of the fashion industri, is one of these very talended people that can do it. His collection is full of colors, bling and overblown shapes. This is not one of the more manic, crazy, fantasy costumes, he managed to create it into high-society sixties couture that is very chic and I do think that some of these dresses will end up on the red carpet sometime soon.
As part of the london design festival, the website "Designboom" curated an exhibition of contemporary ceramic wares from 163 established and upcoming designers from 35 countries. Check out this designer in particular that I really found interesting. His name is Maxim Velovsky. I really noticed him in the middle of all the other designers because of my relationship to things made to look like cute babies;) 
The UK based design company DED, has made this wallpaper, that by first look seems like a cute flower motive, but if you have a dirty mind you will see a completely different motive…. This wallpaper, called "paper voyeur", has already been used by Agent Provocateur and Coco De Mer
One of my absolute favourite designers and artists is Tobi Wong, who makes conceptual art pieces, and plays between concept and beauty, exposing the similarities between art and design. He borrows forms and ideas from contemporary industrial design and luxury objects. Famous for projects like "ballistic rose", a rose pin made of black bullet proof material, “gold pills” that will make your shit sparkel, and “Sun Jar ” that will recharge itself during the day and glow in the dark.
A nice song to start the day with from the norwegian artist Jens carelius who relases his first album "The first songs" in these days. Release party on café Mir in Oslo 31.january
I have earlier in this blog written about sextoys and how far the design industry has come. I asked the question “do we have any taboos left to break or is everything allowed in design today?”
I ask myself this question again seeing the new jewellery collection from ELSWARES. Since I like art and design that’s provocative; my first reaction to this was “cool”. But having a handgranade or a razorblade around your neck is not just a fashion statement; it’s also a strong reflection on our society. People are blowing them selves up daily, or taking their own lives in other ways, but have we really gotten so far that we don’t really care anymore, and therefore are untouched by symbols like a razorblade or a handgranade? This summer and autumn kids all over the world wore "palestina scarfs" because it was trendy, not knowing the history and symbolism behind it. Where does the line go? Is it ok for us as designers to kill the symbolism of these types of objects and make them into a trend and a mass-product? Or is it still something left for us to consider sacred?
problem sleeping? maybe a sheep next to your bed will help? this flatpacked sheep from Back4 will at least give you a nice reading light into the small hours...
This "brick that holds beer" was designed in 1963 (name: WOBO- world bottle), envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken.
Mr. Heineken’s idea came after a visit to the Caribbean where he saw two problems: beaches littered with bottles and a lack of affordable building materials. The WOBO but unfortunately never was "picked up" as a potential product. But the thougt and idea should stand out as an example today and inspire- on how you can think further on than just user-issues, but also the after-life of the product. Nice!
Eco-minded street artist Edina Tokodi has turned the meaning of grafitti (for most of us) totally around-- from beeing a personal statement most people don't appreciate, to a more friendly, tactile statement most people would find southing for the soul. (...)
Still it is a statement, but more the meaning behind it. The artist says: “I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché. City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life. As a cultivator of eco-urban sensitivity, I usually go back to the sites to visit my “plants” or “moss”, sometimes to repair them a bit, but nothing more generally as they tend to get enough water from the air, condensation, and rain - especially in certain seasons. I also like to let them live by themselves. From the moment I put them on the street they start to have their own life. For me, the reaction of life on the street is also very important. I am curious about how people receive them, if they just leave them alone, or if they want to, take care of them or dismantle them. This is what makes my work similar to graffiti, although I am searching for a deeper social meaning and a dialogue with memories of the animals and gardens of my past in a small town in Central Europe. I believe that if everyone had a garden of their own to cultivate, we would have a much more balanced relation to our territories. Of course, a garden can be many things.”
Really interesting initiative!
Some of you probably noticed that we started with this "digg it" function. This will be a try out-period for this function, and we would love if you would try it out with us! The point of it is to push "digg it" (if it's something you like off course), and (...)
then you will have to create an account on digg.com (a website most sites use for their "digg it"-function). It's only so they can register you "diggs". This is again a great thing for our blog, because more people can find our stuff on the world wide web, because the first person who digg's something, has to make a small link , that they put on digg.com. It takes two seconds, and you can use it on all the other web-sites that use digg-it! Let`s try it out!
All my mother wanted for Christmas was this birdfeeder from Eva solo, so off course she got one! But after spying through the windows for several days I have to say that something is seriously wrong.... The birds really want the food but either they fly directly in to the glass and crash, or they try to sit down but slide off...
In my mind there is only 2 conclusion to this strange situation: either Eva solo has focused so much on making a beautiful product and forgot the functional part, or the birds here in Lier, Norway must be really stupid. This might be a local problem since we kind of live in the middle of nowhere and therefore design is at total new experience for these poor farmer-birds, but so far the birdfeeder has worked more as a bird-crasher…
A lot of us think of the toilet as a dirty object full of bacteria… so why not transform your old toilet into something fun and esthetical? On Etsy you can get these toilet-stickers for $20, they are easy to put on and to remove, and gives your toilet a hole new look. Or you can do as the artist Sam Morris who discovered that it was cheaper to paint on toilet seats than on canvas… 
cover June 1953
VOGUE Cover, Dec 1930
Wow- i just found a really great link- the evolution of the Vogue magazine covers (almost 100 years!) This is great art work, and it's incredibile to see how you can follow fashion, graphic design ecc. year by year, and you really get the feeling of that period of time. Really great to check out if you're interested in design history/art history- or infact any kind of design!
Check out the link! There's hundreds of more covers...
cover may 1935
