Brisbane, Australia-based designer Alexander Lotersztain has created X-System, a shelving system for Australian brand Planex. Lotersztain’s modular system features X-shaped pillars that fit into rails on the shelves. As well, it’s stackable, and easy to assemble, requiring only an Allen key to put together. MORE…
Evolution Accelerated
This year has been a big year in technology-driven and related sectors, which in turn has created a big stir in the (largely consumer) marketplace and back again in tech- and design-driven products and services.
Popular consumer electronics got a shot in the arm with Apple’s new iPhone 3G, which launched mid-July and sold one million units inside three days. Apple CEO Steve Jobs pointed out that it took all of 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so things were clearly “off to a good start”. MORE…
Made of 18-8 stainless steel, this ice cream spoon, by Hisakazu Shimizu / Sabo Studio, feels smooth and velvety on the lips, and is meant as an homage to the much loved inconsequential or unnecessary products of the 20th century. In this way – with this sleek bit of culinary hardware – say the designers, they grant immortality to the marvelllously familiar wooden ice cream spoon. MORE…
The Dutch UNStudio architects recently launched their first chair design, called MYchair. The chairs are upholstered in two colours and were created for the German Walter Knoll company.
The architectural approach to furniture is different from that of the industrial designer: the architect begins with the space and the environment that the chair will become a part of. MORE…
Big: Why did you decide to become a designer?
Maša Okršlar Popovič: Becoming a designer actually wasn’t a decision at all. It was simply a path, that always seemed very natural to me. If I remember correctly, my first awarness of that appeared when I was eleven. MORE…
South Africa-born designer Ryan Frank has come up with a scheme to design and build furniture from sawn-up (refuse) desks salvaged by GreenWorks, a charity and social enterprise that reclaims timber from redundant office furniture collected around the UK. 
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Twenty-three year-old designer Takumi Yoshida has come up with a phone design that serves the needs of the visually impaired. The “SENS” phone (written SÉNS) features a unique keyboard scheme where all of the keys are slightly different to the touch from one another, making the keys easily recognisable, and allowing the user to know where they are on the keyboard at all times. The waves and contours central to the recognition concept also make for compelling visually engaging design. MORE…
This year in the automotive sector is one of transition and re-affirmation, with manufacturers generally choosing to go one of two ways: back to the past, falling back on nostalgia-rich tradition; or forward with new technologies and design formulations. The (fuel-electric) hybrids introduced just a couple of years back are seeing refinements and improvements, and more models in the line-ups offered in a hybrid version.
German-born designer Sebastian Gronemeyer grew up surrounded by the works of Arne Jacobsen Poul Kjärholm and Eero Saarinen. He brings, through his company Silence and Grace, two fresh new designs to 100% Design in London this month: The Orchid Chair and The W Chair. MORE…
The London-based, 100% Design event is one of the biggest and most important design events on the world’s design calendar, bringing together manufacturers, name designers and major specifiers from all over the world. 100% Design fuses the worlds o
f architecture and design with innovative, contemporary interior products, creativity and a dynamic mix of new and established talent. MORE…
The design behind the Grohe Ondus is intended to make life simpler, by making it possible – and easy – to make personalised presets for most washing and bathing functions. The automated features are built around a one-touch interface which operates bath and shower performance. Further, the user interface is icon-based simplifying operation and digital programming. MORE…
The Mutaflex Seating Concept by Barcelona-based Figueras International Seating recently received the Award for Business and Commercial Innovation, in the Culture of Innovation category. The prizes are an initiative of the Granollers City Council in collaboration with a number of entities based in the county of Vallés. MORE…
Cremation demands specific solutions, so Belgium’s Maximal Design has created a cremation coffin with integrated urn in order to appeal to the specific functional needs and emotional circumstances of a cremation funeral. MORE…
Johannesburg-based Ronel Jordaan, a South African textile designer active almost 30 years now, sees inspiration in nature, and uses felt to express her colourful imagination. MORE…
Swiss designer Nicole Locher opened her boutique in Paris back in 2001, taking inspiration from flea markets in Paris and London. She combines elements of vintage and contemporary fashion into a single concept, creating a playful, unique style. MORE…
