Baplushave's "Arq" Lamp Design

Potemine IIia of the Italian design studio Beplushave created this lamp design named "Arq" in honor of Achille Castiglioni's famous Arco lamp. Castiglioni created the elegant, modern Arco lamp in 1962 out of steel and marble for Flos. IIia's lamp is more low budget and homey looking with its bare bulb, PVC, and wood design. Instead of a chunky marble base this design has a knotty wood base and instead of steel, spay-painted PVC. The design has a bare diffuse bulb in place of the Arco's steel shade. But the lamp doesn't have anything to represent the hole in the marble base of Castiglioni's design. As pointed out in the design-milk article "The concept was born from the combination of two materials that have no connection , and typically have for completely different use."

(See original core77 post here.)

Grosse8/Lichtfront's "Augmented Sculpture"

Augmented Sculpture by GROSSE8 & LICHTFRONT / Passagen 2010 from Lichtfront on Vimeo.

This installation work by German designers from Grosse8/Lichtfront named "Augmented Sculpture" consists of both 3-D sculpture and time based digital media. It was first presented last January at the Interior Design Week in Cologne and video documentation of the installation is not available online. The sculpture consists of two wooden parts about 2.5 m in height. Images and designs are projected onto this sculpture to create a very interesting effect. The projected graphics were created using AfterEffects and 4 videos are played by 2 different synchronized computers. The viewers mind is tricked by the projected images and the sculpture seems to change form as they are projected. (See original Core77 post here. See Designboom post here.)

Klaus Rosburg's Vertical Clock

German designer Klaus Rosburg just released his new clock design called Vertical Clock. Rosburg's design firm called SONIC Design is based out of Brooklyn, NY. The clock itself is made out of laser-cut anodized aluminum and brightly colored painted acrylic. It comes in nine different vibrant colors. Each design is hand-produced and they are only going to be producing 144 clocks in total. They are available for sale for $95 here. I really like Rosburg's other cuckoo clock designs alot too!

(See original core77 post here.)

(See another blog post about this design here.)

Studio Job's Wrecking Ball and Crane Lamps

Designers from the London design studio, Studio Job, have created the Wrecking Ball and Crane Lamps for a upcoming exhibition at the Carpenter Workshop Gallery. The pieces were commissioned by the gallery and will be shown with Studio Job's new furniture line from their Industry Series. The lead designers and founders of Studio Job are Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel. The lamps are both miniatured versions of the iconic industrial inventions: the wrecking ball and the crane. They are both made out of bronze and wired to be used as fully functional lamps. I love the whimsy and humor that these pieces have. Their miniature size makes them somewhat childlike but the dark color and material and the lighting features make them more sophisticated.

(See dezenn.com blog post here. See core77.com post here.)

Andy Hall Creates 24 Chairs in 24 Hours

Andy Hall, of HallMfg in Chicago, created 24 chairs in 24 (non-consecutive) hours in a Chicago Loop Alliance gallery space. Hall set up all his equipment in the empty gallery and created these 24 chair prototypes in this make-shift workshop. Over just the course of one hour, Hall created a to scale drawings of a design and then created a chair prototype. He did this for 4 hours for 6 days, adding up to 24 hours and 24 chairs. The process of which Andy builds is very different and interesting. His drawings are the basics for each chair's measurements. He does not use a tape measure, rather he traces each piece of wood. Then using the drawings creates each prototype chair. The wood that Hall used was provided by Rebuilding Exchange, a company which recycles materials ripped from old buildings and houses. The video below shows Hall creating each piece fast forwarded. It really gives you a sense of how little time he had to create each chair.

(See core77 post here)

Bodum's Ettore Kettle From 1986

Why is a 1986 design for a kettle being released in 2010? That is what I asked myself when I started reading this core77 article. Ettore Sottsass first designed this kettle during the Memphis Period (an Italian design and architecture movement during the 1980's) for the housewares company Bodum. The reason why it has not been produced until now is because of a manufacturing problem due to the kettle's stainless steel spout. Bodum had finally found a factory that can produce the Ettore kettle design and has released the product at this year's Home and Housewares Show alongside their new line called e-Bodum. The Ettore kettle will be sold in Sottsass's original pastel colors as well as Bodum's large range of vibrant colors. Below is a core77 interview with Jørgen Bodum (co-owner of Bodum) in which he describes the Ettore kettle.

Jørgen Bodum on the Ettore Kettle from Core77 on Vimeo.

Class Notes 3/16/10

When viewing a design image we (the viewer/user):

- First look for a human face or figure

- Then look for text

- Then asks the questions: What is in the foreground? and What is in the background? (we associate what is in the foreground to be the focus/main image)

- Then we look for differences. our eye is drawn to the differences, they stand out to us. (Ex: 5 brunettes and 1 blonde in a photograph: we look at the blonde)

Reptilian Mind V.S. Natural Mind

Reptilian=Fight or Flight Mind: Instinctual

- There is a threat: Do we run from it (Flight) or do we fight it?

Natural Mind: Rational

The original aesthetic question is the original primitive instinctual question: Do I eat it or does it eat me?

We are drawn to diagonal lines and love diagonal lines in design.

- primitively, diagonal lines are representative of an animal (a predator) leaping out: we are frightened and interested (back to the Fight or Fight Mind)

Chrome Experiments: Not Your Mother's JavaScript

Google Chrome has reached out to designers around the world and asked them to experiment with their new JavaScript Engine, V8. These designers and developers have created over 70 different fun and interesting uses for V8, called Chrome Experiments. Each experimentation can be accessed through the Chrome Experiment website. (You do not nee to use the Google Chrome browser to run the Chrome Experiments but it is the fastest and easiest way.) Each project turns your browser into an interactive application, game, or even a piece of art! There are about 12 designers behind the experiments, most notably Ricardo Cabello (Mr. doob). My favorite experiment is by a LA designer named Josh Nimoy and it is called Ball Droppings.

(googleblog post on Chrome Experiments)

Karim Rashid's Bobble

The great, prolific designer Karim Rashid has ventured into the water filtration industry with his new product Bobble. The product was designed as a way of solving our dependency on bottled water. Not only is bottled water expensive but the amount of oil, plastic, and other types of waste produced by their usage is massive. Rashid's design is a portable, affordable, convenient water filtration system. It consists of a very thin recycled plastic bottle, fit with a cap containing a very powerful and effective filter. The filters last for about 300 bottles of water and easily replaceable. The bottle and filter are now available for sale online for only $9.95 and comes in 5 vibrant colors. Soon the Bobble will be popping up at your local Whole Foods or Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I believe that this is not just another kind of water bottle, I really do think it is a great product. I predict that the bobble will catch on fast with it good design and low cost. Maybe Karim Rashid has found a way to stop America's love affair with bottled water!

The video below is a Core77 interview with Karim Rashid at the Home and Housewares Show in Chicago, where the Bobble was recently released.

Home and Housewares 2010: Karim Rashid on Bobble from Core77 on Vimeo.

(See original core77 article here.)

Real Simple Cover Clocks

Design and Home magazine Real Simple is celebrating it's 10th Anniversary in their upcoming April issue. To reflect the issue's theme of "the gift of time" they commissioned three different clock designs by three different New York based designers: Boym Partners, Scott Henderson, and Harry Allen Design. The three different design will be featured on three covers, one after another in the issue. The first clock on the left is by Boym Partners; It consists of a framed clock surrounded by 6 images representing the numbers 1, 3, 6, 8, 9, and my favorite 12 (a dozen eggs). The middle clock is Scott Handerson's design which reminds me of the melting clocks of Dali. Lastly the third clock, by Harry Allen Design is yellow and only has one hand which has the word Past on the top and Future on the bottom. This is my favorite out of the three because of what the designer says about the design: "It's just this constant reminder to live in the present." In addition to the covers, a downloadable screensaver clock design by Alan Dye is available via the Real Simple website.

(See NYTimes article here)

(See Core77 article here)