Cool Hunting: Up and coming jewelry designer Tara Levitin's vintage-inspired collection, Leviticus Jewelry is an eccentric mix of old badges, trophy-like medals and precious stones strung on varying chain lengths for an old-time feeling with a modern twist.
"My line isn't trend focused or seasonal," Levitin tells CH. "I would like to consider it eclectically classic." She credits her unique style of handmade jewelry to her own eccentric tastes, inspired by old movies, music and other curious oddities.
Leviticus Jewelry [Cool Hunting]
Josh Spear: Atlanta-based designer Brooke Serson Cernonok has come up with a creative way to “upcycle” your old cashmere sweaters: she turns them into one-of-a-kind plush bears, bunnies and elephants. You can donate your sweaters to Teddylux and leave it at that, or for about $55, you can have your sweater transformed into the aforementioned animals. Each plush is hand-crafted with vintage silk accents and comes gift-boxed with the a Teddylux story and a certificate of authenticity.
Teddylux [Josh Spear]
The Cool Hunter: Whether your cargo is kids, laundry, groceries or beach gear, the coolest way to haul it is the Madsen Cargo bike. These handy urban transporters from Salt Lake City, Utah, can carry 271 kg either in a bucket or on a rack. The bikes and the buckets come in three colors: dramatic black, yummy cream and sweet baby blue.
Accessories for the bucket include seat belts and a seat for your progeny, pet or bride. The creative heads at Madsen are constantly tinkering with the bike and accessories, and according to their blog, a lid for the bucket is in the works. With their long tails, these bikes command attention.
JoshSpear: What would you do if you were an out of work art director with some free time and you wanted to help fight the Swine Flu epidemic plaguing Mexico (and looking pretty grim all over the place)? Irina Blok decided to get creative with some fashionista surgical masks.
Inhabitat: Love the idea of flat-pack in concept, but think the reality involves a frustrating wrestling match with an allen wrench and a cryptic set of Swedish instructions? Not so fast! Aiming to improve upon the not-so-user-friendly IKEA flat-pack experience, Way Basics is a beautiful line of eco-friendly, family-friendly furniture that makes flat pack assembly easy and fun. Made entirely from recycled paper, and requiring no fasteners or screws of any kind, Way Basics is the first green ‘no tools’ line of kids furniture on the market, and we can’t wait to check it out.
Baggu was started in CA by Joan and Emily (Joan is Emily's mom). After dozens of prototypes, they came up with a solution that makes using reusable bags stylish, practical and easy. Joan and Emily made Baggu because they wanted a better Reusable Bag. Something neat & compact, stylish enough to take to work or to give as a gift, but really practical so you'll actually use it for your grocery shopping. Whether you love electric purple or classic black, with a palate of over 40 colors Baggu blends in with anyone's personal style.
CrunchGear: It’s true what they say: some of the best products start out as fake products on April Fools’ Day. I don’t know who says that but the next time someone says “You know what they say: some of the best products start out as fake products on April Fools’ Day,” the “they” part of that phrase will be me. Or something like that.
Remember that fake Star Wars Tauntaun sleeping bag from ThinkGeek? Turns out everyone who’s anyone wants one for real. And why not? It’s a cool idea. Well it looks like ThinkGeek is going to actually try making it into a real product. According to the site:
ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we’ll try!
Inhabitat:Yuken Teryua’s work proves that discarded everyday objects can be re-invented into something elegant and beautiful. The Japanese artist crafts toilet paper rolls with a level of detail so that they adopt a new identity as delicately sculpted pieces — reminiscent of columnar wind chimes intertwined in the branches of a tree.
What a lovely concept. This iDream pillow from Studio Psyho located in Ukraine shows images of what you may be dreaming of while you sleep. The pretty and simple designs include a flying person, headphones, breasts, a little birdie and more. So what’s going on in your subconscious?
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TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.
Cool Hunting: The simple, heavyweight cotton Alphabet Bags from the creators of Keep Calm Gallery are now available in every urbanite's favorite color—black. With the same classic typography as the first round of totes, Keep Calm screen prints each one in the UK and offers up the letter of your choice.
Inhabitat: The Cardboard Christmas Tree was designed and developed by Cloud Gate Design LLC, a Chicago based design house. Cloud Gate Design was founded in 2006 by two designer friends, Nick Ng and Dan Greene, as a way to bring environmentally conscious alternatives to market. One such item, the Cardboard Christmas Tree, extends the life of existing cardboard by using recycled corrugated cardboard for the tree and its packaging.
In addition to taking the pressure off existing tree farms, a portion of the profits from the Cardboard Christmas Tree sales are donated to the Arbor Day Foundation’s Trees for America Program. For every one dollar donated to the program, one tree will be planted in a damaged forest.
The meager price of the Cardboard Tree is $22.95. Assembled dimensions are 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide, and it may be adorned with your own creative decorations or the cardboard ornaments offered on the website.
TrendOriginal: The E-Bag from Hungarian designer Apor Püspöki cools your drink while you walk. How does it work? Quite simply: The rotating handle is attached to a dynamo that uses arm motions to charge a battery. “The cooling system makes use of the Peltier technology, a kind of solid-state heat pump that transfers heat from one side of the device to the other side. The cooling status is indicated by three LED lights.” Did someone say eco joy? I think so. This device makes incredible use of all the energy that we expend physically. Instead of letting it go to waste, it transforms our power into something beneficial so that we can make use of every available resource in our bodies and cut down on external energy sources. Walking has never been cooler. Pun intended.
Born Rich: For those of you who were yearning for an inside tour of the tricked-out 2009 Ford Flex by Kal Koncepts/Air Syndicate Inc. displayed at SEMA 2008 in LasVegas, here is the treat. This customized version features Sony Xplod; 22 speaker sound system and a perfect tuning set-up complete with two turntables and a mixer in “battle style” set up by DJ Alex G of “Violator All Star DJs” for hip hop lovers. Exteriors are equally amazing with roof wing by 3D carbon, 22-inch Dub wheels and the body of the car features mural graphics as a manifestation of its urban hip hop feel. From MC, to DJ, to B-boxing, to Grafitti, the heroes and art forms of this on-the-edge lifestyle are depicted in the mural work. Besides the 2009 Ford Flex Tuning Car a fleet of custom Ford Flex models were displayed at SEMA 2008.
Inhabitat: Just in time for the overly packaged holiday season, we are thrilled to see that Amazon is debuting a new eco-friendly idea called ‘Frustration Free Packaging’. If you’ve ever tried to open a plastic package twice the size of the product inside and ended up with box cutters in one hand and carpal tunnel syndrome in the other you may know ‘wrap rage.’ Then once you finally got the plastic off, you still had 18 wires to unwind and a mountain of mostly unrecyclable trash. The folks at Amazon are working hard to remedy this problem with the introduction of Frustration-Free packaging. Amazon is working with manufacturers to eliminate dreadful clamshell packages for simpler brown boxes. Not only will it make wrapping and unwrapping much easier, but these boxes can broken down like any other and recycled.
Hallyu Tech: LG Japan hosted a Mobile Design Contest and with the winners announced the phones were put on display at a Tokyo Designers Week event. Although the phones are only concepts and may never actually become products, its always interesting to see the designs and concepts that come out of these competitions.
The winning design was “Planet Phone”, the circular smooth phone takes inspiration from our planet and the people on it to develop this unique clam shell mobile. The top of the phone has LED lights embedded in it. The lights represent the users friends and the frequency of contact between them. The more you keep in touch with your friends the more the lights stay in the center, but as your communication drops the LEDs retreat to the outskirts of the phone.
Gizmodiva: Who doesn't love some good old bubble wrap? Nothing is as fun as bursting bubbles and that is human nature. A poster sized 2009 calendar that comes with a bubble to pop everyday is nothing short of super, super fun. This makes counting days so interesting and something to look forward to. The calendar, apart from the bubble wrap feature is pretty standard. It has days of the week and all major U.S. holidays marked and weekends bolded for easy reference. You can put it up in your home or office. Just make sure your co-workers and friends don't get too close to burst your bubble!
Inhabitat: Public space is essential in any urban environment, but drawing people out can be difficult when the weather makes the outdoors uncomfortable. The Emerald Plaza in Abu Dhabi by Los Angeles-based Emergent Architecture is intended to invite people out of doors despite high temperatures by offering shade and a wide expanse of space. The multi-level, modern plaza physically links the buildings surrounding it via walkways, while cooling pools help to regulate the plaza’s temperature.
Emerald Plaza’s ground-level environment acts much like a grotto, maintaining a comfortable temperature with water regulated and cooled by geothermal heat pumps. Above it, a sculptural volume is crafted from the surrounding angular geometries. This space will be used as an indoors conference and media center that overlooks the water. The pools will be filled with solar-powered lily pads and flowers to create an attractive public space for the nighttime hours, when lower temperatures will make both the lower and upper terraces more inviting.
Crave: Just how many ways can you redesign a pair of spectacles? Living in a country where the multitudes are sadly myopic, we've probably seen them all, from sushi-friendly ones to Jekyll And Hyde versions and even nose-pinching creations. So designer Luis Porem's RbG Rainbow Glasses appears tame by comparison, though no less novel. Rather than interchangeable faceplates, Porem's had a eureka moment by allowing the wearer to fill the hollow frames with any color ink to match the day's outfit. Though whether this is ergonomically comfortable to wear hasn't yet been addressed. But hey, you could always fill this up with your secret stash of rum for when you need a stiff drink.
Gadgets-Reviews: Another newcomer in the endless row of Apple iPhone and Apple iPod gadgets. Here is a new headphone set from Coosh to your attention. The first and the main thing to tell about it is that Coosh headset is a bargain if you are not after some very exclusive devise to be compatible with your iPhone or iPod. Coosh is as simple as that, and for the price it is asked for, presents a pretty good quality to price ratio.
Coosh headset is certainly from a teenager's world. Stylish and comfortable, it was made primarily to be as less disturbing as possible. Big hoops are designed to keep headphones holding steady while practicing sports or any other activities.
Inhabitat: Knoend, one of our favorite sustainable designers, is at it again, following the success of their Lite2Go Lamps with the launch of their body-conscious Bean Rockers. I can tell you from firsthand experience that these little wonders are incredibly comfortable - and they should be, considering all of the thought that went into the design and styling of the delightful bean-shaped rockers.
The chairs were an instant hit were granted “trend-setter” status by a correspondent from the NYTimes in an article titled: “Chairs with Talking Points.” In keeping with the mantra of Knoend’s products, each Bean Rocker comes flat-packed and is composed of FSC-certified wood and an organic cotton cushion. The Bean Rockers are easily assembled by following the recycled paper manual, and they can be assembled prior to shipping if desired.
CoolBuzz: Sleeping in public commuters can always be a problem! Not that you cannot just sleep, indeed, more often than not, people dose off without realization if it is a long journey. It is the embarrassment part which is bothersome and therefore, a lot of people hold back, eventually making the journey tiring. All this is now bound to change with impressive designs like the Dreamdive from designer Mario Weiss gaining popularity. As far as utility is concerned, the Dreamdive is a simple hood that covers your face whilst you take a catnap in a public commuter.
The Cool Hunter: Great surroundings will not camouflage poor programming in movie theatres. No matter how swanky the theatre, if it shows poor movies, we just won’t go. Which isn’t to say that we have given up on movie-theatre design. We still wish that one day, somewhere, someone is going to design a decidedly different, interesting and exciting movie theatre. Glimpses of brilliance are visible in the new Light House Cinema at Smithfield in Dublin, Ireland designed by Dublin’s award-winning DTA Architects Of course, you really need to design — and judge — a movie theater so that it looks and functions best when people are using it.
Gizmodiva.com: All the geeks know how easy it is to stay glued to the computer and how hard it is to peel yourself away from it, be it work or play. Well, here's something from MOD Design in Taiwan that might entice you to take a tea break and still feel like you are close to a computer.
This nicely crafted crockery includes little porcelain cups and circuit board saucers. Reset has the three most important keys on a PC in both black and white sets with matching drip trays that are etched with the pattern of a circuit board. Ctrl, Del and Alt of course. This fun and geeky crockery was on display at Maison et Object in Paris. Buy this 'geeky-licious' crockery from MOD design and display your personality even during break times.
There are many schools of philosophy that lay behind intelligent designs. Beyond user centered, use centered or KISS design (keep it simple stupid), there's that clever design based on the non-wasteful doctrine, that aims to construct a responsible product-one that utilizes all of its parts, including its packaging. There are designs built upon environmental considerations to help save mother earth and spatial calculations to facilitate habitual elements. But a new type of design philosophy has caught our eye-the Creativeans design. The Creativeans believe in therapeutic designs, ones that serve as not only functional, but also conversational pieces that can help express our innermost beliefs and the understanding of our emotions. They strive to reduce stress, anxiety and depression in a hectic and chaotic world. Featured here, (image below) the Sqoosh Bench, is 'Inspired by the rising trend of anti-socialism. Sqoosh is ideal for waiting in lounges and public spaces where (you have to admit) strangers don't really like to sit with each other. The ripples [in the center of the bench] act as a physical and psychological barrier, while functioning as a magazine rack at the same time'.
This school of good and healthy design is an inspiration to us. Discovering that furniture is not just an aesthetic piece-but a portal to our souls. It can beautify and improve our stressful lifestyles and serve as a tool for personal growth. The Creativeans use their passions to make our external AND internal world a better place. With an attitude like that, their method will conquer the design cosmos. Because apparently design, is the best medicine.
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TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.
After a speaking engagement last year, Jonathan Loudon came up to the podium and introduced himself. Jonathon is a partner at one of Toronto's hottest innovation firms appropriately called Cooler Solutions (www.coolersolutionsinc.com), and his firm specializes in humanitarian and health related product design.
Last year Cooler tackled the substantial problem of sanitation in the developing world for a submission to the Humanitarian International Design Organization (HIDO) for consideration in their international design competition. Last December Cooler was given this prestigious award for their dignity toilet.
Quoting from Cooler's supplied information: The dignity toilet is a solid waste storage and disposal system for locations where a sanitation infrastructure does not exist. It addresses the issues of compliance, health and dignity.
The dignity toilet provides sanitary storage of solid waste for four people for 7-10 days. After that period, the toilet is removed from its seating dock and taken to a predetermined controlled area. It is then manually augered into the soil where it evacuates its contents, mixes the waste with the soil and buries it in the ground for decomposition.
For more information about the dignity toilet contact Cooler Solutions here.
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Graeme Spicer is a Canadian trendspotter, ethnographer and observer of all things retail. He spends his time consulting with leading retailers; presenting at conferences across North America; lecturing at OCAD, Canada's leading design school; and reading too many blogs. Graeme blogs at http://graemespicer.typepad.com.
Trend Hunters: Earlier, Trend Hunter featured customizable helmet covers for scooter helmets. Now, twe’re featuring full motorcycle helmet covers from the same company.
In addition to looking stylish, these covers can protect your helmet from scratches. Now you have a new way to add a hint of cool to your attire.
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools: For anyone requiring reading glasses intermittently, these specs are heaven sent! The frame breaks in the front and clicks together once resting on your nose by way of two magnets. When not in use, they stay out of the way -- the glasses have a hard frame 'loop' that slips around your neck. As soon as you need them, you reach down and pull them up into place. I've tried lanyards -- they get caught on your seat belt strap and tangeled around your collar. I've tried my pocket -- they fall out. Nothing seemed to work, so I ended up buying eight or ten pair of cheap glasses and leaving them all over: habitat, car, at work, etc. CliCs are a wonderful way to avoid all that clutter.
-Dennis Brittain
CliC Readers (manufactured by CliC) costs $29 and are available from Amazon.
Sick of wearing a pair of earrings as part of an accessories? Well, a new eye jewellery project is up for those seeking unique decorations and stand out from the crowd. Tongue piercing may look as dangerous as wearing the eye jewellery!
LikeCool:The Eye Jewellery contact lens project by ericklarenbee. It looks dangerous when you wearing it. The Eye Jewellery likes your tears.
The Cool Hunter: Over the last few years we’ve seen an influx of creative new minds enter the field who are redefining the concept and making their own rules. The latest inspiring example of innovative interior commercial design is the new Maedaya Grill & Sake bar in Melbourne, created by local design studio Architects Eat. The sushi restaurant’s interior, mostly “bound” by ropes, demonstrates the possibility of using ordinary recyclable material for hospitality projects without compromising sophistication.
The rope idea originated from the classic design of sake bottles, which are traditionally secured with ropes. The principal materials for this project are Manila ropes, timber and concrete, all reflecting natural elements such as vegetation and earth.
This dominancy detector table is a well designed, sound-sensitive tool which can be implemented into businesses, organizations, sales departments and work environments that require strong communication skills and interactions. The tool, called the 'Reflect Table', is used to detect which employee talks the most and dominates company meetings by monitoring the conversation and visually displaying the input on the table's color LEDs. The microphones in the table 'listen' to the conversation, display which member is currently speaking and of course, which member speaks the most. A smart way to cultivate business meetings and companies-making them more efficient and helping employers look out for the chatterboxes in their midst. Not to mention bringing awareness to blabbing employees that say a lot without making any point. Makes you wonder-Do actions really speak louder than words?
TrendsSpotting.com is a trends agency focused on developing exciting tools for Trend Spotting. We follow current trends and are constantly looking for new ones. We specialize in trends research and the social media. Dr. Taly Weiss, TrendsSpotting CEO, is a Social Psychologist, with extensive experience in branding strategy and marketing research. Feel free to explore our trend spotting tools on www.trendoScope.com.
Inhabitat: The Ecoist MTA clutch is a colorful and cute way to navigate city streets in sleek sustainable style. Made from 100% repurposed NYC subway maps, this wristlet clutch is perfect for urban jaunts and lightweight toting. A trash-to-treasure accessory such as this is not only an eco-friendly way to repurpose materials, but also serves as a streamline, incognito way to stash personal belongings!
Strong, sturdy, and water resistant – clutch accessories never functioned so practically while looking so chic. Crafted out of hand-folded, recycled NYC subway maps that are coated with cellophane, this zip-close and self-lined bag is perfect for a cell phone, keys, glasses, and an eco-lip balm.
TrendCentral: More people are passing up car trips for bike rides to do errands, but there's only so much a messenger bag can hold. Speaking to this growing eco-conscious lifestyle trend, this stylish bicycle basket doubles as a shopping basket. As bikes have become the must-have accessory of the moment, especially in urban centers, this basket, with a design reminiscent of a vintage Swedish crochet tablecloth, is a particularly fashionable add-on. We expect bike accessories to increasingly show up in high-end design arenas.
Inhabitat: Paper is a marvelous material with a complex character - at times a vessel for banal documents and stale legalese, it is also capable of much more expressive forms with a bit of creativity. Case in point: these gorgeous recycled paper lamps recently released by Jordy Fu. Her cloud-sheathed creations break free from the two dimensional realm with dreamlike textures and elaborately layered wisps.
True to their flexible medium, each lamp flat-packs to ship, and Jordy includes an energy-efficient soft white lightbulb. They come in a variety of sizes ranging from bedside table lamps to floor and pendant lights, run £90-£250 and are currently available through Jordy’ Fu’s website.
Iconoculture:Stardoll has been a big hit with denizens of virtual environments because the game enables users to dress up their avatars in an infinite spectrum of custom duds. Now Stardoll is partnering with Spreadshirt to bring some of those user-created designs into the real world.
The partnership is in an experimental stage, but it could potentially allow any user to generate a physical version of any virtual designs they like, find or design themselves.
Speaking Roses invented a process that has revolutionized the floral and greeting card industries forever. They have created a method of transferring images and messages onto fresh-cut flowers without harming or shortening the life of the flowers. This refreshing twist on both flowers and greeting cards enhances the emotional response in both the giver and the receiver, and has garnished international attention and phenomenal success.
With two patents in the United States and many others, pending or already received, in countries all over the world, Speaking Roses from Salt Lake City, Utah, is the first and the only business legally allowed to produce and sell personalized, fresh-cut flowers with images or messages right on the petals.
Now they have decided to start offering this opportunity for others to be part of this revolutionary product. For this reason, they have created a new concept that is call the 'Business in a Box' program, where you can now be a Speaking Roses licensed business owner in your own market. They will provide you with not only the equipment and supplies necessary to start running your business, but you also get years of experience in business development, marketing strategies and public relations, which makes opening your own Speaking Roses business a great experience. They offer proven technology and equipment for both high and low volume production, as well as marketing materials, great methods and techniques, and personalized training. All this allows you have what truly is a 'business in a box.'
With the option of starting your Speaking Roses business on a part-time or full-time basis, you can begin working from home or in your own retail Speaking Roses store. With the floral, gifts, advertisement, corporate, and greeting card markets making up a $80 billion dollar industry, they provide you with all of the tools to help you tap into that potential market. Speaking Roses offers you the ability to place anything from a corporate logo to a marriage proposal on fresh-cut flowers, which has opened the door to an advertising world that is only just beginning to tap into its real potential.
The chance to get in on the ground floor of this amazing opportunity is now being offered to regular people that are looking to be the first in this new market to capture the hearts of consumers in a way that has already caught the attention of everyone from Hollywood to the guests that have experienced the product at a wedding reception.
CoolBuzz: They say after you have had your fill of booze, you might just end up seeing stars. But here's an innovative idea that lets you see stars before the liquor has even touched you tongue. These Lava Lamp Shot Glasses come mounted atop a funky lamp with flashing LEDs that add sparkle to any drink. Just add you choice of beverage and watch your drink brimming with a whole lot of glittering little stars without you having to consume LSD or any other banned substance for the heavenly experience. The lights stop blinking once the glass is empty so you know when its time to fill the thing up again. Available in a range of assorted colors, we highly recommend the $8.98-a piece Lava Lamp Shot Glasses to college sophomores out to live la vida loca.
TrendHunter: The famous blue Linksys machines are now synonymous with wireless routers. Like the rest of electronics, the blue boxes have upgraded their look. Linksys has redesigned their routers - making them black and sleek.
Iconoculture: Forget refrigerators. Fashionistas can hang their kids' finger-painting masterpieces on their arm, with a custom bag from Scribble Couture, which displays the artwork on stylish purses.
'Rents (or doting grands) submit an original doodle or digital scan to Los Angeles-based bag designer True Cross, whose embroidery artists stitch the drawing on an oversize leather tote, canvas bag or cute silk clutch.
Celeb fans of the personalized brag bags ($129 to $329) include proud moms Reese Witherspoon and Brooke Shields.
Permanent online archives. Photo blowups printed on real canvas. Kid-art tattoos on Dad's shoulder. Add Scribble Couture to the growing list of “publishing” options for parents who want to preserve — and trumpet — their child's creative genius.
Bags that serve as wearable art galleries make great gifts for a youngster's fan club of family and friends.
Engadet: What's better than having a nice leather or cloth iPod sleeve to show off to your friends? If you're thinking one made of imitation meat -- you're dead right! Apparently, a company in Japan is under the impression that you want to wrap your music player in a grade A lookalike, undoubtedly to the thrill of your vegetarian friends and family. Of course, don't just get one for the shock value -- this thing oozes pure, sophisticated style. If you've got ¥6,800 (or about $66) and dignity to spare, it can be all yours.
Fujitsu Ltd. is a natural to adopt the concept of a notebook PC model, which will be held in Milan, Italy Design Exhibition "-JAPAN DESIGN INNOVATION-2008" exhibition. Will be held on April 16 to 20 (local time) for five days.
Engadet: That's Fujitsu's WoodShell concept PC. It joins an increasingly common trend of so called "natural" products already demonstrated by MSI, ASUS, Olympus, LG and others. No specs are provided on this feel-good piece. However, we presume it's powered by the blood and tears wrung from the baby Gore's heartbreak.
Inhabitat: We certainly cannot talk about spring sustainable style and layered dressing for the great outdoors without checking in with Patagonia to see what they have on tap for the season ahead. Whether you are a surfer chick, a seasoned rock climber, or an urban adventurer, Patagonia organic cotton hoodies and hemp separates create eco-chic combos for both travel and at home lounging.
Patagonia Women’s ‘Rhythm Hoody’ is a classic staple for climbing groupies as well as beach combers. Its breathable blend of 90% organic cotton and 10% spandex, provides a non-bulky layer of stretchy warmth for early morning hikes or cool nights dining alfresco. (The ‘Aba Daba’ print is, as usual, part of the Patagonia corporate insiders naming-convention). Also in bloom is the Women’s ‘Valley Sweatshirt’, made of 95% organic cotton and 5% spandex. Its breathable and smooth finish fabric allows for a comfortable fit in all climates and situations. The generous hood and front kangaroo pocket are welcome additions to this eco-accent piece.
The dome structure of umbrellas allows sound to be more concentrated, and a handle of umbrella could be a great part for controlling the music.
Sometimes people spin an umbrella unconsciously. If you spin this umbrella to left or right, the music will move forward (right turn) or reverse (left turn). Unfortunately even though it is not raining, you still can use this umbrella. You can just put it in the corner of your living room with cradle, and then also you can enjoy the music from speakers of cradle.
Firewinder® is a British invention, with worldwide patent pending and designs registered.
Firewinder® is a sculpturally designed outdoor light, which harnesses the wind no matter from which direction it blows creating a beautiful upward spiralling light - every time the wind blows. The simple transformation of wind into light in your garden is enough to blow away your blues, especially in the long dark nights of winter.
Easy to install, you simply hang it up from a tree in your garden, on your roof terrace or mount it to a post or wall and watch it light up and glow every time the wind blows!
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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.
Babygadget: Sippy cups seem like products that should be easy to shop for. In my experience however, they tend to be poorly made, break after only a week or two of heavy use, and it seems impossible to keep them clean for any amount of time. That's why The Safe Sippy caught my eye.
These cups are stainless steel and the plastics involved are certified free of Bisphenol A, phthalates and DEHA. More importantly, the cups look inviting and easy to hold, meaning that you won't be giving up function for safety.
Now, The The Babykeeper Basic is a patent pending infant carrier style seat, that hangs from the stall wall in most public restrooms, and can also be used in many public fitting rooms. 2 large metal hooks encased in safety webbing, each lined with non-slip material for added security.
The Babykeeper Basic also provides you with a safer and more reliable means of restraining your child in a shopping cart.
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TrendInsights. A blog to inspire, stimulate creativity and trend spotting.
Oh my you got to love this! It is simply awesome. Now, you must be wondering how does this works? Here you go: At plain sight it is a standard black mug as they come a dime a dozen and in big white letters it say OFF. Nothing fancy, but once you add the hot beverage of your choice, the mug changes color and is turning white and in big black letters it states: ON
Cool Hunter: For many of us, taking our cars to the garage can be a daunting experience. Feeling anxious and uncertain over the price and duration over jobs, use of technical jargon and the like. This may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to the launch of the major rebranding programme for car care network HiQ, starting with their new concept center opening in Nottingham, UK.
The aim was to revolutionize the way fast fit car care is delivered and to develop a fresh retail concept that would set new standards in this sector. And it looks like they have come up with the goods.
Designed by the London team at Fitch, the brand has been repositioned by using simple language, illustrations, and the center itself has clever features like glass walls that allow customers to see onto the garage floor for themselves.
We have seen this uncomplicated, tell it like it is mentality popping up all over the place, especially as banks try to re-align themselves with their customers. It is now nice and refreshing to see this evolving into other touch points of consumers' lives. I wonder if this approach would make going to the dentist any better?
Popgadget: I don't use an umbrella because 1) I live in Southern California and it generally only rains 3 days a year, 2) I might poke someone's eye out, and 3) Where do you store the thing when it's wet?
Hironao Tsuboi, a creative designer, solved the third problem by creating anumbrella that stands on it's own. That wasn't as easy as it sounds; apparently he had to determine the center of gravity by a complex process by casting aluminum into different clay molds. Further series of tests were carried out to determine the optimal spread of the three legs.
Made of ABS synthetic resin (plastic), the umbrella remains steady but also handy when you need it, say if a spontaneous water pistol fight breaks out or in case you're unlucky enough to live somewhere where it rains all the time.
Don't run out to buy it quite yet; it still remains a concept project.
Crave: With Valentine's Day just two weeks away, ThinkGeek is stepping to the aid of the gift-challenged with a proximity-based T-shirt that lights up when your paramour is near.
Suffering the aching emptiness and despair of being apart from your loved one? The 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt will register a meager two and a half pixelated hearts. But snuggle up to the object of your affection (who, incidentally, must be wearing a matching black and red T-shirt for this display of devotion to work), and all five hearts on both garments light up in a blaze of cheeky romance and bad style. "You complete me" MP3 not included.
Here's another geeky design after we have introduce the 8-bit Icon Watch recently. Well, after spotting so many geeky designs, you can be sure to jump on this cool, geeky bandwagon to hit the market!
The Uber-Review: New Era has some rather pricey game inspired caps on the market. The caps, which feature boldly colored Pacman and Space Invaders motifs might not give you street cred, but they ooze geek cred. All but the most hardcore geeks will probably avoid these, but if any of you out there are looking for a game hat that you can wear in the privacy of your own home, this is it.
The price, unfortunately is $55 per hat, which is what most people would pay for semi-stylish head wear and as much as a new game.
Thoughts From The Sideline: You can always be sure that, the moment we come across a wrist watch that offers particularly innovative design, we’ll feature it here on TFTS, and few wrist watches come quite as distinctive as this Icon Wrist Watch that pays homage to the blocky 8-bit graphics from classic retro console games such as Space Invaders and the original Mario series.
Manufactured from ABS, the Icon Watch offers a watch face devoid of numbers which would have otherwise undoubtedly ruined the overall effect and, in keeping with its deliciously retro appearance, you can forget about additional features such as date display and stopwatch functionality as this watch merely tells the time – pure and simple (and we wouldn’t want it any other way).
Productdose: The truly enlightened never stop growing, which makes Shaquille O’Neal truly the Big Aristotle. This mirror won’t measure your spiritual development but will keep track of the slow effects of gravity on your frame.
As you gradually attain the posture of someone’s great-grandparent make note of the many other pleasures your body no longer allows you to do – and dunking a basketball was never one of them.
Lazybone: If you're the type that decides to get dressed for that special occasion before eating and then have to get changed due the food not quite reaching the point of entry and instead creating a nice stain on your best top, then the Puke Pet is your savior.
Just apply a Puke Pet next to the 'spag bol' stain and you now have a sort of purpose made stain. The stain will not look as though it's meant to be part of your shirt. If you're really clumsy and manage to spill the whole plate all over your nice clean top you might want the triple pack or just be better off with a bib or even eating naked.
So if you know someone that has problems with getting their food from the plate to their mouth then maybe this is the answer they have been looking for.
core77: Finding Cheska's ceramic Lung Ashtray is undoubtedly attractive and elegant... Okay, it's straight-up too pretty to be defaced with raunchy ashes and ciggie butts. The Taiwanese tabletop design group's take on the smoke disposal vessel is a clever and direct correlation of what we do to our real lungs when we inhale those nasty cancer sticks. And a clean Lung Ashtray signifies the path to respiratory health, unless, of course, you've decided to just use one of your other motivational ashtrays.
Born Rich: Restroom built into the side of a giant aquarium filled with exotic fish, sounds bewildering, though, great relief for those trees in the wild. Hunting for a restroom to quit that crap at the beachside in the city of Akashi, halt, take a plunge into the waters, coz the Mumin Papa Café offers its customers the luxury of using an underwater restroom built alongside a giant aquarium. So, here is your break to crap in the aquatic surrounding with fish and turtles enjoying your workout. Males stand on the wrong end, as the fascination is only available for the fairer sex that will enjoy the $270,000 sub-aquatic restroom designed with the perspective to recreate the pleasant sensation of relieving yourself while swimming in the ocean. I am not sure how much those fish would enjoy the daily activities of a bathroom.
The Cool Hunter: For the executive who has grown bored with his Blackberry, and sick of his stapler, comes this rather over the top stationary revolution. These elaborately detailed, all metal staplers from Jac Zagoory. Designs come in Gorilla, bear, dragon, Lion and more. These excessive must haves are brilliantly made, and have turned desk accessories into an art form.
The Age: On a narrow Tokyo street, Aya Tsukioka demonstrates clothing designs she hopes will ease Japan's growing fear of crime.
With a deft motion, Ms Tsukioka, a 29-year-old fashion designer, lifts a flap on the front of her skirt to reveal a sheet of cloth printed in bright red, with a soft drink logo partly visible.
By holding the sheet fully open and stepping to the side of the road, she shows how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine.
The wearer hides behind the sheet, which is printed with an actual-size photo of a vending machine.
"It is just easier for Japanese to hide," Ms Tsukioka said. "Making a scene would be too embarrassing."
She said her idea of the vending machine disguise was inspired by a trick used by Japan's ancient ninja, who cloaked themselves under black blankets at night.
Some of the ideas, including the vending machine disguise, have yet to become commercially viable.
Inhabitat: Upcycling is a 21st century term, coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, but the idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the Heineken WOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.
The final WOBO design came in two sizes - 350 and 500 mm versions that were meant to lay horizontally, interlock and layout in the same manner as ‘brick and mortar’ construction. One production run in 1963 yielded 100,000 bottles some of which were used to build a small shed on Mr. Heineken’s estate in Noordwijk, Netherlands. One of the construction challenges “was to find a way in which corners and openings could be made without cutting bottles,” said Mr. Habraken.
Today, the shed at the Heineken estate and a wall made of WOBO at the Heineken Museum in Amsterdam are the only structures where the ‘beer brick’ was used. As to the remaining WOBO’s it’s not clear how many exist, or where, but the idea, even some four decades later, remains a lasting example in end-use innovation.
TheRecord.com: Debbie New needed to come up with a design for a knitted lace project. She pondered the possibilities until inspiration came in a flash - make a boat. Her lace boat, a water-worthy vessel reinforced with resin, is featured in her aptly titled book Unexpected Knitting.
"I thought it seemed like the obvious thing to make out of lace," explained the Waterloo woman. Obvious maybe to New, who's celebrated in knitting circles for her inventive and often surprising approach to knitting. New is invited all over the world to teach, although she is modest about her international reputation.
Knitting has enjoyed a surge in popularity recently, thanks in part to knitters like New and Waterloo's Sally Melville, who have infused the ancient craft with a playfulness that appeals to a new generation of young knitters.
Even celebrities such as Julia Roberts and Hilary Swank are spotted with yarn and needles on set, making knitting the hip thing to do.
Popgadget: The next time you see a kid slathering mustard and ketchup all over his face at a burger joint, you can continue eating your lunch undisturbed, nodding knowingly as the rest of the patrons look on in horror.
While the others shake their heads and whisper about questionable parenting, you'll sip your diet soda while remembering the Bath Burger Gift Pack ($10 AU). That cute burger sponge. The strawberry shower gel, mango body lotion, and lemon body scrub disguised as ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. Your inner voice told you to resist, warned you of the potential public humiliation that awaited you inside the paper burger box.
Coolbuzz: In tiny apartments most of the space is taken over by bulky beds, we cannot do without. However, here is a wonderful solution, in the shape of a jigsaw-puzzle bed, which transforms into a bookcase when not in use.
Work of designer Karen Babel, the bed comes in the shape of a mattress that stands straight in four pieces to form the bookcase.
The mattress fits into the wall-mounted frame, containing five shelves. When you retire to bed, all you have to do is place the sections of the mattress on the floor and fix them in, to form your funky bed.
You need to slot in two parts to make a single bed, whereas all four, in case you require a double one! My only concern is how it will feel to lie on a bed with a somewhat uneven surface.
Meanwhile, what comes as a treat is the color the bed adds to the otherwise plain wall!
Popgadget: I haven’t seen the retro look blend better with any product in a long time than it does with the Cassette MP3 player. This gadget looks like a normal cassette tape on the outside but is actually an mp3 player. The camouflage design is not without functional advantages too – not only do you get the cool retro look with the cassette casing, but you can also use the player as a car cassette, or with any cassette player, or as a normal mp3 player.
Expect no frills with this gadget – no expensive LCD screen, no built-in memory (you will have to use your own SD cards in the card slot provided), and PC interface is via USB. Which obviously means it will also go very easy on your wallet (well, the upfront investment at least). Summary – if you are on the lookout for a cheap, no-frills player and are not too particular about the specs or the brand, this one is well worth trying.
Productdose: Electric bikes are nothing new but the design of the Pi will turn heads. Ride this around town and lookers-on will wonder why you're not slidng off the back. It offers 750 watts of power and a range of 30 miles (add an optional battery and roam for 60 miles) on a single charge and tops at 20 MPH. You won't find this in normal bike shops. They're being sold exclusively through Design Within Reach for $7,500, starting October 2007.
Electrobike Pi [Productdose]
Coolhunter: Computers could have been the biggest tree-saving invention of all time, yet here we are, “paperless office” still just a dream and trees being cut down faster than ever. Award-winning creative architect duo Stephanie Forsythe and Todd MacAllen at molo design in Vancouver, Canada, are not discouraged by this. They have decided to ensure that paper does some serious work at the office.
Their amazing corrugated paper furniture and white “soft” walls are not only fun to assemble, alter and move around, but good for the environment, too. Molo is the product arm of their bigger-scheme practice forsythe-macallen.com. Forsythe and MacAllen have been recognized around the world for their innovative housing and living-space projects and events. The first location for a molo design workshop will open in Milan, Italy by early 2008. It was previewed during this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan.
The Cool Hunter: The Nestlé Chocolate factory in Mexico City's Paseo Tollocan near Toluca has never been a site anyone went to see for its beauty. It is what is inside that has always interested chocolate-lovers.
That changed earlier this year when Michel Rojkind, the 38-year-old principal of Rojkind Arquitectos, decided that he was not satisfied with the original idea of just revamping the factory's viewing gallery.
He put together a team that came up with an entire museum, with a shop, a theatre, and direct access to the factory as well. The 300-meter-wide scarlet building cannot go unnoticed by anyone driving the entrance freeway to Toluca.
This is by far not the first chocolate museum in Mexico, the ancient home of chocolate. Neither is it the first sweet museum for the Switzerland-headquartered consumer-product behemoth Nestlé.
However, it is probably the first chocolate museum ever to be called both a piece of origami and a shipping container. The corrugated metal look gives it an air of impermanence and industrial clunk while the bright color and crazy shape evoke play and fun. What any of this has to do with chocolate, we are not exactly sure, but we almost managed to fold a KitKat wrapper to a similar shape.
Cool Hunting: Eschewing chemical-based fabrics for Japanese organic cotton and Italian linen, Paris-based designers Kaito Hori and Iku Furudate of Commuun believe that "environmental issues can not be ignored when considering the future of fashion and society as a whole." Each collection is inspired by natural landscape and "the balance and tension in nature." While the pieces are fastidiously crafted and ecologically sound, they also breathe a rebellious and bold spirit through color and cut. The fall 2007 collection was inspired by photographs of the sea, importing colors from the ocean-like stark blues and haunting blacks, which are grounded by uncluttered silhouettes. There are ethereal tops floating above skin-tight miniskirts, dresses with undulating layers, and graphic blouses anchored by slim pants. The collection is intended for a woman who is "strong and still pure in ways," says Furudate. Do not expect the earth mother archetype. With the pair's understated confidence, Commuun can easily spearhead the movement for sustainable clothing that's still enduringly chic.
OhGizmo!: You know how when you go to these multi-cultural fairs, and come across the Africa stand, you always have cool wooden sculptures of elongated people and stuff. Yeah? Well, little did we know that the good people of Ghana had taken their art to a whole new level. We just stumbled across a website that sells a variety of African goods, particularly this line of wonderful coffins. Aside from the pictured Nokia coffin, they sell a Ferrari, a Subaru, a beer bottle (!) and a computer mouse coffin. In fact, the company claims they will make you a coffin in any shape or size you desire, if you have up to three months to wait for them. Not only that, but we reckon their prices are more than reasonable: a full-sized (6ft) Ferrari coffin will set you back $1,000.
Cool Tools: My son is left-handed and kept getting the side of his hand dirty from unwanted graphite and ink smudges in school, so we ordered him a SmudgeGuard. The glove, which covers his pinky, is made of nylon and spandex, so it fits snug to his hand and glides easily over the paper when he's writing fast. Usually, when my son writes, his hand will start to perspire. The SmudgeGuard stays dry making it less likely to re-smudge the paper. Because it's only protecting the areas most prone to smudges and because the material is thin, he can also type on a keyboard or do other things while wearing it.
Iconoculture: Flu masks get some fashionista flavor with the creations of New Yorker Patricia Lamberti, who has taken her Fashion Flu Masks where no flu masks have gone before. Decorated with accoutrements like floral appliqués, leopard fabrics and satin ribbons, these protectors against pandemics strive to shed the shackles of postindustrial supply store.
But let's face it: A fibrous oblong cover that obscures your nose, mouth, chin and cheekbones is pretty hard to make into anything beautiful. Still, it's an attempt to say: Sick is bad enough, OK? We don't have to look that way.
Paranoia levels vary among consumers, but choices are starting to appear that make taking control seem less about sacrifice, more about seamless integration.
Popgadget: American industrialists try to build better mousetraps, but northern Europeans apparently need better umbrellas. The SENZ Umbrella has been designed to directly fill a need - to prevent a strong wind from turning an umbrella inside out. The SENZ team has redesigned the umbrella to be both stronger and more aerodynamic. The asymmetric shape keeps the rain from hitting the face, and it acts as a weather vane to help reorient the canopy for maximum protection. The SENZ Original opens up to about one square meter, and the Mini folds down to a typical handbag size.
The designers have even addressed the "eye poke effect" from those little metal caps that stick out the sides of conventional umbrellas. SENZ has capped the ends of the umbrella spines with flat and wide plastic disks to protect the ever important eyesight.
Iconoculture: Called BuildTheBed, the product caters to DIY boudoir decorators who want to put their personal memories, fantasies or digital art in a place of honor, if not dreamy contemplation. In a choice of sizes and styles, from arched to rectangular, BuildTheBed's colorful headboard gives a personality billboard-like prominence. Can't decide what's best? Sleep on it. If you can't settle on your own photo, they have more than 250 stock images to choose from.
Consumers set on making their homes highly personal statements are always keeping an eye out for pieces that set them apart from the masses. The bedroom as design statement? Even once-private spaces are becoming fair game for show-off artistry.
Iconoculture: A Latino brother-sister design team generates nighttime cool with the quirky Havaleena, a sleek, versatile and customizable portable light. Providing illumination via a 1-Watt wide-angle LED, the portable Havaleena can be used indoors or outdoors, singly or as a bouquet of lights on an accompanying stand. Phrases or designs can be printed onto paper and inserted as filters, with users creating their own messages.
BornRich: This Portable Bar is designed for those on the move! This portable bar allows you a quick bar set up, anytime anywhere, and has everything you need at your fingertips. The bar is made from a thick marine quality plastic and is completely durable to withstand any spills of ice, water, liquor or juices. The bar includes ice well, a full size bus bin with additional inserts for another eight juice containers, bottles, and other extra supplies. There is even a metal speed rail fitted on to the front of the bar-top, that can hold eleven 750ml bottles or ten 1litre bottles and is very sturdy. The complete bar fits easily into the road case that is also the base of the bar and it takes approximately five minutes to set-up. The road case features wheels for mobility and can be carried with you wherever you go! In case, you find it unattractive, we have got a stylish option too, Justin Case Portable Bar System.
The Cool Hunter: With so many dining and nightlife concepts appearing in the world's most prestigious cities, it can be difficult separating the 'flash in the pans' from the genuinely unique establishments that are here to stay. Singapore's, The Clinic, makes its distinction in a most stylized manner.
Spanning over 15,000 sq ft of space, The Clinic resembles an organized maze with pill shaped rooms interlocking into one another for easy access. The Clinic has two floors. The first fulfills your entertainment requirements, with a number of bars, a dance club, and merchandise store. The entire floor is clinic inspired, that is to say 'hospital chic' adorned. That’s where artist Damien Hirst comes in. His pop art graces the walls of The Clinic, whilst his vision goes even further. Syringes, drips, pills and hospital whites are the order of the day in The Clinics decor. This satirical look at medical chic is both stunning and entertaining.
FreshTrend: Pimp your bag with Timbuk2's Build Your Own service.
You can design your own messenger bag for your laptop or textbooks. Choose the size, material, colors and accessories that best suit you.
Or if you're looking to gift a Timbuk2 bag then check out their Bag in a Box which in essence is a gift certificate that anyone can redeem for their own Timbuk2 bag.
Cool Hunting: Vitamin Living's The Powder Seat allows you to use your snowboard as the seat of the bench. The board attaches to the legs of the seat via suckers to keep the board protected. It can also be flat-packed for easy storage.
It is also a great way to display your board all the year round, not to mention a space-saving way to store it during off-season. The Powder Seat is simply a base that suckers onto the underside of the board making it into a sturdy seat. There are two different base designs available, the Trident, with two sleek metal tripod legs (pictured), or the Blade, which is a streamlined single metal structure. £99 from Vitamin Living.
Popgadget: The Bibliochaise is book storage with a difference. Apart from the fact that it has a higher than average creativity quotient, the Italian designers, nobody&co have thrown in an added utility factor by creating a literal “arm-chair library.” With the Bibliochaise, you can pick off your books right from where you are seated. Because this chair-cum-library is designed to hold 5 linear metres of books and a book-lover as well.
Personally, the fact that I can access my books from my chair is, in and of itself, less appealing to me than what the Bibliochaise has to offer in the art department. With looks that can be customized too (you can choose different combinations of wood for the chair and colors for the cushions), this chair will definitely stand out in your living room.
Cool Hunting: Minale Maeda's "Table Manners Collection" is a clever exploration of the intersection of formal dining and fast food. Toasted directly onto a grilled sandwich, the porcelain pattern lends the refinement of fine china to eating on-the-go. Other works by Mario Minale and Kuniko Maeda, the duo behind this Rotterdam-based design studio, include t-shirts printed with a tablecloth pattern—for those of us who would rather eat topless than on a undressed table—and delicately embroidered paper napkins.
Compact Impact: The "furoshiki shiki" (furoshiki style) is made out of one sheet of semi-transparent vinyl "film." This sheet is turned into a bag by folding it and making use of the adhesive qualities of the material. It is a practical material: easy to clean and when washed with soap the material regains its adhesive qualities.
The transparency of the material allows you to play with color combinations, resulting in different degrees of transparency. The bag can easily transform into its original sheet-shape changing its function. For instance, it can be used as a sheet to sit on (during hanabi/hanami), or its contents can be laid out on the sheet.
The Cool Hunter: Who would have thought a dental clinic could be this cool? The 10,180-square-foot clinic (called KU64 after its Kurfürstendamm address) is located in Berlin and was designed by the hot firm, GRAFT, the same people that were behind Berlin's new super lifestyle Hotel "Q".
The incredible design makes you feel like you're in an A-list Hollywood members bar - certainly not the usual ambiance associated with utilitarian spaces like this one which houses eight dentists. The cocoon like spaces are filled with light, creating an elegant sense of flow and space. It makes even a session of root canal seem inviting.
Cool Hunting: Fruitree is a concept piece designed by Chia Shee Loh, Antonietta Fortunato and Elena Godenzi. They were motivated to solve the out of sight, out of mind problem with fruit that goes uneaten and spoils. The fact that fruit grows on trees does not go unnoticed in this design, where the results are both decorative and literal. Circulating air is pushed throughout the Fruitree, keeping the fruit fresh longer.
Springwise: Offering an alternative to boring office supplies, russell+hazel sells stylish binders, paper, storage and accessories.
Minneapolis-based russell+hazel, founded by a former architect, is a range of aesthetically pleasing office supplies that combine a designed look with durable quality. The company's newest range, Audrey, is a fashion-forward selection specifically tailored to women, offering 'working girl chic' supplies with details inspired by vintage architecture, classic Hollywood and contemporary couture.
Ohgizmo: Designer Duck Young Kong has shown his latest innovation over at Yanko Design and it’s called The Keyboard Food Tray. No longer do you have to face tough question: “one more round of de_dust or finally eat something for the first time in 37 hours?” You can very easily consume your tea cakes and earl grey while grinding goblins.
It’s still in the design phase, so there is no pricing and information is limited. Hopefully this will help out all the Koreans who die due to MMOs problem.
Novelty Lights.com: Novelty Lights Inc. is a Colorado based company owned by brothers, Tres and K.C. Coors. The company was established in 1999 as a direct importer of Rope Light, Holiday Lights, and a variety of popular novelty lights. Our lighting lines have grown significantly since then; however, we pride ourselves on knowing our customers and their needs and most importantly providing excellent service. Because the owners have years of experience working within the lighting field, even before starting their own company, you can trust the quality of our products and the information you receive. Novelty Lights Inc. strives for excellence in every aspect of our company, and we promise to provide knowledgeable salespeople, accurate information regarding products, and answers to your lighting questions, as well as outstanding and friendly customer service.
At Novelty Lights, we constantly import the finest lighting from all over the world. Because we import merchandise we are able to pass great savings on to our customers. Without the inflated prices offered by other websites and mall stores, we have the buying power to negotiate low prices and value our ability to pass the savings on to you. We strive for complete customer satisfaction and value your right to a fair price and quality lighting products.
Shiny Shiny: A room made of chocolate may sounds like a crazy, wonderful, tasty fantasy - but for £2500+, Food Is Art will turn it into a crazy, wonderful, tasty reality. Their life-sized chocolate rooms - inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel - can be transported to your venues, and are said to feed up to 500 people.
Included in the room's accouterments are: a chocolate fireplace & hearth, chocolate logs, chocolate decorations and lick-able sugar wall paper.
INDYSTAR.com: Like a growing number of homeowners paying extra attention to the space over their heads, Cronin likes to incorporate the ceilings into his room design. "It's the biggest space you have to work with," says Cronin, who designs sound studios. Cronin's not the only one with an overhead fixation.
"Ceilings are huge," says decorative painter Kathy Wear, whose work with interior designer Joni Wohlfahrt has won home show awards in the Nashville area. "For so long, ceilings were just white. Now you very rarely see white ceilings. It started with color and has worked its way to finishings."
Designer Marcia Knight says fancy ceilings aren't entirely new. The Biltmore, the Vanderbilt homestead in Asheville, N.C., built in 1895, has many fabulous ceilings, she points out. But what is relatively new is outfitting ceilings atop really tall walls, which can tower 18 to 24 feet in some of the grandest new homes. In terms of aesthetics, it's almost necessary.
"If you have walls that go straight up, you don't want to go to a flat top," she says. "It would be pretty boring."
"People want something unique," Wear says. "They don't want to go crazy on walls, which can overpower a room. They'd rather concentrate on the ceiling as the main focal point."
Yanko Design: Who has never dreamt of a tent that could erect itself without any help? – Just throw 2Seconds into the air and it will open up on its own before even reaching the ground. It is the spring hoops that enable this. The idea was to pre-assemble the different elements (room, double roof, hoops) to simplify the hiker's life as much as possible. The tent features coated double roof with waterproof seams for excellent water resistance, anti-condensation breathing room and extra-strong polyester fabric. The tent can accommodate two people and it can be folded in just 15 seconds.
Gizmodo: If your crib is getting to be a little bit too modern-looking, now it's time to funk it up a bit with some retro-refrigeration. Oddly-named Brit company Smeg is offering these old-fashioned refrigerators with a large selection of colors including those seen above. So if you're looking to sing the praises of the Union Jack or want a refrigerator to match that pink Razr you just picked up, perhaps you've just found something that's chillin’ enough.
Iconoculture: South Bronx furniture manufacturing and design company Caoba Colección de Muebles creates high-end furnishings with a Latino flair. Run by two Dominican brothers passionate about interior design and la cultura, the company creates coffee tables, chairs, lamps, sofas, dressers and ottomans priced from $700 to $1,400. All pieces have Latino names derived from the brothers’ relatives, friends and others: the Serrano Dresser, the Manrique Ottoman. Customers include Starwood Hotels, the East Hampton Golf Club and the British Embassy in Washington, DC. Visionary Latinos are turning their passions into businesses that break new ground in industries that traditionally have lacked Latino-owned companies.
Gizmag: Digital imaging offers the ability to create fantastic images and use them in new ways by creating spaces to transform perceptions and indeed create whole new environments.
We now have the ability to put any image on a wall (via digitally printed wallpaper), curtains, ceilings and now to have digitally imaged carpet created, giving us complete artistic control of interior design like never before
. When we first saw the remarkable work of Iranian artist Seyed Alavi we were transfixed in that he offers perspectives we’d not seen before and for each person, those perspectives were different. Alavi’s latest project is indeed likely to inspire a myriad of ideas from creatives all over the world when they see how he had an aerial view of the Sacramento River woven into a carpet for the floor of a pedestrian bridge connecting the Sacramento International Airport terminal to the parking garage. It is indeed, a “flying carpet”.
we make money not art: Some men avoid going to the public toilets due to the smelly atmosphere and, unable to find a wildlife tree, they go for street corners or the facade of your favourite bar.
So Joa Herrenknecht has designed the Pee-tree urinal for public spaces. His bright ceramic white colour is a strong signal that can be seen from far – making it accessible when in urgent need. The trunk offers a perfect place for messaging, e.g. "I was here" or "done that" statements. The urine is directly flushed down to the underground sewage canal.
They search the world over, visiting art fairs, galleries, local craft exhibits looking for the highest-quality, coolest furniture and home furnishings available... all artist-designed, all very unique and all available for you to take home and outfit your home to your own personal tastes. They've got furnishings like beds, shelves and tables plus great candleholders, wine racks, CD racks and much much more.
DEXIGNER: LaCie kicks off 2006 with 6 new storage products designed to help people easily manage their digital lives. Fresh new LaCie solutions for 2006 are Lacie Little Big Disc, Lacie Rugged Hard Drive, kwarim, LaCie Two Big, LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub and LaCie Slim DVD+/-RW.
LaCie has again teamed up with world-renowned designers including Neil Poulton and Karim Rashid, and award-winning tech companies such as LightScribe and Roxio, to develop the freshest new hard drives and DVD burners on the market.
And stay tuned for the launch of a brand new "Customer Profiles" webpage that showcases how filmmakers, photographers, musicians and many others are using LaCie products to get things done.
Springwise: There isn't a single industry that's immune to innovation. Taking this very literally is German Single Tapete ('singles wallpaper'), which sells photographic wallpaper, featuring photos of whoever/whatever. Customers upload an image via the company's website, which is then processed and produced as numbered rolls of removable and reusable wallpaper. The company also offers a choice of patterns and even photos of pre-selected 'singles' (see 'Paul' and 'Priscilla' above), creating a modern twist on the trompe l'oeil. A 3m x 2.33m wall will set customers back about EUR 275 (USD 322/GBP 186).
Popgadget: Remember when people carried huge boomboxes on their shoulders before walkmans were invented? You don't see that too often and now it's all about how small your mobile music device can get. The Digital Sound Bag lets you slip your personal music player into a clear acetate pocket and plug it into built in speakers if you ever get the urge to make your personal music public while you're out and about. Yeah, I suppose you can recreate the boombox effect - just hoist that bag up to your shoulders and crank it up. Don't forget to strut.
Iconoculture: Sit and … suck? Shaped like a high-design beanbag chair, the Airpouf vacuum cleaner doubles as a spot to sit or a room decoration.
For those who want to keep housekeeping appliances at hand without sacrificing style, the fabric-covered Airpouf by Italian designer Lorenzo Damiani has three openings: for the suction tube, the vent, and the start button. Aside from blending into décor, it brings extra padding to the task of navigating furniture and walls.
When it comes to tools and appliances in the home, performance is all good, but chic design and dual purpose make the right kind of statement for affluents.
For Xer homebodies with a playful streak, thinking outside the canister speaks to personalization and creativity around mundane tasks.
DailyCandy: The apple may not fall far from the tree. But what about the leaf?
Different story entirely. Tossed by the winds of chance, wrangled by the rakes of fate, the delicate foliage of autumn cannot know its destiny.
With any luck, however, it will get immortalized on a pillow, tablecloth, or stationery by Inleaf Designs. The company adorns linens and other products with the imprints of real leaves, and the effect is both textural and graphic, organic and modern.
Each of the leaf shapes — geranium, running cedar, Japanese maple, fern, fig, viburnum — leaves a detailed botanical equivalent of a fingerprint on crisp, earth-tone cotton and recycled card stock, paying tribute to nature’s endurance and ephemerality all at once.
Influx Insights: Young French designer, Ora-Ito who is being hailed as the country's new Mr. Starck, has just designed a playful new stackable hard drive for Lacie The hard drives are shaped like Lego bricks and come in various different colors. Lacie had worked with Porsche design in the past and Maxtor had made some effort to bring a more interesting form to its designs, but Lacie's latest move is a step ahead of the pack. The drives take on a new playful shape that makes them fit perfectly into an Mac environment, but look somewhat out of place in beige PC land.
Lacie's Brick is another example to add to the seemingly endless list of mundane products being made interesting by a designer makeover. Product designers truly are the new kings of brand land.
DailyCandy: You haven’t gone for the posters-as-decor thing since your rabid seventh-grade Depeche Mode obsession.
And, generally speaking, this has been a positive development.
But not so fast. Jason Munn has reinvented the wheel with his hand-silk-screened album and concert posters. A trained graphic designer, Munn creates his pieces in his Oakland, California, studio, and each one begins with a freehand sketch, which is scanned into a computer, altered with clip art, and given life with just three colors. The result is a simple yet beautiful work of art worthy of a frame and a place in your home.
TRENDWATCHING.COM: Taking it one step further is US-based eMachineshop.com, which lets ordinary consumers download free, easy-to-use software which they can use to design objects like car parts, door knobs, in metal or plastic. They can then get a quote, order the product online and eMachineshop will forward the design to a 'real world' machine shop for manufacturing. Suddenly, MINIPRENEURS have injection molding, milling, turning, laser cutting, waterjet cutting, wired EDM, tapping, bending, blanking, punching, plastic extrusion, thermoforming, and casting at their fingertips. Who's going to set up local competitors to service MINIPRENEURS in Asia, Europe, South America?
Cool Hunting: We got a sneak peek of the hot new Legacy kicks that will launch the footwear label, Run Athletics next month. Designed by Kevin Saer (Slanty Asian Eyed Rebel), the Legacy combines a vintage feel with modern materials. Subtle more high-end details include leather wrapping on the mid-sole and the rather unique suede front toe guard (click on the above images to zoom in). The colorways are mostly neutral, but each has a pop color on the tongue and heel.
One hunderd pairs of the first edition (the orange and brown colorway above) will be available initially only in the UK, Paris, Germany, and Amsterdam. Later installments will follow in about another month and eventually the complete line will be available in US independent boutique retailers.
Iconoculture: Need another sign of kid-driven design? The Museum of Modern Art – a.k.a. design central – has created an in-house kids’ line of backpacks, lunch totes, and accessories called Modern Kids. The brightly colored goods are constructed of soft, textured materials and come with collectible cards, each profiling one of five “Modern Kids” who has a specific creative interest. Some items, like the backpack and sketchbook, include a display pocket: The budding Da Vinci can slip in a postcard showing MoMA art or fill the space with a personal creation. Oversize zippers sport loops big enough to take on multiple charms.
MoMA is the place to shop if your kid “prefers Picasso to SpongeBob,” and its growing sense of design may turn the playground into the Factory (NewYorkMetro.com 8.05). Museum stores now put stock in kid-friendly wares. Putting their style stamp on fine, kid-friendly design gives fashion-conscious parents a reason to buy.
Cool Hunting: The latest from New York label Yoko Devereaux's Blue Boy Etiquette line uses meta-design to critique the Targetization of our lives. Subversive styles include "Wall Art" (pictured here), a black on white splattered H&Mass Market, and a repeating blue Kmart logo with beige paint drips that comment on the ways designers like Isaac Mizrahi, Todd Oldham, and Karl Lagerfeld's designs for mainstream stores blurs the lines between high fashion and mega-consumerism. The collection is a co-creation with Amsterdam-based artist Bobby Collins, continuing Yoko Devereaux's tradition of collaboration.
We Make Money Not Art: Peter D'Alessandro's Magnetic Mixer is a concept for a kitchen work surface and mixer.
The work surface is embedded with magnets and a heating element, when the magnetic mixer is placed on top a revolving magnetic field is created. The result is that the hands free device starts to stir and/or heat food seemingly unaided.
The designer was inspired by the magnetic stirrers used in chemistry labs. These stirrers are used to mix chemicals with a ptfe coated bar magnet; some also have a heating function. His concept model incorporates the drive magnets into the kitchen work surface. The user interface takes advantage of the translucent qualities of the work top material by back lighting the speed and heat icons as well as their settings.
DailyCandy: All the nights spent scaling buildings, tagging bridges, scribing walls with your crew.
Maybe you wanted to mark your territory. Maybe you wanted fame.
Too bad you've been busted. Sucka!
While under house arrest, ditch the spray can for some legal tender. Wonderful Graffiti (with the implied placid name) lets self-proclaimed practitioners of the art of scribble say what they mean in a lawful manner — using vinyl lettering.
Claim the bathroom as your own with your personal expression on the wall. Or scrawl a sweet sentence in the stairwell to your room. Surf the website for fonts, colors, and text. Keep it simple or do it up with embellishments. Then enter dimensions to see how the graffiti lettering looks within your space.
TheDailyTimes.com: Homeowners who want something other than plain gray curbing in their landscape now have a myriad of options thanks to a new Blount County business.
Johnny Bishop, owner of Curb Appeal, said, "We mainly do decorative landscape curbing. It's like concrete curb but we put colors and designs in it. It looks really good bordering flower beds and driveways and sidewalks. We can do parking lots and stuff like that, too, but I like to do this pretty stuff."
The decorative curbing takes the place of stone, brick or insubstantial plastic lining materials. Bishop said advantages of the curbing are that it can be tailored to the client's taste and is a permanent border that weeds and grass will not grow through since it is a continuous line of concrete.
"It's just like this curbing around the sidewalk only it's got a little different shape and it's got a color," Bishop said. "It can look like stone, brick or tile, whatever you want it to look like."
Bishop said an integral color is added to the concrete so the material is the same color all the way through. The look of stone, brick, tile, etc., is stamped onto the curbing and sealed.
Springwise: As we're rapidly moving towards Dan Pink's right-side brain, design-loving, aesthetics-driven economy, an abundance of opportunities has opened up for smart designers. One sector ripe for the picking: computers. After all, Apple is pretty much the only company that currently steals the limelight with beautifully designed devices, not facing any serious competition from other established players.
Is the new Tulip E-Go a taste of changes to come? The Dutch computer company claims to have developed the first personalized lifestyle computer, a designer notebook with interchangeable covers, aimed at female users. The E-Go will launch in Europe in October 2005, and availability in North America and Asia is scheduled for January 2006.
Sticking with the UBER PREMIUM trend, a handful of extremely exclusive E-Go's will guarantee sufficient buzz: for a cool EUR 283,000 (USD 378,900 / GBP 197,000), customers can pick up a Tulip E-Go Diamond, studded with hundreds of diamonds, and a pair of tulip logos that each house a massive square-cut ruby.
Iconoculture: Live for the rush ... and proud of it? Muscovie Design jewelry is stylish, even subtle, molecular-based jewelry that lets adrenaline, serotonin, and caffeine junkies wear their passion. The sterling-silver earrings, rings, and necklaces sprout circles embedded with brightly colored acrylic. The arrangements represent the molecular structures of six different “substances that affect mood” – and they’re chemically accurate, too (MotherDigital.info 1.8.05). Proof that, for women, “science becomes you” (MightyGoods.com 1.7.05).
The jewelry’s mod design makes it a sophisticated way to flaunt a fetish. Jewelry junkies can even customize the molecular mounting and choose a round or square ring band (TheCarrotBox.com 1.9.05). Distinctive wearables, like Biojewelry and LifeGems, provide personality clues and make for decorative conversation starters. And they’re so much cooler than an “I heart coffee” T-shirt.
Yenra: Vista del Campo, a student housing development on the University of California, Irvine campus, was named Best Student Housing Apartment Community by the National Association of Home Builders. The award went to the complex's architectural firm, KTGY Group, for the 1,488-bed community developed and managed by American Campus Communities.
"The University appreciates the spirit of cooperation between the developer, owner and architects on this project," said Richard Orr of UCI. "This award signifies how a synergistic approach to a privatized development results in a thriving student community."
Vista del Campo's 16,800 square-foot community center features a state-of-the-art theater, a computer center, game room, conference room, social lounge with fireplace, dining room with kitchen private study rooms, modern fitness center, laundry facilities and management offices. Outside amenities feature a resort-style swimming pool with spa, courtyards with barbeque grills and picnic areas, sand volleyball court and a basketball court. The community combines numerous small courtyards that provide easy points of social interaction along a 28-foot wide Great Street, a pedestrian and bicycle traffic area functioning as the artery of the community
"The design concept came when we observed students flocking to densely populated areas like Balboa Island," said Clint Braun of ACC. "We attempted to replicate that social atmosphere by breaking a large development into smaller neighborhoods."
The community has been successful in attracting students UCI to Vista del Campo. Ten months before opening, Vista del Campo was leased to capacity. The community currently has 1,000 students on the Fall 2005 waiting list. Following the success of the $104.5 million Vista del Campo, a second phase with 1,564 beds is under construction and scheduled for completion in Fall 2006.
We Make Money Not Art: Seattle architecture/design firm Mithun won first place in the C2C Home Competition with their design for a house powered by spinach. The house will be built this summer in Roanoke, Virginia, along with other contest winners.
The competition asked designers to work on work on cradle-to-cradle design principles and create objects and processes that replenish communities, using materials that can be recycled indefinitely.
Mithun's house takes energy from the sun and uses spinach protein to generate electricity for neighbouring homes and street lighting infrastructure.
The house's skylight brings in the sun's rays, and the heat sink stabilizes temperatures, while a highly conductive material produces photosynthetic energy generated from the protein in spinach. The spinach proteins are sandwiched between the core's glass walls; their chlorophyll converts the sun's rays to fuel the home. Besides, a vegetated roof system collects and filters stormwater into the building core
Xtvworld.Com: TemplateMonster.com, one of the largest website templates providers on the Web, enters the market of icon design. Their new product line is called Icon Sets. Each set includes ten icons of high quality, which is why they can be used not only for the Web but for the off-line needs of Template Monster’s clients as well.
The icons within each set are grouped under particular themes, so with one Icon Set, you can actually fulfill all the icon needs of your project - no matter what the project is - whether it’s a web site or an offline presentation. The price for this new product will vary from $45 to $50, depending on the set purchased.
“We are glad to represent Icon Sets - a new product line of ours,” says David Braun, CEO of Template Monster. “We are currently reconsidering our production policy in order to satisfy all the needs of web designers, since we want to be associated with, not opposed to, designers. Icon Sets is a milestone of this reconsideration process. The aim of this process is to widen our product range and deepen our depth so our customers can find anything for their design needs at Template Monster only. With that in mind, we will add two new Icon Sets to this product line daily.”
Yenra: Kohler will use its sponsorship of Olympus Fashion Week to introduce the Purist Hatbox toilet, a product that redefines common perceptions of what the traditional American toilet should look like.
"Like the fashion industry, design is part of the fiber of everything that we do at Kohler to constantly develop new products that enhance the gracious living possible in today's kitchens and bathrooms," said David Kohler. "During our 130-year history -- from introducing the first colors on plumbing fixtures in the 1920s to advancing the home spa with flagship whirlpools and performance showering products -- Kohler has been progressive in making sure the products we create are innovative, bold, and forecast the next trends in home design."
Attendees of New York Fashion Week are the first to see the new Purist Hatbox toilet, on display in the main lobby of Fashion Week. Conventional cues of the traditional toilet are removed as the minimalist inspired electric toilet offers a clean, streamlined aesthetic both visually and physically with its innovative tankless design.
They're words often applied to new clothes or new cars - not phones. But that's changing, and Motorola's Razr V3 offers a good example.
The ultraslim, lustrous metal cellphone, introduced in November, has created a cachet of cool so strong that it should rub off on the company's entire portfolio of phones, observers say.
A cool phone could make for a cooler Motorola in the eyes of consumers, not a bad thing for a company long known as a haven for brilliant but boring engineers. It's an image — at least the boring part - that Motorola has worked at changing in recent years, from attempts to insinuate itself into hip-hop culture to a joint venture with über-cool Apple Computer.
Cool is a slippery concept. In its purest form, something cool is so cutting edge that few people possess it. Its exclusivity helps define it.
bTang reBlog: I love simple genius ideas. To sell small living plants for your keychain is a genius idea.
Soroban Geeks reports about the latest fad in Japan. Tiny plants are placed in plastic domes to be carried around on keychains. They cost about $10 and measure 41x25mm.
We Make Money Not Art: The HangOut is a 2.9 meters diameter housing module designed -- by Vancouver-based Tom Chud -- to be suspended from a tree. It comes with a double bed, counter, table, bench seats and storage lockers. Four attachment points on the top and four on the bottom carry the weight of the dwelling. The spheres are made of laminated wood with the outside surface covered with fiberglass, and best of all, it is finished like a fine yacht.
Now the Robinson Crusoe note: Access to the sphere is via a suspended spiral stairway (wrapped around a tree) and short suspension bridge.
The spheres will also be available for rent in the future.
Gizmodo: Sega has released more USB controllers for PCs, available in a variety of new colors, including the always sassy pink. I've never been a Sega controller man, myself, preferring the SNES pad on the whole, but I think it's fantastic that companies continue to release controllers from years past, despite a wealth of conversion dongles that let you use the original units via USB. Why? Because I like to spend money. (Thanks, Rom!)
"Design is a focal point of our product development, so this success is a result of our heavy investment in product development," said Marcelino Kim of MPIO. "The MPIO FL300 is just one example of how we develop fashion accessories to appeal to the digital generation." This is the second time that MPIO has won an iF product design award. Its FL100 flash player received honors in 2003.
The sleek and stylish MPIO FL300 weighs less than an ounce and is smaller than a pack of Tic Tacs -- delivering high performance digital music in 128MB and 256MB capacities. With this sapphire blue MP3 player, consumers can listen, dance, and sing along to their favorite tunes for as long as ten hours with only a one hour charge. The FL300 also features a clock, alarm, digital recorder, and doubles as USB storage.
Nearly 750 companies from 31 countries submitted more than 2,000 product entries for the iF product design award. The 14 member-jury selected winners based on design quality, processing, innovation, functionality, and ergonomics.
"There is a tendency for people to focus less on technology and more on style when selecting things like mobile phones and MP3 players, but also other electronic appliances as well. Personal products are taking the market by storm, which is opening up new options for the way we design and use products," said Bill Moggridge of design firm IDEO.
How would it feel like to sleep in a Web House? What is a Web House anyway? Designed by London firm m3architects, the Web House indeeds explores the changing nature of the house within the fabric of London. A description on the Royal Institute of British Architects website:
The design tackles the notion that the optimum 'site' for a building is a flat piece of unencumbered land. With the scarcity of available building land in London, large blank gable ends, exposed service cores or plant rooms in the City can represent 'brownfield' sites. Getting 24-hour use out of a site is our objective. After the office workers go home, the residents of the Web House come home.
The Web House can be constructed anywhere. Hung from bridges, strung between buildings, straddling roads or railway lines. On this occasion it is hung from the side of an office building in Old Street.
The inflatable skin is brought to site on a 3m x 3m x 3m pallet with the structural cabling. The cabling is hung from hooks fixed back to the structure through the joints in the cladding. The skin is dropped into the net and inflated. The structural core is dropped in through the top of the skin and acts as the structure to the floors. The structural core also houses the utilities and supports the kitchen units and wc functions.
Access and services are shared through the existing office core and an additional wall climber lift is provided.
See also analysis by consumer trend research firm Iconoculture.
Have you ever wanted furniture that are practical but yet have a whimsical element for your precious child? Besides wanting the furniture to be well made, you probably would also want something that is modern, edgy and has an emphasis on fun for your child. Well, you can find all those qualities in Italian firm MAGIS's furniture designs that include Upside-Down Chairs, Puzzle Carpets, Football Tapes and so on!
MAGIS takes furniture designing with an explosive, transgression-driven force to a whole new level that has never been risked before by furniture manufacturers. Useful, functional and tasteful is what creates joy for the consumers' eyes and hearts. That's why MAGIS products are selling well - they are functional and sleekly designed.
Besides, furniture bought from MAGIS are quality-driven and accessibly priced. As a result, MAGIS is able to produce furniture that are perceived as technologically advanced and aesthetically innovative products for kids. This is seen in the 'Me Too' collection line as well as the countless designs MAGIS boasts. At the risk of being accused of trying to sell their furniture to you, we recommend that you try out one of the delightful furniture pieces that MAGIS have got to offer to your kids today!
Let's Get Down To Business...
The designers at MAGIS and other furnishing companies have increasingly realized that people now want modern and fanciful quality furniture for their kids; hence, a contemporary design with that whimsical kid-appeal is particularly important nowadays if you're targeting families that treat their children like royalty. Besides that, we can see that MAGIS's uniquely designed furniture are of good quality and emphasize practicality (for example, the products are stain-resistant). Lesson: by incorporating appeal (to amuse the kids) and quality (to please the parents) in your product, it will definitely sell well!
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Business opportunity from the US Market Leader in Disc Protection. Recently we told you about the unique Disc protection product D-Skin. The product is great and in fact our only gripe was where to buy it outside America. Well the guys from D-Skin have listened - and are now looking for Distributors worldwide. So what are you waiting for? Contact them and be part of the D-Skin success worldwide! Visit www.D-Skin.com now.
TrendCentral: More people are passing up car trips for bike rides to do errands, but there's only so much a messenger bag can hold. Speaking to this growing eco-conscious lifestyle trend, this 
Iconoculture: 
CoolBuzz: They say after you have had your fill of booze, you might just end up seeing stars. But here's an innovative idea that lets you see stars before the liquor has even touched you tongue. These 
The Cool Hunter: For the executive who has grown bored with his Blackberry, and sick of his stapler, comes this rather over the top stationary revolution. These elaborately detailed, all metal staplers from 
The Age: On a narrow Tokyo street, Aya Tsukioka demonstrates clothing designs she hopes will ease Japan's growing fear of crime.
Inhabitat: Upcycling is a 21st century term, coined by Cradle to Cradle authors William McDonough and Michael Braungart, but the idea of turning waste into useful products came to life brilliantly in 1963 with the Heineken WOBO (world bottle). Envisioned by beer brewer Alfred Heineken and designed by Dutch architect John Habraken, the “brick that holds beer” was ahead of its ecodesign time, letting beer lovers and builders alike drink and design all in one sitting.
Cool Hunting: Eschewing chemical-based fabrics for Japanese organic cotton and Italian linen, Paris-based designers Kaito Hori and Iku Furudate of Commuun believe that "environmental issues can not be ignored when considering the future of fashion and society as a whole." Each collection is inspired by natural landscape and "the balance and tension in nature." While the pieces are fastidiously crafted and ecologically sound, they also breathe a rebellious and bold spirit through color and cut. The fall 2007 collection was inspired by photographs of the sea, importing colors from the ocean-like stark blues and haunting blacks, which are grounded by uncluttered silhouettes. There are ethereal tops floating above skin-tight miniskirts, dresses with undulating layers, and graphic blouses anchored by slim pants. The collection is intended for a woman who is "strong and still pure in ways," says Furudate. Do not expect the earth mother archetype. With the pair's understated confidence, Commuun can easily spearhead the movement for sustainable clothing that's still enduringly chic.
Cool Tools: My son is left-handed and kept getting the side of his hand dirty from unwanted graphite and ink smudges in school, so we ordered him a SmudgeGuard. The glove, which covers his pinky, is made of nylon and spandex, so it fits snug to his hand and glides easily over the paper when he's writing fast. Usually, when my son writes, his hand will start to perspire. The SmudgeGuard stays dry making it less likely to re-smudge the paper. Because it's only protecting the areas most prone to smudges and because the material is thin, he can also type on a keyboard or do other things while wearing it.
Iconoculture: Called BuildTheBed, the product caters to DIY boudoir decorators who want to put their personal memories, fantasies or digital art in a place of honor, if not dreamy contemplation. In a choice of sizes and styles, from arched to rectangular, BuildTheBed's colorful headboard gives a personality billboard-like prominence. Can't decide what's best? Sleep on it. If you can't settle on your own photo, they have more than 250 stock images to choose from. 
Cool Hunting: Vitamin Living's The Powder Seat allows you to use your snowboard as the seat of the bench. The board attaches to the legs of the seat via suckers to keep the board protected. It can also be flat-packed for easy storage.
The transparency of the material allows you to play with color combinations, resulting in different degrees of transparency. The bag can easily transform into its original sheet-shape changing its function. For instance, it can be used as a sheet to sit on (during hanabi/hanami), or its contents can be laid out on the sheet.
Cool Hunting: Fruitree is a concept piece designed by Chia Shee Loh, Antonietta Fortunato and Elena Godenzi. They were motivated to solve the out of sight, out of mind problem with fruit that goes uneaten and spoils. The fact that fruit grows on trees does not go unnoticed in this design, where the results are both decorative and literal. Circulating air is pushed throughout the Fruitree, keeping the fruit fresh longer.
Novelty Lights.com: Novelty Lights Inc. is a Colorado based company owned by brothers, Tres and K.C. Coors. The company was established in 1999 as a direct importer of Rope Light, Holiday Lights, and a variety of popular novelty lights. Our lighting lines have grown significantly since then; however, we pride ourselves on knowing our customers and their needs and most importantly providing excellent service. Because the owners have years of experience working within the lighting field, even before starting their own company, you can trust the quality of our products and the information you receive. Novelty Lights Inc. strives for excellence in every aspect of our company, and we promise to provide knowledgeable salespeople, accurate information regarding products, and answers to your lighting questions, as well as outstanding and friendly customer service.
Shiny Shiny: A room made of chocolate may sounds like a crazy, wonderful, tasty fantasy - but for £2500+, Food Is Art will turn it into a crazy, wonderful, tasty reality. Their life-sized chocolate rooms - inspired by the tale of Hansel and Gretel - can be transported to your venues, and are said to feed up to 500 people. 
INDYSTAR.com: Like a growing number of homeowners paying extra attention to the space over their heads, Cronin likes to incorporate the ceilings into his room design. "It's the biggest space you have to work with," says Cronin, who designs sound studios. Cronin's not the only one with an overhead fixation.
Iconoculture: South Bronx furniture manufacturing and design company Caoba Colección de Muebles creates high-end furnishings with a Latino flair. Run by two Dominican brothers passionate about interior design and la cultura, the company creates coffee tables, chairs, lamps, sofas, dressers and ottomans priced from $700 to $1,400. All pieces have Latino names derived from the brothers’ relatives, friends and others: the Serrano Dresser, the Manrique Ottoman. Customers include Starwood Hotels, the East Hampton Golf Club and the British Embassy in Washington, DC. Visionary Latinos are turning their passions into businesses that break new ground in industries that traditionally have lacked Latino-owned companies.
Far Out Art: Check out Far Out Art's 
DEXIGNER: LaCie kicks off 2006 with 6 new storage products designed to help people easily manage their digital lives. Fresh new LaCie solutions for 2006 are Lacie Little Big Disc, Lacie Rugged Hard Drive, kwarim, LaCie Two Big, LaCie mini Hard Drive & Hub and LaCie Slim DVD+/-RW.
Iconoculture: Sit and … suck? Shaped like a high-design beanbag chair, the Airpouf vacuum cleaner doubles as a spot to sit or a room decoration. 
Iconoculture: Live for the rush ... and proud of it? 
We Make Money Not Art: Seattle architecture/design firm Mithun won first place in the C2C Home Competition with their design for a house powered by spinach. The house will be built this summer in Roanoke, Virginia, along with other contest winners.
Let's Get Down To Business...
