The Japanese studio Torafu Architects designed 2 new versions of their air vases: Gradation and Cube. Those 2 patterns are printed on both sides of paper disks, which are cut so the user can simply pull them into the desired shape. They don’t much function but they look nice.
found at dezeen
The “Collection of Light” by humans since 1982 is probably the best lamp I’ve seen in a while. It is simply a collection of LEDs which together constitute a lamp in itself. They wanted to create an aura of a real collection (similar to a collection of insects) and expose each illuminant as a worthy industrial product. The LEDs are all labeled (with name, size and colour temperature) and arranged in a specific order to accomplish harmonic light.
I want one!
found at designboom weblog
BERG, a London-based design studio, has just announced 2 new products: Little Printer and BERG Cloud. Little Printer is a thermal printer with a wireless connection to the Web. Each time you press the button, a neat little personalised package will be printed immediately. You can configure the messages with your smartphone, this is the part where the BERG Cloud will shine. Just watch the video and see how beautiful the graphic design is.
Unfortunately it will only be launched as a “beta” product in 2012. Can’t wait to get one.
You could say that the “Thermochromic Clock” by CW&T looks like any other 4-digit 7-segment timepiece, but this one just works quite different.
Each segment in the display is made with a length of nichrome wire and then covered by a thick layer of black thermochromic paint. Time is displayed by applying voltage to the nichrome wire. As the wire sustains an electric current, it heats up the surrounding thermochromic paint, causing it to become transparent.
I want one.
found at CreativeApplications.Net
One Coffee Cup a Day is a project by Bernat Cuni. He designed 30 variations of the classic espresso coffee cup during 30 days. The cool thing about this, is the fact that you can actually buy them. When you order one, it will be printed 3D in glazed ceramics by Shapeways. Unfortunately there are only 3D renderings of the designs, it would have been interesting to see the real 3D ceramic product.
found at iGNANT
DataBot Mouse is very interesting experiment by Jan Barth and Roman Grasy. They’ve developed a computer mouse which can give data physical properties, to make the communication/interaction between man and data more human and easier to understand.
The mouse is able to communicate three different properties of data. It can show you the weight of files and folders, by braking with different force, according to the file-size. Or you can set a custom weight for files, just like the color marking function in MacOSX. So you can find important files more easily.
The third property, the mouse can show you, is the activity of files and folders. By “breathing” with different intervals, it shows how much a file was opened or how busy a folder has been recently.
It was developed with vvvv and arduino.
Ora-Ïto is a French designer who made his name back in 1999 with the Hack-Mac and the Gucci Villa. His designs were soo different. His portfolio quite evolved since then. Last April he presented the Mutations exhibitions during the furniture fair in Milan. He designed a spaceship and a sedan chair for car manufacturer Citroën. I must say that the spaceship called “UFO” really tinkled my fancy. It’s based on the classic icon the Citroën DS.
found at dezeen
Visible Structures is a series of 12 pieces of furniture designed by Nendo. They are made from foam core that is reinforced with industrial strength carbon tape. Those strips of tape are the visible structure but also a graphical element. I’m really tempted to try this out myself.
found at designboom weblog
Osso is a new series of chairs designed by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec for the Italian brand Mattiazzi. The chairs are made of oak, maple or ash, but it’s their production process that I find interesting. The pieces are milled by a digitally controlled CNC machine. This is probably one of the few ways to produce this design on a larger scale.
found at designboom weblog
I’m pretty sure that I’ll never buy a glass table but the black version of Nendo‘s transparent table is the closest what I would consider. They’ve cast wood with a strong grain in clear acrylic and assembled the pieces to create a table. The level of detail is quite impressive, the edges are beveled and the ends even have the matching grain.
found at designboom weblog
