Here is the optimal solution after a house party… Garbage Lamp by the student Peter Castellucci, an efficient and creative way to illuminate and pollute less, all at once.

[via Core77]

A dash of ingenuity, a slight retouching with some irony and a lookout for the environment… and you’ve got Klypsos!

The “plate chalice-carrier” clip to enjoy an aperitif or a standing dinner with freedom of movement and practicality, effective ingredients for a contemporary conviviality, less formal and more relaxed.

Simple but acute solution by the young and creative Jacek Ryn and Paulina Krauza, the Polish duo from the Razy2 studio.

+ Razy2

[via DesignSponge]

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I don’t like wearing watches (and am thus often late!), but I really like this one: LED Watch is simple, clear and elegant.

Designed by the Japanese Hiranao Tsuboi and prized at the Tokyo Design Week 2008, this digital gem is perfectly functional and will soon be on the production line, according to the Japanese studio. What do you think?

+ 100%

[via Inspire me, now!]

Maybe it’s because today is Monday, maybe it’s because it’s cold and/or that Turin is really grey in this season, but today I feel a particular need to be cuddled by color… and obviously some pleasing design!

Here is a cartful of brightly colored objects with the ability to warm and stimulate the psyche, please the eye and wake energies… Dedicated to all the people who feel a bit down in this period.

Gloji the “illuminatingly” packed juice…

The fun Moving  Stool by Gabriele Pezzini, conceived by Max Design.

The Snack & Stack silicone and metal cutlery by Winnif Pang.

RbG Rainbow Glasses by the young  Luis Porem, to (literally) look through color!

The versatile and multiuse NapBook by the Icelandic designer Hafsteinn Juliusson.

Pencil Tree or how to graciously put away color…

… and finally by the young student James Beattie here is Pantime, time that ticks to the rhythm of Pantone!

The unmistakable touch of the Belgian Natalia Brilli has made this new collection of everyday objects decidedly more intriguing by embellishing them in leather. The skateboard and the purse with the relief credit cards are simply fantastic!

In case you didn’t know what to get me for Christmas…

+ Natalia Brilli

Read more here

[via TheCoolHunter]

Maria Paola Stola manages the special edition of the Fiat 500 Diabolika.

During one of my transits in Italy at the end of July I had the pleasure to participate in an interesting encounter with the designer Maria Paola Stola (the clever and beautiful wife of Alfredo Stola, founder of Studiotorino) at the Salt laboratory. There I got to know, appreciate and touch with my own hands the Diabolika (before it even came out): the captivating personalization of the new Fiat 500 – presented officially on September 12^th as a part of the Torino World Design Capital – unexpected union between the famous comic book of the Giussani sisters and one of the timeless Fiat myths, recently re-launched and splendidly renewed. More details below the cut.

Digital Printing Automotive Leather (DPAL) on the front seats

A limited edition that distinguishes itself by the sensual mat black of the body, embellished with red details – typical of Studiotorino – and by the magnetic, or should I say diabolic, scowl of the character engraved on the special Pirelli tyres. On the inside, the unmistakably sinister and intriguing atmospheres created ad hoc by Astorina (the lucky editor of Diabolik) are reproduced on the high quality and extremely resistant leather of the seats: it is an original application of digital stamping on the automotive leather that gives the result a distinguished finish. Considering the different experimentations personally conducted by Maria Paola in collaboration with Mycrom, the none too few troubles associated with color branding and the rejects due to the natural imperfections of leather, this Diabolika turned out pretty fabulous indeed.

naturali della pelle stessa. Only 50 units of this irresistible little gem (and not just for the Diabolik fans!) will be produced, with a final price that is still to be determined. It will be displayed for the international audience during the Motor Show in Paris in October.

Translated by Silvia — Lately at the Furniture Fair in Milan we have been able to admire the urban trendy touch on one of the most famous pieces in the history of design: a piercing applied on the sensual lips of DARK LADY, the new tainted black version of the Bocca sofa.

The original model in red created by Studio 65 in Turin in 1975 in homage to Salvador Dalì has become so famous as to be included in the permanent collection of New York’s MoMA, Paris’ Louvre, Milan’s Permanent Design Collection of Italian design and Denver’s Museum of Modern Art.

Strong piece in the “I Multipli” collection of about180 pieces, Bocca is indeed one of the most famous along with Pratone, Cactus and Capitello. Made from cold-expanded polyurethane a dressed in stretchy material, Bocca and its new version DARK LADY, produced in limited edition of only 1000 pieces, are produces by Gufram, the historical Italian company which is now a part of the Charme group (with Cappellini, Poltrona Frau and Gebruder Thonet).

Strangely though… in the States, this mythical and sexy sofa is known as MARILYN, a love seat, so-called by Eleanore Stendig from Stendig, Inc. in New York, the first importer of Bocca on American soil. The reference is clear!
More images in the cut below.

Translated by Silvia — Surfing around the Internet yesterday looking for solutions for sustainable furnishings, we fell upon FLEXIBLE LOVE. We immediately liked the name and, indeed, it sums up in two words the philosophy which hides behind this project. It is, in fact, a fantastic example of social, ecological and philanthropic design that manages to mix concrete utility and love for the environment and for others.

It is born from a very simple but effective concept: a flexible chair that uses fully the structural properties of honeycomb, applied to the working of an accordion. An incredible result of extensibility, resistance and rigidity, considering that the material used is nothing more than… paper!

A myriad of used sheets of paper that are recuperated, recycled and reused in a completely new way by the new Taiwanese designer Chishen Chiu for an extendible chair that can also be compact and multiform to host anywhere from 1 to 16 people! A group of good friends, a soccer team, a school class…

Take a look at the 2 videos and the images you will find below and in the cut.

The birth of FLEXIBLE LOVE chair was greatly influenced by Chishen Chiu’s personal experience from when he stumbled into a cardboard factory in the suburbs on Taipei. Immediately intrigued by the use of the bee’s nest structure in the industrial production of cardboard panes as substitutes for wooden ones, the young Taiwanese student developed in just a few days the concept of a chair, transformable from a seat to a bench, exploiting the huge resistance and rigidity that this material can take on in this specific structure.

Using only eco-friendly materials such as recycled paper, post-industrially rejected wood (plywood panels, chipboard panels, OSB) and ecological glue matched with pre-existing production processes, FLEXIBLE LOVE chair is thought out, from its very existence, to be a chair with a low environmental impact.

It can take on different shapes: linear, S-shaped, etc. for an almost total interactivity and adaptability with the user. Produced in 5 versions (other than the 16-person model, there’s also the one for 12 people, for 8, Couple for 2 and Mini, a 25:1 scale rendition of the Flexible Love 16) its first editions were immediately snatched out of stores.

It deserves another few words for its dimensions: 64cm tall and 56cm wide, its extendibility goes from 22.5cm in the compact version to 720cm open to the max. It weighs only 25kg, but can take a load of up to 1920kg!

An interesting piece of social and democratic design: you just need to coordinate yourself with your seating companions so as to avoid unfortunate capsizings.

+ FlexibleLove.com

An interesting presentation (in Chinese) by the designer Chishen Chiu.

Translated by Silvia — Here’s a new episode of extremely creative Street Marketing courtesy of the biggest Swedish Furniture giant: after having revolutionized the benches, telephone booths and bus stops in New York (see link below) this time the strategic novelty was thought out to penetrate the Country of the Rising Sun and involves nothing less than a monorail train, completely redone inside and out to travel in perfect IKEA style, spreading the latest colourful collection of fabrics and furnishings of the Swedish house for the launch of the new Japanese store.

The train will circulate until May 16^th and connects Kobe in Japan to the man-made Port Island on which the new dealer, inaugurated on April 14^th, was constructed. It is most certainly a clamorous advertising strategy, totally in sync with the Swedish giant’s idea that all revolves around home, the most important place in the world. IKEA wants to communicate that through the furnishing giant, home can be recreated anywhere, even on a moving train. Indeed, one cannot negate that its products transmit a strong sense of domesticity and that its democratic design is really a contemporary phenomenon of indisputable success.

All images of the train on the link below.

Transmitting the IKEA label going over and above the conceptual borders of houses to the streets and public means of transportation, where the common man lives most of his day, is a great tactic which has positive effects on the visibility of the company, but also on the people who can appreciate, even if for a short period of time, more welcoming and comfortable public environments.

IKEA’s new decorative themes include warm and happy colors (which remind us a lot of the motifs from Marimekko, another big North European name – from Finland – for furnishing fabrics and clothing lines) certainly give an informal and entertaining touch to the wagons of a train that, however elegant and modern it may be, generally comes across as cold and aseptic. Also, seeing such a bright means of transport run between grey palaces in the city is guaranteed to bring warm and positive feelings.

Imagine if your trains were the same. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind, and may actually appreciate it. Not only the children would be more stimulated by travelling immersed in a thousand colors and bright designs!

[from pinktentacle and culture-buzz]

Street Marketing – IKEA furnishes the New York benches

Translated by Silvia – A young and fresh duo, Puah Kim Sing and How Sim, industrial designers for Dremu Design, a newly created studio that’s been active for less than a year. Already 3 important awards received at the latest edition of the Furniture Design Awards in Singapore (FDA 2008): Most Honorable Mention for Mimo & Simi Bar stools, a pleasant couple of stools made of ABS, surmounted by hairpieces made of expanded EVA foam for a fun Playmobil look. Two Young Designer Merit Awards for the 2 seats TORS Chair and HAGE Chair. The last one, of which you can see an image above, is a wooden armchair with essentially balanced lines, made of a single rectangular sheet of plywood, at the centre of which was made an “H” shaped cut, and later curved and modelled for an interesting aesthetic result and robust but light frame, playing with the tension of the material used.

More images and information in the link below.

Original Edition – Mimo & Simi designed by How Sim

Unfortunately their site is not surfable yet. We will have to wait for June this year in order to see other interesting novelties from Dremu Design, like the next series of Mimo & Simi dedicated to mythological creatures, celebrities and superheroes in limited editions.

+ dremudesign.com

[via DremuDesign e Culturepush]

TORS Chair designed by How Sim