The Paper pulp cabinet by Debbie Wijskamp, is a totemic white furniture piece, constructed from various oblong boxes stacked upon one another. Some have drawers, while others are left open to function as shelves. At first glance, they look like they are made from the polystyrene containers used to pack fish, but instead each inch-thick box component has been moulded from paper pulp and assembled using simple box-jointing techniques borrowed from woodwork.

The Paper pulp cabinet was on show at Designhuis, Eindhoven as part of the second annual Talent exhibition during Dutch design week. The works of graduates from 30 European design institutes and universities were showcased from october 17th to october 24th, 2009. I was really taken down because I couldn’t answer the invitation, but surely next year I’ll be there and document the event.

Debbie Wijskamp

Related posts:

1. Too much creativity will never do wrong on brands like De La Espada
2. Fill in the date
3. Heating advice

Following the medical prescriptions, the most suitable temperature for the living room is between 19 to 22°C, 16 to 18°C for the bedroom, 22 to 24°C for the bathroom and no more than 6°C for the cellar. A mostly common chamber termometer will keep you informed.

The lesson learnt, you need now a wise tool to control the situation. You need a thermostate to guide you. I suggest Honeywell proposed by Dutch designer Robin van Hontem that will confront you with the question: “Should I turn the heating up?” The decision is easy to take since Honeywell has to separate buttons where you can hang either a sweater or a blanket. The designer consider these items better for saving money with your heating and also protecting the environment. I do agree with him up to the moment you feel your extremities cold: this is not a very healthy sign.

And finishing in this talkative tone, I would like to remind you about ventilating the room. During winter, it is better to do it more often than longer to avoid unnecesary cooling of the space. Fresh, cool air will do very well to your hibernating mood.

Robin van Hontem

Related posts:

1. Household warmth
2. Wishful thinking with Debbie’s Wijskamp Paper pulp cabinets
3. Alissia Melka-Teichroew

PROCESS: The Modern Workshop exhibition
At Tent London, it was presented a rare, behind-the-scenes look at De La Espada manufacture. The exhibition highlighted the relationship between craft and modern design through the presentation of raw materials, components and products.

PRODUCT exhibition
At the A Foundation in Shoreditch, thre were presented 18 new products designed by Autoban, Leif.designpark, Matthew Hilton and Studioilse. A vast, open plan exhibition space allowed the products to exist in their own area, whilst interacting with one another, highlighting the diversity of the products as well as the common ethos they share. The relaxed environment was enhanced each evening with casual drinks and nibbles.
If I were there, I’d take the following tour: I’d start with Matthew Hilton: Fracture Table
Brando SofaMars Table.
In 2008, De La Espada launched a collaboration with one of Britain’s most highly respected designers, Matthew Hilton. Hilton’s designs are understated, sculptural and meticulously detailed, with many already considered design classics. The Matthew Hilton range is designed by Matthew Hilton, and produced under licence by De La Espada. The complementary expertise of the two firms has ensured a furniture range true to Matthew Hilton’s creative vision, as realised through De La Espada’s material options and expert manufacturing.

Gloves put, tank fueled, wheels rolling, we enter the Autoban.Deco Sofa & Pumpkin Table
Holy Table
Wired King
Nest Lounge
The collaboration between Autoban and De La Espada launched at New York’s ICFF (International Contemporary Furniture Fair) in 2007. Autoban is an Istanbul-based architecture, interior design and product design studio, founded by Seyhan Özdemir (architect) and Sefer Çaglar (interior architect) in the historic and bohemian district of Galata in 2003. The products, largely made from natural materials, cross boundaries of time and culture and playfully reinterpret the familiar. A selection of designs from Autoban’s ever-growing product portfolio are supported by De La Espada’s manufacture and understanding of solid wood.

Crossing the ocean, I’d wreck on Leif.designpark’s isle :Tone Cabinet
Lin pod Bench
Tone chair
Tone Chair for kids
Leif.designpark, a Japan-based design studio consisting of Takashi Ueno, Mamoru Naito and Keizaburo Honda, has been designing products in a variety of natural materials, with a specific emphasis on wood since 2006. Leif.designpark holds monozukuri- the art of traditional craftsmanship- in high esteem, and values the warm, playful relationship between a product and the user, as well as the comfort of the space where the two enjoy interaction. Their aesthetic is a result of applying monozukuri to the construction of modern designs to give the products a connection to traditional Japanese culture. Since 2007, De La Espada has manufactured and distributed select designs from their portfolio.

Heels kicking, neck twisting and enter into StudioIlse’s teritory:Low Bench & Stools
Settle &Low Bench
De La Espada recently launched a collaboration with renowned London-based design office, Studioilse. Ilse Crawford, principal of Studioilse is a creative director and designer who crosses the worlds of brand creation, interior architecture and products. She is a figurehead for design as a means for change and revitalisation; with a human approach that is emotional and intelligent. As the licensed manufacturer and distributor for Studioilse products, De La Espada will realise her designs through premium materials and expert craftsmanship.

PHILOSOPHY: Seating for EatingThe London Design Festival marked the beginning of our collaboration with Studioilse. Leila’s Shop in Shoreditch housed an installation of the new Studioilse seating collective, allowing visitors to sit on the products while enjoying a meal. A series of Kitchen Table Talks were held on the premises each evening focusing on the link between growing food and community. Speakers included the founder of Aesop, Dennis Paphitis and Tristram Stuart, author of ‘Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal’. The installation remains until 1 November.

You wish you were there too, I know…

De La Espada
Matthew Hilton
Autoban’s
Leif.designpark’s
StudioIlse’s
London Design Festival

Related posts:

1. supraNatural wood: Matthew Hilton for De La Espada
2. Marina’s home sweet home
3. Donna’s Calendar

Through her doubled wall glass Inside Out collection her CV magnifies honourly: She’s the founder and creative director of byAMT Inc (formerly known as AlissiaMT Design) and a Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, understood, “but” also holds a Master of Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), USA. Paris, San Francisco, Boston, IDEO or Puma International are just small facets of Alissia’s work.

Attuned to the latest design innovations, trends, and materials, she infuses her work with her own unique, charismatic personality and mischievous sensibility. Her products are savvy, sophisticated, and witty: the archetypical Acrylic Diamond Ring rendered in candy-colored acrylic, as well as Silver Diamond Ring, ceramic plates folded in easy-to-hold shapes, Handful of Plates, a mirror that transposes the viewer’s face over an iconic image of feminine beauty (ME-ror).This uncanny ability to tweak expectations has delighted design cognoscenti and consumers alike. ID Magazine, Nylon Magazine, New York Times and InView among many other publications, have featured byAMT products. Boutiques around the world carry them, including the MoMA store and Conran Shop. byAMT has exhibited work at the Salone del Mobile Milano, ICFFin New York, 100% Design Tokyo, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Need more? Better look.

InsideOut Collection
Photo by Lisa Klappe

Acrylic Diamond Ring and Silver Diamond Ring

Handful of Plates
ME-ror
Photo by Lisa Klappe

Ring A Day – One Ring for Every Week Day. Simply pop a pre-cut ring from a sterling silver or stainless sheet, polish rough edges with the included hand file, and voilá! The sheet itself makes great wall art once all the rings have been removed, or can be worn as a necklace. Just attach a chain to the piece.

The Lonely Hangers are derived from cup handles that were broken off from their cups. Now they can hand on the wall and be used in living rooms, bedrooms, lobbies, bathrooms, etc. Spread out over the wall you can create your own landscape of coat hangers, or hang a cloths hanger off of it.

AMT thinks you are a winner! Thanks to the Badge of Honor line of acrylic jewelry, you can award yourself a signet ring, star of honor, or first-prize ribbon. Choose from pink, black, clear or ivory. No expensive tuition, potential dangerous military service, or hard labor necessary.

Milk Series
Treehooked
Power House
Cle USB

Yes, this is just a selection. I think they’re more.

Alissia Melka-Teichroew
Rezodesign

Related posts:

1. Sylvain Willenz is Designer of the Year 2009
2. Too much creativity will never do wrong on brands like De La Espada
3. Wishful thinking with Debbie’s Wijskamp Paper pulp cabinets

Swedish designer Hedvig af Ekenstam learned unusual ways to integrate technology in some of her products. Her Knitted Radiator, Heating Curtain and Vacuum Cleaner designs all illustrate this well (you may remember prototypes from milan design week). Each product gives a softer and more human touch to common household devices.
The Knitted Radiator is designed using heating cables coiled to create a new type of radiator. The design is a flexible and lightweight screen that can be shaped to fit the user’s needs.
The Heating Curtain is another radiator design that is integrated into the curtains. The curtain is made from fabric and has a heating coil woven into it to provide heat.

The Vacuum Cleaner aims to be a softer and more attractive vacuum that users don’t want to hide.
the final solution has a textile body that expands when in use and can be slid along the floor. This product got all my enthousiasm through another aspect that that of space-saving. The textile bag is definately easier to produce, fewer resources and friendlier materials used.

Hedvig af Ekenstam

Related posts:

1. Heating advice
2. Music, a powerful inspiration source for interior design
3. Wishful thinking with Debbie’s Wijskamp Paper pulp cabinets

Each December, the prestigious award is presented to a designer who has made a significant
contribution to the progression of design. The designer of the year must demonstrate a long
history of consistent work, as well as outstanding work created within the last twelve months.
Now in its fifth year, the award has gone to an impressive list of esteemed designers,
including Zaha Hadid, Marc Newson, Tokujin Yoshioka and the Campana Brothers.

He has allowed more people to accept and respect young design. But he is also a truly
phenomenal talent who has all the qualities of a great designer and whose work is
consistently strong and varied. He has a great sense of imagination and trusts himself
to explore his ideas to the maximum, constantly evolving while anchoring his work in
a craft-oriented approach. He has kept the design community gripped, like a good movie
where you can’t take your eyes off the screen, where each project is like one excellent
scene after another.

Design Miami Director Ambra Medda
 .

Real Time is the project that crowned Maarten’s activity to the point of his this year nominalization. My feeling is that we can call this award as the Dutch designer’s first of this kind.The show-event is produced by Diana Marrone together with Studio Maarten Baas and consists in 2 movies shot and cut in The Netherlands speaking about the passing of time.

Maarten Baas chooses the cinema language to re-shape a clock collection composed by two models. From the old style analogue-alarm to the digital time counter Maarten creates from zero the devices: from the interface to the internal and external “box”. Besides designing those, Baas animates the clocks with a theatre mechanism – with true and living lancets – by involving hundreds actors to sign the time.

3D prototypes are shown together with the movies and will work as rough description for the new Baas models of time counters. The passing of the time within the clock is given by multitudes of people who – shot and screened in a true interval of 12 or 24 hours – allow visitors to assist to an unusual render of time passing.

Watch the movies to see how they work:

Real Time – The Grandfather clock

Real Time – Sweepers’ clock

Maarten Baas
Design Miami

Related posts:

1. Pivot cabinet from Arco, winner of the Dutch Design Awards
2. Alissia Melka-Teichroew
3. Wishful thinking with Debbie’s Wijskamp Paper pulp cabinets

Daniel’s first light study – Daylight comes sideways tried to create a feeling of expanded perceived space, through an illusion of natural daylight, revealing the idea of surroundings beyond the actual room, The concept has been to create a blurred, semi-transparent “window” – a recreation of daylight by creating dynamic artificial shadows of objects outside of the actual chamber.
The effect is created by individually dimming the intensity of 1100 LED’s, aranged behind a semi-transparent surface. By adding this motion, the subconscious illusion of daylight is enhanced.
Daylight comes sideways received a “Best of the Best” of the Red Dot Award: Design Concept, for the best illumination concept.

His second attemp -Subconscious effect of daylight tries to replicate the effect of having daylight indoor. The concept is to create a feeling of natural, direct sunshine. This imitation is created through projecting a light pattern giving a recognizable illusion of natural light and shadows.
The lamp has the shape of a small table where the light source is mounted underneath the tabletop. The light gives an illusion of the sun shining through a window because of the artificial shadows that are cast to the floor.“Don’t look at the table, look at the shadow on the floor beneath it.” The concept gives the illusion daylight is coming into a room by projecting light and the pattern of a shadow onto the floor (the beam comes from a projector under the table). It opens up dark, claustrophobic spaces by giving the impression there is bright daylight streaming in.

The young Norwegian designer is also preocupied by the medical curative properties of daylight, all the positive effects on humans. His most recent project Surface daylight continues the series of recreating positive sensation and the subconscious effect of having bright direct sunlight streaming into a room. Instead of projecting a light onto a surface (as with Subconscious effect of daylight), the idea was to place the light in the surface itself. The lamp is made up of two separate surfaces leaning against the wall. The light is created with LED lamps placed behind the surface.
Design Report awarded Surface Daylight for the best design at Salone Satellite 09.

Daniel Rybakken

Related posts:

1. Too much creativity will never do wrong on brands like De La Espada
2. S from VerSatility with Aïssa Logerot
3. Turn on the light: it’s Magika!

The biannual Parisian design fair Maison & Objet will be taking place from the 4th – 8th September and this year, for the first time, Donna Wilson will be in attendance to launch her 2009 Collection. You will find her and her colourful array of creatures and cushions in Hall 5B Stand T44 – U4 (Stand 17) where she will be exhibiting as part of the British Design Group.

Also not to be missed is Donna’s new range of decorative bone china for SCP as well as her Mabel sofa and Frank Henry and Ernest Pouffes on the SCP stand in Hall 5B Stand T28.
Made at a factory in Stoke on Trent with china clay sourced from St Austell in Cornwall, the collection is produced entirely within the UK. The pieces include a mug, teacup and saucer, jug, side plate and a salad bowl, all of which will feature Donna’s inventive, original and decorative artwork.

From the 19th – 27th September, Donna will be presenting new work in three different locations around London so do drop by and see us at one of the following events:
The Dock
As well as being home to Tom Dixon’s new London showroom, the Canal Building at Portobello Dock is also the venue for an event entitled The Dock that will run from the 21st – 27th September throughout Festival. The Dock will be an exhibition of creative talent curated by Tom Dixon and sponsored by Derwent London. Donna has been chosen to take part and will be there to present a colourful display of cosy accessories including all of her new designs for Autumn 2009. Presenting alongside her will be Thorsten Van Elten, Industrial Facility and Very Good and Proper.
The Dock runs from Monday 21st – Sunday 27th September
5th Floor, Canal Building, Portobello Dock, 344 Ladbroke Grove, London W10

Made in Britain at Liberty
Donna Wilson will be launching new designs at Liberty’s Made In Britain show to be unveiled on the 19th September. The exhibition has been curated by the Telegraph’s Design Editor David Nicholls and Head of Home at Liberty, Michelle Alger to showcase the best in British design. Donna will be showing off a new armchair design for SCP named Eadie and also brand new editions of her Frank, Henry and Ernest pouffes in some striking new colourways and exciting new patterns.
Made in Britain runs from Friday 19th – Saturday 26th September
Liberty House, Regent Street, London W1B 5AH

SCP West
After previewing at Maison & Objet, SCP will host the UK launch of Donna’s new range of decorative bone china.
The china will be on display from Saturday 19th – Sunday 27th September
SCP, Westbourne Grove, 87 – 93 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UL

In preparation for chilly Autumn nights Donna Wilson has been busy knitting new scarves, blankets and cushions to help keep out the cold.
You may have already seen Donna’s wintery Mountain Peaks cushions which were introduced earlier this year. Now, just in time for Autumn, the alpine design is available as a mini blanket too.
If a mini blanket isn’t quite substantial, you will be pleased to know that Donna is also working on some new larger blankets. Watch out for large Rainy Day , Blah Blah and Wooly Wood blankets which will all be launched in new colourways very soon.

Also new to Donna’s collection this year is the large floor size Garden cushion. Garden is made from 100% lambswool and available in four colourways.

As well as making accessories for your home Donna has also been working on some new knitted wool scarves to keep your neck cosy. Choose from the Fox, Birdie Walk and Skyscraper walk designs!
And,of course, new funny buddies: Rufus, Bertie & Rosie and Pierre.
All of Donna Wilson’s designs are handmade with love and care in the UK from 100% lambswool allowing the end product to be unique and have its very own character.
…Also! I almost forgot to tell you about the new greetings cards! Donna has made a series of cards that show her colourful creatures up to all kinds of antics! The cards are left blank inside so perfect for any occasion and all available to buy online.

Donna Wilson
Maison et Objet
London Design Festival
SCP
The Dock
Liberty

Related posts:

1. Too much creativity will never do wrong on brands like De La Espada
2. See in the box! – new collection from SCP
3. Marina’s home sweet home