Anne-Mette's Concrete Chair

I have been fascinated by what you can make of unexpected materials, such as concrete, to produce furniture. Furniture designers tried so many things in the past that there is virtually no meaterials that haven't bee turned to chair or a table. But the most exciting examples of creativity to me is when you take an extremetly rough and heavy material, one that canot be associated with softness and comfort, and then turn it into a comfy sofa or armchair. Or at least on that misleads you by looking like a comfortable one. This concrete chair even has the fabrif texture to immitate a regular, soft and upholstered chair.

The whole story behind the concept and the production of the chair can be found on Anne-Mette's blog Concretely
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Barcelona Chair in Words

There was a post about Le Corbusier's LC2 in concrete, now there's LC2 and Barcelona chair in words. That's when you can't afford the real piece of furniture, yet you want to have it in your apartment. With the smart work by Sarah Schimd, you can admire the design classic in a different way.
via chairblog

Q3 - Rubic Cube's Lookalike

When you were a kid, did you play with the Rubik’s Cube? I used to get irritated by it actually, because I could never get past the first panel. My brother on the other hand was a Rubic's master, so perhaps he would like to have a sofa like this...?
by 7n3 Design via designmilk

Stiletto Desk

My last post about Koby Levi's shoes became quite popular among you guys, so I take it shoes are a popular subject. Especially if there is something extraordinary about them. This is a variation about shoes, a happy marriage of a shoe with a desk. Look how that turned out.
by splinterworks

Poduszak Seat by Tabanda

Tabanda is a a Polish design studio created by (former) architects, specializing in wooden furniture. I already posted about them here, this time I'll focus on one piece of furniture called Poduszak. Poduszka in Polish  means pillow, therefore the name suggests comfortable, cushion-based seating. The whole trick is that the little cushions inside the seat can be taken out and swapped, enabling the user to transform it in a numerous way.

Cube seat made of eight modules of braided birch plywood. Overlapping parts create empty square-shaped areas giving room for soft cushions. Thanks to cushions the seat is comfortable and takes on an interesting, individual look. The cushions may be arranged in various colour and textural compositions, depending on your likings and mood. It is for this particular reason that this piece of furniture can go through countless transformations.

Bic Pen Lamp by enPieza!

During my visit to London in April I have visited Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising in Notting Hill. Versa Design, the studio I'm an Art Director at, specializes in packaging design and I'm always looking for some inspoiration for our future projects. Apart from the packaging collection, showcasing decades of package design history in UK, they also had a small display of lamps by enPieza! made of the ubiquitous Bic pens. The idea is actually pretty simple, but that's the thing with simple ideas - they are difficult to come up with.
pics via trendhunter

Walking Chairs

Speaking of imagination from the previous post about Kobi Levi and his shoes - these chairs do not look plain and average either. via sitespecificdesign.com, artstyleonline, whoopsadaisy

Shoes by Kobi Levi

Kobi Levi is a shoe designer, but one with exceptional imagination. It's hard to say whether the shoes are actually wearable - some of them look like a challenge - but they must be noticed everywhere you go.

Kobi Levi graduated from Bezalel academy of Art & Design, Jerusalem, in the jewelry and accessories design department. He now specializes in footwear design and development/making. He works as a freelance designer. via virtualshoemuseum

Ted Noten - Make Up Kit

Good looks are every woman's weapon - Ted Noten took that literally. Known for his jewelery (we wrote about it here), he has broadened his offer with a make up kit that's shaped as weapon.
via fastco design
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Coke Without The Red

 

Would you buy Coke, if it wasn't red? When my studio did some print job for Coke,they actually brought a tin of "Coke Red" ink to use during the printing process. That's how much the famous red colour constitutes their brand. What if it wasn't there...?

Jonah and the Whale Vodka

That's a good one: “Jonah and the Whale Vodka. Who says the bible and alcohol can’t be mixed!”
By TACN Studio via lovely package
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Paper Mache Animal Trophies

Once again a hunting trophy acquired without the bloodshed. This time from Anthropology.
Layers of repurposed cement bags are covered with vintage French book pages to create this regal, papier mache animal head.
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Roboto Lamp by Karim Rashid

Domodinamica has a lamp by Karim Rashid in their offer. It's called Roboto. It costs a fortune. And I like it.

Premium Packaging by Stromme Thornsten Design

Beautiful premium package design for ...pancakes by Stromme Thornsten Design studio from Norway. I have been in ♥ with their design aesthetics for a while now and keep checking their website for new designs occasionally. I have already mentioned their amazing packaging for salmon here - it seems they either have a lot of asignments for package design jobs that are targeted at the high end market, or simply every design they release looks so exquisite.

Ikea My Way - Furniture From Ikea Hangers...

During my visit to Poland's biggest design fair - Arena Design - one of the exhibitions I explored the most was Ikea My Way. Ikea together with Fine Arts Academy in Wroclaw organized a competition for students to create furniture from already existing items from their offer. Since I myself have furniture made from weird objects in my apartment, I looked in awe at the examples of their creativity. Lamps made of rubbish bins or seats made of little dog toys. This chair / wine rack / magazines holder by Maciej Pala won in the Best Design In The Lowest Price category. It uses plastic clothes hangers, that are less than 30 cents each, to create a multi-functional piece of furniture.
additional pics via ikea and 7rano

Uten.Silo

Very old and yet appeals to me today. Designed by Dorothee Becker, UTEN.SILO is one of the best-known plastic designs of the late 1960s. Today, this colorful wall tidy is a veritable design icon and a true-to-the-original version of the product has now been reissued by Vitra Design Museum.

Dorothee describes her inspiration: My father owned a drugstore and photo shop in Aschaffenburg. When I was a child there were countless drawers there full of fascinating things waiting to be discovered, including a hang-up toilet bag made of waxed cloth full of pockets for the various toiletries. The bag held items which would normally have been stored vertically in a horizontal position. I never forgot this practical idea and later used it in UTEN.SILO.

via nest.co.uk
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Michael Wolke

Another example of reusing and recycling, lamps made of discarded cardboard by Michael Wolke (by the way, there's more pics on interesting pieces made of reused objects in reduce : reuse : recycle on our facebook page). via


Trough the variety of corrugated cardboard which can only be reached by using discarded Material, the lamp “Beute” becomes a selection of unique light objects. By dissecting and rearranging of the Material, the designer compresses the conquered corrugated cardboard and uses it as raw material with specific characteristics. 
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LC2 in concrete

LC2 chair by Le Corbusier is a design classic with an icon status. It's hard to believe it's almost 85 years old and dates back to the reign of Bauhaus. Very minimalistic and industrial, reflecting the times between the two wars. The chair is based on very simple and almost hard square lines but the seat itself brings unusual comfort. It made the design stand out from the Art Deco and Art Nouveau furniture of the times. To this day LC2 and other pieces from the Petit Confort line are present in the houses of people appreciating comfort and timeless design. It was also an inspiration to many tributes and designs inspired by it (we wrote about the one designed by Luis Luna here). One of the very modern take on the subject is LC2 made of concrete, by a Swiss artist Stefan Zwicky. His version plays on the obvious shape of LC2, but denies it the basic feature - comfort...

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Deer Trophy

No need to hunt to have a deer trophy in your living room. Or a bit of a colourful garden.
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Critique Collective - Discarded Circuit Board Jewelry

 I knew you could make jewelry out of a lot of stuff, but computer circuit boards..?

Jewelry_cycle is an educational showcase of wearable treasures made from re-purposed and re-cycled materials. With the idea of an exhibition in mind, co-curators Christine Dhein and Christoph Koch asked the Critique Collective to create wearable art from a variety of small, discarded circuit boards. Circuit boards are commonly made from fiberglass, epoxy resin, and a variety of metals, which is likely to be one third of the material. These metals include copper, silver and gold, which add a precious element to what would otherwise be considered e-waste. These artists discovered the hidden potential, and transformed these materials to create brilliant, sparkling jewels. Photos from & via