In the first of three interviews Dezeen filmed at pop-up shops during Clerkenwell Design Week this year, Theo founder and Pigeon Light (above) producer Thorsten van Elten explains how the internet is changing the way design is sold (+ movie).
Filmed at the Theo pop-up shop in the Farmiloe Building, van Elten discusses the future of the high street design shop compared to online and pop-up retail, and how he used Ed Carpenter’s Pigeon Light (above) to start his design retail business.
Fusionbrands has been changing the way we cook and prepare food since their first product launched to the marketplace in 2005. You might be familiar with thefoodloop, the first silicone tool to replace string for trussing, or their foodpod, a silicone “basket” that’s designed to conveniently contain and drain foods prepared by boiling, blanching or steaming.
In 2007, Fusionbrands released the poachpod, a floating, flexible silicone egg poaching tool. The poachpod was an instant success, garnering accolades like the 2007 Gourmet Gadget of the Year award. Simultaneously, Fusionbrands worked to protect their work; in 2007 poachpod received a registered trademark and in 2008, a design patent.
As the popularity of the Fusionbrands products soared, the copycats emerged. Fusionbrands began to take action to protect its intellectual property and its brand by notifying manufacturers, distributors and retailers of its patents and trademarks and, when necessary, filing law suits. Beginning in 2009, Fusionbrands filed the first of several federal lawsuits against U.S. companies from Massachusetts to California, from manufacturers to retailers, to stop the sale of knock-off products. They’ve won every court battle or settled with the infringers. But the their true victory is the hope that this success would serve as example and clearly demonstrate that Fusionbrands could always be expected to invest in protecting its brand and patents.
In 2010, the poachpod received a highly respected and rare-to-the-industry Method Patent relating to the specific method of poaching eggs allowed by the form and function of this unique product. Achieving this all-encompassing patent allowed for legal action to be taken and lawsuits filed against all forms of infringement. Since 2010, Fusionbrands has won more federal court victories or settlements and has seized or destroyed over 100,000 products that were accused of infringing its patents.
In light of our week-long focus on design patents, we thought we’d sit down with Anna and Kraigh Stewart, the founders and designers behind Fusionbrands to learn more about their piracy battles. As a small, independent design company, their no-nonsense stance against counterfitting and piracy is a win for the entire design industry.
Core77: What motivated you to first start seeking legal protection for your products?
As designers, we have an instinctive need or drive to protect our IP and creations. It’s almost a parent-like response—whether you are a writer, musician or sculptor you have an innate motivating factor to defend your work of art. Obviously we want to protect our designs and innovations from theft. In order to even be able to take legal action there is a ton of preparation that goes into advanced planning. Before we even made product number one, thefoodloop, we were well prepared.
Are all the legal drama and headaches worth it?
It’s a painstakingly slow process but when you succeed it’s entirely worth it. Besides taking lots of time and money it’s extremely distracting from the process of designing, selling products and running a business. In the end, the struggles are rewarding just knowing that our designs cannot ever become generic. Copycats stand on the shoulders of real product developers and it’s invaluable to see the people and the company who use a stolen idea, stopped. The emotional roller coaster ride is tough, but victory sure does feel good.
Irma Boom has designed a new logo for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, replacing the previous logo by Studio Dumbar, which had been in place for 32 years.
The above image, by Johan van Walsem, shows Boom watching the logo being unveiled on the exterior of the museum. Shown below is the new logo in full:
And here is the previous one by Studio Dumbar:
Speaking of her design, Boom comments: “My starting point was the fact that the Rijksmuseum is a national museum with international appeal. The design is clear and powerful and anchors the museum in the present.” Her design is clean and simple and puts clear emphasis on the Dutch ij digraph (more on that here), which was also a feature of the recently redesigned identity for the Stedelijk Museum by Mevis and van Deursen (see Michael Evamy’s CR piece, here).
The new Rijksmuseum house style also incorprates a newly designed typeface, developed by Paul van der Laan of the Bold Monday font foundry, and a colour palette which is based upon highlights of the museum’s collection. Below are some uses of the new logo on Rijksmuseum merchandise:
Boom, who is perhaps best known for her book designs, is also responsible for the design of all the publications for the new Rijksmuseum. Subscribers to CR can read more about her work in this feature, which appeared in the December 2011 issue of Creative Review.
The modern and contemporary design experts at Wright know that when the urge hits for a buttery leather sofa designed by Josef Hoffmann or a fractal-inspired Arik Levy chandelier, it can be awfully difficult to wait for the Chicago-based auction house’s next lovingly curated (and gorgeously catalogued) sale. Satisfy your design cravings instantly with Wright Now, a new online marketplace of great design ranging from classic pieces to exclusive one-offs—and a glass turkey (Toni Zuccheri for Venini). Among our favorites from Wright’s click-to-buy assortment, restocked regularly, is this 1970 set of “Arc-en-Ciel” bookends by Lucio Del Pezzo. From an edition of 500 by Plura Edizioni, the stainless steel and Plexiglas pair would be equally at home in a kid’s room, on the groaning gift table at a same-sex wedding, or under the tree this Christmas with a tag that reads “To: LeVar, From: Santa.”
New York artist Nova Jiang has created a mechanical maze that rearranges itself as you move through it (+movie).
Called Landscape Abbreviated, it comprises moss-filled planters hooked up to sensors and motors that constantly reconfigure the maze but ensure it’s always possible to solve.
Landscape Abbreviated is a kinetic maze consisting of modular elements with rotating planters, which form a garden that is simultaneously a machine. I am interested in the way that simple interventions can make the experience of space dynamic and unpredictable.
The planters are controlled by a software program that continuously generates new maze patterns based on mathematical rules; they rotate to form shifting pathways that encourage visitors to change direction and viewpoints as they move through the space.
I envision this sculpture not as a classical labyrinth built to ensnare, but rather as an architectural abbreviation of grand ideas. In this way, the maze relates to literature, mathematical beauty, game play and the rigor of software programming, as much as it does to architecture and landscape.
The planters contain live moss collected from the sides of buildings, cracks in the pavement, subway grates and other urban nooks and crannies in New York City’s landscape. Full of particles of broken glass, plastic and other detritus, they form a patchwork of unintentional archaeology.
Curator: Gabriel de Guzman Commission: Wave Hill Sunroom Project Space
Special Thanks: Jacob Tonski & Greg Witt Software: Olov Sundstrom
The clever rEvolution wineglass (above) is exactly the sort of potentially-iconic design that might be distinctive enough for Martin Jakobsen to make his name… but in case it’s not, the Czech designer has some glasswares to show for Danish houseware brand Mojoo.
Kkis—the name a twist on the romantic gesture—is billed as the “first ice cream canapé.” It’s literally an extension of the original idea behind the rEvolution wineglass, albeit the final form is rather less intuitive, something like an abstracted flower turned into a glass lollipop.
Meanwhile, the KarPPi pitcher and Himo stemless glass are also part of the rEvolution collection. The “attractive organic design resembles the shape of a fish and a water drop,” respectively, alluding to the fact that just as “a fish needs water to live, a man needs to drink.”
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