L01 has been handcrafted by the Indonesian industrial design studio using high-strength, durable teak wood, fastened with solid brass fixtures.
It is distinguished by angular back posts and a pared-back form, and can be made with either a solid wood or natural rattan seat and backrest.
The design evolved following founder Natasa’s sabbatical, during which she lived without furniture for 11 months. This led her to require and develop a chair that would enable her to sit more suitably.
“The concept of L01 chair was born as a need to sit properly after Eva Natasa’s 11-month sabbatical period living in a house without furniture,” explained the studio.
“This amplified the sensitivity to domestic space and dimension while raising the awareness of how a chair relates to, or even sometimes dictates, human body and mind.”
L01 was crafted by Studio Eva Natasa over a period of eight years and is a part of the Luna range of furniture, which is intended to be sustainable and long-lasting.
Niko Photographisme est un artiste à mi-chemin entre le graphiste et le photographe. Nous parlions déjà de son travail il y a peu de temps avec sa série surréaliste The Robot Next Door.
Passionné de montage photo, l’artiste s’amuse autant à manipuler ses images qu’à les capturer. Avec humour, il créée des série surréalistes avec minutie et toujours une touche de crédibilité. La série Beach Playground met en scène les activités de plage dans un univers irréel. Les personnages surfent dans le ciel ou bien bronzent en apesanteur… comme si leur rêve devenait réalité.
Speakers for designers are like pizza toppings for regular people, you can never stop with the combinations and you have to keep innovating to find THE one. And on that note I’ll say the Seda speaker is climbing the top speaker charts very rapidly, I mean it has already won the Silver A’Design Award Winner 2020 while being a finalist in the Azerbaijan Design Award 2020 and getting an honorable mention in Design that Educates Awards 2019. Overachiever but we love that in design!
Portable speakers don’t usually have intriguing aesthetics, so Seda was created with the intention of blending both visuals and technology to make it stand out. Its physical form radiates a zen feeling while also having a multifunctional appeal. Seda isn’t just smart, it was made to be intelligent. Seda has a pen holder in the center which also acts as a small space organizer. It features an embedded light bar in its external body which works as a desk light and it also has a dim ambient light – to be honest, this speaker is more lit than the playlist I made for it. It almost looks like an accent interior piece for your home than a portable speaker.
It can be connected via the USB port and Bluetooth, so you can leave it out instead of putting it away in a drawer with a bag of chords (never know which one of those belongs to the speaker!). The media player control panel embedded in Seda’s body makes it compatible with multiple devices so you can connect more than just your phone via Bluetooth. If holiday season isn’t canceled this year, I am putting Seda on my wishlist!
Contrasting Eve’s “lifeless” world to the sumptuous design objects that fed Villanelle’s “childlike compulsion” was key in bringing the sets of the cult classic to life, says Killing Eve set dresser Casey Williams.
“Each set is character-led,” explained Williams, who worked alongside production designer Laurence Dorman to form the style and mood of each set within the show, which is now in its third series.
Dark-humoured, spy-action thriller Killing Eve follows MI5 investigator Eve Polastri, played by Sandra Oh, in her game of cat and mouse with psychopathic assassin Villanelle, played by Jodie Comer, as their obsession with each other grows.
As Williams told Dezeen, an important factor in dressing the sets was to fill them with idiosyncratic design objects that would tell the story of each character.
“Eve’s world is always so lifeless, it’s never colourful – it’s just a bit boring,” she said. “This contrasts with Villanelle’s world, which is always colourful and exciting and rich and sumptuous. It almost feeds Eve’s infatuation with Villanelle.”
Williams aimed to create the look of student-like living with Eve’s sets
After being left in an unstable state at the end of season two, Eve takes refuge in a small, cluttered apartment in New Malden, London, which Williams reveals was actually built from scratch.
Born in the US to a Korean mother, Eve finds work at a family friend’s Korean restaurant in the south-west suburb, which has one of the largest Korean communities outside of Korea.
Eve’s sets show her returning “to the womb”
“The idea with Eve is that she’s gone back to the womb,” said Williams. “She’s submerged herself. She’s gone back [to New Malden] to hide and to heal.”
“It’s a tired, old apartment – perhaps it was in the family – that’s been a little bit forgotten about, and she’s just grabbed her more precious or most needed belongings, probably filled a cab or two and put the rest of storage.”
The aim was to create the look of student-like living, as if she is “just getting by”, said Williams.
Villanelle’s Catalonian villa features grand, Moorish-style interiors
In stark contrast to this is one of the series’ most eye-catching dwellings in Barcelona, loaned to Russian-born Villanelle by The Twelve – an organisation that uses hitmen to commit murders.
Filmed on-location, the lavish Catalonian apartment boasts Moorish-style interiors with colourful decorative glass windows that bathe the rooms in light – another aspect that plays “a huge part” in the choice of site.
“The layout of the location or build is extremely important as this creates the geography of how the scene plays out, so this is a very important decision taken between the designer, director of photography and director.”
Williams then takes these rooms as the skeleton of the set and adds texture, colour and shape.
Barcelona apartment was “a dream” to decorate
“For me, this was obviously a dream set to dress,” said Williams. “The location was incredible and it leant itself to so much.”
“The incredible Catalan, or Modernista, architecture, with its mix of Moorish design with more organic shapes, meant I was able to incorporate an eclectic mix of fine pieces.”
“Villanelle also has this childlike compulsion for things that are special – everything she’s drawn to has got something about it,” she added. “So it was a real pleasure for me.”
Williams worked to fill the Barcelona apartment with an eclectic mix of fine design objects and furniture
In addition to sourcing furniture locally in Barcelona, Williams also shipped in objects from other locations in Europe, including France and Italy, making sure to use a mixture of high-end pieces and furnishings found in antique shops and prop houses.
“It was never going to be a cheap set on my part,” said Williams when asked about budget. “I have to choose pieces that, if you see them up close, you’re going to want them too. The quality needs to read on camera.”
“I spent a lot of money in her bedroom,” she added, which featured a four-poster bed bought new but adapted to look like an aged, Moorish piece, made up with “posh, Villanelle-esque silky sheets”.
“We also used a lot of jewel colours, beautiful fringes, sumptuous pinks – things that are very much in-fashion in terms of clothing right now,” said Williams. “We tried to bring the aspect of Villanelle’s wardrobe into her furnishings.”
Carolyn was given a Modernist 1960’s home designed by architect Peter Aldington
A more restrained opulence was employed when dressing the head of MI6 Carolyn’s Modernist home – set in a grade-two-listed, 1960s-style house designed by architect Peter Aldington in Prestwood, Buckinghamshire.
The Aldington-designed Clayton House, also known as Quilter House, contrasts brick, timber and concrete details both on the inside and out. These earthy tones are extended across the interior spaces.
“We gave her this very modern, clean-lined house, but it was important to bring across the slightly more traditional aspects of her character too,” Williams explained.
To do this, she mixed modern art and mid-century orange tones with more classic Kilim fabric cushions.
Williams filled the clean-lined house with complementary mid-century furniture pieces
These were just some of the locations in which the series was filmed. One of the biggest challenges for Williams was keeping up with the copious travelling when chasing Villanelle and Eve across the world, from London and Spain to Poland and Russia.
“I was very tired,” she laughed. “I think I flew out the country most Sundays to then fly back on the Wednesday… but it was so fun.”
It was important not to caricaturise the scenes
One of her favourite sets to dress was Villanelle’s family home in Russia, featured in episode five – the exteriors of which were filmed in Romania, while the interiors were built in London.
“It was very important to make sure that we didn’t caricaturise that,” Williams said. “A lot of people, when they think of rural Russia, they think of old babushka-style ladies with headscarves and frilly clothes. It was not about that.”
“With Killing Eve, the whole point is that it’s very much based in reality. The socio-economic background of the characters is very important, so it’s something we really considered when building and decorating the set.”
Williams would hunt for little visual details that convey signs of real life
When creating sets that give the impression of being real, lived-in rooms, the devil is in the detail, said Williams.
“I’ll be hunting for these tiny visual details that show reality, such as what pot they put their sugar in, how they pin up their curtains – things that show normal people in a normal way.”
This involved her taking many trips to post-Soviet countries to find specific wallpapers, flooring and rugs that would convey the Russian surroundings.
Selecting objects for each set was like “finding treasure”
“In the UK, we don’t see many Soviet pieces around, so it’s just like finding treasure,” she said, “because once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
“Obviously we could just find the right type of wallpaper and print it, but it would be so much more complicated. The key is in the textures and the way they reflect light and hold age – the textures are so important.”
Released on a weekly basis, the seventh episode of Killing Eve season three airs on 25 May on BBC.
Images courtesy of Sid Gentle and Ian Johnson Publicity.
Architecture studio RicharDavidArchitekti has built a greenhouse on top of a single-storey family home within an orchard in the town of Chlum, Czech Republic.
Built in the Hořice district of Czech Republic, the aptly named House with a greenhouse consists of a single storey home with a roof-shaped greenhouse on top.
RicharDavidArchitekti placed the greenhouse on the roof of the house so that the home could enjoy 360-degree views of the surrounding orchard.
Its position also allows for the owners to reach it without going outside, meant separate foundations did not have to be constructed and that residue heat from the house could warm it.
The home and the greenhouse were designed to be two visually and structurally distinct elements. The single-storey home was built with masonry walls with concrete columns and clad in larch, while the greenhouse has a steel frame.
“Each of the two functions was designed in the simplest possible form and remained that way in implementation,” said David Kazický, co-founder of RicharDavidArchitekti.
“We have never made a combination house and greenhouse. It has always been a standard greenhouse laid on a residential house,” he told Dezeen.
The roof of the greenhouse is made from four-chamber hollow translucent polycarbonate and overhangs the house to shelter a terrace that runs around all sides of the home.
All of the home’s rooms can be accessed from the terrace and this, not the greenhouse roof, is the most unusual element of the home, believes the architect.
“I think there are two things that make a house different,” said Kazický. “The greenhouse on the roof is not a usual solution, but more important is the layout of the house, where residents enter individual rooms directly from the outside.”
“This is definitely not typical in this part of the world. On the contrary in some Asian countries it is quite common,” he continued.
At the centre of the home, which has interiors designed by Jana Medková and Hana Medková, is a large open-plan living and dining space, which can be accessed from the terrace on both sides of the house.
On one side of this central space is a bedroom suite, while a study and bathroom are located on the other side.
Kazický believes that although the home’s arrangement is unusual, it follows principles used in many projects before.
“Of course the principle of a vertical mix of functions while maintaining functional forms is the principle used in many buildings, especially on a larger scale,” he said.
“Here, of course, was a completely unique client who wanted a unique solution.”
Insight on the development of the 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV and the brand as a whole
Earlier this year, we sat down with SungYup Lee (now the head of design at Hyundai and Genesis, formerly the design head at the latter) and Luc Donckerwolke (then head of design for Hyundai group, which also includes Kia, who recently left the company). The two longtime friends have worked together at multiple manufacturers over the years and shared an office at the time—much to the confusion and entertainment of their colleagues—where they spent each day talking, sketching and ideating of their momentous task: more than designing a car, they were building the DNA of an entire brand. The occasion for our meeting was the release of the Genesis 2021 GV80, the brand’s first SUV four years in the making. Both were relieved to share their work—and provide insight on the car’s development.
We’ve known you both for many years through your work for different manufacturers. Over time we’ve gotten to learn your personalities and styles, and as this is one of the first vehicles you’ve designed together for Genesis, we can really see that along with the brand identity.
SangYup Lee: That’s the important part, because you have to understand the culture and know what you can extract out of the culture and put into the body of the car, which is always fundamental. You always have to approach the brand with respect. We worked on VW together and Lamborghini, and it’s the same approach always.
Luc Donckerwolke: Even if, obviously, we have certain baggage that we’ve acquired by working on different brands and doing different things, when we work for a new one we always try to have a blank canvas and try to say, “OK we’ve done that, but nonetheless now we’re trying to see and do something different.” This was the main thing with Genesis. Hyundai is completely different. You’re going to see some new Hyundais this year, which are really wild. This one was an exercise in maturity—in how to show some self-confidence and maturity, not be arrogant or aggressive.
That’s what’s interesting about Genesis: you’re not dealing with legacy style but working from a clean slate.
SL: When we were at Bentley, we always began with a sketch. From there, the first thing we asked ourselves is, “Is this part of the family?” Right now, as a luxury Korean brand, we begin with blank pages—both as a designer, working on each design, but at the same time as we are building the brand. This is actually an amazing opportunity.
LD: It was important not to invent something that after we go somewhere else or we retire, somebody says, “OK, what do I do with this now?” It was important to create something authentic. This is why we started with the logo. We said, “Hey, can we do something here?” And that led to the morphing of the logo into the front design of the car and into the brand. It’s basically a real morphing of the brand into the design of the car.
So the logo truly speaks about the brand’s development.
SL: There are a million logos out there but we were so ambitious about it; we thought, “Let us make a face out of wings.” We wanted people to know we are distinctively different and charismatic.
LD: We also created a face which is not fashionable. One that doesn’t have to be changed in the next model. You’ll see when they come out that they all have the same design principles, though they’re applied on different volumes so they look different. But, actually, it is the same principle and the same logic. That was important because I don’t want to do something and then next year say, “We’ve done that, let’s invent something else.” That would be proving that you are not a luxury brand by not being consistent.
Can you tell us about the “two lines” you’ve been referring to on the GV80?
SL: There are two lines all the way around the vehicle which create a very distinct light architecture. They are not only seen during the daytime but also nighttime—you can really distinguish Genesis by these two lines, and just these two lines, in the darkness. Also, at the moment, we’ve got one of the thinnest headlamps in the market. Period. We did this by using our special LED technologies. I can tell you that we only want them to get thiner.
Do different countries require different lighting designs or limit technologies?
LD: We are consistent all over the globe. There is no European face, no American face. It has to be the same design. The main thing is, this is showing how bold the concept is. It’s not only the design, it’s the fact that when we designed this it had a direct consequence of how we were going to structure the options of the car. If you design a car and you have, for instance, the base model with conventional lighting, it is basically dictating the size of your headlamps, and then you put the LED matrix lights in and automatically you have what I can an aquarium—it’s too big. So you have to fill it with chrome and ornaments because you have you have LED models which add components that are not big enough to fill the whole thing. We decided that we would apply the LED technology globally, to all models.
For a designer, it is always more challenging to do an elegant car versus a stylish one.
SL: Because of that, we didn’t need to play a lot with the styling, because we have a distinctive character and everything else works to support the whole design. If you take a look at the car, this is a really, really beautiful proportion. We actually promised ourselves to deliver the most beautiful real-wheel drive SUV to the market. The parabolic line really pushes the fender down. There are the big tires with 22-inch wheels. The car has everything. It has balance. For a designer, it is always more challenging to do an elegant car versus a stylish one.
It has a strong presence.
LD: It has a lot of the things that we don’t do anymore: the anti-wedge architecture of the car. All the cars since the ’70s suddenly all became wedge-shaped. It’s a bit of a cliché of trying to be dynamic and actually the most adequate way to create an elegant car in this segment is to go the other way, to go the self-confident way—to go anti-wedge, by sitting well on the real wheels. You have this parabolic line, a descending line, which we really wanted as a characteristic that we will have in all Genesis models.
Can we go back four years, when you were new to the brand and starting work on this vehicle? Is there anything you can share about that blank slate, thinking about what you want this brand to represent visually?
LD: Well it first started with the fact that it was incredibly audacious for Hyundai to want to show their competence and technological knowhow in a premium brand. They’ve been doing that in the in the local market successfully. One thing is to know that you can do it; the other thing is to successfully transform it all into a brand. So we said, “OK, Genesis is an audacious brand.” Because nobody needs another luxury brand.
The best idea badly executed isn’t a good idea to begin with
SL: Young luxury has to be progressive and on top of it. We are a Korean luxury brand, so what can we do to actually have Korean character in the vehicle? It shows quite well in the interior. It’s all about the concept of Korea, the beauty of white space and simple, clean architecture. These days interior design is quite challenging because all the technologies coming with the connected car, with all the entertainment systems, the interior gets busier and busier. We approached it the other way around: all the technology’s there but in the most simple, minimalistic way.
LD: Designing was just like morphing those elements, and the badge and the brand, into the design of the past. This is where it’s fun because everybody can sketch. We’ve been trained, but being a sketch machine does not bring you into the future. We basically spent so much time talking and reflecting and sometimes it’s just like a thumbnail that we give to the designers and say, “That’s it, that’s the thing. Just make it.” It’s almost like a design indication of how to execute this because the best idea badly executed isn’t a good idea to begin with.
Visit Genesis to learn more about the 2021 GV80. Pricing in the US starts at $50,000 and tops out just above $72,000. What you’ll discover may surprise you—the SUV has a fresh look and its interior is sophisticated, chic and well executed. Selecting your preferred car is easy as well, with only a few choices like powertrain and the standard, advanced or prestige packages and the interior and exterior color.
Plex’eat is a protective plexiglass face shields designed by Christophe Gernigon that would dangle over diners in restaurants so they share a table after the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
The French designer, who specialises in interiors, said he was inspired to make Plex’eat during his “creative nocturnal meanderings during these months of confinement”.
Bars and restaurants around the world closed to stop the spread of coronavirus, and even as they reopen social-distancing rules make it almost impossible to return to their former layouts.
Gernigon said he came up with Plex’eat as a stylish solution to this problem, which imagines a way people could return to eating out with friends while reducing the changes of catching or passing on the virus.
“Though we would have preferred not to arrive at this point, it is now better to imagine alternative,” said Gernigon. “Designed, elegant and aesthetic solutions that will guarantee social distancing regulations.”
Shaped like a large lampshade, the transparent plastic hoods would be suspended above tables like pendant lights.
People would sit underneath them while eating and drinking, close enough to hear each other but without breathing on their companions.
Plex’eat’s current dimensions are 80 centimetres by 70 centimetres, although Gernigon said he is also developing larger models for couples and whole families to sit under together.
“Why should I correct my mistakes when all of the innovation exists in the mistake?” This kind of rebellious thinking makes Paula Scher’s work feel fresh yet instantly recognizable, evidenced best in her forthcoming book, 25 Years at the Public, A Love Story. The artist, designer and Pentagram partner has been developing the visual language for the non-profit theater group for more than two decades, from its wood type-inspired identity to more than 150 posters—many of which weren’t displayed outside the venue. This graphic-heavy tome chronicles her creative output and “love story” behind it all (firings, re-hirings and redesigns) for the in-depth history of this radical New York institution that’s as inspiring as the performances there.
New Zealand has been leading the way in the fight against coronavirus with its simple but powerful communications strategy, which focuses on bringing its people together. We look at how it got the rhetoric so right, and whether countries like the UK should be following its example
The Dieline Awards 2020 had some of the most amazing innovative entries but Pearl caught my attention for two main reasons – it was the plastic-free innovation winner of the year and it looked straight out of the little mermaid’s treasure box! Pearl is a paper pod packing solution by BillerudKorsnas and Syntegon who wanted to create a more sustainable fiber-based alternative with a premium aesthetic while also focusing on the portions to reduce waste.
Portion packaging is common in many industries but most widely used in the beauty industry, notorious for their waste generation, for the sample product packaging. Brands usually resort to plastic because it can easily be molded and designed to fit their image and unique experiences and because paper packaging hasn’t been accepted as ‘pretty’ just yet – Pearl is here to change that outlook. The designers combined their work on two previous projects that also revolved around replacing plastic packaging with sustainable alternatives. “Inspired by life and shapes of the sea, we then conceptualized the project named Pearl. What makes it special are the 3D-properties enabled by the FibreForm paper and manufacturing technology. Resulting in unique tactile experiences and embossed shapes of the paper shell, driving new business opportunities,” said the design team.
This paper pod aims to replace the plastic for product samples, inserts, refills, portion packs, and disposable packaging for sustainable brand owners that match their high business goals with high environmental ambitions. Pearl is a natural packaging alternative that fits within the aesthetics of the beauty industry while also reducing its negative impact on the environment. Designs like Pearl are important to showcase the malleability of eco-friendly materials to that they can be more widely accepted while still being “on brand” and I might argue that being eco-conscious in 2020 should be “on-brand” for everyone.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
