Whether you’re working from home, or in a corporate office, the one thing that’s pretty much consistent in both these scenarios is a desk! A desk is probably one of the most important pieces of furniture in our modern lives, only because we spend the majority of our day on it. You may be typing away to glory, munching away on a snack, or simply fidgeting with a random object – you do end up spending hours on your desk. And hence, it’s really important that your desk be neat, tidy, and uncluttered. Not only will this improve your work routine and productivity, but it will also help you maintain a clearer and more streamlined mindset. And, I’ve discovered that adding limited, quality, and innovative products to my desk setup can help me in achieving these goals! And one such innovative + functional design is the Echo lamp by Simon Busse for Caussa.
Designed by Simon Busse for the German brand Caussa, the Echo desk lamp is inspired by the shape of a tuning fork! The Echo Desk Lamp features a rounded LED light source that can be swiftly rotated at 360-degree angles for a whole range of lighting options. The head of the lamp can be adjusted along a two-pronged stand, allowing you to change the height of the lamp. The two-pronged stand of the lamp is quite interestingly shaped like a tuning fork.
“No more tedious searching for the light switch on the cable or on the lamp,” said Caussa. “The Echo lamp impresses with its particularly intuitive usage, its cleverly designed modular metal structure, and its iconic appearance.” The lamp features a hidden gesture control that enables users to turn the lamp on and off and dim the light via s simple hand movement.
The Echo Desk Lamp emits a glare-free light and is a versatile lighting design that can be utilized as a table lamp, reading lamp, or ceiling spotlight. The lamp is built from steel and aluminum and is available in a variety of colors such as red, white, blue, and black.
Last month, New York City’s Spring Street Studios transformed into a two-floor creative incubator as thousands of innovative brands, designers, retailers, and entrepreneurs made their way downtown for Foundermade’s Innovation Show East 2023, the East Coast counterpart of the group’s mission-driven celebration of “the brands of tomorrow.” A scouting ground for start-ups, in the past, Foundermade has featured Kickstarter favorites from LARQ to the OURA ring, as well as emerging brands and collaborations.
Foundermade
In addition to moderating a panel on How to Build a Life-Changing Brand That Lasts, we took in a series of fireside chats, met with dozens of product innovators, and walked the floor to learn from cutting-edge makers and thinkers.
Here are some of our favorite trends.
Hikerkind
Inclusive Outdoor Gear
During the height of the pandemic and social distancing, adventure and travel-related products gained new popularity as people rediscovered their backyards – and the great outdoors – with fresh eyes. As more folks laced up their hiking boots or slipped on a wetsuit for the first time, they desired more inclusive adventure gear to fit all sizes, shapes, and genders. At Innovation Show East, one standout creator was HikerKind, a premium women’s outdoor lifestyle fashion and retail brand and hiking community that outfits and inspires women and non-binary adventurers. At Kickstarter, we had also noticed this trend, from Alpine Parrot‘s size-inclusive hiking pants to Snooks‘ snow wear created for women to TOWEL’s mission to produce full-coverage towels for all body types.
NOON
Science-Backed Scent and Skincare
With hundreds if not thousands of skincare and scent products on the market, standing out has never been harder – and necessitates both a package rethinking and innovative formulas. At Foundermade, NOON introduced neuroscience-backed plant-based products while ANATOMY®’s DNA-powered haircare championed the next generation of molecular reconstruction, and 107 presented microbiome-focused skincare made from fermented Korean vinegar. Similarly, on Kickstarter this year, we’ve seen skin serum made from spider DNA, the introduction of BOOST‘s LED and algorithm-powered skincare, and AROMA 59’s solid scent capsules, among other offerings.
Khalo
Spices With A Story
Spices and bespoke condiments have grown in popularity on Kickstarter since the runaway success of Fly By Jing. Heritage and wellness- inspired launches from Homiah, Spicewell (also a former Foundermade exhibitor) and Masaleydaar pointed to the popularity of seasoning with storytelling and a sharp eye for packaging. At Foundermade, this trend was confirmed with a push toward sleek offerings with a message, from Khalo and Dancing Elephant’s ayurvedic eating to WTHN’s minimalist interpretation of ancient Chinese medicinal teas. Interestingly, many of these products were created by those who began in UX, product design, or branding and pivoted during personal reflection points or health issues.
3D Confectionary
Food Tech
Exercise and wellness tech tend to get more fanfare than Food Tech – the use of innovation in everything from cake-making to food prep and storage – but this product area is rapidly growing. One Foundermade exhibitor best capturing this trend was 3D Confectionary, a company that uses custom 3D printing and technology to craft dynamic food creations. Similarly, over the last month, Kickstarter has seen Food Tech projects take off, from Chefdoodler‘s 3D sugar doodling pen to Dreo Chefmaker algorithm-driven fryer to Graphene Square‘s graphene-powered super styler and Kitchen Idea KODY 29‘s personal robot sous chef.
Walden Watches
Watches
At Innovation Show East, we spoke with Walden Watches about the growth of the independent watch community, who pointed to the popularity of analog watches – especially among smaller and legacy makers – as a means to shift away from staring at phones and screens to become more present and creative. Watches have always been core to accessories on Kickstarter. However, we noticed they’d experienced a surge in popularity over the last few years with space-inspired pieces by Xeric, OVD, and Argon and a blockbuster launch from third-generation watchmakers YEMA.
While these were the key trends we’ve noticed both at Innovation Show East and on the Kickstarter platform, we regularly keep our eye on Foundermade’s bi-coastal offerings to discover new brands, learn from industry leaders, and see what some of the world’s biggest retailers are exploring.
If you aren’t based on the East Coast, Foundermade also organizes the Innovation Show West On October 19th in Santa Monica and there are events throughout the year to help purpose-driven brands gain exposure, from pre-revenue to enterprise. Regardless, hopefully we’ll see you next year as we return to scout the top trends of 2024.
Did you see a trend we missed? Drop us a note in the comments.
Furniture made with resin-drenched wool, a modern tea house and an installation showcasing designers pushing for police accountability were on show at Los Angeles Design Festival 2023.
After a four-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles Design Festival (LADF) returned this year, with locations and exhibitions around the city and a central hub at warehouse-turned-retail district ROW DTLA.
There were other primary locations including outposts in the Helms Bakery District and Downtown Long Beach, with programming that included talks by architect Sekou Cooke, design strategist Jaan Orvet and design historian and educator Silas Munro.
Many of the talks focused on issues of equity in design and the rich and complex history of design in Los Angeles.
LADF executive creative director Erika Abrams told Dezeen that she wanted to take a centralised approach to embrace the array of cultures and styles that exist in the sprawling city.
Though a smaller scale than many other urban designer festivals and decentralised due to the spread-out nature of the Californian city, the festival saw exhibitions and openings from a variety of studios and institutions, though not everyone was explicitly involved with the official programming.
RAD furniture marketing lead Katherine Lee said that while the comparisons between New York and Los Angeles abound, the later has a design scene that is rooted in community, which has been supplemented by a large amount of work being shown that was completed during the pandemic and an influx of designers from the East Coast.
“Even before the pandemic, our social lives in LA happened in more private places, either due to the extra space we may have in our homes to host a dinner party rather than go out to a bar, the avoidance of traffic, or just the nature of routine,” Lee told Dezeen.
“That idea of intimate spaces and a desire to reconvene has LA’s eastside designers organizing events, meet-ups, and parties more in the last year than I have ever seen.”
From high-profile galleries like Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery to small studio exhibitions, the work at the festival showcased a variety of designs, many of which used toned-down conceptual designs and natural materials.
Read on for our top picks from this year’s festival.
The photo is by Shin Okuda
Soft Touch and Tea House by Waka-Waka
Designer Shin Okuda of Waka-Waka set up an exhibition at adjacent design consultancy Small Office. The show consists of two distinct elements. The first was a collection of metal furniture with carpet seats made in collaboration with New Zealand rug company Nodi.
The second element was a modern tea house created by Okuda, who was born in Japan. It was constructed from wooden panels specified to be the same size as the traditional Japanese tatami mat and features a series of cloth-covered windows, a sculptural pillar and ansliding door for entrance, as well as a smaller one for delivering tea.
The photo is by Elizabeth Carababas
Chaos by Alexander May
Founder of creative agency Sized Alexander May curated a show at Carpenter’s Workshop Gallery to celebrate the year anniversary of the gallery’s West Hollywood location. For the exhibition, called Chaos, May went with darkly coloured furniture and brutal, industrial art objects.
Included were designs by renowned designers such as Ron Arad, Rick Owens and Victor Barragan. The inclusion of the two later points towards a fashion-oriented approach, as both men are most well-known for their clothing designs.
Also featured in the exhibition was an elegant glass and wood desk by mid-century Italian architect Gio Ponti.
Garden Party by RAD Furniture
Known for their commercial furniture for brands like Warby Parker and Sweetgreen, LA-based manufacturer RAD Furniture launched its first direct-to-consumer lines at Plant Material – a garden supply outlet in the city’s Silverlake neighbourhood.
The pop-up exhibition featured metal furniture meant for residential use painted in a variety of muted tones. Also on show were skateboards made from recycled ocean plastics by the brand’s sister company, Lander.
The photography is by Gabriella Salinardo
Slow Ode by Rest Energy
LA-based designer Caleb Engstrom, a seasoned fabricator, launched his first furniture collection under his label Rest Energy. The collection is called Wet Wool and features a variety of seating typographies and small tables draped in resin-drenched wool positioned alongside sculptural, engraved mirrors.
Engstrom layered the wool over the metal and wood pieces and let the resin harden the wool in the position that it rested in.
The contrast between the hard resin and the soft fabric created an interesting visual effect and strengthens the fabric. Engstrom showcased the selection in a small indoor space attached to the back of his home in Pasadena.
The photo is by Kort Kavens
Object Permanence by Leah Ring and Holland Denvir
In its space in Downtown Los Angeles, design consultancy Denvir Enterprises hosted an auction to support local charities by selling piggy banks created by local designers. The exhibition was curated by the firm’s founder Holland Denvir and Leah Ring of interior design studio Another Human.
It featured a variety of different interpretations of the piggy bank. They ranged from a wooden piggy bank in classic style made by local designer Sam Klemick to a black tower clad with credit cards by Alex Hsu. Other designers involved include Ring as well as Constance Hockaday and Ben Tetro.
Natural Forms by LADF
At ROW, the festival put on a showcase of chairs that highlighted unusual forms and natural materials in an unoccupied showroom. Designs included a small cork seat by Alex Hsu and a chair with a seat made from the trunk of a salvaged California Pepper tree by Alper Nakri.
James Mitchell of Studio Big Moon created a quirky chair with walnut and brass inlays that highlights the flaws in wood, while designer Sam Klemick collaborated with designer Maggie Holladay to showcased novel ways of shaping fabric over wooden forms.
Open Studio by Ceramicah
For the festival, Cermamicah opened up its workshop in Arlington Heights for the public to see a variety of vases and sculptural table lamps. Founded by architects Micah Blyckert and Alexandra Cadiz, the studio creates highly textured works that show the natural quality of the materials.
Objects from the studio’s Raku collection were on display, with elegant and sometimes mottled glazing that gives the effect of wear or decay. While the Shino collection features smooth, rust-coloured lamps with hand-applied lime plaster and graphic detailing.
Black Light by ARRAY
Arts and activism collective ARRAY occupied a gallery space at ROW to host talks and show looping footage documenting its Law Enforcement Accountability Project (LEAP).
Founded by writer Ava DuVernay, The initiative brings together creatives to comment on the need for accountability in policing through awareness and community connection.
The film featured insights into the works of dancers, poets and food artists as they reckon with police violence with their art. The films also shed light on stories of police mispractice and murder that have overlooked by the public.
The photo is by Elizabeth Carababas
Remembrance by Jane Yang-D’Haene
Korean ceramicist Jane Yang-D’Haene had a solo show at gallery Future Perfect‘s Beverly Hill location, which occupies the Goldwyn House mansion designed by American architect Arthur S Heineman.
The collection, called Remembrance, features a series of “furniture-sculpture” that takes cues from traditional Korean roofing.
“In an incredible artistic feat the vessels in this latter series are supersized versions of the artist’s signature moon jar,” said the gallery.
If you grew up in a household where you were reprimanded for “playing with your food”, the idea of putting together toys and food may be either sacrilege or a fun activity to do with your own kids (or by yourself). There are several toys out there that can turn cooking or making food more interesting and even educational at times. The Japanese in particular have a knack for creating things like this which make you wish you had them when you were a kid.
Designer: Takara Tomy
The Ice Da Yo-Yo is a collaboration between the Japanese toymaker and popular brand Sanrio. From the name itself, you can probably tell that it has something to do with yo-yos and ice cream. It’s basically a portable ice cream maker that teaches kids the science of making no-churn ice cream while also enjoying the classic yo-yo. And the reward at the end of the process is that you get to eat the sweet concoction that you made while you were playing.
The thingamajig is made up of two containers. One is where you place the ingredients like the fruit and the milk and the other is where you place ice, water, and salt, the latter of which causes the ice to become colder and help freeze the other ingredients. Then you spend three minutes bobbing the yo-yo until you’re able to finally create ice cream and eat it afterwards.
The Ice Da Yo-Yo features designs with popular Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, My Melody, Cinnamoroll and Kuromi. It also comes with a booklet with different ice cream recipes like strawberry, chocolate, mango, cookies and cream, and even an orange sherbet for the lactose intolerant. It’s something I’d add to my shopping cart if I ever make my way to Japan again soon. Or maybe I’ll just buy my own ice cream and leave it to the kids to study how to make it on their own.
Product designer Annabella Hevesi prototyped this unusual Crosses chair.
Rather than traditionally tufting the upholstery, she’s experimenting with the following technique:
“The motivation for designing this collection was to try a new mechanical joint solution that allows a new approach to shaping the comfort foam. Originally, in the upholstery furniture industry the comfort foam is shaped by cutting or casting it: the first results in a lot of waste and has limits of shape, and the second is extremely expensive and thus only suitable for high-volume production.”
“The new joint solution’s point is that we have some external tools (metal elements are produced by additive technology) that distort and press the foam to reach its final shape. This method reduces waste and makes a mechanical connection among the components instead of gluing.”
That’s just a brief excerpt of Hevesi’s notes; she’s written more of a manifesto on the subject that you can read here.
Hevesi and partner Gábor Bella make up the Budapest-based design duo known as Line and Round.
Well, this is cheeky: A B2B metal fabrication company in Japan called Morpha is selling their off-cuts on the consumer market as objets d’esign.
“These are the leftover lumps after [the usable] parts have been removed,” the company writes. “From the metal scraps produced by our metal wirecutting operations, we’ve picked out the attractive ones from a product designer’s point of view. How about using it as an object to decorate your room?”
Below are the company’s actual captions:
“The central hole has a unique shape with a regular pentagon on one side and a circle on the other.”
“The left and right sides (arc parts) have a glossy finish, and the others have a matte texture.”
“It weighs 236g. It’s the perfect weight for a paperweight.”
While the company says the pieces have been deburred, they also note “This sample has sharp parts…be careful not to injure yourself.”
The guide also features scented candles with a crystal glass container, a vase made from porcelain informed by the architecture of towers and a series of drinking glassware.
Read on to see our top picks of gifts by the design studio of architect Zaha Hadid, and click here to view some of the studio’s projects.
Cell Candleholder with Tapered Candles. Image by Simon Bevan
Cell Candleholder and Tapered Candle
The studio’s Cell Candleholders reference the way that cells multiply and divide in nature, which is reflected in the biomorphic, rounded elements that contain the candles.
“The different heights allow for the candleholders to be grouped together in clusters to create multiple configurations that form a defined tablescape,” said the studio.
The pieces are made from stainless steel and come in a selection of finishes, including silver, PVD black and PVD rose gold.
The candleholders can be paired with tapered candles, which are also available from the studio in multiple colours, including new colour releases rose and mauve.
Shimmer Tea Lights and Scented Candles are made of crystal glass with a polished finish.
“This series has been developed as a continuation of Zaha’s tower geometry research; exploring another scale, this sculptural object is a strong statement on its own and can be clustered together with other objects without seeming out of place,” said the studio.
The collection comes in a range of colours and metallic finishes and scents such as smokey cade, black plum and cedar.
Braid Vase, 37-centimetre height. Image by Simon Bevan
Braid Vase
Braid is a porcelain vase that takes cues from the architecture of towers.
“During the concept development stage, we often look at references that exist in Zaha’s repertoire, more specifically the Braid series reflects our investigation into the nature of the tower form,” said the studio. “The resulting objects are complex and precise, and they were a challenge to produce with this level of detail.”
The vase is available in three different heights – 30, 37, and 45 centimetres – and two coloured finishes: black or white.
Plex is a series of multi-functional vessels made from crystal glass that can be nested together side-by-side or stacked.
The vessels have two parts – one-half transparent and the other frosted – and come in a range of colour choices, including clear, grey, olive-green, amber and the new colour, rose.
The brief on this product is so narrow, it almost seems like a design school project to me. “Assignment: Devise a way to store extra rolls of toilet paper in a bathroom using minimal materials.”
I suppose it may make sense for Japan, which is where this Sogu Hanging Holder comes from; I’ve seen bathrooms there that make RV bathrooms look spacious. Anyways the concept here is that you have no place to put extra toilet paper rolls, and that leaving even wrapped ones on the floor doesn’t jive with fastidious cleanliness principals, so you resort to this:
As you can see, it’s not meant to be used as the dispenser itself—there’s nothing to prevent an unsealed roll from unraveling, as revealed in the “Don’t Do” photo below:
Dezeen Showroom:Italian furniture brand Amura Lab worked with designers Emanuel Gargano and Anton Cristell on a modular sofa with rounded components, which are informed by the smoothed appearance of cobblestones.
The Lapis sofa‘s frameless design and lozenge-shaped cushions give the impression that it has been weathered into shape by the elements, providing a soft and inviting place to lounge.
Lapis sofa’s modules have a rounded silhouette
The sofa’s modularity and sculptural appearance allows it to be configured in a range of ways, from traditional sofa-shaped arrangements to irregular conversation pit-style combinations.
Memory foam padding is intended to help the modules retain their characteristic shape.
The sofa’s absence of a visible frame creates a relaxed impression
The sofa comes in a wide selection of fabrics and leathers, from neutral linen to muted green and blue-toned leathers.
Dezeen Showroom offers an affordable space for brands to launch new products and showcase their designers and projects to Dezeen’s huge global audience. For more details email showroom@dezeen.com.
Dezeen Showroom is an example of partnership content on Dezeen. Find out more about partnership content here.
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.
Foundermade
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Hikerkind
NOON
Khalo
3D Confectionary
Walden Watches
Image: 
Image: 
“The central hole has a unique shape with a regular pentagon on one side and a circle on the other.” 
“The left and right sides (arc parts) have a glossy finish, and the others have a matte texture.” 
“It weighs 236g. It’s the perfect weight for a paperweight.” 
