Here’s a fun and visually interesting take on the stackable stool. Called Viille, it’s by Finnish furniture designer Ari Kanerva.

“The stool is stackable and consists of only two parts, it’s made of molded wood with a turned solid wood leg.”

The images above are obviously renderings, so I assumed it was just a concept. However, Viille is in fact in production, by Swedish furniture manufacturer Balzar Beskow. No price is listed, but the stool is offered in Ash, Birch or lacquered finishes.

Dezeen School Shows: a wearable healthcare device for those with diabetes and a tool to aid reading are included in Dezeen’s latest school show by students at Middlesex University.

Also included is a water-boiling appliance designed to reduce energy and water consumption, and an augmented reality headset created for football training.

Middlesex University

Institution: Middlesex University
School: Faculty of Science and Technology
Course: BA Product Design/BEng Product Design Engineering
Tutors: Kate Herd, Andy Bardill, Wyn Griffiths, Ahmed Patel, Neil Melton, Dean Brown, Patrick Jordan, Tom Stables and Colin Moss

School statement:

“Product Design and Product Design Engineering at Middlesex University are practice-based programmes focused on employability.

“Both the BA and BEng programme are driven by our passion for understanding people and technology; exploring innovative solutions driven by real opportunities and addressing challenges faced by both industry and society.”

Insightful: See it, Hear it Immerse by Jesufunke Martins

“In an era of advancing technology, reading for pleasure has declined, adversely impacting general wellbeing and diminishing attention spans and creativity.

“Insightful seeks to change this by revolutionising the experience of reading. Combining generative music, optical character recognition and eye-tracking technology, Insightful generates unique, dynamic soundtracks that synchronise with the user’s reading journey, adapting to the content and pace of the reading.

“As readers immerse themselves, Insightful creates ambient melodies and sound effects, intensifying the emotional connection to the text.

“Integrated eye tracking adds an interactive element, responding to the reader’s focus and engagement. Insightful redefines the way we engage with books, igniting imagination, fostering understanding and prioritising the user’s wellbeing and enjoyment – an insightful way of keeping the joy of reading alive.”

Student: Jesufunke Martins
Course: BEng Product Design Engineering

Glu: The next generation of diabetes healthcare by Dhruv Mohabir

“4.9 million people in the UK have diabetes with a further 13.1 million at risk.

“Glu is a wearable, supported by an app, that uses a state-of-the-art non-invasive blood glucose monitoring system to support healthy lifestyle choices.

“Conceptualised around theories of behaviour change, the system visualises, offers feedback and nudges people about their food and lifestyle choices and the impacts on their body.

“The wearable device uses the metaphor of jewellery, removing the stigma of a healthcare device.”

Student: Dhruv Mohabir
Course: BA Product Design

Aura: Illuminate, capture and share your experience by Faaiza Ali

“Customisable, visual experiences that capture unique moments using photography have become an important component of celebratory occasions.

“People build the perception of their events and personalities through sharing on social media.

“Aura is a product/service designed to enhance the guest experience by providing an interactive, visually captivating activity and memento. Participants create self-portraits enhanced with digital overlays using a light painting tool and the Aura system.

“The wand features programmable LEDs that produce mesmerising patterns through controlled sequences of illumination.

“By utilising long exposure photography, the dynamic light paintings and users become part of the photograph, resulting in memorable images.”

Student: Faaiza Ali
Course: BA Product Design

Mundum: Connecting Cultures by Javier Ortega De Vicente

“Mundum is a temporary structure that houses an immersive experience. Mundum showcases the rich spiritual traditions and folklore of the ethnic and religious minorities that are linked to sacred groves around the world.

“It is designed to be a temporary and non-invasive structure made of bamboo poles joined with sustainable polymer connectors.

“The aim is to give a voice to these minorities and to promote the protection of the biodiversity and cultural legacy of the sacred groves.

“Visitors will be able to experience augmented reality projections of the spirits, deities, or ancestors that are central to the folklore of these sacred woods.”

Student: Javier Ortega De Vicente
Course: BA Product Design

Hapticz: Immersive feedback for e-sports audience interaction by Michelle Agyepong

“Over 250 million people watch e-sports annually, however viewers miss the collective, visceral experience of a shared live sports crowd.

“The e-sports players/streamers are fully immersed in their gaming world, while the viewers watch through a passive portal.

“The Hapticz system creates a customisable wearable that embeds the viewer into the active, interactive, immersed state of the player, enabling them to ‘feel’ the action and connect with other viewers in that shared experiential state.

“Hapticz is a system built around haptic feedback modules that represent the on-screen action – through jittering, pulsing and directional vibrations.”

Student: Michelle Agyepong
Course: BEng Product Design Engineering

Sense: Feel More, Fear Less by Victor Ewa

“Personal safety for solo pedestrian travel can be a concern. Sense combats this through safety information and enhanced digital community connection and support.

“Designed to be discreet, Sense pairs personal information with crowd-sourced data and recent localised crime statistics to map potential threat levels within a given area.

“Sense is a directional haptic system that suggests safer route options, and its sensors allow users to trigger an emergency response alert by squeezing the device tightly, notifying the authorities or personal contacts.”

Student: Victor Ewa
Course: BEng Product Design Engineering

Setz: From DJs for DJs by Khy Martinez

“This project helps aspiring DJs enjoy and capture the dimensions of live DJ sets to support them in learning and developing their own skills and styles.

“The innovation lies in the use of sound recognition technology and dynamic wave analysis compiled into a single application.”

Student: Khy Martinez
Course: BA Product Design

Focus One by Ramsey Haider

“Penalties are often regarded as one of the most challenging tasks in football. The pressure of the consequences of missing a penalty can be overwhelming, especially in a penalty shoot-out situation.

“Focus One is an AR headset and app that simulates these high-pressure situations, helping immerse players during training and providing data to enhance performance.”

Student: Ramsey Haider
Course: BA Product Design

ShutterMate by Sahar Ali

“The need for sustainable and practical solutions to combat the effects of climate change is becoming more urgent by the day.

“ShutterMate is a post-fit, self-powered, passive system employing temperature sensitive smart materials to automatically respond to temperature changes.

“Nitinol springs linked to a rotational actuator activates a shutter system on windows to block and thereby control internal room temperatures.

“This makes it sustainable, cost-effective and low maintenance. The core technology can be embedded in customisable and modular shutter configurations.”

Student: Sahar Ali
Course: BEng Product Design Engineering

Kettle: a pour-to-boil domestic appliance reducing water, energy and economic waste through heat exchange technology by Harry Miller-Adams

“Three-quarters of British households overfill their kettles, wasting 70 million litres of water daily and £68 million annually whilst preparing tea.

“Kettle. is an innovative pour-to-boil appliance providing instant hot water through the use of sophisticated high-surface, lattice structural heat exchanges, integrated vacuum flask housing, microcontroller technologies and modularity capabilities.

“The Kettle’s optimisation and efficiency provide not only pour-to-boil functionality but financial, environmental and personal benefits.”

Student: Harry Miller-Adams
Course: BA Product Design

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Middlesex University. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Ten product design projects by students at Middlesex University appeared first on Dezeen.

Promotion: new furniture and accessories feature in the Outdoor 2023 catalogue by Gandia Blasco, which is presenting its collections together with those of younger subsidiaries Diabla and Gan for the first time.

The Outdoor 2023 catalogue unifies the three brands, which have separate characters but share values and an aesthetic grounding in the architectural language of the Mediterranean, according to Gandia Blasco.

The new products are created by a number of designers, including Patricia Urquiola, Todd Bracher and Sebastian Herkner, Jose A. Gandia-Blasco, Francesco Meda & David Quincoces, Alejandra Gandia-Blasco, Paula Valentini and the brand Gensler.

Across 400 pages, the Spanish group explores its history and shares some of its standout residential and contract projects, with photography that attempts to show outdoor spaces in dialogue with their architecture, environment and interior design.

“Our purpose is to consolidate our positioning as a reference in the outdoor field by combining three very different and authentic but fully compatible styles,” said Gandia Blasco vice-president, Álvaro Gandía-Blasco.

“Gandia Blasco Group collaborates with very talented designers who have been able to perfectly interpret the style of our brands and have helped us to evolve and improve in recent years. All this has contributed to the recognition and differentiation of the company.”

Gandia Blasco was founded more than 80 years ago and remains a family business, now run by members of its second and third generations.

It started its primarily indoor brand Gan in the 1980s to develop home textiles, and Diabla in 2018 to take a more fresh and youthful approach to outdoor design.

At the heart of the group remains the Gandia Blasco brand, which has the most architectural offerings among the brands and includes designs by Luca Nichetto as well as the Mass collection by Todd Bracher and Isla by Sebastian Herkner.

The brand is led by group president and creative director José A Gandía-Blasco Canales, who nurtures in it a strong aesthetic connection to the island of Ibiza and the broader Mediterranean vernacular.

“The Gandia Blasco collections, based on unique construction systems and a commitment to modularity, are characterised by their strong link with architecture and the creation of living spaces,” said Gandía-Blasco Canales.

“In recent years we have included smaller collections with an important R&D component and other semi-industrial or handcrafted processes, such as the award-winning Buit by Mayice, Capa by Søren Rose, and the new R24 by Paula Valentini.”

Gandia Blasco said it takes a more “casual and creative” approach to the design of its proposals for the now five-year-old brand Diabla, which is focused on experimentation and exploring new lifestyles.

Its previous collaborators include other young design studios like Mut Design, Teres Sapey and Made Studio, with new products in the 2023 catalogue coming from Odosdesign, Rocío Gambin, OiKo Design and Samuel Wilkinson.

“Diabla is born from the dozens of proposals received over the years, from the new ways of understanding the habitat, from the nomadic life marked by the new generations, which it interprets with an inspirational, jovial and casual attitude, without fear of colour,” said Diabla creative director, Alejandra Gandía-Blasco.

Completing the trio of brands in the 2023 Outdoor catalogue is Gan Outdoor, the outdoor division of Gan focusing on rugs and textile-covered elements.

The brand is known for manufacturing in India, where it prides itself on working closely with artisans with the goal of renewing handmade ancestral techniques. Among the recent launches in the catalogue are designs by Patricia Urquiola, Charlotte Lancelot and Kensaku Oshiro.

“The innovation in design, materials and handcrafted manufacturing techniques that is part of GAN’s DNA brings out its freshest, lightest, liveliest and most resistant side with Gan Outdoor, a line designed for the most multifunctional and inviting oases,” said Gan creative director, Mapi Millet.

To learn more about the catalogue, visit the brand’s website.

Partnership content

This article was written by Dezeen for Gandia Blasco. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

The post Gandia Blasco launches Outdoor 2023 catalogue with Gandiablasco, Gan and Diabla appeared first on Dezeen.

Absolut has announced they’re rolling out paper-based bottles for their vodka. Tesco, a UK supermarket chain, will sell the 500ml bottles in the Manchester area for a three-month trial this summer. Absolut says the molded bottles are “100% bio-based” and “made from 57% paper with an integrated barrier of recyclable plastic.”

The bottles are made by Paboco, the paper bottle pioneer that also makes beer brand Carlsberg’s paper bottles. Paboco describes their bottles as being 85% paper, with the HDPE liner making up the other 15%. (We assume they’ve bumped the HDPE liner up to 43% for Absolut’s custom bottle to prevent the hooch from eating through it.)

Despite the plastic contents, Absolut claims that “Customers can simply recycle the packaging as paper through normal household waste.” It is not clear how this works.

Since both glass and paper can be recycled in the UK, you may be wondering why they’re bothering with paper. Well, the paper Absolut bottle is some eight times lighter, the company says, which perhaps reduces shipping costs. It also certainly makes it easier for the consumer to carry, like in a backpack at Glastonbury. “Absolut believes consumers will use the paper bottles,” they write, “in out-of-home occasions such as festivals.”

Humans today have become dependent on machines in more ways than one, whether they realize it or not. From the vehicles that get us to work and back to the smartphones in our pockets to the contentious AI that’s making headlines, our daily lives are affected and influenced by machines in all shapes and sizes, even those we can’t see. While humans created machines as tools of convenience, our relationship with them hasn’t always been sunshine and roses. Some people have even taken an antagonistic outlook on these man-made objects, especially when those machines threaten our way of life or our very lives. At the same time, however, man’s innate curiosity also gives way to awe, wonder, and sometimes even joy, expressions that are conveyed in these images that were aptly generated using the help of a machine.

Designer: Emilio Alarcón

Of all the modern technologies that are generating debates in all walks of life around the world, AI is probably right at the top. Although the concept has been around for decades, recent developments that have made the technology more amazing but also more concerning because of the implications of the misuse of highly advanced AI. Hollywood and popular media further exacerbate the situation, causing an almost negative bias against new machines in general.

“Machines that listen to human conversations” is a collection of images that try to turn the narrative around on its head in a poetic and almost subtle way. It is also poetic, but perhaps also a bit controversial, that the realistic-looking photos were generated using the popular AI platform MidJourney. Of course, it is just a tool like any other, and the iterative art process was still initiated, guided, and judged by human creativity.

The photo set revolves around scenarios where steampunk-like machines are literally inserted into the midst of human life. Sometimes they’d be in the middle of streets or sidewalks, while there are times when they’re attached to human heads. In some cases, the machines are left alone, but most of the scenes show humans interacting with the objects. Although the theme is explained as machines observing, listening, and accompanying humans, it is also as much about humans interacting with the machines with curiosity, wonder, and even delight, a stark contrast to the emotions generated whenever AI gets mentioned in the news.

There is also some poetic irony in how these images are the very examples of why AI is getting such negative publicity. If not for the artist’s own explanation, few would have realized that these are AI-generated images. These programs have come so far to the point that only very discerning people will be able to notice the difference. At the same time, however, the photos also express the reasons why machines can also bring us joy, piquing our curiosities and giving us more ways to interact and experience our world.

The post AI-generated photos put a poetic twist on the relationship between man and machine first appeared on Yanko Design.