Hasta La Ideas

London designer Paul Cocksedge has launched a set of circular bike lights on Kickstarter that can be locked to a bicycle by slotting them over a standard lock (+ movie).

Cocksedge said he wanted to design a stylish light that also confronts issues associated with theft and glare resulting from light sources that are too bright.

“I’ve used many bike lights but I feel some things could really be improved,” the designer explained. “The inspiration for Double O comes directly from the shape of the bicycle. I wanted something that almost looked like the bike had designed it itself.”

The round lights feature a polycarbonate shell with a robust silicone backing housing 12 LEDs that are more spaced out than the densely arranged ultra-bright bulbs used by many other bike lights.

Cocksedge said this configuration produces a bright glow that is less dazzling for other cyclists and car drivers. “We use more LEDs at less power, which means the harshness is gone but the brightness hasn’t,” he said. “There is no compromise, you can see and be seen.”

A button on the back of the light enables the user to switch between steady, flashing and eco modes.

The lights contain magnets that allow them to clip onto a bike mount when in use and snap together to protect the LED surface when they are removed from the bike.

Once attached to one another, the two lights can be slotted over a typical D-lock and locked up with the bike so cyclists don’t need to carry them around.

Cocksedge has launched a campaign on crowdsourcing website Kickstarter aiming to raise £75,000 to fund prototyping, tooling and manufacture of the product.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Paul Cocksedge launches the Double O bike light on Kickstarter

Today Paul Cocksedge Studio® launches its second innovative design on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter. Following on from the success of the Vamp®, Paul has this time turned his attention to bike lights, creating a product that will revolutionise the market and provide an intuitive and practical solution for cycling enthusiasts and leisure users alike. Cycle safety was a crucial element in the design and the resulting product is a simple, safe and secure light for everyday cycling.

Double O, named after its distinctive shape, is inspired by the form of the bicycle and the fluid motion of cycling. Double O attaches magnetically to the bike-mount supplied, making it super easy to get on and off, minimising any fiddling that gets in the way of the flow of cycling. It consists of two ‘O’ shaped lights, one white light for the front, one red for the back. When not in use, these magnetically connect together to protect the LED face.

One of the most common problems with bike lights is the safe keeping of them whilst a bike is locked up. The unique shape of the Double O allows users to thread the lights through a D lock and leave them secured along with their bike, eliminating the need for cyclists to carry their lights around with them.

Most existing bike lights use ultra-bright LEDs which are packed too closely together. This causes a very bright light which is blinding for car drivers and approaching cyclists. Double O tackles this issue by using 12 LEDs which are spaced out creating a bright yet soft glow, enabling cyclists to be seen without dazzling others. The light has three modes: steady, flashing and eco which can be changed via a push button.

Double O is made from a polycarbonate shell with silicone backing and is extremely robust and hardwearing. Bike lights come in all shapes and sizes but none as practical and as stylish as Double O’s. These powerful lights are very likely to be the last ones you’ll ever need to get for your bike and also do away with batteries as they are USB chargeable.

Paul Cocksedge says: “As with so many people, cycling is an essential part of my life, and cycling safety is crucial. I’ve used many bike lights but I feel some things could really be improved. I wanted to design a bike light and the inspiration for Double O comes directly from the shape of the bicycle. I wanted something that almost looked like the bike had designed it itself.”

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slot securely around a D-lock appeared first on Dezeen.

London designer Paul Cocksedge’s first solo exhibition, at Friedman Benda in New York, features a table folded from a single sheet of steel (+ slideshow).

Paul Cocksedge‘s Capture exhibition at New York City’s Friedman Benda gallery includes two new pieces by the designer.

The first is a table made from a curved Corten steel sheet, which balances on one end and curves back on itself to create the top.

The half-ton sheet folds at an angle so the top and base point in different directions.

His second new design is a large black domed lamp, which glows with a white light across the entire 1.6-metre-wide base.

Hand-spun from aluminium, the hemisphere is tilted to direct the light at an angle.

Capture opened last week and continues until 12 October. Also in New York, the retrospective on the life and work of Le Corbusier at MoMA finishes next week.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

See more design by Paul Cocksedge »
See more architecture and design exhibitions »

More information from the gallery follows:

Paul Cocksedge: Capture

Friedman Benda will present Paul Cocksedge: Capture the British designer’s inaugural solo exhibition, 12 September – 12 October 2013.

Capture will introduce new works developed by Cocksedge over the last four and half years that push the mediums of light and structure, including a large-scale light installation, a collection of dramatic, seemingly impossible, hand-wrought dome lamps, and Poised, a series of unyielding steel tables inspired by the delicacy of paper. Known for exploring the limits of technology, materials, and manufacturing capabilities, Paul Cocksedge Studio has produced both commercial and experimental work, as well as a series of high-profile public installations around the world. Capture finds Cocksedge presenting a new series of concepts informed by his studio’s commitment to technological ingenuity, expanding the boundaries of physics, and the creation of works that are both thought provoking and unexpected.

The works include Capture, a 1.6-metre hand-spun aluminium dome that appears to “hold” the peaceful glow of a warm white light. The piece is informed by a process of reduction – a recurring theme in Cocksedge’s work – as it subtracts the typical infrastructure around light, instead creating a hemisphere that seems to stop light from escaping.

For White Light, Cocksedge will create a room within the gallery in which everything and nothing changes. For this work, the designer will create an illuminated mosaic of precisely calibrated and positioned coloured panels on the ceiling of the gallery. The ceiling will slowly fade from a spectrum of colours to a warm white light, while the room itself will remain unchanged, demonstrating the ways in which we do and do not perceive the interplay of colour and light.

The inspiration for Poised comes from the elegance and amenability of paper. Half a ton in weight, the steel table appears improbable upon investigation. Created following an intensive series of calculations regarding gravity, mass, and equilibrium, the table looks as though it is about to fall, but is perfectly weighted and stable.

In addition to these new works, Cocksedge will present three architectural models that take conceptual threads from Capture and White Light and reapply them to architectural settings outside of the gallery space. Central to Cocksedge’s work is an appreciation for the ways in which people respond to and interact with his designs. As a result, potential real world applications of these new works will be explored in a series of architectural models.

The post Capture exhibition by
Paul Cocksedge appeared first on Dezeen.

In the last movie of our Seven Designers for Seven Dials series, designer Paul Cocksedge demonstrates what happened when passers-by called the floating illuminated phone number he installed for the project curated by Dezeen.

“What I’m inviting Londoners to do is to phone [the number] and as soon as it rings it begins to flash and you are in direct contact with the piece,” says Cocksedge.

While the installation was in place during last year’s London Design Festival, anyone could dial the number and the voice of actress Joanna Lumley would answer, inviting the caller to text “smile” to the five digit number that appeared from the original.

She explained that texting gives one pound to children’s charity Barnardo’s and when someone donated the lights changed again and a smile appeared.

Dezeen commissioned seven young designers to create seven installations to hang above the streets of Covent Garden during last year’s London Design Festival, and Cocksedge’s installation was located on Mercer Street.

This is the final movie in our series about Seven Designers for Seven Dials in which each designers describes their installation – see them all here.

Photography is by Mark Cocksedge.

The music featured in the movie is a song called Blue Sapphire by Remote Scenes. You can listen to the full track on Dezeen Music Project.

See all our stories about Paul Cocksedge »
See all more about Seven Designers for Seven Dials »
See all our coverage of London Design Festival 2012 »

The post “The floating illuminated telephone number
had no explanation” – Paul Cocksedge appeared first on Dezeen.

Hey Paul, mi piacerebbe capire come funziona il tuo portalibri invisibile.

London Design Festival: we’ve recorded each of the Seven Designers for Seven Dials explaining their aerial installations curated by Dezeen and compiled them on an interactive map of the area. Click on the icons in the image above to explore pictures and audio for each project.

Structures by young designers Faye Toogood, Vic Lee, Paul Cocksedge, Philippe Malouin, Aberrant Architecture, Gitta Gschwendtner and Dominic Wilcox are installed above the streets of the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden, London.

There are little exhibits on each one at our pop-up shop Dezeen Super Store at 38 Monmouth Street, where you can still get 10% off any Dezeen Super Store purchase (excluding sale stock and Jambox) and enter our competition to win a designer watch worth £150 by downloading this flyer and presenting it at the shop.

Dezeen has also put together a free map to chart all the events at this year’s London Design Festival. Explore the large map here.

The Seven Designers for Seven Dials installations will be in place until 5 October and Dezeen Super Store is open until 30 September.

See all our stories about the London Design Festival here.

Above: 7 x 7 by Faye Toogood – hanging high above the heads of passers-by on Monmouth Street, Faye Toogood’s installation is a series of 49 outsized workers’ overcoats, representing the different trades within Seven Dials that have shaped the area over the years.

Above: Aerial Escape by Gitta Gschwendtner – German-born designer Gitta Gschwendtner has also taken inspiration from the area’s slum history, when each of the seven apexes facing the Seven Dials monument housed pubs linked by underground escape tunnels. In Gschwendtner’s installation, seven interconnected ladders link two windows either side of Earlham Street to seemingly provide an escape route across the road and beyond.

Above: The Birds of Seven Dials by Dominic Wilcox – London designer Dominic Wilcox has created an arch across Neal Street made out of empty bird cages, symbolising Charles Dickens’s description of Seven Dials as a place full of bird shops. Each cage is left open to symbolise the memory of the bird shops and birds long departed from the street.

Above: Catchpenny Quackery by Aberrant Architecture – Aberrant Architecture’s installation consists of 18 large metallic coins hanging above the street. Each coin features a unique symbol that advertises one of the bogus products and services that used to be offered by quack doctors in the Seven Dials area in years gone by.

Above: Bunting by Philippe Malouin – Philippe Malouin has erected a giant installation of bunting made from transparent PVC to celebrate and highlight the Seven Dials area and its landmarks. Blown by the wind, the sixty bunting lines point the way to the Seven Dials monument.

Above: Illustrations by Vic Lee – London-based illustrator Vic Lee has created a series of flags that draw on the shady history of the Seven Dials area. The illustrations incorporate the old street names during the 17th and 18th centuries, a time when Seven Dials was a slum famous for its gin shops.

Above: Dial by Paul Cocksedge – Paul Cocksedge has suspended a mysterious interactive installation called Dial, consisting simply of a large floating telephone number suspended between two buildings. Only those curious members of the public tempted to call the number will discover its secret.

Photographs are by Mark Cocksedge.

Dezeen’s London Design Festival map

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The map above is taken from Dezeen’s guide to the London Design Festival, which lists all the events going on across the city this week. We’ll be updating it over the coming days with extra information on our highlights so keep checking back. Explore the larger version of this map here.

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audio guide appeared first on Dezeen.