Ceramic artist Emily Reinhardt has given herself a very apt alias: The Object Enthusiast. The Omaha-based creator makes vessels that are part geometric and part organic; looking like something naturally grown, yet with tinge of human interference….
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Le photographe Vutheara met en valeur les œuvres de The Kooples et le Cyklop qui ont crées des vélos au profit de la prévention routière. Des créations uniques, qui seront exposées au Molière puis vendues lors d’une vente aux enchères. Un événement qui sensibilise le public à l’utilisation des équipements de visibilité.
Major holidays are the perfect time to peruse the Cool Hunting Gift Guide, but there are numerous special occasions that fall between which require a particular type of present. To cater to birthdays, anniversaries and other personal days of celebration, we continue to update the online guide and dedicated…
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An Icelandic duo’s first accessories collection references the nation’s most prolific saga with Viking Age materials
Staka marks the first collection in an ongoing series between Icelandic product designers María Kristín Jónsdóttir and Bylgja Svansdóttir, comprising a curious mix of finely crafted unisex leather neck accessories. The aristocratic vibe of each piece stems from the design duo’s concept for the range, which draws inspiration from one of Iceland’s most notorious narratives, the Brennu-Njáls saga. Like all Icelandic sagas, the author remains anonymous, but the extensive storyline is centered around a familial feud which brings the idea of masculinity into question. The designers were also particularly taken by the tale’s leading lady, Hallgerður Langbrók, a femme fatale “who was notorious for her majestic appearance and temperament”, explains Svansdóttir.
Cut and molded from “Viking Age materials”, each piece is designed to tell a story about the wearer’s social status, but the beauty lies in their ambiguity. “We want each person to have the freedom to decide their own story and social status,” explains Svansdóttir. “The responses we’ve gotten so far have been very interesting, people guessing which pieces famous characters from The Icelandic Sagas would have worn, etc.”
Each equipped with their own portfolio of distinct works, the pair met while both exhibiting at Reykjavik’s Spark Design Space. Having bonded over a shared passion for unconventional jewelry and accessories design, they will continue to evolve the Staka line together, adding to the exciting range of unusual statement pieces.
Staka 2012 is available in limited supply at 38 þrep in Reykjavik, which stocks an equally exciting inventory of fashion and design goods.
Designer Kiel Mead gives a colorful new life to wood that has washed ashore
Plucked from the Great Lakes beaches of New York state, each of Kiel Mead‘s wall-mounted driftwood hooks marks a unique expression of his dedication to craft. Mead personally selects, bleaches and stains the hooks individually, telling Cool Hunting that because the approach is so extensive, every piece is like a little labor of love and, consequently, an unforgettable form. “There are several steps to the process so I end up touching each hook about 10-12 times,” says Mead. “During that process I get to know each one personally. It’s sort of silly but I end up picking favorites and imagining where each one will end up. The ones that truly become my favorite don’t ever leave my studio.”
Mead is forever toying with common objects, and some of his most beloved designs reflect this aspect. The American Design Club founder pioneered the movement in accessories to cast everyday items like bubble gum, drill bits and retainers in materials like brass, gold and silver. “I came up with the driftwood hooks simply by running a color experiment in my studio,” he points out. “I had a pile of driftwood that I had been collecting for a few months and I just started to stain the pieces these really great vibrant colors. It was never supposed to be anything. I feel like some of my favorite designs happen purely by accident.”
Mead, who grew up in a town on Lake Erie in western New York, has also always had a “love affair” with driftwood. “We used to collect the most interesting looking pieces and display them on the porch or in my mom’s gardens,” he says. This project centers on his fascination with the contours of each piece. “Although there is nothing genius about a hook on the wall, I think what made me keep doing the hooks and actually giving them life as a product has to do with how each one is so different from the next,” reflects Mead. As a consumer I really appreciate a product like this because it is so personal and one-of-a-kind.”
Stained in 10 different hues, the driftwood hooks are between 7-12 inches in size and sell from Areaware for $25 each. A limited number of hooks will also hit Anthropologie stores this spring, a development Mead is excited about—after all, coming across the hooks in shop, he tells us, will be like reconnecting with an old friend.
The Dutch design wunderkind on putting the human touch to design
Dutch designer Maarten Baas deals in the unexpected. “Beauty and ugliness is something that I find interesting,” Baas explains. “I have the feeling that our sense for beauty isn’t so pure anymore. I sometimes try to shake up the way we see things, to kind of ‘reset’ it.”
His famous series “Hey, chair, be a bookshelf!” repurposes items from second-hand stores into seemingly precarious arrangements, reinforced by hand-coated polyester. Whimsically stacking old chairs and lamp stands, he fuses the disparate group of items that might’ve been called “rubbish” in another incarnation together into a unified structure, with piles of CDs and potted plants peeping out at playful angles.
Even before graduating (he got his degree from Design Academy in Eindhoven in 2002), Baas’ unconventional sensibility was getting attention when his design “Knuckle”—a bone-white holder for various sizes of candles—was already being produced. It didn’t take long from there for renowned design company Moooi to pick up his “Smoke” series, which was shown at international exhibitions and museums like London’s Victoria & Albert, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and at NYC’s gallery and design shop Moss, effectively launching his career.
The particular poetry of these pieces essentially define Baas’ aesthetic core. Eschewing conventional notions of aesthetics and preservation, for each of the unique works in the Smoke series, Baas blowtorches the furniture and preserves them with an epoxy coating, giving them a velvety, matte-black finish that belies its charred, primal appeal. Soon after Groninger Museum in Amsterdam commissioned the young designer to transform an entire suite of antique furniture by fire, and NYC’s Gramercy Park Hotel commissioned several one-off Smoke works, including a billiard table.
From there Baas began collaborating with Bas den Herder in 2005, and the two founded Studio Baas & den Herder shortly thereafter. The studio now produces Baas’ work on a slightly larger scale, though most of the pieces continue to be made by hand according to his own seasonal schedule. “I do industrial design rarely, only if I think the fact that it is industrially made has an added value,” he emphasizes. “I prefer not to make anything, rather than another boring, impersonal product. When we make things in our studio, it literally has fingerprints in the product. It’s human-scale.”
This hands-on approach translates into otherworldly design that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of a Tim Burton film. His 2006 “Clay Furniture” collection is modeled by hand without the use of molds. The dreamlike, vibrantly-colored pieces look as if they’ve been made by a giant child who pinched the delicate arms and legs thin with
awkward fingers. His newest collection, “Plain,” takes this concept and remodels it for
more everyday use, making it more “resistant to scratches and so on,” Baas acknowledges.
Baas’ genius lies in recognizing that that there is more than one kind of beauty. An
attractive woman doesn’t need to resemble a Titian-haired Aphrodite, so why should a beautiful cabinet have to have perfectly straight lines and ornamental woodwork? “I
think the design world is lacking a kind of experimental, expressive part, compared to art, or music, or fashion,” said Baas. “But the mainstream of design is still a compilation of greatest hits, rather than a big room for experiments. So if people are experimenting I seriously don’t consider that as ugly, but as interesting.”
Images by Maarten van Houten
The Audi Icons series, inspired by the all-new Audi A7, showcases 16 leading figures united by their dedication to innovation and design.
Handmade, super-cute knit products from a renaissance woman
It’s a rare thing these days to find a fashion label that truly stands out for originality and design. It’s even less common to find one that is not only made locally but also made by hand by the name behind the brand. ALL Knitwear is lovingly made by Annie Larson, a blogger and knit enthusiast, in her Minneapolis shop. We caught up with Larson for a chat about knitwear, color and tangible inspiration.
ALL knitwear is a one-woman operation. I launched the label and online shop in April 2010 and have updated the selection seasonally since then. All of the pieces are made-to-order by me within two weeks of the order being placed. In addition to producing each piece, I manage all of the photography and website administration. I write every email personally to each customer—it’s always me on the other end!
A.L.L. are my initials, standing for Annie Lee Larson. It also doubles as a description for what you can expect from the label, it’s all knitwear!
I visit many corners of the Internet for daily doses in fashion and culture. I am often inspired by people and personalities and places. I have suddenly become interested in magazines again, craving more tactile inspiration.
In my storefront studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. I have a Brother 910 Electroknit knitting machine, which uses mylar sheets and a special pencil to graph the patterns I use in my designs. Every morning, I wake up at 7:30am, drink coffee, eat oatmeal, write emails, and then knit for the rest of the day. I like to link the pieces together in the evening because it’s a quiet activity and it feels right then.
Currently I am stocked by Dagmar Rousset in Melbourne, Australia, as well as my online store. In the coming months I will also have stock available at the General Store in San Francisco and Douglas + Bec in New Zealand. I have some travel plans coming up in May, and have been starting the process of a potential move to New York City next fall. In between all of that, I will just keep knitting every day.
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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.
