Inspiré par les peintures de natures mortes des 16ème et 17ème siècles, l’artisan néerlandais Vladi Rapaport a imaginé une collection de produits appelée Vanitas. Parmi les différentes pièces, ce superbe Skull Chair au design très réussi, disponible en 2 coloris et qui propose une forme de crâne.
For our final look back at 2013 we wanted to take a more quantified view. This interactive data visualization shows CH’s most commonly used keywords as bubbles inside a ring of our main content categories. The sizes of each element reflect the number…
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Dutch designer Richard Hutten has created a conference table that can easily be converted for a game of ping pong.
The Ping Table by Richard Hutten for furniture brand Lande features a drawer in each end to contain the two white bats, balls and a detachable net that clamps onto the edges of the table top.
“In the morning you can work on it solitarily, then use if for lunch with your colleagues, or have a meeting of up to ten people, followed by a game of table tennis,” said Hutten.
“Our work is a big part of our lives and a part of who we are,” he continued. “Due to the digitalisation of society, we are always ‘on’, so it is important to take a break and have fun. Design is traditionally about solving problems. I don’t solve problems, I create possibilities.”
He explained that the product is good for body and mind because it encourages play and activity during the day. “A game of table tennis clears the mind, which eventually leads to increased productivity,” he said.
The table is made of beech and features a walnut inlay to mark out the field for table tennis, but also divides the surface into four workspaces.
The pared-back design is meant to make it suitable for residential or industrial environments. It’s made by craftsmen in the Netherlands and measures 240 by 120 centimetres.
The post Richard Hutten designs combined
conference and ping pong table appeared first on Dezeen.
News: a survey of UK design and digital agencies has revealed annual increases in salaries and bonuses that indicate a recovery from the financial crisis affecting the design industry, though unpaid internships and free pitches are still on the rise.
The survey compiled by branding specialist Fairley & Associates, recruitment agency Gabriele Skelton and marketing firm On Pointe Marketing examined working conditions in digital and design companies, with its key findings indicating that “UK digital and design agencies may be emerging from the economic difficulties of recent years”.
According to the survey, 42.4 percent of employees received a pay rise in 2013 compared to 21 percent the previous year, while 27.7 percent received a bonus compared to 10.7 percent the previous year.
Pay increases are rising at a higher rate than inflation, with 73 percent of respondents who received a raise stating that it was more than 3 percent of their salary and more than a tenth enjoying pay rises of over 10 percent.
“This is the first evidence we have that the industry is in recovery, as despite the pressure from clients to do more for less money, agency leaders are awarding their staff pay rises and bonuses,” said Rachel Fairley, MD of Fairley & Associates.
However, 42.5 percent of respondents agreed that “agencies are using more unpaid interns”, though less than four percent of them judge fellowships and internships to be the best form of training. “This suggests that the perceived increase in the use of unpaid interns may be more about using cheap labour than developing the talents and skills of those entering the industry,” said the report.
The survey also revealed that many clients still expect agencies to pitch ideas for free, with 36.2 percent of the agencies polled claiming the number of free creative pitches requested by existing clients has increased since 2007, and 49.3 percent saying that the number of free pitches they’ve submitted for prospective clients has risen.
The survey of of 576 people also found that 53.7 percent of staff plan to change jobs in the next year, which represents a drop from last year’s result of 59 percent.
Attitudes towards training and development were also polled, with 40.5 percent of employees claiming they were disappointed with the support and opportunities for professional development provided by their agency.
The report is published annually by Design Industry Voices and is in its third year.
A recent survey by the Royal Institute of British Architects found that the annual workload of British architects increased for the first time since 2009.
Image of British currency is courtesy of Shutterstock.
The post Pay rises and bonuses suggest better
times ahead for UK designers appeared first on Dezeen.
Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek has created a collection of furniture made by meticulously gluing together tiny squares of wood, which are cut from the waste material of his famous scrap wood furniture.
Piet Hein Eek made his name in the 1990s for his Waste furniture assembled by stacking up pieces of scrap material that would otherwise be discarded, and the new Waste Waste 40×40 collection takes the process a step further.
“It’s made of the leftovers from the leftovers,” he told Dezeen when we visited his studio and workshop complex in a former Eindhoven ceramics factory during Dutch Design Week.
Small pieces of timber that can’t be used in the Waste series are cut down into identical squares of 40 by 40 millimetres. These are then glued together to cover the surface of chairs, tables and benches.
“We all of a sudden have a size which determines the design,” explained the designer. “Everything is determined by this 40 by 40 size, so the thickness of the surface is either 40 or 80 and the leg can be either 40, 80 or 120 in width.”
“A round table can’t be round any more and it ends up looking a lot like pixels,” he added. The pieces are made from a mixture of timbers and retain traces of different lacquers and paints on the surface, meaning no two pieces are ever identical. Each object will be numbered consecutively.
Piet Hein Eek began making the Waste furniture as a result of his frustration at having to throw away material because it was too expensive to use it for anything – not because the material itself was worthless but because the cost of labour should make the extra effort required to work with differently shaped and sized scraps of material uneconomical.
He decided to use the material anyway, pretending for a moment that labour was free and materials were worth their weight in gold, and found to his surprise that the products were commercially viable because customers were willing to pay for the extra effort involved.
“As opposed to almost any other product, the waste products are made with the patience of a saint, quite a feat considering this is an age in which time is a rare commodity for pretty much everyone,” he reflected.
The original Waste series is made by gluing up scraps of wood in layers, carefully aligning all the irregular pieces and trimming them individually to fit where needed.
This process leaves behind waste material in smaller quantities and even more awkward shapes that are more difficult to use, though, so Piet Hein Eek reduced the labour required to convert them into the new collection by imposing the fixed shape and size of the squares and using them only as a skin rather than stacking them up to make a structure.
The post Piet Hein Eek uses offcuts from his scrap wood
furniture to make Waste Waste 40×40 appeared first on Dezeen.
According to the Chinese zodiac, the year of the wood horse promises opportunities and victories, adventures and even surprising romances—if you’re willing to take chances like the free-spirited, spontaneous animal. Although the Standard Hotel’s 2014 calendar has set the bar high in terms of creativity and good laughs, we’ve…
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Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Annemiek van der Beek has designed a collection of makeup that’s packaged to appeal to men (+ slideshow).
Called Primal Skin, Annemiek van der Beek‘s collection is designed to camouflage small imperfections in the complexion and accentuate the eyes.
“These days men are using more cosmetic products than before and even makeup is a more common topic,” the designer told Dezeen. “For women wearing makeup is a daily ritual and for them it’s much easier to use and buy it because of the big range of products. This new branding experience makes makeup accessible for the modern man.”
The set includes foundation in five colours, powder in five colours, eye pencil in stone black or coal black and eyeshadow in three shades of grey.
The cosmetics are made up of natural ingredients such as coal, clay and mineral stones, and must be applied with specially designed tools that van der Beek says give the experience “a rough and sturdy touch.”
Compacts and brushes are made of black anodised aluminium. “I chose aluminium because the weight and the temperature of the material feels more manly to hold,” she explained.
They come packaged in minimal boxes with rounded corners, made of black-pigmented MDF that van der Beek chose “because it looks like stone, but it is very lightweight.”
“Makeup products are always focused on the female user, but I think a guy wants to experience makeup in a different way,” she added.
Annemiek van der Beek presented the project as part of her graduation show at the Design Academy Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week.
The post Primal Skin makeup collection designed
for men by Annemiek van der Beek appeared first on Dezeen.
Dezeen has teamed up with London department store Selfridges to present a futuristic concept store, featuring an augmented-reality watch store and a walkaround digital model of Zaha Hadid’s £300 million superyacht (+ slideshow).
The Jazz superyacht designed by Hadid for German shipbuilder Blohm + Voss (pictured above) will be the biggest and most expensive item ever sold at Selfridges.
Visitors will be able to explore an augmented reality scale model of the 90-metre yacht using a tablet computer. A representative of Blohm + Voss will fly over to London to discuss purchase options with potential customers.
The installation is part of The Imagine Shop, which opens on the ground floor at Selfridges on Monday 6 January and runs until 2 March as part of the Festival of Imagination – a store-wide festival that will “explore the nature, power and positive impact of imagination”.
Curated by Dezeen, the Imagine Shop will showcase future-facing products and explore how augmented reality could be used in future to create an immersive retail experience.
Large items like cars, yachts or houses can be experienced virtually, existing only as digital models on a tablet or smartphone, but anchored to a physical location via a 2D “marker” pattern that tells the software where to place the object. This means customers can walk round, and even through, objects as if they were really there.
As well as the yacht, the shop will feature an augmented reality Dezeen Watch Store pop-up, where customers will be able to virtually try on a range of watches.
By wrapping a paper “marker” around their wrist and looking at a screen, customers will see the watches modelled on their wrists in real time.
Other products on sale in the store will be grouped in three categories: Future Beauty, featuring objects that express a futuristic aesthetic; Future Life, including new product typologies we may use in the future; and Wearable Technology.
“Dezeen has long been a rich source of reference and inspiration for the creative teams at Selfridges, and we’re delighted to finally be collaborating with them on such a uniquely imaginative project,” said Linda Hewson, director of creative and windows at Selfridges.
The augmented reality technology has been provided by London 3D technology company Inition. “Inition is excited about the opportunity bringing our emerging technology production experience to present a world-acclaimed architect’s designs in a retail setting,” said Inition producer Ainsley Henn.
He added: “Being able to walk around a spectacular Zaha Hadid yacht as it ‘floats’ in front of you is very different to flicking through a traditional brochure. As far as we are aware, this is the most expensive retail item to be promoted in such a way.”
Festival of Imagination is at Selfridges, 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB from 16 January. The Imagine Shop is open from 6 January.
The post Dezeen’s Imagine Shop at Selfridges features
augmented-reality watch store and Zaha yacht appeared first on Dezeen.
This floor lamp by Japanese designer Yasutoshi Mifune leans backwards to cast light at an angle.
The SOSO lamp by Mifune Design Studio is made of sheet steel. It has a triangulated base that tapers as it rises into a bent-over pyramid with one curved edge, which allows the lamp to tilt at an angle of 30 degrees.
“I wanted to make a floor lamp which has different forms depending on the angles and directions in which it is seen, by changing its inclination,” Mifune told Dezeen. “When this lamp is used, the lamp’s body, the floor and the ceiling are lit by the reflection of its own light.”
A cylindrical lamp shade is supported off-centre at the top and contains a fluorescent light source.
The post Floor lamp that tilts backwards
by Mifune Design Studio appeared first on Dezeen.
Here’s a full set of images showing the Jazz superyacht Zaha Hadid is designing for German shipbuilders Blohm+Voss, including new interior shots (+ slideshow).
Hadid first designed a concept for a 128-metre yacht, which informed the design of five 90-metre vessels called Unique Circle yachts.
These will retain the sinuous design aesthetic of the original, but be pared back and engineered by Blohm+Voss to meet the technical specifications required for ocean crossings.
The first 90-metre craft in the range, shown here, will be the Jazz yacht.
It will feature a sharp solid prow, becoming more open towards the back where terraces and lounge areas will be sheltered by curving forms.
Zaha Hadid Architects say the five Unique Circle yachts “creatively explore the design philosophies of the master prototype within the technical requirements of a fully engineered yacht design.”
The remaining four boats will be customised according to the needs of their owners.
The post More images of Zaha Hadid’s
Jazz superyacht appeared first on Dezeen.
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