Hasta La Ideas

These necklaces by Canadian studio Ahora Silhouettes display the molecular structures of drugs, allowing the wearer to accessorise with the illicit substance of their choice (+ slideshow).

The Designer Drugs collection by Ahora Silhouettes includes a range of six narcotics, from stimulants such as dopamine and LSD to everyday fuels like caffeine.

“The concept behind Designer Drugs is one of hedonism, indulgence and over-the-top debauchery where, in a fantasy laboratory, both legal and illicit molecular hybrids are created not to be ingested, but worn,” said Ahora Silhouettes founder Tania Hennessy.

The drugs are represented by simplified representations of their molecular structures, sometimes in combinations with one another.

“Creating the necklaces for Designer Drugs was kind of like experimenting with complicated little puzzle pieces to find the perfect eye-catching wearable combinations,” Hennessy told Dezeen. “The individual drug molecules accurately represent their unique molecular structures and were then combined to create visually arresting super molecules.”

Molecules and chemical bonds of caffeine and nicotine are paired up in the Coffee and Cigarettes piece.

Other designs in the series are named Spliff, Candy Flipping, Speedball and Tripping Balls. The Overdose necklace is an amalgamation of all of these patterns into one larger form.

Hennessy told us that she designed the graphics using Adobe Illustrator: “I created a set of rules in Adobe Illustrator to allow me to design pieces that worked within the limitations of the material yet still allowed them to be intricately cut into strong jewellery pieces.”

The stainless steel pendants are finished with either a matte black powder coating with a gun-metal chain or uncoated with a silver-plated chain.

Here’s the text sent to us by Hennessy:

First came Molecular Addictions and now, in Aroha Silhouettes’ latest Designer Drugs Collection, the roof is blown clean off the lab with pieces sure to make you feel like you’re hallucinating. Imagine an alternate reality where unabashed profligacy and depravity could exist without the four day hangover or Breaking Bad consequences.

The concept behind Designer Drugs is one of hedonism, indulgence and over-the-top debauchery where, in a “fantasy laboratory”, both legal and illicit molecular hybrids are created not to be ingested, but worn.

Bringing together the “wearable vices” from the original Molecular Addictions collection and synthesising them to create visually arresting SuperMolecules, the six necklaces comprising Designer Drugs represent a collection of pieces even more stunning than their derivatives.

From the delicate simplicity of Spliff, to Candy Flipping and Coffee and Cigarettes’ understated intricacy, to the strikingly exquisite Overdose statement necklace, each of these unapologetically bold pieces create such a delicious piece of eye-catching neck candy, you’re guaranteed to turn every head you pass.

This fantastical new collection lets you enjoy a spectacular trip in a way that leaves a lasting impression without the icky flashbacks.

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narcotic around your neck appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen Watch Store: six pared-back watches from new Australian watch brand Stock are now available to pre-order at Dezeen Watch Store.

Designer David Tatangelo, a lifelong watch enthusiast and collector, founded Stock in July 2013. The brand is inspired by his personal collection of timepieces and practical designs were created with everyday wear in mind.

So far, the brand has released two collections, the S001 and S002 series, both featuring subtle vintage-influenced details and precise Swiss mechanisms.

The S001 series was Stock watches’ first collection and includes three styles: the S001B, the S001C and the S001K. The S001 is defined by it’s slim case, which measures 7 millimetres, and is designed to fit comfortably on the wearer’s wrist.

Other features include a brushed stainless steel case, a minimal face with printed hour and minute markers and slim hands.

The S002 series, which includes the S002G, the S002R and the S002S, has a slightly larger case, measuring 7.2 millimetres. Each timepiece in this series has an elegant gold finish with the exception of the S002R, which comes in rose gold.

All the Stock watches come with an Italian leather strap that fastens with a stainless steel buckle.

All six models of the Stock watches are currently available for pre-order; orders will be shipped the week commencing Monday 30 December.

Pre-order Stock watches from £140, including free shipping »

You can buy all our watches online; orders for UK delivery before Christmas can be placed until Friday 20 December. And don’t forget you can still visit our watch store pop-up in our north London showroom, which will be open this weekend.

Dezeen Watch Store Christmas pop-up

Place: The Surgery, 100a Stoke Newington Church Street, Stoke Newington, London, N16 0AP
See map
Date: 21-22 December
Opening hours: 10am-6pm (Saturday), 11am-5pm (Sunday)

www.dezeenwatchstore.com

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launch at Dezeen Watch Store appeared first on Dezeen.

Stars made from bent glass tubes like neon signs by designer Pernilla Ohrstedt illuminate the Christmas tree at the Edition hotel in London.

Pernilla Ohrstedt created the glass ornaments to decorate the fir tree in the lobby of the London Edition. “This is the first time that Edition has done a Christmas tree so they wanted to do something really different,” Ohrstedt told Dezeen.

She created sixteen stars each bent from one eight-millimetre-diameter glass tube. Their pointed three-dimensional forms appear different from various angles.

The tubes are filled with argon, a Noble gas similar to neon, which gives off a blue light when electricity is passed through.

“I wanted to contrast the 60-year-old tree with something really contemporary and the argon feels really radical,” said Ohrstedt. “One of the most successful elements of Edition is the lighting. The blue is so radically different that it contrasts and compliments the space.”

Ohrstedt worked with argon and neon sign specialist Nick Malyon to form the stars in his workshop. “Neon signage is a real cottage industry,” Ohrstedt commented. “All you need is the gas, a glass and a flame, but also a lot of skill.”

The twenty-foot tree and its stars will be displayed in the hotel lobby until the new year.

Elsewhere in London, baubles designed by celebrities including Zaha Hadid, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mary J Blige are on display in The Shard until they are auctioned off this weekend.

Photographs are by Jamie Smith.

Here’s some more information sent to us by Ohrstedt:

Christmas arrives at the London Edition

The London Edition is delighted to unveil its first Christmas tree, designed by Swedish designer Pernilla Ohrstedt in collaboration with Nikki Tibbles. The giant 20-foot pine tree (Abies Nordmanniana) features 16 bespoke three-dimensional argon-filled stars created by Ohrstedt exclusively for Edition. With its simple yet elegant design the tree blends perfectly with Edition’s sophisticated design sensibility.

The delicately bent glass stars, produced by Nick Malyon, are lit by argon gas to produce a silver blue line of light. As you move around the tree the stars gradually change their appearance and light.

“The London Edition is both classic and cool and the 60-year-old living tree lit purely by Argon stars embodies just that,” commented Pernilla.

Pernilla’s previous works include Coca-Cola’s pavilion for the London 2012 Olympic Park, set design for Topshop and Antipodium and window displays for Colette.

Nikki Tibbles commented: “The brief from Ian Schrager was ‘Traditional with a modern twist’. I’m absolutely delighted with the finished design. Its traditional meets modern art at its best. It has been an absolute pleasure working with Pernilla whose Argon Stars are simply mesmerising. From having worked with Ian Schrager for over 15 years, it is the first time ever installing Christmas in any of his hotels, which makes this collaboration even more special.”

The Christmas tree will be on display in the lobby until the New Year.

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Christmas tree in London hotel appeared first on Dezeen.

Italian design brand Arper is to relaunch a limited edition version of a bowl-shaped chair designed by late Modernist architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1951 (+ slideshow).

The Bowl Chair features a metal frame with four legs supporting a ring into which the upholstered seat is inserted. The seat can be swivelled in the frame to allow for more upright or reclined seating positions, with loose cushions enhancing the design’s flexibility. It will be produced in black leather and a range of coloured fabrics.

Bo Bardi, who was born in Italy in 1914 but moved to Brazil in 1946, designed the chair during a period when she was living in São Paulo and working predominantly on the design of products and interiors.

She subsequently established herself as a prominent publisher, curator and architect, responsible for important projects including the São Paulo Museum of Art and the SESC Pompeia cultural centre, also in São Paulo.

Luigi and Claudio Feltrin of Arper explained that their intention in relaunching the chair is to highlight Bo Bardi’s significant legacy: “In doing this, we wish to give the Bowl Chair and Lina’s way of thinking a future. The limited edition creates a link between the past and the future.”

Working with the Instituto Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi, which owns the copyright to the architect’s designs, Arper developed the new chair based on Bo Bardi’s sketches and a pair of original chairs from 1951 – one produced in black leather with a metal frame and the other with a transparent plastic shell and bright red cushions.

Research suggested that the production techniques specified by Bo Bardi would have relied on artisanal methods. With guidance from the Instituto, Arper identified ways to recreate the shape and comfort of the original design using modern manufacturing methods.

The chair’s bowl, which was originally made from heavy hand-forged iron, is now produced in plastic to make it lighter and flexible enough to fit the foam and fabric to the frame.

Arper attempted to standardise the processes used to manufacture the chair so it can be reproduced accurately in a limited edition, embodying its designer’s philosophy of combining industrialised production and individualised objects with improved interaction.

Bo Bardi’s sketches show the chair and cushions in different colours and finishes that could be configured in myriad combinations and Arper is developing a broad palette of colours that reflects the influences of Italy and Brazil on Bo Bardi’s oeuvre.

A single edition of the new Bowl Chair featured in the exhibition Lina Bo Bardi: Together, dedicated to the designer’s life and career that was presented at the British Council in London in autumn 2012. Arper also presented the design and details of the production process at its Milan showroom during this year’s Milan Furniture Fair.

An official launch event for the Lina Bo Bardi Bowl Chair will take place in London on 29 January 2014.

Since the exhibition in London there has been a resurgence in interest in Bo Bardi’s work and British design brand Izé recently announced it had begun producing door handles she designed for her home in São Paulo.

Here’s some more information about the relaunch of the Bowl Chair:

The Bardi’s Bowl Chair manifesto

In London, 2012, the exhibition “Lina Bo Bardi: Together” imagined by the creative troika of curator Noemi Blager, filmmaker Tapio Snellman and artist Madelon Vriesendorp and sponsored by Arper celebrated not only the products but the creative practice of the Italian-born architectural free-thinker.

Why did Arper enter into partnership with the Instituto Lina Bo and P.M. Bardi to recreate and produce an edition of Lina Bo Bardi’s famously iconic but never industrialized Bardi’s Bowl chair? Quite simply because we share the same values and ideals: we believe in design to create meaningful dialogue.

Designed in 1951 in Bo Bardi’s adopted home of Brazil, the Bowl Chair is an icon of Lina Bo Bardi’s adaptive style. Balancing the worlds of industrialized fabrication and the individualized object, Bo Bardi envisioned the Bowl Chair as flexible in structure while universal and essential in form. But, as with all of Bo Bardi’s designs, the ultimate emphasis remains on the human interaction with the object.

These qualities are what we aim for in every Arper collection. We appreciate the optimism and expression of everyday objects that allow us to put them to work and express our opinions and ideas at the same time.

We believe in design as an agent in conversation and conviviality, a conversation starter between form and function, a corporation and its clients or our personal reality and our ideal selves. We believe in design as an essential language to connect the past to the present and remind us what matters.

Lina believed that to standardize – to create adaptive open systems that are simple, sensual and alive – was to create potential. And we do too. And so, we introduce the Lina Bo Bardi Bowl chair.

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Bo Bardi’s Bowl Chair appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese studio Nendo has redesigned the humble chopstick, creating six new versions including one with a profile that looks like a flower (+ slideshow).

Nendo collaborated with a traditional manufacturer of lacquered chopsticks from the town of Obama in Japan’s Fukui Prefecture to produce a range of contemporary designs that provide novel twists on the style, materials and functionality of the ubiquitous product.

“Obama’s lacquered chopsticks have been recognised as the hardest and most beautiful of Japanese lacquer chopsticks since the seventeenth century, when they became known as ‘Wakasa-nuri’,” said the designers.

“We designed new chopsticks in collaboration with Hashikura Matsukan, a manufacturer who continues Obama’s traditional manufacturing techniques today.”

The Hanataba chopsticks feature grooves in the broader end that increase the surface area and improve grip. The grooves create a shape on the end that resembles a flower and can be painted different colours.

The tips of the Jikaoki chopsticks are carved to a thin point so they avoid touching the surface when placed on the table.

Instead of applying pattern to the surface of the chopsticks, the Sukima design creates the shape of playing card suits in a gap between the sticks.

The wood is carved into different shapes that produce the negative form of hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades when the sticks are placed next to each other. An aluminium core is embedded inside the wood to compensate for the weakness created by the carving.

A gap in one side of the square-shaped Kamiai chopsticks enables the two pieces to snap together when not in use.

Magnets placed on the outside of the sticks hold them in place but stop them sticking together while eating.

The traditional udukuri process of carving away the surface of wood with a wire brush to reveal the grain, lacquering them and polishing them again to show the lacquer embedded in the grain was used to create a set of chopsticks with the same name.

A simple twist carved into the end of the Rassen chopsticks, produced using a combination of a computer-controlled milling machine and handcrafted processes, enables the two pieces to slot together as one piece.

All of the designs will be sold exclusively at Seibu departments stores in Japan from spring 2014.

Photography is by Akihiro Yoshida.

Here are some more details about the project from Nendo:

New chopsticks for Hashikura Matsukan who continues traditional manufacturing techniques known as “Wakasa-nuri”

For four centuries, the town of Obama in Fukui Prefecture, Japan, has manufactured lacquered chopsticks. Obama’s lacquered chopsticks have been recognised as the hardest and most beautiful of Japanese lacquer chopsticks since the seventeenth century, when they became known as ‘Wakasa-nuri’. We designed new chopsticks in collaboration with Hashikura Matsukan, a manufacturer who continues Obama’s traditional manufacturing techniques today.

Hanataba

Round chopsticks are slippery to use, but overly square-cornered ones aren’t as comfortable to hold. We explored ways of increasing the surface area of chopsticks in the hand, as a way of improving holding comfort, and discovered the natural form of the pleated cross-section.

When viewed as a cross-section, the chopsticks look like flowers, so a bunch of chopsticks kept together into a cup turns into a ‘bouquet’.

Jikaoki

The firm’s expert artisans carefully carved away the chopsticks’ tips to fine points, so that they float above the tabletop when the chopsticks are laid down for cleanliness, even without chopstick rests.

Sukima

The world is full of patterned chopsticks, so we wondered if it wouldn’t be possible to create pattern in the space between the chopsticks. We came up with four patterns: hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. The two chopsticks are carved into different shapes for all patterns but the diamonds, but it’s possible to use one of the diamond chopsticks as the top chopstick with a spade, or the bottom chopstick with a heart, for a total of four different patterns from the four different chopstick pairs.

The carving made the chopsticks so thin that they weren’t strong enough with wood alone, so we embedded a carved aluminum core in the wood to solve the problem.

Kamiai

We put a gap on one of the four sides of the square shaped chopstick,and embedded a magnet, so that the two would snap together in one piece when they are flipped and fitted to each other.

We placed the magnets towards the outside of each chopstick, so that the chopsticks don’t come together accidentally while someone is using them to eat.

Udukuri

We used the udukuri process, in which the wood surface is carved away with a metal brush, leaving only the hard wood grain, then lacquered the chopsticks and polished them again to bring out the wood grain as pattern.

The traditional technique, in which materials clamshells, eggshells and gold leaf are applied with the lacquer then polished away to reveal a pattern is known as ‘togidashi’ (literally ‘to polish and show’), and is particular to Wakasa-nuri. Unlike patterns drawn by hand, this combination of processes allows patterns from nature to appear organically.

Rassen

Chopsticks ordinarily come in pairs, but the rassen chopsticks are a single unit.

They’re separated into two for eating, then rejoined into one form when not in use. We used the artisans’ hand skills and a multi-axis CNC miller to create these unusual chopsticks.

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to redesign chopsticks appeared first on Dezeen.