Hasta La Ideas

Jenny Ekdahl is currently pursuing her Masters degree at Sweden’s Lund University School of Industrial Design. Her Spring 2011 project “Charms & Disguises,” which was recently exhibited at DMY Berlin, is an exploration of the deeper meaning of fairy tales.

This project is about fairy tales that are worth remembering. Stories aimed for adults as well as for children. This project is about fairy tale furniture worth listening to. They tell stories, only to those who wants to hear and is prepared to listen. They tell stories, formed by thousands of years of fairy tale tradition… Written by your own imagination.

The three pieces—”each inspired by the three different genres of original and dark fairytales; folk tales, art fairytales and fables”—capture both the strong sense of imagination behind the folklore and Ekdale’s intuition in translating the uncanny into tangible objects.

For example, “Bye Bye Little Lamb” is a play on the “wolf in sheep’s clothing,” a stool with obvious zoomorphic reference points. The contrast between the brushed aluminum legs and the woolly cushion imparts a further dimension of artifice to the wolf’s limb, disguised among the other three legs.

(more…)

Anyone who has recently moved to New York has probably found themselves face to face with a housing crisis, so to speak, of a very personal sort: the premium on space makes for a very distinct kind of culture shock.

Well, industrial designer William Lee—a recent transplant from San Francisco—decided to do something about it: he’s partnered with Manu Garza of architecture and design studio et al. collaborative to “challenge the limitations of urban space.”

“LEAN” is the first product of their collaboration. It’s a simple, geometric shape that functions as a chair (when placed against a corner) or a coffee table when resting on the ground.

(more…)

Given that Alan Sawyer arrived at luxury automobile interiors and decorative components via furniture design, it is only fitting that his return to furniture production—under the Luzzo Bespoke moniker—was inspired by a classic car. Specifically, he wanted to create a series of executive desks based on “the great classic names in motorsport like Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, Porsche and American Indy cars from the 1930’s.”

Hence, the Bugatti desk:

Luzzo’s first project is inspired by the Grand Prix cars created by Ettore Bugatti, cars like the Type 35 and 59. The beautifully cast aluminium components, French Racing Blue bodywork with its louvres and unique body bolts, honeycomb grille, engine spun dashboard and the use of leather are some of the inspirations for this desk.

From the outset, Alan was not aiming to make a desk that simply resembled a car, but to draw inspiration from the unique aesthetic of the Type 37 Bugatti from the late 1920’s and convey the original concept—if not the period itself—in a newly-designed piece of furniture. (The desk also incorporates details from other Bugattis of the same period, namely the Type 57 and 59.)

(more…)

A little more abstract this time around: unlike the word “Portmanteau” itself, “Fontables” are exactly what they sound like.

Alessandro Canepa and Andrea Paulicelli designed “Fontables” for Paris-based Outdoorz Gallery, who shamelessy describe the work as “a new language in design.” I don’t know if I would go that far, but in the language of design: [Fontables are] produced in a small atelier outside of Milan under the supervision of Alessandro & Andrea.”

(more…)

In the vein of the “tennis court” bench we tweeted yesterday (reason enough to follow Core77 on Twitter), designer Jeremy Petrus presents “Mishmash,” another variation of a sport-alluding bench, a collaboration with Italian bike saddle maker Selle Royal (fun fact: “selle” is Italian for saddle). Yet his inspiration runs deeper still: “Inspired by mash-ups (compositions created by blending two or more pre-recorded songs), ‘Mishmash’ is the result of the combination of two designs: Nelson’s ‘marshmallow’ sofa and Castiglioni’s ‘sella’ stool.”

(more…)