Hasta La Ideas

Greek designer Yiannis Ghikas has created a 3D-printed vase with a ribbed surface decoration inspired by science fiction special effects that show creatures moving under a person’s skin.

Starting with the outline of an archetypal vase, Athens-based designer Ghikas added a three-dimensional decoration to one side to create the impression of something pushing through the surface from inside.

“I was always impressed while watching science fiction movies when a foreign organism or a parasite was moving underneath the skin of a human being, altering its smooth surface with its own form,” said Ghikas.

The use of 3D printing enabled the designer to create a shape that transitions from a smooth to a ribbed surface.

Ghikas added that the shape also references the metallic blades that emerge from beneath the skin on the hands of comic book character Wolverine.

“I wanted to incorporate these striking movie images discreetly in this specific object, adding a ‘mutation’ that gradually appears and disappears and aesthetically disturbs its smooth surface,” the designer explained.

The ridges increase in depth towards the middle of the vase, enhancing the sense of its surface being stretched from within.

The vase is printed from ABS plastic by 3D printing firm Shapeways.

Photography is by Giorgos Vitsaropoulos.

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has a sci-fi surface pattern appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: the second project debuted by London studio Doshi Levien for Danish design brand Hay this year is a collection of mirrors with geometric shapes resembling jewels.

The 13 different mirrors in Doshi Levien‘s Maya series are produced in variations on diamond, oblong, octagon, almond, drop and circular shapes that can be combined to create unique wall installations.

“The shapes are coming from a meeting point between Indian tribal culture and modern geometric abstraction,” Jonathan Levien told Dezeen. “The forms were thought of as jewels for the wall, as constellations or sentences of different shapes.”

Combining the mirrors in different configurations allows the user to create arrangements comprising practical and decorative elements.

“The larger mirrors are designed to offer face-height reflections, whereas the smaller ones are like satellites to accompany the larger mirrors, or to be used in numbers simply to bring glimmering light into the space,” Levien added.

Doshi Levien originally designed the mirrors in 2012 for a room they curated as part of an exhibition called India Art Now at Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen.

The mirrors were installed on a wall opposite portraits of famous Indian icons displayed in similarly shaped frames and were intended to “bring the steely grey sky of Denmark into the space.”

The designers showed the mirrors to Hay, which chose to add them to its collection and now produces them from laser-cut glass set in pressure die cast aluminium frames with a black powder-coated finish.

Doshi Levien also created a chair for Hay with a curving shell that references the shape of a traditional Japanese paper fan.

Both projects were presented by HAY during last week’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

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for Hay appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: designers Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva collaborated to create a ceramic tableware collection to accompany a porcelain coffee set, for an exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi.

The Cheburashka table set for ceramics company Dymov was designed by Luca Nichetto and Lera Moiseeva to enhance and reinterpret the ritual sharing of food.

A large collective container has oversized handles and a lid that when placed upside-down becomes a flat surface for the serving spoon, which can also hang from either handle.

Two smaller bowls complete the set and can be stacked upside-down on top of the main container’s lid, creating a totem shape for storage.

Hand-engraved lines on the surface of the ceramics resemble a fishing net, appearing to wrap the containers.

“Cheburashka” is the ancient Russian word for the floats used by fishermen to support their nets and also the name of a popular big-eared Soviet children’s character, who bears a resemblance to the main container in the collection.

After being formed on the potter’s wheel and dried, the surface of the red clay pieces are polished using a hard smooth surface to close the pores and shine the material.

The pieces are fired at 950 degrees and then smoke-fired in an air-tight kiln filled with smoldering embers of wood chips and sawdust.

A chemical reaction allows the clay minerals to absorb the smoke and gives the products their dark appearance. Finally, the objects are polished using natural beeswax provided by local beekeepers.

Cheburashka was exhibited as part of the Walk the Line exhibition at Spazio Rossana Orlandi in Milan last week.

The set was paired with Nichetto and Moiseeva’s Sucabaruca porcelain coffee range for the Mjölk gallery in Toronto, which was designed with the similar principal of enjoying hot drinks with others.

“The idea is to show that the same kind of approach can create two objects that are completely different, one in porcelain and the other in ceramic, but with the same kind of energy and the idea of sharing with guests,” Nichetto told Dezeen at the exhibition.

Photography is by Lera Moiseeva and Luca Bragagnolo.

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tableware for shared meals appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: Japanese designer Jun Murakoshi’s tableware features patterned thread tops that create a geometric lattice for supporting flowers.

Tokyo-based Jun Murakoshi has created a collection of vases and fruit bowls called Bloom. The blown-glass tableware pieces feature small grooves on their edges, which allow thread to be criss-crossed over the tops in a geometric pattern.

“Blown glass has a feeling of both warmth and tension that looks like conflicting image,” said the designer. The glass was hand-blown by three young glass artists: Shunji Sasaki, Takeyoshi Mitsui and Emi Hirose in Toyama, Japan.

“The narrow lines create unlimited patterns, the transparency and exquisiteness that each materials possess make foil each other,” said the designer.

Flower stems can be threaded through the small gaps between the strings or rested in the larger hole in the centre of each piece.

Different coloured threads are used in combination to creating variations in the rings across the tops of the pieces, which are available in a range of sizes.

The tableware was exhibited in the Ventura Lambrate district of Milan last week. Photography is by Kota Sugawara.

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tableware by Jun Murakoshi appeared first on Dezeen.

Milan 2014: Dutch designer Hella Jongerius is launching her first range of rugs as the newly appointed design director for Dutch firm Danskina (+ movie).

Showing at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, the collection includes six designs, four of which are by Jongerius. Her designs are called Bold, Cork&Felt, Duotone and Multitone.

“A rug is a two-dimensional product,” Jongerius said. “There is no construction needed, just an expression of yarn and colour. A Danskina rug has clear colour concepts, the colour and texture on the floor is very important in giving a space a certain atmosphere.”

Each design is created using a different mix of techniques, materials and colours. According to senior designer at Danskina, Edith van Berkel, Duotone took the longest to design. “We worked on this fabric for a longer time. We thought it was interesting to make a nice balance of colours. It was made with a flat woven carpet warp in one colour and weft in the other so that the design appears in squares.”

In contrast, the hand woven Bold design is created by using just one piece of wool yarn that is dyed in two different colours. This makes the two block colours in the rug appear to grip one another.

The Cork&Felt design is the only unwoven design, instead made of assembled strips of cork and felt. The strips appear randomly in the design making each rug unique.

The Multitone rug started out as a colour blanket to see how colours mixed and was not supposed to be in the collection at all. “We thought the colours worked so well that it deserved a place in our collection,” said van Berkel.

The other pieces in the collection are two hand-knotted designs by Dutch designer Karin An Rijlaarsdam.

The rugs will be on show in Pavilion 16, stand D20 at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan until 13 April.

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and colour” with rugs in Milan appeared first on Dezeen.