Hasta La Ideas

Product news: Swiss designers Big-Game will present new products including a coat hanger, a tray and a hammer  in Milan next month.

Called Everyday Objects, Big-Game‘s show at Galleria 70 will feature Cargo, a collection of items for Italian brand Alessi that were inspired by the aesthetic of Swiss toolboxes from the 1930s. There’s a pair of small trays for storing anything from tools to stationary, plus a hammer with an ash handle.

For Japanese brand Karimoku New Standard, the designers have produced the Castor table to match their earlier Castor chair and stool.

The Castor tables come flat-packed and once assembled can be easily stacked. The round legs sit level with the tabletops at each rounded corner, so the tables can still be placed side-by-side.

Also on show at the exhibition will be Beam, an aluminium and ash coat hook that borrows its form from the peg rails in American Shaker houses. Beam is designed for Danish brand Hay.

Previous Big-Game projects featured on Dezeen include a series of cork toy boats launched in 2011 and the Bold chair from 2007 (below), which will also be shown as part of the Everyday Objects exhibition. See more design by Big-Game on Dezeen.

Everyday Objects will take place at Galleria 70, Corso di Porta Nuova 36/38, from 9 to 14 April.

Photography is by Michel Bonvin.

Here’s some more information about each product from Big-Game:

BIG-GAME presents new everyday objects for Alessi, Hay, and Karimoku New Standard.

BEAM coat hanger, prototype for Hay

We were always fascinated by the peg rails found in American Shaker houses. Instead of hiding the mess, they somehow make it manageable. So when we were asked to think about something that could be in entrances, we readapted this idea with a metal profile. You can slide in the amount of hooks you want. It can be short or long depending on where you want to put it. You can also leave a note on it.

CARGO box, prototype for Alessi

A while ago, we were asked by Alberto Alessi to design “anonymous Swiss objects”. As a reference, he gave us the classic 30’s Swiss metal toolboxes.

Our idea was to make some universal plastic containers with a wooden handle, bringing the functionality of toolboxes to the home. The CARGO boxes can be used to store all kinds of things, from stationery to sewing gear, tools to kitchen stuff.

CARGO hammer, prototype for Alessi

As a part of the series, we also made a simple hammer (everybody needs one at home).

CARGO catch all, prototype for Alessi

Along with two boxes and the hammer, the CARGO series also includes a circular catchall tray inspired by the traditional Japanese wooden carrying boxes called okamochi.

CASTOR chair, product for Karimoku New Standard

To design the CASTOR chair, we were inspired by the ergonomics of the wooden chairs that you find in old Swiss cafés that are famously very comfortable. It’s made in Japan from solid oak by a company called Karimoku New Standard. The wood comes from trees that have irregular shapes and generally end up as paper pulp. The company’s motto is: An object made of wood has to live at least as long as the tree it was made from.

CASTOR tables, prototype for Karimoku New Standard

Part from the chair, the CASTOR family also includes a stool, a bench, a shelf, and two tables. The tables are designed to be flat packed. Even though the feet are on the outside, the round edge has just the right dimension so you can put two tables together. We made them compact, as we wanted them to fit into various sized interiors, as well as cafés and restaurants. The tables stack, and the rectangle is twice the size of the square, so it’s easy to assemble them in various configurations.

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by Big-Game appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: the lids of these pans by New York designer Karim Rashid have large, brightly coloured hooks for handles.

The lid handles fold over so they can be grasped easily and latch onto a rail system mounted on the kitchen wall.

The handles of the black aluminium pans have holes in and sit under the lids when stored away, allowing them to hang together from the same rail.

Unveiled by Italian cookware brand TVS at Ambiente 2013 in Frankfurt last month, the cooking set includes a frying pan, sauté pan and sauce pan, all with a choice of handle colours.

New York designer Karim Rashid has also designed a sofa with modular arms and headrest and renovated the metro station for the University of Naples.

See all our stories about designs by Karim Rashid »
See all our stories about homeware design »

Here’s some more information from TVS:

Hook by Karim Rashid

“The kitchen is the busiest room in any house and contemporary architecture is increasingly making it a feature point, a reception area in the home. This is why the cookware range needs to and can be integrated as a part of the design progress, going on to become the true focus of the room as well as representing the heart and soul of the person who uses it every day.”

He has travelled the highly imaginative universe of “the pan that isn’t there” on a mission for TVS. Karim Rashid, legendary design star with ambitions to change the world (one of the most prolific minds of our time, with over 2000 industrialised designs for interiors, fashions, furnishings, lighting, art and music) that go straight to the heart of our emotions.

And moving on from the simple axiom above, in which today’s new humanism sets the home at the centre of our personal universe – and makes the kitchen the pulsing heart of the home – the result is a curious, irresistible Captain Hook.

Yes, Hook. That is the name of the brilliant new invention by TVS, which has transformed high-gauge aluminium into a complete range of exclusive cookware, with a rich communication potential.

A jaw-dropping effect, created by hanging the pans from the wall using the patented hanging rail and hooks plus eccentric handles in a mix of colours to contrast with the body of the pans. A range that is young at heart, built to be at the centre of any dj – sorry, cooking – set.

Essential, young looking and handy. With its magnetic feel, Hook connects to our lifestyle, bringing with it a large dose of good humour. Space problems are solved and really, all it is missing is a “share” button. TVS fans, modern Peter Pans flying over their lives with the gift of ubiquity, mp3 player in their ears and a wooden spoon in place of a sword, will be thanking Karim as they go.

The post Hook pans by Karim Rashid
for TVS appeared first on Dezeen.

Israeli ceramics designer Shlomit Bauman combined white porcelain with the very last batch of clay from a local pit to make these stretched and distorted objects (+ slideshow).

The objects in the Ran Out collection combine porcelain with a type of Israeli terracotta that has almost been used up completely.

“The local authorities realised that mining this clay would cause it to become completely extinct, so they closed the mine,” Shlomit Bauman told Dezeen. “I bought that last ton of clay from the suppliers.”

Bauman turned a variety of everyday objects into moulds, including a mobile phone, a television and a megaphone.

Two of the moulds – a teapot and a fish – were salvaged from a ceramics factory in Tel Aviv that had closed down in the 1990s.

Bauman then combined the moulds by casting them one on top of the other or by attaching them after casting. “The broken appearance is a result of the different shrinkage characteristics of the materials,” she explained. “But for me, it symbolises the distortion of the process of trying to mix two different cultures together.”

Bauman teaches ceramic design at Holon Institute of Technology in Israel.

Other similar designs we’ve featured include a set of crockery made from roughly carved moulds and a project to make tableware from muddy clay found on the banks of the River Thames – see all ceramics.

Here’s some more information from the designer:

Ran Out is a ceramic design project that raises a discussion concerning the extinction of natural resources, of conception or objects that are running out. The project brings together local clay – a ceramic material that ran out in Israel and abroad (S5), and porcelain – the fashionable and noblest ceramic material. This project makes use of historical molds and materials from closed Israeli ceramic factories.

The different characteristics of these materials in cultural, technological and formal terms result in contrast, cracking and distortion of objects. This creates a tension between the desire for likeness and connection, and the exposure of the differences and the distorted. These works deal with the loaded field of the extinction of natural, cultural and personal resources.

Shlomit Bauman is an Israeli ceramic designer that relates to the ceramic design field as a “cultural research lab” by dealing with cultural, technological and traditional aspects. Along her work she explores the methods and strategies of action in the wide context of material culture. Her creative activity covers many fields that include design, art, education and curation as a way of life.

The post Ran Out by
Shlomit Bauman appeared first on Dezeen.

The asymmetric fringing on these wool rugs by Swiss designers Dimitri Bähler, Linn Kandel and Ismaël Studer makes them appear to pop out from the floor like drawings of 3D shapes.

Fanions, which means ‘fringes’ in French, is a collection of rugs intended to look like “extruded 3D shapes”, according to designers Dimitri Bähler, Linn Kandel and Ismaël Studer.

“We used the fringes in a modern and graphical way,” they said, adding that the material was cut with a CNC machine.

We featured Bähler’s storage set for stationery last December, while two years ago in Cologne we reported on Kandel’s tables inspired by electricity pylons.

The rugs were shortlisted in the [D3] Contest for young designers at imm cologne, which was won by Swiss industrial designer Lucien Gumy’s interlocking wooden shelving.

Other rugs we’ve featured lately include a rug decorated by squeezing bottles of paint over it and an installation of dozens of rugs in a Barcelona square – see all rugs.

We reported on lots of products launched in Cologne this year, including paper clip-like desk lamps and a table with a cross-shaped notch that holds magazines – see all products from Cologne 2013.

See all homeware »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Fanion is a project by Dimitri Bähler, Linn Kandel and Ismaël Studer

The starting point of our project is the traditional rug and its details. Especially the fringes; Fanion in french. For that project, we used the fringes in a modern and graphical way. Their direction creates an illusion. The rugs become extruded 3d shapes.

The felt (made of pure wool) provides the rugs different qualities; the colors are very deep and the material, dense, is easily processed by the cnc cutting machine. Thanks to that material, Fanion gives also a warm atmosphere impression. Simple and direct, Fanion is a contemporary vision of the traditional rugs.

The post Fanions by Dimitri Bähler, Linn Kandel
and Ismaël Studer appeared first on Dezeen.

Product news: Dutch designer Pepe Heykoop has created a paper cover to turn any glass jar or bottle into a faceted vase, sold to help impoverished women in Mumbai make a living.

Each Paper Vase is handmade by the women of the Pardeshi community in Mumbai’s red light district. The workshop was founded by Pepe Heykoop and the Tiny Miracles Foundation, which was set up by his cousin. “The ultimate goal is to pull this 700-person community out of poverty by providing healthcare, education and jobs within eight years,” says Heykoop.

The vase is made of coated paper and comes in white or graduated green colour blocks. It’s transported in an envelope and can be rolled down to fit different sizes of bottle.

Heykoop is known for his philanthropic design work and previous projects with the Tiny Miracles Foundation include lamp shades made from a patchwork of lambskin and traditional water carriers covered in leather. See all our stories about design by Pepe Heykoop.

Other similar vases on Dezeen include one made from a thin curl of synthetic paper and another folded from a flat sheet of cardboard. See all our stories about vase designs and all our stories about paper designs.

Photos are by Annemarijne Bax

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Pepe Heykoop appeared first on Dezeen.