Hasta La Ideas

No more searching around for a pencil sharpener in the bottoms of pen pots or backs of drawers: this waste-paper bin by Korean designer Giha Woo has a sharpener in the lid so it’s waiting right where you need to use it.

Called Circle or Dot, the trash can has a large circular aperture in the top for normal waste and a tiny hole (or dot) to push pencils into the sharpener, so the shavings fall directly into the bin below.

Woo’s design also allows you to conserve your efforts for more essential work in the studio by honing your pencils with just one hand.

It might prevent colleagues walking off with your pencil sharpener too, unless it’s the sort of office where your whole bin tends to go missing and mysteriously reappear beside another desk, in which case you’re robbed of two items in one fell swoop.

If that doesn’t float your boat, check out our stories on a wooden bin that’s burnt along with its contents or a waste-paper basket with layers of liners like cup-cake cases or a very minimal version here.

Other projects by Giha Woo include an MP3 player combined with an electrical plug, a clock with batteries in place of hands and another clock with a single spiralling arm to indicate the time in cities around the world.

Here are some more details from the designer:

The lid of trash can has one circle and one small dot. The waste is thrown through the large circle and it sharpens the pencil with the small dot. And the pencil waste is automatically thrown into the waste can.

Recently, people do not sharpen pencil that much. But when they need to sharpen the pencil, the pencil sharpener is hard to find. The pencil sharpener in recent day is not really used that much that it is not available when needed. This is the waste can that is attached with the pencil sharpener on the lid.

This is the design needed for all the time but is the design for certain moment of occasional use. The infrequently used pencil sharpener does not have to be splendid looking. It does not need to show itself off to take certain space either.contains the dynamic relationship of reduced value of pencil sharpener and new environment.

“Silversmith” sounds like a stodgy profession steeped in history and the old way of doing things, but UK-based Charlotte Tollyfield has made a career out of breathing new life into the craft. Tollyfield—whose official job title is “Designer Silversmith”—pushes silver to its limits, using traditional techniques of press-forming and spinning to create modern forms intended more for utility than decoration. As she writes:

My current work is designed for the interactive environment of the dining table where the silver is not just on display but also something to be actively used. The work has both a visual and tactile appeal, causing the viewer to look with their hands as well as their eyes. To me an object is not complete until it has fulfilled its role so a sugar bowl is not a sugar bowl until it has had sugar dispensed from it.

Pictured up top are her Square Pot Pourri Bowl and Tri-Bowl #2; below, her Interchangeable Octagonal Napkin Rings/Tealight Holders and Whiskey Tumblers; and bottom-most is her Square Teapot, a newer creation for which she recently won the Best New Merchandise Award at the prestigious Goldsmiths’ Fair in London.

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Dezeen Space: today Canadian designer Philippe Malouin brings his bowls made of waxed concrete to our micro-exhibition Dezeen Platform at Dezeen Space.

The 1:4 bowls were one of eleven products produced by different designers in response to photographs of a fictional character named Vera, which Dezeen featured in a story earlier this week.

Called Vera, Chapter One, the project was curated by Kirsty Minns and Érika Muller (KM and ÉM) and was presented in a west London basement during the London Design Festival.

Precise measurements were necessary to produce each bowl’s concrete components, similar to the regular cake-baking that Vera’s mother is imagined to have done.

Each day, for 30 days, a different designer will use a one metre by one metre space to exhibit their work at Dezeen Space. See the full lineup for Dezeen Platform here and see all our stories about the work on show here.

See more about Dezeen Space here and watch interviews with exhibitors on Dezeen Screen.

Dezeen Space
17 September – 16 October
Monday-Saturday 11am-7pm
Sunday 11am-5pm

54 Rivington Street,
London EC2A 3QN

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Pia Wüstenberg at Dezeen Platform	Denis Guidone at Dezeen Platform	Thomas Feichtner at Dezeen Platform

London Design Festival 2011: British company Another Country presents its second range of furniture together with a new chair and collection of accessories at designjunction this week.

Series Two features a dining table, benches, coffee table and sideboard made from ash and walnut with metal detailing.

All the pieces can be dismantled to make transportation more straightforward.

Two young British designers have created new ranges of accessories including Simon Donald‘s desktop tools in lime wood.

Donald has also designed a desk clock that complements the forms of the Series One furniture – see our previous story

Ian McIntyre has created a range of ceramics including a jug, pinch pot, plate bowl and cup.

The pieces explore the properties of different clays including industrial terracotta, stoneware and porcelain.

See all our stories about designjunction here and all the stories about the London Design Festival here.

Here is some more information from Another Country:

Another Country launches a second furniture collection, a chair by Mathias Hahn and a range of accessories at designjunction during London Design Festival 2011.

British firm, Another Country, experts in beautifully hand-crafted, contemporary wooden furniture, will launch their Series Two collection this September, alongside two new ranges of interior accessories.

designjunction, an exhibition of the best of contemporary design, will be held in an exclusive central London location. Here Another Country will display an extensive range of products, including new launches and pieces from their acclaimed first collection.

Building on the success of their Series One collection, Another Country celebrates its first anniversary with the launch of Series Two; this collection of furniture is a purposeful departure from the aesthetic of Series One. It is constructed from pale ash and rich walnut, with metal detailing, and makes use of clean, angular shapes. Although different in form, Series Two upholds the values of the brand and is therefore a further celebration of quality craftsmanship; the series, just like Series One, is hand-made in Another Country’s Norfolk and Dorset workshops. Series Two is also cleverly designed for easy transport: all leg systems fold inward, trestle-style, whilst the sideboard can be dismantled and flat packed. The new range of furniture includes a dining table, benches, a coffee table and sideboard.

After a long period of careful development, Another Country is very pleased to introduce its first chair. The chair has been designed to complement the Series One collection of furniture and has been designed by young German design talent Mathias Hahn. Hahn is renowned for his functional yet playful approach to product design and has achieved a wonderful chair for Another Country that is robust, functional yet equally charming and individual. Mathias has previously collaborated with Another Country on the design of Desk One and Bar Stool One.

In a move intended to extend their offering to objects for the home, two new accessories ranges are being launched at designjunction, both of these are designed by young British designers and both are manufactured in the UK.

Simon Donald has designed a handsome and hard-working desktop accessories range that consists of a pen holder, a tape dispenser, an eraser pot and a pencil sharpener. The range is made of lime wood in a Welsh workshop. Simon has also designed a Series One-inspired desk clock that will be presented alongside the desktop accessories.

The second accessories range consists of a beautiful pottery collection designed by Ian McIntrye. Designed, crafted by hand and fired in Ian’s kilns in Hackney, East London, the range is a carefully considered reworking of traditional, functional, table top ceramics. The collection is made up ofindividual pieces that each explore the qualities of different clays. It includes a jug, pinch pot, plate, bowl and cup. The clays used include industrial terracotta, stoneware and porcelain. The collection is a fine interpretation of Another Country’s concern with contemporary craft; each piece is entirely hand-made, multi-functional and designed to endure, both stylistically and practically.

Visit Another Country at designjunction from 22 to 25 September 2011. Victoria House Basement, 37-63 Southampton Row, London, WC1B 4DA

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Woodware by Max Lamb at Gallery Fumi	Furniture by Resident at designjunction	Interview: Assemblage 1 by Toogood

Stockholm designer David Taylor combines concrete, wood, silver, tin and DIY components in his latest collection of candle holders, dishes, mirrors and lighting.

Taylor developed the collection, called Walk the Walk, by experimenting with different combinations of materials.

He will present the assemblages at Stockholm craft collective Konsthantverkarna from 17 September to 4 October.

See his first collection for Konsthantverkarna here.

The information below is written by Petter Eklund:

Walk The Walk

Risk lies at the core of crafts, risk of failure always accompanies new discovery, new beauty. In his forthcoming exhibition “Walk the Walk” at Konsthantverkarna in Stockholm, David Taylor presents a cohesive body of work developed by whim and impulse at the workbench.

By following a notion, working by ear and improvising with unexpected materials without fuss and undue analysis Taylor gives us an insight into the importance of intuitive knowledge, that “gut feeling” which is often more relevant than we can appreciate.

Walk the Walk is a tightly knit family of objects where Taylor’s signature style has been broadened with materials and techniques rarely seen in his work. Concrete meets silver the precise and timeless encounter the modern and impermanent.

This latest edition from Taylor’s workshop is made with a clarity of intention and a conviction in execution, that leaves not doubt the author can not only talk the talk, but knows a thing or two about walking the walk.

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Bosco by Andrea Branzi	KHV60 by David Taylor	Silver Candlesticks by David Taylor