These plates and dishes made of cellulose by Swedish design studio Tomorrow Machine have a special self-cleaning coating that means they never need washing up.
The prototype tableware was made to showcase the qualities of a new cellulose-based material developed by Innventia, which is light but strong and can be moulded into double-curved surfaces.
“The product not only saves resources during the manufacturing process, but also over its full life-cycle, not requiring water and chemicals to be kept clean,” claimed the designers.
The cellulose pulp is first made into a sheet, which is then heat pressed in a mould. “The material becomes as hard as a regular ceramic product, but with the advantages that it is lightweight and won’t crack or break in case it’s dropped,” Hanna Billqvist of Tomorrow Machine told Dezeen.
The coating is a new technology developed by KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, which mimics the surface of a lotus leaf to create a surface that’s resistant to dirt and water. “It is real but a very new technology that is still being developed, so it’s not ready for the industry yet,” explained Billqvist.
“KTH are using a process called Rapid Expansion of Supercritical Solutions (RESS) to make the surface superhydrophobic,” she said. “A wax is dissolved in carbon dioxide at high pressure and temperature, and then sprayed onto the surface to be treated.”
The designers specified a marbling technique to decorate the cup, selecting a cobalt blue reminiscent of the glaze used on traditional porcelain and ceramic tableware.
Based out of Stockholm and Paris, Tomorrow Machine comprises Billqvist and Anna Glansén, and specialises in packaging, product and food concepts. “Our vision as designers is to build a better world through research, new technologies and intelligent material,” they said. “We believe in looking at science from a creative point of view to shape the innovations of tomorrow.”
An inversely curved chair seat, a super stacked fork, an inflatable door handle—these are only a few of the designs that have come out of KK Studios. In a series aptly titled “The Uncomfortable,” designer Katerina Kamprani decides to design in a whole new way that some may call plain awkward. The series’ intent is pretty straightforward: “The goal is to re-design useful objects making them uncomfortable but usable and maintain the semiotics of the original item,” as read on her website.
These metal carafes by Amsterdam-based designer Michael Schoner look as if they have been chopped to create a spout (+ slideshow).
Prototyped and welded in Istanbul by local craftsmen, Schoner‘s Chop Carafe features an angular spout that sits at a 30-degree angle to the main body of the carafe.
Schoner told Dezeen about working with small Turkish manufacturers: “Handcraft in Turkey is affordable and little workshops are very willing to work together.”
The carafes are cut from industrial aluminium pieces with circular or rectangular profiles.
A section is removed to create an edge for attaching the spout, which welded on along with a base and a piece to fill the remaining gap to create the final shape.
The welded joints are smoothed out and the product is coated for use with liquids such as wine, water or juices.
The rectangle-shaped design comes in two versions for right and left-handed use, depending on which corner the spout is attached. Photography is by the designer.
Here is some more information from Schoner:
Chop Carafe
The Chop Carafe is based on the observation that if one takes a volume it can be cut in and fold it out to create a snout. The carafes are made from standard aluminium profiles as used in the building industry. The profiles are cut in and a segment is removed. Adding a bottom- and a “V” shaped plate the parts are then welded together into the final shape.
After grinding and pearling they are anodised and coated against fruit acids. The carafes hold between 0,7 to 1,0 litres and are made for liquids like wine, water or juices. There are three different basic shapes based on round, square and rectangular aluminium profiles.
The spout folds out 30 degrees. Since on the square and rectangular carafe they fold out diagonally one ends up with an either left-handed or right-handed version. The project was born out of a foam-cutter logic that is often used in contemporary architecture and with a CNC pipe-cutter in mind. From first idea to status quo two years have passed.
First tryouts where done in Amsterdam, but on a trip to Istanbul the prototyping was solved in an pleasant ad-hoc mentality of local craftsmen in September 2012. In a team play between a local profile shop, a work-shop specialised in cutting and a old local welder in the district of Çağlayan, all found at the local bar, the prototypes were ready within 24 hours.
Each of these resin pots by east London designer Phil Cuttance is embellished with a unique iridescent sheen on its lid.
Phil Cuttance hand-cast each simple Aurora Pot with a rounded bottom and flat lid from a water-based resin.
He submerged the lid under water and drops a small amount of polish onto the surface to form an oily slick. He then lifted the lid up, catching the colourful pattern on its top.
“I have always liked the visual effect of oil or polish slicks on water,” Cuttance told Dezeen. “I wanted to simply find a way to transfer a polish slick from the water’s surface and preserve it on an object.”
The slick created by the polish is different each time, so every pot in the set is one of a kind.
These spoons shaped for eating specific snacks by Dutch designer Ineke Hans have to be popped out of a plastic frame before use.
Ineke Hans‘ five Special Spoons for Royal VKB have different ends for scooping or stabbing small foods.
The set includes a tiny spoon for sampling spicey sauces, a pointy fork for retrieving gerkins from the jar and a perforated scoop to fish for olives.
The plastic cutlery is packed like a model kit, so the user has to break each spoon out of their frame. Each spoon has a small indent, which allows it to balance on the rim of a jar.
Hans has also created a bowl to hold washed berries. The Fresh Berry Bowl comes with a perforated bottom to allow the wet fruit to drain and a matching saucer for catching excess water.
Dried food can also be stored in the bowl by using the saucer as a lid.
Designer Kacper Hamilton has created a port decanter set that encourages users to constantly share the drink around.
Hamilton‘s glassware is named after the British tale of the Bishop of Norwich, about a nineteenth-century gentleman who was notorious for forgetting to pass the port.
To ensure the drink is shared by users of this set, the bottoms of the decanter and glasses are pointed so they can’t be put down. This means they will be constantly sipped and drained, so the port is always passed from person to person.
The vessels only stand when returned to their individual brass bases. The bases hold six glasses and a decanter with a matching brass stopper, which are displayed in a row on a wooden tray.
Influenced by and named after the classic tale of the ‘Bishop of Norwich’, a nineteenth-century gentleman notorious for forgetting to pass the port. This set brings about the return of humble rituals from the past through a drink that has become quintessentially British.
With respect to the tradition, the ‘Bishop of Norwich’ has been specifically designed to encourage the user to drink their port and pass the decanter. Due to their elaborate design the port glasses and decanter cannot be put down on the table unless placed within their individual brass bases, hence the port is continuously passed, shared and quaffed.
An elongated wooden tray brings all the parts together, making the complete creation a grand central piece. The ebony finish creates a striking contrast with the brushed sheen of the brass and a distinctive sculptural form appears when all the elements are displayed alongside one another.
Each solid brass base is engraved with the KH Studio monogram. The large decanter base displays the edition number (Limited Edition of 12), date of production, and ‘Made in England’.
When Port wine is passed around at British meals, one tradition dictates that a diner passes the decanter to the left immediately after pouring a glass for his or her neighbour on the right; the decanter should not stop its clockwise progress around the table until it is finished. If someone is seen to have failed to follow tradition, the breach is brought to their attention by asking ‘Do you know the Bishop of Norwich?’; those aware of the tradition treat the question as a reminder, while those who do not are told ‘He is a terribly good chap, but he always forgets to pass the port!’
News: the #milanuncut debate that exposed the poor royalties designers earn has inspired the launch of Crowdyhouse, a new crowdfunding platform that helps designers find funding for their products.
CrowdyHouse homepage
CrowdyHouse, which will launch next week at Dutch Design Week, has been developed by Mark Studholme and Suzan Claesen to provide an alternative to the traditional royalties system, which Studholme says provides “an awful deal for the designers”.
“Our platform means that designers don’t have to take their product to Milan, stand next to it for a week, convince someone to buy it and then only receive 5 percent in royalties of the wholesale price,” Studholme told Dezeen.
Each designer has a page explaining their practice and approach
Studholme says the #milanuncut project, which engaged dozens journalists and designers during Milan 2011, focused his attention on the difficulties faced by young designers trying to sell their work.
“I’m very surprised that, since #milanuncut two years ago, no solutions have really been proposed,” he points out. “The conversation just died down, so hopefully we can ignite it again.”
“The #milanuncut story was really just a symptom of the unsustainable state of the furniture industry,” said McGuirk this week. “As design manufacturing is forced to reinvent itself, crowdfunding platforms are an obvious step in a new direction, potentially giving designers direct access to markets of their own making.”
Product pages include descriptions of the concept and production methods
Using a similar crowdfunding principle to the one popularised by companies such as Kickstarter, designers are able to raise money upfront by inviting funding for products which investors eventually receive once they have been produced. The designers retain 90 percent of the funding total, with CrowdyHouse taking the other 10 percent.
“Crowdyhouse is actually the first crowd-funded platform specifically for design,” says Studholme. “We realised the traditional Kickstarter model doesn’t favour designers so we thought there was a need for a design-specific platform that really allows the designers to focus on the designs.”
CrowdyHouse offers contemporary products and furniture ranging in price from €65-3000. Designs have to reach a minimum order number before the designer begins to manufacture the product and distribute it to investors.
Details about the designers and the story behind the products, how the funds will be used, and the progress of funding and product development are listed on the website.
Some of the products featured include pressed-clay vessels by Studio Floris Wubben and a concrete, wood and leather lamp by Tim Vinke. Design studio Vilt aan Zee plans to use the funds generated on CrowdyHouse to buy a sheep to supply wool for its felt-shaded table lamp.
The designers listed on the site are currently all based in CrowdyHouse’s home nation of The Netherlands but Studholme and Claesen plan to expand the roster to include designers from other countries.
Here’s a full press release about the launch of CrowdyHouse:
CrowdyHouse stimulates unique design Launch of innovative crowdfunding and sales platform on October 21st
A new Dutch concept to stimulate innovative design: CrowdyHouse. This platform is a unique combination of crowdfunding and retail. Giving designers the possibility to self-produce their work and allowing consumers to buy unique design in a transparent manner. CrowdyHouse is launching during the Dutch Design Week, October 21st, in Eindhoven.
When you have a good design as a designer, it’s surprisingly difficult to get financing for the production of it. What CrowdyHouse does is loosely based on the popular crowdfunding principle, but adds a dimension. Investors are also aspiring buyers. Their funding enables the designer to start producing. In return for funding the product upfront they will get the design they helped put into production.
On CrowdyHouse.com, the renowned designer Marc de Groot offers his Helix Light, a strongly geometrical shaped ceiling lamp, which splits a line of light into the shape of a three-dimensional Helix. Rebob offers a sympathetic porcelain birdhouse, shaped like a bird’s head. Renate Vos designed a table lamp of concrete, which sounds heavy but appears fragile and subtly spreads light.
‘The idea for CrowdyHouse began at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, says Mark Studholme who, together with Suzan Claesen, founded the platform. ‘We were surprised about how little a designer earns if his design is taken into production by a large manufacturer. It can be just 5 percent of the wholesale price that goes to the designer.’
Democratic design for an honest price, is one of the principles of CrowdyHouse. Democratic because the consumer decides which design gets produced by funding it. And honest because the money that is earned fully benefits the designer. CrowdyHouse’s role is limited to being a mediator. The initiative for the new design platform arrives at a time where the creative industry boils of good ideas, but all sources of financing have been depleted. The government is handing out increasingly less innovation grants. Banks don’t spend any money on young entrepreneurs. ‘CrowdyHouse can be a crowbar, a party that fills the void between a good idea and the lover of design’, according to Studholme.
The dozens of products being offered on CrowdyHouse.com are mostly meant for home interior use and vary in price from 65 to 3000 euro. Those who like the product and its story deposits their funding upfront. The site can then be used to track the popularity of a product, how long it will take before production starts and what the money will be used for.
The designers at Vilt aan Zee want to use the investment to purchase a sheep which they can use to produce wool for a lamp. Carpet designer Lizan Freijsen needs a small storage space before she can close a good deal with a textiles lab which produces carpets made from lichen. Each designer needs a small push. Design consumers can provide this small push on CrowdyHouse.
Stimulating unique design through crowdfunding, is the core of what this new platform does. ‘We offer products with a story from the designer’, says Studholme. ‘This gives funding and ordering at CrowdyHouse a very special dimension.’
Japanese design studio Nendo has come up with a range of transformable accessories for dogs (+ slideshow).
Nendo‘s three-piece Heads or Tails collection consists of a dog bed, dishes and toys, all of which can be used in two ways.
“As a result of looking for a form that could be stable in two different shapes, the collection is constructed of triangular panels connected in polygon mesh,” said the designers.
The artificial leather bed pops up to become a little hut or can simply be used as a cushion.
Ceramic dishes have a larger bowl for water on one side and present a smaller saucer for food when flipped over.
A lightweight silicone toy bone made from a skeleton of triangles can be reshaped into a ball by folding the two ends back on themselves.
The black and white collection was designed for Japanese lifestyle magazine Pen.
Nendo isn’t the only team to have created objects for canines. Japanese designer Kenya Hara rounded up architects and designers including Kengo Kuma, Toyo Ito and Shigeru Ban to create architecture for dogs shown at Design Miami last year.
Product news: a collection of kitchenware by Danish designer Ole Jensen is now in production with design brand Room Copenhagen.
Jensen‘s collection for Room Copenhagen includes a family of products for storage, cooking and serving that includes containers, bowls, cups, jugs and plates.
The plastic and wooden kitchenware is characterised by rounded shapes in bright yellow and muted tones.
The series includes classic Ole Jensen designs such a tilting colander he designed in 1995, which works as a combined sieve and serving dish.
A range of curved storage containers with grey lids also features.
The products will be available in stores across Europe this autumn and in the USA by early 2014.
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