Hasta La Ideas

A study of everyday objects

Simple but telling, a visual taxonomy of price tags on the cover of “Usefulness in Small Things” cleverly sets the tone for the book, pointing out the subtle differences in a well-designed, but widely overlooked bit of industrial design. This meditation on little objects is the work of Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, co-founders of London design studio Industrial Facility, whose interest in the relationship between industrial design and the surrounding world is a cornerstone of their design practice.

The book showcases Hecht’s personal collection of mass-produced items of various sizes, shapes and purposes, all of which he picked up for under five pounds from mom-and-pop shops all over the world.

Objects we routinely pass by without a thought find themselves on center stage thanks to Hecht’s keen eye. With careful focus and brilliant diction, Hecht and Colin outline each object’s intended purpose, origin, design and the relationship between it and the user. Some of the objects have been designed to make life easier, some have been designed to innovate and some seem to exist without reason. Regardless of their original purpose, the collection now gives new perspective to these neglected objects for the perusal of fans of design for time to come.

To see for yourself, pre-order online at Amazon.

London studio Found Associates have completed this restaurant with an oak and concrete interior in west London.

Called Nottingdale Cafe, the project involved adding a mezzanine level and creating a 10 meter-long bar clad in porcelain panels.

Blackboard paint applied directly to the walls provides a surface for wine lists and specials.

See also: The Lollipop Shoppe by Found Associates

See all our stories about restaurants and bars »

The following information is from the designers:

Found Associates were appointed to devise a new restaurant concept for the Nottingdale Village development in West London, opposite the Westfield Shopping Centre. Following their successful implementation of TalkTalk’s new head office, the restaurant is the second building Found have been appointed to work on within this development (by award winning architects AHMM).

The philosophy behind the restaurant is to serve the best ingredients in an unpretentious manner, while offering a relaxed but stimulating environment for the customer. Although the restaurant offers food throughout the day there are two separate dining experiences; the lunch offer being an inexpensive frequently changing menu aimed at staff in the adjacent offices, whilst the dinner offer provides more refined a la carte menu aimed to set the establishment as an occasional venue. The existing building’s wedge shaped plan, multi facetted front elevation and pitched rear elevation presented a challenging space to provide a cohesive interior concept.

Found have reinterpreted the internal form of the building, adding a new cantilevered mezzanine with glazed balustrade, to create a dynamic series of linear single and double height spaces that rationalises the limited internal volume and reacts against the buildings angular plan form and external elevations.

The dining area is spread over the ground floor and mezzanine, at the restaurants heart is a bespoke ten-metre long porcelain clad counter that runs almost the entire length of the ground floor. The counter is the focus of the ground floor dining experience, with diners seated on high stools while opposite them chefs prepare food in the open kitchen.

Porcelain was selected for the counter not only for the unique quality of the finished material but also as a reference to the history of the site, which was for many years a centre for the Kensington Potteries. Each porcelain panel to the front, side and top of the counter has been created using bespoke moulds that have been formed, fired and glazed by a specialist supplier.

The fair faced concrete structure of the building provided a basis from which a complementary palette of materials were carefully selected.

The aim was to retain as much of the existing structure as possible whilst offsetting the harder elements with natural materials.

Much of the ground floor walls have received blackboard paint to enable the menu, specials and wine lists to be added/updated on a daily basis in multiple locations within the restaurant.

Solid oak with a natural finish was selected for the main floors and stairs to provide a warm contrast to the concrete and black walls.

The chairs and tables are also solid oak and by specialist suppliers, the bar stools were ordered as soon as the design was brought out of prototype.

See also:

.

26 Lounge Bar by Cor	Federal Café by Barbara Appolloni	Hatched by Outofstock

Design celebrates life in an exhibit benefitting cutting-edge cancer care

After the British design curator Max Fraser lost his mother to cancer a few years ago, he vowed to do something to help others fight the disease; the Joy of Living project is his contribution. Design-focused through and through, the project raises money for the architect-designed retreats Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres and brings together an impressive collection of the best of British design talent.

Over 100 designers—including stars such as Terence Conran, Tom Dixon, Barber Osgerby, John Pawson, Tomoko Azumi, Stuart Haygarth and Michael Marriott— each submitted an artwork on a piece of A4 graph paper that responds in some way to the title of the show. The resulting eclectic range of creative responses all sell for £250, but buyers won’t know who’s behind the work they’ve bought until after their transaction takes place. Max says this anonymous element to the show reflects “the democratic values at the core of Maggie’s philosophy” and ensures that supporters are buying a piece “to which they have a true emotional response.”

But given that this exhibition shows off the best of the design world, naturally an element of competitiveness is involved. Adding a little extra incentive to the proceedings are two prizes, one for the best art work, as judged by a design jury, and one for the most popular artwork, as judged by the public. Winners will be awarded £1000 and £500 respectively.

Max Fraser is aiming to raise a whopping £50,000 for Maggie’s through the Joy of Living project. You can follow his progress on Twitter,
@JoyOfLiving2011, and visit the exhibit through 21 March 2011.

We love the upbeat nature of this amazing fundraising effort that celebrates creative life rather than mourning death. Max quotes charity founder Maggie Keswick Jencks when talking about the inspiration for this project, “Above all what matters is not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying.”

A collaboration of industry insiders making the closed off world of London Fashion Week more accessible

One of the main criticisms surrounding the world of fashion and its ‘special weeks’ is that it’s too insular for the everyman to access, too preoccupied with itself and veiled in a snobbery rivaled only by that of a Royal Family peerage system.

Having experienced it from the inside for many years, London-based photographer Christopher Sims decided to play the antagoniser and look to provide an alternative view on fashion and its grand menagerie with a collaborative agency and film unit under the name 55Factory.

As with many such enterprises, 55Factory operates as a collaborative hotbed – housing photographers, stylists, editors and creatives. However, this week 55Factory showed up at London Fashion Week to interview celebrities, fashion icons and style savvy individuals. The avoidance of the snobbery of fashion is central to the appeal of the short films from London’s Fashion Week. With no prior preparation Sims speaks frankly to his subjects about clothes, parties and explores the uniqueness of London’s premier clothes horse. Sims is happy to point out that the quality of the production is what one might expect from a camera and mic operation but stresses that it’s the subject matter which is important and the way it is approached.

The initial response from its short films have been promising with 55Factory looking to spread itself out to some more of the world’s fashion weeks in a continuing effort to break down some of the barriers between those on the inside and those looking from the outside of an industry which is still mystifyingly cloaked to the general public.

Take our reader survey and enter to win a CH Edition Jambox!

Designers Studio XAG have created a window installation in London for French fashion designer Christian Louboutin, spelling out the brand name in bright neon lettering. 

The window is furnished with a neon arrow and an array of backlit oversized perspex letters decorated with bulbs.

Shoes by Louboutin are perched on the letters.

Photographs are by Susie Rea.

Other projects by Studio XAG on Dezeen »
More window installations on Dezeen »
More fashion on Dezeen »

Here’s some more information from the designers:

Christian Louboutin: Mount Street Boutique, Neon Graveyard.

Take a stroll down down London’s Mount St & be dazzled by studioXAG’s latest window.

Gorgeous shoes & handbags sit amongst giant lit letters spelling out Christian Louboutin. Each letter has it’s own story to tell & can be traced back to original Vegas signage.

After a lot of typographical experimentation we laser cut a 1:10 scale models in acrylic to get a real understanding for proportion, lighting configuration and colours.

After much fine adjustment we went into production. We had metalworkers fold, roll and weld the stainless steel shells.

The lights are a mix of Pygmy and Golfball bulbs, 4 different colours of neon, backlit perspex and crystal Cabochon.

To make sure the window all came together beautifully each letter was powder coated in a rich, bright and glossy colour to match a shoe or a bag in Christian Louboutin’s current collection.

See also:

.

RCA graduates in Harvey Nichols windows	Maison Hermès Window Display by Tokujin Yoshioka	Clockwork Snow by Tjep.