I have seen this vase at the design post in cologne. the columba vase for the dutch label mossi is designed by berlin-based designer david krings and realized with dutch royal goedewaagen.

columba vase by david krings

norwegian designer peter opsvik has designed a 3rd version of the reflex chair for furniture manufacturer naturellement.

I am a little peter opsvik fan because I sit every day on one of his office chairs. see here (3rd picture). but I would love to have this one as an old bird.

imm cologne, 2009

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show me another ‘art meets design’ exhibition and I gonna shoot myself ;-). 2 weeks ago, when I visited the designers fair at the rhein triadem in cologne, an event during the furniture fair imm, I came across one of this events.

dortmund-based heimatdesign presented ‘surface’, an exposition of former design academy eindhoven students. It was a likeable compilation of ‘already seen’ work. most of them old graduation projects. all of them dutch – the best in art and design Interface. In my opinion the pick of the bunch at this event. but I think it’s a pity that a german collective called heimatdesign, which literally means ‘homedesign’, doesn’t present work of german designers. so, get out, german concept designers. we want you!

idea of a clock by hans tan
the time in words at the end of the sentence changes according to real time

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I still have to put a proper ‘about me’ on my blog. I just do not like to write something about my self. so, I am a product design student at the academy maastricht, netherlands. this year it’s my turn: graduation time! I do not have a theme yet. and I am still uncertain about my final thesis. but I like to figure out what I want while discussing it. especially with people who are not product or furniture designers. that’s what can happen then…

my german photo designer friend sebastian mueller came to maastricht and he shoot a series of pictures of me under the title ‘for domestic use’ – personification of household articles. a research in pictures. I have 9 final photographs and I show you 2 of them.

closet

vacuum cleaner

german design student anika engelbrecht has designed a series of vases called swell. these ceramic vases have huge holes. so normally, if you poured some water in them, these vases would leak. so in a way they loose their function by having these holes. balloons fill this holes and the vases retain their function of fl using a balloon as water storage.

I do not maintain that dutch designer els woldhek is running off the pictured chair design from 1981. this is just the perfect example of how form or shape is celebrating a comeback in design. again and again.

bastard chair by els woldhek at [d3] design talents, cologne

front cover domus magazine, 1981

kilian schindler graduated in 2008 at the state university of media arts and design (they do not have an english version of their website) in karlsruhe, germany.

he describes the project he was showing at the imm, cologne furniture fair, as follows: ..’extracting well-know elements from their usual context..’ – basically he reduced the well known plastic chair into outlines. the plastic chair is designer’s favourite right now:

berlin-based jerzy seymour has done a redesign for magis, 2004.
see here

the swedish girls from front design covered it in leather, 2008.
see here

dutch designer maarten baas designed a version made of wood, 2008. see here.

pepe heykoop graduated last year from the living department at design academy eindhoven. I have seen his chair at the graduation show and filmed it. now he has won the [d3] design talents award in cologne. basically its a simple shaped chair with flexible rubber joints.

‘a restless chairacter’ – flexible chair by pepe heykoop
model: derya inanici from designguild san francisco

london-based industrial designer ross lovegrove visited cologne last night to present his istanbul bathroom collection for turkish brand vitra (I know what you think.. ‘doesn’t that name belong to the manufacturer of designer furniture? THE vitra‘)

during his speech the socalled captian organic described the range as ‘digital organic islamic’. what a description. but again he is using a nature based design language. so I really wanted to talk to ross but unfortunately he was so busy with talking to different people that I didn’t get the chance. what a pity..

ross lovegrove →

I will be in cologne the next days.

check the furniture fair called imm and the other events around. they are presented in context with the passagen cologne. lalala

it might not look great, but there is a great intention behind it. this is the xoxo laptop by industrial designer yves béhar. the laptop is part of the ‘one laptop per child‘ project and is manufactured by quanta computer. basically it means that by producing a basic device they ensure that every child from the developing world has access to a personal computer.

the xo is not new, they even brought the xoxo on the market, a version which is half the original size of the xo. and it has also won many design awards. but my friend anna pors, who is doing her internship at eggfilm in south africa, send me 3 links to some videos which are produced by the company she is working for right now.

the $100 laptop at the red dot design museum in essen, germany

olpc mission, part 1: principles and child empowerment

olpc : zimi’s story full

english designer jasper morrison and japanese designer naoto fukasawa are making ‘super normal’ objects visible for us. its the amazing plastic bag, the fascinating paper clip and the nifty vegetable peeler. discover it in super normal – sensations of the ordinary.

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