Big Prototype

I love this table by Big Prototype as seen at BKLYN Designs - it would be perfect in our small apartment as a combination coffee/dining table.

Images via swissmiss.

Artek

Check out this gorgeous set of chairs and table by Artek. I love the colorful chair seats and the sleek lines of the table legs. More great furniture can be found here.

Via Designboom.

fawn&forest

fawn&forest is another sponsor of our blog - they are an amazing online store focusing on everything green for your kids. The sell a huge range of really nice, modern goods - including products from some of my favorites - Three Sheets 2 the Wind, Area, Binth (octopus pillow above), Bookhou Design, and Netto (dresser, crib & polar bear rocker above).

Jelte van Geest

Jelte van Geest is exhibiting the GrandChair at the Design Factory Brainport Eindhoven. I've seen the idea of a sort of loveseat rocking chair before, but I love the modern lines and that you can accommodate two adults and one child on the GrandChair. The child's chair actually swivels, so he/she can either face the adults, or sit in line with them.

Milan Design Week coverage

I apologize for the lack of posts - I haven't been feeling so well the last few days, and so haven't been able to put together much by way of what's happening at Milan Design Week. But you can check out Yatzer, Dezeen, Wallpaper*, and MoCo Loco for coverage of the event.

(The George3 console table above is by Gareth Neal.)

Milan Design Week 2008

Tomorrow kicks off Milan Design Week, and being that we are in New York and unable to cover the event live, we'll do our best to scour the internet and bring you the best of the blogs that are covering it. From Designboom (top row): Angle Chair by Julian Mayor and Clock by Christiaan Postma (the hour is spelled out by multiple clock hands!). From our inbox: new Union Bench designs by I Do Design.

Tsai Design Studio

Tsai Design Studio created this interesting bunk bed as the winning entry to the 2006 36sqm Challenge, a design competition that asked for solutions for large families living in small spaces (36 sq. meters, to be exact). The Nested Bunk Beds were inspired by traditional Russian Matriochka dolls, with five nested beds that can be pulled out for sleeping. The design went from concept to reality after being installed at an AIDS orphanage in Wellington, South Africa.

Via Designboom.

Domestic

Domestic invited a select group of designers to create a series of products. Starting with vinyl wall decals, Domestic has branched out into a furniture series called 1.2.3.Furniture. Each piece is made from pre-cut multi-ply birch, and depending on the complexity of the furniture piece, comes with either 1, 2, or 3 panels of birch. Designers participating in this series: Matali Crasset, Antoine+Manuel, Ich&Kar, Electricwig, 5.5 Designers, Big-Game, Adrien Rovero, and Jörg Boner.

Yael Mer

The Rocking Slippers by Yael Mer are a melding of domestic shoes and a small rocking stool. Obviously, it's more rocking stool than shoe, since you can't actually walk around in them, but the idea was to create a piece of furniture that becomes an extension of the body and provides an intimate user experience.

Via Girl in the Green Dress.

Union Bench

Jangir of i do design sent over their latest design, the Union Bench. The Union Bench is a beautiful alternative to the standard park bench, and provides the user with more flexibility by allowing one to sit facing in any direction. The desire is to foster a more communal mode of public seating. The bench has an indoor version made of glass reinforced plastic (fiberglass?) with leather seats, and an outdoor version made of concrete and wood. If you're able to make it to Milan for this years Salone Satellite, i do design will be exhibiting the Union Bench at booth A-58.

Yuriko Takahashi

I love the coverage of the Stockholm Furniture Fair over at Designboom. Yuriko Takahashi's work caught my eye - she has some very nice bent wood furniture, and some amazing light fixtures. The lights have shades made of wood veneer and cloth which are connected with zippers.

Via Designboom. Photos via Designboom.

Jaime Hayon

Jaime Hayon isn't anything new to the blog circuit, but I love his BD Showtime Chairs. The are Eames-esque in their shape, but all their own in their collage of materials and textures.

Matthias Pliessnig

Matthias Pliessnig sent us images of his new bench - Waive. He describes it as the "ancestor of 'Bends', evoking a billowed grid of wood that has been depressed" so as to invite a sitter. Lightweight and strong due to the compound curves, Matthias is busy at work creating a longer version of this gorgeous bench.

Alfredo Häberli

You might know Alfredo Häberli for his Nemea Sideboard which made the blog rounds earlier last year and which we posted about here, but I was browsing through his website again and came across some great older projects. Eine neue Art Schuh was a shoe with interchangeable parts - a front and a back that you could mix and match with other fronts and backs to create different shoes. I'm not crazy about the styles (it was the '90s, after all), but I love the idea.

The other project that I liked a lot won an award from Wallpaper for the Best Shelving System of 2006. I'm not sure how functional it would actually be as a shelving system, but I think it makes for an attractive screen or room divider.

Jelte van Geest

Jelte van Geest's GrandChair is pretty sweet - it's a rocking chair that makes it just a little easier on Grandpa's knee.

Wieki Somers

I remember seeing Wieki Somers' High Tea Pot make the rounds on various blogs and thinking that the tea pot was on the gruesome side - which it is, but that's the point. Made of bone china and modeled after a fox skull with a water rat fur cozy, Wieki describes the project as "tasty and unsavoury, harm and delight aren't discerned any longer. Nothing is more decadent than to satisfy the human need for status and extravagance through the harm of animals."



The rest of Wieki's work is as thoughtful - the Bathboat looks at the form and function of a small boat and inverts it by turning it into a bath. The bathtub legs make reference to the wooden frame that boats typically rest on when docked.



Some more projects (left to right): Come Clean (soap in the image of the traditional Dutch farmer, which when used disappears to reveal the form of the modern business man who has replaced the farmer), Mattress Stone Bottle, and Blossoms (a vase which takes on the shape of its contents).

All projects were done in close collaboration with Dylan van den Berg.

Bookhau

I love these kids chairs by Bookhou. So cute! They are made from recycled furniture parts, so each chair is one of a kind. They will be available at the upcoming One of a Kind show this spring, along with Bookhau's new baby collection.

Via Poppytalk.

Lama Concept

Yvonne Laurysen of Lama is a Dutch designer focussed mainly on textiles. I came across her website today, and was really impressed by her felt rugs, each of which is created by cutting and assembling pressed industrial wool felt. The felt slices are randomly assembled, allowing for a natural pattern to emerge.

Lama makes furniture, too - check out the Loft light and the Sinus table and chair set.

5.5 Designers

5.5 Designers is a French design firm with a conceptual design bent. I love the chair made from sandwiched broken/discarded chair ends. It doesn't look very comfortable, but it would be cool to have around.

Now, the Style IV chandelier I wouldn't actually put in my house, but I like the idea behind it - four chandeliers in one, depending on your vantage point. It's simply made - two sheets of mirror form the axis, and allow each quartered lamp to be completed.



I'm also very taken with 5.5 Designers' wallpaper - inviting user participation, the wallpaper slowly evolves over time, becoming richer and more interesting as it is intervened on. 5.5 Designers recommend using the wallpaper in spaces where we find ourselves bored or with some extra time on our hands - the bathroom, waiting rooms, etc.

Thomas Bernstrand

Thomas Bernstrand is a multi-disciplinary Swedish designer who makes everything from glassware, to furniture, to lighting, not to mention that he designs architectural interiors, as well. He designed the Uddabo table for IKEA, which combines a dining table with a work table. I could definitely use one of those! Too bad the US IKEAs don't carry it (though it may just be out of production, since it's an older design). Also interesting are his Burk Glasses - a series of glassware inspired by beer cans. Thomas appreciated the ergonomic comfort one finds in drinking beer out of a can - the lip fitting perfectly with the folded part of the can - and translated that into a classier, glass version.

Studio De Makers Van

The Cinderella table by Studio De Makers Van is something of a mind bender...It's got a crazy shape going on (you can't see it from the photo above, but it morphs into a semi-circle as you move around the table - check out the 3D model on the Studio De Makers Van website). What I like most about it is the traditional profile it mimics in an nontraditional way. I almost wish they had simplified the form so that it didn't morph quite so much, but it is a very beautiful table. The Cinderella table is made up of 57 individual pieces of birch plywood. Also very cool is the Lace Fence, which is a reinterpretation of a common outdoor element. SDMV describes it beautifully as "hostility versus kindness, industrial versus craft".

Jeroen Verhoeven, Judith de Graauw and Joep Verhoeven founded Studio De Makers Van after graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2004.

Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz

My mom sent me a link to Yvonne Fehling's and Jennie Peiz's exhibition at the Arp Museum in Remagen, Germany. I love the dynamic ChairStoolBench and how it reads as one long plank of wood with traditional chair shapes emerging and disappearing from that plank of wood. Gorgeous! I would love to see this in a city park somewhere.

WaterRower Classic

The extent of my workout schedule is a yoga class every once in a while, but if we had the space in our apartment, the WaterRower Classic might convince me to get off my butt. Made out of solid American Black Walnut and finished with three coats of Danish Oil, the Classic is like some crazy Rube Goldberg inspired rowing machine.

Bare Mobler

Bare Mobler is a collaboration between Norwegian furniture designers Orjan Djonne and Karl Marius Sveen. Their aesthetic is clean and modern with a focus on details and materials.

Vujj

I came across Vujj today, a furniture manufacturer in Sweden. They work with a couple of different designers, and have a nice (small) collection of work up on their site.

Artur & Jonas designed the two chairs (you can tell - they have the same profile!). Johannes Herbertsson & Karl Henrik Rennstam designed the Alog Shelving System, which is a modular shelving system made from MDF and ash. You decide where you want to attach the shelves (no fittings required!).

Marieke Rongen

Marieke Rongen is a young Dutch designer who makes some gorgeous light fixtures! She plays with texture on the inside of the lamp shade, as well as with unconventional materials like concrete and copper.

The chair below is called Wear Memory and references your grandmother's doilies. It looks to me like the silhouette of the doily is burned into the chair, but I'm not sure from the image.



Via Bloesem.

Contraforma

Contraforma is a collaboration between several talented, young European designers and architects. They have done a lot of great work, but my favorite collection thus far is the MW cabinetry series by Nauris Kalinauskas. The combination of precise, laser-cut metal with reclaimed wood planks is lovely. The cabinets can be stacked or placed next to one another to create different furniture configurations. The metal frame, while a modern material that is fabricated via modern processes, alludes to a classic, wooden furniture profile.

Afroditi Krassa

There's not a lot of text (read: none!) on Afroditi Krassa's website, which leaves me to my own devices and wanting more information. Her products are sassy and beautiful. I would love to hang one of her "Bright Lights" (top) in my living room...

Form Us with Love

The chord is often the most unsightly part of a lamp. The Chord Lamp by the young Swedish firm, Form Us with Love, takes the chord and integrates it into the design. Use it with a funky bulb, and you have a beautiful fixture. Also very nice is the SwopIt, an acrylic side table that comes apart so that you can change the textile swatch sandwiched between the two acrylic pieces.

Eames Hack

I saw this over at Core77 and Notcot and had to repost it here - six University of the Arts students (Jared Delorenzo, Tim Peet, Alexandra Temple Powell, Tom Reynolds, Alie Thomer, and Andrew McCandlish) re-purposed two classic Eames' chairs, turning the Molded Side Chair into a toilet seat and the Molded Plywood Dining Chair into seating for a child. In the students' own words:

"These two pieces, the Eames toilet chair and the Eames child seat, are about breaking the status surrounding high design objects. Through physically invasive alterations, these once iconic, elite, forms are liberated from their old, restrained image. The project is not a critique of the Eames, but rather a fulfillment of their original ideals."

Tunto

Tunto/Mikko Kärkkäinen is a very impressive Finnish designer. It was hard for me to choose just a few products to showcase, but I did my best! What I like most about Tunto's products are the urban graphics and bright colors that permeate their collection of work.

The Hoover lamp is a gorgeous fixture, and I love how the base seems to be sitting on the floor with you. The packaging is awesome, too, with the lamp shade just peeking out over the side.

The M3 is a seat/storage unit, which is great for people like us who have tiny apartments and need all the storage we can get.

Below is the Vuokko table which I like for its simplicity and also for the splash of color on the underside. It's available in many pretty colors!



Via Design This Design That.

Reddish

You've probably seen Reddish make the rounds on the blogging circuit over the past few weeks, but their work is really great so I wanted to highlight some of my favorites here. I love this blurb from their website: Reddish "spends most of the time helping objects feel better about themselves".

Above: the X-Table and Grenadine. The jewelry from the Grenadine line are cast from pieces of polystyrene. Each piece is unique.

Jim Hannon-Tan

I love the Clampleg by Jim Hannon-Tan. Besides being gorgeous, it allows you to make a table out of any surface. The heights are adjustable so if you have wonky floors like me, you can level your table.

Context

Stumbled across Context over the weekend, and was impressed with their work. My favorite line is the William & Mary Collection (top), which updates a more traditional style by having the side profile of each piece read as a section. Context reinforces the graphic nature of their furniture by including a dark, hardwood stripe in each piece.

Naked by Alberto Colzani

The Naked by Alberto Colzani is a spindly little chair with a lot of character. The thin supports converge to form a chair of peculiar scale. And I love the playful detail of the hand slot. The finish can be either funky or sophisticated, depending on the fabric and metal finishes. Overall a very fun little chair.

Das Design

The Nightstand and Bed from Daniel Schultz, designer and craftsman of Das Design in SF are both incredibly beautiful. I really like how the subtle curves and corner details make the pieces become more alive when viewed obliquely.

Malin Lundmark

Here is a way for you to personalize your furniture. You can decorate your pendant lamp with your favorite necklace, or you can hang your necklace on a shelf that reinterprets "intarsia", an Italian building tradition where a decorative pattern is inlaid into a surface. Malin Lundmark's website doesn't seem to be working, so I unfortunately can't find much information on her. I'd love to know more about Malin's work, so if anyone has any leads,