For those having little kids at home, as well as elderly family members with unsteady hands, it is quite easy to imagine how difficult it can be for them to manage drinking or eating something with a spoon without dirtying themselves: keeping the spoon horizontal can be quite hard, and the probability of food getting spilled is considerable.
Recently, three ambitious designers, Zou Zhenmeng, Zhu Yunlong and Hua Zhuzhao, had the idea of creating a peculiar tool meant to make this problematic issue just something belonging to the past: Tumbler Spoon is the outcome of this group creative process, glorious winner at the latest edition of Red Dot Design Award.
This unique spoon has been conceived so as to keep its bowl constantly balanced and never allow food fall from the spoon.
The spoon is composed of two parts: the handle, with a semi-circular frame at one end, and the ring, circumscribing the spoon bowl. Even if both the handle and the ring can spin 360 degrees around the bowl in different directions, the bowl will always remain horizontal: a spoon designed exploiting the theory of centripetal force.
Such a great invention based on scientific studies of gravity did not neglect at all the aesthetic part of the job. This tool is not only useful, but also funny to look at, even if the design is not that “loud”. The white handle is in contrast with the hyper coloured bowl, which creates a nice pair of bright tonalities. Despite this curious juxtaposition, the tool is freed from any adornment, and its design in general is marked by morbid and simple curves.
Tumbler Spoon is not only an innovative piece of interior design, but also an incredibly versatile tool, which can satisfy the needs of a great variety of users. Nevertheless, it is especially if you have children at home that having it is highly recommended.

“In today’s world, with the noisy mass culture, it is easy to lose one’s own identity and focus on detail. Superficiality rules the game, and love for everlasting stuff may fade away. In this kind of world, Martini’s brand gives back its own estimators what seems to be lost nowadays”.
This statement makes it clear to everyone why Martini’s is truly different from the masses. If innovation, result of the constant search of a further way of delighting more and more demanding customers, is the distinctive trait of Martini’s products, a persistent touch of artisanal tradition is never abandoned, especially thanks to the forty-year experience of Francesco Martinis and his collaborators, main source of competitive advantage.
The refined artisanal approach and the strict attention to durability and reliability have become not only a mere statement of quality, but also an unavoidable element of every single product falling under the name of this brand.

The bond between the impeccable internal structure and the refined leather upholstery on one hand, and the superb design concept on the other, makes these products great protagonists of the scene: once you get into the living room, it is impossible for you not to notice the armchair, just to quote one kind of product.
Colours seem to contribute substantially to this outstanding look, with red leading the way. This is possible not only with a carefully checked process of coloration, where every step is the result of a deep study of modern and excellent techniques, but also with the pursuit of the best quality of leather throughout Europe (and not only).
Shapes tend to be not too sharp, even if an appropriate word to describe them would be “loud”: every piece is a perfect balance between distinction and adaptability to any kind of environment, and versatility is in direct proportion with the neutrality of colour.
If modernity is your priority but you do not even think about renouncing to durability and timelessness, then you should really take a look at Martini’s website.

Music is unlike any other thing on Earth, it evolves constantly. It is the most universal language that unites people, so what’s better than share it with the people around you?

The market is full of speakers craving to be bought, but surfing a bit on the internet you immediately find out which one is the best in class in terms of portability and quality of sound: the X-mini II Capsule Speaker.

Original and eccentric, the X-Mini II comes in the form of a tiny extensible ball. The innovative design that allows the pop-up, is super useful to grant more airflow through the speakers therefore a more impressive sound. The fact that is portable allows you to connect it to any type of audio source with a 3.5mm input jack (MP3 player, laptop, mobile phone), to benefit from the sound of the equipment without headphones. The X-Mini  UNO has 40mm speakers, the Bass Xpansion System and an excellent autonomy: its battery is capable of delivering even 20 hours of music on a single charge! The X-Mini  MAX has 36mm speakers, the Bass Xpansion System and its battery will give you a blast for up to 18 hours. Of course both of the X-Minis offer a precoius and complete sound.

Speaking about features, it is extremely light – UNO weights 112g and MAX weights 160g –  and small – UNO’s dimension is 60mm×47mm (closed), MAX’s dimension is 54mmx82mm (closed) – and it’s suitable for every fashionista, since it’s available in 6 different colors so you can match it with every outfit (Blue, green, orange, purple, red and -even!- gunmetal). As mentioned above, it has an integrated 3.5mm stereo connector, plus a USB port for charging, and the longer stereo cable (58cm), and nothing more only an on/off switch and a rotary volume dial. One of the most interesting features of the X-mini is the Buddy Jack port, with this you can connect various speakers together, mono or stereo. After “bounding”  the speakers together it’s terrific how much difference it makes in sound clearness and fullness.

The sound comes out simply as that: crisp and clear with a bass that certainly exceeds what you expect from something this small. This excellence of sound can be mostly due to the ceramic tweeter, inserted by Xmini’s engineering team that withstands high and low frequencies without any crack in the sound.

Well, you can bet that X-mini really takes advantage of its size to give you an high quality sound output. For the best in pop-up music, this is the solution you were waiting for.

]]> http://www.design42day.com/2013/02/x-mini/feed/ 0 http://www.design42day.com/2013/01/little-angel-stool-by-furf-design-studio/ http://www.design42day.com/2013/01/little-angel-stool-by-furf-design-studio/#comments Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:34:10 +0000 Camilla Rettura http://www.design42day.com/?p=29205

Even the naughtiest of little brats will look like lovely behaved children when seated in the Little Angel Stool, a project realized by the Brazilian design studio Furf, founded the past 2009 in Curitiba. The recently born team has become well known in Italy thanks to this brilliant chair concept for kids. After the line’s international production began, Furf was officially invited as exhibitor to the Fuorisalone 2012, in which it proudly decided to present, among its many projects, this simple yet adorable creation.

The bright sky-blue base holds into place a white, cartoon-like structure in which the child can comfortably lean in and appear to have grown two small angel wings on its back. The delicacy of the stool and the simplicity of its materials makes it a perfect piece of furniture for any style of house, while the colorfulness combined to its very fun design will surely win the love of children all ages.

Mermeladae Estudio is co-founded by Juan Miguel Juarez, Laura Blasco and Alex Estévez. Their projects aim to be distinctive, and are, at the same time, able to create a charming blend between individual character and neutrality and understatement. Their philosophy is to look for what is outstanding in everyday life -challenging the parameters of design, pushing the boundaries and trying to find new perspectives capable of drawing the right path toward the achievement of an extraordinary and innovative product design.

Symbol of this philosophy, “Birds” is a collection of six handmade knives inspired by birds. The family is composed by six different members: an hummingbird, a goose, a pelican, a toucan, an heron and a goldfinch. Each knife in the set has a bamboo handle, a stainless-steel blade screw with a graphite finish.

Their funny and playful shapes together with their ergonomy and functionality can be the perfect examples of the concept behind the Spanish studio Mermeladae, an outstanding series of products able to exploit design to give a new, lovely and unexpected form to a tool which is part of our daily life.

The Little Triple Chair is a study desk, but is shaped not unlike a jungle gym. The chair’s seemingly missing fourth leg is a playful, almost whimsical, touch to a highly utilitarian apparatus. And I mean highly utilitarian, as it is not only a desk and chair but also a lamp.

Dutch designer Frederik Roijé wants to encourage reading, drawing and writing as opposed to playing Doodle Jump on mom’s (or even the child’s own) iPad. The L-shaped desk gives a 2-6 year old child ample room to rest his or her elbows while reading a book, or draw a picture without feeling boxed in. Wooden desks are not known for their softness (or “huggable”-ness, as Roije has described), but the Little Triple Chair is coated in Polyamide fiber, the felt-like material on the back of beginner jigsaw puzzles. With the geometry of a jungle gym and tactility of a puzzle, it’s as though Roijé is implementing subliminal messages of recreation in this rectangular orb of early learning.

Roijé’s studio in Amsterdam has produced a host of zany yet pragmatic product designs, such as aluminum bowls shaped like city maps and a chicken coop that looks like a luxury cabin. The Little Triple Chair has an adult version with larger dimensions. Although catered toward libraries and daycares, it also makes for a perfect nook at home.

The accomplished and internationally  designer believes he has now reached the point in his career in which he does not need to take on as much work as in his professional youth. Having enough clients and projects, he feels like giving something back to Mexico, a country very close to his heart. He is now developing a teaching program to collaborate with the next generation of designers in Mexico City, trying to shape them into international artists through his own life experiences. He is involved in lectures, informal talks and design-studio sessions, giving advice not only in technical skills, but also on the practical aspects of the profession.

As Yoo states, he would have probably enjoyed  more having learned through a similar process himself, being guided across the various obstacles of the life of an aspiring designer. In his professional years, he has worked in the United States, Japan and Italy, expanding his knowledge and capabilities to a whole new level compared to the one achieved in his university years at California State Polytechnic in Los Angeles. He first started out as an urban planner, realizing only after several years that his true passion was yet undiscovered. After a second round of education he launched his own studio, Apt 5 Design, through which he received enough exposure to become the multi-cultural, globally fluent designer he is today. Not only can he boast of an extremely international client list, Yoo himself has a very eclectic background. Being a Korean-American who started his career in Milan over than 10 years ago, he transcends cultural boundaries and brings together an American stylistic education with European design trends. He has won numerous awards and nominations, including the prestigious Concorso Young & Design Award, for his conception of designing free of any pompousness: in Yoo’s opinion, good design is something that offers solutions, a problem solving idea, which can be easily understood and appreciated.

You only see pipes in the mouths of men who look like Charles Darwin. But Stiff, a Swedish brand that launched three elegantly designed pipes in Tokyo last month, have reconstructed this relic with the king of modern synthetics: plastic. Nothing about these pipes are old-fashioned, besides the fact that they are pipes.

We hear plastic and we immediately think global warming. Stiff is two steps ahead of us: “The cyclic nature of plastic is very much at the core of Stiff; customers can send in their used pipes to be recycled and used in a new Stiff product.” The color-blocked pipes, which come in blue-dark navy, red-murrey, and black-pistachio (more of a turquoise, really) are a departure from the classic woodsy patterns generally seen on pipes. But tobacco purists need not fear, for while the pipe is cast in eclectically hued thermo plastic, the tobacco chamber is pure briar wood.

Founders Jukka Viitasara and Karl Berglund have spent two years designing this object that is more or less the size of a small bird. It is engineered to facilitate a better draught through the pipe, enhancing taste. As the eleventh pipemaker in Sweden, Stiff possesses the industrial know-how that allows them to balance traditional handcraft with innovation. In other words, Stiff has worked tirelessly to create the ultimate segue to relaxation: “In our stressful society, half an hour of soulful pipe puffing will help you slow down the tempo and bring on a contemplative view of life.”

So put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Contemporary design is often viewed through a serious lens: one which lacks humor and an appreciation of life’s simple pleasures. However, Pana Objects has created a functional piece of art that laughs in the face of this stigma of serious design and gives the modern consumer something to smile about. The Frank lamp, by Pana objects takes the mundane, simple concept of a desk lamp and glorifies it through the universal emblem of happiness, a young puppy.

This playful desk-lamp is sure to bark its way into the homes of many a creative individual looking to lighten up their home or office décor. What is unique about the Frank Lamp is that through clean lines, simplified shapes, and natural materials, this functional object distinguishes itself apart from just another cliché, kitschy, item anyone would expect to discover at a local vintage store. Instead, it is sleek, modern, and easy on the eyes. The body of the puppy holds the light source and has been simplified to a fairly basic rectangular cube attached to which are four very puppy-like legs. Made of natural, untainted wood, each lamp is unlike any other, giving all of them personalities of their own. The concept of this design is also one of an interactive nature as Frank’s legs rotate on joints enabling the happy owner to conveniently direct light and simultaneously enjoy a plethora of playful puppy poses.

Started by a group of creative friends, Pana Objects values old-world craftsmanship enlightened by contemporary, functional design. Based in Thailand this small company is sure to grow beyond borders as its designers continue to play with their craft and broaden their range. The Frank Lamp exemplifies a return to the tactile, interactive, wooden object. Like a colonial toy, it’s construction is simple yet constantly entertaining and like a puppy, it will forever be there eagerly begging for attention.

Oato is a new design studio that was started in 2012 by of Stefan Tervoort and Pim Snijdoot. They are based in Hoorn, just north of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Both Stefan and Pim are graduates in product design of the Utrecht School of Arts. At present, they have two designs in their official web-portfolio, the Reeds tables and the Stuck Chair.

The Stuck Chair can be thought of as being a deconstruction, or perhaps reconstruction, of the chair concept. Their goal with this particular chair design was to deconstruct the elements of a chair and put it back together in simple and natural way. They have succeeded by interlocking the elements in a self-supporting structure. The Stuck Chair is slightly wider than an average chair, which is due to both the interlocking of elements as well as a design choice. Most of the chair is made of oak, but the back-rest is a steel tube that is swept across the back of the chair, relatively high. This implies that the Stuck Chair may be suitable for transient seating such as meeting rooms and dining rooms, but as it is lacking lower back support it is not suitable as a general office chair.

The Stuck Chair looks good but is not particularly ergonomic as it also lacks arm rests. As a designer chair, it is available in a standard range of colours such as white, black, grey, red or turquoise, but you can get  any colour of your choice at extra cost. It’s only the back-rest that is coloured, the rest of the chair is natural oak wood grain.
The Stuck chair got an Honourable Mention for its innovative use of materials and attention to details at the ARC12 Chair design contest in Utrecht.
Humans and chairs have a long history, perhaps three millennia. The earliest known chairs were found in Egyptian tombs. It is believed that the Egyptians made their chairs to represent natural forms to prevent chaos in the universe. Still, the only way to make up your mind about a chair is to sit on it. The proof is in the sitting.

My well-mannered grandmother once told me that the only appropriate place for a washing machine is the laundry room. The washing machine, in my grandmother’s eyes, is part of a home’s underpinnings, never to be seen—much less admired—by the public. The Bauknecht washing machine, made in Berlin and Stuttgart, puts that old notion to shame.

Berlin-based designer Arman Emami has collaborated with Whirlpool to create a futuristic Bauknect washing machine. Creative and managing director of the industrial design firm Emami Design, Arman Emami develops pieces for the home that are both utilitarian and attractive. On the firm’s site, Emami states, “Whoever stops being innovative stops being successful.” Given the range of awards won by Emami Design— Design Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen’s red dot design award, International Design Forum’s iF design award, and both the GOOD Design Award Japan and Good Design Award USA—it is clear that Emami repeatedly meets his aim of innovation and success.

Emami’s visionary appliance is both a highly functioning washing machine and a piece of modern design worthy of any room in a house, private or public. It’s stylish. By stripping the classic washing machine of its knobs, dials, and bulky cube shape, Emami has created a sleek future-pod of an appliance with a curved shape that mirrors a cyclical wash. The machine’s minimalistic design includes a push-to-open tinted glass door and streamlined controls. With its refined shape and modern sensibilities, the Arman Emami round washing machine moves laundry out of the laundry room and into the future.

Every distillate taster knows that the tasting glass plays a central role in the experience. In particular, the physical and mechanical characteristics of the glass are fundamental to best appreciate all qualities of distillates. Bearing all of this in their mind, Blueside Emotional Design presented its Genio glass, an innovative tasting glass whose shape reminds of Aladdin’s lamp, of course.

Leonardo Borra, who designed the glass, chose to provide the glass with two chambers, so as to allow the liquid to fully release its fragrances while slowly streaming from one chamber to the other one. The first chamber is used to pour the distillate, while the second one serves as a real tasting container.

Another Genio’s innovative feature that makes this glass even more unique is the unusual shape: reminding of the lamp of Aladdin, it welcomes the hand of the taster in an “intimate” way, allowing the body temperature to transfer to the liquid, thus adding to the enhancement of the aromatic components of the distillate.

Thanks to its original conception, Genio is a truly irresistible and sophisticated tool for classy men who want to own a design object without renouncing to functionality.

When it comes to swimming, most people are aware of it being probably the most effective workout one could engage in, burning calories and building up muscle tone thanks to water resistance and cardio endurance. Most people, however, also find it very hard to learn, not mentioning hard to perform, given the extra difficulty of coordinating movements to a hurried breathing pattern. For all of you feeling in tune to this description, let me then introduce you to the good news.

Powerbreather is a revolutionary snorkel that gently encircles the head and allows the swimmer to keep both nose and mouth underwater yet still being able to breathe normally. The device takes in fresh air from a valve placed on the top of its structure, which has been ingeniously engineered to let oxygen go through while keeping out water, and meaning that the head can easily descend deeper without affecting the snorkel’s functionality.

The focus of the project is not only on avoiding the inhaling of stagnant air, but also on making the piece of equipment elastic and therefore stable, even through the most sudden movements. Fatigue effects are therefore greatly reduced as swimmers can breathe freely and concentrate on swimming techniques, without straining the neck muscles by consistently turning their heads to access oxygen. The recently patented device is the perfect solution for those who usually avoid this training because of its intensity, including young children and the eldest, making it easy to learn, practice and benefit from the incredible advantages swimming generates. Only this time, without the physical extenuation.

I’m pretty sure that this particular scenario has happened to you as well: go to a restaurant and love the dinnerware so much to want to take it home with you.  The discovery by some customers that the object of their desires was not available to purchase in the market, led them to leave bars with some Portholes less at the closing time. We’re talking about a mind-blowing piece of design and here’s why Martin Kastner, founder and principal of Crucial Detail design studio, had to turn is custom design for Aviary (Grant Achatz’s restaurant and cocktail bar in Chicago) into mass production.

The Porthole is a decanter for infusions that maximizes the glass surface to appreciate the colors, herbs and everything that is infusible in a liquid. The idea of creating a standing canteen-shaped vessel was born during a conversation between the designer and the Aviary bar chefs preparing for the grand opening of the venue. They were talking about fast infusions, cocktails that are in constant evolution while served, and Kastner thought that what we really want when having such drinks is a window into another world, another space and time. Then, the inspiration for the design directions came from the movie “The Fabulous World of Jules Verne” by K. Zeman with its submarine porthole.

The materials were chosen according to the need to make an easy-to-use and extremely appealing piece of pure design. The Porthole is an infuser made of stainless steel and tempered glass with low iron content and food grade Delrin, that holds up to 390 ml of liquid. Each Porthole is equipped also with a set of three stainless filters of different sizes and a flexible silicone cap that can be used to seal the vessel containing “long-term infusions”.  Martin Kastner previous experience in material design and metal sculpture helped him to understand better what he wanted from this product. The Porthole shape is curvy and asymmetrical, but deep down is just a flattened bottle that breaks the rigidity and the narrowness of an usual infuser. It is a window on tastes and flavors, that leaves you decorate your infuse while it’s laid flat to fascinate your eye before your taste buds.

The Porthole history is signed by an incredible success that brought Kastner to launch a KickStarter campaign to found the production and commercialization of the product. Porthole convinced more than 4000 supporters and was fully founded in two hours from its launch and went on raising more than four times of the budget initially needed.

Kastner’s Porthole is now produced by a highly experienced and capable manufacturer and is dishwasher safe, durable and super easy to use. Porthole is an ensemble of ideas brought to life, an object where aesthetics meets functionality.

Eventually is always that Crucial Detail that makes us dream, and Martin Kastner and its team know it better.

On first sight it is probably hard to guess but Kkis is an ice cream canapé, the first one ever to be precise. This elegant innovation truly is what one would call “tasty” design.

The hand blown ice-cream cup with the long steam is definitely a way to impress your dinner guests not only with delicious meals, but also in terms of extravagant design.

Martin Jakobsen, a Czech student at the Technical University of Liberec’s Department of Design, is the creative mind behind this innovative after-dinner-desert tableware. Only in 2010 he founded “Jakobsen Design” and starting form last year he already produced several successful items for the Danish Brand Mojoo.

Influenced by minimalism and a penchant for finding innovative solutions, the young designer perfectly embodies the brand philosophy of creating detailed work in terms of simple yet functional and esthetic design. Kkis not only looks elegant but also brings back the fun of eating ice cream. Its unique form, reminding us a little bit of an oversized lollipop, substitutes the old, often mushy ice-cream cone and is not as boring as nibbling out of a regular cup. If you let your creativity play you can even use the unique stemware for sorbets and various entrées to pimp your dining table.

This admirable bouquet of ice-cream canapé glasses perfectly combines contemporary design with indulgence, so lets hope to see more them soon!

Earth and sky come together in this compact, comfortable chair. La Luna, which takes the shape of a waxing moon, is made from rattan and Philippine mahogany. With a finishing of interwoven stripes and the approximate weight of a roomy suitcase, La Luna has a relaxed, island-feel to it.

A Cebu native, creator Kenneth Cobonpue incorporates materials from his South Pacific home into his modernistic vision of industrial design. He is a graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute and has a strong global presence, having worked in Italy and Germany, appeared as one of the 100 most important product designers in Phaidon Press’s book &fork, and won several international awards. His projects grace the lobbies and restaurants of some of the world’s most famous hotels: W New York, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Atlantis in the Bahamas, and the 1835 White Palm Hotel in Cannes, to name a few. Japanese haute cuisine giant Nobu commissioned him to design five of their restaurants.

Though Cobonpue’s projects boast a lot of pomp and grandeur, La Luna reveals a simple, subdued charm that is equally suited for a poolside café as it is for a home’s veranda. The inside back of the chair has the texture of a jute bag, the kind containing coffee beans or raw rice, emphasizing the chair’s earthy quality. The textural variety is aesthetic and utilitarian, for the smaller ridges provide better spinal support.

La Luna comes in a light, woodsy brown and a darker, almost-charcoal brown suited for a less casual mien. A crème-colored, soft polyurethane foam seat compliments the firm rattan that cradles it. The La Luna ottoman, which resembles a tablespoon measure stacked high with sugar, is perfect to rest your feet on while reading, or to sit on while playing a card game at the coffee table.

Product design often misses its purpose of blending fashion with utility.  This is not the case of PressureAID –a multi-purpose hearing device, providing audio assistance, water tightness and a fashionable appearance. PressureAID enables hearing aid users and children with grommets to participate in water activities and at the same time gives a psychological advantage to the user with its discrete design. To achieve this, the concept has been intended as a waterproof, custom-fit device, which ensures maximum comfort for the user. In addition, when the wearer submerges his or her head, water pressure causes the outer skin to expand in the ear canal, creating a water-tight seal, and prevents water entry to the eardrum.

A widely unknown fact that inspired the product is that hearing loss, or the loss of loudness and clarity of sounds, is a condition that affects 1 in 5 people, or in other words 20% of the world population. At the same time, hearing devices are a burden to use and thus highly neglected by potential users. They often cause discomfort and lack of confidence instead of facilitating social interaction. PressureAID is a smart solution to switching the perception of hearing aids from a social stigma to a cool gadget. This is especially true for younger users, which participate actively in sports and yearn to be accepted by and belong to a community.

After all this it does not come as a surprise that PressureAID comes as a suggestion for the prestigious Jason Dyson Awards.

With a penchant for the majesty of wood, the designers are always experimenting with new materials and textures coming from a wide range of trees, toying with colors and combining warm nuances of a wide palette. This attention to detail is what makes their work so personal and inviting.
As for the Flower Cup Chair, it transposes the elegance of a half-open sun flower into a fine piece of interior design. The chair successfully manages to mimic the delicate and fragile allure of the blossoming plant, projecting a warm image. The back of the chair oozes a feeling of protection, creating a cocoon-like setting. The perfectly aligned petals give a note of harmony and equilibrium, whilst adding to the overall minimalistic appearance.

Available in a number of wood variations with lacquer or oil finishes, the chair is customizable to each customer’s taste. Fit for any lounge bar or modern living space, the Flower Cup Chair would add just the right amount of feeling of comfort to any place. Without it being too cozy, it stays on the cool, edgy side. It’s one of those pieces one can enjoy both for the luxurious, comfy feel, but also for the class and refined elegance it exudes.

The creative team made up of Takashi Ueno, Mamoru Naito and Keizaburo Honda has gained quite a lot of recognition in the past few years. Having started to focus the direction of their work on applying traditional Japanese craftsmanship to wood only in 2006, and considering their brilliant appeal to the public so far, we can safely state that they’ve come a long way. The epitome of their success was in 2011, when the young designers were awarded the prestigious Young Talent of the Year award by Elle Decor Japan.

Denon’s Globe Cruiser Headphones are bringing modern auditory experiences to the next level. Style, comfort, technology add up to make an impeccable blend. The Denon’s Headphones feature a 40mm driver, an integrated amplifier, AAC and aptX decoding to have a CD quality audio over a wireless connection. This praiseworthy headphone also features a control wheel which allows to skillfully control Apple® iPhone®, iPad™ or other Bluetooth devices.
Keep focused. An advanced de-noise circuitry installed via Bluetooth® 3.0 wireless, actively eliminates unwanted ambient noise, allowing a fully immerged music exploit wherever you may be.

Top-quality design: Denon’s pentagonal-shaped earpieces are made up of leather covers, detailed custom stitching and delicate memory-foam cushions to avoid pressure and prevent listening fatigue during extended listening. For ease of transport the headphones are brought along with an exquisite leather bound travel case.

The Stellar Console is a polished, structured, utilitarian mimesis of an opened amethyst geode. Nine hundred individually sized and angled mirror pieces sashay across the table diagonally, and each segment is meant to capture a different shade of light and color. The kaleidoscopic potential deserves its own Beatles song—Lucy has abandoned the sky for a stellar piece of furniture.

The inventor, Jake Phipps, has his own studio in London, where he designs pieces for large-scale production. He has diverse clientele, having designed for Google, Harvey Nichols and the Victoria and Albert Museum, among others. He is famous for creating ISIS, the thinnest folding chair in the world (3 cm), which was manufactured in 2008 by Gebrüder Thonet – Vienna.

Phipps contrasts the crystalline mirrors with expansive, smooth surfaces. The non-uniform terrain of the table creates “an optical dispersion that breaks down the light and surrounding environment,” says Phipps, “delivering it to the eye as one sparkling identity.” The Stellar Console’s mission is to re-create the beauty and luminosity of precious gemstones. Phipps’s commitment to this aesthetic is evident in the table’s oblique shape, in which the top-right and bottom-left corners are curved. However, he subverts his imitation of a gemstone by making the other two corners perfectly convex. Overall, the table retains a degree of symmetry that one would not find in a natural stone. Phipps does not compromise sleek, balanced design for total conceptual loyalty in the Stellar Console. The result is a spectacular table with a conceptual edge (or many edges, literally speaking).

STELLAR Console Table by Jake Phipps from Jake Phipps on Vimeo.

Born from the bright mind of student Robert Jeeves, the concept behind the Caulco gun was initially developed to serve as a final year project at his university, the Loughborough Design School in Leicestershire, UK.

For those who are not accustomed with the most basic house maintenance works, the purpose of the gun would not be straightforward if not through an explanation: these devices are the ones used to fit sealing cartridges and are, for the most part, especially uncomfortable to handle. The innovative design applied to Caulco however, optimizes the functionality of the caulking instruments by eliminating common problems found in both manual and electric guns, having to do with being excessively heavy and therefore cause of wrist fatigue. Jeeves’s creation is still capable of dispensing standard sized tubes of sealant or adhesive by using disposable carbon dioxide canisters, material which greatly improves the weight problem.

In addition, the innovative design of the gun confers to it excellent portability, which is essential to keep a good balance of the machine during use and to produce a smooth, unbroken bead of caulk.
The idea for Caulco was elaborated after a thorough study of the existing market for caulking guns, which led to the interesting discovery that none of the products available were both cheap and easy to use. After working on a series of prototypes, the final version design, which is now patent pending, proved to be very successful. It has in fact been recently selected for the New Designers exhibition in London, one of the most important graduate exhibitions in the UK introducing over 3,500 examples of innovation and fresh thinking, and is also one of the two projects chosen to represent the Loughborough University in the 2012 Individual Degree Prize Award, through which excellence in engineering and design is prized each year.

They don’t just have a stunning design but they are also recognized as the world’s finest loudspeakers. The 800 Series Diamond speakers by Bowers & Wilkins are, in fact, well known by audiophiles for its clear and accurate sound quality, so it’s no surprise that they are used in the world of the famous studio that resides on Abbey Road.

The experience that Bowers & Wilkins wants to deliver to the listener is the possibility to always enjoy the quality of live performances while listening music. This pursuit of perfection is the sum of several quality features offered by the company. Amongst these, the choice to use diamond for the tweeters that, together with a selection of the finest materials available, makes possible to enjoy a clear sound also at high frequencies. Another material employed is  Kevlar, generally used in bullet-proof vests, able to soak up noises in order to offer only the most pure sound available.

Coming to the external design, also the cabinet is the result of high quality manufacturing and craftsmanship. The skin of each 800 Series Diamond speaker is made from real wood veneer sourced from sustainable forests. Each is selected by hand from only the top 10% available, to ensure quality and consistency of finish, and also the teardrop shape of the enclosure is lacquered and polished by hand. The product is a perfect mix of technology and design, where quality is uncompromising.

Any loving parent would agree that their newly born baby is the cutest thing in the world and watching their darlings sleep safely and peacefully can be one of the most enjoyable and touching moments in the time of early parenthood. Especially when you consider the sleep deprivation parents have to deal with in the first months.

The Russian children’s furniture designer Lana Agiyan makes these rare moments more enjoyable (and maybe even more frequent) for the baby as well as for the parents with her innovative, not quite usual “Bubble Baby Bed” crib. Inspired by the image of a baby comfortably nested in a soft cloud of soap bubbles, the designer came up with the idea for a circular rocking Bubble Bed, which resembles traditional Russian tumbler-toy named “Nevalyashka”. The novel crib offers a number of unique advantages. To begin with, its spherical space makes the crib very easy to rock gently in all directions and helps the baby to comfortably fall asleep. Due to the Plexiglas weight centre it can always return to its upright position. When the baby is already asleep, a soft stopper prevents the bed from rocking.

Not only the aesthetics and comfort are taken care of, also the choice of material is perfectly thought through in order to secure safety and easy handling. Acrylic plastic is a widely used material in medical appliances for children, as it is lightweight, extremely hygienic, easy to wash and strong at the same time; hence perfect for child-care devices. One of the most fascinating features of the cradle is its innovative nano tech coating, which was developed together with an Estonian factory and prevents the plastic form potential scratches. Due to the treated surface, the crib obtains improved optical transparency, repeals dirt and can be cleaned easily just by using a dry piece of old cloth without the use of chemical detergents. Due to the photocatalytic effect of the nano particles of titanium dioxide, contained in the liquid polymer base, the coating degrades dirt as well as air pollution when it is exposed to sunlight. In other words, strong light starts the ionization effect and therefore acts self-cleaning and at the same time “heals” potential unhygienic scratches. The coating is absolutely safe for children, eco-friendly and even certified for the EU.

The mattress cover is made out of pure, soft wool containing a layer of buckwheat hulls inside which gives additional safety to new-borns laying face down and is naturally antibacterial.

The Bubbly Bed can be used from newborn to five month and can then be transformed into a toy storage device or as a swing. As Lana Agiyans says, all parts of the crib were designed for industrial low cost manufacturing. Currently the innovative child-care appliance is developed by an Indian furniture firm and can hopefully be taken into production soon.

Bespoke Innovations™ Inc. is a startup based in San Francisco, California, that is bringing a more personal approach to the way of medical devices are developed and used. The aim is to bring more humanity and understanding to people who have congenital or traumatic limb loss. Bespoke fosters all the services and technologies to deliver custom fit prosthetics, orthotics and orthopedic devices that improve clients’ conditions. By doing so Bespoke products will ameliorate the lives of amputees by restoring their body symmetry and enabling them to respond to their loss.

The Company was founded in 2009 by an Industrial Designer and an Orthopedic Surgeon, respectively Mr. Scott Summit and Mr. Kenneth Trauner. The idea was born to enable their clients to connect with their prosthetic limbs, and wear them confidently as a form of personal expression. Every body is different, and they wanted to recognize that fact and put it into prominence as a positive feature. We are different because we have different tastes, different desires and lifestyles that make us unique. This can not be represented by the usual “one-size-fits-all” prosthetic. On the contrary they should represent and mean something for the wearer. This can lead customers to feel at ease around people, and do not feel observed in the wrong way.

Bespoke Fairings™ are specialized coverings that surround an existing prosthetic leg, accurately recreating the body form through a process that uses 3D scanning to capture the personal leg shape.
Design is everywhere in this product, from the start, from the durable and light-weighted materials. And to make everything more peculiar, Fairings can be enhanced with patterns, graphics (even tattoos), and material (including leather, ballistic nylon fabric, chrome plating).
Design can do that too, and help improve people’s lives by breaking down the barriers.

Classic scenario: early morning, just a few minutes to get ready before rushing out to work. In this tiny lapse of time, some acts are recurring day after day: after washing our face with cold water, we take our toothbrush and brush our teeth. When it comes to rinse the toothpaste foam off of our mouth, we have to stress our backs, arching over the washbasin. Such an annoying moment.

Well, for those who would like to solve this problem but think there’s no way to do it, the New Yorker, Amron Experimental, comes at the right moment toc ontradict this idea.
The new creation of this firm, founded and guided by the talented Scoot Amron, a versatile electrical engineer, designer and conceptual artist, which has accustomed users to brand new, innovative, life changing creations, is going to bring some pleasure to the brushing experience: the new Rinser Toothbrush is simply totally different from whatever toothbrush we are used to.
The added value of this invention comes from the escamotage through which the tap water reaches your mouth: a rinse-supporting fountain spout, so simple but so genius. This little masterpiece is composed of a scoop, connected with a spout, both attached to the brush’s handles. The mechanism is simple but amazing: the water scoop and spout are used to shoot up the streaming tap water and create a mouth-rinsing fountain, something almost funny to look at, but incredibly useful for the help brought to users when risnsing, with no need of leaning downwards or closer to the sink.

The peculiarity of this little object is that optimization of usefulness comes side by side with basic but high-quality design: the shape of this toothbrush is simple, white is the prevailing texture, with the removable head (which makes this tool even more longlasting) of a light blue.
This is an incredible mix of utility and luxury, the missing element for a modern mouth. The water upwards fountain is something never seen before, an invention that could redefine the way we wash our mouth every morning. Furthermore, this solution could bring other benefits, such as the end of the need to buy, use, wash or throw away cups: all the users will have to do is basically to aim the fountain where they want the water to be.

Unfortunately, genial creativity comes at a “high” price, at least, far higher than what we are used to for our common basic toothbrushes. However, you can pre-order the toothbrush for November at the presale price of $22 (or the regular retail price of $35).Nevertheless, if the concept is what you’re after, the original prototype comes with a pricetag of $3, 800 – perhaps, this object, for the moment, is just something to admire and desire for a collection.