Perrin Drumm – DesignApplause

About Perrin Drumm

Perrin Drumm is nothing if not a road trip enthusiast. After moving from her hometown of LA to NY and to LA again, she hiked through half a dozen National Parks, snow-shoed a sizable portion of the Adirondacks, and resisted the overwhelming charm of the South to get back to Brooklyn, where she struggles to learn the trumpet, aspires to be a better Scrabble player, and lives and writes, and remains, as of yet, catless.

Bichos lamp by martinho pita.

Nov 26, 2012

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Portuguese designer Martinho Pita makes his Bichos from Holly Oak tree branches, which he prunes, peels while they’re still soft and fresh and then sands, shapes and details before they dry completely. Bichos is a loose translation of creatures, which the branches resemble, as if wild and strange forest animals were frozen in motion. The fabric-covered cord is run through narrow pathways and holes made in the branch like the creature’s veins. In a way they really do work like veins – the object’s lifeline – delivering the vital mechanics to power the bulb, or the creature’s brain, on the end.

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Kickstart the spark socket, the new wi-fi light bulb.

Nov 23, 2012

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The latest in home automation products comes to us via Kickstarter, where Spark Devices is seeking to raise funds for their new Spark Socket, a Wi-Fi connected light bulb designed by Scot Herbst. The Spark Socket is an attachment you twist onto a light bulb before screwing it into a light fixture. Once it automatically connects to you Wi-Fi, your phone registers the bulbs (there’s a color coded and labeling system to help you identify and organize them all) and creates a unique on/off switch for each Socket.

Spark Devices founder, Zach Supalla, grew up with a deaf father, who wired the family doorbell to the lights so they would flash when someone rang the bell. “You can have your lights slowly illuminate in your bedroom as an alarm clock, or blink when you receive an email or text message. It’s all pretty neat for everyday consumers, but it could be revolutionary for the deaf or hard of hearing.” (via Fast Co.)

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Strong low cost bike made from cardboard.

Nov 22, 2012

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Three years ago Israeli engineer Izhar Gafni decided to design the impossible: a fully functional bike made almost entirely out of recycled cardboard. Like anyone entering unchartered waters, Gafni spent most of his time in the R&D phase. “Since there was no know-how with regards to the cardboard materials, the first two years were devoted to learning the properties and behavior of the material,” he said.

To lend the materials strength, Gafni applied the principals of origami. “You fold it once and then it doesn’t become twice the strength, it’s almost three times the strength. I took it from there and did the same thing with cardboard.” After the cardboard is cut and folded into shape, it’s painted with a waterproof, fire retardant coating specially engineered by Gafni, who then finishes it off with lacquer.

Not only is manufacturing process low impact, the bike is cost effective and lightweight. An adult bike weighs 20 pounds and costs $9.50, and the children’s version weighs 7.75 pounds and costs a mere $.475. Gafni and his business partners at the Israeli investment group ERB are still raising funds and tweaking the design, but Gafni said the finish product will also have an electric option.

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Modus launches ten new products. London design festival 2012.

Nov 20, 2012

park lane | christophe pillet | click > enlarge

At designjunction, one of the many shows taking place during London Design Festival, British furniture manufacturer Modus released an impressive ten new products by renowned international designers. You can see all ten on their site, but we’ve selected the five best to share with you here. Park Lane’s thin profile belies its comfort. The thick, cushy seats and upholstered arm rests are unique features on such a trim frame.

geta| arik levy

Inspired by Japanese sandals bearing the same name, Geta is a beautiful collection of storage cabinets based on individual modules. The three options for the base and top combine with internal units to create a modular storage solution in various configurations for meeting spaces and bedrooms.

hold| jonathan prestwich

The elegantly formed plywood shell of Hold has been specifically designed to support people turning in their seats in today’s flexible work environment. Hold offers a comfortable elbow rest to aid working and a wrap-around back that allows the user to turn, lean and be more flexible for impromptu meetings.

library| michael sodeau

We love furniture with integrated privacy elements. We can see this as a standalone piece in a home, grouped in different colors in a hotel lobby or used in a bar or lounge for more intimate seating arrangements.

meta, by simon pengelly

Pengelly updated his award-winning 2001 shelving unit to include adjustable units for personalized design options. Like Sodeau’s chair, we can see this in a variety of domestic or commercial environments.

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Top six holiday ornaments for designers.

Nov 19, 2012

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This year ditch the popsicle stick art and put down the plastic googly eyes and pine cones and deck your halls right. We like to trim our tree with a collection of ornaments we’e designed and made ourselves as well as few store bought pieces, which can be really hit or miss. To save you time hunting down those elusive, not horrendously ugly mass produced ornaments, we’ve made a list of our six favorite picks.

Themis Mobile Mono, Artecnica (above) Though technically not an ornament, we’d love to decorate exclusively with Clara von Zweigbergk’s cheery geometric constellations.

Pantone Christmas Ornament, Cooper-Hewitt Shop. Buck the tired red and green motif with ornaments in your favorite Pantone colors.

Astro Ornament, CB2. A flocked, retro astroid ornament makes for a very midcentury Christmas.

Felt Ball Garland, Crate & Barrel. You could easily make this yourself, and with better colors, too, but if you’re short on time chances are there’s a Crate & Barrel not too far away.

Flock Together Ornament, ABC Home. Wooden ornaments make for a nice mix of materials on typically glass-heavy trees.

Elf Mobile Ornament, MoMA Store. Time design by Bent Knudeen, 1953

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Xtable adjustable desk by kibisi.

Nov 9, 2012

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Study after study shows that sitting all day long at a desk is bad for your health. It slows your metabolism, decreases your body’s ability to process sugars and fats, and even increases your chance of developing diabetes, blood clots or thrombosis. Men who sit for more than six hours a day have a 20% higher mortality rate, while women have a 40% higher rate – a factor, we might add, that can’t be counteracted by increasing your exercise. The only way to not die earlier, apparently, is simply not to sit down all day long anymore.

While newer offices are being designed for more flexible coworking environments that encourage movement, sometimes you just need to hunker down in one place and get a job done. The best solution designers are offering up so far is the standing desk. You can read more about how employees at companies like Mircrosoft, Google, the Mayo Clinic and the FBI are benefiting from a conversion to standing desks and walkstations (a slow moving treadmill-desk) in the Chicago Tribune‘s recent article.

Before committing you can test it out by working at an ironing board or countertop, but once you’re convinced consider springing for the Xtable, an adjustable height desk designed by Danish studio KiBiSi for furniture manufacturer Holmris. You can manually raise and lower Xtable with a hand crank; the two crossing legs operate much like an ironing board. It comes with a floor organizer for your papers and pens, though it really ought to come with a matching, adjustable height chair.

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The new nesting table: tablefields by frederik roijé.

Nov 8, 2012

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Netherlands-based furniture designer Frederik Roijé was apparently inspired by tiered rice fields he saw during his travels for his new Tablefields. Manufactured in Holland from a single sheet of folded metal, Tablefields reminds us of the classic nesting tables made iconic by Bauhaus designers Breuer and Albers. We’re seeing more and more designers starting to craft the metal parts of their products from single sheets, and are loving how the constraints of the energy and cost effective manufacturing process have pushed designers into new directions.

Tablefield’s three-tiered top is mirrored with three lacquered ash legs. It’s available in four colors and we can’t decide which one we like best, classic black or white or one of the two pastel color choices, though we’re leaning towards the machine green.

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Best upcycle: nendo for coca-cola.

Nov 7, 2012

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By now we’re all familiar with the array of lovely, upcycled glass wine bottles cut and repurposed as vases, carafes, decanters, etc. Japanese design powerhouse, Nendo, took the idea one step further with their recent collaboration with Coca-Cola, which they debuted a few days ago at Design Tide Tokyo.

The five-piece dishware set is handblown in northern Japan from recycled glass Coke bottles. Though the glass isn’t cut from larger bottles, the design of the dishes mimics that cut mark and also references the bottle’s shape, with the circle of dimples on the bottom. We’re not soda drinkers, but we love the glass’ greenish hue and the way it looks on a table, as well as the slight imperfections that come with handmade objects, like the air bubbles.

images courtesy designboom

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Nodo, fiberglass furniture by pentagono estudio.

Nov 6, 2012

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Mexican design studio Pentagono has just released Nodo, a brand new line of fiberglass furniture that takes a simple, rectangular form and increases its strength and stability by adding thread-like fiberglass connections. The placement doesn’t matter as much as the quantity of them, so the more random points of connection the stronger the bookcase (or other piece of furniture) becomes.

According to Pentagono, the collection is inspired by the idea that “the entire universe is shaped from multiple connections that are arranged according to their capacity to give structure.” We like how an empty bookcase, when viewed from a distance, has no clear shape – you can’t tell which of the fiberglass threads are in the foreground or background, but once you add a couple of books it takes shape. Still, we agree with Design Milk that this collection looks like a pain to dust.

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Cinelli: the art and design of the bicycle.

Nov 5, 2012

laser bike | keith haring | click > enlarge

65 years ago famed Italian cyclist, Cino Cinelli, retired from professional cycling and founded his eponymous bicycle manufacturing company. Credited with setting the standards for frame and component design, “Cinelli has led the evolution of professional cycling and defined the ideal of the classic bicycle: from the classic Supercorsa racing frame to the cutting-edge MASH fixed-gear pursuit bikes ubiquitous on the urban riding scene.”

Cinelli has remained at the forefront of parts manufacturing with boundary-pushing products like the first plastic racing saddle and the controversial Spinaci handlebar, which was banned from professional competition. The company has also sought input from well known cyclists, designers and artists such as Keith Haring, who contributed the record-breaking Laser bike.

The company, now located in San Francisco, has just released a tribute to Cinelli’s legacy. Published by Rizzoli, Cinelli: The Art and Design of the Bicycle, includes a conversation between fashion designer Sir Paul Smith and Cinelli president Antonio Colombo as well as over 200 pages of two-wheeled eye candy.

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About Perrin Drumm