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Last year UK furniture designer Nick Rawcliffe released his cast aluminum Ribbon stool in a limited edition run of 100. Available in a brushed or polished finish, the form, which is inspired by charity ribbons, is almost more sculpture than stool. They sold out, but now UK distributor Deadgood has released an upholstered, slightly more affordable version of Ribbon stool made from recycled plastic, foam and fabric in a “cutting edge” production method that involves a “rotational molding process.” The form is then upholstered in beautiful, high quality Kvadrat Divina 3 & 2 fabrics. Cloaking the sleek, silver version of the stool in bright, friendly colors makes the design much more universal and appropriate for galleries as well as in the home.
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Last month Hackney-based Group Design launched the simple, purpose-driven 490 Desk Lamp. The base, stand and shade are laser-cut from a single piece of powder coated 1.5mm steel formed into shape by a few simple 90-degree “folds.” The minimal body is balanced by a retro fabric cable in contrasting red or silver.
The warm, glare-free light source is a low, 3 watt LED that produces about 240 lumens, equivalent to a 12V 20W halogen bulb. The light can be controlled with a touch dimmer, making the lamp suitable for the beside as well. All the parts can be completely recycled at the end of their life, though with a light that lasts 50,000 hours you might not ever need to. If you run the lamp all day long it will last for 2,083 days, or almost six years, and if you use the lamp every day for an eight hour work day, the LED will last over 17 years without needing to be replaced, making it the best £150 you’ll spend this decade.
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With a dizzying number of options to personalize your iPad, iPhone and all of Apple’s other offspring, we’re frankly a little surprised that there aren’t more ways to customize your actual desktop computer. We’re not talking about slapping a bunch of stickers on the back, but about introducing new materials into Microsoft and Apple’s line of lovely yet cold, hard-edged metal clad computers. French entrepreneur and tech trend scouter, Julien Salanave, presaged the move – nay, mass migration – back to the handmade with Oree, a wooden keyboard that marries traditional materials and woodworking techniques with new manufacturing processes.
Salanave said he noticed that “modern technology products look very much alike, are highly impersonal, made out of eco-unfriendly materials and are designed for rapid obsolescence.” To realize his concept for a handmade wooden keyboard he brought on designer Franck Fontana, who has worked extensively with wood products since he graduated from ENSCI, and woodworker Christophe Della Signora, who began apprenticing in the craft when he was just 15-years-old. Using “cutting-edge milling technologies and timeless woodworking techniques passed down through generations of French woodcrafters and cabinetmakers,” each Oree keyboard “is crafted, polished, oil-finished and assembled by hand” in southern France.
Available in Maple and Walnut, the wireless keyboards work not only with Apple products, of course, but with any Bluetooth enabled device. When you include shipping an Oree keyboard costs about $200, but each keyboard is custom made with one of three font options (Fedra, Didot or MrsEaves) or left blank, though we’re not sure why anyone would choose that. You can also personalize your keyboard with up to 45 characters of text or an engraved background.
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Hardly just Another Ceramic Candlestick, Marie Dessuant‘s playfully named candleholder set is everything most candleholders aren’t: simple, unadorned, materially warm and sophisticated and actually practical. The handle in the solid oak base recalls the candleholders of yore, in the pre-electricity days when people actually had to walk around their homes carrying candles to see where they were going. Dessuant’s design is much more pared down than those, yet has added functionality, doubling as a holder for candles and keepsakes, making it a perfect bedside companion. You can also remove the glazed stoneware lid and use it on its own while keeping the container separate to store items.
Available next week from Another Country.
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Last year Pablo Pardo and his identical twin brother, Fernando, collaborated on the elegant and infinitely functional Pixo Table Lamp, an LED lamp with an arm that tilts 180 degrees and a head that rotates the full 360. DWR has been the lamp’s primary, but not exclusive, retailer. Now, however, they’ve released a white/brass combination Pixo Table Lamp that is only available through their store or website.
The brass is a beautiful addition to the all-white model (there’s also an all-black lamp option), not just because we like shiny, pretty things, but because the brass arm creates an appealing colorblock while also mixing materials. All the original functions remain the same. The low energy, five watt LEDs last 50,000 hours and run cool with “advanced chip-board technology.” There’s a USB dock for charging your phone, and at $205 it’s also one of the most affordable task lamps we’ve seen lately.
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Less than a year after he completed his Masters in Architecture at Brighton University, Julio Thomas founded Form in Void atelier, where he focuses on designing products made of repurposed waste materials. Defining waste as a “material without an assigned application,” Julio assigns it one, “rejecting any sentiment that unimaginatively consigns usable materials to landfills.” His inaugural product is a seating series made from recycled cardboard tubes and plywood finished in organic hardwax oil. The joinery is extremely simple, and uses only dowels and glue.
“I wanted to subvert the convention that assigns novelty to recycled materials, the “Oh look it’s cardboard!” factor is a response I dread. Instead I treat each material I use as just that, material,” Thomas said.
The cardboard legs are as strong as they are commonplace, and Thomas ensures that each piece is “designed to be durable enough to withstand sustained use.” More than that, his production process generates “almost zero waste.” So why does a simple cardboard and plywood stool cost £329 and the desk in the series a whopping £1299? Great question. Chalk it up to student loans?
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Blu Dot’s annual 20/20 sale is officially on! For the next 20 days (October 20 – November 8) all Blu Dot products are 20% off. That’s right – it’s not some sad back room of dusty, scratched floor samples and cast offs. It’s every product. Every. Single. One. That’s kind of a big deal since their collection is already so affordable. Check out the pieces we’ll be fighting for and do a little preshop yourself.
Cant Desk in red/walnut, $599, now $479 ($120 off)
Scamp Large Table in copper/marble, $499, now $399 ($99 off)
Toro Lounge Chair in day (natural), 1,099, now $880 ($219 off)
Modu-licious #3 in a Bauhaus-inspired color block, $899, now $719 ($180 off)
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The latest product designed by the Nordic furniture studio | click > enlarge
KnudsenBergHindenes is thankfully a lot easier to pronounce than their name. Plank, which debuted last month and was just awarded “Best Product” at Interør & Bolig Furniture Fair in Grieghallen, Norway, is a solid wood sofa bench inspired by the “massive broad floorboards” from Dinesen Douglas, which specializes in extra wide flooring products.
The back and seat are made from a single piece of solid spruce with clean, seamless interlocking joinery (the image below shows how the back fits easily into the seat). Plank is made from Douglas Fir, a wood known for for producing long, broad planks. “We wanted to use the plank in all its impressive grandeur,” said founding partner Steinar Hindenes. “We aspired to create a floating seat that gives a sense of weightlessness.”
Dinesen must have been impressed, because even though Plank is still a prototype, the company sponsored the studio’s project, which allowed them to show it at 100% Norway during London Design Festival. They’ve also developed a version with an integrated, inset side table in neon yellow.
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Inspired by the human – let’s call it a tendency, not a failing – to lose objects in the creases of our sofas, Tokyo-based architect Daisuke Motogi created Lost in Sofa, a comfy armchair that embraces that tendency with slits designed specifically to hold objects like notebooks and slips of papers. It can also be used to display flowers or postcards, and its flat cubes can support mugs of coffee. No, it won’t help you hold onto loose change, but I love how the problem of losing items in couches got Motogi thinking about the functionality of couches in general, and ultimately led to this design. Start saving your pennies, because although shipping is free Lost in Sofa costs $1,225.
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One day when I have a couple thousand quid lying around I’ll treat myself to one of Young & Norgate‘s buy-it-for-life home furnishings. The small design group makes all of their products by hand (“we make, not manufacture”) in their Devon workshop, using high quality, high price materials. THey hand select FSC certified timber from local suppliers and source premium leathers tanned and dyed in Scotland, while their iron work is done in New York.
Each pice in their pared down collection is made to order and is one of a limited edition of 100. Since each item is made for a particular buyer, you can specify details like the type of wood, the finish or the color of the leather. No project is too big or too small, “from umbrella stands to custom made libraries.”
With my penchant for writerly paraphernalia, I fancy the Animate Writing Desk. It has a slim profile and a tray sunken into the pullout drawer, which is lined with red leather (or color of your choice). I love details like the contrasting wood finish on the drawer pulls and the outer panels, giving it a kind of racing stripe on either side. And while I’m at it I might as well spring for the coordinating Animate Bedside Table, with contrasting American Black Walnut and bright formica. I know, formica! It’s great to see unexpected materials used in high quality craftsmanship, especially in retro baby blue. Take a behind-the-scenes tour of their workshop.
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