Finally, someone has taken their designer hands to the ugliest thing in my bathroom: the toilet plunger. You might have seen Josh Owen‘s new WC Line at Accent on Design at NYIGF last week as part of Kontextur, the go-to source for all those seeking a sleeker, more refined bathroom. Owen’s three-part WC series includes a waste bin, toilet brush and plunger. The former has a handy wooden dowel attached to lid to keep your used tissues from being an eyesore, and the plunger and brush are hidden from view in a clever little rubber container.
“These products exude clarity by blending utility, usability, materiality and engineering with careful attention to the concerns of space limitations often accompanying their context in the bath.”
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I own a set of beautiful, wooden Peugeot salt and pepper mills, but my guess is that so much of the designers’ time went into the beautifying them as objects that they neglected to address their functionality. At the end of the day, they look awfully nice on my countertop, but when it comes time to actually salting or peppering something I use a cheap, plastic grinder from the supermarket.
Kuhn Rikon, however, has just released a beauty-meets-brains kind of grinder. Created by in-house designer, Philipp Beyeler, an avid cook himself, the Ratchet Grinder is playful-looking (it also chirps when you use it) but, made from sturdy ceramic, it gets the job done. Easily adjustable from fine to course, this baby even grinds flax and chia seeds (meaning you can avoid those they-only-have-unmilled-flax-seed moments in the supermarket).
Check out Beyeler’s other kitchen gadgets for Kuhn Rikon. Any designer who got their start making a working “Chocolate Milk Maker” out of LEGOs has a special place in my heart.
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The fruit bowl is a new product in the Stelton Embrace series, which is characterized by the elegant, light and organic form language. [ stelton ]
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By now we’ve probably all seen the catchy videos promoting Nike’s new fitness tracker, NikeFuel. But exactly how is it different from their previous system, and how does it actually work?
Before NikeFuel there was the sensor you inserted in the bottom of your shoes. It kept track of your steps and synced that information to your iPhone or iPod. When I first started running more seriously I used this system, but I found that my distance was always a half mile off from what the treadmill read or what Google Maps told me was, for example, a three mile route. The feature to customize your sensor to your specific footfalls never worked and it oftentimes dropped data so I couldn’t track my progress online.
The NikeFuel band also communicates your training to your Apple devices, but it just seems like a fancy, $150 pedometer. It doesn’t track your heart rate, but the real advantage here is that it tracks all the activity you do, whether it’s swimming laps, running, training in the gym, walking up a flight of stairs or dancing. The thing is, Nike doesn’t tell you how it does this, which makes me think it’s going to be just as off-base in its tracking as the sensor was. You can’t input personal data like sex or weight, so how accurate can it really be? It’s common knowledge that an overweight man is going to burn energy at a different rate than a petite woman, yet their activity is tracked in the same way.
For starters, I’d really love to know how the accelerometer works – how does it the translate the energy expended in skateboarding down a street? What Nike does push are all the bells and whistles, its bluetooth technology, its built-in motivational color system (your band changes from red to green depending on how much activity you’ve completed) and its overall fun factor: life isn’t just boring old life anymore, it’s a sport. But if you don’t buy this wrist band you’ll never know how much sporty fun you’re missing out on.
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Situated on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall, A Room for London is a major new collaboration between Artangel and Living Architecture, in association with Southbank Centre. It is a one-bedroom installation, available for rent, designed by David Kohn Architects in collaboration with Fiona Banner. Apparently inspired by the steamer from Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” a novella set in the Congo in 1890. Artangel, a company that commissions unusual artwork, and Living Architecture, which rents homes, or in this case, rooms, of an equally unique nature, hosted a competition to “create a room with one of the most visible sites in the British capital, where up to two people at a time could spend a unique night in an exemplary landmark.”
Think of A Room for London like a pop-up hotel: it’s in a unique location (atop the Queen Elizabeth Hall) and it has a limited engagement: it’s only open for a year and guests can only stay for one night. It’s exclusive, but it’s not expensive. In fact, at about $185 it’s a pretty darn affordable stay for a London room with a Thames River view. Of course, that only means the wait list is going to run as long as the Thames River itself. If you’re lucky enough to nab a night, you’re invited to open up the room’s log book and “reflect upon what [you] see and hear during [your] one night stay, logging [your[ thoughts, observing cloud patterns, the character of the river and deeper undercurrents.” But if you just want to chuck your diary and get drunk in a cool hotel room, we won’t tell anyone.
Bookings for July through December 2012 go on sale January 19th.
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As a flat whisk, Twist™ is ideal for mixing sauces in low pans or for making gravy in roasting trays. Its silicone-coated steel wires are suitable for non-stick cookware and are perfect for scraping and combining ingredients together, preventing them from burning on the bottom of a pan. Then, with a simple turn of the handle, Twist™ also becomes a highly effective balloon whisk, allowing egg whites to be whipped into peaks of perfection. All the parts can be easily separated for cleaning and, after use, Twist™ can be closed flat for convenient storage in a drawer. Its silicone wires are heat-resistant up to 520°F. msrp: $10.
Nestä is the ultimate collection of practical, space-saving kitchenware comprising a unique range of food preparation sets. Their innovative designs allow the individual elements within each set to be stacked together, thereby occupying the absolute minimum amount of space. Nestä Utensils are the latest addition to the range, comprising 5 essential kitchen tools in a compact, self-supporting design which not only looks great in the kitchen but eliminates the need for an additional utensil pot. The set contains a slotted spatula, spaghetti claw, slotted spoon, solid spoon and a soup ladle which all nest neatly together and are held in place by small magnets in the handles. The tools are made from toughened nylon and are heat-resistant up to 464F°. msrp: $25.
At Joseph Joseph we put design and functionality before everything else – and we always strive to find the perfect combination of form and function. That’s exactly what we had in mind when we designed our new Spring 2012 collection – items like the Twist and Nest Utensils are appealing to the Joseph Joseph customers: the modern, hip and design-oriented city dwellers, many of whom have limited kitchen space.
The innovative, practical and stylish Nest Utensils Set completes an already very successful space-saving line – and is a product you want to show off on your countertop! Twist, on the other hand, turns into a flat whisk that can be neatly and easily stored even in the most packed of drawers. ~ damon willmott, sales director at joseph joesph
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Just in, exclusive images on MINI USA’s MINI Snowman event held a few days ago in Kühtai, Austria. The event marked the first time MINI has announced that the John Cooper Works Countryman has been built/sold. Prototypes of the new MINI were previewed and guests had the opportunity to test drive. The MINI John Cooper Works Countryman is a nod to MINI’s heritage, which has always been about balancing practicality and efficiency with performance. The vehicle will make its official debut in an upcoming auto show in 2012 and will be available in the second half of the year.
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“The Walker Art Center launched a new website last week that should be a model for other institutions of all kinds. The site repositions the Walker, in the words of Artlog, ‘at the center of the global conversation about contemporary art,’ by incorporating ideas, words, and art from far outside the museum’s walls.” ~alexis madrigal | the atlantic
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