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2012

Home Tag 2012

Porcelain tableware by mud australia. NYIGF 2012.

Aug 26, 2012

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Mud Australia‘s line of handmade porcelain tableware easily caught my eye at the ever over-packed New York International Gift Fair this year. A rough wooden tabletop set off the collection’s picture perfect palette of soft greys, rich red, butter yellow and cheery robin’s egg blue. The exterior of all the plates, bowls and cups is left untreated, giving it a vitrified stone-like surface that’s balanced by the shining, glazed interiors. All the pieces are over, microwave and dishwasher safe, so they’re not only beautiful but practical, too.

Mud crafts their porcelain in their Sydney studio, where they also sell Chilewich’s place mats and table runners, Kobo soy candles and Vitsoe furniture. While their products are carried by a number of retailers in the United States, Mud has never had an American storefront of their very own until now. In just a few weeks they’ll be opening up shop in Soho on Crosby Street. Stay tuned for more news of the opening.



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Ferm living. NYIGF 2012

Aug 25, 2012

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Ferm Living, a Danish interior design company, is riding high on the ever-surging trend towards Scandinavian sensibilities. They produce a line of well-crafted everyday objects with eye for color and pattern and a focus on highlighting natural materials. Retro, yes, but not kitsch. Their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection includes textiles with strong geometric prints in black and white and neon orange color combinations. The neon is something of an anomaly, however, as most of their products this year are more subdued – dark mustard, dusky mauve and rich, deep turquoise balanced by grey and wood tones. The images here are just a smattering of their hundred-page catalog. See all their products and continue on to their online shop or see if they’re stocked in your city.


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Destination mexico. NYIGF 2012.

Aug 24, 2012

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It was abundantly clear that Destination Mexico’s big hot pink NYIGF booth full of bright, shiny things was meant to convey this message: We are here. We are fun. We are commercially viable. MoMA Design Store certainly agrees – their New International Design program is a partner. They currently sell a number of Mexican designers featured in the show, like Ariel Rojo, who’s Energy Saving Pig Lamp was prominently displayed. The ceramic lamp comes in black and white, with the curly-Q compact fluorescent bulb attached to the back like a tail.

My favorite Destination Mexico product is the Paper Strip Bowl by Yolanda Resendiz and Jesus Renteria. If MoMA’s goal with their Destination series is to highlight contemporary design that references regional traditions, the Paper Strip Bowl does a beautiful job of making the handcrafted tableware Mexico is known for into a durable consumer product. Discover more contemporary Mexican design at the MoMA store.


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Wonderland candleholder by arctenica. NYIGF 2012.

Aug 23, 2012

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London-based designer Stephen Johnson scoured antique shops in England for the odds and ends that comprise Wonderland, his playful candleholders. Miniature hotdogs, barrels, birds and animal figurines are stacked off-kilter, one on top of the other to make up the candlestick portion, while a base made out of a horse, a rabbit, a lady-in-waiting or a hummingbird fluttering atop a tree branch anchors the whole menagerie.

Wonderland, as in Alice and Wonderland, is made from 100% recycled aluminum and is available in matte white as well as special editions of chrome and gold. At NYIGF this year Artecnica debuted the fantastical table topper in matte red. While I think all modern furniture lovers will agree that the rigors of austerity are key, no house is quite a home if you don’t let loose just a little, and Johnson’s candleholders are just the antidote to an otherwise stark and spare dining room.


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NY design week – icff 2012: graypants.

Jun 2, 2012

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Graypants is a design studio and think tank based out of Seattle and Amsterdam that takes on a wide range of projects, from larger architectural commissions to furniture and lighting. Where their smaller products are concerned, it’s clear that Graypants makes their materials work as hard as possible. The sleek Slice chair (below) gets the most out of a single sheet of plywood. Three entire chairs can be made from just one sheet, and because the low-VOC finish is a byproduct of cheese (yes, really), the only waste is the saw dust.

At ICFF this year, Graypants showed off their stunning cardboard-based lighting collection. Available in a variety of shapes from perfect circles to oval pendants, each light is made of thin strips of laser-cut cardboard that are glued one on top of the other. Because of the irregularities in the cardboard’s honeycomb structure, the light shines through in unique ways particular to each individual light. In certain lights, like the Drum or the Bell (below), the cardboard rings are arranged to create a subtle pattern. The lights, which range in price from $179 – $1,399, can be purchased directly from graypants’ online shop.








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2012 tech design trend forecast, part 1.

Feb 1, 2012



New Year’s day may have come and gone but it’s still early enough in 2012 to set forth a few more predictions before the year really gets underway. The latest prophecy comes from the tech experts at Frog, who have foreseen a future that includes biomimicry, a smarter use for Facebook and better mobile phones for the rest of the world. [via Fast Co.]

12. Connected Cities

People can learn about and even experience a place before ever setting foot in it. Our Austin studio recently hired a creative director from Brooklyn who used the fly-through experience in Google maps to get a feel for a neighborhood where he was home shopping. As this mountain of data becomes more accessible, we will find ourselves more connected with information, with each other, and with the city that surrounds us.

11. Taking Computers Out of Computing

Voice recognition technology has finally hit its tipping point of capability, and the stage is being set for a generation of users to start assuming voice control, just as touch control is now assumed for any screen. But the spoken word is only a fragment of any conversation. Computer vision–especially depth-sensing cameras–will be able to pick up nonverbal cues such as gesturing or body language that complete human communication. When voice and gesture comprehension are paired, humans will be able to address technology naturally, without command jargon. The tactical steps being taken in 2012 are to “design the human” as the primary interface device in support of that.

10. The Reductive Social Network: Technology Finally Gets Personal

Our Internet personalities have evolved into amplified personas that aren’t truly us. The current fervor around cloud computing only exacerbates the problem: Now, my 10,000 digital photos are in the ether, but am I any more emotionally connected with them and sharing them with my three closest friends in a meaningful way? This is about culling from the terabytes and sharing with the single digits. In 2012, product companies will deliver new products that begin narrowing the social circle and capturing intimacy and authenticity.

9. Gadget Convergence Will Lead to Specialization

I read countless blog posts proclaiming that dedicated devices, like the camera and the watch, will rapidly shrivel and die. Instead, I think new technologies will provide opportunities for them to get better. When users purchase a dedicated device, they are gravitating towards products with higher quality and better design to elevate their experience. It turns out that the convergent device is killing the commodity digital product while forcing everything else to improve. This is presenting companies and brands with an opportunity to do what designers love: Make things better!

8. Rein in the Clouds!

We’re rapidly moving into a technology space where mobility is becoming less about a set of devices and more about the pervasive mist of data that we all generate with every interaction on the Internet. Managing, securing, and understanding this data will play a huge part in technology over the next few years. Moreover, making that data comprehensible to the consumer is key. The question has never really been, Is this possible? but rather, When will we have an ecosystem of compelling and useful devices and services that will integrate seamlessly into people’s lives? We think that time is finally arriving in 2012.

7. Reputation-Enhanced Lending and Trading Goes Mainstream

While logging in to third-party websites using your Facebook identity is now commonplace, we are beginning to see person-to-person exchanges making use of social networks to broker trust. For example, before you stay at someone’s spare bedroom via Airbnb, you have to sign in with your profile. I recently rented someone’s house in Toronto for a few days, and between our respective social networks, we found enough friends, relatives, and colleagues in common for him to lend me the property with confidence. In 2012, this reputation-enhanced lending and trading will become mainstream. We will lease, barter, and trade with relative strangers, banking on their reputations and connections.

Stay tuned for part 2. In the meantime, let us know your 2012 predictions in the comments.


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