Stuff that Looks good, Feels good and Works (sometimes)

No longer does there have to be that awkward polite complaint when someone offers to make a cup of tea and you sublty say ‘just a bit less sugar than last time’. You can now give them a second chance. Simply select the drink required, whether you want milk and how many sugars are required. If the teaboy still gets it wrong they no longer have an excuse and you have good reason to complain, so feel free to torment them or send the unsuitable beverage back.

The Selector mug is a simple solution to the now old age problem of always forgetting what your colleague that you’ve sat next to for the past 4 years drinks. So for those who dread getting it wrong or those that like it just right every time the Selector mug is just the ticket.

Select between tea, coffee, hot chocolate or herb tea by simply sliding the stainless steel ‘slidey’ thing around the mug to the desired position and voila. On the second ring or slidey thing you have can select to have milk, no milk, lemon or cream. The third ring lets you select between 0 and 3 sugars.

The mugs are ceramic and cream in colour. The metal bits are made from stainless steel. Get yours at the LFW Shop. 

DUCTPAN is not a standard dustpan; it includes an ingenious funnel duct to simplify the process of emptying it out. But that task is more difficult to empty the collector remains in a dumpster.

There have been countless times I had to go back to sweep because in some way or another, I always end up pulling back to the floor that I have collected with the broom. I really hate sweeping. Mine, mine is mopping, for that if I am good to use as ground active meditation practice, but if it gives me sweep the tip of the cornea.

But maybe my relationship with the art of scanning may change now that she found a collector that has been designed in a functional and an ideal way to keep people like me give up in housework as a result of poor design. The collector called “Ductpan” has come into existence thanks to the creativity of design and architecture firm “Kawamura-Ganjavian” . In contrast to the traditional model, this has been integrated into the handle, a funnel which greatly facilitates the disposal of waste.

“Six tables on water”, is an exhibition of renowned italian designer gaetano pesce at david gill gallery in london, each piece conjuring the surface, depth and density of six expanses of water – oceans, lagoons, rivers, lakes, ponds and puddles.

The limited edition table collection takes an imagined aerial views of each represented landscape, where they reflects on
features such as steps leading up from the venetian lagoon. Pesce’s most recent work is forthright in his desire
to investigate contemporary materials used within experimental technologies which push the boundaries of production processes, through the exploration of the elasticity and sensuality of silicon, resin and foam. 

‘My materials are liquid,’ he says, ‘and fit with the nature of our time. to me beauty means being unique, to be different, I like beauty full of mistakes because we are human. perfection is for machines, it is obsolete, gone.’

The ‘latex roll’ is a very soft, comfortable and ergonomic pouf made from latex from the Italian shoe industry, and, to be precise, from the production of insoles. Once the footprint has been cut out, tons of bright colour latex are left as factory-floor waste.

All this would have ended up in landfill but, thanks to the creativity and commitment of three designers, Angela Mensi, Cristina Merlo and Ingrid Taro, the life of the latex has been extended.

In the movie “Office Space”, Milton finally eventually reaches breaking point and burns his entire office to a crisp.  A variety of factors influence this unfavorable behavior.  And although it’s not “the straw that broke the camels back,” one of the many is when Milton doesn’t receive a piece of celebratory cake.  Miscount or bad luck?  Probably a bit of both.

With the always handy cake divider you’ll never mis-slice, or misappropriate cake.  This infinitely handy device simply inserts into the center of the cake where upon you rotate the knob like device, turn, and select the amount of slices you need to feed wanted or unwanted guests at this week’s labor day party.  The Cake Divider can divide your cake into 6,8, 10, or 14 equal pieces for $14. We assume it’s dishwasher safe, though a quick rinse should probably suffice.

In 1992 the MoMA Design Store introduced the Sky Umbrella by legendary graphic designer Tibor Kalman and Emanuela Frattini Magnusson. A simple idea brilliantly executed, the umbrella’s exterior gives away nothing more than a plain, black canopy and a simple wooden handle.

Once opened, the umbrella’s interior reveals a cheerful blue sky dotted with fluffy, white clouds. The umbrella became an instant favorite, perfectly capturing the humor and surprise that characterized Kalman’s work and made him one of design’s most influential voices during the 1980s and 1990s. Twenty years later, the now iconic umbrella is a faithful reminder that even in the fiercest of storms, a blue sky is never far away.

The umbrella is made of study nylon covering the photo-process-printed sky on polyester, and has a durable wooden shaft and handle with a manual open/close mechanism.

Get yours at the LFW Shop. 

Would you like to enjoy a relaxing afternoon tea? But very often the string on the other end of tea bag just couldn’t behave itself. I slips and sticks into the cup then onto your face! It swings crazy that spoils the last bit of tranquillity in a beautiful afternoon.

Tea Code Cup has a look of a sleeve with cute button on it. You can just lace up your tea bag around the Tea Code Button then roll up you sleeves and enjoy a soothing afternoon break. The groovy design of the Tea Code Cup offers a sitting place to rest the swinging tea bag in the cup. Through this simple yet ingenious design you can always be sure of a refreshing afternoon.

Haagen Dazs invited Doshi Levien to design an ice-cream cake for Christmas 201, ICE MOON.

Your collaboration with Häagen-Dazs : why did you choose to work with Häagen-Dazs?

Nipa and I have a particular love for materials and processes, so the idea of working with moulded ice cream was irresistible. We love the ephemeral nature of ice cream and design to be eaten. It’s something that appeals to the senses. The proposal from Haagen Dazs to design an ice-cream cake immediately caught our imagination.

What were the difficulties? How did you work with them?

Our concept is almost spherical so the ice cream has to be moulded in two separate parts and then put together without seeing the join. This has never been attempted before by Haagen-Dazs. The second difficulty involves releasing the ice-cream from the moulds without handling or destroying the shape.

What did you keep in your mind? The funny moments:

We never had a design meeting before in which we ate the prototype.

Why did you choose this shape? Why did you choose a moon?

We imagined the shape and texture of an ice cream scoop being like the moon as in a famous childhood Bollywood song. We were reminded of the stop frame movie Le Voyage dans la Lune by Georges Méliès. We were inspired by Armenian surrealist Léon Tutundjian’s relief work of 1929. We found some early examples of the ‘Bombes’ ice-cream that are near spherical. The moon idea came from many different places and has elements of fantasy, adventure, imagination, it makes us dream and it’s delicious.

Moon Crater draws inspiration from its namesake with elevated gold numerals 3, 7, and 11 sitting atop raised platforms within a recessed case. The minute and hour hands move across the dial, perfectly encircling the raised numerals as they orbit the center. In black leather and steel, it’s a unique design that either sex will appreciate.

We recently featured the spectacular camouflage Lamborghini owened by Swedish professional freeskier and alpine ski racer Jon Olsson. Besides skiing Jon also has a huge interest for cars, his latest toy is this stunning Audi R8 Razor GTR conversion. Customized by PPI Automotive Design, it features a staggering 600 horsepower v10 engine and is equipped with a ski transporter box.

The pieces in this exhibition at Gallery Fumiwere made by construction workers, before being embellished by Brazillian architect Marcio Krogan of Studio MK27. The collection was produced in collaboration with Italian architects Manuela Verga and Paolo Boatti.

Every single piece exudes rustic charm: they’re all made from materials found on the construction sites of some of Krogan’s projects. The lamps, iPod docks and tiles were added on later by the architects. The contrast between the rough, solid looking construction of the pieces and the quaint embellishments is wonderful – this is upcycling done very, very well.

The exhibition runs until 30 November, but after today is by appointment only.

Take the subway to an otherwise undistinguished part of Third Avenue in Brooklyn. Knock on the door. Wait for some stylishly disheveled young man to open it and let you in. You’ve arrived at the BotCave—the place where 125 factory workers are creating the future of manufacturing.

The BotCave is home to MakerBot, a company that for nearly four years has been bringing affordable 3-D printers to the masses. But nothing MakerBot has ever built looks like the new printer these workers are currently constructing. The Replicator 2 isn’t a kit; it doesn’t require a weekend of wrestling with software that makes Linux look easy. Instead, it’s driven by a simple desktop application, and it will allow you to turn CAD files into physical things as easily as printing a photo. The entry-level Replicator 2, priced at $2,199, is for generating objects up to 11 by 6 inches in an ecofriendly material; the higher-end Replicator 2X, which costs $2,799, can produce only smaller items, up to 9 by 6 inches, but it has dual heads that let it print more sophisticated objects. With these two machines, MakerBot is putting down a multimillion-dollar wager that 3-D printing has hit its mainstream moment.

Unlike the jerry-built contraptions of the past, the Replicator 2s are sleek, metal, and stylish: MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis likens the design to “Darth Vader driving Knight Rider’s KITT car while being airlifted by a Nighthawk spy plane.” There is also the lighting. Oh, the lighting. “LEDs are part of our core values as a company,” Pettis jokes. The new machine will glow in any hue—”to match the color of your couch,” he says, “or like something in the movie Tron.”

You’ve heard of 3-D printers, but you probably don’t own one yet. Pettis thinks the Replicator 2 will change that. The aim with the Replicator 2 is to take something new to the masses: desktop manufacturing.

The Replicator 2 could change the way people design and create jewelry, it could open a new way of imagine toy design where the kids create their own toys and of course it will allow designers to manufacture their own products; but the replicator 2 aims to be bigger and to touch things spaces like a tooth implant. Read the full interview at Wired.com.