toy box

Second Nature

We have been looking forward to visiting this exhibit Second Nature while in Tokyo at 21_21 Design Sight.

The main exhibit was chairs and artworks made of synthetic crystals. Some of them are still in making inside of the special aquarium in which plays Beethoven in order to let the crystal form naturally based on the music note.

The crystal chair inside of the aquarium felt like it was an organic creature breathing like a living mermaid. It was like a baby inside of the mother’s womb who are growing slowly listening to the his mom singing Beethoven.

And because of the surreal cloud like installation inside of the exhibit space, it makes visitors feel as if they are inside of this aquarium of nothingness just like how the crystal chair is…being reborn.

I wish I could have taken better pictures. They had pretty strict rule of “no photography”. This was the one I was able to score using my iPhone.

Bicycle tube bag

This looks great for a day of urban exploration! It's made of inner bicycle tubes and waterproof. Designed by balkan tango in Hungary! You can get them at Supermarket.

iWood

Our friend Tatiana from Creable sent us this link to iWood after we have talked so much about how much impact iPhone casing makes in our emotional attachment to the iPhone itself. Maybe because iPhone is not designed around the appreciation of wear and tear..., there is something really appealing about this case that could "age" with the time...which symbolizes our dailiy interactoins with the phone.

Coming soon...

 Construction site for hotel in Paris. They are using printable panels turn ugly "in process" construction site into optimistic view to excite the public. I really like the hand drawing style they used to capture the future vision. Can you see the sketch line on the windows and how drawing fades away and construction structures see through as it goes toward the top of the panel?
documented in Paris, August 21st 2008.

Chair made out of compressed straw

Designed by Ryan Frank, inspired by traditional African chair, made out of formaldehyde-free material made entirely from compressed straw and wrapped in 100% felted wool. via: sub-studio

Chris Lefteri as a visionary-in-residence

Chris Lefteri is/will be a visionary-in-residence at Art Center College of Design for a month (starting last Monday). He has a Design Research Consultant in UK focusing on Material and its applications to design. He also has published 8 books about inspiring materials. I had an opportunity to listen to his presentation and also join the informal discussions with him. Stories of his past/current projects, experiences and design philosophy have already inspired me to think differently and explore areas I haven't gotten into.
Picture is from his 100 material exhibit.

Protection from bird

Documented in Tijuana.

Patterned environments

We've noticed recent updates in design with lots of patterns. Water cut patterns, patterns made out of alphabets, patterns creating spaces... Here are some of our pics.
Water cut carpet designed by selina rose. Clean and precise edges make the image of patterns look very sharp. via: DesignSponge
Laser cut Uppercase scarf by Little Factory. It's interesting to see such a familiar shapes creating a pattern. You almost don't see the alphabets unless someone shares the secret with you.
Parametre from 3Form. Beautiful repetitive patterns creating a ambiance shade. via: Apartment Therapy

Dwell on Design: Sun Table

We saw this cool outdoor coffee table at Dwell on Design LA. Called Sun Table designed in Brooklyn, NY. The table top can be tilted in order to maximize the exposure to the direct sun light.  It takes 4 hours of sunny day to fully charge the table and gives 5~6 hours of laptop usage. It works great as a table too. I saw a guy jumping on top of the table to show the stability and it looked pretty sturdy. Object like this helps us to harvest our own energy needs w/o completely changing the lifestyle. Also it provids convenience of "ready-to-plug" feature to the areas where there is no outlet (like your yard). Great idea.

Concrete beauty

Design studio Transparent House came up with the very cool ornamental application on polished concrete. They say that it could be applied during of after concrete is poured/cured. Curious to find learn more about how they apply the motif after the material is cured...