September 10, 2010
Anne Claire Petit’s new count-and-peep books in six languages are cute, engaging and educational. With the counting book, toddlers can learn tocount to ten, using Anne Claire Petit’s familiar themes. The peep book for the very youngest teaches recognisable objects such as house, ball, guitarand rabbit. The numbers and objects are written in six different languages:
German, French, Spanish, English, Japanese and Dutch.
Have a look at:
www.anneclairepetit.nl
June 18, 2010
Södra has developed a chair made of pulp in collaboration with design and architect company Claesson Koivisto Rune. The chair has its world premiere at the furniture fair in Milan.
Parupu is a chair for children. A unique material makes the chair durable and waterproof, as well as fully compostable. To suit its young target group, it is also colourful, stackable and made for fun and games. Parupu lasts roughly the length of a childhood and can then be recycled.
The chair is made from the material DuraPulp, a result of several years’ research and development. The objective was to develop a material with a paper like feel, but with durability normally associated with materials like steel, wood or hard plastic.
Design and architect firm Claesson Koivisto Rune has, in conjunction with Södra and research company STFI-Packforsk, experimented and tested the suitability of the material for use in a tough and practical chair for children.
June 16, 2010
Like all wallpaper silhouettes from Inke, each of the baby elephants is hand made and comes as a DIY-Kit, complete with a brush and some ecological wallpaper adhesive. It is available in a wide variety of vintage and designer wallpapers, which makes every piece truly unique!
Have a look at:
June 14, 2010
Casala stands for Carl Sasse Lauenau. In Lauenau (Lower Saxony) the brand was established in 1917 and became famous for producing modern project furniture with a long life span. Quick handling, flexible in use and technical innovations are the first matters of importance in their development. Ninety years of experience in the furniture industry guarantee that the chairs not only look good, they are comfortable as well.
In 2008 Casala then relaunched one of its most successful objects at the furniture fair in Cologne, the plastic cantilever chair Casalino designed by Alexander Begge With its light, elegant and stabile characteritics, it shows the spirit of the 1970s. It design is in balance up to the last detail.
Hereafter an interview with Alexander Begge
What led to the assignment to design a chair for Casala?
In the late 1960s I came to work for Casala through an intermediary for designers. Before I began at Casala, I travelled through Africa in a VW van for seven months. When I returned, the offer was still standing and I started work at Casala.
What did the assignment comprise?
I was instructed to develop a plastic chair. Other designers had failed to come up with a good proposal. I was the manual worker there.
How did you start the project? Did you have a concept?
I had this idea of a wisp of fog, that was all. I never made a sketch once. I don’t know how things are done with a computer these days, but I proceeded on instinct. The work gave me so much pleasure, I was living in a whirl. The Casala factory had a siren that went off several times a day. When the siren sounded at the end of a working day, I thought it was time for a coffee break. I had forgotten everything around me.
What did the actual work look like?
I made a plaster model and covered it with glass-fibre strips impregnated with polyester. Then I polished and filed the cured models, not exactly a healthy job.
The chair was a great success right from the start, wasn’t it?
Yes, so great that Casala started production without delay. In 1971 we introduced the chair at the furniture fair of Cologne. The Mayor visited the stand and sat down on the chair. Which broke in two. That chair was purely intended as a display model, not to be tested. The chairs from the first production run posed problems as well. They were not UV-proof and the glass fibres were not colourfast
Was that the reason why the chair was produced for a relatively short time?
No, it did not take Casala very long to get these problems under control. The chair sold well and sometimes I earned bonuses of 10,000 DM a month. The oil crisis caused the turning point. Suddenly it was expensive to make products based on petroleum. And sales came to a standstill.
Casalino is available with and without armrests, as a children’s chair in two sizes and as a stool. The Casalino tables for big and small were designed in 2007 (Design by Kressel + Schelle, Hamburg).
Have a look at:
June 7, 2010
Cappellini and Walt Disney Signature, Disnesy’s first upscale adult lifestyle brand, unveiled five limited edition pieces at the “Fuori Salone” during the Milan Furniture Fair in Italy. This introduction marks the start of a colleboration based on creativity and design forming a single powerful creative force that promises a new, interesting and exciting chapter in the history of contemporary design.
Cappellini’s world renowned strong inclination for innovation combined with the magic and inspiration of Disney have produced a series of everyday products that resemble works of art. The Ribbon stool, Fish Chair, Y’s de Luxe armchair and Rive Droite armchair are each embellished with patterns; each one displaying a different image and underlying concept.
The collaboration follows the success of Walt Disney Signature’s dining installation in with Cappellini for last month’s Dining By Design DIFFA (Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS) event in New York City.
A 3-dimensional sculpturing of Mickey Mouse sitting on a giant chair, previously used for the DIFFA event display, was recreated at the Fuori Salone “Milano Design Village” to mark the launch. The Mickey sculpture is made of polyurethane, measures more than three metres tall amd weighs 40 kilos.