Headphones are a wonderful thing; letting you hear your music, radio, books etc without annoying other people (most of the time) but the actual style of headphones is up for debate today. While the majority these days go for the small in-ear style white headphones, I prefer to go with the bigger over ear style. Not just because the sound quality is far superior but as a bonus, they are a much healthier choice as they don’t promote bacteria growth like the smaller in-ear buds do.

I LOVE music, and have always had good headphones to listen to good music my last pair were Grado’s and there sound was extraordinary. Now matter what volume, or what style of music they let the detail flow, without becoming blurred or crackly; but the style and comfort were no where near as great as their sound. Grado had obviously spent all the budget on the speaker parts and the rest is cheap plastic and shiny vinyl. Comfort was so poor that I had to add extra foam under the head strap to be able to wear them otherwise the metal bar would dig into your head, not to mention the dreadful adjustment system which was clearly not up to the job with the headphones needing to be moved and adjusted every hour or so.

But that aside they are great headphones and now it seems that design and music can go together with headphones from several companies.

Firstly there is the Bowers & Wilkins P3 headphones which really do have a nice clean design. The use of the same fabric on the ear pods and the cushion strip on the head strap, or the brushed steel look on the outside of the ear pod, keep it looking elegant but more importantly comfortable. They look like they could be slipped on to your head and remain there all day long without causing any headaches. Yes you could say they look a little disjointed because of the twin bar connection between the head strap and pod but I think they are a classy looking design, something that B&W are getting known for.

Beats by Dr Dre have been making quite a noise on the headphone market since they arrived in 2008. The Solo shown here is personally the better design as it has the thin head strap and uses contrast colours well to highlight the beats logo. The head strap flows seamlessly into the holder for the ear pod. The same design keys are used in the top of the line studio headphone although the colours are a little more forward. A big drawback is the use of plastic but clever texture and some colour highlights do lower the visual of the plastic. While the design of these look sleek, as with my current Grados, they still lack that much needed comfort which could have been helped with just a small amount of cushioning in the head strap.

The other speaker company that is now making a nice headphone is PSB Speakers, not a run of the mill brand but a sister company to NAD. The M4U 2 headphones combine the design elements of the B&W and the beats products to make a sleek and stylish headphone. A thin stripe over the head strap and the brushed metal of the ear pod make it have that premium look. I have never been a fan of the vinyl for the soft pads on the ear pods as they can make your ears a little sweaty, I prefer the fabric of the B&W although that is a personal thing but if you’re looking for a good compromise of quality and comfort, these look they have could tick both boxes.

Just so you know, we’re not paid or perked to mentioned any of these headphones, we’re just big music fans and great quality sound.

Images from Grado Labs, Bowers & Wilkins, beats and PSB Speakers.

Ever wondered what happens to all those bottles you throw out? Maybe you’re like us and peel the labels off to use them as candle holders or vases, or maybe you’ve tried to cut the tops off to make our own glasses? Well Ruth Allen has taken these concepts one step further.

With her background in glass sculpture she has reinvented the upcycling of bottles into modified forms such as vase, jugs and tumblers. The great thing about these is that they retain a lot of the original form which could so easily be lost in the remanufacturing process.

Take this jug made from a Crown lager bottle you have all the lower form but the top now has a nice spout to poor from. You can see the level of finish in the spout with a nice smooth finish and not just cut off sharp.

The same is true of this sake set that she makes all with a nice made feel to them.

Hey don’t take my word for it head over to her shop and look at the other versions here.

All images are from her website.

We were wandering around the Finders Keepers market in Melbourne last weekend and saw these awesome little portable speakers or JukeCase’s. They are built into old suitcase’s and use old speaker parts internally as well as a bit of modern geek with battery back power and iPod connectivity.

Because all of the JukeCase’s are made from vintage suitcases, not reproductions, each are individually by made, by Son Valise. I love the idea and the execution but my only concern is the lack of protection of the speakers themselves, but if you’re going to buy one you will also look after it.

The Clementine above is so adorable being a twin case design they would sit very nicely in the middle of the blanket at a summer picnic.

You can read and see more over at Son’s website here.

Images from Son Valise

Don’t worry all you writers out there I’m not going to tell you how to finish your books but I do want to share these gorgeous book ends with everyone. You know that feeling when you see something that makes you go “Oooh yeah, that’s how these should look” well that’s what happened when I saw these glorious book ends by Knob Creek Metal Arts. There’s something about the simple metal silhouettes of these book ends that just make you smile and want to re-organise your book collection to look just a pretty; but enough blabbing from me, just look at these beauties.

Don’t forget to check out their etsy store for more of these beautiful bookends and their other creations.

Psst: We’re not paid or perked to show you these, I just loved them and wanted to share them.
Images from Knob Creek Metal Arts

Following on from Lisa’s post the other day about why we have been away from blogging for so long its time to catch you up on a few other things we have been doing.

One of the things is that we finally signed up to Creative Barcode. The creative what???

It’s all to do with patents and IP protection. In a nutshell, imagine you’ve got a great idea or you’ve invented something; you add the barcode to it straight away and then you have some level of unbiased protection on it. This also means that other companies and people have to agree not to use it, but as a first level of protection it is something that is dated and held offsite so it cannot be tampered with. If you sell the idea then the barcode needs to go with it as the barcode is the idea that same as any patents.

It’s a very clever and simple idea and I think particular with the huge cost and time of getting a patent. It is never going to replace full copyright and patents but could be a very good step while the patent process is going through for a fraction of the cost and especially good for people like us who have a few ideas bouncing around that we’d like to showcase to the world but aren’t so keen on having the ideas taken by other nasty people.

We already have a few ideas that we have put a barcode on, more on those in the coming weeks, but for now if you want to know more head over to Creative Barcode.

Image from The Design Trust.

Hello, How are you? We’ve really missed you!

It’s been a while but we’re ready to climb on board this beloved blog of ours bring you design. I guess before we get back into things we kind of owe it to you and ourselves, to explain our absence from the blogging world. We’ve really missed it but sometime life happens and theres not much you can do to stop it. One minute you’re shovelling snow in -20°C, the next you’re soaking up some much needed vitamin D on the other side of the world. Sure it sounds peachy when I say it this way, but it’s been a long hard year with plenty of hurdles to jump.

We’ve never been ones to go too much into our personal lives here at Quirk Design, but since our last real post was waaaay back in June, it seems like were going to need to share more than just a sorry to make up for the over 9 months away from the screen.

It’s time to bare our souls and share the truth. I guess you need to know a little more about us to understand our crazy year, so here goes nothing.

We’re just your average handsome english man and adorable aussie girl who met, fell in love and moved to Europe, where we’ve spent the last 5-6 years. We travelled, we ate, we learnt languages and experienced things we’ll cherish forever.

It was during this time that we decided our small company, which at that time mainly involved in consulting work, needed a web presence and needed to start producing its very own products. We’d had ideas in our heads for a long time, we just needed to find a way to get started. Since moving to a new country that wouldn’t allow me to work; not because of visa rights (don’t worry we’d never do anything illegal) but because I couldn’t set up a bank account or be on my husbands account details, it provided us with the push we needed. Since I was going to be at home all day long, it was time to get started on some of our ideas and top of the list was to revamp our sad, tired looking website.

I guess sad is a bit too harsh a word, our first company site was functional and nice but I never really loved the branding which I guess is why it didn’t hang around for long. Before a site could be built, we needed a new image, something that would take us from being a pair of consultants, to something that could proudly be labelled on our very own product one day. Yes we have big dreams, but I figure it’s way easy to dream big and have to tone it down than it is to add to a small dream.

Anyway, after weeks of toing and froing, we finally nailed down a design that we both loved and as a bonus it worked great once transferred into business cards, letterheads, invoices, etc…I love it when things just work out.

Branding complete, the new website was under way. At this time we were not only living in a place that was very remote, but the remotness also meant that an internet connection was not going to be easy to find. In a completely reasonable idea, I decided that with our new website, we would have an online shop and also keep a daily design blog, clearly a very smart idea for a pair with no internet connection?? Yep, there I go dreaming big again!

We may not have been able to up date the Oddity News as often as we would have liked to but we did manage to get some good bursts of internet where it was all hands on deck to upload as many posts as we had stored as possible.

This was also back in the day when this ol’ blog was running through Apple’s iWeb, which meant updating posts was incredibly slow but it did mean that you could work offline, get everything ready then when the connection did work, it was just a click of a button.

A few months later we made the big switch to WordPress and we haven’t looked back since. As we were starting to get into 2 posts a day, iWeb just couldn’t cut so it was adios to iWeb and bonjour to WordPress.

Things were running pretty smoothly up until this point, sure we were staying in place that was about as friendly as barbed wire and sure there was hardly any internet connection available but things were cool, calm and collective.

It was around this time that we realised were our hearts belongs, this was when we realised that without friends and family, life can be pretty tough, so we made the decision, not an easyone I might add, to make Melbourne our home.

Once the decision was made the balls started rolling and things needed to happen, first thing on the list which would decide whether this could actually happen would be to get the gorgeous pom his permanent residence visa.

For anyone who has ever had to get a visa to come into Australia would understand the frustrations, the paperwork and the emotions that go into a successful application. Multiple police checks, health checks, letters from friends stating how much we loved one another, phone bills, emails to one another, birthday cards, the list goes on and on and on.

This just happened to coninceide with the GFC (Global Financial Crisis), which really didn’t help matters and in fact saw us make another move, our fifth in five years to another country. Are you starting to see what I mean about hectic?

Another country, more moving, still waiting to hear from the Australian authorities about his visa, so things were just in limbo.

On a wonderfully bright side, you guys have hung in their with us and were were able to give you two posts a day, plenty of tweeting, and even getting started on the Pinterest bangwagon. Our online store had to go into hibernation since all our materials had been packed up and shipped to Australia, but Oddity News was going strong.

It was at about this point that due to a number of issues we decided that the resident aussie (that’s me) would make her return to Oz while my beloved pom would hold down the fort in Europe and handle dealing with all the odds and ends like closing bank accounts, redirecting mail, etc

So just over a year ago, we hugged and kissed each other goodbye for an unknown length of time.

I’d just like to add some advice here, feel free to take it or leave, I just have to say that if you’re thinking that ‘Oh it’s fine we’ll only be apart for a few months, how hard can it be?’ think again! It was incredibly hard and if it hadn’t been for a the reasons it needed to happen, there’s no way I would have ever been apart from the man I love.

It’s now a year on and Melbourne is our home. I love this city. There’s a vibe that is so unique to this place and we had no idea how much we missed it until we returned. With most of our furniture out of boxes, our UK car off the boat and in our garage, things are looking good for 2012.

We’ve got a lot of exciting things planned for Quirk Design and Oddity News and we know that with our determination and your support we’ll make it happen.

I know it already the first day of April, but here’s to an exciting and hopefully more settled year.

Lisa & Matt

Melbourne image from I Love Melbourne, airport image from an unknown source. If you happen to know where it comes from, we’d love to know so we can give them the credit they deserve.

His name is Lenny and he is from one of those companies that I know the products but did not know they made them, Monkey Business. Its a little desktop note holder that with his mouth holds a note, photo, business cards etc and in the back is space for the note papers. The head and mouth have a spring, like a clothes peg, that clamp down onto whatever you put in his mouth. They do three versions Lenny, a camel, Bianca, a hippo, and Morris Memo, a horse. But you may know this company for the Moleskine range of notebooks and diary’s, of which we have brought a few over time.

I have seen a few takes on the shaped elastic bands and these sardine shaped paper clips complete with the sardine tin really caught my eye. It takes the product and combines the packaging to great perfection. Such a happy way to collate those papers for the next meeting, it might make you a little hungry though.

Ever sat looking at the computer screen and thought it looks drab and boring save for the odd post-it note well bling it up with some jewellery. They are metal designs that come in 4 versions that stick onto the screen with double sided tape, so not permanently if the boss asks. The clock one above is cute and then there is a flower in a pot, a man drilling into the top of the screen and last what looks like a tub of paint being pored over the screen.

Have you found any other cute little products like these on your shopping trips, if so we’d love to hear about them.

Just to let you know that we don’t get paid to bring you these posts, we do it because we enjoy it. If you like what we write then please leave a comment or drop us an e-mail.

If you are a student or someone that is after trying to make something into a product and its from plastic then I would recommend signing up for the tips from ProtoMold, go here. Well not only do they do the online tips but they also make little parts that explain what the tip is talking about. So in the one above it describes the parts of a plastic mould tool, core side, sliders, sprue etc. So if you are unsure and are getting a little baffled by the naming convention this is a really helpful little desktop gadget.

This box above is the gadget they made for describing hinges made within the part, a clever trick to reduce the part count of a part. After all why make make the box from 6 parts when you can make it from one, no tolerance problems, no assembly fixtures and only one mould tool.

This was one of the more interesting piece is the Reptangles. Its a patented design that is in the same realm as Lego but more designed. The part looks like a turtle, their words, and has 56 connectors per part but they are inexpensive as they are straight pull connectors within the mould. Protomold made the parts in prototype tooling but from the production material to get a far better feel for the finished product.

So head over to to ProtoMold and sign up for there design tips, you never know what you might learn.

As there was so much to this company I had to split the post, you can find the other half here, and this part will concentrate on storage and chairs.
Lets start with this chest of drawers, Aphrodite,  or is it a stack of drawers? Either way the style is a nice departure from the normal chest of drawers with the frame around the drawers whereas this set have the slider and structure all hidden. Having the various colours on the drawers also tricks the eye into thinking that they are stacked and not joined, I am sure there would be many comments on them when people see them for the first time.

The table Translation has the main frame in a colour and the black corners can slide, so it can be used in different ways or made bigger when necessary, nibbles when you have friends over for instance. But the fact that the design give you more from less is always a good thing and this time it looks good doing it.

I like my music and I like having it to hand but there are so few nice CD racks but this wall mounting one I do like. The CD’s slot in and can easily be moved around if needed but because you can add more of the units onto the wall it allows your storage to grow with the collection. Its called Soft CD because it is made from flocked Polyurethane so have a nice soft finish for the CD cases. The TV unit underneath, the Cemia, is pretty nice as well, with all the gadgets hidden behind smoked glass doors. The soft lines of the corners would work well with the harder square corners of most TV’s.

Now while on TV stands I saw this one, Cineline, and for a larger space it would work really well over the usual low TV stand. It would also double as a room divider and if the apartment is bright and sunny, always a bonus, the backing board would make for better viewing of the TV. Also the back has storage for DVD’s or CD’s so it really is more than just a TV stand.

Another of Ligne-Roset’s TV stands is the Roman which is made from lacquered steel with the nice large rounded corners, something that was on the Cemia as well just a little smaller. It has the angle at the back that would make it more attractive in an open space.

I said that I was going to show some of the many chairs that they have and this is a reproduction of a chair that was designed in 1969, the Biscia. It looks like a bar stool but is in fact a office desk chair.

Now I like my chairs comfortable with support and this Moel looks like it would do the trick, but it also comes in a low back version as well as the high back. It has that shape that you could really curl up and read a good book in.

Confluences is a little left field for most people but those with the eye to the future could really get a modern classic with this. Its all interlocking and angles when you look at it and the back rest even goes over the top of others if you choose it to. When you take into account the colour palette used it will polarise opinions but will probably be as comfortable as most sofa’s. One for the bold person.

The Ottoman is one funky range of sofas and chairs. Some of them come in one tone and you can also get them in two tone version. They come in a complete range so single chair, sofa and foot stool. I just think they would look great in the right place.

Now you want that laid back look and feel then the Togo will do that in abundance. OK in this colour it looks like a 70′s bachelor pad but I just really like that funky look. The whole interior would have to complement the chairs but it would be a happy home and a laid back one at that.

What about this lovely wooden chair, the Flax. It would look good in most places as it has both the modern look by virtue of the low height and curved edges, but at the same time it has that old world proportions and quality. The two large cushions would make this look one comfortable chair.

Need a table to go with the Flax well the Interstice fills that space perfectly with the layers of wood being reminiscent of the Flax. The sides taper in towards the base making it look a little less bulky which is reinforced by the cut outs in the centre of the table.

Please remember that we are not paid to bring you these posts we do it because we enjoy design and writing about design.

I would also like to thank Ligne-Roset for the images above.

A couple of weeks back I was in London and had tea at Tea Smith and while I was there I picked up a bar of chocolate from William Curley because of the gorgeous branding. Its all the little bits like the delicate gold print and the choice of matt black card, but the fact that the ends of the box are inset that set it out a bit.

The different chocolate styles are differentiated by the front colour panel which is a simple and bold idea. On the back it has a best before date, like it will last that long, which is actually hand written over printed on. The box looks really classy without being flashy and blingy.

It keeps getting better when you open the box and the bar of chocolate is seductively wrapped in gold paper held in by the black card box. By the way the chocolate does taste as good as the box looks so I will be getting more when I see it.

On the website you can order all there chocolate products and also chocolate courses. You can see that the actual products all have the same branding and the same style follows through to their website.

Note: we don’t get paid to bring you these posts, in fact this one cost us the price of the chocolate bar.

So we had a stop in Hamburg a while ago and got a brief glimpse at the city, from the big lake to the little cobbled side streets. Its a very grandiose city indeed with it’s big imposing stone town hall to all the little streets to wander around. Well we had just come out of the Habitat store and had to cross the street because of some building renovation work and saw another home interior store and thought what the hell let’s have a look in this one as well. Well that store was from Ligne Roset, and there were a few pieces in the shop that caught our eyes but looking on the website there are many more.

As there are so many pieces that I would like to show you I will probably have to split this post in two, the first will be on lights, beds and assorted things then the second post will be on other furniture such as seats.

Take the light above, the Cordula, it was the first thing that really caught our eye, in the shop it had a real presence giving off a glorious glow. It is bigger than you first think but does not have that harsh light that many flood lamps can have. Having the handle and long cord make it ideal for moving around or for the party places. It would have been far better if the cord was hidden and the handle a little more styled, so lets see version 2.

Now this was from the website, the Pharo, and it looks very familiar to the other lamp although there is no where to but the cable on this one and the front has a brighter diffuser compared to the frosted finish of the Cordula light. But as a big effect light in a large open space this would look great.

Now this light, the A Polis, really stands out maybe it’s because you can play with it and put it in different positions, either way it’s shows the benefits of fibre optics off really well. Admittedly the black light ring at the top looks a little cheap but that might also be the photo. I could see this light in many different places without looking out of place.

I liked this little lamp, Hide and Seek, because of the happy playful child silhouette and I can see this getting made from your own photo in the future.

Now why hide the bulb behind a shade when you can make a cute little holder for it and this La Plic does that so well its almost not designed. The website has a picture of a wall with about 20 on it in a random pattern and it looks so effective.

While we are on the idea of lit walls what about this headboard with the backlighting? The Lumeo has a headboard of veneered panels with backlighting that would add a nice glow to a bedroom instead of the normal ceiling lights.

Another bed that we liked the look of, we are actually after a new bed so it was good hunting, was this Snowdonia bed. The little wings by the pillows would make reading in bed easier as they would hold the pillows in place better and the nice soft curve of the end would be nicer to hang the feet over for the taller person.

Need the time when you wake up well what about the Espace Temps clock, two clocks to form one. It has one clock for the hours and a separate clock for the minutes with a single hand on each. Something a little different for the wall.

Magazines and books seem to stack up so quickly around here and this table has it covered with all the different shelves that can rotate around the central pole. So you can have a shelf per book or magazine and maybe even one for the coffee mug.

I like having plants around the place and this little gem of a plant pot as it has the main planter for a larger plant to raise up high into the air and a little planter for something more delicate or even seasonal.

As I said at the start there are too many things for one post so come back soon for the rest.

A couple of days ago I did a post on some cushions from Argentina, read it here, and this time I found some nice designs from Russia from the company Dopludo. What is more Russian that a Babushka and the 9 above are a nice print design of the Babushka. They have the look of South Park characters but with a little more style.

But the designs that took my eye were when they put them on cushions, just take the designs above, its a simple design with just 4 colours. The owl on the left has that happy look but the eyes look so sleepy. The same colours are used on the right and it echos what I think is the front side owl, it uses the same connected dots to great effect.

This cushion has a wild life scene, there is a wolf I think and birds in the tree. The design does not conform to the normal as that would have been green and cuddly, whereas the use of the cold blue colour makes for a nice change.

Need a cushion with many different motifs on it, well this has a lot from the whale to the parachuting key and they even managed to add their name discreetly at the top. Maybe a few more colours would have been good but I could not tell if they made this in other colour palettes, which would be easy.

But these pillows are perfect, I think the messages are great. I mean how many people have cried into the pillow, well now the pillow is your friend. Maybe the pillow is the modern dream catcher which possibly gave them the inspiration for the bottom design.

Dopludo have a load of other designs and illustrations on the website so head over and take a look.

Yesterday I did a post on kitchen designs and today its only a part of kitchens but a very important part, the cooker hood or extractor. That thing that’s usually ugly, boxy and noisy with a little added light to try to offset all the down sides, but does it have to be that way? Of course not otherwise I would have wasted all those words above and the cooker hoods from Elica are designer led products that would fit into almost any kitchen, apart from the farmhouse style.
Yes they do the normal range of stainless boxes for the normal people that dont want to upset the next owners of the house, far too many people don’t think about themselves living in the house but the next owners.

For example the Legend above is one hell of a good design for a cooker hood and so different at the same time. The open section in the middle makes it lighter to look at and the simple vertical row of buttons not too obtrusive yet a lot more visable than the normal tucked underneath style.

Want  a splash of bling then what about the Victoria that would be as good over the table as over the stove. Being suspended from thin wires also makes it look floating in space, OK so the size might not be big enough for some cooking areas but in the right place this could really lift a kitchen.

The Alba looks far more light than an extractor fan but in some kitchens there really is a lack of light over the cooking area and it can be very hard to get good looking lights that fit in a kitchen. But the upside of the Alba is because it looks so good as a light that you could use it for only that purpose, not many cooker hoods you can say that about.

Got a bigger stove top and want a little bit of colour then I found the Ola with the tapering form and the softer edges at the lower side it is not as harsh as normal. Also it comes with the colour on the inside so that you get the ambiance without a massive hit of colour.

This is my favourite of all the extractors that Elice make, the Adagio. It is a splash back, light and extractor fan all in one so really neat, but the best bit is that it retracts into the worktop so you never need to see it if your not using it. Yes you could say that its a little boxy in the design but I could forgive it for the closed look.

But these are not the end of the range, Elica have a big range with many more interesting styles, so head over to there website.

Pssst, just a reminder that we do not get paid by the companies to show you these products and as such the opinions are our honest views, we just do this because we like looking for new designs.

We have done a few posts in the past on kitchens but I found Valcucine and just really loved the designs, modern but not fashionable designs. Maybe it was also the bright colours that I personally think people should embrace more in the kitchen instead of the normal off white or wood. Just look at the kitchen above and tell me you don’t think thats great? The use of yellow adds brightness without being over the top add to that the use of the square dot surface and it really looks sleek.

This style has that big industrial look by using the stainless steel counter top but then pulls it back by having the wood units underneath. The end of the counter top is multi purpose because of the overhang from the units so it could be used as a serving area, extra work space or the kids could sit there and do the homework while you cook.

I just like the blue colour, then again from this distance the unit looks as if its made from three solid pieces stacked onto each other with the aluminium handles separating the blocks. The only downside is it really needs space to be shown off so it would not work so well in a smaller home, galley kitchen might be possible though.

Now that looks like a nice homely kitchen to me. But the rough splash back that has the tap in it is a nice detail and add in the integrated planter box area so that the fresh herbs are at the ready it just looks like a great place to cook and entertain. Did you notice the nice cooker hood, the pane of glass that directs the steam up to the fan area. Look at the back of the room and there are sliding glass doors to house all the crockery, glasses and other kitchen things away from the dust and airbourne grease that you get in a kitchen. Almost makes it look like a museum.

This is one of my favourites as I like the combination of materials and formats of the layout. From left to right you have the glassed pantry area, then the grey cabinet, the wall cupboards have the wood grain vertical compared to the under units that have the grain going across. The under units look like they are floating which does not make the kitchen look so heavy which contrasts with the thick stone work top in a rough finish that is a contrast to the smooth cabinets. When I read that it sounds so bad yet the picture looks so good. I also think that the design would work in so many places from farmhouse conversions to a modern loft apartment.

Now this last design was done in collaboration with Alessi and would need to be placed so carefully in a home due to the slight curve to it. The rounded ends are so different to the squared ends of most kitchens and the single block colour with no visible handles give it that solid look. This also shows the glass cooker hood off better.

If you want more information head over to the website where you can better see the designs. I would also like to thank Valcucine for the use of the photos.

I have been doing a few posts on furniture recently, some of it was fueled by the Milan Salon and the other because of the couple of days walking around London. Most accessible design seems to be home interior based when it comes to shops. Going on from these posts I thought I would look at fabric and the associated things to go with it, such as cushions.

I found this Argentina company, Fly Design Studio, and just got attracted to the bright bold designs of the print. It’s very graffiti styled but with the happy twist that you don’t normally get.
How many companies would be bold enough to put out the bright pink print that is not for a young girl with ponies on it? But this company has gone out of there way to make this style theirs.

Just look at the cushion above, now thats a lot of colour to have on a cushion, but there is that face in the style with the pink slash eyebrows all backed (mostly) on a yellow background. Then you have the furry edge to it in the deep purple, wicked cool.

Thought it was just for the soft stuff, no way, they have put the same style onto notepads. Its a sort of psychedelic Sesame Street meets Sponge Bob Square Pants but somehow it works.

It also works well on the badges, so I could imagine a few popping up on the odd jacket or backpack around the world on travels. The closest area of design that has this mouch expressionism is either gothic or the manga of Japan, but at the same time those designs don’t look like Fly’s.

The images are from Fly Designs website.

Last week I looked at a couple of package designs, a vodka bottle and a cask wine, this got me searching other neat bottle usage that most people will touch and the most expressive is the perfume or aftershave bottle. The variety of shapes is astounding and that comes from the less constrained cost issues of the packaging but also the fact that they have to convey the brand of the perfume far  more visually. When you go into a perfume store there are literally hundreds of bottles to choose from and they are all trying to grab your attention.

You have the Chanel No5, its a classic shaped bottle that really defines the elegance that Chanel stands for a timeless classic if you will. This is a brand image that is not just constrained to the fragrance section of the brand but is a core value,

Jean Paul Gaultier has never been shy at coming forward and is a more evocative brand, more sexy if you will. This really does get shown off in the shape of the human formed bottles of Jean Paul Gaultier. There are not many brands that could get away with a human form figure without being classed as crude but the bottle designs are more elegant that and that comes also down to the use of texture and printing of the glass.

The simple elengance of the Izzy Miziaki bottles is almost the contrast to the other brands. The taller form and the smooth lines adhere more to the Chanel look but have a very different appearance. The Chanel bottle has a distinct bottle and top whereas the Izzy Miyake top flows from the bottle form creating a seamless design, even if the materials are different. I think helps reiterate the simple fragrance of the product.

Diesel and Hugo Boss have tried to show a butch bottle by giving it the aluminium caps and the denim covers. The more masculine look maybe stems for the original clothing lines and keeps to that more sophisticated street wear look that the cloths can have. But take the bottle above its wrapped in the denim bag to reiterate the collections name but on the shelfs of a fragrance store that stands out by not being a glass bottle you see.

But the best reinforcement of content, name and bottle has to be DKNY’s use of the apple to sell the fruity fragrance ‘Be Delicious’. They have almost made a little sub-brand with this range and it now comes in 7 different versions and seems to be expanding all the time. But the fact that there are so many varieties of apple and that not even before you get to the likes of toffee apples etc that maybe this was a very clever image to use.

Like the wine bottles it can be a fine line between standing out and marketing the product, some companies manage to walk the fine line very well.

So we love wood for many different reasons but the look and feel of it are so nice then you add in all the various varieties and the looks are endless, but what I really like is to see all the things that are made from it and one great area is toys, yeh we are big kids.

I was looking at the range of Playsam toys in Skandium last weekend and I just got looking for others today, such as Brio or Automoblox, but then I came across the Pinewood Derby post on Autoblog. What took me by this was that in this day and age of death and destruction games on Xbox, Playstation or DS it’s nice to see kids actually making things, but is that a little rebellious side in the current youth generation coming out?

Either way the Pinewood Derby is something that happens in the spring by the Scouts in USA, where the kids (probably with a little help from the parents) carve a piece of pinewood and attached the supplied wheels and then race them. There are a couple of other rules to the racing but really that’s it.
If you want to see more head over to the post at Boyslife to see a load of photos of the creations that kids have come up with.
Just think what this could spark off in the kids, carpentry, painting, design, engineering, mechanic etc and those are just a few of the jobs that they might not have thought of before.
Its a similar idea to the challenge that James May, Top Gear, and Scalextric did in the Scalextric For Schools Challenge, website here. The schools get proper standard parts and build the rest of the car and then race it against other schools.

This is done even more thoroughly later in university education with the Formulae SAE races that are now looked upon by major engineer companies and race teams to see the emerging talent. Again pretty open rules allow a lot of design freedom and therefore free thinking. Yes I know its very engineering based but some of the design is so neat and effective. The races are in June and July so it’s a couple of months away yet.

I would like to thank Autoblog for some of the photos.

So I thought the Friday was a good day but Saturday ws even better, well it started good by seeing Mark Webber taking pole in the F1, then it was off to Kensington to look at more design inspiration and buy did I find a few good shops. Admittedly I also saw a McLaren SLR convertible with pimped wheels and gem stones in the wheels, I would have taken a photo but I could not lower the standard of this blog to put it on here.

Well I got out of the tube station and headed past the V&A and into Skandium to look at what is classed as Scandinavian in the UK and there was some great pieces and one chair in particular stood out the red Womb chair by Knoll. A lot of the other pieces were the normal fair and it was a shame not to see some of the more bespoke pieces considering the area it is in.

Next it was into Few and Far and I would have loved to have got some of the huge glass jars that they had but I don’t think the luggage allowance would have been OK. But the most interesting part of this shop was almost missed and that was at the back there is a staircase leading down to Crest. I had a good look around and then Peter Gandy and I had a good chat about design and why their in the basement of Few and Far it was a good chat. But some of the pieces I really liked were the Extens cabinet, above, and Ribbon stool. So if you are around I would recommend heading down the stairs to Crest.

Three great store’s and I have only just started. Out the door and around the corner to Found, which was tucked away in a courtyard and had a few little pieces but nothing that truly stood out to me.

But next door was Mint and that was a different matter before I even got through the door. There was the cute lights that looked like cats with the head being the light (the picture at the start of this post) and also a table on bike wheels, now thats mobile. Further in was some wooden furniture that could have been salvaged from a house fire and then lacquered, shown above, they look far better than the description. There was also a nice rope that was illuminated from the inside by Christian Haas.

Where next well along the Brompton Road and into Skitsch and after a chat with Gary he showed me the wood lamps that are good for both inside and outdoors but also the top teak strips can be rotated to give an angled light shade or a vertical version or alternating if you wish, take a look here. They also had some Aka chairs that had wooden legs with a plastic seat and the neon yellow just stood out as it really brought out the colour of the wood. There is a huge collection of things so I might add more from the catalogue in a coupe of weeks.

Not far down the road there was the B&B Italia showroom that is a great piece of design in it’s own right with a long gallery and a roof that curves down, just look at the photo. I was really liking the partition walls shown in the photo but on closer inspection the finish was quite rough which was disappointing.

A little further down the road was Heal’s and they had a much bigger range of products but a little more generic. It was interesting to see that they stocked Ligne Roset, a post on them coming soon, and it almost seemed out of place in this shop. But there was a broad range of items from kictchen, bathroom and kids items so a bit of everything for everyone.

Also on Kings Road was Welchome which is opposite Bluebird, they specialise in Italian sustainable design and it’s a small shop. Over the road to Bluebird to look in the shop, I saw it on Mary Queen Of Shops, and its a good funky clothes shop but unfortunately catered mostly to women on this visit.

A little further down the road I saw a tea shop and stopped for a well earned earl grey and toasted chicken sandwich. I took some cake away for later, got a little squished in the bag but cakes cake so I will still eat it, its called The Chelsea Teapot and seemed to do a lot of cake orders.

That was the Saturday gone and it was time for the long trip back home.

I would like to thank Jodi at Mint for the photos.

It’s not that far to walk but works the appetite just enough. But before I got to the cake I walked into OneDeko which specialised in Italian interior design which I noticed had several pieces that I will be showcasing in the coming weeks, Moroso was one. I could have gone into several places but in the end I ended up in Tea Smith for some nice relaxing herbal tea. It does have the atmosphere of a little Asian tea shop and the branding is great.

The delightful tea lady serves you the tea in a small cup, more akin to a doll set, and jug. I though bloody he’ll this is expensive then I tasted it and it was sublime. The pleasant mix of flavour and aroma with neither being overwhelming, I had the Bi Lu Shi. But then the lady comes and takes the jug away when it’s empty and goes to refill it from your leaves that she still has, so infect what I first thought was expensive was very resonably priced.

A couple of shops down was The Lollipop Shoppe, how disappointed was I to find out this was a furniture store and had no sweets at all, oh well. But the shop did have some nice furniture such as the lamp at the top of the post and the chair above, but it also had lots of other little bits dotted around the shop. You need to go in and have a look to understand how much they have fitted in to such a small shop.

Now it’s time for a walk back to the Saco apartment.