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Shades of Surreality

Are your objects of tactile reality not quite giving you enough depth, dimension and shading? Neither are mine and thankfully Swedish designers Front are exhibiting their “Shade” project at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during this years Milan furniture fair. Using standard silhouettes of common household items and shading them as if on paper, the designer states his intriguing designs are “like materialized illustrations.”

Designer: Front Design Studio

Jungle Love, Swedish Style

Going green to overt suicidal dreams is what’s for dinner at this new restaurant in Sweden called “New Restaurant.” Keeping your patrons alive and happy is good for business. In a country that has to deal with six months of winter darkness a year, design firm Architect Olssonlyckefors have created an oasis of happy thoughts by incorporating cascading walls of foliage giving the illusion of warm summer nights.

Architect: Olssonlyckefors

Can’t Cross A Virtual Wall

The Virtual Wall provides a barrier made up of plasma laser beams depicting pedestrians doing what they do best and any car that crosses that barrier suffers the consequences. Okay so maybe those lasers aren’t powerful enough to do any harm but the effect is enough to make drivers and pedestrians alike follow crosswalk rules to the tee.

Designer: Hanyoung Lee

The Future of Books

With everything turning towards technology, we have adapted the out with the old, in with the new mentality. Designer Kyle Bean has created a design that illustrates the issues with “technology and the Internet, and the effect it is having on the way we source information”. We are becoming a society that is more virtual.

Designer: Kyle Bean

Faucet with Functionality

Hand cleaning dishes is not a favorite job of mine, but one that must be done. Unfortunately, using one hand to hold a large pot while using the spray nozzle with the other is a feat in and of itself. I have stumbled upon a new design by Kohler. The Kohler Karbon Articulating Kitchen Faucet, is an answer to all homeowners dreams, when it comes to cooking or cleaning in your kitchen sink. With a futuristic design, that can be placed in several different positions the faucet allows for the user to use both hands to fill large pots, clean the dishes, or even to prepare food.

More Ways To Store A Magazine

After the “Habitual Bedside Table” presented by Yanko design in March – readers questioned its usefulness in contemporary interiors since not everyone reads bedside. Optionally here’s its sister; a reversible magazine rack in powder coated steel. The side used depends on your reading/living habits. The great thing about this design is how you can get so many different ways to hold a magazine or book using only two simple adjoined shapes.

Designer: Stephane de Sousa

A Universal Remote For Everywhere

We often think of a universal remote to be a device that controls any and everything. The Mulit-Chalk one-ups that axiom by controlling everywhere. Huh, what?!? It’s a soft electronic device designed to slip on anything with a button.

Designer: Tobi Kim

Prep Cook’s Dream

A fabricated trough prep sink with electronic interface that controls rinsing functions and garbage disposal synchronization. Developed in heavy collaboration with Kohler kitchen design and engineering group.

Designer: Anne Kitzmiller

The Detroit Fish

Is Mickey Mouse the new head of Tang Hua motors or is it Goofy? Surely no one else would invest the necessary millions into producing these er… ambitious concepts. An Aston Martin they aren’t, but they are just begging for Xzibit to be pimped out. Possibly this is the market? They do get bonus points for being environmentally friendly though, and have the added functionality of being amphibious.

2008 Salone Del Mobile Digest

Salone 2008 is upon us and if you’re not one of the 200,000 plus people flocking to Milan to inspect the cream of cutting-edge design, don’t panic. We’ll do our best to keep you updated on the best of all that happens with the help of our friends in the blogosphere.

Universal Scale Makes Weighing Easier

It may not be something we often think about but scales aren’t exactly universally friendly – that is to say people with disabilities and handicaps. The Universal scale unfolds to all shapes and sizes to make weighing easier and less intrusive and helps patients retain a bit more dignity. A huge improvement over the slings hospitals currently use.

Designer: Shu-Hung Yeh

Easier To Pick Up Coins

Coins haven’t really changed their function or core design since their inception. For the most part, they’re all flat and round – two characteristics that make it difficult to pick up. This coin by designer Hyun Woo Kim has a beveled edge. Apparently it’s angled just enough for easy pick ups. Hey, anything to shave a few seconds off from bending over to pick a coin up is aces in my book.

Designer: Hyun-Woo Kim

Samsung/Armani TV Unveiled

Today in Milan Samsung Electronics and Giorgio Armani unveiled the new Armani/Samsung LCD TV with 100Hz Full HD. A 46-inch TV will be launched initially in Europe, Korea and Russia in mid-summer, and a 52-inch will be available soon after. Unique design elements include a stylish remote control and a special 4-mode lighted power switch that customizes the display of the two companies’ logos on the front of the television.

Designer: Giorgio Armani