Buenos Aires-based bookshop and publisher Eterna Cadencia has released El Libro que No Puede Esperar – which translates as ‘The Book that Cannot Wait’ – an anthology of new fiction printed in ink that disappears after two months of opening the book. The book comes in an airsealed package, once you open it, you only have two months to read it. Nowadays there are a lot of e-books, so authors/publishers have to come up with an attractive idea that will trigger readers to buy the printed book. With this new kind of ink they created a buzz around reading. The book was getting a lot of request and everyone was excited to read it. Do you think the printed book will survive?
End of the world survivalkit made by menosunocerouno. I really like this concept, the design, concept and functionality. It contains everything you need in case of emergency. This could be related with the Mayan conspirancies, if yes, well played on the topic of the day.
We all know the apple-parts, sweet red peppers and rough sliced fruits. It ‘s all very easy when you haven’t that much time to do it yourself (of course, two minutes to cut your apple is so much time;)) Customers are getting so used at it, they won’t even think about getting some fresh vegetables or fruit. The connection with food people eat is totally broken. You can read more about this in Hungry City from Caroleen Steel, very interesting.
Ploenpit – an industrial design student - came up with Ice cream concept Parlour. This concept is designed to explore and investigate the process of making ready-to-eat food. People will get more aware of where the food comes from and how you have to prepare it. It is a way to encourage people to make their own food and show them how great it is to experience this process, to repair the broken connection. This concept also has a link to original craft, we are getting tired of not knowing where our food comes from and of what ingredients it consists. This concept shows you all the facets of making original ice cream and the cool thing about it, is that you can endlessly experiment with flavours.
Cut On Your Bias is a crowdsourced social-commerce platform for womenswear, menswear and home items. Fashion is all about trends, but also about taste. Unfortunately consumers have no interaction in the dynamic decisions that shape fashion. This platform creates an oppurtinity for virtual collaboration between costumer and designer. COYB is founded by Louis Monoyudis
This is how it works:
- Designers provide options such as fabric, color and silhouette
- Consumers vote on their favorite combinations over the course of a week
- The following week the winning styles are made available for pre-order in limited editions
- Each designer uses their production infrastructure and supply chain to produce the items
- Styles are delivered to customers in 8 weeks or less for fashion and 12 weeks or less for home
Using co-creation can be a very strategic way for an organisation. Fashion is really divers and everyone has their own taste. You probably once had something in mind you really wanted to have, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Cut On Your Bias has seen this insight and wants to react on it. I think co-creation is a good tool to use in the fashion industry, because the consumer want to play a part in the designing process. They want to be heard and appreciated. With this site they know their wants will be heard. You also know that the winning piece, will be sold much more, because the consumer is involved and feels bonded with the company.
De Culinaire werkplaats is a wonderful place founded by Marjolein Wintjes and Eric Meursing. They want to inspire you with fooddesign, foodinspiration and other innovative foodconcepts. They are also very conscious by their choice of ingredients, their ingredients have to be produced animal friendly, local, fair trade, direct trade, seasonal and good for personal health. The creations they make are almost art.
Inspiration is the key of this concept. De culinaire eetplaats is working to create ‘the dinnerplate of the future’. For example they used the inspiration BLACK. Images of this inspiration are above.
The loveliest thing of this concept is work’in: They offer you the chance to join them and learn by doing. You can decide what kind of project you want to learn. You can learn about technique, about season products and more information about food.
Last but not least, they offer a shop’in: You can buy great products from their seasonal collection. All products are chosen consciously
Little printer is designed by Londen based agency BERG. The device itself contains an inkless, thermal printer, which connects wirelessly to a small unit plugged into the user’s broadband router. Little printer is like a rss for you printer. You only have to select the sources of publications you want to subscribe to via your smartphone. This product allows you to make your own designed newspaper, it’s all about you; the birthdays you may not forget, your to-do lists, the headlines you want to read. This products integrates or online world with or offline world just like the product on my post before.
Olly is a robot that turns alerts, pings, tweets, likes etc. into the smell you choose. No more annoying buzzes, just the smell that makes you recognize the interaction with your computer. You can customize the Olly as much as you want, you can change the smell from coffee to apple, but you can also customize the design. Olly was founded by Mint Foundry. Why do we want a smell for everything, why do we want buzzes to be more of an experience? Are they trying to create a positive feeling?
You could say this product is linked to the online/offline trend. We are getting lost in cyberspace and want to get back onto the real world. This product gives us a physical attachment.
What stood out to me in the sectors appearance and living is the use of the old trompe l’oeil technique. This is an old technique, the Romans already used, you paint something to make it look like something real. For example a window painted on a wall, it still is a wall, but it just looks like a window with a view. Nowadays designers use this as an inspiration for their products. With the new techniques for creating new kinds of materials there are a lot of possibilities. You can make floors, that look and feel like they are made of real wood, but in fact they are just made of plastic. This also applies in the fashion scene. Coats don’t have to be made of real fur, because we can make good look-a-likes now.
A lot of citybirds are listed as endangered species, because they can’t find a place where they can construct nests. Fanny Hofstra, graduated from the product design department of the Dutch Design Academy, designed Bird Bricks. These are components that contain nesting space. The bricks are set into the walls during construction. This product shows that there is a need of city nature balance. We can find a lot of innovative concepts that focus on making the city greener, but saving the animals is also very important. Klaas Kuiken also made a product for birds, wich you can see on the first picture.
Godiva is a famous chocolate store, originally founded in Brussel, but now you can find them all over the world. Godiva also has a flagshipstore in Harajuku. The interior design is done by Wonderwall, a famous interior design firm based in Japan. The idea of Godiva was: “threat thyself”.
