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Just found these great toys by browsing William Chen’s super-diverse link on his blog.

Toypography, by Dainippon Type Organization (first seen at DesignTide 2006) is a toy of typography. Fragments of letters, that can be put together to either English or Japanese letters and characters. The thing about Toypography is, that Japanese expressions can be transformed into English expressions of the same meaning.

I think stella might need these.

Due to highly irritating leg/sciatica injury have had the opportunity to do more mindless surfing than have done in years. On the upside have made some really groovy discoveries linked below.

Yugop. Project 5 on the site - Amaztype Zeitgeist is particularly inventive.

Nickdlobo’s Locust Project Installation

Murals

Micromart

Harlan Erskine’s Photography

Odd toys at Friends With You

Cotton Monsters

Jen Stark’s Paper works

And then if you still have some free time - visit lifehacker’s entry on Supercharging your Gmail to boost performance and efficiency. It rocks.

Core77 posted this video on their site today - it’s so good I had to have it. Sketch furniture by Front Design. Video gets really good about halfway through.

zaha’s new kitchen launched this week at the milan furniture fair. Z. Island

Just found Lily Yung’s website - with an interesting range of jewelry - many pieces of which are rhino-modelled and digitally machined + fabricated.

I.D. highlights the top 40 ‘design influences’ this year.

“+ MoMA Design Department + Steve Jobs + Rem Koolhaas + Adobe + Philippe Starck + Richard M. Daley + Rolf Fehlbaum + Prius Design Team + Stefan Sameister + Rob Forbes + Norman Foster + Frank Gehry + Droog + William McDonough + Tim Brown + Li Edelkoort + James Dyson + Murray Moss + Richard Diamandis + Nicolai Ouroussoff + Dean Kamen + Karim Rashid + Naoto Fukasawa + Ed Welburn + Patrizia Moroso + Tord Boontje + Teruo Kurosaki + Toshiyuki Kita + Pierre Keller + Frédéric Beuvry + Alice Rawsthorn + Nadja Swarovski + John Maeda + Bruce Nussbaum + M/M + Peter Cook + Natalie Jeremijenko + Cornel Windlin + Bruce Mao + Chris Anderson”

Went tonight to the launch of Ross Lovegrove’s new modular lighting system called System X at the Museum of London.

Manufactured by Yamagiwa, the lights are x-shaped and can be reconfigured in a grid formation, circular, or randomly with a series of linking components. A key innovation of the light is that it actually incorporates bent florescent tubes which allows for an even distribution of light. The images below show 2 versions of the light - on the left with infill panels and on the right as a wall-mounted installation.

As I mentioned in the last post - RCA IDE show is now on. Just spent a swelteringly hot evening at the opening of Show 2 where the you can see the work of animation, architecture, communication art+design, conservation, curating contemporary art, design products, fashion, history of design, industrial design engineering, interaction design, textiles, and vehicle design.

In addition to the student work, take a look at the giant white ‘iceberg’ we built for the exhibition. Worked with my team of three 1st year students (Sofie Holstein_Homann, Katie Goodwin, and Adam Sutcliffe).
It runs until July 3.

[The foam plinths were hot-wire-cut and cnc’d by a genius company called Cordek.]

Marloes ten Bhoemer is the designer of a new range of shoes that

escape their archetypical form and function, but they still communicate what they are. The shoes brake [sic] down the traditional meaning of forms by introducing materials and ways of construction that are unfamiliar to shoe-design. By designing objects that do not instantly reveal their function or meaning, design is liberated and made less generic.

They are WILD. (thanks shumon)

More shoe news: For those of you who are uninitiated into the world of United Nude, they are the bomb. The first series was wildly uncomfortable but beautiful (beauty is pain, dahling) but since the launch of the second series with a softer range of leathers and other textiles, not only are the shoes comfortable enough to walk across town in (i have) but they add just the right amount of je ne sais quoi. What more does one want from a shoe? (I just counted and realised I have 5 pairs - can we say obsessed?) I first saw them when they were mere wax prototypes and now you can buy them in Harvey Nichols…..

UNITED NUDE (UN) is a new company co-founded by a Dutch architect (Rem D Koolhaas) and an English shoemaker (Galahad JD Clark). UN operates more as a design company than a fashion house, creating specific projects rather than broad seasonal ranges. The name UNITED NUDE (UN) represents the philosophy of the brand. The products evolve in projects from international teams (=united) in an open way with direct recognition (=nude). Through these collaborations, UN seeks out the essence in every project naturally arriving at an honest and naked minimalism in all products.

Headline in the Los Angeles Times today announcing that Walt Disney Concert Hall will have to undergo mini-makeover to dull down it’s shine. The super polished steel panels have been clad in netting for the past year to protect neighbours from what was apparently a vicious glare. Love this quote from the times:

“Beams of sunlight reflected from portions of the hall have roasted the sidewalk to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to make plastic sag, cause serious sunburn to people standing on the street and create a hazard to passing motorists, according to a report from a consultant hired by the county to investigate the problem.”

…cause serious sunburn?!

Philip Johnson died on Tuesday at age 98. For the full article go here

Seattle Public Library received the AIA award for Outstanding Architecture on January 7, 2005 and is rated as best architecture of 2004 in Time Magazine.

The Sunday New York Times profiles Thom Mayne as he builds government buildings in San Francisco, Eugene Oregon and in Washington.

Ok - so I’m finally going to start using this blog - although i’ve just found out the hosting company will shut operations in January - so this might be a short lived effort.

In family news: This week my cousin zak is in New York getting an award for being such a star designer. He’s at CalArts.