Miss Match Your Drawers

Sigh. Once again, I've fallen in love with a piece of furniture...probably because my bedroom is full of IKEA's cheapest. In fact the only piece of furniture in the room I really love is an antique wooden medicine cabinet which is too big to go on the wall and so has to sit on the floor hiding a multitude of things I should really throw away.

I love old furniture, especially old battered ones - my adoration of type case drawers is I think well documented on here - so I have been lusting over more traditional manifestations of the Droog chest of drawers by Tejo Remy (above).

by SchubLaden

by Entwurf-Direkt

Encasing old, discarded drawers in crisp white surrounds. Aren't they gorgeous? There's even one with a type case drawer! ♥♥♥

via - Papernstitchblog

..................................................................................

Listening: Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight

No such thing as too many magazines!

Here is an amazing piece of upcycling by Elding Oscarson, a Swedish Architecture firm who have created partition walls from stacks of old magazines. It was done for a graphic design company and is unique, simplistic and beautiful with it.

This could be the perfect solution to the need for building work and the disposal of all those magazines which are gathering around the house.

I had a very effective bedside table made of old Glamour magazines for a couple of years, I was too lazy to throw them away and they were slim enough not to take up a lot of room. Though the occasional avalanche was an unfortunate side effect. Fortunately this structure binds the mags together before placement in the wall, thus making it sturdier.

Personally, I really like the aesthetic, as the linear pattern creates a really striking feature and the unique approach to interior design.

via

..................................................................................

Listening: Ed Harcourt - Good Friends Are Hard To Find

Unbrella-ella-ella

Given we've gone quickly from sunshine to rain again, in typical Scottish style, I thought I would post this piece of protective design. The Eco-Brolly by Shiu Yuk Yuen is an environmentally friendly umbrella made to encourage people to recycle newspaper, card, plastic bags etc and use this as the canopy. It's not designed for long distances and I wouldn't want to use it in a downpour or high winds, but how often do people get caught short without an umbrella (an A1 art folder makes a very effective brolly) or the one you have fails so you're forced to wander around using random objects as a little bit of protective cover?

"It is a supporting devise when it rains, all the user has to do is unscrew the top lid, poke the lid onto the middle of a reuseable object, quick screw to secure it & open it out like an umbrella!" (Yuen, link, 2008)

Et voilà! Couldn't be easier and it would certainly be an effective way to use up the Metro's that are abandoned all over London every day. It would make storage much easier since the wettest part of the brolly would be disposed of and while you might ask why not just use the paper since it is equally as disposable and there is absolutely no wet part to put into your bag. Well, next time it rains you try holding a broadsheet over your head with as much ease as the girl in the photo appears to be. I bet you'll curse your lack of umbrella then.

via

..................................................................................

Listening: Deftones - Jealous Guy

Biro vase

Hand blown from the classic BiC biro, collaborative team Giffin' TerMeer (Jess Giffen & Jim TerMeer) turn the staple of every stationary box into a single flowers vase.

I want a go, I've got loads of useless biros!

Via

.............................................................................

Listening: Laura Veirs - Magnetized

Ninety Eight Percent

In another show of unexpected materials Adriana Bertini's dresses showcase one of the weirder material choices - hundreds of condoms.

Don't worry, these prophylactics are of the unused variety, Bertini uses the ones which aren't at a high enough standard to pass stringent quality control tests and therefore cannot be distributed to the public. Dyed a myriad of colours, twisted, stretched and shaped, her "condom couture" as she calls it, are pieced together to create dresses which both highlight the material used in almost comic fashion and gowns which completely eradicate all resemblance to the preventative.

Her clothing range, which is more a statement meant to be displaced than worn, was inspired by her work volunteering for an Aids prevention charity over a decade ago. Its intent to convey the message that "condoms must be basic like a pair of jeans and so necessary like a great love." - Adriana Bertini

So..."no glove, no love."

Sometimes the most unexpected materials can really surprise you. I remember in College, one of our first weeks, we went to the student fair, where they try to recruit you for everything going and hand out as much free stuff as they could to entice you. To all students they were handing out bags full of condoms and sexual health information as an aid to educating the new students and preventing the spread of sexually transmitted infections on campus. This was the same day we had a design class in which we had to use found objects...guess what most of the class decided to use?

From the results of that class, I admit I was sceptical when I saw one of Bertini's dresses whilst Googling for unusual design materials. I thought that they would probably just look seedy or be overtly sexual because of the latex connotations. However I admit I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not saying this is a material I'm planning on trying for new jewellery designs, but it just shows you what usual materials designers are trying out.

[Adriana Bertini]

You've Got Red On You...

Unlike this statement from Shaun of the Dead (2004) these items of clothing rely on the accidental stains left when a pen leaks in your pocket.

Usually seen as a disastrous moment, which ruins a piece of clothing Fernando Brízio has adapted it to create renewable, recyclable clothing. By placing coloured felt tip pens into regularly placed pockets, these simple white dresses are transformed into colourfully patterned garments which, when you're bored with the design or need a new frock for an event, you simple wash it and start again.

It's a clever design, especially for it's simplicity. So often sustainability revolves around the introduction new materials, or technology whereas these garments uses a simple problem and turns it into a design feature, then uses an every day process (washing your clothes) to create an alternative, transformable garment which is open to individuality and personalisation.

In contemporary society we are often dictated to over fashion. We're given the impression that individualism is all important, whilst contradictorily being told exactly what to wear and how to wear it. Brízio's customisable clothing strives to let the wearer regain a little of their individualism, and the fact that no two stains will ever be identical does aid this. Perhaps individualism, peoples ability to revive and adapt old items and create their old style out-with current trends holds the key to sustainability. Or at least fewer clones on the street.

Found via.