May 30, 2010

26 letter shaped chairs by Roeland Otten

Filed under: Art,Design by Branko Collin @ 12:19 pm

Designer Roeland Otten hopes to mass-market these alphabet chairs, writes Bright. He can see them being used by elementary schools.

The so-called ABChairs were made possible thanks to a grant by Fonds BKVB, the rich government sugar daddy for the visual arts. Otten, a 1999 Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, calls the Naked Alphabet by his teacher Anthon Beeke an inspiration. He is looking for a manufacturer to help him mass produce the chairs in plastic.

Unfortunately Otten uses one of them newfangled and unlinkable Flash sites instead of a real website, I would have linked to his work earlier if he had not. If you go there, see under “recent stuff / transformatie-transformatorhuisje” how he let an ugly electrical substation disappear from his Rotterdam neighbourhood.

(Photo: Roeland Otten.)

Tags: , , , , , , ,

May 27, 2010

Bags made from old transport belts

Filed under: Bicycles,Design by Orangemaster @ 2:30 pm

Amsterdam designer Dinand Stufkens and his recycled bag company Kazmok makes bags by recycling transport belts from manufacturing plants. Every belt is different, as is every bag since only 10 or 20 bags can be made with one belt.

First, there was The Principal, based on the traditional leather school bag. There’s also The Tutor with various accessories like laptop sleeves and belts. A totally different model is the Bulkcarrier, which fits in a milk crate that is usually the front basket of a Dutch city bike.

(Link: bright.nl)

Tags: ,

May 17, 2010

Rocking chair meets cradle

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 1:14 am

The Rockid is a combination of a rocking chair and cradle by Ontwerpduo (‘design duo’). This isn’t apparently a new idea, as it is based on the so-called nanny rocker.

According to Bright, one of Ontwerpduo’s happiest customers is the duo’s daughter, Jasmijn. The Rockid can be had with a separate sideboard, for when the cradle is no longer needed, and can be had for 850 euro.

Tags: , , ,

May 2, 2010

Navy uses small boats to capture pirates closer to Somali coast

Filed under: Design,General by Branko Collin @ 2:53 pm

Hr.Ms. Johan de Witt has captured two so-called whalers off the Somali coast last week. Whalers are “pirate motherships,” as Radio Netherlands says they are called, forward operating bases from which other pirate vessels are launched.

By using the troop transporter Johan de Witt, the Dutch navy is mimicking the pirates’ tactics: using a forward operating base from which to launch small vessels, in this case landing craft.

(Note the Obama flash light on the pirate vessel.)

By the way, what do you think of the ‘new’ logo (2000) of the Ministry of Defence (right)? On the one hand I feel it is boldly modern, on the other hand it doesn’t have the don’t-mess-with-us quality that the lions, eagles, swords and shields of yesteryear had. Bold, in other words, but the wrong kind of bold.

(Source photo: Ministry of Defence. In the photo one of the whalers is brought in by a landing craft.)

Tags: , , , ,

April 27, 2010

Shocking and stopping pirates from boarding

Filed under: Design,Dutch first by Orangemaster @ 4:57 pm

Lodewijk Westerbeek van Eerten invented an anti-pirate system called ‘P-Trap’. Two booms are attached to the flank of large ships that have invisible electric ropes that hang in the water. The idea is that the pirate ships cannot board the bigger ships as their motor gets caught and shocked in the ropes. Then get dragged to wherever the boat is going unless they jump ship, which is highly unlikely.

Westerbeek van Eerten, who calls himself an inventive businessman and not an inventor in all Dutch modesty, says “this anti-piracy system dissuades pirates from boarding sea going vessels.” The Royal Dutch marine has tested the P-Trap, calling it an excellent invention. Hiring armed guards is very pricy as compared to installing the P-Trap. And since we always want to know the price of things in the Netherlands, it is 50,000 to 75,000 euro for a P-Trap as compared to 120,000 euro for armed guards. The latter doesn’t guarantee pirates won’t board you, either.

(Link: depers.nl)

Tags:

April 25, 2010

Guilders

Filed under: Design,History by Branko Collin @ 11:48 am

The coin to the left was issued in 1681 by the states of Holland and Friesland, of the Dutch Republic. It was a silver guilder design sporting the lion from the coat of arms of Holland. The coin to the right was issued by the Netherlands in 1973, and was I believe the penultimate design.

The last design had a 1980-ish look with grids and layers. It was replaced in 2002 by the euro.

Tags: ,

April 3, 2010

Wine rack by Robert Bronwasser

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 4:21 pm

This polypropylene wine rack was designed by Robert Bronwasser from Amsterdam.

His distinctive style and high output make it so you can easily combine it with lots of his other designs, such as the Stack side-table, the Bo comfy chair and the Light-ball lamps.

The wine rack is 62 euro and can be bought at Goods.

(Link: Bright. Photo: Smool.nl.)

Tags: ,

March 21, 2010

Transformable lamp

Filed under: Design by Branko Collin @ 12:15 pm

Arend Luc Groosman is selling lamps (called Woodoo) that you can put together from a minimum of 6 wooden frames. A bit hard to explain perhaps for something so simple, so check the video:

(Photo: Playwoodoo.com. Video: Youtube user playwoodoo.)

Tags:

March 11, 2010

Chairs with odd legs

Filed under: Design by Orangemaster @ 10:25 pm
chair21
Anna_ter_Haar

The chair on the right is ‘Cinderella’s Chair’, a follow up of designer Anna Ter Haar’s 2007 graduation project ‘Buitenbeentje’ (meaning ‘odd man out’, but literally translated ‘outside leg’).

“Glass is a malleable material when heated, so the glass was blown onto the chair, which provides every chair with its own unique prosthesis.”

The chair on the left is from the original ‘Buitenbeentje’ project. Anna Ter Haar also designs other types of chairs, shoes, movies and more.

(Link: trendbeheer.com, Photos: annaterhaar.nl)

Tags:

February 22, 2010

Touchy Remix touch screen in a table

Filed under: Design,Technology by Branko Collin @ 4:01 pm

A classy looking table with a built-in computer, projector (HD, i.e. 720 lines) and touch screen. According to commenters at Engadget who have used this device it has some spots where the touch screen doesn’t work well. Intactlab from Amsterdam is nevertheless not afraid to charge a 1,000 euro daily rental fee for the Remix.

You have to admit, it looks cool.

An iPhone dock is optional.

(Source photo: Intactlab)

Tags: