April 19, 2007

Bike doubles as shopping cart

Filed under: Bicycles,Design,General by Orangemaster @ 8:34 am
fiets2.jpg

So many kinds of bikes exist in the Netherlands, a land with more bikes than inhabitants. Now it’s time for the multifunctional Feetz (pronounced ‘fiets’, the Dutch word for bicycle). Industrial designer Lennart Vissers and his father Herbert Vissers came up with the design. The tricycle has two wheels on the side that turn in corners and handles like a bicycle. It can easily accommodate a bag of groceries or a child seat and when it is folded up, it can be used as a shopping cart.

For the expats and foreigners out there: the child looks very unsafe with no helmet and all, but that’s the way people bike here. For the Dutchies: no, it’s not safe and yes, there are a lot of bicycle accidents, which are not taken seriously until someone dies. It’s a cultural thing.

(Link)

Tags: , ,

March 10, 2007

Spend the night in a rescue pod

Filed under: Design,Dutch first by Branko Collin @ 4:49 am

[photo of two rescue pods]Denis Oudendijk, who makes art out of garbage, will let you stay at his Capsulehotel which consists of a number of discarded 1972 rescue pods. You will be a live work of art! A night in the luxury capsule, dubbed Bond Meets Barbarella, will set you back 150 euro, and contains amongst others two sheep skins, a martini bar and a DVD player with all Bond movies. Students get a hefty discount.

Oudendijk sees this project as a way to let people get to know his world.

(Via: :)= Esc.)

Tags: , ,

February 26, 2007

Interview with ‘money maker’ Oxenaar

Filed under: Design,General by Branko Collin @ 10:29 pm
dutch_tenner.jpg

In 2002 the Dutch exchanged their adventurous banknote designs for drab, super-safe euro ones. For those who want to take a trip down memory lane and re-experience the Netherlands’ former “monopoly money”, CR Blog has an interview with the designer of many Dutch banknotes, “Ootje” Oxenaar who at age 76 is still teaching at the graphic design department of the Rhode Island School of Design. The interview contains several examples of his remarkable designs.

(Via l-rs.org)

Tags: , , , ,