Mobile phone manufacturer Motorola has announced it will be working with Dave Hakkens on his modular phone project Phonebloks.

More precisely, Motorola has been working on its own modular system in the past year called Project Ara, which is designed to be “a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.”

The manufacturer will now be “engaging with the Phonebloks community throughout [Project Ara’s] development process.” The idea behind Phonebloks is to create a modular phone to combat electronic waste—instead of throwing out an entire phone because a component is broken, you swap out the broken component instead. Phonebloks is looking for manufacturers who want to work in their ecosystem.

Motorola was once a major player on the mobile phone market. It was recently acquired by Google. Dave Hakkens is a 2013 graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven.

(Via The Verge)

One of this year’s graduates from the Design Academy Eindhoven, Olga van Zeijl, created personalised knitted jumpers for her graduation project called KnittID.

She takes aspects of a person’s life then incorporates them into the pattern of the sweater. Shown here for instance is Debby, age 26, from Dordrecht: “The parachute symbol stands for my biggest life experience. During one of my jumps the parachute didn’t open and I was falling down to earth, luckily I could use my spare parachute.”

Van Zeijl suggests on her website that she was inspired by fishermen’s jumpers which apparently incorporated personal details. You can get your own KnittID jumper by Van Zeijl or order one of the existing ones if you don’t mind walking around with somebody else’s life covering your torso. Bright reports that an existing pattern will set you back 150 euro.

(Photo: OVZDesign.com)

My Knitted Boyfriend was Noortje de Keijzer’s 2012 graduate project at the Eindhoven Design Academy.

That is basically all there is to it. His name is Arthur, he is machine washable, he has accessories like moustaches, glasses and a tattoo, and sometimes he comes to life.

De Keijzer created this man as part of a study into loneliness. He is currently on display as part of the We Love Fashion! exhibition at NN DE Café in Rotterdam. You need not worry that De Keijzer gets too lonely with her boyfriend on the road, because in the meantime she has knitted Steve.

(Video: Vimeo / Noortje de Keijzer. Photo: crop of a screenshot of the video.)

Rotterdam-based artist Dré Wapenaar came up with these tear-shaped tents that can be hung from the stems of trees.

Four of these tents are currently forming a hotel in Borgloon, Belgium, where they are part of an open air art exhibit called PIT. A one-night stay will cost around 70 euro, according to The Pop-Up City. Trendbeheer adds that guests can have their breakfast seated on furniture by Ardie van Bommel, a recent Eindhoven Design Academy graduate.

The temporary hotel will be open for business until September 30.

Check out the Trendbeheer article for more photos of the exhibition.

(Photo by We Make Money Not Art / Régine Debatty, some rights reserved.)

Yesterday was the last day of the Dutch Design Week. Part of the event was the graduation show of the Eindhoven Design Academy, which was visited by Trendbeheer (we already mentioned Michael Kluver’s chairs).

Latvian Germans Ermics graduated with these mirrors that look like holes in the wall.

Other projects included cat videos from show cats by Thalia de Jong, a meltable dinner table by Tom Gottelier (complete with built-in heater to help you melt it back into shape), a self-photographing room by Monique Habraken, a leather holster for kids instead of guns by Elise Metekohy, a cargo bike that can roll like a regular bicycle by Alexander van Diggele, and much more.

Trendbeheer visited the exhibition and took lots of pictures.

(Photo by Trendbeheer / Jeroen Bosch, some rights reserved)

The designers of the classic chairs of the twentieth century did not just manage to come up with a striking look for furniture, they also tried to reinvent the chair. Michael Kluver, a 2011 Eindhoven Design Academy graduate, decided it was time to turn these iconic designs back into “Just Chairs“.

Shown here from left to right are the Mackintosh, Rietveld, Breuer and Eames inspired chairs. Trendbeheer has handy links to the originals, and mentions that they are on display at the Graduation Show of the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven—the last two days of which are taking place now.

(Photo: Michael Kluver)

As an avid Blakes 7 fan you don’t need to tell me how pretty coloured perspex can be, so look, purdy!

According to Bright, Han Koning’s lamp Reheat v10.1 was inspired by the afterburners of jet planes.

Koning’s work first came to my attention when he won HEMA’s student design competition with his 103 % Vaas in 2002.

(Photo: Han Koning. In the screenshot to the right, of Blakes 7 episode Sand, the shipboard computers have broken down and Avon has to resort to letting coloured perspex do the thinking for him. Source: BBC.)

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.)

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.

The Metrobowl is a serving dish by 2001 Eindhoven Design Academy graduate Frederik Roijé shaped in the form of a city map.

Frederik has made two models, one based on Amsterdam (the semi-circular onion skin lines are the famous canals), and one based on the grid of Manhattan. The bowls are made of cast aluminium, cost 200 and 240 euro respectively, and are sold by Frederik himself through his on-line shop.

For another map of Amsterdam’s city centre, see also: Amsterdam 200 years older than previously believed.

(Via: Dornob.com. Link tip: Tom. Thanks, Tom!)