Born in the Netherlands in 1963, Claudy Jongstra was trained as a fashion designer. She first came under the spell of felt in 1994 when she saw a Mongolian yurt on display in Nederlands Textielmuseum. The tent had a pattern of laid-in colors. She recognized the technique from pictures, but was overwhelmed by the material itself and the colors. Jongstra quickly mastered the process of felting and started to make fabrics in which wool was felted with silk fibers or was combined with transparent silk organza. In the mid-nineties this was unheard of, but the process yielded a remarkable combination of transparency and density, of elegance and rawness, of craft and art. Saturday, 6 August 2011
Claudy Jongstra
Born in the Netherlands in 1963, Claudy Jongstra was trained as a fashion designer. She first came under the spell of felt in 1994 when she saw a Mongolian yurt on display in Nederlands Textielmuseum. The tent had a pattern of laid-in colors. She recognized the technique from pictures, but was overwhelmed by the material itself and the colors. Jongstra quickly mastered the process of felting and started to make fabrics in which wool was felted with silk fibers or was combined with transparent silk organza. In the mid-nineties this was unheard of, but the process yielded a remarkable combination of transparency and density, of elegance and rawness, of craft and art. 
Capriole by Iris Van Herpen
Iris Van Herpen, was born in the Netherlands. She graduated from the prominent fashion school ARTEZ(Arnhem) with a Fashion Design degree and then carried out internships with Claudy Jongstra and Alexander McQueen – whose influences pervade throughout in her style and techniques. That which distinguishes her creatively, is that she manages to create a unique type of couture that combines the qualities of hand-worked materials with the sublime effects of digital technology. In Capriole, her latest collection, the designer presented five architectural looks, which she developed using this combined technique.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Container Architecture
Containers tell the world how well or how poorly the global economy is doing. Empty container ships indicate a downturn; fully loaded container ships—or orders for new, even bigger ships—are euphoriant symbols of better times. The container itself, which is 2.44 metres wide, 2.59 metres high, and either 6.06 or 12.192 meters long, has been the globally standardized transportation module since 1956. Thirty million of them can be found on the seas and oceans of the world. Now the container is also a source of fascination for many architects. The NRW-Forum Düsseldorf invited renowned architects, designers, and artists from around the world to submit designs for container architecture. Submissions included not only existing container buildings, but also new designs that were created specially for the exhibition: original, practicable, fictitious, sensible, fantastic, minimalist, exotic, pragmatic, futuristic—the breadth of submissions was very wide. Two dozen of these designs have been reconstructed as models on a scale of 1:5 for the ‘Container Architecture’ exhibition; the highest of the models breaks through the ceiling of the museum. Over 100 designs were submitted for consideration and every one of them will be included in a frieze of pictures running around the walls of the exhibition space. A catalogue of the exhibition will be published.
Raphael Vicenzi
Raphael Vicenzi is an illustrator based in Brussels, Belgium. Raphael's work has been featured in Illustration now 3, The Beautiful, The New Age of Feminine Drawing, Computer arts, Advanced Photoshop and many others.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Anastasiya Komarova
Russian designer Anastasiya Komarova created her brand, called FORMS in February 2010. The collection offers a series of alternative accessories which have both a vintage and futuristic feel. The collection includes a wide range of designs, including leather clutches, neckpieces and armlets, all with an architectural touch. Anastasiya says about her work: ''I have never aimed to reflect any particular architecture developed or created by myself or other architects. I am just trying to reflect some fundamental things that architecture is based on. I really admire the laconic manner and unique aesthetics of some buildings and this is what I try to achieve in my accessories. It's true that there are plenty of buildings around the world that inspires me a lot.''
Groupa Studio
Groupa Studio have produced some innovative and creative products including this Books Lamp inspired by the way Ethiopian people carry loads on their back.
Saturday, 7 May 2011
Anna Lewis
Anna Lewis is a contemporary jewellery designer based in South Wales. Her work explores ideas of memory and identity of story telling and fantasy.
Ella Doran
Ella Doran transforms everyday objects into design-conscious pieces through the clever manipulation of the photographic image, either on its own, in repeat or combined with striking hand-coloured backgrounds. Ella takes her cue from the everyday world, from the close-up of a flower petal to abstract US road signage, the hustle and bustle of a Moroccan souk to simple kitchen utensils. She has transferred her vision into a wide range of products that have breathed modern life into many interiors, from London to Tokyo and even film heroine Bridget Jones's kitchen and Buckingham Palace!
People will always need plates
People will always need platesPeople Will Always Need Plates is the creation of Hannah Dipper and Robin Farquhar.
Launched in 2004, they aim to use high quality, low volume batch production to create witty, thoughtful and stylish products as a direct antithesis to the current proliferation of cheap, throwaway design. In keeping with their credo that good design should be used and enjoyed, treasured and shared, Hannah and Robin try to develop products that, while diverse in style and application, always retain the fundamental values of functionality and beauty.
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Carole Waller
Carole Waller Carole Waller is a visual artist who works with colour, light, textiles, glass, enamel and paint. She uses either figurative or site specific imagery to make paintings which become glass installations, clothing, textile hangings, or live projects and collaborations.
Friday, 29 April 2011
Sunday, 10 April 2011
New York brand Mother
Lela Tillem and Tim Kaeding recently joined forces to create a line of cashmere-soft jeans called Mother.
'Our idea was to create a brand that captured the excitement of our own newfangled denims. We are able to add a new element to the way people wear jeans in fit fabric finish and now feel.'
They discuss choice of name...
'We also like the various ways the word mother can be used in popular culture – the rocking ‘motha’, the bad mother, the tattooed biker mother, the domineering mother in Hitchcock films. The name really just stuck a chord, it sounded so powerful and tough.'
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Product’s physical longevity
Emotional attachment: Developing lasting relationships with our belongings. These days, a product’s physical longevity will not prevent it from being thrown away if the owner no longer wants it. To avoid unnecessary waste of otherwise useful goods, is it time we should start to form emotional bonds with them? An article by Jonathan Chapman (a Senior Lecturer at University of Brighton, UK) discusses how waste is produced by products failing to sustain an emotional attachment to their users.
Design and Emotions
A teacup that shivers in response to its tea going cold. A chair that warms when you sit in it, revealing its aspirations to be soft and comfortable. A pan whose handle becomes impossible to grasp when it becomes hot to the touch. The animate characteristics of these everyday objects allow them to facilitate meaningful interactions with their users by actively responding to their environment and evolving through their conditions of use. Tara MullaneyEmotions guide, enrich and ennoble life – they provide meaning to everyday existence and render the valuation placed on life and property. Moreover, with the power to entice us to select one particular item from a row of similar products, emotions have a considerable influence on our purchase decisions. Not only are emotions involved in our reasoning about what product to buy, but they also have a significant effect on post-purchase satisfaction and product attachment. In addition, the emotions we experience daily, including those we experience in response to the designed objects that surround us, have been shown to be main determinants of our general well-being. (Marco van Hout)
Through interviews with designers and experts Design and Emotions discuss the emotional content and effect that products, brands and design have.
Keep Calm Gallery
Keep Calm Gallery is an online gallery with prints available from a selection of artists, designers and printmakers from around the world. In addition to the prints they have a growing collection of unique pieces of original art, postcards and screenprinted cards and a selection of screen printed cotton tea towels.
To Dry For
TodryforToDryFor.com is an online boutique specialising in designer tea towels - a husband and wife team based in Oxford, England, sourcing over 100 tea towels from numerous designers.
In addition to acting as a retailer, they also produce their own ToDryFor range of artist-commissioned tea towels, promoting work by both prominent and up-and-coming artists and illustrators.
Teresa Green
Teresa Green a unique range of printed textiles designed and hand printed by Teresa Cole. The company was set up in 2000 after graduating in printed textiles from Loughborough University school of art and design. Fabrics are sourced from within the UK. Linen used comes from Ireland and inks used for printing are all water based.
The importance of the range having a function is also key- the utilitarian, functionality and the design play equal roles.
The items are a canvas for the prints, and are designed around the shape and layout of each object.
Teresa confesses to having a passion for antique kitchenallia- especially kitchen scales and ladle shaped spoons. Her grandparents have also fed her imagination with crammed sheds full of old garden objects and treasures.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Suzanne Lee
Suzanne Lee, London based Senior Research fellow in the school of fashion and textiles at Central Saint Martins in London and creative director of BioCouture, creates garments from cellulose bacteria which grow in a bathtub using only green methods to address ecological issues and to explore the future of fashion design in conjunction with technology. She mixes a green tea solution with sugar solution and introduces yeast which then produces fibers, which in turn form a compact leathery like layer. This layer is then taken and dried out to take the final form. Lee also uses fruits and vegetables like blueberries and beetroot, completely natural products in order to make stains onto the fabrics creating patterns and designs. ''Zombie boy'' face of MUGLER
Rick Genest, the Canadian born Zombie boy as he is most commonly known, is the new face of MUGLER's premier men's collection and the Muse of creative director Nicola Formichetti. Chris Roome from London based creative company Happy Finish has retouched these black and white images by top fashion photographer Mariano Vivanco, which are running as part of a larger campaign that include an online video launch featuring an exclusive new track fromLady Gaga’s new Album ‘Born this Way’. The new MUGLER campaign images are the brainchild of Nicola Formichettiwho is also the stylist of Lady Gaga.
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