Spotted: How to twist a traditional material into a new use to spearhead a market and go back to the competition?

After concrete, marble, lace, discover UrbaCer, ceramic- and porcelain-based street furniture. A project lead by French Chamber of Commerce and Trade of Limoges (Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Limoges et de la Haute- Vienne) and the CRAFT European Center (Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Feu et de la Terre). 

TV report (in French only, very sorry, unable to find English articles or videos though it's part of a European research center..):

Source: www.tf1.fr

Photo : Gabriel de Vienne

What a fairy idea: an aquarium crossing a bird cage!

This is coming straight from out-of-the-bitten-track French designer Contance Guisset. For nature- or just poetry-lovers, that object should find a place in your house. Too bad it's only a prototype for now...

Because that designer is so atypical and has such a fairy creativity, she will be the topic for my next post! To be continued...

It's been a long time I've been away from my blog and the design world. Way too long: it's time to unleash the antenna again and resume hearing to the creative world!

And to start with, a great object I've just fallen upon: the Oslo Opera house aluminium stage curtain! In the vein of Brisbane's airport "carpark metallic veil" (see past post here), LA-based artist Pea White designed a crumpled aluminium foil stage curtain for futuristic Oslo Opera house. Actually, not a real aluminium foil curtain but an image woven onto a gigantic piece of fabrics. For those interested in learning more about the process, you'd rather have a look here. Amazing, right? What's strange is I attended a performance at the Oslo Opera house in April last year and I don't remember that superbe object?!

Sources: www.thecoolhunter.net + http://textilesmithing.com

A few years ago, when I was thinking about switching carrier from the financial markets to the design industry, I had the opportunity to meet French Sismo Design duo for a job interview.

THe Sismo Design (behind that name are Antoine Fenoglio and Frédéric Lecourt) is one of the key actor of the French design industry. And they're a one-of-a-kind: a design agency working in various fields (product, scenography etc) for brands, a product and furniture designer whose new creations can be found in specific stores and a research lab in product design. Those guys and their staff are always in search of innovation and sense behind their research, and they're appreciated for their difference. And they're always looking ahead towards what they could do further. Which leads them to be ahead of most agencies and putting their hands into new fields. 

Latest remarkable feat: during the young Chic Art Fair in Paris last week, they unveiled the result of their latest research. Jumping on the new 3D-printing technology, they presented something inbetween art and design: a high-tech vanitas, your 3D-printed skull! Based on their explanations, it's a new way to have your portrait down. Quite logical actually, each epoch has seen new technologies impact portraits were done so far! And if not enough, now they intend to create an exhibition based on those 3D skulls for 2011. An idea never ends with them!

And if you're lucky enough, you cuold discover their vanitas during the Biennale de Saint-Etienne in France on November, 20th.

More info on the Sismo Design here.

Source: www.journal-du-design.fr

I'm a very great fan of prospective sci-fi litterature, where authors keen at science and sociology, imagine what our futures could be and how Earth and our world as we know it could be shaped.

The 2010 Electrolux Design Lab contest does echo those authors; except that it's not sci-fi anymore but real design research by clever prospective graduating students from all over the world (ok some concepts may still be quite close to sci-fi; still Electrolux had judged them interesting enough to showcase them). This year brief was the following:

"The 2nd Space Age

Electrolux Design Lab 2010 invites global undergraduate and graduate industrial design students to create home appliances that consider shrinking domestic spaces. Your ideas will shape how people prepare and store food, wash clothes, and do dishes in the homes of 2050 when 74%* of the world’s population are predicted to live in an urban environment.  Growing populations living in concentrated areas dictate a need for greater space efficiency. This year, special consideration will be given to designers that submit a design within the context of a range or suite of solutions/appliances. Your design ideas should address key consumer requirements; being green, adaptive to time and space, and allowing for individualization."

Discoer the live presentation by the 8 finalists and click here.

Source: www.thetrendygirl.net