The Blog

Interesting designs for existing products from wishlist.nu

The Loope is a circular designed chair by Victor M. Aleman made from a single piece of red oak and covered in high density foam.

The chair looks good, but I’m not sure how functional it would be as it gives the impression that you may keep sliding down it or if not you would stand up with a bad back or neck. But I hope I am wrong and that the material used counteracts and sliding as the design is visually appealing and its also interesting how its made out of one single piece of oak as opposed to several so I imagine there’s a reduction in manufacture in some way. Plus the continuous rotation of the Oak’s grain emphasises the curvature of the design and is an element that would be lost had the chair been made from multiple wooden elements.

These toys are the work of Patricia Waller and are made from yarn, wool, cotton, polystyrene, crochet and wire. I personally really like the mouse and cheese that appear to be having a stand off.

Waller’s dark creations consist of lots intricate detail, which helps to conveys a sense of irony and humor in her projects that have such titles as “Accidents,” How to Kill Your First Love”, and “Don’t Kill Your Idols”.

Her work is interesting because of its medium, the soft playful connotations of knitted toys are starkly contrasted by the subjects which range from prosthetic limbs and kids in bike accidents to conjoint teddy bears, and considering the scale and her chosen medium they are created well. My personal favourite is the mouse and cheese that are having a kind of stand off, with arms folded, as everybody has it ingrained into their minds that mice like cheese, so as the image Waller provides contrasts this it it turn has a sense of interest and humour.

‘Fish Bowls’ is an interesting project by designer Roger Arquer that presents 15 different variations on the standard fish bowl. “Each piece examines a topic or suggests a solution to an issue,” says Arquer. For example, “Russian Dolls (below) gives your fish a chance to decide how big it wants to be. I once read that a fish grows according to the space it has, that’s what inspired me in this case.” The project caught my eye as it takes an everyday object and develops on it making interesting, humourous and somewhat usable designs.

I was just looking back through some of people’s older posts and saw Martin Delin’s post “Grandma’s Place” which reminded me of a ring binder/folder which I bought recently from a charity shop (originally it was from WHSmith).

The folder just caught my eye as its so different to the plain coloured or stereotyped skateboarder or princess illustrations we see today. Its nice to just see a piece of simple design on a product without it being associated to any product or brand.

These are some images of a brand of french baby shampoo that I noticed on a store shelf yesterday. I thought I would blog them as the packaging design is appropriate to the product and also functional. The packaging is brightly coloured and resembles a childs building block making the design appropriate, but the same thing would also mae it easy to stack and transport whilst giving added stability as the products lock into one another on both the top and bottom and left and right.