The German magazine design Novum , has commissioned the creative agency Paperlux in producing a cover for their next issue comprising of 1,000 faceted and colored triangles that can be bent along lines. Designers Carolin and Max Kuehne Rauen were inspired by the ideas and structural designs of Richard Buckminster Fuller.

Click here to view the embedded video.

via experimenta_es

Bidum is a series of flexible mesh containers characterized more by motion than by functionality. Designed by Lætitia Florin, a graduate of Switzerland’s ECAL (University of Art & Design Lausanne), the containers are made from thin spring-steel strips sheathed in cotton. The flexible form moves and bounces with the slightest touch but can’t tumble or collapse.

Kinda reminds you of the metal slinky, isn’t it?

Check out the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Japanese designer, Makoto Orisaki, together with Olfa, developed the ‘or-ita’ – a special shaped blade that perforate cardboard and any dull materials for folding mechanisms. For the recent ‘Cardboard High’ show at Claska gallery and shop in Tokyo, six designers created some pretty nifty cardboard pieces utilizing the blade.

origami magic ball by makoto orisaki

cardboard houses by makoto orisaki

the olfa ‘or-ita’ rotary cutter blade

cardboard boxes templates mitsuru koga created with the ‘or-ita’

architect ryuji nakamura made a simple, lightweight chair reinforced with dowels inserted into the corrugated structure of cardboard.

detail

via designboom I, designboom II

Thanks to Liya Mairson, designer and a graduate of Israel’s Shenkar College for Engineering and Design, who recently shared  images of her latest product.

My Space takes you back to your early childhood entertainment consisting of blanket forts. However, the realities of today’s tight apartment living in urban areas doesn’t afford kids the luxury of space. Designer Liya Mairson responded by designing My Space – a clever pop-up playroom for kids aged three up to the young-at-hearts. As a cardboard flat pack which can be stored  behind doors or under a bed, My Space unfolds into a playroom equipped with pop-up shelves and cutout windows. The folding mechanism of the walls allows kids to operate on their fantasies by creating spaces around the play area.

My space is fully recyclable.

Watch how My Space unfolds

Check out Liya Mairson’s portfolio here.

Designer Chiara Goose came up with a novel way of transporting your little closet: in the form of a cardboard suitcase. To unravel the magic, simply loosen the strings which hold the suitcase, then top up a cardboard shelf, and voila! your dresser/closet unfolds.

via Industrial Design Served

Designer Patrick Sung came up with flat sheets of recyclable corrugated cardboard called the Universal Packaging System or UPS (not related to United Parcel Service). The patterned grooves allows for easy folding, and conforms to any shapes of your content.

via Yanko Design

As part of their ongoing sustainability initiatives, sportswear company PUMA has teamed up with San Francisco industrial designer Yves Behar and fuseproject to redesign the shoebox packaging with an aim to minimize waste and energy consumption. The result is the Clever Little Bag.

Watch the vid.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Called the Clever Little Bag, the packaging simply comes with a recyclable heat-woven bag and a flat-pack cardboard sheet that provides structure.

The cardboard structure is die cut from one flat piece of material and has no additional printing or assembly. The structure was created with four walls that taper in to allow for secured stacking, another important element left over from the original shoebox.

The bag is made of recyclable non-woven polyester, and heat-stitched which means less work and waste. The Clever Little Bag is an iconic brand element upon leaving the store as it replaces the plastic shopping bag. It’s perfect for storing your shoes, and for traveling.

Photography: fuseproject

Designed in collaboration with Swarovski, San Francisco-based design studio, fuseproject, produced Amplify – a series of paper ‘chandeliers’. Unlike a traditional chandelier with its mass of lights and crystals, Amplify only comes with a crystal and a low-energy LED light, both enveloped in a faceted paper shade. The ‘chandelier’ effect, which is amplified with a single crystal, resulted in multiple beautiful reflections and rainbow color bursts.

According to fuseproject, the AMPLIFY chandelier’s aim is to put the Swarovski crystal effect into the hands of more people through its simple construction, easily accessible light source and sustainable material. Each chandelier is carefully crafted to maximize refractions on the inner surfaces. This effect can be seen on the faceted shade material, thus emulating the cut and reflective nature of the crystal inside. Each chandelier becomes its own large glowing crystal.

The Swarovski Crystal Palace Milan AMPLIFY launch exhibit will present 50 AMPLIFY chandeliers, contained in a black lacquered room as a large sculptural cluster, emerging from the dark with blazing crystal effects.

close-up of the crystal and the foldable paper shade

Each of the lantern shapes are housed in a flat package that echoes the shape of the chandelier it contains. The packaging graphics are simple and illustrative to reflect the different shade shapes and components contained inside.

The chandeliers will be available in production from Swarovski in the next year.

Images courtesy of fuseproject

t 4 3 (Tea For Three) is a jewelry label dedicated to friendship and a favorite pastime of tea-drinking. Spearheaded by Singapore-based jewelry designer, Serene Wong, The label features tea-inspired, hand-crafted jewelry collections by a trio of designers and former classmates from Central St Martins. Below is a showcase of a few selected works by Serene Wong and Szufen Huang:

Scent by Serene Wong

Inspired by the scent of various teas and its often calming and relaxing effects on one’s mood, part of the series combines aromatherapy and jewelry to stimulate the senses and evoke nostalgia. The collection consists of several vessel-like pieces that contain assorted contents ranging from colorful floral tea leaves to aromatic oils. This enables the wearer to change its contents or dispose of the tea leaves accordingly. They can also be personalized by varying the scents according to the wearer’s preference.  These jewelry pieces are hand fabricated using acrylic and sterling silver.

*Available for order in a variety of colors (subject to availability).

Price available upon request.

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Jurassic by Serene Wong

Designed for Hansel’s Fantastic Jurassic Collection, these jewelry were fabricated in acrylic and inspired by 3D dinosaur puzzles. Each one is handmade and can be re-engineered to size to fit the wearer. Jurassic first debuted on the runway at Audi Fashion Festival 2009 in Singapore.

*Available for order in a variety of colors (subject to availability).

Price available upon request.

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Art by Szufen Huang

“花開富貴” (hua kai fu gui) – meaning “Fortune Blossoms” – is the auspicious name of a Chinese tea which blooms from a ball into a beautiful flower when immersed in water. These Chinese characters have been branded onto the delicate fabric to bring fortune to the wearer and add texture to the designs. Carefully hand-pleated in silk organza, the collection is also inspired by floral forms and skeletal structure of tea leaves. These qualities are expressed through the use of translucent and lightweight fabrics and lively details such as intricately hand-painted motifs.

*No longer available for order.

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About the designers: t 4 3 (Tea For Three) is a jewelry label that is dedicated to Friendship and a favorite pastime. The three designers love the way that Tea brings people together and hope that their jewelry can do the same by serving as conversation starters. Hailing from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, London (2002), the former classmates Nana Akashi (Japan), Szufen Huang (Taiwan) and Serene Wong (Singapore) are currently based in three Asian countries. They constantly look to challenge themselves as designers and welcome opportunities for collaboration.

]]> http://www.pleatfarm.com/2010/03/15/t-4-3-jewellery/feed/ 1 http://www.pleatfarm.com/2010/03/10/transform-your-hoodie-into-a-pillow-a-laptop-sleeve-a-baby-carrier-etc/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=transform-your-hoodie-into-a-pillow-a-laptop-sleeve-a-baby-carrier-etc http://www.pleatfarm.com/2010/03/10/transform-your-hoodie-into-a-pillow-a-laptop-sleeve-a-baby-carrier-etc/#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:49:09 +0000 pleatfarmer http://www.pleatfarm.com/?p=3875

Once in a while you would pull off that ‘lazy look’, otherwise your hoodie sweatshirt is probably hiding somewhere in your closet. Now you can channel your ‘origami love’ by transforming your generic hoodie into manifold things! Italian designer Antonio Scarponi of Conceptual Devices has devised various folding techniques to convert a hoodie into a laptop bag, a baby carrier, a pillow, a backpack and a strap bag. So, pull out your hoodie, and watch the videos for instructions.

via Core 77

The Air Vase by Tokyo-based Torafu Architects is formed from a flat perforated paper stretched on each side into shape. Each side of the paper comes in different shades so that the vase ‘switches’ color viewed at various angles. Check out the instruction video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Torafu Architects Youtube channel

via dezeen

What a ‘green’ way to utilize the folding technique! Dutch shipping container manufacturer, Cargoshell, developed energy-saving and space-spacing solutions to empty shipping containers by collapsing each one to a quarter of its full size. CO2 emission is reduced drastically by transporting multiple folded Cargoshells in 1 single movement, cutting down on 10,000 trips across the ocean each year. Cargoshell containers are each made of a composite material that weighs 25% less than standard shipping containers, further easing its carbon footprint.

Cargoshells fold and unfold in about 30 seconds

via inhabitat & Environmental Leader

Another Pega fold-vention! Tea-tasting comes in one neat flatpak that folds up into a paper tea pot, a tea cup and a tea bag.

Traditional Taiwanese tea culture is based on careful preparation of the tea leaves, tea pot and cup. Tea leaves and hot water should first be placed in the tea pot, revealing and preserving the tea’s aroma. The tea should be poured into the tea cup after a precise duration of time, imparting the best taste. UPDATE: Check out the instruction video below

Click here to view the embedded video.

The packaging is made up of one folded paper tea pot containing a tea bag and a tea cup. Thanks to the small volume of the foldable structure, tea tasting is possible anywhere that hot water is available. The presence of all three pieces of the tea set preserves the sophistication of the traditional Taiwanese tea culture while making it more convenient.

Winner of the red dot award: communication design 2009

Packaging your popcorn has never looked this good. Designer Anni Nykänen of Packlab at the Lahti Institute of Design in Finland concocted an ingenious solution to storing your favorite movie-night snacks. The Pop-Up Popcorn Bowl begins as a small package to hold the kernels, and unfolds like a paper origami into a four-legged serving bowl when the popcorn is ready.

images via Packlab

Another Tijdelijk Arnhems Collectief discovery from Dutch Design Week 2009 came in the form of these fabulous origami-inspired paper vases and tea set by talented designer, Romy Kühne. Thanks to Romy who was sweet enough to respond to my emails, and shared with me a few images of her beautiful, intricately-folded vessels. Check below for more details.

Romy’s tea set whose folded edges are outlined in blue is a material and surface response to the traditional blue-and-white glazed china set, but in paper.

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the various studies of tea cups

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To create a watertight container, Romy applies a hardener such as polyethylene coating often used in the food packaging industry.

the folding process

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the vase and vessel studies

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The series of vases

View Romy’s extensive portfolio here

This is a pretty nifty Doritos snack packaging concept by Peter Pavlov whose surface triangulations allows for opening and closing without the use of a clip. Moreover the triangles are shaped after the nachos. Currently the package design only comes in solid colors, and Mr Pavlov would like interested creative individuals out there to contribute their designs and illustrations for the package concept via his Facebook group, Doritos Packaging Concept Submissions. I personally would like to keep the solid colors as is since my fold-hungry eyes only savor the surface. More images after the break.

via Behance

After the Google-ing, the Bing-ing and the Yahoo-ing, the name Kimmy Kim and this awesome pleated vessels sadly ran empty, except for the only mention at spotd.it. Nonetheless, I would appreciate any leads from you readers about this designer and her works.

This is a good example of the use of large multiple pleats, and in this case a bunched-up fabric fastened with a pin at the ends results in multiple slots to contain objects. Pretty nifty. More images after the jump.

Looks pleasing even as a wall hanging

compartments through pleating

detail of metal fastener

images via spotd.it

My first encounter with Raw-Edges Studio came at 2008 Tokyo Design Week when they showcased their products via a lecture at the 21_21 Design Sight.

Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer are the coolest duo to have come together with a core interest in challenging the perception of form and the process of design. Their nifty Stack Drawers test the notion of a conventional dresser, and the Pivot Cabinets experiment with multiple openings with a single pull.

Then there is their ongoing research on turning two-dimensional sheet material into functional volumes. Using the construction techniques of sizing and patternmaking in the clothing industry,  their Pleated Pleat series, Tailored Stools, and Volume Chairs are all created using a single patterned sheet that is folded and shaped into a three-dimensional product. Check out more images after the jump.

Tailored Stool can be tailor-made to match the size, shape & weight of the user

Tailored Stool in grain patterns

Volume Chairs

The making of the Volume Chair

Milk Carton

Previous post: Pleated Pleat Series

via: Raw-Edges Studio

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