Check out these origami-inspired carrying cases designed by UK-based Naoki Kawamoto who conceived of a folding system that combines the Japanese art of origami and traditional wrapping technique of ‘furoshiki’. The geometric shape of each case is derived from a two-dimensional structure with segmented triangulations that are then folded into a volume. Watch the videos of the folding progression.

- the suitcase -

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- the clutch bag -

the bag’s skeletal system

Click here to view the embedded video.

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- the spectacle case -

Click here to view the embedded video.

Images courtesy of Naoki Kawamoto

Currently on display at the Biologiska Museum is the Rhubarb series of lamps made of folded polypropylene. French-born and Sweden-based designer, Emma Marga Blanche, likens it to an ‘elegant “rhubarb” that grows directly out of earth’. The organic-looking lamps are staged around the Museum’s famous interiors which showcase the fantastic diorama of Sweden’s natural landscape. You can catch the exhibition until February 12 as part of Stockholm Design Week 2011.

photo above: Patrik Engström/Plaza Deco

About BIOLOGISKA MUSEUM:
The “Biologiska museet” is situated at Djurgården and was built in 1893. The architecture is inspired by the medieval Norwegian stave churches.

The pioneering educational aspect of the museum was the use of the diorama for the first time on a grand scale in order to present the natural habitat. The perspective of the diorama unites foreground and background. The large, painted backgrounds are the work of Bruno Liljefors who is famous for his dramatic painting of birds and animals.

The vast diorama, which can be viewed from two levels, presents the different types of landscape from inland Sweden as well as from the coast.

About 20 Designers at Biologiska:
An exhibition that is about evolution, diversity, and universality, where contemporary design, art and light is housed in an unexpected context. A magical place of historical and emotional value that creates a dialogue between the stationary, artificial scenery, and the always variable design stage. Curated by Fredrik Färg, Emma Marga Blanche and Hanna Nova Beatrice.

Images courtesy of Biologiska

(This is a spoiler alert!)

Last night’s Project Runway episode was one of my many “unconventional challenge” favorites regardless of the rampant drama in the show! Contestants were prompted to design a garment out of supplies from a party store. Paper bags, foils, napkins, garlands, plastic plates and ribbons were just a few of the choice materials the designers used to whip up their incredible designs in a short period of time.

So here are a few of my favorite garments:

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Andy South’s outfit was painstakingly made by folding and braiding ribbons.

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Valerie’s napkin dress

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April’s crystal-like dress created from (sparkly?) paper bags

Mondo’s design consists of a bodice constructed from strips of plastic plates and a skirt from twirled garlands

Mondo’s plastic strips on the foreground ready to be formed

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Ivy Higa’s design

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Michael Costello’s dress

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Michael Drummond’s ‘balloon’ skirt

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Gretchen’s fringe skirt and paper jacket

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Christopher Collin’s napkin dress

Images taken via Lifetime.com – Project Runway’s video (may not be available for view outside of USA) and photo album

Old films and cassettes were brought to life by artist Erika Iris Simmons who meticulously shaped the tapes into the likeness of popular figures such as Michael Jackson and John Lennon. The self-taught artist is inspired by a philosophy of how a spirit lives in a body, likening these portraits to ‘ghosts’ dwelling inside the cassette packaging. Love how Erika matched and constructed the tousled locks and frizzies on Marley and MJ with the curls on the tapes. Anyway, these are a few of my favorites:

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robert smith of the Cure

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paul griffiths

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lauryn hill

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Bon Jovi tribute with “Slippery When Wet” cassette

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promo for a radio station in conjunction with a German ad agency

left: kungfu cassette.   right: beat boxer

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the Dude

images via Erika Iris Simmons’ Flickr

Lovely undulating folds on these Air table lamps by designer Ray Power for Spanish lighting company LZF.

Air Table Lamps. Material: Polywood

Air lamps can be purchased here

via designboom

Like the La Melle Lampshade, the Spread Light, by London-based designer, Jeongwon Ji, is a series of dynamic ceiling pendant lamps which allow the user to engage with its structure and the light intensity. Each pendant consists of tentacular extensions made of hinged Perspex pieces, which reminded me of the daddy longlegs when the skeletal frames are unfolded.

The mechanical structure of Spread Light consists of a certain numbers of straight or curvy lines of pieces. Due to these units, the organic forms of Spread Light can be more exaggerated while in motion.

About the designer: Jeongwon Ji is a London based product designer who received her BA in Product Design with First Class Honours from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK in July 2009. Born in 1984 and raised in Seoul, South Korea, She has lived in cultural different cities, Seoul and London, with extensive travel experiences, which allowed her to experience a variety of viewpoints in product design.

She is primarily interested in creating everyday objects that reflect her own analysis as well as observation on people, urban life, and social change. Her products are the outcome of how contextual issues influence the creative process of product design.

Designer: Jeongwon Ji Design Studio (United Kingdom)
Inspired by: The notion of light and human engagement, and movement of forms.
Material: Perspex
Colours: Various colours available
Dimension: about 700 x 700 x 800 
mm
Price:
retail – £675 (transparent) £550 (black)
contract – 25% discount
wholesale – 40% discount

Preview of the beautiful Bloom Light by designer Patrick Jouin. The light will be on view as part of the .MGX by Materialise exhibition at the upcoming Milan Salone del Mobile.

Thanks to Canadian architect, David Penner, for submitting his recent project, Corogami (coroplast + origami, which is a collapsible ice skating change hut as part of a rogue contribution to Winnipeg Manitoba’s public warming hut architectural event this winter. Its folding structure is constructed with laminated twinwall polypropylene and brass paper fasteners.

Architect: david penner
Co-conspirators: sean radford, chris wiebe, paulo costillo, blaine lepp, jac comeau, brian pearson and partner, matthew penner, kelly dyck, zoe and gwen.

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/2010/03/02/360-lampshade-adensen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=360-lampshade-adensen http://www.pleatfarm.com/2010/03/02/360-lampshade-adensen/#comments Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:31:38 +0000 pleatfarmer http://www.pleatfarm.com/?p=3742

This nifty 360° LAMP by designer Pavel Sidorenko for Estonia’s Adensen is assembled out of a laser-engraved white plastic circle bent into shape. The center of the lamp can be used as a bookmark.

the bookmark

The lamps are available for sale at Adensen

The Dropnet by German designer Imke Hoehler is a tent-like fog collector designed to potentially supply drinking water to rural areas with low infrastructure.

The Dropnet is easily assembled, with curved tensile nets made from polypropylene mesh. Water is collected via drain gutters which are connected to the net by weltings, draining the water into a small tank.

The fog collectors has been designed to be built up on flat grounds and hillsides on arid, high-altitude areas which exhibit a lot of fog accumulation.

A number of fog collectors installed and connected to pipelines have the capacity to supply a small village with enough drinking water.

via designboom + images via coroflot

Off the Wall, produced by Gothenburg-based design duo Kredema design, is a 3-dimensional wallpaper that functions more than just a decoration with its rolling folds. It consists of two elements – graphic wallpaper and 3-dimensional shapes of acrylic sheets forming shelves and lamp shades.

Designed by Rentaro Nishimura, the MAR is a lampshade composed of 20 die-cut identical elements in which users can easily assemble, without any tools or glue, by simply folding ready-cut/scored sheets.

This lampshade was designed with the “single material for single product” concept, which aims to facilitate the recycling process, unlike other products which contain different parts and materials.

The product’s name is MAR, which stands for March. The pattern of the lampshade represents plum blossoms which are one of the most popular flowers for the spring season in Japan. The MAR series consist of a floor lamp and a pendant lamp.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MAR’s assembly instruction

Other works by Rentaro:

Rentaro’s choice of material:

“Paper is one of the most common materials around us, and I like when 3D forms revealed from a piece of sheet material by simply folding it. It maybe because of my Japanese background and structural interests from architectural education.”

Rentaro’s current project:

“I am currently planning to design a wedding dress made of tyvek sheets for my friend.”

View Rentaro Nishimura’s works

Nook is a new range of plastic furniture by German designer patrick frey, and currently on show at the imm cologne furniture fair 2010. The collection is constructed with the material varioline® made of solid structural outer layers and a lightweight foamed center core, resulting in a light-weight panel that is structural and impact-resistant.

A single piece of varioline is used in production, and folded along a milled cinching pattern to create structural tension. The entire form is later fixed at the bottom using an aluminum catch.

via designboom

I’d like to quickly share these awesome handmade kitty dolls made by Chile-based graphic designer David Shin. Called the Eco Tabby, David repurposed plastic shopping bags and utilized the pointy kitty pattern designed by Hillary Lang to create the dolls, while sensibly appropriating the shopping labels on the faces and bodies. Thanks David for sharing his photos of the dolls in whimsical poses!

Check out David’s Flickr set.