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Wrench Monkees
August 9th, 2010When it comes to minimal design, my passion for it extends way beyond graphic design. When it comes to design in general, whether it be a house, a shirt, or a spoon, I also prefer a minimal approach and aesthetic. So when I saw these custom motorcycles by Copenhagen based shop Wrench Monkees, I immediately fell in love.
Most of their bikes have a cafe racer style which I love, and the bikes are stripped down to their bare essentials: a motor, two wheels and a handle bar. The bikes have more a mechanical look to them as oppose to the mainstream bikes that are all cover in plastic.
When looking for inspiration, even motorcycles can influence my designs. I love it.
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Nooka Mercury
June 11th, 2010It’s good to be back. Hope everyone had a great week.
While I was away, lifestyle brand Nooka released this super minimal, ridiculously stylish sunglasses. The shades feature a polymer injected frame, blue lenses with silver mirror finish and are available in 6 fancy colors.
I’m a huge fan of Nooka, and with the Mercury they continue their simple approach in both aesthetic and construction. It’s a great addition to their already excellent lineup. Matt and crew are drinking the good stuff over there.
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Metro40 by BMW Designworks
April 22nd, 2010BMW Group DesignworksUSA, in collaboration with Landscape Forms, has designed Metro40, a stunning collection of site furniture for street-scapes and transit environments. The collection includes a shelter, trash receptacle, bench, bike rack, bollard, lights and poster display. The entire collection is brilliantly designed, but the piece that stands out for me is the bench.
The design is streamlined and simple and makes use of some fine materials. I personally love the sweeping curves and how the legs are one continues piece that form a part of the back and seat. I’m sure my butt would appreciate sitting on one of these.
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Naoto Fukasawa
March 12th, 2010I’ve been obsessed with furniture design, specifically chair design, for some time now. My all-time favorite chair designer is none other than the brilliant Hans Wegner. If you’ve never heard of the name, you’ve probably seen one of his classic chairs.
Recently though, I’ve become obsessed with the chair designs of Naoto Fukasawa. Fukasawa is best known for his MUJI CD player, Plus Minus Zero Humidifier, and au/KDDI INFOBAR and Neon phones, all of which are part of MoMA’s permanent collection.
Since 2008, Fukasawa has designed a furniture series for Japanese company Maruni Collection for their Hiroshima line. The collection includes a dinning set and a living set, all constructed with beech and oak wood. The entire line is simply stunning, but what stands out for me are the small dining chairs pictured here. The simple, streamlined design, the mix of sharp and rounded edges and corners, along with the choice of wood make for a beautifully designed chair. Too bad it costs an arm and a leg or I’d fill up my apartment with them.
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Dieter Rams
December 7th, 2009
Image courtesy of September Industry.
Seems like there’s a ton of stuff going on around Dieter Rams and his legendary work.
There’s the “Less and More — The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams” exhibit at the Design Museum in London.
To coincide with the event, a book with the same name will be released by Gestalten this month which features all of Rams’ products as well as selected sketches and models. They also have a video interview with Rams on their website.
The excellent design agency Bibliotheque has created two stunning posters dedicated to Rams’ legacy. The first, which is pictured here, is titled “Dieter Rams’ Ten Principles” and features his ten principles for good design. They were commissioned by Vitsœ to create the poster, which is currently available on their site.
The second lovely poster they designed is titled “Dieter Rams T1000″ and features an illustration of the Braun T1000 shortwave receiver. It will be screen printed and should be available this week.
And finally we have the retrospective book “BRAUN – Fifty Years of Design and Innovation” that celebrates 50 years of the Braun brand. The book is slated to be released in 2010 but you can pre-order it now through Amazon.
Wheew! That was a lot! Enjoy.
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Dieter Rams Less and More
August 31st, 2009“Good design is as little design as possible.”
Damn right. Words to live by.
Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial designers of this past century. Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple, is heavily influenced by Rams’ work. You can see huge similarities between Apple and classic Braun products in their simplicity, beauty and function.
From November 18 – March 14, The Design Museum in London is having an exhibition titled “Dieter Rams Less and More”. The exhibition will showcase Rams’ inspiring designs for Braun and Vitsœ. I might have to head to London just to see this.
To satisfy your fix, here’s a short documentary of Rams, a Dieter Rams Flickr group and a Braun Flickr group showcasing the classic Braun designs.
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The Lost Poster
August 13th, 2009Category: Design, Films, Grid Systems, Industrial Design, International Typographic Style, Merch
Comments: 5
We’re all familiar with the silver Objectified poster, but Michael C. Place designed a second version with a white background and silver objects and black text that wasn’t used. It’s now being released as a limited edition letterpress, printed in metallic black and silver ink, on Crane’s Lettra 300gsm paper. Sounds like heaven.
It’s being printed by the awesome Brooklyn based Coeur Noir Letterpress, the same folks that printed the Helvetica poster and my son’s baptism invitation. They do stellar work.
Only 100 will be printed and you can grab one for $125.
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The Future Distilled
July 21st, 2009When it comes to lifestyle brands, there are two companies that stand out from the rest. One is Apple, the other is a small but awesome company called Nooka. I’ve written about them before and their excellent line of timepieces. The company was born in 1997 by artist and designer, Matthew Waldman.
Recently Matthew and his team launched a few new products that expand the brand and will change the way you think about other objects. The new products are a Nooka fragrance, Asset Organizer and Strip.
I had the pleasure of sampling the fragrance when I took a tour of the Nooka office and it smells great. The Asset Organizer is a system of containers much like a wallet and the Strip is a belt featuring an innovative snap and release closure system designed and developed by Nooka. What stands out the most from these products is their simplistic design and function and the innovative thinking behind each them. Nooka is slowing becoming my favorite brand and I look forward to future products.
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Objectified Poster
March 6th, 2009The exceptionally talented Michael C. Place has designed this damn sexy poster for the new Gary Hustwit documentary Objectified. Sized at 27″ x 39″ and lithographed, it features illustrations of objects created by the designers in the film. The poster will be one sale very soon at the Objectified store.
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The Nooka Zub
February 19th, 2009One of my many obsessions is a well designed watch. People that know me personally know that I always have a “weird” watch strapped to my arm. There are a few qualities I look for in a well designed watch. For one it has to have a minimal design and two, the way the time is displayed has to be unique. Nooka creates watches that exhibit both qualities, and exceptionally I might add.
For those not familiar, Nooka was founded by artist and designer, Matthew Waldman, to create a more intuitive way to view time through linear and graphic representations. A company that makes well designed products that work and make sense. Nooka is one of my favorite product companies, right behind Apple, because of their aesthetics and innovation. They just get it.
I personally own a Zub Zenv sg 38 in black. I absolutely love it. Most of the watch is made of a soft, breathable plastic that is extremely comfortable. The new time display takes a few hours to get use to, but once you do you’ll realize that it makes much more sense.
The watch above is the Zub ZenH in Fire Engine Red, which will be available at the end of February. You can pre-order it for $130.
And no, this isn’t paid advertisement. I just love the damn company.
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Barbican Identity Guidelines
February 12th, 2009I’ve been drooling over this Flickr set featuring a bunch of photos of the gorgeous Barbican Identity Guidelines book designed by North. Well done.
Update
Some posted a link to the downloadable PDF of the book. Thanks!
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BBDK Launches Luigi Bormioli Site
January 7th, 2009My good friend Duane King and his uber-talented crew at BBDK have just launched a stunning new site for Italian glassware company Luigi Bormioli. I personally consider this site to be one of the best sites on the web in terms of design, typography, functionally and usability.
The design is ultra-clean and simple and the great use of white space makes it all feel very elegant and sophisticated. Designed on a simple grid, BBDK was able to create an eye pleasing layout that enhances the gorgeous photography. It’s all topped with a precise use of Gotham and Helvetica. How can you go wrong with those wonderful typefaces?
The site is extremely easy to navigate and the slight transitions and interaction points make the it a joy to use, and work harmoniously with the minimal design. This is an excellent example showing that it’s possible to create an engaging site without the use of Flash. Ian Coyle of Superheroes, who designed and developed the amazing ShopComposition site, worked with BBDK to develop the Bormioli site.
If this site isn’t recognized for it’s brilliance, then there is something really wrong with this world.
You can read more about the project over at Thinking for a Living.