Halloween paper toys

With Halloween around the corner these definitely can come in handy. Sure, halloween is a load of commercial crap, but these papertoys are so amazingly detailed that you want to build them anyway.

Find the whole set at http://www.ravensblight.com/papertoys.html

Sinclair Sovereign

Pity that these are virtually useless nowadays (the average mobile phone can perform more complicatred calculations than this thing) but aren't they beautiful? Sinclair Sovereign, calculators designed in 1977, was available in a satin chrome finish or... plated in silver or gold.




Source:
http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/calculators/sovereign.htm
http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/08/sinclair-sovereign.html

Convertible Compact Desk

Now this is what I call great design. With living spaces getting smaller by the day, many people don't have the space for a cupboard and a desk in their room. This piece of furniture from Crate and Barrell looks like a sideboard, until you slide the top to the sideto convert it into a desk. Simple, elegant, brilliant.

Full specs: http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=1070&f=28540

RendezVous 1 and 2 by Vlaemsch ( )

Vlaemsch ( ) is a design collective from Belgium, brought together by a Belgian designer named Casimir (the man is worth checking out himself, makes great stuff!). They bring a mix of simplicity and complex, good quality products with a sense of humour and some surrealism poured into it.

Atlier Blink, one of the members of the collective, has now come up with this brilliant naughty wallpaper design. Naughty but subtle, just the way I like it. The pictures in this post are screenshots taken from the Vlaemsch website, well worth the visit. Even if you're not intending to buy anything, this site will juse make you smile. ( http://vlaemsch.be/vlaemsch.html#/whatwho/ )

Shin Tanaka

Shin Tanaka is a graphic artist who makes a crossover between traditional Japanese origami and contemporary street art. I probably should be posting this in the art section of my blog, but somehow it feels ok to put it down as design too.

What keeps amazing me about these urban toys is how completely different they look when decorated by different artists. The shape of the object remains the same, but the decoration seems to alter proportions and dimensions.

These are just a few samples I picked from his website. Do make the effort to look at his site, there's great stuff on there: http://shin.co.nr/

Amy Hunting

Introducing Amy Hunting. She's Norwegian, and designed these lamps that (in my humble opinion) are brilliant. She took pieces of wood that are discarded as leftovers in the production process in a Danish factory. She then put these together to form a large block of wood, and these 12 lamps were cut out of that one block.

So what you have here are 12 lamps that can be put inside each other like Russian dolls. They are made of waste material but look great.

Apart from the ecological bit, they're also practical. A look at the top of the lamp shows how they can easily put over any bare lightbulb. No need for clips, screws, or any other system: these can be put in place within seconds. Brilliant.

ObjectsOfDesire - Dan Pearlman

One very refreshing site I came across some time ago is Dan Pearlman’s ‘Objects Of Desire’. The guy is a designer, and on this site he presents really cool objects he designed and you can make for yourself. Giant teabags to store dirty laundry. A chair in the shape of a giant tin of caviar. A vase made out of plastic tubes. Furniture tattooes. Not all of the objects are really functional, but they all provide a creative and often funny solution for an everyday problem. They all aim at making life a bit lighter and bring a smile on your face.

http://www.objectsofdesire.de/objects_e.html Scroll over the squares to see a first glimp of the object, then click on it to see more.