Buick Y-Job

Considered the first concept car ever, this Buick Y-Job (built in 1938) set the style for the company's car designs until the 1950's. Designed by Harvey J Earl, the car had power-operated hidden headlamps, "gunsight" hood ornament, wraparound bumpers, and flush door handles.

John Nouanesing

Young designer with sense of humour. A good start. But it seems like there's more to him than just a sense of humour, he also comes up with a couple of practical solutions for everyday issues - like his Spirit Level Shelf or the Tilted Soup Plate. I'm not sure whether any of these are in production, but they certainly prove that John know his stuff.

His website also features a gallery with portraits he made, and these are not bad at all. Have a look: http://www.johnnouanesing.net/

Icecube ahead!

One for the summer: ice cubes designs :)

Titanic, brought to you by Jason Amendolara of the Fred Studio (Fred & Friends). Find them here: http://www.worldwidefred.com/ginandtitonic.htm

Frozen Smiles, or denture shaped ice cubes, from the same guys.

One for the geeks: the Tetris cubes, by designer Martin Zampach.

The Oneself Project

Stumbled across this one on the net. Not perfect, but nevertheless an interesting idea: the bathroom built into a wall. With apartment space becoming ever smaller, there may be a future for these sort of concepts.

Sqish

In the last couple of decades satellite dishes have been appearing everywhere. I remember going to Berlin in 1996 and being surprised by the sheer amount of satellite dishes on the large apartment buildings, especially in the former East Berlin. It wasn't any better in London, where Sky Digital is installing one disc per subscriber - it looks horrendous.

But now there's Sqish. Still a satellite dish, still not perfect, but their idea is not bad at all: if you can't go without it, at least make it blend in. Here's how it works: you make a picture of the wall where you want to put the dish, you send it to them, they print it on a sticker and put it on the dish. Hey presto, camouflaged dish!

I suppose it could be interesting to put other pictures on it instead: the Mona Lisa, an old Playboy pic or your favourite pet. Nah, skip that, pet pics are just naff.

Shoal

1500 bone china fishes and 3 fluorescent lamps make one of the most beautiful lamps I have seen in a long time. Design by Dominic Bromley.

'door appendage x' designed by james r ford

This goes well with using dildo's for door stoppers... Mike, these doorhandles are for you, hehe :)

Fat Chair

This chair (deisgned by Charlotte Kinsnorth) is inspired by the portrait of an overweight person. If anything can put you off food or overeating it would be this piece of design, I reckon. It's a good design, the contrast of the fat, blobby cushion with the elegant birch wood frame is very well thought out. But there is no way I could bear that thing in my living room :-/

Digimech Clock by Duncan Schotton

You know a cool piece of design when you see it - and this is definitely one cool item. The Digimech Clock combines the idea of a digital display with an analog, mechanical system. The negatives of the numbers are printed on long slides and only when they are perfectly aligned with the display they show the correct number. It all works with a system of little motors and counterweights. When the sliders have reached their highest pointt hey automatically drop down and the process starts all over again.

Mortierbrigade

Mortierbrigade is the name of a Belgian advertising company. They have made quite a few great ad campaigns, but my favourite is still the one they made for Humo when the magazine handed out a free condom.

Bag Art

Science and Sons

Interesting idea: match up an old-fashioned grammophone with a contemporary ipod and you get what Tristan Zimmermann has made. The sound is amplified in a purely physical way, no electrics involved. Love the design, too!

Another nice project is his Parkplanters. White flowerpots with an added typical park scene (a robber, a rapist, two guys having sex...) to make the plants look like miniature trees. Perfect for the window sill.

More on http://www.scienceandsons.com/

Artecnica

Not only do they have a series of really cool design objects in their collection, they also are a company with a conscience. Check out their projects with recycled and fair-trade style materials, this is the sort of company I like and support. Cool with a heart.

My favourites?

The KnoWhere Clocks - just what I need 'cause I'm getting lost in time zones: Bafana, Anita, Ed, Wouter, Vic, Patrick are all in different times zones, try to keep track of it (though http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ does help, I must say)

tranSglass - an old bottle has never before looked so good. They sell them here in Hong Kong too.

TransNeoMatic - the Campana Brothers strike again. They're among my favourite designers.

Flower Cushion - Takashi Murakami, another favourite of mine, some of you may know him from his cooperations with Kanye West who's also a fan. More on him in the art section of my blog.

Streetlamp - a lamp in a book, come on, you've got to love it :)

More on http://www.artecnicainc.com/