Designers in collaboration with craftsmen can often work well, especially when you pull in the likes of Peter Ivy. I’ve never talked about him here before, but I’ve been a fan of his work for a long time, and although I don’t know much about him on a personal level I regularly check his website to see what he gets up to. Peter lives and works in Japan where he produces glassware under the studio …
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Apologies to all of you who have been looking for good video content. I have come across a few short films on my travels but they’ve not really ticked all the right boxes. Some were in a foreign language, which doesn’t really help in terms of inspiration, well unless the imagery is absolutely superb. One clip I did find was on woodworker Takahashi Hidetoshi, the forms that he makes are pretty sensational and I’ve always admired how …
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At the moment I feel like I have so many creative inspirations, sometimes I do worry that it’s getting a bit out of hand. But then I look at the website and I love the diversity and originality that we’re bringing to the table. Glass is one of the more interesting subjects, I actually wasn’t a massive fan originally, but once I started to delve deeper it fascinated me to see such skill and craftsmanship. I guess it’s like anything in life, especially when you’re a …
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A few of my favourite things in the office include some Iittala vases and bowls, first designed by Alvar Aalto in 1936. You all know I have quite the fascination with his work, particularly his furniture and architecture, but also the versatile objects that he designed over his career. If you don’t own at least one of these I’d highly recommend purchasing some as they’re cheap in relative terms, and you’ll have an item that you can cherish for years to …
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After watching a fantastic short documentary titled ‘GLAS’ yesterday, directed by Bert Haanstra in the 50?s, I had the inspiration to write about some glassware that I’d come across late last week. If you’ve yet to watch the piece, it’s definitely a must for any creative, or anyone who’s a fan of mesmerising production type films. The video is about the glass industry in the Netherlands, it …
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I thought I’d update the blog with some new craft work that I found on my travels around the web last week, it seems to have become absent from the blog lately. But I have to say I feel like we’ve been doing a good job on the shop. I mentioned before about us getting some lacquerware in the store from Japan, but I’ve also been contemplating on glassware, which is a new category that we’ve decided to push. It’s funny that once you latch …
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Often a company’s product line-up is dictated by the type of designers that they get on board, individuals like Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa are synonymous with a simplistic / functional ideology, so it’s obvious when they’re hired what sort of ethos that company is striving for. Companies like Plus Minus Zero and MUJI, for example, are intriguing to say the least. Although I love the fact that everything is based on function …
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I realised earlier that I’ve had a little hiatus from any films or videos on the blog, which is a shame really as one of my favourite things about the internet is short films made by fellow creatives, you can always find inspiration that you’d of never seen otherwise. Unfortunately, pictures don’t quite convey the same message as what a video can. Plus, whe it comes down to craft or design you really want to see the stuff being made or have …
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When viewing works made of glass I usually have two thoughts in mind: simplicity and functionality. A lot of European glassmakers tend to have this idea that they need to separate artwork from design work, ie they won’t make glassware that doesn’t have some sort of ‘style’ attached to it. This may mean making an object that’s purely decorative, or alternatively attaching a particular style or colour scheme to each one. Personally, I don’t feel …
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How about we add some superb glass tumblers and vessels into the mix today. I’m a big admirer of functional items that serve a humble purpose in day to day life, often the ones we take for granted and that slip in to the back of our mind without a second thought. These tumblers by Sempli remind me of this exact scenario, and surprisingly they haven’t gone unnoticed in this day and age where we tend to favour flamboyancy and egotism. You’ll see …
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I bumped into this superb collection earlier which really intrigued me, a series designed by BCXSY and was commissioned by Japanese company Inframince. It’s part of project called ’tile_objects 01′, which I don’t know too much about myself, but I do know that Inframince have got together with a few other other design studios to produce one of a kind products for an exhibition. What drew me towards these in particular is the fact that they …
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So last week was pretty hectic here, we were running between London and the office for Design Week, but it was great to step outside the bubble and get inspiration in other creative fields. One particular place where we picked up a few ideas was at the Victoria and Albert Museum, although not packed full of design work like we expected the glassware section threw up an array of names that I’d never really heard of before. You had some …
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