designbeans

Kera is a solid brass rhino designed by Scott Wilson for the Faces in the Wild auction, an art event hosted by Humanscale aimed at raising awareness and funds for wildlife protection.
The online auction will take place May 13th and all proceeds will go to the World Wildlife Fund, participate numerous!

During the crazy days of Salone del Mobile Swarovski's Crystal Palace feels like a revitalizing refuge. The place is completely dark, with soft music on the background and millions of shiny splashes of light, a truly magical place.
Among this year's installations my favourite one was Veil, by British designer Paul Cocksedge. 1440 crystals created a particular four meters high curtain that hide a secret, only by looking into a mirror placed in its back the viewer could see the iconic image of Mona Lisa.



Swedish design group Front experimented with crystals and blown glass, creating Random, a series of vases and lights that are always unique. In fact the liquid glass is contaminated with crystals that determine the final shape of the object.


Marcel Wanders brought together Bisazza and Swarovski, designing a mosaic encrusted with crystal tiles. Zaha Hadid presented a striking advanced chandelier and Studio Job proposed an enormous globe completely covered with Swarovski crystals.

Marcel Wanders and Bisazza

Zaha Hadid

Studio Job

Arne Quinze showed some strange looking sculptural lamps; Piero Lissoni explored the depth of light and crystals creating a scenic chandelier; Tokujin Yoshioka embedded an out of scale Swarovski crystal into an acrylic cube, the result was not as emotional as I would have expected from his celebrated installations; artist Marcus Tremonto explored the magic of electro luminescent wire and Fredrikson Stallard created a series of monolithic furniture perforated with crystal covered caverns.

Arne Quinze

Piero Lissoni

We've got lots of material from Milan's Salone del Mobile to share with you, let's start with Kartell.
The Italian manufacturer presented nearly 20 new products: the typical transparent plastic, the accustomed outstanding high quality, a set of new beautiful colours and the usual team of star designers with a new entry, Tokujin Yoshioka.

Talented dutch designer Hella Jongerius signs for Vitra the new Rotterdam chair, made of solid wood, caught my attention for having the imprint of a modern classic.

Japanese design studio Nendo is quite a new entry in the italian design scene, but in only a few years they've managed to design pieces for big names, among this year's novelties they sign the Rokumaru coat hanger for De Padova and the table extremely light Bambi table for Cappellini. Both products reflect the elegant, subtle style that distinguishes the japanese group.


Nendo's coat hanger for De Padova


Totally upholstered and covered in fine Italian leather, the new Manta chair adds on its great personality to the Manta family produced by Poliform and designed by Rodrigo Torres.

While getting ready for the bigger design event of the year opening next week, here's our selection of previews of some novelties that will be on show during Milan Design Week 2008.

Kartell will show among other novelties the Papyrus chair designed by the Bouroullec brothers and the Frilly chair by Patricia Urquiola, made of polycarbonate. Both pieces look interesting in the photos, I'll be touching and holding and reporting back to you soon (via designboom)

Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec for Kartell
Patricia Urquiola for Kartell

Tokujin Yoshioka signs for Moroso the Bouquet chair, composed of fabric squares sewn one by one to fully cover the inside of a snug, curving, egg-shaped shell. Young swiss designer Philippe Bestenheider signs for the italian company the Nanook collection, inspired by Inuit tribal rituals reinterpreted using digital tools. We're looking forward to see what else Moroso, which is usually one of the more prolific companies during the fair, has developed for Milan's Design Week.


Tokujin Yoshioka for Moroso Philippe Bestenheider for Moroso
 
Myto is the new cantilever chair developed by Konstantin Grcic for Plank with the collaboration of BASF. The chair is made of Ultradur® High Speed and was born after a long research on the material's potentials; it will be on display at the fairground but also at Triennale.

konstantin Grcic for Plank
 
Francisco Gomez Paz continues his collaboration with Danese designing Comodoro, a complete shelving system. The traditional milanese company will be presenting also new projects, in the images the Itka lighting series designed by Naoto Fukasawa and the Orione lamps that become transparent when turned on created by Carlotta de Bevilacqua.

 
Francisco Gomez Paz for Danese

 
Naoto Fukasawa for Danese

 
Carlotta de Bevilacqua for Danese

The Sofa Lamp designed by CuldeSac and Hector Serrano for Moooi intrigues us lots, is a lampshade with quilted upholstery inspired by the iconic chester sofa; it looks quite well in the render and we can't wait to see it live. (via dezeen)

Cul de Sac and Hector Serrano for Moooi

Industreal presents Overture, an exhibition of the porcelain work of french designers Guillaume Delvigne and Ionna Vautrin (a young designer you should keep and eye on, she's got talent)

Iona Vautrin and Guillaume Delvigne for Industreal

Get bended metal wire, paint it with bright colours, add a generous amount of talent, a spoonful of feminine touch, spice up with bits of memory and you'll get Re-Trouvè, the latest outdoors series by Patricia Urquiola for italian company EMU. Serve on a sunny day with fresh limonade.

I cannot resist bright ideas, intelligence is the engine that makes me desire products more than their beauty or style. That is the main reason why I'd love to get for my house the Magnetic Curtains designed by Florian Kräutli; a clever curtain that incorporates magnets in its inner structure which allows you to shape it into any form. Brilliant.

Belleville is an ironic and very light-hearted coat hanger designed by Frederic Gooris for Diamantini & Domeniconi
The challenge was to use a low-tech technology, laser-cut and bent metal, to create a fun decorative element. By adding some basic functionality it is also a very practical object; besides holding your coats it provides a resting place for mail, keys and smaller items. It's main function is to draw a smile from whoever uses it.

 

After almost one year of little activity we are happy to announce designbeans is back. We have changed the design of the site, added some new features and enhanced the old ones, you will find our design directory and design reports sections much more dynamic and up to date; for those of you that like to participate actively you can now share your thoughts by commenting our articles, and don't forget to get inspired by designbean's younger sister: spotd.it, thousands of beautiful design pics we gather by visiting main design events.
We plan to update the site weekly with interesting editorial articles, but expect some in between smaller posts also.
Welcome back and thanks for being there!

I couldn't resist the fascination of this very japanese idea. Feeling time instead of measuring it is the idea that pushed Vinta designers, Kouhei Okamoto and Toshitaka Nakamura to create the beautiful Wooden Clock, I appreciate not only the refined shape but specially the idea behind it.