Kitten lamps

Today is one of those rare occasions when I see something amazing and I feel a real urge to share it with the word (through a blog that no one reads according to this new stats section in blogger, ohh...)

Anyway these cute kitten lamps called MiCha are designed by Kuntzel & Deygas and are my recent find from the Mint Shop. They come in several very natural kitty poses like those below:

They look so playful and fun - a piece of everyday technology given character by a simple reference to a domestic animal. Obviously they do not look like they could be functional lamps considering a big nose and whiskers in the middle of the shade. However I think their main value and function is some sort of comforting quality. They are more like robot pets that engage with the "owner" (user) by starring at him (shedding light). The more I look at them they also seem really cheeky -  how they just shamelessly look at you, little torch heads or spy under your bed revealing all the dust. :)
Anyhow  I wouldn't mind having one of those in my room - I could always pull his tail out of the socket if I'm fed up of him starring :) And considering I am just decorating my new place and my birthday's coming... Oh hold on... they are only 1500 euro a piece... I better stick with my good old meowing, furry one.

Wooooow

Forgive me the post title, but that's what I thought when I have seen the video below. And it's not about the fact that it's about Harry Potter. It's about the animated figurines made of book pages.


via A White Casousel

Beautiful and enchanting - the more I think about it, the more I realise the beauty of printed text. Lines of letters on a creamy backgound - on the one hand very structured, aligned, restricted with margines, paragraphs ect, but on the other organic and chaotic. When I was little I used to imagine every page has a hidden game between the lines of the story - that the letters form a labyrynth and there is a 'path' between them. Also the slightly rough texture of the paper adds a lot to it, causing tiny defects in print and giving each letter unique shape. No Kindle can provide that.

So take this piece of art: a printed page texture and make it into a poetic, fairytale landscape with tiny figures of spiders galloping through hills formed by book pages. Isn't it pretty? Not sure if it fits the style Harry Potter though - I'd rather animate some sort of philosophical story this way...  One day maybe.

but don't get me wrong - I'm so signing in!

tired of 'to do' lists?

So am I. Especially as they lost their power to motivate me. That's why I love this idea of this clock, designed  by Maria Bergson called "Shoulda Woulda Coulda". The little coloured magnetic tags represent tasks to do that you set for each hour - when the time comes the hands start pushing them along as they move. So you can visualise how much you're due. Ingenious.

 

here is the link to designers website

 

Lego booties

When I was little I hated tying my shoelaces. I bet if I was given a pair of those Kickers Lego, doing my shoes would have been my favourite thing.

I think that Lego's interlocking system is one of the best fastenings ever invented, so using it in many different applications is a way to go. And being used in children's clothing and shoes gives them amazing play value.

via Babygadget

Paper business

For the last couple of weeks I have been surrounded by paper - paper cards, pop-ups and loads of wonderful flat and 3 dimensional things made out of paper. It's a completely different language of 3D design I am discovering now and I admit I'm getting surprised on every step.

Here is something nice I have found - very girly

However... as brilliant as paper may be - with all it's forms,textures,colours and its cheapness and availability and recycle-ability... it all seems like cheating... Temporary and non-durable design. I mean it is all good when we use it for cards and packaging and all that stuff that's going to waste after a few days. But I'm not really keen on those papery every day objects, like furniture for instance, that claim to be so eco-friendly. One rain and here goes your cardboard chair turned into paper pulp.

Paper cutouts

Since I have started freelancing in Tigerprint, I am surrounded by loads of talented people. Last week I have met Emily, who's really talented paper craft artist. What she does are very detailed, multi layered paper cutouts.

Emily is from Edinburgh so many of her pieces include Scottish symbols such as thistle or hairy cows, like the one above, which makes me feel a bit sentimental. 

More of her work can be found here.

Stop Motion Animation

For the last year I had the most contact with stop motion animation that I ever had in my entire life. Obviously this is due to my boyfriend Jacek, who is very much into stop-frame and directs and shoots his own animations.

This year he has completed two and a half films - "A.R.T." that can be watched here,"Not Growing Up" of which shooting is still in progress and "Once Upon the Time" which was a 1,5 min intro of my Baika Dolls and can be watched (link soon)

Sneaky shot from "Not Growing Up" scenery planning

However the final pieces do not show how much effort is involved in making a stop motion animation. As I had a chance to see everything behind the scenes and I must admit that this is a hard work including a lot of forward thinking and planing.
Jacek is registering his process on his blog: http://stoptheframe.blogspot.com

Interesting thing about stop-motion animation is that it is very traditional and sort of 'old school' of making films, but it is still very popular and appeals greatly to both adults and children, despite all the 3D computer graphics available. In the beginning I considered stop-frame films as a niche but as I'm more into them, I started to notice how stop-motion studios are around and how widely is the method used.
For example today I have found Raspberry Film studio that has very impressive site with nice graphics and lovely raspberry colour theme. Their animations are interesting when it comes to models and scenery, but I the stories could have made more sense.

Trzymyszy - cardboard toys

And again I find myself sighing about a toy design...

Trzymyszy (from polish: three mice) is a designer duo that is designing and producing cardboard toys for children. Inspired by their own kids, two graduates of  Warsaw Art Academy decided to make DIY houses and planes from card that can be build and painted by children according to their own taste.
I believe this is a great idea which encourages kids to make their own toys. Besides, how many times did the packaging box become more entertaining toy than the actual content.

house and its creators

pilot and his aeroplane

this clock looks amazing - I wonder if the gears turn - how cool would that be if it was actually working

Irrational toys

Something I really appreciate about childhood is its irrationality - kids perceive the world according to what they see and experience. The rest is dictated by their imagination often stimulated by stories, tales and legends they hear or watch. As adults I don't think we can fully understand and appreciate the beauty of this imaginative and irrational thinking. Therefore I really value toys that are produced to satisfy children's abstract rationale.

One example of a irrational toy I have seen recently on Yankodesign.com and it's called Echo. It is a soft creature without face but with a big ears and a peculiar wooden trumpet instead of mouth. The ears are connected to the trumpet using the string-phone fashion so Echo responds when a child is whispering some secrets into its ear.

It was created by Emi Schenkelbach.

via Yankodesign

Another really nice design which stayed in my memory since I have first seen in in Mint Design shop in London a year ago. It is called Buba and it was produced by Alon Meron.

Buba is a guardian against dark matter and its magical power comes from children's fallen milk teeth. I think this is a beautiful story. And here again  Buba doesn't have face - he has two rows of sharp teeth that scare the ghosts and monsters of the night.

Cyberdog shop at Camden

Although I have been living in London for almost a month I don't really have time to explore it properly. So whenever I actually manage to go somewhere, I find those amazing, unique places I never expect to see.

This Saturday for instance, I went for a walk at the Camden market. The market itself, that spreads within the walls of the old stables makes a real impression - especially on the busy day like Saturday. But the highlight of the day was my visit to Cyberdog shop that occupies on of the humble old stable buildings. From outside it looks just like another shop but entering inside is like entering another world - something between Startrek space-shuttle and techno-love-parade. It is all lighten up by UV lights and full of cosmic clothing, glowy-robotic accessories that are presented on shiny-robot-mannequins that have LEDs which flash following the rhythm if loud electronic music. All the staff and dancers (yes!) are wearing abstract looking outfits and have coloured hair. Also the 3 stories underground interior is matching the space style entirely. And although I am not a fan of techno-music and science fiction movies I really enjoyed exploring the store and even trying on some peculiar outfits. It was a holistic cultural (shopping) experience that I must admit impressed me a lot.

I am in two minds actually, as on the one hand I know it is all commerce and the fact that Cyberdog is almost an amusement park/discotheque is purely to make more sales, but on the other is it really bad? It has presented me a culture - a world that is completely alien to me without being brazen or pushy. And as an aware consumer who digested Naomi Klein's 'No Logo' I still justify it.

Interviews

I have moved to London for summer to look for some job or internships. This means a lot of interviews where I am trying to 'sell' myself and impress people.

Design interviews are new to me and they surprise me to be honest. One was taking place on the rooftop and when it started to rain was moved to a ping-pong table. The other in children's library (I loved it!). Those weren't unofficial - informal chat with jeans and tee-shirt member of staff. This made me quite relaxed and confident, so when I went to Hasbro yesterday I was expecting similar... Well it wasn't. On the other hand it was very corporate and white-collar. Before I had to complete a personality test and the recruitment process is divided into 2 stages - interview and then one-week life project for selected five.

Japan - The Strange Country

I found this simple 10 minutes graphic video that presents a bit sarcastic (sometimes drastic) overview of present Japan. It has been created by Kenichi Tanaka.




Japan has been always puzzling me. On the one hand there is the traditional side - beautiful huts, cherry blossoms, geishas, kimonos and all that uncommon things that I would really love to see... but on the other hand Japanese culture scares me with manga, hello kitty, loud dance machines and streets like those from Lost in Translation... I mean I am far from judging a country that I have never been to and culture that i haven't experience but somewhat I agree with the author - Japan is a strange country.

When I was a child my grandparents brought me a present from their trip to Japan - it was a lollipop. It was a clear, see-through, sugar cube with a 2cm long, and fat, yellow worm inside. It was real. Strange country.

via spoon-tamago

Degree Show

 In the last week of May (20-27) at Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design we were hosting the annual degree show. For my product design group it was the last rehearsal before we exhibit in London at New Designers. We decided to call our stand '15 - hundred ideas, designers, products' which we thought is the best honest description of our group.


In my personal opinion what we managed to put together as a group - the stand and the projects, were really impressive and made me very proud to be a part of it. It was also a great experience to show my product to the wider audience and listen to their commentary.

Baika Dolls

For the last 8 months I have been working on my honours project for university. The process has been recorded on my other blog - http://zuzannastales.blogspot.com.

The project is finished now and what I have produced is a storytelling sound toy called Baika Dolls. More about it can be seen at http://zuzannabukala.com/dolls

Select Tee

I found this nice website www.select.threadless.com which sells t-shirts with artwork prints by graphic and illustration designers - each one is different.
The graphics are really nice to look at. The t-shirts are one-offs so they are like pieces of art themselves.




ps. I'm back to blogging! Currently updating my fairytale project blog which is here.

Been there - the New Designers fair

I guess it's about time I revise my trip to London over the last weekend. First of all the city is wonderful, absolutely the place to be - I wouldn't mind moving there in future. It was also great to visit it with friends. Although they refused to join me in my pettit museum tour, they were happy to spend hours and hours playing with toys in Hamley's (Barbie section was such a disappointment)

Well, but the highlight of the weekend (after Harry Potter :) ) was the New Designers fayre, which was the annual exhibition of the Design graduates from Great Britain. We went there on Saturday and spend the most the day looking at the stands of different product design courses. I invited my friend Oliwia who's a design layman to join me, therefore I could see how a person who's not involved in the design views this sort of exhibition. Our forth-years display was right at the front, so naturally we went there first. I wanted to show off to Oliwia what kind of stuff we do in IPD. Unfortunately when we moved on, we have realised that the other Uni's exhibitions were much more attractive and eye catching. Our stand was quite dry and boring. It was definitely lacking presentation boards and the display of the products on top of the glass, having a collage of things loosely related to the projects underneath, was not the clearest way of presenting.

A few stands that I enjoyed the most was Brunell, Bucks and Northumbria
When it comes to Brunell their products were really high standard in finish, branding and presenting. All students displayed under a logo 'MADE IN BRUNELL', which somehow made an impression of a good quality. When it comes to the content of their show, all of their products were very commercial as their briefs came straight from industry from firms like Cannon or Malboro. I reckon that is a completely different direction from where Dundee is trying to go. Our design process starts with identifying the 'real world's' problems, investigating it deeply and then finding a design solution. Hence our products were (or at least intended to be) more mindful and thought through.

Bucks had two displays: one of them was said to be more 'arty', another more commercial. I spoke to one of the exhibiting students and he said that the 'Bucks style' represents sort of things shown in Icon (I wish I could say that about Dundee...). The product design section was very consistent - the products were quite similar in stylistic (simple shapes, white and primary colours). The presentation was also kept the same for each product.

In general I was overwhelmed by the amount of the talented young people who leave design schools - it's must be super competitive in the industry, considering that only a selection of courses was presented at ND. For the next year, I reckon we must really focus on the presentation (branding, marketing). The ability to sell our products is also a very important skill to show off. However we must decide first if we are exhibiting as a group of individuals or a group (one company / IPD graduates)

Design Process Map

Yesterday I got really good feedback about my design map which I had to do as a part of my water project. I have decided to develop the hyperlinked graph in a form of string tangle (which very much reflects my unordered way of working). It is entirely done using Illustrator, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, so it cost me a lot of time and effort and frustration sometimes when things didn't want to work the way I planned... But the final effect is pretty impressive - you can see it here

Pet plants

I have found those cute plant tamagotchi objects somewhere in the web. They are called Domsai and they are designed by Matteo Cibic. And of course they were displayed in Milan when I couldn't be there... ;(
For last weeks I have been spying on those amazing things I have just missed, because the final week of my project was at the same time as Salone del Mobile.

Flowless

I have finally finished the water project. This is the picture of the final product - a vessel pouring running tap water directly at the users table.

Ceramics

For the last month, as a part of my product design project, I have been experimenting with ceramics. Exciting as I was in the very beginning I never expected it to be such a time consuming and monotonic process. I was really keen to learn something new and 'real' - genuine craft, like in old good times... But I guess those times were not that stressing and the pace of life was much more relaxed - especially comparing to life pace of an product design student. Well, my point is, pottery doesn't accept rushing and impatience. It's also very uncontrollable. Hence, it gets me really frustrated.