Table 'Voluta' by Oriel Harwood

Made from fibreglass with high-gloss finish, Table 'Voluta' is a unique piece design by Oriel Harwood.

'Oriel Harwood's audacious pieces - neither furniture nor ornamentation, but something in between - are not made for meek persons or clinically Nineties interiors. They are heroic, flamboyant, unashamedly ostentatious outpourings from the creative mind of Harwood, some 15 years in the business of recreating her fantasies: chandeliers of branches and thick oak leaves moulded over frosted glass, androgynous heads with flames or feathers shooting from their tonsures, six-foot-high unicorn's horn cast in clear glass, fantastical fire places, mirrored dining tables...

Fey her art may seem; its construction is not. Her dusty and overstuffed Walworth studio looks like a cross between a car body shop and a stonemason's. Her work has become refined in its very surface: the clay models are now gouged with naturalistic channels, inspired by close-up photographs of vegetative forms. Her art is growing into something feral and neo-romantic. It is both European and English, fantastic and surreal, and comes from a covert culture of excess, the aesthete's aesthetic offensive, flying in the face of what is considered "good taste" in an expression of flagrant escapism. It follows a "secret history" of taste which draws on notions of otherness, a family tree of flamboyance from the 18th-century Gothic of Walpole's Strawberry Hill and Beckford's Fonthill to Wilde's "house beautiful" and Beardsley's black and-red-painted Pimlico drawing room; from Robbie Ross Half Moon Street rooms painted "dull gold" in 1917 as a protest against the war to the Sitwells ("big heroes", says Oriel) and their Carlyle Square dining room, where green walls and grotto furniture gave visitors the feeling of being under water. (from an article by Philip Hoare for "the Independent")

Her work is exclusively represented by David Gill's contemporary gallery.'

- Oriel Harwood.

a+. oriel harwood
a+. artnet via
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500 Pencils by Social Designer

Aurora Display Case

Social Designer came out with a set of 500 Colored Pencils which arrives to U in a set of 25 crafted to order colors per month for as long as 20 months because Social Designer believes:

"It's human to have favorites. To be drawn to certain colors, to have others surprise you. We believe the greatest beauty of 500 Pencils is that you don't receive all of them at once, but over the course of 20 months. It gives you new focus as an artist, working with color families and feeling the precious nature of each pencil."

'What would one color be without 499 others?

Introducing 500 Colored Pencils: the only set in the world that matches the span and wonder of human creativity.

Express whatever you dream, with beautiful visual precision.

Each pencil is its own story. A unique hue with an inventive name to inspire the far corners of your creativity.

Together, the colors suggest infinite possibilities.'

- Social Designer.

Orchestra Display Case

Color Wave Display Case

Flower Vase Display Case

a+. social designer via
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Uchiyamada-kun by Hideyasu Moto

This is so cute!
Released exclusively at Tower Records and available only as limited run by Orange Train at ¥ 7,200, Uchiyamada-kun is a new exclusive designed for the mega music store, available only in Japan. Designed by world renowned Japanese animator Hideyasu Moto, this design, which has been in production for nearly a year, comes from his 'Arnold' anime series and has multiple points of articulation. Uchiyamada-kun stands at 6.7 inches tall.

a+. hideyasu moto via tokyocube
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Shin Tanaka and His Paper Toys Design

A maestro of paper arts, Shin Tanaka is a native of Fukuoka, Japan. Shin's style is easily recognize because of his combination of one-of-a-kind paper design with strong graffiti elelments. His passion for paper began with the familiar disposition of having no money as a student. He couldn’t afford his favorite sneakers so he made life-size paper versions of them. This caught the attention of many people, most notably the shoe companies he was imitating. Since then, he has collaborated with big brands such as Nike and Adidas…and should no longer have a problem procuring his favorite shoe.

Shin went on to design templates for paper figures. His most well-known figure is T-Boy followed by Spiky. These figures were an ideal blank canvas for Shin and other creative minds and naturally lead to many collaborations with fellow artists and designers.

Shin Tanaka will be converting one of his innovative paper toy designs into vinyl form. Shin and Play Imaginative will be dropping a 7-inch version of T-Boy, a shy and curious character from his paper toy series. T-Boy will sport a tee with Shin’s signature graphics, and his arms will have some articulation as well. Currently, Shin Tanaka has a downloadable Spiky Baby designer series as well as a worldwide Boxy collaboration with artists from many countries.

a+. shin tanaka
a+. play imaginative via
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Senko Hanabi Traditional Japanese Sparkler

'There is a sadness to senko hanabi. They evoke mono no aware, the flash of sadness at the beauty and briefness of life. The poignantly ephemeral has long been appreciated in Japan and is still felt in the quiet celebration of senko hanabi blossoming from a child's hand.

A senko hanabi (incense stick firework) is a thin shaft of twisted paper about 20 centimeters long with one end containing a few grains of a special gunpowder. Senko hanabi are always included in the packets of fireworks and are always done last to finish off the family fireworks which wouldn't be complete without them.

Children squat next to a plastic bucket half-filled with water and intently set their senko hanabi alight over a candle set in an empty tin can. You hold a tissue-like paper ribbon at one end, while the business end quickly ignites releasing a bit of acrid smoke and tiny spurting flames which swing the paper thread around like a pendulum. Soon the burning end congeals into a red-orange droplet -- a glowing molten pearl suspended on a string.'

- mjk, tokyoq.com

a+. tokyoq.com via cibone
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CIPRIA Sofa by Fernando & Humberto Campana for Edra

CIPRIA Sofa, 2oo9 designed by Fernando & Humberto Campana for Edra is an iconic piece. The settee has 9 cushions fixed to an invisible metal tube frame. The stuffing is Gellyfoam® and Dacron wadding while the ecological fur covering comes in different hair lengths to produce variations on the original theme.

a+. edra via nytimes
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Umka & Kera for World Wildlife Fund Project

World Wildlife Fund, Umka 2oo9.

World Wildlife Fund, Kera 2oo9.

Umka, is the name for polar bear in the Chukchi language. Hand-polished, the polar bear sculpture was cut from a solid block of aircraft grade aluminium. Designed by Scott Wilson and fabricated by MD, Umka captured the essence of polar bear through minimalist abstraction.

Kera, on the other hand is a polished chrome Rhino for World Wildlife Fund 2oo8, another design by Wilson in conjunction with Kohler. Kera was in an online auction last year, by Scott Wilson, for Faces in the Wild.

Kera, sketches.

Kera

a+. minimal inc.
a+. faces in the wild via
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Moroso Paper Cloud by Tokujin Yoshioka

'elements of nature and of human imagination synthesized through a texture and a light form like clouds.'
-Tokujin Yoshioka.

As a part of Milan Design Week 2oo9, tokujin yoshioka debuted his 'paper cloud' sofa which he created for Moroso. While the prototype of the sofa is made from tensioned/shirred paper, Moroso will further develop the sofa by using different kind of fabrics making it suitable for daily use.

'I have pondered on expressing the texture of material in nature through industrial product. This new product for Moroso might be a reminiscent of clouds in the sky and flow of water, which are breathed in one’s memories. For the prototype, which will be presented this year’s Salone, I decided to use paper in order to make it conceptual. Later on, they will be developed with fabrics and other materials for daily use. I am fascinated by the elements of nature, because they are not deliberated on purpose but they have the beauty born of coincidence beyond human imagination.'

-Tokujin Yoshioka.


a+. tokujin yoshioka via stylepark via square-mag via design boom
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