Thursday, November 22, 2007

New Nest Furniture and Lighting Online Store




The newly redesigned online furniture store Nest, features an excellently designed interface that is clean and simple, that complements well the classic lighting and furniture designs on offer.

As well as some pretty expensive cult products, the store also offers more affordable items from one of my favorite product designers, Suck. The dead man pen holder is pure genius, and their mat that reads 'come in' or 'go away' depending on which way you approach it is fantastic.



Melting Rabbits - Sander Plug

Three chocolate bunny melting experiments. Created by Sander Plug in collaboration with Lernert Engelberts, the video is both painfully sad and beautiful, and not for children under 7 or chocolate lovers. Watch the rabit meets his sticky end all in the name of art. Check out Sander Plugs site for more examples of his work.



Via Nice To Meet You

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Equation Bookshelf From eStudio Breder



I like this fun bookshelf that is designed to allow you to prioritize books and objects placed on the shelf, by placing them between the different mathematical parenthesis. Designed by Estudio Breder, you can read their blog or visit their main site. Read on Trend HunterTrend Hunter.

Airline Safety Video - Alternative Voiceover

Sent to my by a friend, this had me laughing. I can't tell if it is authentic (very good hoax if it is not, but my instinct likes to believe it is authentic). The cabin staff give an alternative voice over to the traditional safety message given at the start of each flight.

Not Your Standard Airline Safety Demo!

Aggiungi al mio profilo | altri Video

Monday, November 12, 2007

Diesel Online Store Launches

Finally it is here. But it has been worth the wait. You can now buy online from the Diesel site, from Europe and USA from a single online store.

The Diesel Online Store officially launches today, and does so with an interactive window called the Diesel Style Lounge, that is designed to explore things that would not be possible in the window of a normal highstreet store. Models are seen floating underwater in a submerged space that the user can explore and discover the key outfits of the season. The models spin and flip as the camera pans around them Matrix style, and uses effects that are more commonly found in Hollywood movies than online.

For those that prefer a quicker and more direct experience, they can navigate direct to the male and female sections and browse from over 1,000 specially selected items. There are about three times as many items in this store than you would find in a normal Diesel store, and the selection has been chosen specifically for the more demanding and forward thinking online consumer. Some of the most sought after pieces, including specialist denim and fashion show items previously only available in a few cities, are now made available to people worldwide.

The presentation of the collection in the Style Lounge, in my opinion really represents a new direction in fashion photography. The technique used is a kind of 'Motion Photography', where the focus is still clearly on presenting the product, but adds a new dimention to the emotional angle of the image.


I have been fortunate to be a part of this amazing project, which has brought together people and companies from many different countries, and had a lot of fun on the set of the motion photography. The shoot in Berlin, Germany used a specially hand built HD Digital Video camera. The models, suspended from rigging were shot at 250 frames per second at full high definition resolution, so that when played back at normal speed it would slow one second of time down to 10 seconds. It was a fun shoot, and there was an elemtent of luck that shone down on those days. Firstly one of the models turned out by chance to have worked in a circus as a trapeeze artist since she was nine, and my Apple Power Book that got dropped actually remained in full working order (despite now sporting a rather nasty dent!).

Here are some images of the site and the shoot.





Friday, November 09, 2007

Louis Vuitton USB Key


As I wrote in an earlier post, there is a rapidly growing trend of designer USB devices. More and more commonly people have the need to share digital content, and for now the USB key is the weapon of choice. Having become relatively cheap to purchace consumers are willing to spend more on the design of the device, and not just on the capacity of the device. This is a prototype for Louis Vuitton, designed by Fred de Garilhe, the 40GB devices come with digital or analogue watches, and are uncrusted in diamonds. The cap's lock is opened with the attached gold key. There is a massive market for these devices, but I look forward to seeing more practical implementations! I can imagine that storage will be completely integrated into jewellery and watches, and will be wireless so there will be no need to connect the to any other device to share data.

Read originally on Trend Hunter, read more on New Launches

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Light Grafitti

This is really amazing. Watch this video of Light Grafitti. Purportedly a new phenomenon (and I can imagine that there is a creative challenge to go out and make your own version of this video), it involves drawing with light and capturing the image with a long exposure on a digital SLR camera. A popular thing to do, especially as a kid using sparklers was to write your name in the dark, and this basically takes that concept and runs with it. The thing that interests me, is that the post that I found this on (from Trendhunter) refers to Maglite, and I wonder if they actually helped create this. If that is the case, I give Maglite huge credit, as it is surely going to get a lot of YouTube views, and spark a whole raft of remakes!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Burger King - Eat Like A Snake

Following on from the Diesel viral campaign for Freezy Sneakers, here is another example of how odd videos can be remarkably addictive and how strangeness has a very important part in advertising online. Here a man slithers across a Burger King restaurant floor and swallows hole someone elses burger, as if he were a snake. I am not sure what is more odd. The snake-like way he swallows the burger, or the repulsive thoughts of actually getting down and lying on the floor of a fast food restaurant!

Give Someone A Disease For Christmas





Stuck for interesting Christmas gift ideas this year. Why not give someone you love a dose of Clap, or a loving case of Malaria. American company Giant Microbes sells a range of 'cuddly toy' replicas of the most 'popular' diseases. Each toy is based on the real virus or bacteria, albiet much larger than the real thing and with some fun additions possibly not actually seen on the real thing (such as the knife and fork of the flesh eating ebola bacteria.

Click here to spread something else, and not just love this festive season!