I saw this on tv last night and thought it was brilliant. If only this had really happened. Well played itv and I am now very excited for the euros.


Dreams: part 2

So we are currently looking to include some ceramic components in a product we are set to unveil in the summer for Psalt Design. Whilst browsing Dezeen checking out some of the highlights of this years Milan Furniture Fair (and very depressed that I'm not there to see it all) I stumbled on this man and his amazing work. Its a really nicely shot video showing the hands-on process of creating his lamps. I also really liked the fact that the cracks on each one are unique. I want one.

Check out this video for 'Changing Faces'. Thought it was pretty thought-provoking.

I found this today and it made me smile. Thought it was a bit worrying that I own all of the items listed other than the beard and 'no-showering' rule...

Hipster Essentials by Viet Huynh

Think i'm gonna have to get a pack of this for a new project i'm working on...

Taken from swiss-miss

I recently came across Tobias Wong and immediately fell in love with his fun and playful style of products. I  liked his 'Indulgence' range as part of 'Just Another Rich Kid', in particular the 'Gold pills' aimed to "turn your innermost parts into chambers of wealth" or make you shit gold! His gold-plated Mcdonalds spoon was also pretty epic.

I also thought his 'Kevlar rose' and 'money pad' were cool and along with most of his work carried a strong message regarding consumerism and modern day society.

Tobias Wong died at the age of 35 in a suspected suicide although many believe he hung himself whilst sleep-walking. Whatever happened, Tobias Wong was without doubt a great talent and in his short career brought a lot of happiness to a great number of people whether it be described as design, art or a balance of both.

Have a look at this video of a kinetic sculpture I watched today. It includes pink poodles, helium and a band saw. There's a list of things you never thought you would hear in one sentence...

Kinetic Energy Video.

I have always been very interested in spaces that designers & creatives use when working. Recently I found an article on 'Design Milk' that invites established designers to show their work spaces and talk a little about them. I found this to be quite inspiring and think it is definately worth a read.
Where I work: Brad Ascalon.


Here are a couple of images of his studio.

Here are a few creative adverts I found recently that I liked and thought were effective and quite thought-provoking. I especially liked the 'DHL'  and 'Stuck in the wrong job' ballet dancer by 'Monster'. They both manage to get their message across to their audience in a clever way.

Images taken from 'Gadget-O'

I found these on 'gadget-o'. I thought their products were pretty original and have never really seen wood used in this way in bathrooms before. I bet it would be a bit more of a relaxing experience than hopping in your standard acrylic or fibreglass bath after a hard days work.

Photos taken from Alegna

I watched this today and found it to be quite inspiring. I do love a good font...

Found on core77

I have had a bit of an obsession with well-crafted desks for the past couple of years and here is one I want by 'Another Country'.

I also thought their dining tables and benches were pretty cool. They manage to balance simplicity with aesthetics really well and all the timber used in their work has been responsibly sourced. Not bad ey???

I found a pretty good site today wimp.com. I ended up spending half an hour of my life looking at videos like these... Time well spent.

I found this on swiss-miss the other day and thought it was a really good idea that kids would love. Think I might have to try it and also see what other creations I can make. I think a trip to Tesco for supplies is in order...

Image taken from www.swiss-miss.com

Here is a video of Alfred Hitchcock defining what happiness means to him. I reckon he sums it up pretty well...

I'm really liking 'Faunagraphic' and her work at the moment. I walk past a peacock that she did everyday on the way to the studio and it brightens up my day. I'm thinking we need to get her to do a fish on our studio wall at Hagglers Corner!

After a weekend of glass blowing our 'Bubble Tanks' I thought I would post this video of how marbles are made. Its well good.

Today I went to Birmingham with the rest of the 'Psalt Design' team to Birmingham to blow a new batch of 'Bubble Tanks'. We borrowed a 'GoPro HD Hero 2' video camera from a mate so we could shoot some of the days events. We will be editing this soon and put it up to view and some of the footage is pretty good. I now think I need to invest in one of these badass cameras because there are awesome!

Smooth or what? This is one cool guy.

Found this on Bored Panda. Loads of good advertising stuff on it and easy to lose track of time when trawling. 

Artist Yayoi Kusama set up this installation at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane and gave thousands of stickers to young visitors. The room was initially kitted out with locally sourced furniture and then painted white to create a 'blank canvas'. The kids were then set free in the room to transform it into a completely different space. I think it worked pretty well... and am now craving some skittles.

Have a little look at Yayoi Kusamas site.

Improv Everywhere is a New York City-based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Created in 2001 by Charlie Todd, Improv Everywhere has executed over 100 missions involving tens of thousands of undercover agents. They have done some really cool stuff. Check them out...

http://improveverywhere.com/

I saw this advert tonight and thought it was pretty cool, especially the bit with the sliced red cabbage.

The Future Belongs to the Curious from Skillshare on Vimeo.

Taken from www.swiss-miss.com

found on www.swiss-miss.com

I found this the other day and can't believe designs like this have never been exploited before. I can see these products catching on and am sure they will be all over the campsites next festival season. Good stuff.

Today I found myself with a bit of spare time and thought I'd look on the internet for something to blog on. It wasn't too long before I was watching videos from links of links and I stumbled on these nice little vids.  

Handmade in the USA from Capital on Vimeo.

The Making of the Honest Abe Coat Rack from Tinkering Monkey on Vimeo.

Saw this recently and thought it kind of made sense. Seems a pretty fool-proof way of helping someone set up their new mobile.

Out of the box - book from Vitamins on Vimeo.

Work by VitaminsDesign.

I found these recently and thought they were pretty amazing. The short videos are really well-shot and follow some pretty cool people making and doing things they love. Especially liked the bit in the knife making vid about working in a studio space with other creatives spending all their time and money into doing what they love and trying to make their dreams a reality. Pretty inspiring stuff.

Made by Hand / No 2 The Knife Maker from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

Made by Hand / No 1 The Distiller from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

So I haven't been blogging much recently and been focusing all my efforts on a new venture, Psalt Design, a Sheffield based Furniture and product design company. We have a pretty cool blog running on that which is worth checking out. Anyway, I saw this video and thought it was pretty powerful. See what you think...

Video taken from www.viralviralvideos.com

Here is some press coverage of my work from the 'Interiors Birmingham' show from the 'Arts Thread' website.

HOW ARTS THREAD WORKS

ARTS THREAD bridges the gap between education and the creative industry. For the first time ever, design students, graduates, universities, schools and the creative industry can network worldwide.

ARTS THREAD is the world’s only creative graduate website.

taken from www.artsthread.com

From the 23-26 January 2011 I exhibited some of my work on the 'New Design Britain' awards stand at the 'Interiors' show, Birmingham. The exhibition is held at the NEC Arena and is the UK's largest trade interiors show. I was awarded the runners up prize in the 'accessories' category and got a lot of positive feedback regarding my work. It was also nice to meet a lot of new people and lots of awesome designers on the stand. The stand looked great, here are a couple of snaps!

Here is a shot of my 'Crumple Bowl' which, was a transition of my original 'Bubble Tank' design. The shape was created by 'slumping' hand-blown glass. Not only can it house fish but anything you like from mini-installations to plants!

Here are some of the shots I took on my new 'diana' camera. It is the first time I have had my own photos processed and developed. The lomo style created some unusual images and I played around with some of them on photoshop after by scanning in the negatives. I'm pretty happy with the results and will have some more of my shots on here soon...

I recently took part in a competition through 'TinyPrints', a Californian based card company who set the brief of designing a range of Valentines Day cards for 2011. Here are a few of my entries!

Here is the promo for the pilot of the business weekend I recently attended 'Bootcamp For Entrepreneurs'. It was a really good experience, the people running it were brilliant and I think it will be a great success!!!

http://youtu.be/-zaiLUcqGA8

Making the most out of the recent weather, here are some photos of a concept for a piece of lighting. It was made using icicles and snow and created some unusual light and shadow contrast in the room.

Recently I've been working on some designs for an American condom company called 'ONE'. It was a really open brief and the general idea is to create an unusual and fun response to a condom wrapper. I decided to focus on some word play and try to create some powerful imagery which would brighten up someones day. Here are my final 3 images for the 2nd round of the competition:

Vote for this at:

http://onecondoms.com/design/designs/design/2592

Vote for this at:

http://onecondoms.com/design/designs/design/2518

Vote for this at:

http://onecondoms.com/design/designs/design/2570

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!!! I need as many votes as possible to get to the next stage. THANKS!!!

I was recently given a 'Make your own sweets' pack from Japan. I'd never tried this before so thought i'd give it a go! Not really a project but a bit of fun! Check out the fruits of my labour!!!

They looked pretty bad but tasted even worse!

Over the next few months I am aiming to carry out some small 1-2 day conceptual projects based around everyday objects and generally anything I can get my hands on. These projects will hopefully allow me to experiment with ideas in their rawest state and may lead to some concepts worth developing. This will be a nice change and should fit in well with a few other longer term projects I currently have on the go.

Several of these mini projects are going to be based around light and my first idea was to get myself to 'Poundland' and pick up some stuff and bought a few packs of 'glow-sticks' to play around with. Here are some photos of my creations...

Over the past few years I have become very interested in photography and felt I could capture some pretty cool images of light with a slow shutter speed.

I used an old jam jar to encapsulate some of the glow-sticks to create a temporary, colourful light source on my desk.

I liked the idea of creating a light source installation so created several of these (similar to above) and hung them around town. It was a pretty windy night which helped me get some pretty cool photos.