Famille Summerbelle

Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show

This year Isle Crawford is the curator of the Graduation Show of the prestigious Design Academy in Eindhoven. The projects are displayed in the large open studios on the different levels of the school. The bachelor projects are divided into 7 themes:
Human, Nurture, Delight, Useful, Conscious, City and Nature.

One the left, Wait Here project by Philip Luschen.
On the right, Forgotten Memory by Jetske Visser.

Toon radio by Kyra Meilink.

On the left, Peeling Paradise by Rianne Koens.
On the right, Ceremony on a Tea Trolley by Femke Roefs.

CMYK Lamp by Dennis Parren.

Sound of The City by Akko GoldenBeld.

Shoe Shelf by Sebastian Goldschimdtboing.

Naturally Supported Shelves by Joep
Huisinga.

Branch Box- Reconfigurable Branches For Books by Rob Willems.

Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven

The Tenth Dutch Design Week was held in Eindhoven from 22nd October until today. The event presents the work of more than 1500 designers, from industrial design, spatial design, and graphic design to textiles, sustainable design and design management & trends.
There are 65 different locations housing more than 300 events and most of them are located in huge disused or converted Phillips factories.
The scale of the event is pretty impressive and overwhelming.
I wished we had more than one day to visit the events as there is a lot to see between the Eindhoven Design School Graduation Show, Piet Hein Eek Factory and the DDW exhbitions. Next year I'll make sure we stay longer!

Endless Chair

Instead of sending old refrigerators to a scrapyard, Dutch artist Dirk van der Kooij ingeniously recycles and reuses the materials to create a chair made of one ‘endless’ piece of plastic string.

The ‘Endless’ chair is crafted by a robot that Van der Kooij has specially created for this purpose. The process begins with old refrigerators, which are ground then melted and processed by the robot. Since each fridge used is a different colour, every resulting chair is totally unique.

Van der Kooij says he had always struggled with small, complicated moulds, so he wanted to find a production process that could allow him to adapt and change designs without moulds.
‘I adopted a retired robot,’ he says. ‘With this robot I can build a chair out of one plastic string and refine it endlessly. The colors can be determined by adding different pigments.’
He says the robot took about a year to rebuilt and serve its new function – building a chair of one interrupted line of string.

Watch the making of the chair film on Frame Mag.

Dutch Design Week: Piet Hein Eek Factory

In Eindhoven the designer Piet Hein Eek has converted an enormous former Phillips factory into a stunning design space. It includes his workshop, a showroom for his recycled wooden furniture, a restaurant, a shop, art gallery and studios for young designers from the Design Academy.

He opened the space last year during the Dutch Design Week events. I had a little chat with him, and found him to be a very genuine and down to earth guy. He was telling me that last year he was completely exhausted from the overwhelming effort - the scale of the project is phenomenal! He has converted 10,000 square metres of completely run down building into a huge white space divided by glass walls. The walls and floors were recycled from another of Phillips' enormous warehouse buildings.

He loves to reuse materials like wood and give them a new life: large tables, a high chair for children, benches, stools...

I was so impressed by this building and the concept behind it. It's a real design hub full of inspiring people and projects.

His shop sells a mix of products: vintage glasses, Aesop beauty products, his own collection of furniture, bikes and a mix of products by Dutch and International designers.

On the left lampshade by . On the right Tent Lamp by Lotty Lindeman (seen in the studio shared by Lotty Lindeman and Wouter Scheublin) wire lamps in tie silk hanging in the restaurant, designed by Piet Hein Eek.

An impressive wooden sink part of a bio kitchen and metal rusty chair installation.

Piet Hein Eek children's furniture designs.

A collection of vintage green bottles and on the right view of the cafe at the top of the building.

Cars and boats by Floris Hovers.

Old lampshade lamps Chandelier in the restaurant.

Lunch served on wooden plates.

Paris Map in Rubine Red

We're so happy with the way this colour has turned out (oh, and I love the name!).

It's the latest colour to join our range - we also have a new Sky Blue for Paris.

You can see the maps on our website here.

A day in Antwerpen

My mum, my 3 younger sisters and I have been planning this weekend for a year now. The plan was to kill two birds with one stone: go to Eindhoven to visit the numerous events during the Dutch Design Week and to see the graduation show at the Design Academy (my sister Charlotte is in her second year of studies at the school). While we were driving from Paris we thought it would be a good idea to stop on the way in Antwerpen, my first visit to the Belgium city.
Luckily we had truly amazing weather. It was very cold but the sky was crystal clear. It was such a pleasure to stroll through the streets of Antwerpen. We loved all the antique shops and cafes on Kloosterstraat. In one of them there was a little museum filled with hundreds of vintage keyrings, it was very impressive!

Part two Dutch Design Week coming soon...

Ceramics by Silvia Zotta

The work of the Argentinian ceramist artist Silvia Zotta is playful and so colourful!

Tomorrow morning, my mum, my 3 younger sisters and I are going to spend 3 days together in Antwerpen (Belgium) and Eindhoven (Netherlands). We're actually going to visit my sister Charlotte who's studying at the Design Academy of Eindhoven. It's the school Graduation Show during the Dutch Design Week and Ilse Crawford will be curating this years show. I can't wait to spend time with the girls and to see lots of inspiring things.

colourful cubes

I love these prints by Rock That Horse!

Seen on Hello Polly.

Un Dimanche à Paris Wallpaper

I'm very excited to show you images of our new wallpaper Un Dimanche à Paris.
The illustrations were hand paper cut to create a little Parisian scene. I was inspired by our weekly Sunday visit to Paris with the children. We like to go to the Jardin du Luxembourg (the Luco as the Parisian would call it!) in the 6th Arrondissement. There is the beloved carousel with wooden horses, little boats you push with a stick on the pond, the busy lady with her shopping bags, the old man walking his dog and other little scenes that makes this place very charming.

The wallpaper is printed in the UK. It comes in 2 colours: Blue/Red and a shinny Silver/yellow. Roll size 10 meter x 52cm (£45 per roll). You'll find all the details on our website.

We have a new website!

This is what we've been working on for the past 6 weeks: re-designing our website
I hope you like will it...

Indian Bazaar

I've been looking for a long time for colourful trunks for my office, so I was so pleased to discover these zinc trunks and metal suitcases. They're made in India by Ouma Productions. If you have other addresses to find similar suitcases or trunks please let me know!

The grid by Veja

Veja is a brand of ecological and fair trade footwear and accessories which was established in Paris in 2004 and launched at the Palais de Tokyo a year later. It is now a global brand selling mainly sneakers made of organic cotton, wild rubber from the Amazon and vegetable-tanned leather.

What I'd like to show you here is the inspiration behind their new trainer called The Grid

Graffiti East London

Just off Redchurch Street.

My picks: East London Design Week

I managed to escape few hours from Tent on saturday to walk around what they call the Shoreditch Design triangle (between Great Eastern St-Shoreditch High St and Old St).
This is my selection from Tramshed:

Studioilse by Isle Crawford.
I love the copper details on the legs of the stool.

Falcon enamel pie dishes and cups.

Donna Wislon at SCP.

Derek Wilson ceramics seen at Origin.